Samuel No.18 A Charismatic Gift

Our reading this morning is from the first book of Samuel, chapter 23, reading from verse 14. It's a passage that could have several titles, David in the wilderness, the chase, intrigue, a second covenant, but all of those would seem to miss the point as David finds strength in God. 1 Samuel 23 from verse 14 to the end.

David stayed in the desert strongholds and in the hills of the desert of Ziph. Day after day Saul searched for him, but God did not give David into his hands. While David was at Horish in the desert of Ziph, he learned that Saul had come out to take his life and Saul's son Jonathan went to David at Horish and helped him to find strength in God.

Don't be afraid, he said, my father Saul will not lay a hand on you. You shall be king over Israel and I will be second to you. Even my father Saul knows this.

The two of them made a covenant before the Lord, then Jonathan went home, but David remained at Horish. The Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah and said, is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horish on the hill of Hakeilah south of Jeshimon? Now, O king, come down whenever it pleases you to do so and we will be responsible for handing him over to the king. Saul replied, the Lord bless you for your concern for me.

Go and make further preparation. Find out where David usually goes and who has seen him there. They tell me he is very crafty.

Find out about all the hiding places he uses and come back to me with definite information. Then I will go with you. If he is in the area, I will track him down among all the clans of Judah.

So they set out and went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the desert of Maon in the Araba south of Jeshimon. Saul and his men began the search and when David was told about it, he went down to the rock and stayed in the desert of Maon.

When Saul heard this, he went into the desert of Maon in pursuit of David. Saul was going along one side of the mountain and David and his men were on the other side hurrying to get away from Saul. As Saul and his forces were closing in on David and his men to capture them, a messenger came to Saul saying, come quickly.

The Philistines are raiding the land. Then Saul broke off his pursuit of David and went to meet the Philistines. That is why they call this place Zelah Hamalekoth.

David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of En Gedi. The Lord will bless the reading of his word. Now let's turn back to the book of Samuel and that 23rd chapter.

Visiting friends will have gathered from our notes and news if you had time just to glance through them that we're in the middle, well I don't know about the middle, but we're certainly in a series of addresses working our way perhaps not consecutively but as near as I possibly can through this historical narrative that you find in this Old Testament book. Our concerns are of course not just to inform ourselves of history of three and a half thousand years ago but rather to look into the experiences of men whose circumstances present themselves believing that really there's nothing new under the sun. The mistakes and the successes of yesterday can be repeated today and that's one of the reasons why we have scripture.

A remarkable book, uniquely composed, free I believe from all error, conditioned by God to speak to us in the 20th century as the men whose ministries it recorded spoke to their contemporaries hundreds, indeed thousands of years previously. So we're going to be looking particularly at this relationship that we've touched on on two or three occasions before between Jonathan and David. Verse 16 sets up the context.

And Saul's son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him to find strength in God. Jonathan helped David to find strength in God. I believe Dr. John Stott was right when he said that there really is no final total to the number of spiritual gifts that God can bring to play in the life of a believer.

In other words they're not exhausted in the New Testament. There are additional ones which will be discovered throughout the church age. But one of the ones that has its antecedents in the New Testament is the ministry of helps, the ministry of aids.

It may seem unspectacular but it's very vital that men and women who form part of the church of Jesus are equipped with this gift and that this gift is used on many, many occasions. And it appears to me that here we have an example from the Old Testament of a man using this gift of an aid, of help, or of comfort. And I want us to zero in on Jonathan ministering to David because I think it could be of help to us to see what sort of men and women God wants us to be.

Earlier on this morning I was thinking about the Tab Congregation and there came into my mind a sort of arrow thought that all these 500 or so people might really have the spiritual name Jonathan. For as I read the story of Jonathan I come to some different conclusions from some of the older commentators. They tend to be critical of him.

I find that he is a man of sterling character who ministered to someone who is in great need. And I was asking, Lord, might it be the case that here at the tab we have men and women who spiritually are constituted of the same staff of life as Jonathan was, able to come to the aid, to the help of other people, to strengthen them in God when they come to their wit's end. Now what I want to share is simplicity in itself.

Even my sermon divisions are going to be very brief and very precise. I want to talk first of all, when did Jonathan help David to find strength in God? How did Jonathan help David to find strength in God? And then, and if you forget the other two you'll certainly remember this, homiletics to one side. My third point, blessed are the God-strengtheners for they shall know God's boomerang.

How did Jonathan help David or when did Jonathan help David to find strength in God? My answer for starters is this, at a most inconvenient time. You see, here is David, or rather here is Jonathan. Start off with him.

I remind folks who've not been present for this series, he's the son of the king. And King Saul does not exactly have the most affectionate relationship with David. In fact, King Saul doesn't always have a sweet love relationship with his son.

A couple of chapters earlier, you discover that Jonathan only just ducked when the javelin was directed towards him from the hand of his murderous father. The thing got worse as David had been expelled from the palace where he'd frequented the company of Jonathan, and he's moved out, you remember, into the wilderness. Now it's said of our Lord Jesus, who is a descendant of David, that on occasions he had nowhere to go.

The foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. And you discover a similar sort of thing in this chapter describing David. Look at the 14th verse, or the end of the 13th verse.

When Saul was told, or rather the beginning of the 13th verse, so David and his men, about 600 in number, left Keilah and kept moving from place to place. The reason why they couldn't stay in any one spot was because Saul had set off to murder David. Now it's at a time like this when Saul, with murder in his heart, has said that he will rob David of life, verse 15, that Jonathan goes out into the scrubland and there he starts to minister to his friend.

When did Jonathan start to strengthen David in God? At a time when it was most inconvenient so to do. What do we say of a friend? A friend in need is a friend in deed. When you are really desperate and someone is faithful in ministering to you, then put them at the top of your list of your league of friends because they deserve such a place.

Jonathan strengthens David's hand at a time when it was inconvenient so to do. And also, I add to this, at a time when David was in a desperate condition. David is a poet.

David is a soldier. David is an artist. He has all the emotional constitution that is required for him to successfully engage in these areas of enterprise.

An artistic man is generally a man who will swing emotionally from lows to highs. Now this works also in the spiritual plane. The man who sometimes can soar away to the very heights of revelation and take you with him or leave you halfway as you stand there in amazement that he's gone thus far, he's equally capable of great lowering in spirit and hitting the depths of despair.

The pendulum, you see, can swing depending on your personality from the heights to the depths. And here is David and he's in one of his great depressions. You read the psalms around the around the 50s and you'll discover that the majority of those psalms were penned during the days when David was a fugitive.

And the reason for his great problem? Well, if you looked into the 54th Psalm, you would discover he speaks about his own familiar friend, the one with whom he took counsel, the one with whom he stopped. He's thinking of Saul. He's turned against him.

Oh, the treachery on the part of this king. And David, in great need, in great despair, great despondency, he sees Jonathan coming to him in the wilderness. What a friend we have in Jesus.

All our sins and griefs to bear. You see, I'm reminding you of Jonathan and I'm reminding you of David because for a moment David becomes me and Jonathan becomes our Lord and the fidelity of the friendship of Jesus Christ towards me is par excellence. It's beyond parallel.

And I want to remind you this morning, if you needed a reminder, my older friend, my younger friend, perhaps you've had a beating during these last few days. There is one who wants to step out into your circumstances and strengthen you in the name of the Lord. But you could do it as a Christian, ministering to another Christian on behalf of the Lord Jesus.

You see, we can strengthen one another in God. And this is another consequence of my preaching this morning. I want us all to be God-strengtheners, to be so sensitive to the needs of other people.

You see, your leaders sometimes will need strengthening. There's not a man or a woman in leadership who at times doesn't drop right down almost subterranean in their experience and they need help. And you must be sensitive to the needs of other Christian people and minister to them as you would have them minister to you.

When you are in need, we come together to share our affections, to help lift one another up, as did Jonathan to David. He strengthened him at a time when it was inconvenient so to do. A friend will put himself out for another.

He strengthened him at a time when David was in great difficulty. How? How did Jonathan help David to find strength in God? Well, I answer threefold. First of all, by addressing his fears.

Isn't that what he says? Don't be afraid. The end of verse... No, the beginning of verse 17. Don't be afraid.

Now, perhaps you've been a parent or, well, certainly you've been a child, so you will know by experience in dishing it out or as a recipient in receiving it, what it is to be told, never mind. You know, here's little Herbert and he's... First time he's put roller skates on and he finds that his equilibrium, though he can't say the word, his balance is such that he can't maintain it, so he falls and he cries. Dad comes along and rubs the bleeding knee.

Says, never mind. Or maybe another situation that you can conjure up yourself. Now, I forgot what I call the little boy, but when he gets older, he will still have a boy's needs.

You see, we adults, sometimes we just encase childish hearts and needs, don't we? And sometimes we wish that we might be treated as little children by those who are our contemporaries, so that someone might move alongside us at times and say, though you're 70 years of age, never mind, never mind. Now, this isn't just being emotional. You see, Abraham wasn't exactly the youngest man, though he wasn't a geriatric, when God first spoke to him.

And the first words that God spoke to Abraham, the first words that God spoke to Jacob, the first words that God spoke to the teenage Mary in Nazareth were, fear not, never mind, don't be afraid. David, this big hulking man, the sweetest psalmist that Israel has ever known, the bravest soldier that ever there has been to this point amongst the ranks of the Hebrews, needs a word from God and it comes from the mouth of Jonathan. It's not eloquent in terms of the use of language, but it's so apposite, it's so relevant, never mind, fear not, says Jonathan as he embraces David out there in the wilderness.

How does he help him to find strength in God? By addressing his fears, but more by adding his reason. You see, the Bible does not trade in mere sentimentality. There will be an anchorage, there will be justifiable arguments that God will put to Abraham and to Jacob and to Mary, that Jonathan will put to David, that we can put to you as to why you ought not to fear.

Why we can say, never mind, all right, it's been a rough week, your mind perhaps is filled with someone who you lost and it's rather tormenting for you to be in church this morning and so we come alongside and so to speak and perhaps even literally, perhaps we should do this more literally, we put our arm around you and we say, never mind, but you see, it's not just sentimentalism that pours from our lips because the Christian gospel, though it has sentiment and romance and emotion, it is based on more than just that. That is the consequence. It's always based on reason.

It's always based on argument. That's why you'll never hear me applauding from the pulpit, anyone who tells you to put reason aside. Reason is a God-given gift.

It's what, as I'll try and show this evening, marks you out from the animal world. You have a capacity to reason. It's part of the image of God still within you.

Now, as Jonathan addresses David's fears, he adds his reasons. And I think this comes out perhaps even more helpfully in the Authorized Versions translation of the 16th verse, so I give it to you. And Jonathan saw sun arose and went to David in the wood and strengthened his hand in God.

And he said unto him, Fear not, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee. This is Jonathan's reasoning. There are two pairs of hands, so to speak, which are involved in David's circumstances at the moment.

There are the hands of God and there are the hands of Saul. There are the hands of love and there are the hands of hate. There are the hands of the all-powerful and the hands of the powerful.

And Jonathan is saying, in effect, to David, Never mind. You're out there in the wilderness away from the Bethlehem that you love. Jesse's been taken from you and your brothers.

They've had to go for refuge in one of the neighboring countries. All that you ever counted as precious has been taken away from you. But David, for God's sake, never mind.

You are safe in his hands and the hands of Saul which clutched the javelin and the murderous flesh that was within his eyes. Though they represent power, they do not represent all power. And so it is with you, my friend, this morning.

Whatever the nature of your problem might be, we reason with you. And we say, though it's valid, though we're not trying to diminish something that's giant in stature in your estimation, over above that giant there is something that is even greater. Over against that difficulty there is the sovereignty of God who works his way through your life and ultimately will bring you through the circumstances that perplex you at this moment.

Never mind. We take them to the great promises of scripture and we reason from those scriptures and recognize that our lives are in the hands of the great and sovereign God. How does Jonathan strengthen David's hand in the Lord? Well, by addressing his fears, by adding his reasons.

And what's more, by affirming his pledge. Verse 16, verse 18, the two of them, David and Jonathan, made a covenant before the Lord. They're always doing that.

These men, whenever they met, they seem, if you check the preceding chapters, that they seem always at the end or at the beginning of their time of fellowship just to acquaint themselves with the depths of relationship that really locks them together. You know the Red Indians have a sort of system of being blood brothers where folks who are not of the same clan that can nonetheless relate so closely one to the other by the shedding of blood that the two almost become one. Now in one sense, Jonathan and David are in that category.

Jonathan does not despise David. He knows that David's going to take over the throne. He knows that this is inevitable.

It's one of those reasons, you see, that's at the back of his mind. This is trying to inform David of. Not only is he in the hands of God, not only is in the hands of a God that's powerful, but God has spoken his word and one day David will be king.

That doesn't affect Jonathan at all. He wants to serve with David. There's a pledge that exists between them and so they reaffirmed their pledge.

You know, my dear brothers and sisters, one of the things that I appreciate most about the tab and wouldn't have stayed very long had it not been the case, I say that deliberately, is that on each Lord's day we come around the table. To me this is vital to my life. I'm not speaking as a pastor.

At the moment I'm speaking as a Christian brother. I must be at the table of the Lord. It's not legalism on my part.

It's not that I've got the sort of magical attitude to it that I shall go and get knocked down on a Monday unless I'm there on a Sunday. It's just that around the Lord's table I remember again my Jonathan, my David, or rather my Jesus and the fact that I'm a blood brother of his and that come what may or come what has been during that past week or the past month or the past year, and despite those circumstances that I cannot understand, this pledge remains true that he is my friend, that he will never leave me, he will never desert me, and although he allows things to break in on my pathway that I personally would not choose, he has pledged his constant love and I want to reaffirm my love for him and I find strength in God around the table as I reaffirm my pledge. So there you have it, quite brief, quite simple, don't get excited, it's only the first two points, there's one more to go.

When did Jonathan help him to find strength in God? At a time of danger, at a time of great need. How did Jonathan help David to find strength in God? By addressing his fears, by adding his reasons, by affirming a pledge. Now, blessed are the God-strengtheners for they shall know God's boomerang.

What is the boomerang? Something that you can't get rid of if you know how to handle it properly. You throw it away and it comes back. Now, in this sense, I want to bring this scripture, you see, it's not exactly a beatitude but it nearly got in and it's certainly there in 1 Corinthians in chapter 1. If it had been a beatitude, it would have been expressed like this, blessed are the God-strengtheners for they shall be strengthened and the illustrious Paul, speaking with the same inspiration of the Spirit, talks about the God of all comforts who comforts us so that we might in turn be able to comfort others.

If that's not the boomerang principle, then I don't know what it is. You see my point? When I talk about this charismatic gift being a necessary piece of equipment for the total church of Jesus Christ, when you strengthen someone else's hand in God, you discover that your hand is also strengthened. Isn't that true? Many of you here can agree to that, I am sure.

I was going to race through some points but I'll push them on one side. I've almost established what I want to say but here is our Savior illustrating this principle. Luke chapter 22, you remember verse 43 where we find our Savior in the garden of olives.

It's a long night and the only light comes from the moon which is full because it's Passover time and there silhouetted against the skyline is our Savior and he's in great need and the Bible tells us that as he faces the horrors of Calvary, the angels come down and they strengthen him. They strengthen him. But it's interesting in that same chapter a little before that event, Jesus had been predicting the needs of Peter and he says to Peter, when you are converted, strengthen.

Strengthen your brothers when you are converted and when you move through to one of the epistles that Peter writes, you discover that he is praying that all those who read his epistle might be strengthened in God as he also has been strengthened by the Lord. So, I come back full circle and circle is an operative word, that was a slip, the boomerang. You strengthen others, you have strengthened yourself.

Jonathan leaves David encouraged, but Jonathan goes encouraged himself. Peter has a God-strengthening ministry and as he brings dynamic into the lives of those to whom he addresses his words, so he discovers as a logical consequence that he himself is fortified and more able to cope as an old man with all the pressures of the Roman Empire. Now, my brothers and sisters, before you leave the tab this morning, what will you do? You'll shake somebody's hand.

You might even be more daring. But you will show, I trust, unless you're so insular this word has not reached you, you'll show your affection to someone else in a symbolic sense. But may the symbol become sacramental because this congregation represents a great deal of need.

500 people who need to be strengthened in the Lord. The challenge of the word is where are the Jonathans in the tabernacle? And I'm glad before God to honestly say we've got many at grassroots level, but we do need more to be able to reproduce the very ministries of our Lord Jesus who is a friend who sticks closer than a brother, who always perceives the need of somebody else and he puts himself out at great consequence and in the greatest dangers in order that he might fulfill the need of that man or that woman. Now, what are we but extensions on planet earth of his ministry to carry out what he so royally set up and gave an illustration by in his own life? Are you strengthening the hands of your brothers and sisters? Somebody wrote me a note last week I'll never know how precious or how apposite it was when I turned into my office on Sunday afternoon feeling so very low the word on my desk was just thank you.

It really boosted me at a time when I needed a lift strengthen my hand enable me to preach more easily the Sunday evening. I use the illustration not to parade myself but to isolate the point that we all need strengthening by one another to be told never mind not in a sentimental fashion but with reason behind never mind because God loves you and I care for you and together with God we'll make it to the next point on our journey. Amen.

495 as a soul is seen by every journey O ye that now in me I Father, if we just took one word this morning out assuming we have to leave at this juncture of morning worship out into next week, we thank you for the thought never mind, may that be a stimulus to every soul here and continue to bless us as we endeavor to share that word this Sunday evening that you've laid upon the hearts of some of us who've thought through this ministry bless those who gather, strengthen our hearts by the presence of other people and enable us to live for you and bless us as we come in a moment around this table strengthen our hands afresh in God and this we pray in the name of the Savior who makes such possibilities realistic, amen