David's Fear

1Sa 21:10 And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.
1Sa 21:11 And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?
1Sa 21:12 And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath.
1Sa 21:13 And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.
1Sa 21:14 Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me?
1Sa 21:15 Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?
1Sa 22:1 David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him.


When we think of David, the beloved of God, we don't often envision him fearful. He slew Goliath! He faced a giant and claiming the Lord as His champion he defeated him with a stone to the forehead, finishing him by cutting off his head. This does not sound like a man that would be fearful does it? Yet David did feel fear, GREAT fear.


We are often told that if we fear it's a sign of weakness, of not placing our trust in God. Somehow being a Christian we should have no fear at all. Of course we have Jesus telling us to fear not, and then we have this verse.


2Ti 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.


Yet fear is part of our lives to a certain extent, isn't it?


It'd be foolish to come face to face with an gun wielding wild man and not feel any fear. It'd be foolish to have your car half hanging off a cliff due to an accident and feel no fear. Fear is a natural response in certain situations and that fear causes the adrenaline in our bodies to kick into gear often saving our lives.


There is situational fear and there is a general fear of life- two different things.


Luk 21:26 Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.


Living in fear of the future, living in fear, letting it overpower all our thoughts, letting fear forever eclipse the power of love found in God, isn't something from God. But to say all fear is wrong, all fear is bad, feeling fear means you're not God's- is not true.


I think that's why I found this passage about David fascinating. It didn't show a fearless warrior of God, it didn't depict David as God's champion bold and brazenly claiming God's power. This passage shows David running in fear from Saul and then being fearful of the godless king he'd run to- so fearful David quickly feigned MADNESS! David used trickery, David pretended, David deceived the king and his men into believing that he was a lunatic. The description given has David drooling into his own beard! We've all seen this sort on television at least if not real life. Mad men, men out of their minds, men so mentally distraught their mouths hang open and the salvia just flows unchecked. We've seen people scrabbling at walls, at doors with their madness controlling their actions. These types have been locked up in insane asylums, these types have been cast out, these types live on our streets among the homeless, people have shut this sort up in rooms in their own houses to protect them and others from them. Madness, not in their right minds, crazy, lunatic, we have all kinds of names for them. David pretended to be one of these people because he was fearing for his life. Was this in God's plan for David? Wouldn't God have rather had David stand up tall and meet this king in his kingdom straight on proclaiming God as his champion- able to defeat them all? Where was the fearless David who stood before the Philistines greatest champion- the giant Goliath?


See, this fearful David isn't one we know, this fearful David isn't in the story books we read to our children. We hide this David, but God didn't hide this David. This David is revealed in the word of God for us to see, for those of us who WANT to see.


The beloved of God weren't superhuman men and woman. The beloved of God were men and women just like you and I. These men and woman had great moral characters, but they had normal human emotions as well, they had normal human failings, the sin prone frailties were a part of their lives just as they are part of our lives.


We've commonly heard the tale of David and Bethsheba- David sinning and committing adultery, and murder so he could have Bethsheba, he lusted after her another man's wife. Yes, we've heard that story and it reveals David's humanity as well. I've pointed it out myself more than once. David remained God's beloved- punished for his sins- yet forgiven upon repentance, upon great remorse. Yet, this other tale of David's fear isn't something declared. David as a broken repentant man is waved about like a banner, David standing up to Goliath is so declared that even many who don't follow God still know that story.


I think it's important for us to see the whole picture. We can shove this fearful David aside, we can hide Him because there is not great tale of bravery or overcoming, but we shouldn't. We need to see this David - sore afraid, so greatly afraid he pretends to be a mad man. Because of his pretend madness David escapes possible death at the hand of the very man he ran to because he was afraid of another and escaping David runs to a cave to hide. Was this all God's plan? Was David allowed to experience this fear for a purpose we don't know? Was this a lesson David needed to learn about something? Are we to learn from this? What happened because David went to that cave to hide?


1Sa 22:2 And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men.


Men gathered to him. David's fear, David's intense fear that caused him to feign madness leading him to get away from hiding under another king's protection and running to hide in a cave left him open for others that didn't want to be a part of that kingdom or any other- to gather to him forming his own army something that couldn't have happened had he holed up with that king he initially ran to. Fear had him running for protection but the protector he was running to caused him even more fear. So David's fear had Him running wildly looking for protection and in the end he hid in a cave. By being in that cave under no king's rule or protection, David attracted the attention of those who had heard of his fame and they flocked to him wanting David to lead them.


So when we think of David we can also think about this fear he felt and his reaction to his fear and we can know that every time we face our fears it's not always because we're NOT trusting in God, but sometimes God uses our fear for His purpose in our lives.


Satan would have us believe in ANYTHING that will lead us to doubt our relationship with God. Satan will use ANYTHING he can to part us from our faith. Satan never stops trying to worm his sneaky way into our lives to catch us and trip us up so that we turn our eyes off of Christ and onto our own failings telling us we don't trust God, telling us we aren't worthy of God, telling us anything and everything he can to get us to be his and not God's.


So, yes, the Bible tells us not to fear, but the Bible also shows us how fear in the lives of God's beloved men and women has been used for God's purposes. We are here to learn, here to be molded and made after God's will and He uses chastening and such to guide us in His love to Him.


These great men and women of the Bible were human just like you and I and subject to the same shortcomings. We learn lessons from our shortcomings when we open our eyes and see through the Holy Spirit's guidance. They learned lessons, and life is full of them. Having faith through all the lessons is paramount, holding on to our God, our Creator, our King, our Savior, our Lord, our Ruler no matter what comes our way- even if we are consumed by great fear, or encumbered by various failings, we can't let go! Satan wants us to lose faith if he can get us to lose faith we are his. We must hold on NO MATTER what place we find ourselves in during our lives- in the darkest and in the lightest- we must cling to God, we live by His grace and mercy, by his LOVE.


Forever and always God's!


Amen.