Loving The Backstabbers: David's Guide To Enemies - 1 Samuel 23:19-24:22 Series

For free audio or video download of this message, visit https://www.treasuringgod.com/sermons-by-scripture or my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@DarrellFerguson.

Introduction

Well, I got mad at the garbage man this week. Lately I have noticed that I have been kind of irritable and easily angered, which is always a symptom of selfishness and pride. The more selfish you are the smaller the thing it takes to irritate you. So I knew things were getting bad when I found myself wanting to get revenge on our garbage man for not taking the extra garbage I put out. I actually thought about calling his boss – even though it would do nothing to take care of my garbage problem. Sometimes God gives you a wakeup call like when you wake up one day and realize, Man, I’m off the deep end of petty selfishness!

Something that minor really should not even register in our hearts as being even worth noticing. But what about offenses that are worth noticing? There are some offences that God wants us to take note of so that they can fulfill their purpose of testing the condition of our hearts. How you respond to an offense is a very accurate gage of your spiritual maturity.

So what is the right way to respond to a malicious attack? What is the godly response? David wrote imprecatory psalms (psalms calling on God to punish his enemies). How do we balance that with Jesus’ command to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us? In today’s passage David is going to give us a crash course on how to love your enemies.

Those back-stabbing Ziphites! 23:19-24:1

We pick up the story in verse 19 of chapter 23. Jonathan has just come to David, helped him find strength in God, and then left.

19 The Ziphites (people from David’s own tribe) went up to Saul at Gibeah and said, "Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hakilah, south of Jeshimon? 20 Now, O king, come down whenever it pleases you to do so, and we will be responsible for handing him over to the king."

So people from David’s own tribe are stabbing him in the back – which makes Saul very happy.

21 Saul replied, "The LORD bless you for your concern for me.

That is just amazing. Saul calls upon God to bless these people for helping him carry out his rebellion against God. (Do not ever think that religious lingo is any sign of a godly heart. There are some very wicked people who know exactly how to sound like a mature Christian in their speech.)

22 Go and make further preparation. Find out where David usually goes and who has seen him there. They tell me he is very crafty.

Literally, “It is told to me that he is crafty crafty.” Today he would say, “He’s just crazy crafty.”

The Ziphites come to Saul and say, “We know right where he is. We are telling you – we have pinpointed the exact hillside. We can take you right to him.” Saul: “You don’t understand who we are dealing with. This guy is crazy smart and crazy slippery. You can’t just spot him on a hill one day and think you’ll get him if you go after him.” And so Saul gives a whole list of instructions. First he says, “Go and make further preparation.” The word there means “establish” – make sure your intel is rock solid.

22 … Find out where he usually goes and who has seen him there.

“Conduct some interviews. Talk to folks in the area so you can get a profile on his patterns. I want to know where he goes in the morning, the afternoon, at night, where he eats, drinks, sleeps. I want to know what his response is when there is a threat – what are his emergency procedures, lines of retreat, where does he hide – I want the names of the people who have seen him - I want to know everything.”

23 Find out about all the hiding places he uses and come back to me with definite information. Then I will go with you; if he is in the area, I will track him down among all the clans of Judah." 24 So they set out and went to Ziph ahead of Saul.

Saul has led the Israelite military for many, many years. He is not just chasing after David like you and I would chase someone. He and his generals are the top experts on this sort of thing in the country. And he is leaving nothing to chance in this operation.

And it works.

24 …Now David and his men were in the Desert of Maon, in the Arabah south of Jeshimon. 25 Saul and his men began the search, and when David was told about it, he went down to the rock and stayed in the Desert of Maon. When Saul heard this, he went into the Desert of Maon in pursuit of David. 26 Saul was going along one side of the mountain, and David and his men were on the other side, hurrying to get away from Saul. As Saul and his forces were closing in on David and his men to capture them,