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Episode 510: In this episode, the hosts discuss David's challenging situation as he is on the run from King Saul. Despite the hardships and uncertainties David faces in the wilderness, he finds support in his loyal friend Jonathan and his mighty men. The episode emphasizes the significance of investing in godly relationships and being a supportive friend in times of need. They draw parallels between David's faith in God's promises and the importance of trusting in God's faithfulness in our own lives, especially during times of waiting and uncertainty.
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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. I'm Chris. Let's get to it. Chris. This is a big day. And he's Jeff, I guess, and he's in a hurry. So as the Jeff of the show, Yes, I'm going to push it forward because it's Friday and as such, and you know we are all dying to discover, Yes, what made Chris mad this week? Well? I have one? Really, Yes, we didn't see that coming. I didn't even have to think for a second. Well, you wonder why this is a segment, and it's because when we ask what made Chris mad this week ago? Oh, I know, I've got one. Two days ago, I was so angry. Here's what happens. So, Okay, this was actually tragic and this has nothing to do with why I was mad at all. Okay, Okay, So what I'm about to tell you is not what made me mad. Okay. We were traveling from you know, Michigan, Detroit, Michigan, down to Canton, Ohio to do this video shoot at the Pro Football Hall of Fame and we get delayed two and a half We sat in traffic two and a half hours because there was a tragedy. There was a car tracking trailer, a big car accident. People actually lost their lives, and so we were in this uh literally I put in park and we sat in the truck for two and a half hours. Well just in park. People were left. Their cars that were walking along the freeway and it was not that was a turnpike. So and so then nowhere else you're stuck right. Right, because you know, if you're on the freeway, people can like make their way to the next exit. But there was no exit, so there was like it was like fourteen miles between two exits or something like that. Something crazy. So anyway, that's not what made me mad. Here's what made me mad is that the GPS, the GPS could have done a better job and because of that, I could have avoided all of it. Oh so you made it the GPS. Correct, Okay, yes, bring it, because I'm on your team. Now, Okay, here's what happens. So we're traveling and if you've ever traveled the turnpike across Ohio, it pretty much like slices Ohio. Like right at the top, right, it pretty much runs as a straight line from Toledo all the way through Youngstown. Right, you know, it comes comes zippity zooe, you know, do that. It's just it's one straight line. There's no there's no quicker way across Ohio. Right. So, uh so we're here, we are traveling on this, you know, on this, on this turnpike, and all of a sudden the thing reroutes and it shows, it says, it says, no, take this route. And it has me, I'm not even kidding listening to this. It has me. Leaving the turnpike and going all the way up to Sandusky in the tippity top of the tippity parts of like those little islands. It has me going that way right, and then like and then like going through all these back roads and then zooming down of some freeway or something, and then finally emerging, you know, somewhere you know, closer to like Akron or something. Right, and I'm thinking to myself, what is happening? And it says you're gonna lose twenty one minutes. It says twenty minutes, twenty one minutes lower But here's what it didn't do. What it didn't do is it didn't tell me why you would think of modern technology. It could have said, just show red, show something, right, but it doesn't. Everything's blue. What were you using? I was using Apple Maps? Apple Maps really yes, wow? But however Wesley turned on Google Maps and it didn't show it. It didn't show ready either, didn't show red. Wow, because they're tracking your phones everybody. That's how they know what. They have track phones on Apple Maps. Too, yeah, I know, and they it didn't show that it was read. It didn't show red. Wow. You should have been using Ways. So maybe Ways, maybe that would have worked. But you know, but it shows blue and then it shows this other blue and it says, oh, take this one twenty one minutes lower. Well, who's going to take that one? Right? And I'm like, I'm like, why is it doing this? And we kept on asking. And so here's what I should have done. I should have literally pulled over, because knowing that I was on the turnpike, hindsight being twenty twenty, I should have pulled over and said, let's examine, let's analyze truly before we make this mistake of committing to this fourteen hours, fourteen miles stretch between exits, right, But I didn't. I was like, this is so goofy. We're traveling. I'm like, look at this thing. And I just passed everything until finally we So, Apple Maps tried. To warn you and you refused it. It didn't and now you're mad. I tried to give me an absurd suggestion without telling me. Why was it wrong? The suggestion? Yes? No, no, but it was not communicating. Tried to it just didn't write right. The robot didn't communicate in your love language, and you couldn't hear. How about pertinent information? How about essential reasons? Why? Yeah? So? Does? Does? Do you have the serie talk out loud to you on your maps? I can? And what kind of voice do you use? The normal one? Yeah, the typical one is the normal the lady? Yeah, the lady. Yeah. So my wife got a hold of Ways and she recorded her voice over Ways. Yes, so now it's always my wife here. You go, have a pleasant drive. Oh what happened? Took it off? I say that thing that sound like BONDI to me? Is it it did? That'd be weird. Here we go, let's see if it doesn't now. Yeah, anyways, but but I've heard her. I've heard her give you instructions on that, and she was such a surprise. She even yells at you too, right, yeah, yeah, it'll be like like if if I miss my turn, she'll go, oh, brother, turn around, that's so funny. So anyway, so I just think with modern technology the way that it is, the Apple Maps could have done something. What turn right, Yeah, that's so good. Make a U turn, that's so good. Yeah. So now my wife gets to tell me what to do everywhere I go. That's right. You can't escape her. That's right, you can't escape. So then the yeah, so then if if if that had happened to me and it told me to go another way and I did and do it, I couldn't come home and complain because she tried to warn me, right right, Well, I got to tell you. I just think with a modern technology, they should have done something other than saying, hey, I have an idea, lose twenty one minutes for no reason all. And both of them are blue, they're both they both look like they're going to work, but take the longer route. You would do that. That's true with with it being red or blue instead of red. It just hadn't updated yet on that thing, correct, but it was updating that. Hey, you probably are going to want. This, yes, yeah, and so in hindsight I would have taken twenty one minute loss versus. A two and a half hour loss. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. It was pretty rough man. Okay, so that's what made you mad this week? Yes, I'm mad. Do you need to call somebody you want to? I want to straighten this out. But I'm really hoping is that somebody will forward this episode to the leader of Apple Maps. Okay, so if you know him, could you or her send it? Just send it, send it and say, hey, there's got to be a way where you can inform us why we're being diverted. Yes, please, yes, okay, maybe, man. We thank you Chris on behalf of all the rest of us that you're irate for. We cannot thank you enough for the sacrifices you make for the rest of us. On behalf of everybody in that line, that's right, that was with me. Thank you, Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Welcome, You're welcome, buddy. Okay, well we are we are In First Samuel chapter twenty three lots has happened, but it's all the same kind of stuff. David goes out, has victories. Saul starts getting freaked out. He decides he's going to kill David. David has to go hide, then David. Then Saul apologizes, come back David. All these things. But at the same time, David is starting to kind of rally the troops. Some of these really tough guys start coming towards him to him at this time. And so there's David is a great leader of Saul's army, but he also kind of has a special forces group, David's mighty men, six hundred of them. And so here's what it says, or in our first Samuel, chapter twenty three, verse thirteen, it says, so David and his men, about six hundred them, now left Kila and began roaming the countryside. Words soon reached saw that David had escaped, so he didn't go after Quila or go to Quila after all. David now stayed in the strongholds of the wilderness and in the hill country of Ziff. Saul hunted him day after day, but God didn't tell let Saul find him. Oh, I'm having troubles today. One day near Horash, David received the news that Saul was on the way to Zif to search for him and kill him. Jonathan went to find David and encouraged him to stay strong in his faith in God. Don't be afraid, Jonathan reassured him, My father will never find you. You're going to be king of Israel, and I will be next to you, as my father saw is well aware. So the two of them renewed their solemn pact before the Lord. Then Jonathan returned home, while David stayed in Horash. But now the men of Zif went to Saul in Ghibea and betrayed David to him. We know where David is hiding, they said. He's in the strongholds of Horace, in the hill of Aquilah. Yeah, sure, sure, which is in the southern part. Jesshamon, Oh, okay, come down whenever you're ready, o King, and we will catch him and hand him over to you. The Lord bless you. Saul said, at last, someonet is concerned about me. Go and check again to be sure of where he's staying and who has seen him there, For I know that he's been very crafty. Discover his hiding places and come back when you're sure, and then I'll go with you, and if he's in the area at all, I'll track him down, even if I have to search every hiding place in Judah. So the men of Ziph returned home ahead of Saul. Meanwhile, Dave and his men had moved into the wilderness of Maeon in the Araba Valley south of Jeshamon. When David heard that Saal and his men were searching for him, he went even further into the wilderness, to the Great Rock, and he remained there in the wilderness of Maeon, but Saul kept after him. In the wilderness, Saul and David were now on opposite sides of a mountain, and just as Sal and as men began to close in on David and his men, an urgent message reached Saul that the Philistines were raiding Israel again, so Saul quit chasing David returned to fight the Philistines. Ever since that time, the place where David was camped has been called the Rock of Escape. David then went to live in the strongholds of Bengetti. Well, so it's really an entire half a chapter about David running yeah, and he has good support from great men. Yep, He's got six hundred of them who are loyal to him. He still has the favor of the people, he still has the favor of the nation, quite honestly, but Saul has the power. Saul's gotten to the point where he's passed. He's dropping all pretenses. He is. Unashamedly you know, hunting him now, right, So it's not like he's pretending to wrestle with Oh, play music for me. No, I'm going to try to kill you. Oh, I'm so sorry. I've repented, which, by the way, he did, he repented several times. I try I'm trying to kill you and I don't know why. I'm so jealous. Come be my friend again. So it says the King play you know, all that stuff, and it actually says that poor David. Actually we skipped over it, but poor David had actually had to retreat to one of the philistine hometowns of gaff You remember that, and he acted crazy, remember that. That's a great one. Yeah, And we skipped over that. But like David, actually, uh, I was so afraid of Sault that he had to run to one of the towns of the Philistines of his enemies. And now we know it's a town of his enemies, because we literally just read that a couple of days ago in the Bible, guys, where it said that, remember they said when Goliath was killed, they ran as far as the city of Gath, remember that, and and they and you know, the bodies fell all the way to Gath. Well, this is where David ran. And then it actually says that while he was there trying to hide, and by the way, props to him that we would ever expect to look for him there, right, But it says while he was there, the king of that region noticed that that was David and actually said, isn't this the man when they say Saul was killed, killed in his thousands and David killed in his ten thousands, isn't that him? And it says when David heard this, he became afraid, and then he started acting like a madman. And it says he started scratching the door, and he started acting like this crazy person. Himself. And then and then to where the king just said, Hey, I've got enough mad men here. I don't want another mad man. Get rid of him, get him out of here, right, and he's not going to execute a mad man. It wasn't fun. No, it stopped being fun when like this guy's nuts, right, And. But but you know, I mean, think about all David had gone through. How humiliating are all of those things? And then it said he went to the cave of Adullum. And then and now he's in the wilderness. So there was a place where he actually had had hidden in the cave. God did this great work in the cave. He actually wrote another psalm while he was in the cave. We skipped over that, and then and then all of a sudden, he's back in the wilderness and we're. About to see that. God does this miraculous thing saying that's gonna be on Monday. In the Bible, guys, God does this miraculous thing. You know, you don't want to miss Monday. You don't want to miss Monday. So it's right around the corner. But isn't that true that so many of us we can't see what's around the corner, and so we don't know if it's going to be Monday, or we don't know if it's going to be next year, because we're still in the wilderness. When you find yourself in the wilderness. You know, it's tempting to think that God's not there, that God doesn't see, that God gave up. But God still sees you. God still loves you, God still knows you. And believe me, God is still working behind the scenes. And that's exactly what he's doing in the life of David. And guess what, that's exactly what he's doing in your life as well. He's not forgotten you and he's with you always. There's two big things that David did, and I think he was really wise in doing them. One, he pulled a bunch of support around him. He has these six hundred Special Forces guys. These are the elite of the elite. David's mighty men wind up coming out of this group. But he has some great fighters and so he pulled some resources around him to help him. That's one. The other one is he has a great friend in Jonathan, Right, so Jonathan is Saul's son. But Jonathan to see the writing on the wall and was like, hey, God has his hand on David. David's going to be king and I'm going to support him. My dad is walking away from God, which means I'm going to lose. I'm not gonna be king. But David is walking with God and support him. And they made a promise. They made a pack then no matter what happened to either of them, the other would take care of the other one's family, right, And they kind of they made this promise. Eventually David fulfills that, which is really incredible. But Jonathan, they encourage each other in each other's faith, not just in hey, it's going to be okay, and I'm on your side, but they're building each other's faith. They pray for each other. They encourage one another to be strong in your faith. And this may have been the last time that Jonathan was with David. He and you know, so there's this kind of a sweetness to the friendship. And you know, I think it's one of those those things that as Christians, it's why it's so important for you to invest in having a godly group of people around you. It's not for the easy times. Quite honestly, a bunch of friends when things are good sometimes can just get in the way. Man, You're busy, you got to be out another night. You're investing, right, you're cultivating this friendship. It's when things get bad, that you need this army around you when things get bad is when you need a friend like Jonathan who sticks closer than a brother. Right, that you need these things. You invest in relationships for the times when you need a safety net around you, when you need some help. And so you choose to be that person for others when they're in their trouble, and then when you need one, God's going to bring those people back to you. And that's what he did. I think there's so much wisdom in investing in those kind of godly relationships. Yeah, and that's what carried him through. He's not alone in his struggles. Yeah right, Yeah. And you know we read I think it was yesterday and yesterday or the day first podcast where we talked about uh it said Jonathan loved David as much as he loved himself. What a description and and and uh and I know that I have to say this because I know there are hundreds of listeners, uh listening to this and they've probably heard uh. You know, people try to take this example and make the relationship something perverted, like like something that it wasn't right. And yet and yet these are the same words that Jesus used for all of us to say, the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your hearts, on mind, strength. And then the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. That's what he's doing. He's he's loving Jonathan, or Jonathan loves David like like, uh, my best buddy Jeff. Who lives in Ohio. When we get off the phone, we say, a man, love you, right, and so we're expressing this friendship that's closer than a brother and uh and then and and that's that's the friend that David has in Jonathan. And then when he says I'm going to be beside you, that doesn't mean in the relationship capacity. It means in the traditional capacity when when he says, hey, you're the king, and I'll be beside you. I'll be your prime minister of your chamberlain. Because every time in the scripture when we talk about thrones and kingship and positions, it talks about the person who sits on the right hand side of the king is the second most powerful person in the world. Right, which is why Jesus sits on the right hand side of God the Father, which is, which is the reason why James and John came to Jesus and said, let me sit one on your right and one on your left. You know the best positions in the Bible. Where you sat was you know, it mattered, and so think about the if you think about it in that respect, think about how awesome that phrase was. You know, for Saul to be hunting David, very jealous, saying my regime doesn't support your regime. And then for the son of that king, who by the way, was first in line, he was the king, he says, no, no, my regime will support your regime. I believe that you are anointed by God to be the next king of Israel. I don't agree with my father. I agree with you. You're my friend. I love you closer more than I do a brother, and I will support you, and I will be at your side, supporting you. And this is what's going to happen. Don't be afraid. Saul's never going to find you. My Dad's never going to find you. God's with you. And I'm telling you there couldn't be a better support system for David than Jonathan. You know, the Bible, says Solomon says in proverbs, a man that has friends must first be friendly, right, I don't know that David, in his whirlwind fame, he went from being a kid playing a harp out in the backside of some little valley somewhere and fighting fighting lions to protect his dad's sheep to the superstar in Israel just that fast, and he's playing in front of the king. He becomes the commander of one of the main armies. He's out fighting battles for Philistine's I don't know that he had the margin in his life to pursue a really strong friendship. It's very clear in this entire thing that Jonathan is the one that is saying Jonathan initiates the friendship. Jonathan's one that keeps coming to David. David doesn't go to Jonathan. Jonathan keeps coming to David when David's out hiding somewhere. Jonathan keeps coming and finding him, showing up when David needed the most, Right, Yeah, well that's what's recorded. Yeah, so there's something about that that, you know, friendship isn't just about what you can get. Sometimes people talk about how lonely they feel and that if they just had some friends, But what I see is Jonathan is pursuing David's friendship. Jonathan's saying, I'm going to be there when you need me. I'm going to show up when you need me. I'm the one that's going to make the promise to your family. I'm the one that's going to abdicate my my privileged positions so that you can be elevated. I'm gonna put you first, and I'm willing to be second, right, Jonathan is. That is the embodiment of Solomon's writing who Solomon is David's son, right, saying a man that has friends must first be friendly. He's choosing to make David his friend. That's what he's doing. And you can't force friendships. Obviously, God bound their hearts together, the Bible says, right, So that's there. But David was not. David didn't have the ability to come back into town and say, hey, dude, you want to go out to dinner, you want to go catch a movie, you want to play some ball? Right, Instead, Jonathan comes out and finds David in the cave. Jonathan comes out and finds David Hyde in a valley that right, he comes looking for him. He's showing up when David needed him, and so instead of wishing we had a friend, let's go be the friend. And it's amazing you have a lot of friends when you choose to be the friend, when you choose to do what friends do rather than just waiting for a friend to come to you. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So you know, there's a couple of sermons in here, and I think the important thing is is that I think the overall to me the messages, David has absolutely no idea what's going to happen next, and so we sort of already sort of covered the fact that you don't know what's around the corner for us. It's Monday on the Bible, guys, we don't know how many days, right, But and then and then we've also said we've talked about his support system with Jonathan. I think another thing that's really important is is. That God still gave. David the promise that one day he would be king, and he's not king yet, right, and so that that's not in this chapter, but it's it's something that is over David's life. David, as I think, in my opinion, there's evidence that shows his great faith and I have to believe that his great faith is anchored into the fact that he believes God has great things in store for him when he is king. So that you know, we don't have promises like that for us. Chances our God didn't show up and send a prophet, so wh. Annoyed you King with oil? But maybe not for you, maybe not well next to you. But God has given us promises. Right God, we can trust all of God's promises for our lives. And when we when we go through a wilderness moment and we have it, you know, we have a tendency to you know, forget that God is going to be faithful. Just remember God is. Always going to be with you and He's going to. Fulfill every promise. Hey, if God says be faithful and it doesn't look like that's going to turn out, well, just be faithful anyway because you don't know what's going to happen on Monday. Right, God is going to be with you. Trust God's promises and in this case we're going to see that it works out great for David, And yes, it serves as an example for us today. David would have never known that his experience in the wilderness would be talked about and we are so inspired, and we look to it. Thousands of years later, his misery served as an example for us to continue with our pa. God's allowing him to wait. God's building his character here. God's allowing him to wait. And I think a lot of times waiting for people who know that they have an opportunity ahead of them, for gifted people, for people who are just they see this thing and they want to get started, and they want to get to it. It can be very, very difficult to wait. But it's interesting. David's in his twenties now, maybe bumping up on thirty. He's going to be king for what forty five years or some crazy thing, right, He's going to be king for a long time. I just was talking to a young guy and I said, do you understand this opportunity you're waiting for? Just wait? Just wait. If God gives you a twenty five year ministry, that's already longer than your whole life, your whole life, you can wait another month or another year. If God is gonna say, hey, there's some other character I want to build into you. There's other experiences I want to Hey there. I just was in a meeting of the day and somebody. It was a very very very very delicate meeting could have blown up six different ways. When we got done, everybody's hugging each other, shaking hands. The email afterwards was so positive. Everything worked out great. So one of the young leaders come to me and goes, Dude, that was like a masterclass. I would have ruined that, And I said, I've seen it before, right, Sometimes just experience will help guide you through a dangerous mindfield. You can't get experience except with time. You have to wait to get the experience right. You have to lean into those things. And so sometimes God saying, hey, there's a little bit more experience I want you to have before I release you into this thing. There's a little bit more information you need before I release you into this thing. There's a little bit just wait, just do what's next to go and take that next step, Go down that next valley, hide in that next cave, go lead your people, recruit your team, develop these relationships, learn how to lead well, all those things, and then God's gonna And then David had a much longer rain than this little window of time. He's running from Saul, right, and it's okay, right to wait and not force God's hand, or try to force God's hand. I think if David had forced it prior to this, I think things would have been a mess. Instead, he steps into a very long time and. That's a good segue for the cliffhanger for on Monday. That's exactly where I was going. So yeah, that's great. O. Hey, we'll pick up then and you'll have to tune in to find out what happens next because that is exactly the topic of Monday's podcast. Thankstunities, thanks for tuning in on the Bible. Guys,