I SAMUEL – LESSON 6
“Making God Our Refuge”
Kay Arthur, Teacher
When you are in trouble, my friend, when you are full of fear, where will you turn? Who, or what, will be your refuge? When your enemies pursue you, and when you think that they are about to take over, (And believe me, your enemies will pursue you if you live for Christ, if you stand for the word of God, if you are all that God intended you to be, you can know this, your enemies will pursue you. They will seek to silence you), whom will you fear? Will you fear the face of man, or will you fear the face of God? This is what we want to talk about as we look at I Samuel 21, 22, and 23—three very rich chapters, richer than they seem on the surface. They are richer than they seem on the surface because, when we look at Samuel, we are looking at what is going on in David, what is going on in the body, so to speak. What is David dealing with in the body? When we look at these chapters in Samuel, we also have to look at the Psalms that were penned by David during this time. Then God gives us another look, a look to the inside of the man, a look into the soul. Today, we are going to look at the body, what the body goes through in the midst of fear, in the midst of trials, in the midst of difficulties. We are going to look at the soul, and how that soul can handle those fears and those difficulties and those traumatic situations, and those assaults of the enemy. So, we are going to look at body and soul.
As we look at all this, we are going to see that what God is showing us is very similar to what we saw with the life of Joseph. When you looked at Joseph, what did you see? You saw that Joseph, or the account of Joseph, opens up with a promise from God. That promise comes in the form of a dream. That promise is that someday his brothers and his father and his mother will bow down before him. So he has that promise. But from that promise, he goes right into a pit. He goes into a pit of despair, a pit where he cries out to God for deliverance. He cries out to God for deliverance, because his brothers have come against him out of jealousy. They don’t like what they have just heard from their brother. They don’t like the fact that he is Papa’s favorite. So, he goes from the promise to the pit. If you can remember from Genesis, give me another “P”. Potiphar’s house. And from Potiphar’s house to the prison. From the prison, he goes to the palace, where he is ruling with Pharaoh over Egypt.
When you look at the life of David, David has a promise just like Joseph had a promise. What is David going to be? What has David been consecrated to be? He is consecrated to be the king. David is to be the king over Israel. Who knows that David is to be the king over Israel? David knows, and Jonathan knows. So, we have him with the promise of being king. He is going to rule, even as Joseph would someday rule, and others would bow down to him. But what happens to him after he has this promise that he is going to be king. He doesn’t go into a pit, but where do we find David in the next three chapters? We find him in a cave. We don’t find him in a pit, but we find him hiding in a cave.
It is in this account, in these three chapters, we are going to see God’s precepts of life that can hold us in our troubles, and enable us to conquer all our fears, and give us the peace that passes all understanding. So there are three things that we are going to see—we are going to see that God’s precepts of life: #1. can hold us in our troubles, and #2. enable us to conquer all our fears, (We can go through trouble, and we can be held, but we can be trembling so bad that we are literally sick from fear.) and #3. can give us a peace that passes understanding. When the world would look at Joseph, and what Joseph goes through, they would not expect him to have a peace that passes understanding. When they look at David, and they see what David goes through, they would not expect him to have a peace that passes all understanding. The other thing we are going to see is how we can learn to make God our refuge. We are going to see the precepts of life that hold us in our troubles and enable us to conquer fears, and give us a peace that passes all understanding, and we are going to learn how to make God our refuge, our very present help in the time of trouble.
How do you make God your refuge? As we look at this, I want to stop and tell you a story. Years ago, when I went to Atlanta, Georgia, I taught in the home of Grace Kinser. Grace Kinser had a Bible study going there, and I was invited to be the next teacher, because the present teacher was going to go on staff with Campus Crusade. They had prayed, and they had brought me to Atlanta. It was right in the very first year of my time in Grace Kinser’s home, teaching. I went to Atlanta for seven years. Every Wednesday morning we would get up and drive to Atlanta, and I would teach. Then I would go out to lunch, and then I would come back. It was during that time that I saw all those women sit in Grace Kinser’s home. It was there that Precept Upon Precept, the inductive Bible study courses, were born. God laid it on my heart to teach those women how to study the Bible. I knew that I would never leave Chattanooga, but I knew that someday God would tell me to stop going to Atlanta. I thought, “What will they have when I leave Atlanta?” God laid on my heart that I was to teach them how to study inductively, and I would give them homework. I said, “If any of you want to learn how to study, make me a sandwich, and I will teach you how to study.” I would give them homework, and then I would grade their homework. Every week I would do that, and then I would take a second group. Then I said, “This is too slow.” Then God laid on my heart that I was to write these inductive Bible study courses called Precept Upon Precept. Why? “Through Thy precepts I get understanding, and I hate every false way.”
So I started writing these Precept courses. But before this ever happened, at the beginning, one day I taught on “What is Your Refuge?” Where do you run in the time of trouble? Who do you run to? What is your source? Do you run to drugs? Do you run to an affair? Do you run to eating more food, just overeating? Do you run to alcohol? Where do you run in the time of trouble? Do you run to the bed, and just get in the bed and pull up the covers, and stay there for days and days on end? Where do you run in the time of trouble? What is your refuge?
This gal came up to me afterwards, and she told me this story. Her name was Gloria James. Gloria James lives in Atlanta, and is one of our dear friends and co-workers and a mentor of women. Gloria came up to me and said, “You know, when you taught that lesson, I realized that my pills were my refuge.” She took all sorts of tranquilizers to get her through the day. She said, “I realized that those were my refuge. I went home, and I took those pills (and this is not what I would necessarily advise, because this is not usually you go off of them), I lifted up the toilet seat, and I took all those pills and poured them down the toilet, and flushed the toilet. I said, ‘God, You are going to be my refuge. You will be my very present help in the time of trouble.’”
David had God as his refuge. Go to I Samuel 21:1. When David was in this predicament, pursued by Saul, you have to know, and you have to understand that David was not a neophyte as a child of God. David was a consecrated man of God. David was the one that fought the lion and the bear; David was the one that was the shepherd; David was the one that wrote the Psalms as he sat there by the flocks, playing his lyre, playing his harp, overseeing these sheep—but in solitude with God. This was a man who knew his God, and because he knew his God (as Daniel 11:32b says) he was able to be strong, and he was able to do exploits.
(1) “When David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech came trembling to meet David, and said to him, ‘Why are you alone and no one with you?’”
Just to bring us into context, what is David doing? David is fleeing; David is running away from Saul. Why? Because he has been told by Jonathan, “Yes, my father is intent on killing you.” They have parted, and let’s go back and look at 22:41. “When the lad was gone (the lad that shot an arrow in order to get a message to David that he had to leave, that Saul was truly going to go after him), David rose from the south side and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed three times. And they kissed each other and wept together, but David more.” [Here is a man whose love (and this is a brotherly love) is dearer to him than the love of any woman. Here is his companion; here is his covenant partner; here is this man whose heart is welded to David’s, and David’s to his, and now they are having to part. And they are wondering what is going to happen, and how long it will be before they see each other, but they know that if David doesn’t leave, that Saul will surely kill him. So they weep, but I want you to see that they wept together. But who is weeping the most? David is weeping the most. This is a very, very painful moment in David’s life, because he is walking away, and he is all alone. Have you ever felt all alone? Has there been a time when you have been separated—separated from your loved ones, separated from Christian support, separated from people whose hearts beat the same as yours? This is David as he comes to Nob; this is David (we believe, in all probability that he is all alone, or there are a few men out there hidden in the bushes) who is walking away. David is walking away from his wife. David is walking away from a man named Saul, his king, whom he loves, the king whom he has brought solace to. David is walking away from him. David is walking away, deemed an enemy. David is walking away with a death sentence on him. I want you to catch this. He is in pain, and he is alone.
When he comes to Ahimelech (and you know because you have studied it), he is coming because David is hungry. David has to sustain himself, so he goes to the priest to get some bread. He goes to the priest because he is leaving with absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing. When Neda(?) and Paton(?), dear friends of ours, left their country, the government took literally everything away from them. They took her gorgeous diamond ring, and all her jewelry. They had two children, and they took everything but twenty dollars. They left to come to the United States with only twenty dollars in their pockets. Their home was gone; their friends were gone; they were totally isolated. But God was not gone. There would be setbacks along the way, but they made God their refuge, and now that dear couple are not only dear friends of ours, but they are strong supporters financially of Precept Ministries. God has blessed them, but God was with them when they were in that trial. They knew God.
As he goes to get the bread, and as he asks for a weapon, he is given the sword of Goliath that is there, wrapped up in an ephod. But there is a man standing there, a man who is a Edomite, and that man is Doeg. Look at v. 7. (7) “Now one of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s shepherds.” [David is dealing with the priest, and over here is a man listening. Whether he is visible or invisible, we don’t know, except that we know that later David remembers seeing him there—so maybe he stepped into the shadows, maybe he stepped back in a way he could listen—we don’t know. But we know that the man was there, and that he was an enemy in the camp. When David leaves, he leaves with the consecrated bread, bread that he has been given for him and the men that are with him, men that have kept themselves from women, men that are consecrated so they can eat the consecrated bread. This bread was normally reserved for priests, but even Jesus uses this point. Jesus refers back to this event when they are criticizing Jesus for picking grains on the Sabbath and eating those grains. He says, “Don’t you remember what David did? Don’t you remember how David got the consecrated bread?”]
(10) “Then David arose and fled that day from Saul, and went to Achish king of Gath. (11) But the servants of Achish said to him, ‘Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing of this one as they danced, saying, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands”’? (12) And David took these words to heart, and greatly feared Achish king of Gath. ((13) So he disguised his sanity before them, and acted insanely in their hands,” [Now watch, he has got spit coming down over his beard, and he is doing all these little things—you know—acting insane. This is the man who is going to be king; this is David who has slain his tens of thousands, his hundreds of thousands; this is David the warrior. But something has happened. He is going to Achish the king of Gath because his is alone, because he got to flee. When does he run to? What is going to be his refuge? He runs to this king, and he realizes that these men are (possibly) on to him, and that he is not going to be safe and secure. What does he do? He plays like he is insane. He is a very clever man. I believe that God just led him at that time. I don’t know what you believe, and the Bible doesn’t tell us, but no where is he criticized for what he does. But immediately he senses the atmosphere; immediately he knows what is going on, so he plays the insane man.]
(14) “Then Achish said to his servants, ‘Behold, you see the man behaving as a madman. Why do you bring him to me?” [Watch that, “Why did you bring him to me?”, because apparently, from this, David was going, but the men discovered him and know who David is. The men feel that David’s intent on being there is not good, and the men are fearing him. The men get David and take him to the king, and David is standing before the king, and the men began saying, “This is David. This is David. Don’t trust him.” So David immediately plays the insane man. The beard of a man was his pride, his macho symbol. Here he is letting spittle run down it, and he is groping like a mad man.] (15) “’Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this one to act the madman in my presence? Shall this one come into my house?’