Caves and Palaces

Introduction

Three times each year we invite a gospel preacher to come among us to stir us up with good lessons, themes that may bring to our remembrance things that we have studied in the past but maybe need to be reminded. Sometimes this teaches lessons that we just haven’t focused on in quite a while. We invite men though who we believe are certainly mature in the faith, who’ve spent hours, years in fact, in the study of God’s Word. Men who have a reputation of being an outstanding teacher of God’s Word. And such is the case for us this week. We’ve invited Brother Curtis Pope to be with us. He’s been with us some years past. In fact, I had to look it up how long ago it had been.

It’s the year two thousand and two. And for some of you, we’re not even here at that time. But those of us who do remember, we remember with great joy the kind of lessons Brother Curtis brought to us.

From from the work at Florida College, he moved to Houston, Texas, where he worked with the Kleinwood church there for some ten years. And then the last two years, he’s in Bowling Green, Kentucky, working with the West Side Church at Bowling Green. He is announced for the series having a better relationship with God. I hope every Christian wants to have a better relationship with the Lord. If you were here at the 9 o’clock hour, you know already you’ve heard a great lesson based on 1 Kings chapter 13, in which which he titled Lessons Learned Too Late. We need to learn the lessons without making it too late in our life. If you didn’t hear that lesson, I hope you’ll get a copy of it. It’s well worth your hearing.

And for this hour, the topic he has announced is called Caves and Palaces. We welcome Brother Curtis Pope.

First Samuel the 24th chapter. As we talked about this morning in our uh theme of having a better relationship with God, we emphasize in the first lesson the importance of obeying the Lord’s instructions to make sure that we look and see what he has told us to do and to do our best to try to follow those instructions to the letter, to the very best of our ability. I want to talk this hour about the importance of uh bad times, of even suffering in the uh efforts that we make to try to please God and to do his will. Because sometimes we look upon suffering as being a completely bad thing, but yet there are benefits that can come from that that I think are important for us to consider.

1. David, a Fugitive in a Cave

I want to begin by looking at two incidents in the life of David, and then by making a comparison, make some applications that hopefully will be able to let us see the point that I’m trying to illustrate here, and that I think is a good biblical illustration of something necessary for us to have a better relationship with God. In the 24th chapter of 1 Samuel, we see David on the run. David has been someone who has been chosen to be king after Saul has proven himself to be unfaithful. He on one occasion assumed the priestly office. On another occasion, when given instructions to utterly destroy the Amalekites, he brings back the best of the flocks and the herds and saves King Agag, and that doesn’t please God because it was not consistent with his instructions.

In fact, his disobedience seems to go even further than what it might appear. Some people have said, well, you know, he just saved King Agag. Later on, we see David having to fight the Amalekites. So we’re talking about a situation where even though we see Samuel killing Agag, he apparently kills a band of the Amalekites and considers the task completed, and it wasn’t completed as far as God was concerned. Saul, however, in the midst of this situation in which he’s been rejected, has been supplanted by David, who God picks as a man after his own heart. David’s younger than you would have expected. He is the youngest son of a man named Jesse in Bethlehem. And even though we see his older brothers looking more like kings, you remember it were told when David was chosen that man looks after the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.

And in David, he saw a man after God’s own heart. He shows his bravery and his faith in God in the situation where he fights against Goliath, not with armor, not with great strength. In fact, he’s still a youth. And Goliath is described as having been a warrior from his youth. A man who, if we can understand ancient measurements at all, would have been nine feet nine inches tall. And yet when David challenges him, we see David taking round stones from the from the dry riverbed there that stood there in the valley of Elah between the two armies. And there he prepares his sling that he had used as a shepherd. And when the battle finally is joined, we find David slinging a stone at Goliath that hits him in the head, drops him, and then David goes and cuts off his head with Goliath’s own sword because he’s he’s forgotten to bring one.

And the victory is God’s. And as the women in Israel had sung about Saul’s victories, now they say that Saul is slain his thousands and David is ten thousand. David became a member of the household of Saul by being given his daughter. He had been promised an older daughter by winning the battle against Goliath, but she had been given to another man, and he decides that he wants a younger daughter named Michael. Saul, even at this early point, tries to kill David by saying that he wants a dowry that would have involved killing a lot of Philistines. He wants so many foreskins from the Philistines, and that is the product of circumcision. So either David has to try to persuade a lot of Philistines to be circumcised or kill them and take that from their dead bodies, which is exactly what Saul has in mind.

But David provides the dowry and is given Michael as his wife. But even in spite of the fact of being in Saul’s own personal bodyguard and being in his own family.

Take his life. And finally, David even has to flee to the wilderness of Judea and to the area to the far south in the Negev region of Palestine, so that he might be able to save his life. There are certain men that gather around David and serve as kind of the beginnings of a small army that will be important for him for the rest of his life. But yet, even under those circumstances, he winds up being on the run from Saul, who finally has dropped all pretense and is very openly trying to kill David, who he realizes will succeed him and therefore completely displace his dynasty. In chapter 24, it tells us about an incident during that time when David, for through no fault of his own, is a is a fugitive from justice, as far as Saul is concerned.

It says in verse 1 of chapter 24. Now, when Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, Behold, David is in the wilderness of Ain Geti. And Saul took 3,000 chosen men from all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the rocks of the wild goats.

It flows year round and it uh forms a pool there not far from the Dead Sea that probably wouldn’t be but about waist deep. And then it flows in a very small stream. In fact, uh a stream I could jump over in most places. And as you can tell, I don’t have a whole lot of lift. Uh uh, but it flows on out into the Dead Sea. The problem with Aingeti is, as I mentioned, it’s a box canyon. It is a place that is opened out toward the Dead Sea, but there are cliffs with caves in them. It and uh it is boxed off on three particular sides. The caves continue even over the uh top of this box canyon into the area around Ain Geti.

And so when David is reported to be in Angeti, Saul thinks, I’ve got him, because I can put men surrounding this box canyon, and he’ll not be able to get out except by way of the Dead Sea, and I can have men there that can ambush him. So he takes three thousand of his chosen men, and they go to seek David and his men in front of the rocks of the wild goats. Angeti just means uh spring or fountain of the goats. Uh Angeti actually sounds much more exotic, doesn’t it? The you know, goats, goat, goat spraying, you know, if it was in if it was in Kentucky, that’s what they’d call it. So it sounds much better to call it Ain Getty than goat springs.

But uh uh we see it is in the area of the wild goats because of the the same goats that would live there that it’s named after, the spring is given the name for the whole area, and it’s translated for us in verse 2. Now he came to the sheepfolds on the way, and there was a cave. And Saul went in to relieve himself. So it tells us here that Saul had gone into this cave while he was chasing David. It uses an expression in the original language there that lets us know that Saul had gone in this cave to use the bathroom, and to use the bathroom in such a way that would take minutes rather than seconds. So Saul is very vulnerable. In fact, all of us, I guess, are probably as vulnerable in the restroom as we are in any situation.

If somebody were to try to break in your house and you were in the bathroom taking a bath, you would probably feel much more vulnerable than you would when you heard somebody breaking into your house, and you were there with an opened uh an open gun safe right in front of you. So all of us are in an awkward situation. Here, he is king, has gone inside this cave for very personal reasons, and it just happens to be the cave where it says David and his men were sitting in the inner recesses of the cave. Now, to most people they would look upon this as a god send. Because here you have David who’s having to flee from Saul. Saul comes with 3,000 men that outnumbered David and his men, and of all the places Saul isolates himself.

He isolates himself in the very cave where David and his men are in the deeper sections of the cave, and therefore they have the advantage over him. Now the men of David said to him, Behold, this is the day of which the Lord has said to you, Behold, I’m about to give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good to you. And David arose and cut off the edge of Saul’s robe secretly. I don’t know whether he had taken off his armor and taken off his robe and stung it on a put it on a stalagmite or what. I don’t know. But it was probably perhaps not on his person, but at least close enough that David can sneak up and cut it off of just the edge of his garment while Saul is thinking about other things.

So he came to his men and said, Far be it from me, because of the Lord that I should do this thing, to my Lord, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the Lord’s anointed. And David persuaded his men with these words, and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. And Saul arose, left the cave, and went on his way. Here you see a situation in which the men of David think he’s gone crazy. Because here is your chance to make your life easy. Saul has made your life miserable. You now have the opportunity so that you can kill him and just completely solve this problem of yours, but you’re feeling guilty because you cut off the edge of his robe.

You think that you’ve been disrespectful to him in that way, and in fact, you’ve talked us out of killing him. So the time passes when David could do anything, but Saul then gets up, goes on his way, and David’s problem continues to exist. The beauty of this story, though, is it is one of the stories that lets me understand very clearly how David was a man after God’s own heart. He’s not looking out for his own best political or military advantage here. He’s looking at what God would want. And here, instead of killing Saul, he feels guilty that he’s even shown the disrespect to cut off the edge of his robe. And he talks his men out of killing Saul when Saul is at his most vulnerable.

2. David Living in the Palace

What a powerful statement about a man who’s much more concerned about what God thinks and what God wants than what would perhaps be in his own military and political best interest. Now there’s another narrative that we have about David, in which we see him, I think much less a man after God’s own heart. In the 11th chapter of 2 Samuel, years have gone by. Saul is dead, killed at the Battle of Mount Gilboah along with Jonathan. And after a brief civil war against the surviving son of Saul, Ishbosheth, David is announced to be king over all of Israel. And he is basically put his enemies to flight all around him. As we see, those enemies that have been such a problem during the judges and during the time of Saul have all been put to flight.

In fact, the Ammonites who have hired mercenaries from Aram have been defeated, and they are now besieged in their city of Rabathamon. In fact, Amon is still the capital of Jordan, and this is where this siege is taking place. But it tells us in 2 Samuel 11, beginning in verse 1, then it happened in the spring at the time when kings go out to battle that David sent Joab, his servant with him in all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. So uncharacteristic of David when the kings go out to war to stay in town and just send his generals out to engage in this battle.

And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. City of David’s section of Jerusalem that existed at this time is one that you can still go and see, and it is a hogback ridge. I expect no one in Israel calls it a hogback ridge. But if you are from Kentucky or Tennessee or Missouri or Arkansas or any place, you know what a hogback ridge is. It’s got a ridge along the top of it, and it will go for a ways. This one in particular goes from the height up below the Mount Moriah section where David had placed a tent for the Ark of the Covenant, and it works its way down on all sides and even toward the south toward Anrogal.

So, in the place where David’s palace would have been, it would have been, you could have looked up toward Mount Moriah where he has placed the tent and where the tabernacle will one day be, the temple will one day be built, and look down upon all of his city. And from this height, you could basically see the rooftop of virtually everyone in the city of David. And it tells us that evening when he’s out walking on his roof. You probably don’t walk on your roof very often, but in dry country, a flat roof can make an awful lot of sense. And in fact, it can be a place where you can pick up some cool evening breezes. He walked on the roof and he saw a woman bathing.

Now, I don’t fault him for seeing what was obvious. Now don’t imagine that Bath Sheba is out there in the bathtub on a roof. I expect she’s probably giving herself a cloth bath. She may not be quite as uh modest as she should have been, but I don’t expect that she’s completely naked either. I think she’s probably uh just giving herself a cloth bath on the roof. David sees her. Can’t fault him for seeing her. Men will notice what women look like. God has made us to like the way women look. The difference is that we see him not only seeing her, but he looks at her and notices that she’s very beautiful. Now there’s a difference in seeing something and looking at something. And that’s David’s problem right here.

I know I’ve over the years I have watched my wife sometimes when situations happen. I remember one time there was a there was a woman who was coming to meet us, and I never put the center of my eyes on her. I simply saw her in my peripheral vision. She was wearing, I think what you call a speedo. It’s one of these things that’s that’s tighter than your skin, you know, because you can sit down in your skin. I’m not sure you can sit down in these. But uh she was riding a bicycle, and it was coming toward us. Having seen her in my peripheral vision, I kept my vision straight ahead. And she was coming to meet us on the side of the road. I’m driving, my wife is sitting right next to me, and just as the woman comes by, my wife goes and looks and sees what I’m doing.

But see, I’m doing what I’m supposed to do. Because I do it, I’m, I’m, I’m looking straight ahead. I’m trying to, I saw, but I didn’t look. I tried to keep my eyes on the prize of the road straight ahead of me. And not look at something that I ought not to have looked at. I remember one time I was at um when I was teaching at Florida College. We went to a play there. And there was a dress that a girl in the play was wearing. And to this day I’m not exactly sure what was wrong with it. It was long enough, it was high enough, it was not particularly tight, it was flowing, but there was still something wrong with it. Because it it kind of clung to her body, I guess, is what it was enough, to where it was probably much more revealing than it should have been.

We were watching the play, came up, intermission. First thing my wife asked is, what do you think about that dress? And I go, uh what dress. And she goes, You know what dress I’m talking about. I knew what dress she was talking about. Men will notice how women look. But let me tell you what godly men do. Godly men, if they were in David’s situation, they go back in the house. Godly men, when they see something, they turn their face away. Godly men, when they see something that’s going to serve as a temptation to them, take themselves out of the picture so it doesn’t serve as a temptation to them. And here you have a man after God’s own heart, not only seeing, but looking, and noticing that she’s beautiful.

But you notice there’s a lot of red lights that David runs in this particular story. David sent and inquired about the woman.

Oh, that’s bad. Try to find out who this gal is. And one said, Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? You know, one of his personal bodyguard, one of the 30 that are talked about later on in the account that’s described here. Some people have thought that he may have even been one of the ones who were in the cave with David years before. And let me tell you, there are womanizers that don’t go after their friends’ wives. But here we see David sent messengers and took her. When she came to him, he lay with her. And when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house.

You know the rest of the story. How that David tried to cover his sin because Uriah hadn’t been home enough to make it appear that he was the Father. So David sends for Uriah and suggests some R and R for him. But he keeps his baggage there at David’s gates. And when challenged about it by David himself, he says, My Lord Joab and the men of Israel and Judah are there camped before Rabash. Shall I go to my wife?

Plan B. David decides to get him drunk. And let me tell you, drunk, Uriah the Hittite has more integrity than David does sober in this particular story. So plan C. Knowing the sterling character of Uriah the Hittite, David writes Uriah’s own death warrant in his hand, sends it by Uriah the Hittite to Joab, and in the heat of the battle there below the walls of Rabbah. They’re told to withdraw from Uriah the Hittite, so he’ll be killed by the arms of the Ammonites. It happens that way. David marries the widow of Uriah. And after all, as far as kings of the Middle East in that day and that time, that would have been pretty standard operating procedure. You remember though, sometime later, Nathan, the prophet comes to David and tells him the most pitiful story you’ve ever heard.

Story about a man who lived next to a rich man, but he only had one little ewe lamb. And it was more of a pet to him than just a piece of livestock. It says it sat in his bosom, drank from his cup. I’ll tell you, it’ll be a it’ll be a very interesting day, the day that I drank after a sheep. But we see this is the story told. But one day the rich man has company, and instead of taking from his own flocks and herds, he apparently calls in a debt and takes the man’s one you lamb and butchers it for his company. David is so angry, he says, the man needs to pay fourfold. That was the price for stealing. And Uriah points at David and says, You are the man.

3. Living in a Cave or a Palace

You’re the one who’s done this. God has given you everything, and if that had not been enough, he’d have given you even more. And here, in spite of the fact that you have multiple wives, you take Uriah’s only wife, and you take his life. Because of you, the enemies of the Lord have been given occasion to blaspheme. Now tell me, in that story, do you see David as a man after God’s own heart? I don’t. But let me tell you something that’s a little interesting about this story. In one, he’s a fugitive in a cave. And we see him in all of his glory serving God and putting his trust and confidence in God and his efforts into doing right. And he’s living in the palace in the second story.

Everything is going his way, and he forgets about God and does exactly what any other Middle Eastern king would have done at that time, ones who didn’t even care anything about God.

It’s easy to see which one shows him a man after God’s own heart. Now let me ask you a question. Would you rather be living in a cave or a palace? Rather have the palace. Would you rather be undergoing good times or bad times? David was undergoing bad times when he shows himself to be a man after God’s own heart. But when he’s undergoing some of the best times he ever had during his kingdom, what does he do? He makes himself someone who gives occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. I think sometimes in our life we get things all turned around and reversed into thinking that good times that we want are always best for us. And that’s not true. Sometimes bad times, sometimes difficulties, sometimes struggles can be those things that bring out greater faith in us and greater faithfulness.

You remember the first chapter of the book of James. It emphasizes the idea of trials that Christians sometimes find themselves in. And James, without even much introduction, says, beginning in verse 2 of chapter 1. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Americans have undergone some difficult times over the last six years. The economy has not completely recovered from the difficulties that it had in 2008. I know that for sure because I I had a retirement plan figured out. I’m not sure I want to retire, but I want to make sure my wife is taken care of if something happens to me. And I had paid, we had for years not really done, we’ve done something for retirement, but not really in a systematic way. And so, in about 2007, I went to a broker and talked to someone, got his personal advice, and put my money in a mutual fund. In fact, I talked to the guy and I told him, You don’t know anybody as conservative as me.

I don’t, I’ve never been a gambler. I’ve never in my life wanted anything that was yours bad enough to risk anything that was mine to get.

God said, I got exactly what you need. I got a mutual fund that survived the Great Depression. I said, that’s one of one. We started getting statements long about 2008. And I said, Mary Ann, we are making money hand over fist on this thing. Look at this. She said, baby, I don’t think we’re making money. What do you mean we’re not making money? Look at that big number right there. Look at that big number. In fact, we’re paying somebody to give us advice on this. So that we this we can’t be doing anything but making money. And she said, Well, baby, I want you to notice that there’s parentheses around that money. That means you’re losing money instead of making money. And I said, Oh no, that can’t be right.

Because you remember we paid somebody who’s supposed to know what they’re doing. She said, No, we’re losing money. When I had talked to my broker, he had given me a plan by which I could retire at the age of 66 when my Social Security will kick in. By the time the worst of the recession was over, I would be able to retire at 96. Sure, hard to think that that’s the best thing. Surely the Lord would like a retired Curtis as well as he would someone who wasn’t retired. But you know, sometimes difficulties happen. Sometimes the bottom does fall out of the economy. Sometimes there’s difficulties and struggles. Sometimes there’s illnesses we hadn’t planned on. Sometimes there’s deaths we hadn’t counted on. Sometimes, although we’ve been pretty much relieved of at least a domestic conflict for a hundred and fifty years.

4. Learn the Secret of Being at Want

It’s not completely out of the question ever. Difficulties can happen. But you know, as it says in the book of James, we can allow those trials to make us develop endurance so that we might be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. The palace didn’t help David out too much. The cave was where he showed himself to be the one who served God better. We all want the palace. But let me tell you, the palace isn’t best for us all the time. Given a choice, I’d always choose good times instead of bad times. But you know what we as Christians need to understand? If we want to develop a better relationship with God is to be able to learn the secret of being able to be at want, and to be able to also understand the value of having plenty.

In any and every circumstance, I’ve learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Sometimes when times are good, it’s easy to think that we’ve accomplished all this ourselves. The secret of learning to be in want is to recognize exactly how important God is to us in our survival, in our happiness, in our security. We need to have the attitude Jesus had as described in Matthew the 26th chapter in verse 39. When even you remember as he weeps and prays in the garden of Gethsemane, Father, if possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not my will, but thine be done. So many of our prayers are give me prayers.

5. When I Am Weak, Then I Am Strong

And so many of our give me prayers are prayers that want prosperity for ourselves rather than recognizing that that’s not always best for us spiritually. We need to understand what the psalmist said in Psalm 119 and verse 71. It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. Bad times can sometimes be the best thing that can happen to us. And bad times are the ones that can bring us closer to the Lord and make us understand the importance that he needs to have in our lives. In 2 Corinthians, the 12th chapter, we see there the Apostle Paul talking about a thorn in the flesh that he had been given because of the great things that the Lord had enabled him to see.

It says, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself. Concerning this, I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me, and he said, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I’ll rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, I’m well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. David experienced the cave and the palace. But yet we see him being strongest in the Lord in the cave.

And we need to recognize that in our lives, sometimes there are moments of caves, and there are other moments that we are in palaces. Of all the people in the world that have ever lived, we are people who live most of the time in palaces. But we need to understand that just because things don’t always go our way doesn’t mean that that’s a spiritual failure. In fact, that may be our time to spiritually shine as we learn to develop the perseverance and endurance that it takes in undergoing trials to be able to be complete, mature Christians. It may be the situation that allows us to be able to finally see that it is only when we are weak that then we are truly strong. Who do you put your confidence in this morning?

Conclusion

Do you put your confidence in yourself or in the Lord? Well, if you put your confidence in yourself, I really don’t know what I have to offer you this morning. But if you put your confidence in the Lord and you haven’t yet obeyed the gospel of Jesus Christ, you need to do that this morning. Come in faith, show it through repentance. Confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and we can baptize you this morning. All provisions have been made so that we can baptize you into Christ, and you can leave this place washed in the blood of the Lamb. Someone who’s recognized and confessed their own spiritual weakness and in doing so rises to the top by being able to be forgiven of all the things that you’ve done wrong, because you’ve understood that when you’re weak, then through your obedience, you can be made strong.

If you, as a child of God, haven’t lived as you should. You need to put your confidence and trust in the Lord and not in yourself. The times in which we live are times that are unstable in many ways. But what we need to understand is, in spite of what the future may or may not hold, we know who holds the future. And if we put our trust and our confidence in Him, even though the days ahead may be difficult for us, those are the times that may be able to show us to be what God wants us to be in our words and our thoughts and our deeds. Think about these things, and if we can help you in your obedience to the Lord this morning, we invite you to come while we stand and sing.