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Descent
into Fear
Back in the days of the Roman Empire during a circus in the Colosseum, a
Christian was thrown to a hungry lion. As
the spectators cheered, the wild beast pounced.
But the Christian quickly whispered something in the lion's ear and the
beast backed away in terror. After
this happened several times, the emperor sent a centurion to find out what magic
spell could make a ferocious lion cower in fear.
A few minutes later the guard returned and said, "The Christian
whispered in the lion's ear, 'After dinner you'll be required to say a few
words.'" Afraid?
It happens to all of us. This
lesson we will examine one of the boldest characters of the Bible - King David -
and his descent into fear. We do
not normally associate David with fear; indeed,
we have the impression that the heroes of old were bigger and bolder men than
we. This is not so. To cite the one outstanding example, consider Elijah.
Remember his encounter with the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel?
They scream and carry on all day. Finally
(probably tired of the comedy) Elijah produces a display which brings to mind
Leo Durocher's saying, "It ain't bragging if you can do it." Remember the scene?
He builds the altar and cuts the meat himself.
But he gets bystanders to drench the altar in water, not once but three
times. With simple dignity he calls upon the Lord - who answers with
fire from heaven. Now, I think I
would be very confident after that; my
motto would be "fear is something I give other people."
Perhaps it is to prevent such pride that Elijah is treated so meanly.
What is the scorn of an angry queen to a man who can call down fire from
heaven? Yet Elijah runs. And he's not the only example. It seems, therefore,
that fear besets us all, even the greatest of us.
Today we will see David descending into it - the way we do.
Then we will examine his conclusion about it. {5} So David said, "Look, tomorrow is the New Moon
festival, and I am supposed to dine
with the king; but let me go and hide in the field until the evening
of the day after tomorrow. {6} If your father misses me at all, tell him,
'David earnestly asked my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown,
because an annual sacrifice is being made there for his whole clan.' {7}
If he says, 'Very well,' then your servant is safe. But if he loses
his temper, you can be sure that he
is determined to harm me. {8} As for you, show kindness to
your servant, for you have brought him into a covenant with you before
the LORD. If I am guilty, then kill
me yourself! Why hand me over to your father?"
{9} "Never!" Jonathan said. "If I had the least inkling
that my father was determined to harm you, wouldn't I tell you?"
‑‑ 1 Samuel 20:5‑9 (NIV)
Here's a common way
for us to handle our fears. We lie
- and get our friends to help us in it. We
will handle the problem ourselves, and use the weapons of Satan to do it.
A little polite deception (to save our skins, of course) - what could be
wrong with that? Sometimes it's not
the step we take but the path we're on that counts.
David is on the wrong path, and this will become very clear very quickly.
Saul reacts as Saul does; he
very nearly kills Jonathan, his own son, in his rage at David.
David will not trust the Lord, but rather runs away.
In his flight, he advances from a polite white lie to a deliberate
deception of others: {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?" {2} David
answered Ahimelech the priest, "The king charged me with a certain
matter and said to me, 'No one is
to know anything about your mission and your
instructions.' As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain
place. {3} Now then, what do you
have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or
whatever you can find." {4} But the priest answered David, "I
don't have any ordinary bread on
hand; however, there is some consecrated bread
here‑‑provided the men have kept themselves from women."
{5} David replied, "Indeed
women have been kept from us, as usual whenever I set out. The men's
things are holy even on missions that are not holy. How much more so
today!" {6} So the priest gave
him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread
there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before
the LORD and replaced by hot bread
on the day it was taken away. {7} Now one of
Saul's servants was there that day, detained before the LORD; he was Doeg
the Edomite, Saul's head shepherd.
{8} David asked Ahimelech, "Don't you have a spear or a sword here? I haven't brought my sword or any other
weapon, because the king's business
was urgent." {9} The priest replied, "The sword of Goliath
the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here; it is
wrapped in a cloth behind the
ephod. If you want it, take it; there is no sword here
but that one." David said, "There is none like it; give it to
me." ‑‑ 1 Samuel 21:1‑9 (NIV) Ultimately this
deception will cost the lives of the priest and almost all his family.
Ahimilech instantly senses that something is wrong, but David does not
confide in him. Instead, he lies
blatantly. I wonder how much in
terror this priest was (see verse 1). By
his intimidation, David involves the priest in the deception.
One lie leads to another, and now David is now completely set upon his
course. David now relies on
the weapons of the world. He is so
nervous, perhaps, that he has forgotten his sword - or perhaps it is locked up
in Saul's palace. How delighted he
must have been to discover Goliath's sword (fat lot of good it did Goliath!).
That sword was made of iron, where Israelite swords were copper or brass
or bronze. David now places his
trust in Satan's methods - and discovers that there is no security there.
He flees to Gath - home of Saul's (and Israel's) enemies - to King Achish.
Thinking that Achish will surely grant him sanctuary (on the well know
principle of caring for your enemy's enemies), he applies for asylum.
But the men of the world know the men of the world - and they don't trust
them: {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?"
‑‑ 1 Samuel 21:10‑15 (NIV) As Hosea puts it,
"They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind." (Hosea 8:7) David
has stooped to the point of drooling in his beard and acting like a lunatic.
This comes from a man after God's own heart? There is a method
here. It is not often thought of,
but usually recognized, that there is a difference between a conclusion of
laziness and a conclusion of thoughtfulness, even when those two conclusions are
the same. If I hand my children a
compass and straight edge, and ask them to find a way to trisect an angle, I
will likely get the answer (in ten minutes or less), "It can't be
done." If I take the same
problem to a professor of mathematics, I will get the answer: "It can't be done."
Same answer; but the second
time I believe it. I might not
follow the proof on the blackboard, but I believe the answer. David is our math
professor. He has been down the
road of lying to escape his fears, and he knows where it leads.
Isn't it funny that the deepest lessons in our lives come from making
mistakes? The things we do right
don't teach us much (nor make too good a story to tell) but our mistakes speak
volumes (and often, so do we.) David's
road now leads him to the cave of Adullam.
In that dark place, in the lonely hours of the night, David's heart turns
toward his Lord. He reasons and
repents, and his conclusions are put into Psalms.
The result is Psalm 34. The
psalm itself is an acrostic - the poetic equivalent of cross-stitch. Each verse begins with the next letter in the Hebrew
alphabet. It is likely that David
did this to make the psalm easier to memorize.
Here it is: {34:1} Of David. When he pretended to be insane before
Abimelech, who drove him away, and
he left. I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will
always be on my lips. {2} My soul will boast in the LORD; let the
afflicted hear and rejoice. {3}
Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name
together. {4} I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from
all my fears. {5} Those who look to
him are radiant; their faces are never covered
with shame. {6} This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved
him out of all his troubles. {7}
The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear
him, and he delivers them. {8} Taste and see that the LORD is good;
blessed is the man who takes refuge
in him. {9} Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those
who fear him lack nothing. {10} The lions may grow weak and hungry, but
those who seek the LORD lack no
good thing. {11} Come, my children, listen to me; I
will teach you the fear of the LORD. {12} Whoever of you loves life and
desires to see many good days, {13} keep your tongue from evil and your
lips from speaking lies. {14} Turn
from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
{15} The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and his ears are attentive
to their cry; {16} the face of the
LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off
the memory of them from the earth. {17} The righteous cry out, and the
LORD hears them; he delivers them
from all their troubles. {18} The LORD is close
to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. {19} A
righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them
all; {20} he protects all his
bones, not one of them will be broken. {21} Evil will
slay the wicked; the foes of the righteous will be condemned. {22} The
LORD redeems his servants; no one
will be condemned who takes refuge in him.
‑‑ Psalms 34 (NIV) David now gives us
his prescription for dealing with fear. "Here's
what I should have done." (Verses 1-3) "I
should have been praising the Lord." If we continue to publicly commit ourselves to God (and
encourage others to do it with us) we most naturally are less likely to abandon
Him in need. More than that,
however, we remind ourselves just who
is in control. "Men need not
so much to be taught as to be reminded." (Verses 4-5)
Lip service is not enough. We
must actively seek Him. No
recitation of formula prayer will be effective;
our lives must be headed His way. (Verses 6-8)
Memory must be brought up. We
must remember all the other times that God has delivered us (and David had
plenty). A single instance may be
discounted, but a lifetime of experience should not be ignored. (Verses 9-11) A most
unpopular thought this: fear the
Lord. It is well for us to know who
can tempt us into hell - and who will throw us there. (Luke 12:5) But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after
the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell
you, fear him. Indeed, this is so important that David tells us not only to
fear Him, but pass it on to your children. (Verses 12-14)
David now gets to the root of why he's in this cave.
He's been lying to duck his problems.
Stop lying and do it right the first time.
Courage is not the absence of fear but its conquest by love. (Verses 15-18)
You can hear his assurance: God
does hear the cry of the righteous. So
be righteous - and cry out. (Verses 19-20)
We are never assured of an easy, trouble free life as Christians.
Indeed, just the opposite is promised.
We are also assured that we will be delivered;
we shall triumph. (Verses 21-22)
What goes around, comes around. The
wicked get what's coming to them - usually from the rest of the wicked.
Not so the righteous; they are the prize of the Lord. The experience
impressed David so much that he wrote two other Psalms in that cave (Psalms 57
and 142). David did acrostics;
I can manage but one letter. Perhaps
this will make the conquest of your fears easier to memorize: Psalm
34 Recite His praise (vs. 1-3) Radiant faces seek Him (vs. 4-5) Remember His blessings (vs. 6-8) Recall the fear of the Lord (vs. 9-11) Refrain from lies (vs 12-14) Righteously cry out to God (vs. 15-18) Refuge is in the Lord (vs 19-20) Redeemed are His servants (vs 21-22) |
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