Dear congregation, I would invite you to turn in the Scriptures to 1 Samuel, Chapter 21. 1 Samuel, Chapter 21, as we continue our series through the book of Samuel. We have now made our way to 1 Samuel 21, which compared to the last chapter is considerably shorter, but it is in its own way very beautiful and very significant for us, even as New Testament Christians. 1 Samuel chapter 21. We'll read the whole chapter, 15 verses. Let us start at verse 1. Hear the word of the Lord. It says, Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came trembling to meet David, and said to him, Why are you alone, and no one with you? David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king has commissioned me with a matter and has said to me, let no one know anything about the matter on which I am sending you, and with which I have commissioned you, and I have directed the young men to a certain place. Now therefore, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found.' The priest answered David and said, there is no ordinary bread on hand. But there is consecrated bread, if only the young men have kept themselves pure, kept themselves from women. David answered the priest and said to him, Surely women have been kept from us, as previously when I set out, and the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was an ordinary journey. How much more than today will their vessels be holy? So the priest gave him consecrated bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the presence. which was removed from before the Lord in order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away. Now, one of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord, and his name was Doeg, the Edomite, the chief of Saul's shepherds. David said to Ahimelech, now is there not a spear or a sword on hand? For I brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me because the king's matter was urgent. The priest said, the sword of Goliath, the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is wrapped in a cloth behind the Ifed. If you would take it for yourself, take it. for there is no other except it here. And David said, there is none like it. Give it to me. And David arose and fled that day from Saul and went to Akish, king of Gath. But the servants of Akish said to him, is this not David, the king of the land? Did they not sing of this one as they danced, saying, Saul has slain his thousands and David is ten thousands? David took these words to heart and greatly feared Akish, king of Gath. So he disguised his sanity before them and acted insanely in their hands and scribbled on the doors of the gate and let his saliva run down into his beard. Then Akish said to his servants, behold, you see the man behaving as a madman. Why do you bring him to me? Do I lack madmen that you have brought this one to act the madman in my presence? Shall this one come into my house? The wrasse withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever. Let us pray and ask God's help. Our God and our Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning having read your holy and inspired word. We pray that as we consider this text, that you would guide us and counsel us by your Holy Spirit, that he would illumine the eyes of our hearts, as the Apostle Paul writes. We pray that you would also grant unto me the unction of your Spirit, whereby I might faithfully and boldly proclaim the meaning of this text. Pray that you would indeed be with me, your sinful and unworthy servant, this clay vessel. that all the power and all the glory would go unto you, and that we, your people, we, your people, would be fed and edified. It's in the name of Christ we pray. Amen. Beloved of Christ, this morning we really enter into a new section of the book of 1 Samuel. David is now a fugitive, and he will be for quite a while now. He's on the run. He's in exile. And since he is on the run, he is going to have some needs. Since he's not able to go home, since he's a fugitive, he has to plan for some very basic, some very important necessities. And these really form the three main points this morning, that he goes on a quest for food, for a weapon, for a home. Those are the three main points this morning. And he has to do it not only for himself, but as we see in the text, there are going to be young men who are with him, that are going to follow him. There are going to sort of be bodyguards that are going to be men that fight alongside him, that support him. So David and his men here are now hunted by Saul and they're seeking to leave the country. And they're not sure right now where exactly to run. It is most fitting that the first place that David runs to is the tabernacle, is God himself. This isn't the main point of the sermon this morning, but I feel that it is worth noting. The Church is a house of prayer, and God is a God who listens to the cries of His children. And it should always be that we are in prayer, but most especially when we are vexed and perplexed. It should be our first response to go to the Lord, to seek help from Him, in the ways that he avails himself to us. Boys and girls, I would want to emphasize this to you most especially. That this would be a reflex, as it were. That when you're concerned, when something happens that you didn't expect, when something difficult, when something hard comes your way, seek God in prayer. Ask God for his providence. Ask that he would take care of you and provide for you. But regardless, That wasn't really the main point of the sermon, but it was most fitting and a very important application to make, I feel. Regardless, though, as we make our way through this text, we are going to be focusing on David and what it is that he quests for. And as David is really a type of Christ, this really, in many ways, parallels with the life of Christ, the ministry of Christ. You see, Christ also quested for certain things. Christ also quested, as we will see, for food, for a weapon, and for a home. First, we consider the quest for food. And this is what we really see and is really emphasized to us in the first seven verses of this chapter. First sub-point here, David requests food. That's a no-brainer, that's fairly obvious. David requests food. You see, David is on the run, and he is going to have these men with him, running. And as a result, they're going to be hungry, if they're not hungry already. Assuming that he's left Gibeah, and he's made his way to Nob, that's about five miles or so. So this is still fairly early in his journey, but walking five miles is no small thing, especially out in the sun, in the land of Israel, the rocky terrain. He's going to be hungry. And he's going to be even more hungry as he makes his way out of the country. Because as we see later on in the chapter, he makes his way to the Philistine city of Gath. And this is about 23 miles as the crow flies from Nob. And again, they're going to be in the sun. They're going to be dealing with this rocky terrain. And so what are they going to need for this journey? They're going to need food. They're going to need to be sustained. They're going to need to be cared for. They're going to need energy. And so what happens? He goes to the priest, asks the priest, says to the priest, you know, give me five loaves or whatever it is that you may have on hand. And then we get to the matter, the interesting matter, the important matter of the showbread. This is no ordinary bread. The showbread is sometimes called the bread of the presence. And there were a lot of different laws and different commands behind this bread. in the law, in the book of Leviticus. It's mentioned a little bit in the book of Exodus. Essentially what it is, is it's an offering given to the Lord. There's 12 loaves on the table in the holy place, given, offered to the Lord. And it was meant to be a symbol of the Lord's providence for the 12 tribes of Israel. And it was something that only the priests were allowed to eat. That's something that's mentioned in the law, that the priests may eat it. But we never read about anyone else being allowed to eat it. But even so, even though that's the case, even though that is unquestionably the tradition and the command, what we see is David going to Ahimelech and saying to Ahimelech, we need bread. And Ahimelech says, we don't have ordinary bread, but there is the bread of the presence. There is the showbread and he gives it to them. And it's shocking. It's surprising because not only do we read in the book of Leviticus that only the priests are the ones that are permitted to eat it. Christ goes so far in the gospel so as to say that it is not lawful for David or his men to eat this bread. He explicitly tells us that. And so we might be tempted to ask the question, how is it that Ahimelech can give this bread to David and his men? It isn't lawful for them. It isn't something that the law says you can do and Christ says it is unlawful explicitly. How could he give that bread? But this is the wrong question. The question should be for us, How could he not give this bread? Christ made it clear again and again and again in the Gospels that the law was never intended to be a straitjacket, to limit your ability to love your neighbor. That's never what it was about. And so how strange it would be if you could not give this bread, which symbolized the Lord's providential acts, how strange it would be if you could not give this bread to actually provide for someone that needed bread. To actually provide for David's need. How ironic that would be! Yeah, David, we have this bread of the presence that symbolizes how the Lord provided for us in the wilderness, how he provided for the 12 tribes, but we can't use this bread to provide for you. You see how that just, that doesn't jive. It's not meant to be a straitjacket. It's not meant to be something that disables you from caring for your neighbor. No, as Christ tells us, the weightier matters of the law are love and mercy and justice for the oppressed. In other words, if the law prevents you from loving your neighbor, then you don't understand the law. Christ challenged the legalism of the Pharisees again and again who were forbidding healing on the Sabbath. Who were forbidding the collecting of mere food from the heads of grain on the Sabbath. I mention this to emphasize that God here shows us his heart and his aim. The goal is not legalism. It's not rules for rules sake. No, God desires to provide for and deliver those who ask for deliverance and salvation. Those who come to him in faith asking that he would provide for them. This is why it was okay for David to request and accept the food that was the showbread. But we would miss a key point this morning if we did not tie this to Christ. David is seeking to lead, to love, and to protect, and to provide for his men, those who will follow him in this new life, in this fugitive life. We know that they're going to have to be on the run, and they're going to be exhausted. They're going to need food. But David, in and of himself, is unable to just provide for food. David is limited. David has to go and he has to ask for food. He has to ask from the priests. And in a sense, he has to ask from God. David knows that the way is going to be difficult. He knows that the way is going to be long. Not only is he going to be going to Gath, but he's probably going to be going from place to place to place to place for an unknown amount of time. He knows it's not going to be easy. He knows they're going to be in the hot sun and the rocky terrain. David and his men are going to be unable to run from Saul if they're not sustained by food. And so they need this provision. We understand this. We understand how we can be physically exhausted and therefore need more sustenance. You know, the leaves are changing colors. They're starting to fall and they're going to fall in greater quantities here before we know it. And what does that mean? That means we have to start raking our yards. And that means that we got to start getting them into piles and putting them on tarps and take them to the front of the house or wherever it is that we put the leaves. When you're done with all of that, sometimes you get a little more hungry than ordinary. You have a little more food on your plate at dinnertime. Because you're so physically exhausted, the appetite increases because you have to replace all the calories that you burned. Can you understand this? to be on the run, to be exhausted in the heat of the sun, to be trying to flee from the king of the nation that you are a member of, it's going to be exhausting work. And David must go and ask, he must request for this food and receive it from the Lord. But the son of David, the greater David, is different. Christ, who is our David. He is our captain. He is our king. He is the one who leads us, not through a fugitive life, but through a pilgrim life, which at times isn't much different. He leads us on our journey home to that celestial city as John Bunyan sort of illustrated it. And this journey at times, as we all know from experience, is long. It can be hard. The way of Christ, the way of a disciple of Christ, is not an easy one. Again, this is something we know. And Christ, as our compassionate Savior, knows this. And so He is, in every way, like David. He quests for food for us. And the awesome thing about Christ, the awesome thing about the Son of David is that he is unlike David. He can and he does provide food. Christ gives food. That's the second sub-point there. He doesn't have to request it. He gives it. Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us to pray, give us this day our daily bread. And this is partly physical bread, but we must understand this is also spiritual bread as well. What heavenly bread, most especially that heavenly bread that sustains us on this journey, the Word of God, for as it tells us in the scriptures, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. The idea being that the Word of God is our bread, is our daily bread. And what is it that the Word of God tells us about? It tells us about Christ. Describing Christ to us as the heavenly bread. The beautiful thing is that Christ gives us not just his Word, he gives us himself. He gives us himself, body and soul. Christ gave his life on the cross. Christ endured the consequence that was ours. And what is more, he rose again from the dead. He reigns forever. And he nourishes us by sending us preachers to preach the Word of God to us. He gives us the gift of the sacraments. He gives us the gift of the Lord's Supper. where we partake of the bread and wine. And as the Belgic Confession of Faith says, what we eat is Christ's natural body. What we drink is Christ's shed blood. David needed the priest to provide food for him and for his men. But Christ's love for us is so great that he gave himself for us. He gave his word, he gave his body, he gave his blood. He gave all for us so that we would not faint as we follow him on this pilgrim road to our heavenly home. David's quest for food was successful, but greater still was Christ's quest for food. What a great success that was. David received food that sustained his physical life. From Christ, we receive heavenly bread that sustains our spiritual life. And Christ's quests do not end there. We see also that he quests for a weapon in verses 8 and 9. In verses 8 and 9. These are the verses that I read throughout this week. And as I was preparing for the sermon, this was the section that kind of just stuck out to me and I thought was in some ways kind of odd. I didn't expect to see this. You know, if you were reading about somebody going to a tabernacle, you wouldn't expect someone to go to a tabernacle or a temple or a church and ask for a weapon. But that's what we find happening here. David is concerned not only with food and bread. That isn't the only quest. He's left Gibeah. He's left in haste. He has no weapon. He has no spear. He has no knife. He has no sword. And you may wonder, well, why? Why does that matter? So what? Why does he need that? To be sure, he's not about to start a revolt or a revolution in Israel. He's not about to start a civil war. But David will need weapons to defend himself. As he journeys through the land of Israel, as he journeys through the land of Philistia, there likely are highwaymen, robbers, bandits. He needs a weapon to defend himself. David will indeed, we will find, go out to battle for the benefit of Israel at times, even while he's on the run. And if he's going to do these things, he needs a weapon. And so he speaks to the priest. Again, this is So surprising, so ironic. He speaks to the priest and he asks, is there not a spear or a sword on hand? It's so interesting that he asks a priest of all people this question. You know, no one's ever come to me and asked me, hey, do you have a spear? Do you have a sword? Do you by chance have a gun, pastor? No one's ever asked me that question. Surprise, surprise. But here we see God's providence. We see God's wisdom and how the Lord provides for David. What is David told? There's no weapon here except for the sword of Goliath, that giant that you destroyed in the Valley of Elah. It is a weapon of the enemy. And as he hears that, David says, there is no one like it. Give it to me. This is a unique weapon. It is a powerful weapon. This is a weapon that David had used before, as you might recall. After David had struck Goliath with his sling, after the stone had sunk into his forehead, as the text tells us, he uses the sword of Goliath to cut off his head, to finish him off. And so, with the taking of this weapon, David is armed for earthly warfare. That's the first sub-point there. He's armed for earthly warfare. And there's a bit of poetry to this. There's a bit of poetry behind using this weapon, of all weapons, He's using the sword of the enemy to destroy the enemy. In two chapters, for instance, we'll see that David will go and attack the Philistines at Keilah. It's ironic that David would use the sword of Goliath, the Philistine, to strike down Philistines. A sword designed to destroy Israel, a sword designed to enslave Israel. Because you have to remember, that battle in the Valley of Elah, what was it that was at stake? If the champion, Goliath, beat the champion in Israel, Israel was to be enslaved to the Philistines. And so the weapon was designed to enslave the Israelites. But here we see that same sword being turned around to defend and deliver the Israelites. How ironic. And how poetic. And dear congregation, this is the sort of irony, this is the sort of use of the enemy's weapon against the enemy, that it's not unique to David. Consider how Christ is armed for spiritual warfare. That's the second sub-point of the second Roman numeral there. Christ is armed for spiritual warfare. For what reason does the Father send the Son? For what reason does the Father send Jesus? Why is it that Christ comes into the world? Well, we read in 1 John 3, verse 8, that the Son of God appeared for this reason. What reason? To destroy the works of the devil. You see, it was the devil who instigated Adam and Eve to sin that first sin. And thus our race, our entire race, was corrupted by sin. The consequence for sin is death. For as the Lord said in the book of Genesis, in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. It's interesting, the Hebrew there says literally, in eating it, dying, you shall die. You see, as soon as you eat that fruit, this is what starts to happen. You start to die. And you will surely die. You see, in one sense, death is instantaneous. But in another sense, it's gradual. Death eats away at us. Our bodies slowly erode and break down. And because of death, sometimes fear and anxiety come upon us and cause us to do all manner of awful things. Death has become a key weapon for the devil. And the body, in a sense, is another key weapon that the devil uses against us, using its hankerings, its desires, its passions against us. But here's the ironic thing now. What was it that Christ took upon himself? He took the enemy's weapon, didn't he? He took our flesh. He is indeed, as we prayed this morning, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. And in that flesh, what is it that he endured? What is it that he experienced? He underwent death, another weapon of the enemy. The ancient fathers, in seeing this, in noting this, they beautifully described the cross as a sort of fishhook. What does that mean? Well, you see, the Lord took on this human nature. He took on our human flesh. Then he was fixed upon the cross. And the devil excitedly sought to put Christ to death. And his thought was that by putting Christ to death, he would thwart the plan of God in delivering his people from death. Because he would have thought that if I destroy the deliverer with death, well then life can never come from the deliverer. And so, Satan was delighted. He excitedly rushed towards the idea of a cross as the fish excitedly rushes towards the hook that has a worm upon it. But the fish and the devil become deceived. What they thought was actually good for them ends up being their own undoing. Because of Christ's death, because of him taking the consequence of sin, death, he undoes, he destroys, in the words of John, he destroys the works of the devil. He makes a way of escape. No longer is man necessarily condemned to eternal death. But if man believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, if he rests in Him, as we said earlier this morning, he receives eternal life. And therefore, death is no longer a source of fear or anxiety. It's now a weapon against the devil. Because now, now death, it doesn't condemn them. Death is now something that is used to bring Christians to their home. to bring them back to Christ. How wise Christ is in taking the enemy's weapon and using it against him. So we have seen now the quest for food, the quest for a weapon, and now there's one final quest that we read in this text. It's the quest for a home. David, in verses 10 through 15 now, leaves Nob, and he sets off for King Achish, who is the king of the city of Gath. And again, there's just irony here. Gath is one of those five major Philistine cities, and it is the hometown of, guess who? Goliath. And what is it that David has on his back? It's Goliath's sword. He has to leave Israel. He goes to Philistine, their nearby neighbor, and perhaps he thought to himself, well, they will be glad to have Saul's chief lieutenant. Perhaps they will give me cover. Perhaps they will give me some protection. They will give me some sort of home. But what is it that the Philistines say? Is this not David, who is the king of the land? That's not what David was expecting. Is this not the one that they have sung about, saying that Saul has killed his thousands, but David has killed his ten thousands? Needless to say, as it says in the text, David takes this to heart and he begins to fear. They don't think I'm Saul's chief lieutenant. They think I'm the king of the land and I'm carrying Goliath's sword. How do you think they're going to treat me? And so what does he do? He feigns madness. There's an ironic thing going on here. Here is David, who everybody knows, even the Philistines know, is the king. Here's a king without a city. Here's a king without a kingdom. Here's a king without a palace. Here's a king without a home. David is homeless. David, in order to protect his life, acts as a madman. David is homeless. That's the first sub-point there. And though David and even the Philistines know that David is the true king, David doesn't demand it. He doesn't grasp at it. He waits for God's timing. And so what we find is that David is successful with food. He's successful with his quest to search for a weapon, but he doesn't really have a home. He waits for God's timing. He follows after God's providence. He endures homelessness and he fakes insanity, waiting on the Lord, trusting in him. But beloved of Christ, Jesus Christ is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is David's son and he is David's Lord. And his kingdom is the kingdom of heaven, his palace is the city of God, his court is the heavenly court. There's no king more deserving than him to have all power, all joy, all luxury. There's no king more deserving to at least have a home. Even so, What do we read in the Gospels? Christ is homeless. That's the second and final sub-point. Christ is homeless. As we read in the Gospel, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. He's not welcome in his own hometown. He's not welcome in his own creation. Some of his own family don't even believe in him at first. But he endures it all. Because he knows that before he can be the victorious king, he must be the suffering servant. And so he endures it all. He endures homelessness in order to accomplish his quest for a home. Not a home for himself, but a home for all those that believe in him. He endures homelessness in order that we would have a place in heaven with him for all eternity. Dear congregation, Christ endured all of these things for all those that believe in Him. Yes, if you have faith in Christ, He has quested for food for you and He has granted you heavenly bread and living water. He has fought the devil with His own weapon and bested him. And He has experienced homelessness, comfortlessness for you in order to successfully grant unto you a heavenly and eternal home. to have intimate and sweet communion with God forevermore. If you believe in Christ, all these things are yours, not by works, but by faith, trust, rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. And dear listener, if you do not believe in him, then these things unfortunately don't apply to you, but they may yet be. They could also be for you if you would but believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and trust that he is the only one able to forgive you of your sin and grant unto you eternal life. Look to Christ because where else is it that you will find food for eternal life? Look to Christ because who is it? Who else could you possibly go to who will best the devil? Who else would endure homelessness in order to grant you a home like Christ has? Therefore, believe in Christ who has successfully accomplished all of these quests and calls you, therefore, to believe in him. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let us pray. Our God and our Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning and we thank you so much for the Scriptures. We thank you so much for your Word. We thank you so much for Christ and how he has successfully quested for all of these things and granted us all that we need for eternal life, for godliness. We thank you for Christ who grants us himself, who gave us himself on the cross so that we might receive life, that we might receive the spiritual nourishment that we need. We thank you for Christ who quested for a weapon, who received the weapon and used the weapon of our body and even used the weapon of death to overcome death and to overcome the devil. And we thank you for Christ who quested for a home, not for himself, but for us. And therefore, in order to earn that home, in order to make it for us, he endured homelessness. We pray that our eyes would be therefore upon Christ that we would trust in him, have faith in him, that we would purge and throw out all other idle gods in our hearts, and that we would look to him alone, that we would seek to be nourished by him on our journey home on this pilgrim way to the celestial city. Father, we pray that you would press these things upon our hearts, give us a good and restful afternoon, prepare us to worship you yet again this evening. And God, we thank you also for the opportunity that we have to give unto you. We pray that you would bless our offering. The scriptures say unto us, worthy is the lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. And if indeed he is worthy of all these things, how much more is he worthy of our gifts? We pray that we would give back what you have indeed truly given to us. That all glory would go unto you. and that we would seek to wisely steward all that you have entrusted us with. Father, we pray that you'd watch over us on our homeward way and bring us back here safely this evening. It's in the name of Christ we pray. Amen. Dear congregation, in response let us turn in our blue