“When God Removes Your Crutches”

Part 1 of 2       1Sam 19-21 & Selected

 Acts 13:22 After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: 'I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.'

 David was faithfully obeying the Lord, living a life of integrity, now things begin to unravel and fall apart in his life.  One by one God begins to pull the crutches out from under him…

 God’s Removal of David’s Crutches…

 1.       His Position.  (General) 18:5,13,30; 19:8-10

1 Samuel 18:5 Whatever Saul sent him to do, David did it so successfully that Saul gave him a high rank in the army. This pleased all the people, and Saul's officers as well.

1 Samuel 18:13 So he sent David away from him and gave him command over a thousand men, and David led the troops in their campaigns.

1 Samuel 18:30 The Philistine commanders continued to go out to battle, and as often as they did, David met with more success than the rest of Saul's officers, and his name became well known.

 1 Samuel 19:9-10 9But an evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the harp, Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall. That night David made good his escape.

 

bullet David was a General over 1000 troops earning great respect for his leadership & successes.
bullet Member of the royal high court, high rank in the army yet David had to escape or be killed by King Saul.
bullet Saul struck out at his most trusted and loyal servant… can you picture the scene that evening?
bullet This is the 2nd time Saul attacked David… Saul killed thousands/David his ten-thousands… 18:10-11
bullet Anger, galled, jealousy… Whoosh… just missed… this king is crazy… WHY?  18:12 “Saul was afraid of David”… In a flash… all his chips were gone… David “outshined” Saul… He was righteous
bullet David lost his high position in the Israeli army, the crutch of a good position was gone in a flash!

  

2.      His Wife.  (Michal) 19:11-12

1 Samuel 19:11-12 11 Saul sent men to David's house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, warned him, "If you don't run for your life tonight, tomorrow you'll be killed." 12 So Michal let David down through a window, and he fled and escaped.

·         Saul promised the man who killed Goliath would get his daughter… Saul used his as pawn bait

·         Saul made David pay a dowry for her by killing 100 Philistines…maybe secretly hoping get killed

·         Michal / Saul’s daughter was not a great wife.  Reading text she lived a life of lies and idolatry.

·         Problematic arranged marriage… David lost the crutch of his position, now his wife, now…

  

3.      His Mentor.  (Samuel) 19:18; 20:1

1 Samuel 19:18 When David had fled and made his escape, he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there.

 

·         Excavations done in Naioth showed a city where the houses were built like condominiums, a huge complex maze… built back to back, side to side, top to bottom… making it a good hiding place. 

·         (Samuel anointed David as Israel’s king in 16:13)… Samuel had a school for prophets here in Ramah…

·         Can you begin to see David’s emotional stability eroding?  He’s getting squeezed.  Pressure starting to mount!  Stress levels increasing… Then in 19:19 “Word came to Saul of David’s hideout in Naioth…”

·         David lost his powerful position, his disloyal wife, his spiritual mentor/pastor as crutches to lean on…

·         Gradually David was losing all his support structure… Now in 20:1 David fled to his friend…

 1 Samuel 20:1a Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah

 

4.      His Friend.  (Jonathan) 20:42

1 Samuel 20:1b-2 “…and went to Jonathan and asked, "What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to take my life?""Never!" Jonathan replied. "You are not going to die! Look, my father doesn't do anything, great or small, without confiding in me. Why would he hide this from me? It's not so!"

·         Jonathan didn’t believe it… no way, I would know

1 Samuel 20:3 But David took an oath and said, "Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said to himself, 'Jonathan must not know this or he will be grieved.' Yet as surely as the LORD lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death."

·         Death was shadowing this young confident warrior… whose world is being turned upside down…

·         Jonathan’s confronted his father and “Saul’s anger flared up… perverse woman… 1Sam 20:30-33

·         David & Jonathan made a covenant, worked out a “signal” between them they parted…

 1 Samuel 20:42 Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the LORD, saying, 'The LORD is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.'" Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town.

 ·         David’s lost his position, his wife, his spiritual advisor, now his best friend… God removing Crutches

 

1 Samuel 21:1 David went to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech trembled when he met him, and asked, "Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?"

·         Nob, a small town North of Jerusalem, inhabited by priests… David lied 21:2… leading to 85 priests killed

·         David had no weapon, hungry, on run… so Ahimelech gave him Goliath’s sword (who David killed) 21:8-9

  

5.      His Self-Respect.  (Faked Insanity) 21:10-15

bullet David straps on Goliath’s sword given to him and flees to Gath, remember Gath? Philistine “capital”
bullet It’s command central for the Philistines… WOW David why are you going there??? 
bullet His mental state is really rocking, nearing bottom! On the run… right into the hornets nest.
bullet Here at Goliath’s hometown was the shepherd boy who killed him with a slingshot, now wearing Goliaths sword!

 1 Samuel 21:10-15 10 That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. 11 But the servants of Achish said to him, "Isn't this David, the king of the land? Isn't he the one they sing about in their dances: "'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands'?" 12 David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. 13 So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard. 14 Achish said to his servants, "Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? 15 Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?"

 

·         The people in the town recognized David (21:11).  He then began slobbering on his beard and clawing on the doors faking insanity to persuade king Achish to let him leave the city.  (notice v 14-15 – Achish said I have enough fruitcake people already…

·         I don’t need any more crazy’s around here, get him out of here, get him out of my house!

·         Israel’s exalted champion, wearing Goliath’s sword… foaming at the mouth like a madman…

·         The enemy didn’t even want him… they kicked him out

·         When you finally “hit bottom” you begin to “think differently”… begin to lose sight of the truth…

·         Now David is lower than a snake, he lost it all.  David had a position and lost it, David had a wife and lost her, David had a spiritual mentor and lost him, David had a best friend and lost him…feeling pretty low, now David lost his self-respect…

·         Feeling abandoned, all alone… fearing for his life… Thinking what do I do now?  Where do I go? 

·         You do not want to miss next week to see what David did next… how he handled the situation…

 

David was a real person who lived 3000 years ago, yet his experiences strike home to us today…

What crutches are you leaning on / depending upon in your Christian experience???

·         Maybe in school, our teachers, peers, maybe education itself…

·         Maybe Profession or your job… (crutch of bossing people… )

·         Maybe Prior spiritual highs (God used you greatly in the past…)

·         Maybe Past accomplishments (business success, connections with the right people)

·         Maybe Pride is your crutch (thinking it’s all about you and how wonderful you are)

·         Maybe it’s Parroting a person more spiritual than you are…

·         Maybe it’s med’s (rather than facing “hard issues”… It’s a Med “problem” not sin problem)

·         Maybe you’re leaning on the crutch of busyness (builds your low self-esteem… blurs God out)

·         Maybe it’s faithfully teaching a class for years yet your intimate walk with the Lord is lacking. 

·         Maybe it’s depending upon your spouse to “carry the weight” of your Christian life.  

·         Maybe it’s resting in the youth group to “raise” your adolescent… Maybe it’s resting on the crutch of “Christian School” to train up your child so you can blame the school or youth group or church for the way Billy turns out and not yourself.  Beware of crutches becoming a substitute for God!

 Application…

ü  God has a Perfect Plan for your Life! Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

ü  God works ALL things for Good to those who Love Him!  Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

ü  Don’t allow “Crutches” to become a Substitute for God! Mark 12:30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

o   Foster a vertical dependence with God don’t lean on horizontal crutches…