1 Samuel 23:1-29: Following God’s Guidance

1 Samuel 23:1-29: Following God’s Guidance

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of 1 Samuel, and today the next passage we come to is 1 Samuel 23:1-29, so I’ll be reading a selection of verses from that passage. Hear now the words of the Living and True God:

¹ Now they told David, “Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are robbing the threshing floors.” ² Therefore David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I go and attack these Philistines?” And the Lord said to David, “Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah.” ³ But David’s men said to him, “Behold, we are afraid here in Judah; how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?” ⁴ Then David inquired of the Lord again. And the Lord answered him, “Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand.” ⁵ And David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines and brought away their livestock and struck them with a great blow. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah. ⁶ When Abiathar the son of Ahimelech had fled to David to Keilah, he had come down with an ephod in his hand. ⁷ Now it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah. And Saul said, “God has given him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars.” ⁸ And Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men. ⁹ David knew that Saul was plotting harm against him. And he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod here.” ¹⁰ Then David said, “O Lord, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city on my account. ¹¹ Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O Lord, the God of Israel, please tell your servant.” And the Lord said, “He will come down.” ¹² Then David said, “Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?” And the Lord said, “They will surrender you.” ¹³ Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the expedition. ¹⁴ And David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hand…. ²⁴ …Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshimon. ²⁵ And Saul and his men went to seek him. And David was told, so he went down to the rock and lived in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon. ²⁶ Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain. And David was hurrying to get away from Saul. As Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them, ²⁷ a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid against the land.” ²⁸ So Saul returned from pursuing after David and went against the Philistines. Therefore that place was called the Rock of Escape. ²⁹ And David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of Engedi.

May God bless the reading of his Word.

 Let’s pray: Father, your word is a lamp to our feet and a light for our paths. Shine your light brightly this morning. Help us to see everything we need to see about who you are, what you’ve done, what you promise, what you teach, and what you desire for our lives. Minister to us by your Holy Spirit, for it’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.  

I once heard it said that, just because a decision is important, that doesn’t mean it has to be difficult. For example, my wife Becky and I first met each other at a church in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Becky was a secretary at the church, and I moved down to the church in order to be an intern. And I thought I was only going to stay there for the summer before moving to North Carolina for seminary in the fall. However, within a few weeks of my arrival, Becky and I became interested in each other. And I eventually began looking into how feasible it would be for me to stay down there.

Now, normally, I’m not really one to make hasty decisions. But within the span of two weeks, everything just fell into place for me to stay. I was accepted at a seminary that had an extension center relatively close by, I found a job within 48 hours of looking, I found a place to stay with the church’s computer guy for $100/month, and Becky and I started dating. Then, just a few months later, we got engaged. The total time between us meeting each other and us getting engaged was about 6 months. And not too long after that, we were married. So, as I said, even though deciding to get married is certainly an important decision, that doesn’t mean it has to be a difficult one. It was very apparent to both Becky and I that God had brought us together—and we’ve been happily married now for 14 years.

However, the truth is that it’s not always quite that easy to discern the best way forward. There are many times when we’re faced with a decision and it’s not at all clear what we should do. So, one of the subjects Christians very often wonder about is how they can discern God’s will and receive his guidance in situations in which the right way forward isn’t entirely clear.

Well, that’s what today’s passage of 1 Samuel 23 will lead us to consider. In this chapter, David is very deliberate about seeking and following God’s guidance as he flees from Saul. That’s the main idea of this chapter. David is very deliberate about seeking and following God’s guidance as he flees from Saul.

And I believe the things we read in this chapter will be very helpful for us in the midst of the various kinds of decisions we often have to make in our lives, such decisions related to marriage, parenting, finances, our careers, and a wide variety of other things. How can we know what God would have us do when it comes to all of these things? That’s what we’ll be discussing this morning.

Now, to remind you of what’s going in 1 Samuel, God has made it clear to David that he’s chosen David to be the next king of Israel. However, the current king—Saul—is determined to prevent that from happening. So, for the past few chapters, David’s been forced to flee for his life from one place to another as Saul pursues him. And that’s where the story picks up here in 1 Samuel 23.

Look with me first at verse 1: Now they told David, “Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are robbing the threshing floors.” So, right at the beginning of the chapter, an urgent situation comes up. The Philistines are robbing the people of Keilah of their grain. And when David’s informed that this is happening, he’s faced with a decision about what to do. We’ve been told that David has 400 men under his command. So, will he lead his men to rescue the people of Keilah or not?

And many times, when we’re faced with an urgent situation in our lives, we’re tempted to make that decision merely on the basis of our own reasoning and intuition—without seeking guidance from God or trying to discern what his will might be. Yet David doesn’t do that.

We read in verses 2-3, ² Therefore David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I go and attack these Philistines?” And the Lord said to David, “Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah.” ³ But David’s men said to him, “Behold, we are afraid here in Judah; how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?” Now, it’s not entirely clear how David inquired of the Lord. Since we’re not told of any particular method David used, I think it’s reasonable to assume the most basic method, which is that David simply prayed.

But then, after God gives David the green light to help the people of Keilah, David’s men try to talk him out of it. And they kind of have a point. From a human perspective, saving the town of Keilah doesn’t seem to make much sense. David already has his hands quite full handling his own problems. Is it really a good idea for him to try to help the people of Keilah with their problems?

So, just in case he didn’t hear God correctly the first time, David inquires of God again. Verse 4: Then David inquired of the Lord again. And the Lord answered him, “Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand.” So, this time, God not only tells David to go to Keilah, he also promises David that he’ll give the Philistines into David’s hand. In other words, God’s command is linked with a promise. Likewise, whenever we consider doing something God’s told us to do but that we’re a bit nervous about doing, I think it’s very important for us to view the commands of God in light of the promises of God. God’s commands are much easier to obey when we remember his promises. 

After that, David obeys God’s command in verse 5: “And David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines and brought away their livestock and struck them with a great blow. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.”

This demonstrates David’s willingness to follow God’s guidance even when it didn’t necessarily make sense from a human perspective. And God blesses David’s obedience. Similarly, we also face situations from time to time in which we need to trust God’s wisdom over our wisdom. As Proverbs 3:5-6 states, ⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. ⁶ In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. 

In addition, it’s also interesting to note the contrast in our main passage between David and Saul. Even though David wasn’t yet king of Israel, he begins to take responsibility for the welfare of his fellow Israelites in Keilah by defending them from their enemies—just as a king was called to do. Meanwhile, Saul was nowhere to be found. In fact, it seems that, as David was rescuing the people of Keilah, Saul was slaughtering the inhabitants of Nob. Even though Saul’s massacre of Nob was recorded in the previous chapter, verse 6 of this chapter tells us that Abiathar flees from Nob and goes to David when David’s already in Keilah. So, that means Saul’s massacre of Nob and David’s rescue of Keilah must have occurred at approximately the same time. The contrast between Saul and David couldn’t be more striking.

David essentially does Saul’s job for him while Saul’s too busy overseeing a massacre. And I think it’s very noteworthy that David does this even while he’s on the run from Saul. Even when his own life is threatened, David selflessly shows concern for the well-being of others. That’s a wonderful example for us to follow. 

We then come to verse 6: “When Abiathar the son of Ahimelech had fled to David to Keilah, he had come down with an ephod in his hand.” This is what I was referring to when I said that Abiathar the priest flees to David while David is already in Keilah. And in a few moments, we’ll see why Abiathar bringing the ephod is so significant. The ephod, by the way, was the elaborate and ornate garment of the high priest.

After that, verses 7-9 tell us, ⁷ Now it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah. And Saul said, “God has given him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars.” ⁸ And Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men. ⁹ David knew that Saul was plotting harm against him. And he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod here.” So, in a critical moment of decision, David again looks to the Lord for guidance.

Verses 10-12 then tell us, ¹⁰ Then David said, “O Lord, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city on my account. ¹¹ Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O Lord, the God of Israel, please tell your servant.” And the Lord said, “He will come down.” ¹² Then David said, “Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?” And the Lord said, “They will surrender you.”

So, David’s now using the ephod brought to him by Abiathar to obtain guidance from God. As I said, the ephod was a very ornate garment worn by the high priest. And it had within it—or perhaps affixed to it—two special gemstones called Urim and Thummim. Now, some of you may recall that we encountered these gemstones back in 1 Samuel 14. 

Basically, Urim and Thummim were a method for seeking God’s guidance that was authorized in the Old Testament law but that’s rather mysterious to us today. These two stones were differentiated in some way that we’re not entirely sure of and were used in some way to obtain an answer from God about important matters. Although there are several theories about how exactly this worked, the Bible never gives us any specific information but just records Urim and Thummim being authorized by God as a means of receiving guidance from him and being used in that way. Perhaps the closest modern parallel might be flipping a coin in order to determine God’s will—though, again, God explicitly authorized these two stones to be used in this way, which, of course, is not the case today for flipping a coin.

And in our main passage, David uses Urim and Thummim to obtain guidance from God about whether the people of Keilah will surrender him to Saul. And the answer is yes: the people of Keilah will surrender David. News of what Saul had done to Nob had undoubtedly spread throughout the land, so the last thing the people of Keilah wanted to do was get on Saul’s bad side. If Saul had already carried out a massacre on the people of Nob, what was to stop him from doing the same to them?  

After that, verses 13-14 tell us, ¹³ Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the expedition. ¹⁴ And David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hand.

So, God’s hand of blessing continues to be upon David. And I believe that everyone who follows God’s guidance can likewise expect to experience God’s blessing—although it’s important to understand that that blessing may not always come to us in the form we’re expecting. Nevertheless, if we follow God’s guidance and make decisions that glorify him, I do believe we can generally expect God to bless us and provide for all of our needs and take care of us—as we see with David here and throughout the rest of this chapter.

Yet, we might wonder, how exactly do we receive God’s guidance today? After all, I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I have any Urim and Thummim around here [pat pockets]—although I imagine those stones would certainly come in handy with the stock market. So, how then are we supposed to make decisions that please God and that are in line with his will? Well, let me suggest seven principles for making God-honoring decisions. Although we don’t have Urim and Thummim, the Bible does reveal how Christians today can receive guidance from God, and I believe these seven principles are a decent summary of what the Bible teaches. 

The first principle is to pray regularly and specifically for God’s guidance. This is where it all begins. Just as David prays for God’s guidance not only at the beginning of our main passage, but also all throughout the psalms, prayer is absolutely essential for obtaining guidance from God. James 1:5 states, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”

Second, immerse yourself in the Bible. The fact is that God speaks to us today primarily and most reliably in the pages of Scripture. So, if you want to hear from God, read the Bible. Unfortunately, it seems that many people—and even many Christians—tend to make decisions primarily on the basis of their own feelings and intuition. So, if something feels right to them, they assume it must be right. “Follow your heart” is the adage that—either consciously or unconsciously—tends to guide much of their decision-making. Yet, I have to say that “follow your heart” is quite possibly some of the worst advice that’s ever been given. Jeremiah 17:9 states that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick.” So, the last thing we should do when we’re uncertain about something is to follow our heart.

Instead, we should take the heart the words of the psalmist in Psalm 119:105, where he says to God, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Although the Bible doesn’t give us specific instructions about every individual situation we’ll ever face, it does give us general principles that provide sufficient guidance for every situation. This is part of what Paul means when he says in 2 Timothy 3:17 that God’s given us the Bible so that we can be “thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

After that, a third principle is to obey what you already know to do. If you’re facing a particularly complex situation in which you’re not sure what to do or exactly how biblical principles apply to that situation, make sure you’re walking in obedience to everything God has made clear to you in the Bible. I’m really not sure why you’d expect God to give you guidance about a particularly difficult situation if you’re ignoring the clear guidance he’s already given you about another situation.

Several years ago, someone from our church wanted to start another church as a lead church planter and then became upset when I told him he wasn’t spiritually ready to do that at that point. And he actually left the church because of it. However, for some reason, he then came back and asked me whether I’d serve on the board of an organization he desired to start. So, of course, I told him no. And I lovingly explained to him that, if you didn’t follow my advice about your spiritual readiness to start a church, why would I agree to be on the board of your organization so that you can presumably continue disregarding my advice? So, if you desire guidance from God, make sure you’re obeying what he’s already made clear you should be doing.

Next, a fourth principle is to seek to align your heart with God’s heart. One of the prayers I find myself praying a lot is, “God, align my heart with yours”—because I want to be most passionate about what he’s most passionate about. I want to be sensitive to what he’s sensitive to. I want his perspective on things to be my perspective on things. So, I pray, “Align my heart with yours.” And that alignment is fundamental to making decisions that glorify God. If you’re going to make God-honoring decisions, you first need your heart to be in alignment with God’s.

We can see this in our main passage in David’s concern for Keilah. The very fact that David would even be concerned enough about Keilah in the first place to inquire about going there reveals a lot about David’s heart. David knew that God cared about his people. Therefore, David demonstrated care for his fellow Israelites as well—even during a time when David himself was in a desperate situation.

So, what about you? Is the glory of God through the advance of his kingdom foremost in your heart? Is it more important to you than material prosperity, more important than advancing in your career, more important than a life of ease and comfort, and more important than anything else? And is that passion for God’s glory guiding your decisions?

After that, a fifth principle is to consider practical realities. Although these realities aren’t always definitive, they’re often highly relevant in determining whether it’s wise to pursue a particular course of action. For example, if you love playing basketball but you’re only 5 foot 8, you may want to think twice about pursuing a future in the NBA. Now, there are times when God will lead you to do certain things in spite of practical realities. Even in our main passage, we see David following God’s guidance by rescuing the people of Keilah even though—as David’s own men point out—David has plenty of problems of his own to worry about. Likewise, today, God may lead you to do certain things in spite of practical realities. Perhaps he’ll lead you to go overseas as a cross-cultural missionary despite significant challenges. 

However, in the majority of situations, it’s a good idea to employ what I’ll call “sanctified reasoning” and consider what course of action seems to make the most sense given the realities of the situation. You may even want to write out a list of pros and cons and use that to evaluate your options. It’s not unspiritual to consider practical realities.

In addition, principle number six is to seek out godly counsel. Proverbs 11:14 states that “in an abundance of counselors there is safety.” Do you have “an abundance of counselors” in your life? And hopefully not just any counselors but godly counselors who are spiritually mature and who have discernment and who are willing to tell you what they really think even if you might not always like what they have to say. By the way, this is one of the reasons why it’s so important to be involved in a healthy local church and to develop meaningful relationships in the church through Community Groups and other similar contexts.

And finally, a seventh principle is to simply make a decision. Don’t get stuck in the “paralysis of analysis.” There comes a point when you just need to employ the first six principles we’ve discussed as best you can and then simply make a decision and move forward. In his book titled Just Do Something, Kevin DeYoung points out that it’s both unnecessary and often unhealthy for us to be obsessed with trying to discover God’s specific will for each and every decision we make—as if God has a secret will for each decision that he expects us to discover. It’s not like God’s holding up a certain number of fingers behind his back, so to speak, and expects us to guess how many fingers he’s holding up.

Instead, there’s actually quite a bit of freedom for us to make decisions within biblical boundaries. You see, God’s often much more concern about our character and the kind of person we’re becoming than he is about specific decisions we make. This means that, if you’re faithfully employing the first six principles we’ve discussed, there really is an incredible amount of freedom to simply do what you desire to do.

So, just to give one example, when Becky and I were considering moving from Alabama to Pittsburgh in order to start this church, we recognized that that was a pretty big decision. And we were very deliberate, first of all, about praying every day that God would make it clear what we should do and also immersing ourselves in the Bible and trying to identify biblical principles that should guide our decision.

Honestly, identifying these principles was kind of easy. Jesus tells us to “go and make disciples,” and, last I checked, there are plenty of people who are in need of that in Pittsburgh, so that wasn’t difficult at all. And of course, there are also other principles such as the qualifications for being an elder and a biblical church planting methodology that we considered, but those were all pretty straightforward as well.

Becky and I were also obeying everything in the Bible we knew to obey and were seeking to have our hearts brought into alignment with God’s heart and to cultivate a passion for what we knew God is most passionate about—the glory of his name through the advance of his kingdom. Then, of course, we considered practical realities such as our areas of giftedness, our natural temperaments, and our financial situation. And we were also in regular communication with the elders of our local church and following everything they told us about how to proceed.

And then, we just did it. We pulled the trigger and moved to Pittsburgh. We didn’t wait for some special sign that God wanted us to move to Pittsburgh or sit down and try to see if we were feeling a shiver in our liver or randomly open the Bible with our eyes closed and put our finger on a verse and then see what verse our finger had landed on. No, God had already told us in the Bible to seek the advance of the gospel and had given us a desire to come here and hadn’t shown us any way in which this decision was unwise. So…we just did what we desired to do. It’s really quite a liberating approach to making God-honoring decisions. And that’s my advice for you as well. Make sure you’re following the first six principles for making God-honoring decisions, and then, just do what you want—as a person who loves Jesus and wants to see his kingdom advanced.

And returning to our main passage, we likewise see David employing a lot of these principles in the various decisions he makes. Of course, as I mentioned, David’s situation is rather unique in that God does actually give him specific guidance for specific decisions through Urim and Thummim and through other methods not available to us today. However, as I’ve tried to make clear, we nevertheless do have definitive revelation of God’s will in the pages of the Bible and, on the basis of that as our ultimate foundation, are able to make God-honoring decisions.

And one of the things that seems to be emphasized in our main passage is that God blesses those who seek to follow his will. In what we’ve already read, we’ve seen God grant David victory over the Philistines and then prevent David from getting trapped by Saul within the walls of Keilah. Then, in the second half of the chapter, we see God continue to bless David and protect him from Saul. 

In verses 19-20, the people of Ziph tell Saul that David’s hiding in their midst—no doubt because they don’t want what happened to Nob to happen to them. We then read in verses 25-28, ²⁵ And Saul and his men went to seek him. And David was told, so he went down to the rock and lived in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon. ²⁶ Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain. And David was hurrying to get away from Saul. As Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them, ²⁷ a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid against the land.” ²⁸ So Saul returned from pursuing after David and went against the Philistines. Therefore that place was called the Rock of Escape.

So, God rescues David from the hand of Saul yet again. The principle we see—and that we’ve seen repeatedly—is that God rescues those who seek his will and follow his guidance. And the ultimate place in which we see this principle is in the gospel itself. In reality, in our natural condition, all of us are actually in a situation that’s even more dire than the situation David’s in as he flees from Saul. The Bible says we’re dead in our sins and under God’s sentence of condemnation. Sin wasn’t just pursuing us, as Saul was pursuing David. It had completely overtaken us. 

Yet, in his mercy, God saw our wretched situation and sent his own Son Jesus into this world to rescue us from our sin. Jesus did this by living a perfectly sinless life and then voluntarily dying on the cross to pay for our sins. Essentially, Jesus suffered God’s wrath in our place. God’s justice required that sin be punished, but Jesus suffered that punishment on the cross so that God’s justice would be satisfied. Jesus was then raised from the dead and therefore now stands ready to save everyone who puts their trust in him.

Just as, in our main passage, the large rock in the wilderness was named “the Rock of Escape,” Jesus is our Rock of Escape—provided that we put our full trust and confidence in him to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. So, if you haven’t yet put your trust in Jesus, there’s nothing more important or more urgent for you to do. We’ve spent quite a bit of time this morning discussing God’s guidance, but the most important directive God will ever give also happens to be the clearest—and that is how vital it is for us to put our trust in Jesus to rescue us from our sins. So, just like David, if you'll follow God's guidance, you'll experience his rescue.