I Samuel 21:1-15; 22:9-18 Why We Fall into Fear January 25, 2009

One summer night during a severe thunderstorm a mother was tucking her small son into bed. She was about to turn the light off when he asked in a trembling voice, "Mommy, will you stay with me all night?" Smiling, the mother gave him a warm, reassuring hug and said tenderly, "I can't dear. I have to sleep in Daddy's room." "Well, he's a big chicken!"

We are continuing our series on the life of David. We have seen many of David's strengths and fine qualities. However, today I want to see how David began to fall into fear. Due to jealousy, King Saul was ready to kill David, and little by little, David's great faith in God was replaced by fear. Now this fear is understandable. Any of us could have felt the same. One of the great truths about the Bible is that the Bible tells the truth about the heroes of faith. They accomplished great things, but at times, they failed. Today I want to see why David, and why we, fall into fear.

We saw last week that David had fled from Saul. David arrives in the small town of Nob at a sanctuary there. He meets with Ahimelech the priest and David begins to lie. You know, often in our fear we begin to lie about our situation. We may lie to others. We may lie to ourselves. But if you find you are often lying, then that is a strong sign that you are living in fear. David was in fear. The one who had faced Goliath, who had been in battle many times, was now afraid of King Saul. It is easy to fall into fear. During his years as premier of the Soviet Union , Nikita Khrushchev denounced many of the atrocities of Joseph Stalin. Once, as he spoke against Stalin in a public meeting, there came a shout from a heckler in the audience. "You were one of Stalin's colleagues. Why didn't you stop him?" "Who said that?" roared Khrushchev. An agonizing silence followed as nobody in the room dared move a muscle. After a few minutes, Khrushchev replied quietly, "Now you know why."  All of us have known times when we were afraid. David was afraid of Saul. So he began to lie.

First, David told the priest that he was on a secret solo mission, sent by King Saul himself. Now this made perfect sense to Ahimelech because everyone knew David was Saul's right hand man. Therefore, the priest gives David shelter. Next, David asked for food for himself and his men. Now the priest tells David that all he has is the ceremonial bread in the sanctuary. He tells David that he can have it if he and his men are ceremonially pure. David assures the priest, “Oh, yes. Of course. Of course.” Finally, David asked for a weapon, telling the priest that he had left Saul's court so fast on this official business that he had forgotten to bring anything. The priest gives him the sword that had belonged to Goliath. Step by step, David lies and schemes in his fear to escape.

But next, David sinks even lower. He flees to Gath , the enemy Philistine city. His plan is that Saul will not follow him there and he hopes that no one will notice who he is. David is hoping to hide in the city of Gath incognito. However, in vs. 11, someone says, “Hey. Isn't that David? Isn't he the one who has killed so many of our warriors?” Now look at vs. 12—“David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achich the king of Gath .” Folks, here is the cause of fear. David took these words to heart. He let these negative thoughts creep into his spirit and he was very afraid. Think back to chapter 17. David was surrounded by negative, fearful words from his brothers, from Saul, and from Goliath, but David never let those words get inside him. Instead, he prayed and trusted in God. But now, in the city of Gath , David took these words to heart and he was afraid. Let me ask you—what do you take to heart? What negative, fearful, defeating words and thoughts do you let into your spirit? Those are the source of our fears. You know, we are always surrounded by scary things. Always in life, there will be losses, bad economies, sickness, wars, accidents, and more. Our nation is economically running scared right now. But we are the same people with the same resources and the same skills we had before. But we have allowed the fear to get inside our hearts until we are convinced that America is sunk. Maybe in your own life, you are facing some problem and you are fearful that you are sunk. You have let the fear get inside and that is your undoing.

David lets the fear into his heart and, well, at this point, David sinks low. In his fear, he pretends to be insane. He lets spit dribble down his chin. He scribbles writing on the walls. He crawls around like an animal until the king of Gath thinks David has lost his mind. Can you imagine? Or maybe you do not have to imagine. You know how low you have sunk when you were afraid. David, the mighty warrior who had faith in God to save him from a giant is now so afraid that he acts insane. What made the difference? David let fearful thoughts get into his soul. And why did that happen? I want you to take a moment and look all through this chapter 21. What is missing? You should see that there is no mention of God. None at all. Back in previous chapters, every time David faced a problem, he is always talking about God and faith in God and how God can save him. Now, David has forgotten about God. David is running scared and trying to make up his own plan and God is no where in sight. Now please keep in mind that we said a few weeks ago that God wants us to have a plan and to work the plan. But when David faced Goliath, his plan was born out of prayer and faith in God. Now that David is running from Saul, he is just trying to find his own plan. So many changes in David. He listened to the fearful thoughts. He let fear get inside. Instead of facing his problem, he is running from it. He is lying. He has his own plans without God. And he ends up humiliated, acting like a mad man.

Now maybe a few of you think, “Oh so what? David had to lie a little and act falsely, but hey, he escaped from Saul without getting caught.” But fear and lies and falsehood always catch someone. And in this case, Ahimelech the priest is the victim. Saul hears that the priest has helped David. And Saul orders his death. 85 men of God were executed by this mad king in his vengeance. In Chapter 22 vs. 22, David confesses that he is at fault for the death of these men. Listen. When we live in fear, when we lie, when we act falsely, someone will be hurt. We like to tell ourselves that we got away with it, nothing bad occurred, and it was no big deal. But listen. Someone will pay for it. Someone will get hurt. Maybe you. Maybe someone you love. But someone will get hurt.

David fell into fear because he let the negative, scary thoughts get inside his heart. He had always been surrounded by fearful things but he had never let them in. But now he did. And the results were lies, pretending, and tragedy. You and I will always be surrounded by fearful things. They will not go away. But we do not have to let them inside our hearts. We can have faith in God and we can overcome our fears. Next week, we will see how. Amen.