I Samuel 25:40-26

“The Evil Of Compromise” • 12.11.07 • Autonomy, Authority And The Man Of God, Session ^#14

Intro.

- After Nabal’s death at the hands of God, David, inherited all of Nabal’s estate.

- We find David marrying both Abigail and a woman from Jezreel named Ahinoam.

- Polygamy was culturally accepted, but not God’s ideal and not permitted for a future king.

- This lack of submission will cause David many problems in the future with his family.

- It was hardly a honeymoon time though, as David was again forced into hiding by Saul’s men in the wilderness of Ziph.

- The Ziphites had already given David up back in chapter 24 and they do so again here in chapter 26.

- David sent out men to confirm the nature of Saul’s mission, remembering the Saul had publicly recanted. It did not take long to establish that Saul had no intention of honoring his word.

- When night had fallen David and Abishai went down to the encampment.

• I Samuel 26:7,8 : “So David and Abishai came to the people by night; and there Saul lay sleeping within the camp, with his spear stuck in the ground by his head. And Abner and the people lay all around him. Then Abishai said to David, ‘God has delivered your enemy into your hand this day. Now therefore, please, let me strike him at once with the spear, right to the earth; and I will not have to strike him a second time!’”

- David is back right in the same mental space as before and again responds correctly.

• I Samuel 26:9-11 : “But David said to Abishai, ‘Do not destroy him; for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed, and be guiltless?’ David said furthermore, ‘As the Lord lives, the Lord shall strike him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall go out to battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed. But please, take now the spear and the jug of water that are by his head, and let us go.’”

- David moved to a safe distance and called out to Saul again, pleading his case, and Saul again, publicly confesses his error.

• I Samuel 26:21 : “Then Saul said, ‘I have sinned. Return, my son David. For I will harm you no more, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Indeed I have played the fool and erred exceedingly.’”

- The words again are right, but Saul’s heart will not be turned from his error and wickedness.

• I Samuel 26:25 : “Then Saul said to David, ‘May you be blessed, my son David! You shall both do great things and also still prevail.’ So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place.”

- God has again protected David and thwarted Saul’s attempt to destroy him. This should have put a great deal of confidence in the heart of David, but what we see next is the opposite.

• I Samuel 27:1,2 : “And David said in his heart, ‘Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me anymore in any part of Israel. So I shall escape out of his hand.’ Then David arose and went over with the six hundred men who were with him to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath.”

- David’s clever plan works, as Saul learns where David has gone and decides to seek him no more, but what David did not account for was the secret life he would have to lead.

- He is given Ziklag and is allowed to remain there, but in that 16 month period of time, he has to watch his steps very carefully.

• I Samuel 27:11,12 : “David would save neither man nor woman alive, to bring news to Gath, saying, ‘Lest they should inform on us, saying, 'Thus David did.' And thus was his behavior all the time he dwelt in the country of the Philistines. So Achish believed David, saying, ‘He has made his people Israel utterly abhor him; therefore he will be my servant forever.’”

- This arrangement works for a while, but it sets up a thorny situation for David.

• I Samuel 28:1,2 : “Now it happened in those days that the Philistines gathered their armies together for war, to fight with Israel. And Achish said to David, ‘You assuredly know that you will go out with me to battle, you and your men.’ So David said to Achish, ‘Surely you know what your servant can do.’ And Achish said to David, ‘Therefore I will make you one of my chief guardians forever.’”

- The story here is simply the story of a man whose heart is slowly turning to trust in himself.

- It’s a process that could be easily deemed “compromise.”

I. Culturally (25:42,43)

II. Spiritually (27:1-3)

III. Physically (28:1,2)

Text

I. Culturally (25:42,43)

• I Samuel 25:42,43 : “David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and so both of them were his wives. But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was from Gallim.”

- It seems that no matter how you cut this, David compromised culturally by committing himself to two women, at the very least, in principle.

- In fact, this is just the beginning of David’s commitment to many wives. By II Samuel 2, he has 6 children by 6 different women! Solomon, the 7^th son, would come by yet another wife!

- As we look back over the Old Testament, polygamy was something that was accepted and practiced as early as Genesis 4, when it was reported that Lamech had 2 wives.

- Later, Solomon will have a commitment to multiple wives.

- God’s in His law makes provision for how to live with one wife, or with multiple wives in Deuteronomy 21:15-17. God’s people accepted and practiced this, therefore God’s law covers this situation.

- Now, that being the case, for a King the multiplication of wives was expressly forbidden.

• Deuteronomy 17:14-17 : “When you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,’ you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall not return that way again.’ Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away;”

- David ignored his own destiny and made cultural acceptance his law.

- Many things are culturally accepted, but cultural conformity is never to be our standard.

- It is culturally acceptable to lie when it’s to our benefit, inflate price quotes, and take advantage of people’s ignorance. The world would just say, “That’s good business!”

- It is culturally acceptable to live together outside of marriage, have casual sexual relationships, and abort the consequences. The world would say, “That’s just a normal relationship.”

- The temptation is to say as a Christian, “When in Rome, act like a Roman!” God says, “No, not if your mine!”

- Remember that when the law was written, the people had not entered the promised land. They wandered, but were aware of what was going on in the land and with the people of Canaan.

- God anticipating that there would be imitation, strictly deals with that attitude specifically.

• Leviticus 18:3,4 : “According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances. ‘You shall observe My judgments and keep My ordinances, to walk in them: I am the Lord your God.”

- Let us remember that in this evil world, we are never justified in taking the cultural way out!

- Our standard must always be the Word of God.

II. Spiritually (27:1-3)

• I Samuel 27:1-3 : “And David said in his heart, ‘Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me anymore in any part of Israel. So I shall escape out of his hand.’ Then David arose and went over with the six hundred men who were with him to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. So David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s widow.” : This is fascinating to me.

- David has stepped out of bounds with this culturally accepted practice of polygamy.

- God does not condone it, but He allows David to walk down this road.

- What is the first consequence? David loses his confidence in the Lord.

- Look at this attitude and let’s put it together. Prior to this, David had watched the Lord deliver him out of the hand of Saul twice.

- Now there is fear in David’s heart. I wonder if his attitude came about as he watched these women that he was now responsible for, lose their composure.

- I imagine at least one of these ladies saying, “Just how long do you think that God will keep delivering you from Saul?” It’s conjecture on my part, but I can’t help but think that this must have contributed to David’s new attitude.

- Notice also that this is what David reasoned in his own heart. This was his imagination and his solution to his perceived problem.

˚ “Always be afraid of being afraid. Failing faith means failing strength. Do not regard despondency as merely a loss of joy, view it as draining away your spiritual life. Struggle against it, for it often happens that when faith ebbs sin comes to the flood. He who does not comfortably trust God will soon seek after comfort somewhere else.” Charles Spurgeon

- I see this all the time. David reasons about his dilemma, refusing to bring it to the Lord and asking His counsel.

- Soon, he analyzes it and sees one outcome. “Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul.” There is certainty in David’s mind. This will happen, there can be no other outcome other than his death at Saul’s hand.

- There is no mention of God’s hand protecting him, no inclusion at all of God’s intervening hand! As a result, the proposed solution is also godless. “There is nothing better than for me to…”

- This is nothing less than spiritual compromise, when we compromise our spiritual values by inserting our own fleshly reasoning and solutions.

- When faced with this type of dilemma, we must first trust the Lord and place His involvement right in the middle of our situation.

III. Physically (28:1,2)

• I Samuel 28:1,2 : “Now it happened in those days that the Philistines gathered their armies together for war, to fight with Israel. And Achish said to David, ‘You assuredly know that you will go out with me to battle, you and your men.’ And David said to Achish, ‘Surely you know what your servant can do.’ And Achish said to David, ‘Therefore I will make you one of my chief guardians forever.’” : Who would have believed me if I said that at the end of this story, David would be lining up with the Philistines, his national enemy, against his own people who he would be King over!?

- Yet, that is exactly where we find him. He’s on the wrong side, teaming himself, partnering with the Philistine commander Achish!

- Imagine David’s heart, as the inevitable plays out. Achish is convinced that David is for real and David, already fully, physically compromised says, “You know me!”

- Outwardly David is smiling and carrying on, but inwardly David is furiously trying to rack his brain in order to figure out what he is going to do!

- Achish, taking David’s word for it adds that he will make David one of his right hand men.

- In this position, David is rendered utterly useless to the cause of the Lord.

- He is standing alongside his enemies and is leading his 600 men into the same error.

- David’s fall began with a cultural compromise, which led to a spiritual compromise, which has now led to his physical compromise.

- Every story that begins with compromise, ends with the believer compromised, rendered ineffective and helpless because of the mess they had made for themselves.

- Abraham, compromising his trust in the Lord, asked his wife to lie about her relationship to him. She did, and ended up in the court of Abimilech. This happened twice.

- Lot, compromising the value of a godly environment, chose to live in godless Sodom and Gomorrah. In the end, he was so ineffective that his own family thought he was joking when he warned them of the impending judgment.

- Jacob, compromising the decree of the Lord, chose to take the fast track to the blessing that was promised him, deceiving his brother, which led to a life of fear and isolation.

- I could go on and leave Genesis, but that could take hours! The truth and the point is that compromise in our spiritual walks, in even the smallest measure brings calamitous results each and every time.

Conclusion

- Today, compromise will tell you that the slight deviation from God’s plan will not matter in the long run.

- But consider this: One degree of difference will change your course dramatically over the long haul. Will you want to be where you end up then?

- I am sure that David will tell you that he could never have imagined where his compromise would take him!