What To Do When You're Afraid // 1 Samuel 21:1–15

In 1 Samuel 21:1–15, David finds himself running for his life, making decisions driven by fear rather than faith. Pastor Chris Detweiler explores how fear can lead us away from truth, but also how seeking the Lord brings restoration and clarity. Through Psalm 34, we see David’s turning point as he shifts from fear to trust.

This message is a reminder that God is near in every storm and faithful to deliver us from all our fears.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Church, it's a special Sunday today. It is my pleasure and privilege to um introduce our guest speaker today. Um he is a great servant. Many of you know him very, very well, and I'm excited to hear what the Lord has to share through him. So, church, would you please welcome Pastor Chris?

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Good morning, family. Good morning. It's really good to be with you all today. Um wow, amazing worship today. Um thank you, Ben and the band, for just leading us in that direction. Uh beautiful Sunday morning. Um Wow, first day of spring next week, but honestly, it feels like summer. Uh but I, you know, we're in uh technically it's still winter, uh, but yeah, first day of spring. Everything and yeah, spring. My uh allergies are coming up, so you might hear me clear my throat a few times. But I love the I love the spring weather. I love the uh the fresh starts and um everything's blooming and everything's fresh, and so yeah. If you have your Bibles, would you please turn your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 21? 1 Samuel chapter 21. 1 Samuel, what a good book. Uh so many lessons from the life of David that we can apply to our lives as well. And just like David, when life feels kind of shaky and uncertain, scripture shows us that there's always a choice. A choice between fearing the storms that are in front of us or choosing the fear of the Lord. This is a riveting and exciting time in the life of David, and uh, because there's a shift happening in his story from being the shepherd boy in the hills to the hero of Israel, to now he's fleeing and he's running for his life. So if you have your Bibles, would you please open them and stand for the reading of God's word? Thank you. We'll read verses one and two for some context in our story. Now David came to Nob to Ahimlech the priest, and Ahimelech was afraid when he met David and said to him, Why are you alone and nobody is with you? So David said to Ahimlech the priest in verse two, he says, The king has ordered me on some business and said to me, Do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I sent you, or what I have commanded you, and I have directed my young men to such and such a place. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you. We thank you for the new day, the new seasons, the place to worship for the first day of spring next week. I pray that you would give us insight to verses one through fifteen. I pray that I would represent you correctly and I would use my words very carefully. Lord, you are the way, the truth, and the life, and we come to you needing to know the way, needing to know truth. So, Lord, as we study about the life of David and we see some of the mistakes that he's made along the way, I pray that we would grow in hope and that it would encourage or encourage us and that we would be more anchored to your word now more than ever, in this time where it can be fearful. We see the things happening in the world, and so, Lord, we worship you again. We turn to you. You're the king of kings in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You can please be seated. A little background into 1 Samuel. David, the future king, is running for his life. And this uh portion of scripture here actually goes back to the deeper story in the history of Israel in the book of Joshua. Joshua passes away, and there's about a 300-year-in-between time where Israel had no king. There was no leader in Israel. And they would enter into the time of the judges, the book of Judges. The judges were military leaders that the Lord would raise up to protect and basically defend the Lord's people. And this all changes in 1 Samuel chapter 8, when the Bible says, like the other nations, Israel wanted a king to rule over them. And it's interesting that ever since that Israel was freed from the Pharaoh in Egypt, the Lord has been their king and he has been their provider, but Israel would demand an earthly king anyways, and so the Lord gives them King Saul in 1 Samuel chapter 11. And the Bible says that the spirit of Saul did, or that the spirit of the Lord did come upon Saul, but Saul really never had a heart for the Lord, and this would be his downfall. And it's and it's really sad when the Lord desires to use somebody, but because of continual disobedience, they end up disqualifying themselves. And because of this, the Lord would raise up David to be the next king of Israel. And there's about a 20-year in-between time when David is anointed king until he's actually crowned king, and it's those in-between years that begin to shape and mold David and the person that the Lord wants him to be as the next king of Israel. And these are those in-between years for David. This portion of scripture here is an emotional, it's a tense time in the life of David, and not because of anything that he's done, but because of King Saul, and this is where we where we come back to our original thought about Saul. In 1 Samuel 17, David does what nobody else can do. He kills Goliath. Goliath was a Philistine from the city of Gath, and this is where David's popularity begins to take off, and Saul's jealousy begins to get the best of him. And in chapter 18, people will begin to sing that Saul has killed his thousands and David and his tens of thousands, and it's that point there where Saul begins to see David as the enemy. And so he from chapter 18 to chapter 21, Saul will try to kill David at least six times, and so David runs away to the city of Adnob, and that's where he begins to make some poor decisions. This chapter is one of the two major low points in the life of David. The other is the beginning stages of his relationship with Bathsheba. Both circumstances will carry out long-lasting consequences. But chapter 21 will show us what fear can do when we focus on the storm. Instead of trusting in the Lord, it can lead us in a wrong direction. But it also teaches us that even in the hardest of times, that the Lord is faithful to continue on with us. This is a time in David's life when he's anointed to be the next king of Israel, but he's not really living like it. He's hiding, he's running, he's fleeing from one enemy to another, and instead of waiting on the Lord, he tries to scheme or lie his way through some difficult situations. And so, with that mini introduction, let's begin reading in verse one. The Bible says, Now David came to Anob, to Ahimelech the priest, and Ahimelech was afraid when he met David and said to him, Why are you alone and nobody is with you? We'll stop there. David is running from Saul's main political base of operations in Gibeah to a place called Nob. Nob and Gibeah are actually only a few miles away from the city of Jerusalem, just to give you a general idea of where all this is happening. In the Bible says that Nob was a city of priests. And this is where he meets a Hemelech. A Hemelech was a priest serving at the tabernacle. The tabernacle was generally located on or near where the Israelites would camp, and it served as a physical representation of the Lord's presence for his people. It was church. It was a place of worship, it was a place of rest. And when everything's coming apart in David's life, he's actually moving, he's actually running in the right direction. The Hebrew word for tabernacle means a dwelling place of the Lord. It's the word Mishkan. An interesting note about the tabernacle, John, the apostle John wrote about the tabernacle, the true dwelling place of the Lord. He said this: that the word became flesh and dwelt dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. In John chapter 1, the Greek word for dwelt or dwelling is to pitch a tent, or better translated, is tabernacle. And just as the tabernacle in Nob represented the Lord's presence for his people, Jesus Christ became the new and living tabernacle for us in the flesh. Amen? Amen. Finishing up verse one. The Bible says that David came to Nob and Ahimelech was afraid, saying, Why are you alone and nobody is with you? Ahimelech was afraid because he knows that David's not just any man. He was a part of Saul's inner circle. He was a commander, and he was a warrior, and he was the guy who killed Goliath, and he probably had security and protection around him at all times, and now he's alone. And the priest immediately knows that something's not right. He says to David, Why is there nobody with you, David? So David said in verse 2 The king has ordered me on some business and said to me, Do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you or what I've commanded you, and I've directed my young men to such and such a place. We'll stop there. David is in the house of the Lord. He's in a place of hope. He's in a place of direction. And in the moment when he should have been the most honest about seeking the truth and telling the truth, he begins to stretch the truth a little bit. He says in verse 2, the king has ordered me on some business, and I'm on a secret mission from the king. My men are someplace else. And we should stop there because David's focus is affecting the integrity of his heart. And instead of being truthful and asking the priest for help, he begins to lie to protect himself. And reading through scriptures, we see that David's really not alone in this area of fear. Abraham's son Isaac, he did the same thing in Genesis chapter 26. The Lord called Jonah to do a great thing, and Jonah got in a boat and he booked it in the opposite direction. And Peter in the New Testament denied the Lord three times because he thought he was going to be arrested or even worse, killed. Fear's a funny thing. I remember getting ready to walk down the aisle. Chelsea and I were getting married, and uh I was fearful, thinking, where is this fear coming from? Because we we were both committed to each other, we're both committed to the Lord, and I really couldn't understand it, but I knew that the Lord was the foundation in our new life. And after 21 years of marriage, he's faithful to see us through all of the times. And next week we'll be celebrating 22 years of marriage on March 20th. Amen. 22 years. Amen. The Lord is good. The Lord is with us. The Lord is with David, and he has the promises to be the next, he had the promises on his life to be the next king of Israel. But to be fair, David is running for his life. But the Bible says that the fear of man, it brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe. The Lord is the firm foundation, and no matter what we're going through, he is the firm foundation. But the choices made from fear will often carry long-lasting consequences. And David thinks that he's getting away with stretching the truth, but we'll soon see in verse 7 that somebody's listening, that there's usually a price to be paid for moving in that direction, a price when sometimes others are affected as well. Finishing up in verse 2, moving on to verse 3, David is in the house of the Lord, but he's not really standing on truth. And he starts asking for what he thinks that he needs instead of what he needs spiritually. He says in verse 3, Now therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found. David's hungry. And the priest answered in verse 4, There is no common bread on hand, but there is only holy bread if the young men have at least kept themselves from women. Interesting. Then David answered the priest and said to him, Truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out. And the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in fact common, even though it was consecrated in the vessels this day. So the priest gave David the holy bread in verse six, for there was no bread there but the show bread which had been taken from before the Lord in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken. Let's stop there. A lot happening. David is hungry, and he's not necessarily asking for the holy bread, but he's asking for any kind of bread, anything that's going to sustain him while he's running from Saul. But the only bread that was available was the holy bread that was inside the tabernacle, the dwelling place of the Lord. We've been going through an amazing series through the book of Exodus with Pastor Josh, and he's been talking us through the tabernacle. He shared some amazing pictures from when he was living in Israel, reading, really bringing this passage to life for me. When you walk into the tabernacle, immediately to the left was the golden lampstand. It would light up the tent, representing the Lord's light or his presence for his people. Straight ahead was the altar of incense. It represented the prayers of the people being lifted up to the Lord. Behind the altar of incense was the holy of holy. It was the most holy place. And immediately to the right was the table of show bread. It was the holy bread. It was baked fresh every week, twelve loaves representing the twelve tribes of Israel. It illustrated rest and provision, and it was fellowship with the Lord. And but and David's hungry, but only the priests are allowed to eat the old loaves that were being replaced. But even the old loaves are still considered very holy. In verse 4, the priest wants to help David. He says, There is no common bread, but only holy bread, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women. Meaning, are are the men ceremonially clean? Are their hearts being anchored to the Word of God? Because the priest knows the importance of coming near to the things of the Lord with a right heart, and he's upholding a standard of holiness, ensuring that even in mercy, which the priest does do for David in verse 6 by giving him the bread, that there's still a reverence for the things of the Lord. In Leviticus chapter 24, the law said that only the priest could eat the holy bread. But in verse 6, the priest gives David the bread. Why? Because David is hungry. And Jesus points back to this moment in Matthew 12. I love this. When the Pharisees are walking through, uh when the disciples are walking through a grain field, they're picking grain on the Sabbath because they were hungry. And the Pharisees see this and they say to Jesus, Jesus, your friends are working on the Sabbath. They're picking grain when they should be resting. Jesus says, Have you not read how David entered the house of God and he ate the showbread? And Jesus was teaching a deeper truth that love and mercy matter more than the rules and the regulations of the law. The law shows us the character and the goodness of our Savior. And Jesus had the final word about the commandments in the law in Matthew chapter 22, when the Pharisees asked the question, What is the greatest commandment? And Jesus said, You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, with all of your mind. And this is the greatest commandment. And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And this is what a hemlock the priest was doing for David by giving him the bread. And there's a beautiful picture of the holy bread that points us forward to Jesus Christ. The holy bread in 1 Samuel was a symbol of being set apart for relationship and communion with the Lord. And what Jesus is saying is that I am the bread of life, holy and set apart for you, the one giving you ever and lasting nourishment for your souls. Amen. Amen. This is communion, it's remembering the Lord. Back to our text. So far, everything has been kind of calm and quiet. David's on the run, he's receiving mercy and bread from the priest, but there's a quick shift happening in David's story. The Bible says, Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord, and his name was Doag, and Edomite, the chief of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul. Interesting. We'll stop there. A lot happening in verse 7. The Bible says that Doag was a servant of Saul, and he's listening and he's watching, and he was a man who was willing and ready to do the dirty work of the king, and he was very dangerous. Verse 7 gives us a little insight into the background of Doag. The Bible says that he was an Edomite. The Edomites were descendants of Esau. Remember, Esau was a firstborn son to Isaac. He was the brother to Jacob, and Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of soup. And in Genesis chapter 36, Esau became the father to the Edomite people. And over time the Edomites basically became the enemies to the nation of Israel. And so Doag the Edomite, he had no love and he had no loyalty for the Lord or his people. And this matters because he plays a major role for what happens next in the next chapter, chapter 22, when he reports everything seen and heard back to Saul, and how the priest helps David. And when Saul hears this, he sinks deeper into his jealousy, and he will command all of his men to kill all the priests, but even his own priests can't bring themselves to do it. And so he turns to Doag. And Doag does what nobody else can do. He kills 85 priests in one day, and Doag is a bad dude. Doag's a bad dude. Anyone know any Doags? No? If you take away, Doag is spelled D-O-E-G. If you take away the E, it's dog, and Doag, he was for sure a dog. Chapter 22 really only reinforces the state of Saul's mind and his heart, and really the good reason that the Lord had for removing him as a king of Israel. A crazy tragedy that really began with David's lie here in chapter 21. Much happening in verse 7, but David again turns to the priest in verse 8, and he says, Is there not here on hand a spear or a sword? For I have brought neither my sword or my weapons with me, because the be it the king's business required haste. So the king said in verse 9, the sword of Goliath, the Philistine whom you killed in the valley of Elah, there it is, wrapped in the cloth behind the Ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is no other except that one here. And David said, There is none like it. I'll take it, give it to me. And then David flees to Gath. We'll stop there. David is continuing to stretch the truth. He says, I'm on a mission from the king. Um and he says, Do you have any weapons on hand? Because I was leaving. I was in such a hurry. I didn't have time to grab any weapons with me. And the priest said to David, Just the sword that you took from Goliath. And David said, There's none like it. Give it to me. There's none like that sword. And when David grabbed that sword, it should have reminded him about how he got it, not with lying and deception, but by stepping on the battlefield with a heart filled with integrity and truth and moving in the strength of the Lord. Amen? In 1 Samuel chapter 21, David is in the tabernacle. He's in the house of the Lord. He's receiving mercy and help and bread from the priest, but he doesn't stay there. He runs away. Let me really quickly sum up what happens in verses 10 through 15 for us. The Bible says that David leaves a tabernacle and runs to the city of Gath. And this is the hometown of Goliath, it's enemy territory, where he ends up before Achish the king, the king of the land, and they know exactly who David is. And the Bible says that David was very afraid, and he starts acting crazy, and he's scratching on the wall. And the Bible says that he's letting spit fall down on his beard. And after a little bit of a conversation with the king, by the Lord's grace, the king sends him away. He's allowed to go. And the text really doesn't give us any details on while he's allowed on why he's allowed to leave, but it's clear that he's allowed to go, and not because he was strong. But honestly, because the Lord was with him, the Lord was with him. David's story encourages me because I have done some of the things that David has done. I have ran, I have taken matters into my own things, and I've done things my own way. In 1 Samuel chapter 21, David is a warrior. He's a future king of Israel. But he begins to unravel just a little bit. He moves away from the house of the Lord, away from the fellowship of the priest, and he's alone and he's acting crazy, and he's taking matters into his own hands. And this is not the David that we remember, but maybe it's a David that we can sometimes relate to when the moments of fear or the pressures of life begin to push us into the places of making decisions that we never thought we would make or doing the things that we never thought that we would be doing. Saying I started off strong over here, but I ended up doing this one thing over here that I really regret. The Bible says in 1 Samuel chapter 22, he runs 30 miles away from the area of Jerusalem to the caves of Adolem, where his family meet him there, leading to a moment where he's inspired to write Psalms chapter 34. If you have your Bibles handy, would you really quickly turn there, Psalms chapter 34. The title of the Psalm says a psalm of David when he pretended madness before Abimelech or Akish the king. Abimelech was a king's throne name, throne name, Akish was the king's real name. This is where we come back to the title of our message. I think it's up there. What to do when you're afraid. I appreciate this moment because David's circumstances, they haven't changed yet. But he's showing us what to do when the storms in our life are still raging, when everything's not really acting coming and going the way that we thought it would be doing, uh the way that we thought that it would be going. I'll read it to you. He says in verse 1 through 4. I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord, let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and I I sought the Lord and He answered me, and He delivered me from all of my fears. And David's in the safety of the cave now, and we see his heart begin to move again in the direction of the Lord. I'll read it to you again, verse one. He says, I will bless the Lord at all times. Your praise shall continually be in my mouth. And that point there, David's probably looking back about everything that has just happened. And he says, I'm not going to do that thing again. I'm not going to move in that direction anymore, and I'm not going to make those mistakes anymore. He's shifting his lies from, he's he's shifting his heart and his mind from the things that he's been through, the lies, the mistrust, the running around, and he's shifting his focus from the storm that's in front of him to the Lord God Almighty, and he's saying, I'm going to bless the Lord at all times. Your praise shall continually be in my mouth. And David's situations they hasn't changed yet. He's still in a storm, but he's choosing faith over fear because this is the beginning of wisdom. He continues in verse 3, uh 2 and 3, with magnifying and the boasting with and boasting. He says, My soul shall boast in the Lord, the humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. Remember, he's he's no longer alone. His family and his friends are are with him now. And I love this. He says in verse 4, I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and he delivered me from all of my fears. And that's a turning point for David, and that's a turning point for us when I'm feeling broken or fearful, and the storms in my life are raging. The first step in going in the right direction is seeking the Lord. It's calling upon the name of the Lord. And the Bible says that when we do that, that the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and he saves those who are crushed in spirit. Amen. Some today you're in a season of victories and they keep adding up. Praise the Lord. But for others, you might feel like you're in a cave, all alone, feeling crushed, like David. The Bible says that he's near to the brokenhearted and he saves those who are crushed in spirit. Draw near to the Lord today. If you're in a storm, don't wait for the storm to stop, to call upon the Lord, to seek the Lord. In closing, I'm going to invite the band to come back up to close us in a song. The Bible has a lot to say about fear. There's a fear that drove David to run. One of the worst things we can do is run from family or friends, and we begin to distance ourselves from church or the things of the Lord, and life begins to stop. But there's a healthy fear, the fear of the Lord. I love this. The Bible says in Psalms chapter 19 that the fear of the Lord is clean. The Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, and that the fear of the Lord gives us wisdom, meaning it illuminates our path and it shows me the way. I want to close with this verse. It's been an anchor for me in my life. It's Isaiah chapter 41, verse 10. The Bible says, Fear not, for I am with you. Do not anxiously look around you, for I am your God. The Lord is with us. The Bible says, Fear not, for I am with you. Do not anxiously look around you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you, and I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. I call those the three I wills. I will strengthen you, I will help you, and I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. This is not just an encouragement, but it's divine guarantee, and it's the promises of the Lord on your life. If my eyes, if our eyes are on the world, and there's a lot to be focused on now, there's usually no peace, but true peace is found in Jesus Christ. Jesus said, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. The Lord is with you. He's promising us to carry us. I've been alive for 56 years, and he has carried me the whole way. There have been times when it's been hard. The Lord gives us a peace that passes understanding, a peace that keeps us anchored when everything else around us is shaken. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word because it keeps us anchored in a world that can be hard. Lord, let us not run from you, but to you. David said, I sought the Lord, and you heard me and delivered me from all my fears. Not just some of the fears, all of them. Your word brings us comfort, joy, and peace. We thank you that nothing is too big for you, Lord. Nothing catches you off guard. You're still in complete control when everything else around us looks like it's out of control. You're the way, the truth, and the life, and we've we will follow you in Jesus' holy name. Family, uh to over to my left, your right is Martin and Lucia. They're holding up Bibles. If anybody needs prayer or you need a Bible, please visit them. And uh in closing, with an in a world that seems crazy and it seems like a lot, and it is a lot for us, but it's not a lot for the Lord God Almighty. He has it, he's still on the throne. Amen. Let's praise the Lord. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Pastor Chris. Uh, church, we do have one more song. Would you please stand with us as we worship together?