1st Samuel Chapters 23-24 – John Karmelich

1. This section of scripture deals with “God’s will” and “power”.

a) Every now and then I get into a discussion of “how to discern God’s will”. It’s been a few lessons since I’ve done this and we’re overdue. ☺

b) Throughout these two chapters we’re going to read of David seeking God’s will.

i) What I want you to notice is that David uses different methods at different locations. There is no specific pattern of seeking God’s will.

ii) Further, we will read of King Saul “assuming” God’s will is done because he is given a great opportunity. What is to be learned from that lesson is that not every opportunity is meant to be God’s will.

c) If you are a Christian, that means you desire to live your life that is pleasing to God. You want to be Christ-like in all you do. Therefore, if that is your goal, seeking God’s will is essential and important.

i) What I hope to convey in this lesson is some ideas on just how to seek God’s will. The first thing to learn is that there is no specific set of instructions. There is no “follow these easy 3-steps and you will know God’s will for your life”.

ii) How do we seek God’s will?

a) First of all, One of God’s gift to us is a brain and expects us to use it. It is not necessary to lay in bed every morning and pray if it is “God’ will” to get up and go to the bathroom! ☺

b) That does not mean one ignores God and just goes about their life. Seeking God’s will requires a prayerful effort. God intends us to pray regularly to seek His will. That is why part of the Lord’s Prayer is “Your will be done”.

c) I’m also a big believer in regular, habitual bible reading. One should develop a pattern of reading it on a systematic, regular basis through the entire book. The bible is God’s set of instructions for our lives.

d) When Satan was tempting Jesus, one of Jesus’ responses was that “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4 NIV). My point is that if Jesus says we (man) are to live on every word, that means to study every word!

e) Through God’s word we learn God’s will for our lives. Those commands, instructions and word-pictures become “part of our make up”, and thus as we go through life, we are doing God’s will.

iii) OK John, I know all of that. What about those big decisions and times in our lives where we don’t know where to turn? That is what we’ discuss in these chapters.

a) David goes from one crisis to another, seeking God’s will.

b) David knows that he will be king one day, but in the meantime, he is running for his life. What I want you to notice in these two chapters are the decisions that David makes and how he makes them.

2. Getting back to my opening statement, I also stated that this chapter has to do with God’s will and the topic of “power”. Specifically, it has to do with power and control of that power.

a) Whenever you study a section of the bible, and a word is repeated over and over again, that is usually God trying to hit you on the head and notice something! ☺

b) In this case, it is the Hebrew word “yad”, which is usually translated “hand”.

i) That word is used 18 times in these two chapters! The King James translates that word “hand” all 18 times The New International Version (NIV) paraphrases the text much more and only uses the word “hand” 8 times in these two chapters.

ii) The word “hand” here is meant to be a description of power and control.

a) Of all the body parts, the hand is used the most for us to control something. The word-picture of “hand” refers to control.

b) For example, “I’ve trapped my enemy. I’ve got him right in my hand!”

c) In this case, is not to be taken literally. It is a figure of speech.

d) That cliché is commonly used as this text. The expression, “my hand” or “the king’s hand” or “the Lord’s hand” throughout this chapter.

c) OK, John, and your point is? ☺ (We’ll, give me a minute and I’ll explain further!)

d) First, I want to think about something Jesus said:

i) “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 NIV)

ii) As a believer, we have the Spirit of God living within us. That Spirit gives us all sorts of “power”. That is similar to the idea of the Hebrew word “yad”. It represents “the power at your hand”. Just like the fact that our hands are the body part used most often for power and control, so the word picture “hand” is a representation of “God’s power” working within us.

iii) This goes back to the idea of “God’s will”.

a) God’s will is best seen in hindsight. God has tremendous power and gives us tremendous power. We are given tremendous power as believers. A lot more than we realize.

b) One of the great challenges of life (and fun!) is watching God work in our life. Of all the “thrills” that life has to offer, I can’t think of a greater one than to be personally or corporately used by God. It is an incredible feeling to know and watch God’s power be used in our lives.

c) By seeking God, by living by the instructions and patterns of God’s word, and further, by submitting our will to God, God then works through us with all sorts of power.

iv) What is to be read in these chapters is David going from place to place, mostly running for his life from Saul. While he’s doing that, David is conscious of the fact it is “God’s will” for him to be king one day. David doesn’t just stand there and be passive about it. He still is running for his life. What David does during that time is seek God’s will for his survival and (here comes the important part): “Let God worry about the results and work on God’s timing and not David’s timing.

e) In summary, this is about “power” and control of that power.

i) To seek God’s will is to tell God, “OK Lord, everything I own, everything I do and everything I live for is designed to please you. God then says, “OK, now that I’m in charge, watch what I am going to do through You!”

ii) God gives us tremendous power at our disposal. The “trick” is to learn to use it to do His will and on His timing! That is what these two chapters are all about!

iii) God uses his “power” behind the scenes to keep David alive despite the fact that Saul and his army is trying to hunt him down.

iv) David, when secretly confronting Saul, restrains his power as he believes it was not God’s will to kill him. David them publicly confronts Saul on this issue and for the moment, Saul is swayed not to kill him.

v) My point is this chapter is that it is all about God’s will getting accomplished. There are examples of control of “giving up” control to God in order for God’s will to get done. We’ll tackle this as we go through the chapter.

vi) Ok, I’ve been rambling for two pages and I’ve yet to even touch the first verse. ☺

3. Chapter 23, Verse 1: When David was told, "Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are looting the threshing floors," ² he inquired of the LORD, saying, "Shall I go and attack these Philistines?" The LORD answered him, "Go, attack the Philistines and save Keilah."

a) Let’s recap where we last read of David. This was in the early parts of Chapter 22.

i) David’s relatives were in danger as he was afraid Saul would use them as ransom. Therefore, he led all of them to the neighboring area of Moab. David’s great grandmother Ruth was a Moabite and figured the “kin” would help them.

ii) A prophet Gath then told David in Verse 5 to get out of Moab with his “army” of about 400 men and go to Judah. This alone was an act of faith on David’s part as now he was out in the open where he could be spotted by Saul’s army.

iii) The rest of Chapter 22 was all about Saul. He went to the high priest who helped David. In Saul’s jealously, he had the high priest killed along with all his relatives. Only one man escaped and that person fled to David as we’ll read in a few verses.

b) Now here is David who “just happened” to be in the section of Israel near of town of Keilah. David heard that the Philistines were attacking Keilah.

i) The Philistines were looting the threshing floors. When the wheat was harvested, it was collected at one spot and the useless chaff part was separated from the edible wheat. That location was called a threshing floor.

ii) The Philistines used this opportunity to raid them. To use an old cliché, “the best time to rob a bank is when the payroll is being delivered as there is more cash on hand”. That is what the Philistines were doing here.

c) Now we get back to the topic of “God’s will”:

i) Notice the first thing David does not do is go help these townsfolk.

ii) The first thing David does when he hears of this attack is pray to God.

iii) There is nothing wrong with David helping, but one of the points I’m going to make over and over again, is “not every opportunity is necessarily God’s will”. Just because something seems like an obvious situation where someone needs help is not necessarily God’s will to go help.

iv) Don’t get me wrong. When someone’s in trouble, the natural instinct is to go help and 99.99% of the time, it is the right thing to do. The point here is that David (like us) sought God before “anything and everything”.

v) Again, it doesn’t mean that every time we have to go to the bathroom, we check if it is God’ will first. ☺ It means that we regularly seek God’s will as part of our prayer routine (to keep God in the forefront of our minds!)

vi) In crisis situation to especially stop and seek God’s will.

a) David’s life was in danger by helping these people. David knew that word would get to Saul if he helped them. In times of fear, it is again best to stop, pray and seek God’s will before taking action.

d) One of the things we don’t know is specifically how God answered David.

i) Was it an audible voice? Was it written in the sky? Did a prophet speak up and say, “This is how God answers your prayer?”

ii) One of the reasons the text specifically does not tell us how the prayer is answered is God wants you to focus on Him and not methodology!

iii) Trust me, if God wants to give you a message, He is more than capable of delivering it to you! I don’t believe one has to “strain” to hear the voice of God, as if God is not capable of speaking in any volume louder than a whisper. ☺

iv) Further, I am leery of those who have a “message of God for me” as if God has lost my phone number. ☺ God can use others to speak to you, but one must test prophecy and simply watch to see if it comes true. (See 1^st John 4:1).

4. Verse 3: But David's men said to him, "Here in Judah we are afraid. How much more, then, if we go to Keilah against the Philistine forces!" ⁴ Once again David inquired of the LORD, and the LORD answered him, "Go down to Keilah, for I am going to give the Philistines into your hand." ⁵ So David and his men went to Keilah, fought the Philistines and carried off their livestock. He inflicted heavy losses on the Philistines and saved the people of Keilah.

a) Apparently, when David inquired of God to go attack the Philistines, that message only told to David and not his men.

i) If you remember in Chapter 22, Verse 2, David had about 400 men with him.

ii) These 400 men were in fear.

b) Notice what David did not say after Verse 3:

i) “Look, you idiots, God said for us to go, now let’s get moving!” ☺

ii) Instead, we read in Verse 4 that once again David inquired of God.

iii) David understood that the men were in fear. I suspect David was still in fear despite getting a direct command from God.

c) Again, we are not given the details of the methodology:

i) We don’t know how the second prayer persuaded the 400 men to go with David.

ii) All we know is that prayer works! However it happens, God wanted us to know in this text that David sought God in prayer, God answered that prayer, and by faith David acted on God’s commands despite the danger. That prayer also persuaded David’s army to go with him.

d) I stated in the introduction of the power of God:

i) That power persuaded David to turn from his fears and go fight.

ii) That power persuaded David’s army to go fight with him.

iii) That power gave David a mighty victory over the Philistines.

iv) Notice God says to David, “I am going to give the Philistines into your hand”. (There’s that word again! ☺) It is about God’s power working through us!

e) By the way, notice in David’s victory, he not only saves the wheat (implied), and not only defeats the Philistines, but he also has nice steak dinners for him and his men. ☺ The text says David and his men “carried off their livestock”.

i) The point is when we are obedient to God, He rewards in ways far greater than we expect. Remember it took courage for David to go fight the Philistines.

a) The Philistines were better armed and were prepared for war. David was with a bunch of guys who were fugitives.

b) There was also the danger of being exposed so Saul could find him.

c) All David wanted to do is protect the wheat. David got that, inflicted heavy losses on the Philistines and the livestock as a bonus gift.

d) When we give to God (in this case, by our time and trust in Him), God gives back far more than we ever give to him. You cannot out give God!

5. Verse 6: (Now Abiathar son of Ahimelech had brought the ephod down with him when he fled to David at Keilah.)

a) The “parenthesis” is in the NIV text and I think it is appropriate here.

b) If you remember from the last chapter, Abithar was the only survivor when Saul ordered the massacre of all the priests, their children and even their livestock.

i) Imagine, losing everything and everyone that is close to you. Imagine being the only survivor of a family massacre! How do you continue to live and move on?

ii) What kept Abiathar going was saying in effect, “Well, Lord, I’m the only one left of the High Priest family, and I’m going to keep going until you say otherwise. You kept me alive and I’m going to keep living to serve you!”

iii) Abiathar fled to David. At this point he wasn’t too crazy about Saul. ☺

iv) In this one verse, we can learn a lot about “living” and doing God’s will despite the horrible circumstances that go on around you. It doesn’t mean one does not deal with grief. It means that if we live for God, then we must continue to live for God as long as we keep living.

c) The verse also mentions that Abiathar brought an “ephod” with him.

i) An ephod is a vest that is part of the High Priest garment.

ii) What is implied but not stated, is this is the “official” ephod of the High Priest.

iii) When we get to Verse 9 this is important.

a) There is a pocket in this vest. In this pocket was to be kept the “Urim and the Thummin” (Exodus 28:30). These are untranslated Hebrew words. Most likely they were some sort of “dice” used to discern God’s will. Whatever it was, it was kept in the vest to discern answers to prayer.

b) In Verse 9, David used this “method” to seek God’s will.

6. Verse 7: Saul was told that David had gone to Keilah, and he said, "God has handed him over to me, for David has imprisoned himself by entering a town with gates and bars." ⁸ And Saul called up all his forces for battle, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men.

a) Meanwhile, we’re back to Saul again. The last we read of Saul was that he ordered the slaughter of all the High Priest and his family.

b) In Verse 7, Saul discovers that David had gone to Keilah, the town that the Philistines had raided to get their wheat.

c) The interesting thing is Saul said, “God has handed him (David) over to me”.

i) Yes, there is that word “hand” again! Saul thinks that “God’s will” is done because his enemy David is in Keilah.

d) Further, Keilah apparently is a walled city with “gates and bars”. Therefore, it would be relatively easy to catch David by watching the gates and walls. We learn in Chapter 24 that Saul had 3,000 men with him.

e) Verse 8 mentions Saul taking his forces to go attack David.

i) One has to wonder if Saul also heard about the Philistines attacking the wheat harvest and thinking, “Whatever, I’m too busy hunting down David!”

f) What is to be learned here is “Opportunity is not necessarily God’s will!”

i) Obviously, God intended for David to be the next king and it was not God’s will for Saul to kill David. We’ll read of David’s escape coming up.

ii) What God wants us to learn is that not every opportunity “thrown in our face” is designed to be God’s will.

iii) If an “opportunity” violates the principals of Scripture, it is not “God’s will” no matter how wonderful the appeal.

iv) Sometimes God communicates to us in other ways as well. Sometimes it may be a “felling” and sometimes it may be in other ways.

v) My point here is to be cautious of things that seem like obvious opportunities. Simply stop and pray first and ask for God’s guidance.

7. Verse 9: When David learned that Saul was plotting against him, he said to Abiathar the priest, "Bring the ephod." ¹⁰ David said, "O LORD, God of Israel, your servant has heard definitely that Saul plans to come to Keilah and destroy the town on account of me. ¹¹ Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me to him? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O LORD, God of Israel, tell your servant." And the LORD said, "He will."

a) Now the story goes back to David, his men and Abiathar the priest. In Verse 6, Abiathar brought the ephod (vest) to David and was now probably using the Urim and the Thummim (again, probably dice), they were trying to discern God’s will.

b) David’s concern is not only for his life, and the life of his men, but also for the lives of the men of the town of Keilah. David knew that Saul killed dozens of priests and their family members, so therefore, David understood he would kill other innocent people as well.

c) Therefore, the prayer wasn’t just “what about me?” The prayer was, “What about all the innocent people here?” Then and only then does David get around to asking whether or not Saul will come to this town.

d) Back to “God’s will” and “methodology”. Does this mean if we say the right words and then shoot a couple of dice, that is how God is to answer us? In one word, no. ☺

i) First of all, David is scared for his life, the life of his men and the lives of innocent people. Next David used “what was at hand” to communicate with God.

ii) The text mentions the last remaining priest of the descendants of Eli “happened” to be there and “happened” to have the Ephod at hand.

iii) Remember back in Verse 1 when David prayed for discernment, David did not then say, “I can’t pray to God, I don’t have an ephod in my hand”.

e) Unto the questions themselves: David first asked, “Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me to him?” The second question is whether or not Saul will come down to Keilah.

i) David was concerned that the Keilah townsfolk would turn David over to Saul. That would be ingratitude, but David understands that when you’re life is threatened, as Saul would do, people will do anything, including betray David.

ii) Notice in Verse 11 that the only answer to David’s two questions was: “He will”.

a) God does not specifically respond to David’s first question of whether or not the townsfolk will betray David, just the second question of whether or not Saul is on his way to find him.

b) Therefore, the first question gets repeated in Verse 12.

8. Verse 12: Again David asked, "Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me and my men to Saul?" And the LORD said, "They will."

a) The interesting discussion is “Why did David have to ask this question a second time?

i) After all, God is more than capable of answering both questions first.

b) I bring this up as it is important to understand the nature of God and answering prayer.

i) First of all, it is up to God to answer prayer. We “work for Him” and not vice-versa. He is under no obligation to answer any prayer on our timing.

ii) I take the view that all prayer requests are answered. Sometimes “silence” means the answer is no or not yet.

iii) God often gives us information based on what we can handle at that moment. A possibility here is that God first wanted David to contemplate that Saul is on the way so he could make a run for it before contemplating whether or not the people of Keilah would betray David.

iv) In the next verse, we read that Saul never goes to Keilah after Saul discovers David left that location. Perhaps that is why God “waited” to answer David’s second question of “Will the residents of Keilah betray me” as it is less of an issue.

c) All of this is relevant to the topic of “discerning God’s will”.

i) Sometimes God gives us some information and expects us to act on it. Then we say, “Yeah, yeah, I know that, but about my other question.” ☺ That is what David did here. The main thing God wanted to convey is Saul is on the way and it was time for David to move again.

ii) Remember all of this running by David is part of “God’s will”. Let’s face it, God could “zap” Saul at any time and make David the king. All of this was part of David’s “education” for his future reign as king. God works the same way in our lives as well. What is often a “peril” is God educating us for some future event.

9. Verse 13: So David and his men, about six hundred in number, left Keilah and kept moving from place to place. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he did not go there. ¹⁴ David stayed in the desert strongholds and in the hills of the Desert of Ziph. Day after day Saul searched for him, but God did not give David into his hands.

a) Now David was on the run again. David ran into a hillside, desert area called “Ziph”.

i) Looking at a geography map, this area was not that far from where David grew up. I’m guessing that when David was younger and tending the sheep, he knew this territory and all the caves that exist there.

ii) Again, when David was young, he had no idea that “geography education” would benefit his life later. It is another example of how God uses our early education to inevitably fulfill His glory.

b) The best line here is the last sentence of Verse 14. To summarize, David kept alluding Saul not because David outsmarted Saul, but because God was “behind the scenes” keeping David from Saul’s hand (there’s that word again! ☺)

i) It’s hard to imagine being a fugitive and on the run and knowing it was “God’s will”. I’m sure it wasn’t until hindsight that David realized that God was guiding him and saving him during this time period.

ii) This is why during the scariest moments of our lives is when we have to realize that God is in control and is working “behind the scenes” of our lives. That won’t take away the pain, but it gives us some comfort during those times.

10. Verse 15: While David was at Horesh in the Desert of Ziph, he learned that Saul had come out to take his life. ¹⁶ And Saul's son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God. ¹⁷ "Don't be afraid," he said. "My father Saul will not lay a hand on you. You will be king over Israel, and I will be second to you. Even my father Saul knows this." ¹⁸ The two of them made a covenant before the LORD. Then Jonathan went home, but David remained at Horesh.

a) Now, all of a sudden, Jonathan, Saul’s son and David’s friend appears on the scene again.

b) We don’t know how Jonathan finds David while his father is eluding him, but “God works it out” so Jonathan could be with him.

c) A few lessons back I contemplated why God choose David to be the next king and not Jonathan. After all, Jonathan’s not a bad guy and would have made a good king.

i) Part of the answer is God’s sovereign will to pick David.

ii) I heard another answer to contemplate: Jonathan never took up arms and joined David, but just supported him behind the scenes. Maybe God saw that “character flaw” of a lack of boldness to pick David over Jonathan.

iii) Who knows, its just interesting speculation. ☺

d) Onto the text itself. Here are some key points:

i) Jonathan’s purpose was to “help David find strength in God” (Verse 16).

a) Never discount the importance of encouraging friends in times of trouble. Sometimes just “being there” is as important as what they say. I know that during my difficult moments, I mainly recall who was there. That meant more to me than any words they told me.

ii) Second, Jonathan reminded David that he would be king one day.

a) This is Jonathan “prophesying” a biblical based prediction that hasn’t happened yet. To encourage Christians, don’t underestimate the importance of prophesying to one another. That is simply to take biblical written promises and encourage each other with those words.

b) “But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort” (1^st Corinthians 14:3 NIV).

11. Verse 19: The Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah and said, "Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hakilah, south of Jeshimon? ²⁰ Now, O king, come down whenever it pleases you to do so, and we will be responsible for handing him over to the king."

a) In Verse 19 we get introduced to some group called the “Ziphites”. There are several mentions in the bible of an Israelite town called “Ziph” and these are their residents. For some reason, they disclose to Saul where was David’s specific whereabouts.

b) There is no further mention of the Ziphites as to this incident, nor does David seek revenge upon them after he becomes king.

c) What is interesting is David wrote Psalm 54 based on this incident. The title of the Psalm states, “When the Ziphites had gone to Saul and said, “Is not David hiding among us?”

i) Psalm 54 is only 7 lines long. The Psalm deals with David’s anger at the Ziphites for disclosing his whereabouts.

ii) Note the last line of Psalm 54. It says, “For he has delivered me from all my troubles, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.” We’ll read in a few verses how David escaped before Saul could catch him. Most likely David wrote this Psalm after he was rescued as a prayer of thanks to God.

12. Verse 21: Saul replied, "The LORD bless you for your concern for me. ²² Go and make further preparation. Find out where David usually goes and who has seen him there. They tell me he is very crafty. ²³ Find out about all the hiding places he uses and come back to me with definite information. Then I will go with you; if he is in the area, I will track him down among all the clans of Judah."

a) In Verse 21 Saul invokes God’s name and blesses the Ziphites for helping him.

i) In Psalm 54, David says of the same group, “Let evil recoil on those who slander me; in your faithfulness destroy them.” (Psalm 54:5 NIV)

ii) Even though the bible doesn’t record whether these people are blessed are cursed, we can logically guess which “prayer” God answers. ☺

b) My point to all of this goes back to the top of “God’s will.” Just because one says “May God bless you for helping me” does not mean it is “God will”.

i) I can’t tell you the number of times in my life where I’ve heard the most “ungodly” people say, “May God bless you” because that person has helped them in some situation. That expression has become a cliché for “Thank You”.

ii) Saul’s statement may be a violation of the commandment to not take God’s name in vain” (Exodus 20:7). We tend to think of that commandment in terms of saying God’s name in connection with slander. What that commandment also means is to invoke God’s name in situations where God doesn’t’ want His name invoked.

a) For example, if somebody does something illegal to help you, and you respond with “God bless you for your help”, that is taking God’s name in vain as you are invoking it in a situation that is not God’s will.

c) The rest of the text here is simply historical details. To paraphrase Saul, “Go find out David’s specific hideout. If you can find it, come back and tell me.”

13. Verse 24: So they (men of Ziph) set out and went to (town of) Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the Desert of Maon, in the Arabah south of J