The Gospel According to Samuel: Godly Leadership (1 Samuel 24:1-15)

Hello, friends.

This is Pastor Creighton.

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Today we continue our sermon series, The Gospel According to Samuel.

So, saints, what makes a godly leader?

Let's pray.

Exalt yourself of God above the heavens.

Let your glory be over all the earth.

Lord, may the words of my mouth, the meditation of all of our hearts, be always pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Leadership, it's been said, is the capacity to translate vision into reality.

Martin Luther King Jr.

says a genuine leader is not a searcher of consensus, but a molder of consensus.

Leaders stand out.

Maybe if you take a little bit more of a pessimistic disposition, you would agree with one person who said to me, leadership is disappointing people at a pace they can handle.

I'd like to think we can do a little bit better than that.

But there is some truth there, isn't that?

But the question for us this morning is what makes a godly leader?

If we want to understand not just effective leadership or secular or corporate models of leadership, but what makes a godly leader a leader set after God's own heart?

What is it that makes a godly leader?

And what does God's word have to say about godly leadership?

Let's say in our vocations, in our workplaces, in our families, maybe in our own parish ministry right here at Newsong, or maybe in our community beyond us, what does God's word have to say about godly leadership?

We've been tracking through 1st and 2 Samuel, which is one book split into two parts, and looking for the gospel, the gospel according to Samuel.

And in many ways, 1st and 2 Samuel is a big case study in leadership.

And especially this chapter in front of us, chapter 24, which gives us a maximum contrast between Israel's godly leader, David, and Israel's spiraling king Saul.

I think if we look closely at 1 Samuel chapter 24, we see this about godly leadership.

1 Samuel 24 · chapter mention

We see that godly leadership deals with their dark side.

Godly leaders deal with their dark side.

Godly leaders submit to God's revealed word, and godly leaders know that they're accountable to God.

1 Samuel 24 says, godly leaders deal with their dark sides, submit to God's revealed word, and know that they're accountable to God.

And friends, I think there's good news for us this morning.

As we consider what it means to be called to be godly leaders in the context that God has placed us, I think there's good news this morning because we can catch something of God's heart for leadership.

And we can catch God's own heart for us.

So, friends, what does godly leadership look like?

A godly leader deals with their dark side, or to flip that, we could say, an ungodly leader gets consumed by their dark side.

Let's pick it up in verse 1.

Chapter 24, verse 1.

If you've got your Bibles or you've got your order of service in front of you, let's have a look.

Chapter 24, verse 1.

When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.

Then what does it say?

Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the wild goats' rocks.

So we are kind of dropped in the middle of a story here, chapter 24.

Saul is pursuing David with a force of 3,000 soldiers looking to take his life.

And if we've been tracking with the gospel according to Samuel, we remember last week David slew Israel's greatest enemy, Goliath, in chapter 17.

Now Israel's king Saul wants to take David's life.

So maybe we're thinking, what happened between chapter 17 last week and our episode this week in chapter 24?

Well, it's true, David slayed Goliath.

He showed that saving faith relies upon God to accomplish for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

And David celebrated this victory and is made something of a general in Saul's army, and he goes out to battle Israel's enemies with much success.

And so in chapter 18, when David and Saul and the whole army of Israel comes back to their capital, they are sung in with praise.

There's women singing their praises, and they're singing this song.

Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.

That's chapter 18, verse 7.

Now, generally speaking, the Hebrew here could be translated something like David and Saul have slew many, many thousands of our enemies.

They're singing high praise of both figures, but Saul doesn't hear it that way.

Saul is green with envy when he hears this.

So chapter 18, verse 8, Saul was very angry, and this seeing displeased him.

He said, They have ascribed to David ten thousands, but to me, to me, they've ascribed thousands.

So verse 9, Saul eyed David, which is to say, he kept a jealous eye on David from that day on.

One commentator writes of this passage, from the very first day that Saul retained David at the court after his victory over Goliath, he suspected that David was the person whom the Lord God had chosen to replace him as king.

It goes on to say, by the end of the chapter, we are told explicitly that Saul was David's enemy for the rest of his life.

Saul's fear and jealousy turns him to make an enemy out of David, and so Saul attempts to kill David with a spear twice in chapter 18 and 19, and he attempts to send assassins after him later on in chapter 19.

So David is on the run for nearly 10 years, from chapters 20 to 23, all because, chapter 18, verse 12, Saul was afraid of David.

Because the Lord was with him, but had departed from Saul.

So let's think back.

Saul showed so much promise, didn't he?

When he was selected as king, he was tall and handsome.

He showed all the characteristics and qualities you would desire to see in a leader.

But he's shown himself to be prideful, fearful.

And out of this has come a jealous dark side that has turned him not into a godly leader, but a paranoid leader.

At least that's how he's described an really powerful book called The Dark Side of Leadership.

This was a book, it's written by Gary McIntosh and Samuel Rima.

And this was recommended to me a number of years ago by a priest friend of mine, and I have to say it was such a thought-provoking read.

This book, The Dark Side of Leadership, is asking the question: why do godly leaders fall?

And what can we do to prevent that?

The authors write this at the core of the problem is personal ambition and the insidious desire to have or possess something that is not able to be possessed, namely success.

They go on to say true success is being, not having.

See, leaders that fall are leaders that want to have success, they want to grab it for themselves, but godly leaders are those who apply their hearts to the way of the Lord.

They want to be godly leaders, they don't just want to have success.

Does that track with what we know about Saul so far?

So dark side of leadership can take many different forms.

The authors go on to say there are compulsive leaders, there are narcissistic leaders, there are codependent leaders, there are passive-aggressive leaders, but they describe Saul in particular as a paranoid leader.

Paranoid leaders, they say, are desperately afraid of anything or anyone, whether real or imagined, that they perceive to have even the remotest potential of undermining their leadership and stealing away the limelight.

Paranoid leaders are pathologically jealous of other gifted people.

So think about David and Saul for a second.

Saul, the king of Israel, David's king and commander, could have thanked God for David's skills, couldn't he?

He could have thanked God for David's loyalty to him.

But instead, he assigns a greater threat, it seems, to David than he had to Goliath.

David's coming after his throne.

So the authors say Saul's leadership was marred by suspicion, distrust of those around him, including close family members.

And he attempts to coerce loyalty and even spies.

Ultimately, Saul's neurotic activities led to his own breakdown and tragic failure.

Such is the fate of the paranoid leader.

We see Saul's dark side finally consume him in chapter 31, when Saul comes to a very dismal end.

Following this passage in front of us, the last half of chapter 24, Saul exhibits a sort of temporary repentance.

He seems to get it in the moment, and he acknowledges his fault to David, but David doesn't depart with Saul.

They go separate ways.

It's almost as though David sees through Saul's temporary repentance.

And so by chapter 26, much the same episode plays itself out.

Saul is very vulnerable to attack, and David spares his life.

Saul once again is pursuing David.

Saul continues to pursue David until he comes to the very end in chapter 31.

Chapter 31, verse 3.

He's battling the Philistines.

The battle pressed hard against Saul.

The archers found him.

He was badly wounded by the archers.

Then Saul says to his armor bearer, Draw your sword, thrust it through me, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and mistreat me.

You hear the fear and the pride there in Saul's voice?

I'm not going to be beaten by this enemy.

It's better my own armor bearer stick me through with his sword.

But his armor bearer would not, for he feared greatly.

Therefore, Saul took his own sword and fell upon it.

Saul might have literally set up his own sword to fall on in chapter 31, but he's been setting up a figurative sword to fall upon since chapter 15.

He's become an increasingly paranoid and fearful and jealous leader, and it becomes his undoing.

So maybe again we can hear echoes of Hannah's song from chapter 2, that the Lord exalts the humble and brings low the proud.

So, those of us who want to be godly leaders, we find Saul to be something of a warning, don't we?

His example asks us a question.

Are we willing to deal with our dark side in a way that Saul was not?

See, I think it's the case that the dark side of leadership, these unhealthy tendencies, this drive towards personal ambition, I think we're fooling ourselves if we think that we can just eliminate it.

We can flick the switch and no longer be operating from out of personal ambition.

I don't know if the dark side can be eliminated on this side of eternity, but the authors say it can be overcome.

I think like 12-step recovery, the first step is acknowledging you need help and acknowledging that you're powerless on your own.

So self-care, accountability relationships, refusing to be any less than honest in the context of talking with a trusted brother and sister in Christ about what's going on underneath, even taking up the practice of private confession of sins, which is something that Scripture exhorts us to.

These are ways that we're not going to let our dark side fester and consume us.

We're going to refuse to let it deal out harm to ourselves and others.

And acknowledging and addressing our dark side is a way of putting what Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 12 into practice.

Paul writes that God's grace is sufficient for me.

For the sake of Christ I'm content with my weakness, Paul says, even the weakness, let's say, of a dark side.

For when I am weak, then I am strong.

See, a godly leader deals with their dark side.

A godly leader doesn't leave it unaddressed, doesn't leave it to fester, but brings it to the light.

So even if we're struggling to identify with Saul and his dark side at this point, we can at least identify with verse 3, because nature calls for all of us.

Saul came to the sheepfolds, by the way, there was a cave, and Saul went into relieve himself.

It's this second scene between David and his men that show us a second principle of godly leadership.

Godly leadership deals with their dark side, but a godly leader submits to God's revealed word, even when circumstances play upon our own desires.

So verse 3 picks up.

David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave, and the men of David said to him, Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, Behold, I will give the enemy into your hand.

You shall do to him as it seems good to you.

So, in other words, David's men are saying, Hey David, God wants you to kill Saul.

Here it is.

He couldn't be more vulnerable, he couldn't be more indisposed.

This is it.

I mean, of all the thousands of caves that Saul could have wandered into, he wandered into ours.

What David's men, I think, know to be true of God is something we know to be true of God in Scripture.

He is a God of providence.

Providence means that nothing happens in all of creation that falls outside of God's divine and purposeful order.

Nothing happens by chance, nothing surprises God.

God directs all history and human action towards his predetermined goal for creation.

So David's men rightly know that over all things, God is large and in charge.

But David understands something his men seem to have forgotten.

Saul, no matter how murderous, prideful, obsessive, jealous, or fearful he may be, is still the Lord's anointed.

God's word is upon Saul.

Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner from Saul's robe, and afterwards David's heart struck him.

Literally, it smited him, it convicted him very deeply, because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe.

And why is he convicted?

He says to his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Lord's anointed, to put my hand against him, seeing that he is the Lord's anointed.

Verse 7, so David persuaded his men.

Literally, he tore his men apart with his words.

He laid into them and did not permit them to attack Saul.

So the question for us is probably, well, it's the question that this commentator raises: why did men consider the anointed to be kept from attack?

I mean, Saul is after David, isn't he?

He's looking to take David's life.

Isn't it fair to reciprocate in kind?

This commentator says, the answer lies in the fact that once anointed, the individual was set apart or consecrated to God.

A specific bond was established in relationship to God.

Hence to touch, defile, and attack the anointed one was to approach the Lord himself and to seek to defile, harm, and remove the Lord from his rightful place.

So David understands what his men have forgotten.

God has clearly, definitively, uniquely, irretractably set Saul apart to himself.

By God's word, Saul's life belongs to God, not David or anyone else's, or anyone else.

So based on circumstance alone, David's men have intuited what they think is God's will for Saul.

But really it's their own desired outcome, isn't it?

David knows that no matter how the circumstances may appear, God has clearly revealed his will for Saul by His Word.

It is not for David to take his life.

So even when circumstance seems to suggest God's will to us, or God's will to David, is something contrary to what God has revealed by his word, then the word takes priority.

Godly leaders aren't content to read mere circumstances, but they do the difficult work of discernment and submission to God's word.

So let's say, for those of us who aspire to godly leadership or godly character, let's say, in our heart of hearts, what we really would desire is a nice luxury car.

I mean, maybe that's true.

And maybe it looks like a Lamborghini.

Am I just talking about myself?

And let's say your heart was so set upon this that it even came up in prayer.

It even came up, Lord, if it was your will, would you send a Lamborghini my way?

And let's say you went to Voss's grocery store later on today, and as you walk out of the store, there sitting in the nearest parking spot was a Lamborghini with keys still in the ignition.

By circumstance alone, you're probably thinking what I'm thinking at this moment.

God, you want me to have this Lamborghini.

But what do we know to be true in God's word?

We know that God has commanded, you shall not steal.

In other words, to state it positively, you will trust me to provide for you what I know you yourself need.

And so when circumstance and God's word seem to come to a head, we always, always listen to God's word, even the difficult work of submitting ourselves to it.

Circumstance is not unimportant to the work of discernment.

We should certainly pray for God to open doors as we're discerning.

But godly leaders aren't content with mere circumstances.

They filter circumstances to know what they what they know to be true, eternally true of God's word and God's character.

And so, saints, what that means for us is that godly leadership requires studious submission to God's word in Scripture.

I don't know how we could aspire to godly leadership without coming to God's word and asking to have our hearts inclined towards God's character.

God, would you show me your heart?

Would you conform me more to who you are?

Would my leadership show forth more of who you are?

We need to come to Scripture each and every day, and we need to discern our motives.

Because motive motives motives can be murky, can't they?

And they can cloud our vision.

Discerning our motives keeps our dark side from taking over.

And so we humble ourselves when we seek wise counsel, when we practice patient prayer, when we acknowledge and hand over our desires to God, all while submitting to his word.

Because a godly leader submits to God's revealed word, even when circumstances might suggest otherwise.

So because David's godly leadership requires he submit to God's word, he lets Saul go in verse 7.

But verse 8, David confronts Saul and shows us the third quality of God.

Leader, and here's where I'd like us to land this morning.

David arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, My Lord the King.

And I would have loved to see the expression on Dav or Saul's face when he heard a familiar voice calling out to him from the cave.

See the sinking feeling in his stomach when he sees the hem of his robe cut off, and he realizes that the one he's been looking to gut like a fish could have cut him much deeper if he wanted to.

David says, Behold, this day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hand in the cave, and some told me to kill you, but I spared you.

I said, I will not put my hand against the Lord, my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed.

See my father, the corner of your robe in my hand.

By the fact that I've cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hand.

I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it.

In other words, David pleads his innocence.

Despite all the wrong that Saul has done to David, he refuses to take revenge.

And why is that?

Because he knows that he and Saul both are accountable to a higher authority than they.

This is the third principle.

A godly leader knows that they are accountable to God.

May the Lord judge between me and you, David says.

May the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you.

And the proverb of, as the proverb of the ancient says, out of the wicked come wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you.

He goes on to say, May the Lord therefore be judge and give sentence between me and you, and see to it, and plead my cause, and deliver me from your hand.

See, when Israel asked for a king, they wanted a king who would judge them like all the nations.

That's what it says in chapter 8, verse 5.

But the king of Israel doesn't determine justice.

He doesn't determine what's right and wrong himself.

But the king is meant to be a means of God's justice.

Where other kings of other nations may be answerable to no one.

That's not true for Israel's kings.

They're answerable to the king of kings.

Because godly leaders like David know they're under God's authority, they can have assurance.

Assurance that ungodly leadership and harms done will not be left uncalled for.

Mo, they will not be not called into account.

No, I can do better.

They will be called into account.

It gives assurance and it gives personal accountability too, because you'll notice David is saying the Lord will judge between us, but he will judge both of us.

He will judge Saul for the evil Saul has done, but David recognizes that he too will be called into account before the Lord.

He's under God's authority too.

He recognizes that revenge is not God's means of justice.

God's people and godly leaders are not content to let the ends justify the means.

So, friends, does this mean that godly accountability or an understanding of accountability looks passive or sedate?

Does it just kind of leave bygones be bygones?

No.

It strives for real justice, it strives for real accountability.

But godly leadership knows that they are accountable to God, which calls us beyond mere personal revenge.

It calls us to work towards the end of ends of justice through godly means and to rely upon God to realize his justice in his way.

And friends, I think the Psalms give us a model for this.

The Psalms tell us not to pray with sugar-coated prayers, but to speak from the gut when we encounter injustice.

In your faithfulness, destroy them, break the teeth in their mouths, O God.

If only you would slay the wicked, O God.

The Psalms are not sugar-coated prayers.

They invite us to speak from the gut when we encounter injustice.

The psalmists appeal to God for justice.

They don't retaliate for themselves, they don't take revenge for themselves, which can only lead to more cycles of violence and injustice, but they trust God and take assurance that God will call into account.

And the psalmists themselves never lose sight of the fact that they themselves are under God's accountability as well.

So, friends, a godly leader knows that they're accountable.

Being called beyond revenge, which itself, we might say, is a manifestation of a leader's dark side, and a reliance upon God, in fact, I think, brings us to the very heart of the gospel.

See, the gospel tells us that David's greatest heir, our leader, our heavenly king, says this.

You have heard it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

Think about David's men speaking to Saul.

Here's your enemy.

But I say to you, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

In other words, the gospel calls us to reflect God's own character, his own godly heart for the world around us.

Friends, such as the way of the cross.

God shows his love for us that while we were still sinners, still enemies, Christ died for us.

The cross shows the heart of a godly leader.

It shows us the heart of the God who leads us.

The cross refuses revenge upon our enemies and instead shows forth self-giving and reconciling love.

It calls us to desire the best for our enemies.

And the cross therefore calls us to acknowledge and crucify our own dark side, to take pride and fear and jealousy and personal ambition, the desire to have success for ourselves, all the things that belong to the old Adam at war within us, and put them to death by the power of the Holy Spirit, to lay them bare before the cross.

And the cross definitively reveals God's word to us, since it's the living word made flesh, who died there for our sake and was raised so that we too may have new life.

It's God's living word, Jesus, who made the difficult decision to reject the easier roads that circumstances may have suggested, and to go to the cross for our sake.

Discerning God's will in any circumstance must reckon with the self-giving call of the cross.

And the cross calls us to account for our sin before God.

It calls us to live the reconciled and reconciling life, not seeking revenge on our enemies, but instead loving them, desiring their best with the love that we know in Christ.

So, friends, what makes a godly leader?

A godly leader deals with their dark side.

A godly leader submits to God's revealed word, and a godly leader knows they are accountable.

And it's the way of godly leadership, the way that David anticipates, that leads us to the cross.

Jesus says, I have given you an example that you should do just as I have done to you.

Amen.

Thank you for listening today.

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