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DAVID_BECOMES_THE_LEADER.hwp|
1 Samuel 21:1-22:23 Key Verse: 22:2 DAVID BECOMES THE LEADER "All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him." Last week we learned Jonathan's love for David. The story was so heart-moving that we often quote it as a model of Christian fellowship. Jonathan's love for David is beyond human friendship. It was tied in God's love. Such kind of love is not based on human emotion, but on God's love and sovereignty. His love was made complete by loving God. When we love God with our whole heart, we love our brothers and sisters. "Love one another!" is Jesus' new command. May God bless all of us to love one another so that our church may be a community of love. Today's passage is about David's leadership. God anointed David as King in place of Saul. But he needed to be trained to be a leader. Let's learn how God trained him and what true leadership is. And also let's learn David's shepherd heart for people in great distress. First, David became hungry. David ran away into the desert after he recognized that King Saul tried to kill him. God began to train David. David went to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. Look at verse 1. Ahimelech trembled when he met him. He respected David so much. But something wrong with him. He was alone. No one was with him. The priest Ahimelech expected David being followed by his men. David told the priest that he was away on a secret mission King Saul committed to do. He said that he was supposed to meet his men at a certain place. But that was a lie. David thought that if he had told truth, he would have been rejected. This shows us that he had been in great fear. His fear was so great that he concealed truth for survival. Anyway, David's lie eventually led to the tragedy that Ahimelech including his family were killed by Saul. David was very hungry. He didn't have time to eat because he ran away from Saul as fast as he could. He asked Ahimelech for food. How poor David was! He had been honored and respected by people because he saved Israel from the giant Goliath's irritating insults. He killed him with a single sling! He cut off the head of Goliath. After that, Israeli girls cheered at David from place to place. A song titled "champion" was heard all around the nation for honoring David. More people began to follow him. But the situation now went vice versa. He was being pursued because of Saul's jealousy. He couldn't sleep and eat for at least two nights. He had no time to pack his belongings or go back to his apartment to pick up a few things. In his desperation he turned to the priest for help. But there was no bread on hand except for consecrated bread. The consecrated bread was allowed for only priests to eat. Luckily, Ahimelech was flexible in his thinking in the emergent situation. He offered it to David. He had compassionate heart for hungry David. He was a man who had God's heart. He is not legalistic. He had better understanding of the Law of God than any other people. He was not defined in the literal interpretation of the provisions of the Law. God's law is absolutely good. It helps us realize our sins. It serves as an elementary school teacher for us to know what is right or wrong. But it cannot save us. It helps us come to Jesus, the Savior who forgives us our sins by his precious blood. Every law is made for a certain purpose. We must try to understand the spirit of law. Otherwise, we would get legalistic, having no compassion. Now, David asked for a weapon. Ahimelech pointed to the sword of Goliath wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. David was pleased that he got the thing he was looking for. Second, David was exiled. Look at verse 10. David couldn't stay long with Ahimelech. Saul's men was likely to attack the place where David stayed. David didn't want to harm him. That day, not spending a night, he fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. Gath is one of the five territories of the Philistines. It was the place Saul wouldn't come looking for him. David's status was an exile in the enemy country. But the servants of the king of Gath objected to accepting David. They feared David, because David had slain tens of thousands of the Philistines. David felt he would be in danger of being arrested as a spy. He decided to act like a madman to save his life. He made marks on the doors and let saliva run down his beard. He pretended to look exactly like Youngu. Imagine he looked like a man with Alzheimer's. How could he fall into being treated as a madman? Achish was furious with his servants, saying, "Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? Am I so short of madmen (in my nation) that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?" (14, 15) David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father's household heard about it, they went down to him there. David on the run could have borne revenge in his heart against Saul. But he didn't try to harm King Saul. He just tried to protect himself passively. This was because he knew that he was being trained by God. Imagine poor David hiding himself in a cave of Adullam. He had been a warrior who fought against lions and bears. When he faced Goliath, he wasn't afraid. He had been a champion who knocked the giant Goliath down with a single sling. But not now. He looked as if he were a lonely orphan cast into the rough world. Nobody helped him. Nobody was with him. But God was with him. God helped him. God guided him in his great plan and purpose. God hid him in a shadow of life to use him for the greater purpose. David could not but wait on God. He poured his suffering and agony onto God in prayer. He wrote many poems, expressing his feelings. This is a poem David wrote when he was in a cave. "I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble. When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who know my way...... Look to my right and see; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life..... Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me."(Psalm142:2-4,6) But he didn't just pour his complaints to God. Through poems, he confessed his faith in God who is his refuge. "I cry to you, O LORD ; I say, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.....Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me."(Psalm 142:5) Third, David, the leader of people in distress In his serious situation, there were some people who was gathering around him. They were people who were in distress or in debt or discontented. David needed those who helped him. But those who gathered around him were needy people. They needed David's help. The number of people gathering around David was about 400. They were also fugitives. They fled from Saul's tyranny. Some suffered from hot-tempered, legalistic, and authoritative king, Saul. They were arrested, tortured, and beaten by dictatorial authorities. Some of them were farmers in debt; others were factory workers who got lowest pay. Some were young students who had been bullied at school. Most of them were raised in broken families. They were uneducated because they had no money. Other party were those who had been stressed out a lot due to their heavy burden of school study and competitive atmosphere in their society They had psychological and spiritual problems. They were not rich, not healthy, not in a high social position. They were sick, weak, and poor people. They faced unexpected unfortunate things throughout their lives and suffered a lot and groaned and wandered. They were needy people. They needed comfort and love. They needed a shepherd's tender care. They were like wandering sheep without a shepherd. They were absolutely desperate for a shepherd's love. They must have heard about David. David, when he was young, took care of his sheep. Now also he took care of needy people. A shepherd is a shepherd wherever he goes. But it was not easy for him to shepherd 400 people with a lump of problems. David was in danger. He could not but focus on his own problem. He couldn't afford to solve even his own problem. They just made his headache worse. We tend to think that if we become a good shepherd, we must solve our own problem first. We might think that rich people can help others; an intelligent person can be a Bible teacher; and talented people can be a leader. But that's not true. Those who have been in trouble and distress are able to understand and sympathize with those in the same situation. David sympathized with them. He had a shepherd's heart for them. He listened to their problems. And he prayed together for them. Sometimes he shared his life testimonies during Bible study. He testified wonderful things God had done for him. He told them how to rely on God and how to have a right relationship with God. In the process of helping them, David was also comforted, too. He didn't have enough time to be indulged in his own problem. David was a faithful compassionate shepherd with a compassionate heart. We can find his greatness here in shepherding needy people. God trained him a lot for the purpose of establishing him as King for his people. Suffering made him grow strong like a big tree facing rainstorms and winds. He was strengthened with power through the Holy Spirit in his inner being out of God's glorious riches.(Ephesians 3:16) David was a shadow of our Good Shepherd, Jesus. Around Jesus gathered the sick, demon-possessed, tax collectors, prostitutes, psychologically and mentally sufferers, and all kinds of people with serious problems and distresses. Jesus was like a leader of beggars. He became a root out of dry ground, serving the world's lowest people. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.(Isiah 53:2) Once Jesus and his disciples went away on a secret picnic for a rest. But people obtained information about Jesus' and disciples's whereabout. They went there in advance and waited for Jesus to come. How did Jesus feel about them? "When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd."(Mark 6:34) So Jesus taught them the living word of God until the sun set. Once Jesus intended to go to Samaria to preach the gospel. He walked a long way under the sizzling sun. He was tired, exhausted, hungry and thirsty. When Jesus saw a woman with hurt and broken heart, he began to help her, forgetting his physical condition. Jesus regarded her spiritual condition more important than his physical condition. With Jesus' tender care, the woman came to life. Those who were helped by David became a foundation of David's kingdom later. David's kingdom was a model of Jesus' Messianic kingdom. Here we can learn the characteristics of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not made up of rich, strong, proud, privileged, and high-positioned people. It is the kingdom in which sick people, weak people, and needy people come to life, live in his tender care and grow in the knowledge of Him. God chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chooses the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chooses the lowly things of this world and the despised things -- and the things that are not -- to nullify the things that are.(1Corinthians 1:27-29) Jesus' ministry is a life-giving ministry. His ministry is a ministry of recovery. May God blesses us to be a shepherd for needy and distressed campus students. May God give us shepherd's heart for them to raise them up as Jesus' disciples. Fourth, David sought God's guidance From there David went to Mizpah in Moab and asked him for help. Look at verse 3. "Would you let my father and mother come and stay with you until I learn what God will do for me?" He wanted to stay with his parents at a safe place. David asked God for his guidance. But the prophet Gad told David not to stay there and go into the land of Judah. David wanted to avoid God's training. But God directed him to be trained in the land of Judah, relying only on God. The land of Judah is a very dangerous place where Saul was seeking his life. So David obeyed God and went to the forest of Hereth, although it meant to risk his life. God wanted him to break through barriers head on. God wanted him to experience God's protection however hard the desert life was. God drove David out into the field of training and wanted to write a dramatic story of David's life. Next Sunday, you will hear the drama God himself wrote. Coming soon. In early January, we listened to Missionary Peter Cho's life testimony and mission report. He was one of SEVEN TIGERS, which was the first disciples' group of Korea University in Anam. Now he is serving Savannah UBF. He worked as a staff shepherd for Hankang UBF for 15 years. He wanted to jump over to the next stage of his life as a missionary. He went to USA as a student when he was in his early forties. He wanted to be a math teacher, so he majored in math education. The time when he went to America, 9-11 airplane crashes broke out. The door to job market was getting narrower and narrower. After he got master's degree, he applied for a job at high schools. But the door was already shut down for foreigners. He had to study more to extend his visa. He ran out of money, so he had to work full-time at restaurants as an attendant. In 2008, financial crisis happened in USA. Job market got frozen. There was no way out for him. Then God began to work. Missionary Peter Cho sent more than 100 resumes to universities. He didn't have Ph.D degrees. He was just in the process of taking Ph.D. courses. With the mighty work of God, he got a job offer from College of Coastal Georgia. But he still had a problem. He was not good at speaking English. His accent was mixed up with Kyunsang province's accent. He was afraid that his broken English might make American students angry. But God gave him an inspiration. He learned Korean math teachers' teaching method of Hakwon and practiced many times. He used powerpoint that American math professor has never tried. While using powerpoint, he didn't have to make himself understood with good pronunciation. Students could understand his accent while looking at the letters on the screen. His lecture was recognized as top in the university. Thus, he got American permanent residence in 2010 and laid a foundation of doing God's work in Georgia. Isn't it a dramatic story? He confessed that God enjoys thrill and he also felt thrilled as if he got on a roller-coaster. Do you think you are in distress? Do you think you're driven into a dead end? God wants you to rely on him for his guidance. You might feel thrilled when God rescued you from the dead end. Look at verse 6. Then Saul heard that David and his men had been discovered. And Saul, spear in hand, was searching for him with all his officials. Saul suspected his officials because they had conspired against him. He said that nobody reported to him about David. Then Doeg the Edomite said that he had seen David at Nob where Ahimelech prayed God for David and also gave him food and the sword of Goliath. The priest Ahimelech and his family were brought before Saul. Saul was so angry that he ordered his officials to kill him. But the king's officials were not willing to raise a hand to strike the priests of the LORD. But Doeg, who was the opportunist, struck down Ahimelech and his family mercilessly. David heard of the tragic news about Ahimelech, so he felt responsible for his death. How many of you consider yourself to be a leader? Some people feel burdened about the responsibility of a leader. But God is calling every one of us, all Christians, to be leaders. God saved us so that we may live as leaders. But don't worry about God's calling. In the Bible being a leader is being a shepherd. Jesus told Peter in John 21 "Feed my lamb." Jesus is calling us to be a leader, a shepherd for campus students. God wants you to be a leader with a shepherd heart. Needy people are waiting for you, they need you, they are asking us for help. It's our turn to respond his calling. |
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