PROMPTED BY
PANIC
People do bizarre things when they
panic. Normal behavior goes out the
window, reason plays no part in what we do and we are capable of things we
would never consider under normal circumstances.
Many crimes are
made worse when criminals fear that they are about to be caught and in fits of
panic do all kinds of things that make no sense. Many accidents on the highways are intensified in magnitude
because drivers panic and lose control.
Difficult relationships become much worse because people see them
spiraling out of control and panic, prompting them to try drastic measures to
salvage something out of what they fear will come to nothing.
Panic produces
fear which in turn produces poor judgment and bad choices. David’s circumstances took a radical turn
for the worse when Saul aimed all his anger and vengeance at this shepherd boy
who would soon be king. As he ran for
his life, his judgment was impaired by panic that cut off his lifeline of
faith. What had sustained and made him
courageous was now forsaken as he desperately tried to survive using whatever
means he could find.
THESIS: Without the anchor of
a firm faith, crisis situations can steal our peace and panic can shape our
behavior.
Looking at 1
Samuel 21, we find great hope for those moments of panic in our lives. Here David goes off the deep end but as we
shall see, God restores him after a while and renews his faith in the power of
the Lord.
I. THE RIGHT
PLACE BUT THE WRONG REASON
--Even though David was operating in a panic mode, his
background and his spiritual heritage led him to seek help in the time of his
greatest desperation at the place where the Lord made His presence known.
--Although we have no access to his motives, we do see David
going to the place of worship, the tent of meeting.
1 Samuel 21:1
Then 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?”
--Nob was the city of the priests, the place where the
tabernacle was set up (although the ark had been taken to Kiriath-Jearim), but
David had always found a special joy in joining the rest of the believers in
going to the house of the Lord.
--Whether from habit, or from his heart, David found his way
to a place where he could meet the Lord and have the priest inquire for him
what God might want him to do next.
1 Samuel 22:9-10 “I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to
Ahimelech…10 “And he inquired of the LORD for him, gave him provisions,
and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”
--What followed in his exchange with Ahimilech indicates
that even with his best intentions, David quickly turned the visit to the house
of the Lord into a self-serving occasion instead of an opportunity to seek
direction from Him.
A. DISREGARDING THE SACRED, HE ACTED OUT OF HIS DESPERATION.
--Although David understood the Law of the Lord, in his
tortured mind he justified putting it aside in order to get what he wanted.
--His physical hunger for food overcame his spiritual
commitment to holiness so that he demanded the bread of the altar, the sacred
bread that was first presented as an offering to God in worship and second
reserved as food only for the priests of the Lord.
--The option of taking care of his own need versus upholding
the Word of the Lord showed the state of David’s heart and mind as panic ruled
over faith, desperation over devotion.
B. DRAWING SECURITY FROM THE SYMBOL, HE FAILED TO TRUST THE SOURCE.
--Once his guard had been let down regarding food, David
then took a turn in a strange direction—he asked the priest for a weapon!
--Facing a giant like Goliath, David had no interest in and
no need for swords and spears, but now a different kind of fear had gripped his
heart and instead of turning to the Lord, David turned to the weapons of this
world.
1 Sam. 17:45
Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a
javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the
armies of Israel, whom you have taunted.
--Panic and a failure to trust in the Lord will lead someone
even like David to forsake the basic level of trust in the Lord and turn to
inadequate alternatives which offer security but cannot deliver it.
--Ironically, the only weapon available was Goliath’s sword,
the very sword which David had taken from him after taking him down with a
sling and stone.
--The sword was kept in the holy place because it symbolized
the power of God to prevail over the mightiest of foes—and yet David takes it
to give him the confidence he had lost when he lost his faith in the power of
the Lord.
David came to Nob and got what he wanted—a sword and bread—but left
with only the symbols of what he
really needed!
The bread and sword are both used
in the Bible as symbols of the Word of the Lord, the very thing David did need but forgot about in the midst
of his panic. He took with him what he
thought would satisfy his need for confidence and security in the face of the
threats he faced. However, he left with
stale bread that did not belong to
him and a giant’s sword that had
already proven to be of no value in the hands of Goliath…the weapon of the
loser, not the winner!
--What David should have requested was readily available for
him—the provisions and promises of the Lord.
--What he lost along the way was clear thinking and a
consistent faith in the power of the Lord to sustain his people and keep His
Word.
Think about a time when you panicked and lost your ability to think
right and act with confidence. On any
given Sunday, there are folks here who have come to the right place, but are
here for the wrong reason. Stinging
from a hard situation, they arrive at the place of worship looking for a
handout, a man-made solution, a way out of their problems without having to
rely entirely on the Lord.
People come in with the idea that
if they can get some financial help, or if they can get a counselor to tell
their antagonists what to do, or if they can just feel better about themselves
without having to feel bad about their sin, it will be worth their time.
Consequently, for some people
churches become nothing more than social service centers, aid stations, to keep
them from having to actually turn to and rely on God alone. Ironic, don’t you think? People coming to a place where the living
God is worshiped in an effort not to have to deal with Him alone?
We
can never allow ourselves to treat the sacred things and holy name of our God
in such a disrespectful manner!
C. DEVISING A DECEPTIVE STORY, HE TRIED TO COVER HIS LACK OF FAITH.
--When David saw the fear and suspicion in Ahimilech the
priest, he began to lie boldly and brazenly, to cover up what was really going
on—his flight from Saul.
--At this point, David was not likely to know who could be
trusted, who was in an alliance with Saul, and so he chose to lie and created a
poorly devised deception in order to get what he wanted and get out of there!
--The horrible consequence would not come until later, but
Ahimilech had no choice at the moment but to believe David’s story. (Ahimilech and 85 priests with their
families would be murdered by Doeg at Saul’s command to retaliate for giving
aid to David, his enemy)
--David then realized that one of Saul’s servants,
Doeg, was there that day and had seen
and heard everything.
1 Samuel 21:7 and 22:9-10
--When his deception would now work no longer to his
advantage, David got what he came for and took off where he felt he would be
safe from Saul.
II. THE
RIGHT INSTINCT BUT THE WRONG CHOICE
--David’s instinctive desire to survive was right, but
instead of looking to the Lord for a way of escape, he took it upon himself to
devise a way that did not include the Lord.
A. COMFORT FROM THE COMPANY OF GOD’S ENEMIES PROVES IMPOSSIBLE.
--For some strange reason, when Christians find themselves
in trouble, rather than turning to the Lord and His people, they often flee to
the world and try to find help and comfort there.
I don’t know how many Christian marriages have been
damaged because one or both partners turned to friends at work, family members
and others who did not share a commitment to the truth and trustworthiness of
Christ and gave bad advice, unhealthy counsel and supported unbiblical courses
of action.
Financial decisions often are based
on ungodly principles and priorities which lead into more bondage than the
freedom of doing things God’s way.
We look for comfort where it is
least likely to be found and then act surprised and frustrated when the enemies
of God and His ways do not help us find His comfort and support again!
--David fled the sanctuary of the Lord and looked for
sanctuary among the enemy—how foolish we are when we panic!
B. avoiding THE HOSTILITY OF GOD’S ENEMIES DESTROYS dignity.
--Like so many Christians, David chose to turn the attention
away from the fact that he was a champion for the Lord in order to avoid
unwelcome and hostile attention of God’s enemies.
--Rather than risk bringing the mocking and threatening
voices of the enemy upon us, we sometimes will do almost anything to turn their
attention elsewhere.
--David chose to play the madman, to act as if his
circumstances had driven him to insanity—that way people would leave him
alone…even as his dignity as the anointed and chosen man after God’s own heart
was destroyed!
--Self-preservation will drive us to extremes if we choose
our own survival over the honor and dignity of God’s calling.
1 Samuel 21:12
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, and scribbled on the
doors of the gate, and let his saliva run down into his beard.
--How many Christians have played the fool by acting in
undignified ways which are embarrassing to remember and unworthy of those who
are heirs with the King of glory?
In order to divert attention from the fact that we
are followers of Christ, most of us have at one time or another said or done
something which we thought would take the pressure off us and not give those
who are antagonistic to our faith any reason to persecute or mock us.
I have seen Christians facing a
mocking person try to make them think that they are not really “too holy” by
doing something foolish (taking a ridiculous dare, blurting out a curse,
telling a blatant lie to impress others with how worldly-wise we are). It is almost as if we would rather have them
laugh at us for the insane things we do than have them hurt us for the glorious
things we believe.
In a fit of madness, Christians who
panic in the face of an avowed enemy of God choose to “disguise their sanity”
in order to somehow save themselves from the abuse they would receive if the
truth were known.
They throw away their dignity in
Christ in order not to lose their dignity before the crowd!
III. THE
RIGHT PERSPECTIVE BUT AT THE WRONG TIME
“Woulda,
shoulda, coulda…!”
--Have you had the experience of knowing just what you
should have said, or should have done—right after
the ordeal is over?
--David blew it, without a doubt, but he was not content to
leave it there…he wanted to regain what was lost and be restored to a right
relationship with the Lord.
David is never presented as a perfect man, but as a
man after God’s heart in the way he made comebacks when others would have given
up and settled for less than God’s best.
He kept coming back, reflecting on the foolishness of his choices and
the faithfulness of his God.
--In two different psalms, Psalm 34 and 56, David addresses
this period of his life and in them both we find his perspective to be right on
target…he knew what was right.
--The disconnect came in that he did not allow what he knew
to determine what he did!
--But the Lord did not give up on David and allowed him to
learn through this time of failure how important it is to lean on Him in times
of desperation and panic!
A. God gives
His comfort to ease our souls.
--How long David had to wander in this wilderness of his own
creation we are not sure, but what we find is a record of his response that
shows a man whose soul had been comforted by the very One he had ignored.
Psalm 56:8-9
Thou hast taken account of my wanderings; put my tears in Thy bottle;
are they not in Thy book? Then my
enemies will turn back in the day when I call; this I know, that God is for
me.
--There is a clear sense of gratitude to the Lord for not
turning away from him in what David wrote in response to this embarrassing
episode of unbelief!
B. God gives His assurance to restore our perspective.
--God speaks to us and reminds us with words of assurance
that He is good and assures us that panic on our part never prompts
indecisiveness on His.
--Instead, He invites us to reconsider His character and
review His record—He always remains the same…faithful in all His ways!
Psalm 34:8-9 O
taste and see that the Lord is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in
Him! O fear the Lord, you His saints;
for to those who fear Him, there is no want.
--David’s perspective could be restored once he remembered,
once he tasted again, the fullness of the promises and power of the Lord.
C. God gives
His grace to bring us back.
--For every reason we can think of, God could justify
turning away from David and dismissing him as just another flaky follower who
only remains true to Him when everything goes his way.
--But in spite of David’s temporary flight from faith, God
graciously reminded him that the door is always open for a prodigal to
return…the keys are always available to deliver him from the prison of his
panic and desperation.
Psalm 34:19, 22 Many
are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivers him out of them
all…The Lord redeems the soul of His servants; and none of those who take
refuge in Him will be condemned (or ‘be held guilty’).
--Though he did not deserve to come back after such a fall,
God poured out His grace on David and brought him back into a renewed
relationship of trust with the Lord.
Life will be full of panic-stricken moments when we are
clearly not at the top of our game when it comes to trusting the Lord. From what we see in the life of David, those
do not have to be permanently disabling and life-defining moments. Instead, they can be moments when we learn
what it means to trust in the Lord at all times—even when it appears that all
hope is gone!
By His grace, the Lord offers us a way to
recover what we lost and to renew what had grown old. His mercies are new every morning and His lessons are fresh every
day. We are not doomed to repeat past
failures, nor to expect them to get worse with each successive panic attack.
Growing up in Christ means that we take
His lessons to heart—whether they come from finding out how faithful He is in
the midst of the storm, or if we only discover it after the fact. What He wants is for us to know that we can
trust Him…and then do it!
The words of the psalms and the behavior
of the psalmist seem worlds apart. But
the Lord has made a way through Jesus Christ for our words and our behavior to
come together in a life-changing union of genuine belief and godly practices.
How great is our God to give us the
opportunity to fail in the crisis and then be assured of His continuing love
for us! David experienced that love
even after he had blown it so badly, and in response to the Lord’s mercy was
able to write with full conviction and total honesty:
Psalm 34:1-3
I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in
my mouth. My soul shall make its boast
in the Lord; the humble shall hear it and rejoice. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.
Even
when we get it all wrong, as David did, He can make all things new through the
forgiveness and renewing power of Jesus Christ!
Providence
Baptist Church
© David Horner 2004
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