SAVING KEILAH

1 Samuel 23:1-13 (KJV)

Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they rob the threshingfloors.

Therefore David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the LORD said unto David, Go, and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah.

And David's men said unto him, Behold, we be afraid here in Judah: how much more then if we come to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?

Then David enquired of the LORD yet again. And the LORD answered him and said, Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand.

So David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and smote them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.

And it came to pass, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand.

And it was told Saul that David was come to Keilah. And Saul said, God hath delivered him into mine hand; for he is shut in, by entering into a town that hath gates and bars.

And Saul called all the people together to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men.

And David knew that Saul secretly practised mischief against him; and he said to Abiathar the priest, Bring hither the ephod.

Then said David, O LORD God of Israel, thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake.

Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? will Saul come down, as thy servant hath heard? O LORD God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy servant. And the LORD said, He will come down.

Then said David, Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the LORD said, They will deliver thee up.

Then David and his men, which were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go. And it was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah; and he forbare to go forth.

The city of Keilah, as I understand it, was a fortress like city situated on the southern border of Judah.

The word itself means Citadel. 

I think it was built to as a post to guard from southern enemies.

But in our text, it was in distress. 

The Philistines had undertaken to attack the city and rob the threshingfloors, the stores of food that were gathered there at the harvest season.

It was not like David had no troubles of his own.

He had only recently fled King Saul

He had escaped to Gath of the Philistines but received a cold shoulder there and so was hidden in the cave of Adullum, and the forests of Hareth in Judah.

People were flocking to David, but they were far from organized at this point.

And it was then that the news of the peril of Keilah reached David’s ears.

David was the kind of man who couldn’t, who wouldn’t ignore a people in need.

And so David enquired of the Lord whether he should go smite the Philistines and rescue Keilah.

God said, “Go.”

I have entitled this message, Saving Keilah.

David, you might recall, is not only a man after God’s own heart, and the father of the royal family from which Jesus comes, King David serves as a biblical type of Christ.

Just as God sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, God sent David, at this juncture in his life, that those in Keilah would be saved from the hand of the Philistines.

But the picture is more like that of Jesus Christ than might be at first obvious.

The Bible says of Christ that, John 1:11 (KJV)

He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

Notice that David saved Keilah and that despite a number of reasons not to.

David saved Keilah,

I. DESPITE HIS OWN TROUBLES

1 Samuel 23:1-2 (KJV)

Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they rob the threshingfloors.

Therefore David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the LORD said unto David, Go, and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah.

Once again I want to remind you:

A. David had only recently escaped King Saul with his life

He loved the king but the king hated him.

He must have been an emotional wreck.

B. He had only recently learned of the death of the priests in Nob and that because of him

If he had any emotional capitol, he might have wished he could use it to minister to the families of those who had lost loved ones.

C. There are gathered to him about 400 people who are in debtin distressand discontent.

It would seem to me like some time was needed to mold them and build them into a healthy people, much less a fighting unit.

I could see that David might have wished for some time to 

·   Gather his wits about him, maybe

·   Get some rest

·   Identify leaders among his people and

·   Heal some open wounds that most surely existed

He didn’t get the chance to do any of this.

Right away God showed him a people who were threatened and told him to go do something about it.

There is a lesson to be learned here. The way to build people is to put them to work, not coddle their weaknesses.

Haven’t you ever been in a place where you wish you could just take a little bit of a break from the pressure you are under?

A bunch of people let the pressure dictate what they will or will not do.

I want to tell you, the way to have victory over high pressure situations is to dive into the situation.

·   Forget about how hard it is

·   Forget about how tired you are

·   Forget about how unfair it is

Just get busy and get it done!

I heard this week about a unit of Japanese American soldiers during WWII. 

Because they were Japanese most Americans didn’t trust them. They realized how important it was that they prove themselves in combat.

·   They loved the US and wanted us to win but also

·   They knew that, if they failed in duty, it would hurt their families back home

This particular unit was given some of the worst assignments imaginable.

They had just experienced several days of very hard fighting as were supposed to get a little bit of time to rest and recover. But there were 200 American soldiers who were pinned down by the enemy so this unit of Japanese Americans was sent to rescue them.

In the end 400 Japanese American soldiers died rescuing 200 others.

It’s not fair

It’s not right

But they buckled down and got ‘er done.

It is true that our mindsour emotionsand our bodiesneed rest. 

But God will provide them in His own time. 

If we plan our own, we will surely plan too many of them and for too long for it to be good for us.

David saved Keilah despite his own troubles

David saved Keilah,

II. DESPITE ITS DANGEROUS TERRITORY

1 Samuel 23:1 (KJV)

Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they rob the threshingfloors.

His men were more afraid of Keilah than the forests in Judah.

As I understand it, Keilah was situated on the southern border of Judah.

The city itself was in the plains but it butted up against the highlands. So it would have been an easy place for an advancing army to get there quickly but a very difficult place for David and his men to retreat quickly and safely.

But God said to “Go” anyway.

When I enrolled in Bible College God did some really nice things for Anita and me.

Almost as soon as I submitted the paperwork, we heard an ad for a Christian school looking for teachers and Anita is a teacher.

The job provided free housing plus all utilities, including telephone paid, and they even had their own mini store we could get food from once a week.

We lived on the school campus so Anita could walk to work.

It was like a dream situation.

We were regaling all this to one of the missionaries our church supports, Brother and Sister Richard Konnerup. 

Mrs. Konnerup remarked “Don’t get too content in the state you are in.”

We hadn’t moved to Colorado to live in an apartment on this Christian campus.

We hade moved there to be trained so God could sent us into difficult fields of ministry.

I have discovered over the years that way too many Christians determine what they do and where they live based on comfort instead of the will of God and the need for ministry.

·   Pastors leave one church to find another one that is more comfortable, easier.

·   Christians move from one city to another because of a promotion at work, a bigger house or better environment for their kids.

Whoever said you were supposed to be comfortable?

Remember the man born blind in John 9?

John 9:1-3 (KJV)

And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.

And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

This guy had lived all these years blind and 

·   It wasn’t because he had sinned

·   It wasn’t because his parents had sinned

·   It wasn’t any form of chastening at all

This man had lived blind all his childhood

He had been deprived of the joys of playing with other children or the opportunities of financial advancement at work this man had lived blind all of these years so Jesus could prove Himself at this moment.

What are you willing to suffer so Jesus is glorified?

·   What are you willing to do without

·   What discomfort are you willing to endure

for the glory of God?

You know it’s true.

You make most of your decision based on what is best for you and assume that if it is best for you Jesus must want that too.

For David and his men, saving Keilah didn’t seem like what was best for them but it was what God wanted.

David saved Keilah despite his own troubles

David saved Keilah despite its dangerous territory

David saved Keilah,

III. DESPITE THE OPPOSITION OF HIS MEN

1 Samuel 23:3-5 (KJV)

And David's men said unto him, Behold, we be afraid here in Judah: how much more then if we come to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?

Then David enquired of the LORD yet again. And the LORD answered him and said, Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand.

So David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and smote them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.

There is wisdom here. 

When David’s men objected, David went a second time to ask the Lord. 

He did not ignore the concerns of his men. But he did choose to lead them to obey the Lord over their concerns.

One of the things I tell couples is that a wife is not really submissive to her husband unless she submits to him even when he does not do what she wants him to do.

The husband is the head of the home and as such he needs to provide the leadership.

However, he is supposed to do that even as Christ who “loved the church and gave himself for it.”

A wise husband always takes into consideration the wishes of his wife, and if they have children, sometimes even the wishes of the kids. He then makes his decision based on that information and, if he is Christlike, he will sacrifice his own desires for that of his family.

If he wise and Christlike he will use his power to decide do decide to please his family.

But sometimes he knows he can’t do that.

For whatever reason – financial, spiritual, for whatever reason, if he sense that it is not the will of God and he makes a decision that his wife is opposed to, her place is to submit and support his decision.

If the wife is really uncomfortable about it, he ought to spend some extra time in prayer about it, but once he is certain of the Lord’s leading, she ought to support and help him do what he believes God is leading him to do.

This is how I believe a pastor is to lead his congregation.

No pastor would be wise to make decisions and do things in the church without speaking with his congregation about it.

Years ago I knew a preacher who became the pastor of a church down in Vancouver.

He became convinced that his people worshiped the building more than the Lord so one week he went in with a chainsaw and cut out a load bearing wall – the roof collapsed.

He hauled a modular building onto the property and, come Sunday, announced to his church that they would meet in there from then on.

To the credit of the church, they did not insist he leave, but followed him for a number of years after that.

But he was very unwise in his actions.

A wise pastor gets the input of the congregation God has placed him over and he makes decision based on that information.

Many times he will decide that his own goals are not the goals of God because the church members aren’t behind them.

But sometimes he will have to determine that, despite the opposition of the church, he has to lead them to follow God instead of their own hearts.[1]

So David hears about the trouble at Keilah.

He is the sort of man who fights for oppressed people so he immediately asked God and God said, “Go.”

When his people objected, he went to God again, just to make sure he got the message right, still God said, “Go.”

And David led his men to:

·   Do something that was dangerous

·   Do something that they were opposed to and

·   Do it successfully

David saved Keilah despite his own troubles

David saved Keilah despite its dangerous territory

David saved Keilah despite the opposition of his men

David saved Keilah,

IV. DESPITE THE EMINENT ATTACK OF SAUL

1 Samuel 23:7-9a (KJV)

And it was told Saul that David was come to Keilah. And Saul said, God hath delivered him into mine hand; for he is shut in, by entering into a town that hath gates and bars.

And Saul called all the people together to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men.

And David knew that Saul secretly practised mischief against him; ….

Guess what?

The exact thing that David’s men worried about happened.

Just because the congregation is right about the problems a certain decision means doesn’t mean they are right about whether that was the will of God for them.

You know this is true.

In the flesh every one of us would vote to do the 

·   Comfortable, 

·   Safe, 

·   Successful

thing.

Do you imagine that, if General Eisenhower had taken a vote on invading the beaches at Normandy, the majority of soldiers would have been in favor of it?

·   Just because the hard thing is hard and

·   Just because most people don’t want to do that hard thing

Doesn’t mean that God doesn’t want you to do the hard thing.

David saved Keilah despite his own troubles

David saved Keilah despite its dangerous territory

David saved Keilah despite the opposition of his men

David saved Keilah despite the eminent attack of Saul

Finally David saved Keilah,

V. DESPITE THE WICKENESS OF THE MEN OF KEILAH

1 Samuel 23:10-12 (KJV)

Then said David, O LORD God of Israel, thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake.

Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? will Saul come down, as thy servant hath heard? O LORD God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy servant. And the LORD said, He will come down.

Then said David, Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the LORD said, They will deliver thee up.

Here is a really interesting piece of information hidden in this passage.

The word that David used in his phrase “the men of Keilah” is the word Baali.

David must have known they were wicked men, and may have been referring to a particular group in the town who were Baal worshipers.

In effect his prayer was something like this, “Will the baal worshippers of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul?”

·   Maybe he wasn’t concerned about everybody in town.

·   Maybe he was only concerned about these ungodly men.

But you know what?

He saved the city despite the Baali there.

I can think of two applications I want to bring to your attention right now.

A. Someone who has the heart of God will try to win people who almost certainly won’t be saved.

In my mind the first ones I think of are the Muslims.

I understand, from speaking to Bro Tom Wallace who has a ministry to and about Islam, that Muslims are much more open to the gospel than most American Christians think.

There are, of course, some of them who are violent and radical, but Bro Wallace says that is a pretty small minority of Muslims.

Most of them, he says, are:

·   Trapped in the religion

·   Tired of how their religion oppresses them and

·   Trained to listen to Christians teach their own doctrines

Just as in almost every group of people, the most vocal are the violent ones so we only hear the loud minority and not the silent majority.

And the silent majority of Muslims are intimidated by their own violent minority so that they don’t come looking for us to tell them the way of escape from their religion – we have to find them.

How to do this is not entirely certain to me. It is a new field of ministry.

But I can tell you that the first step is to stop being afraid of Muslims and to start speaking with them in friendly tones.

The second application is

B. Someone who has the heart of God will try to win people who are the most reprehensible of sinners.

And in my mind the first ones I think of are Homosexuals.

Several years ago now a preacher I have briefly met and is a friend of some of my friends, wrote a book called “Born That Way After All.”

It’s a book title meant to attract attention because the homosexual community preaches that they can’t change the way they are, they were born that way.

Bro Nixon’s book proposes that many homosexuals were in fact born that way – but not born to be homosexuals, but to be eunuchs unto God.

Jesus said Matthew 19:12 (KJV)

For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.

Some people were designed by God to be single and to devote their lives wholly to a relationship with God.

Anyway, Bro Nixon has been attacked for this book.

One Independent Baptist pastor[2]made a video of himself holding the book while wearing rubber gloves because he said it was probably infected with the aides virus.

He claims that it is impossible for someone who has been involved in the homosexual lifestyle to ever be saved. That they are reprobates and God would not save them even if they did repent and ask Him to.

Brother Nixon has seen a number of people repent of that lifestyle.

There are a whole lot more of them who would just as soon throw him under a bus than to listen to the message he preaches.

But he has a heart to try to save people who might turn against him.

Back in the 1950’s there was a group of five missionaries who believed they were led of God to attempt to reach a tribe of Indians in Equador, called the Auca’s.

Every contact any white people had with them previously had ended in bloodshed, but Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming and Nate Saint had a heart to try to preach the gospel to them.

They were not stupid of naïve about this. They developed a plan and spent months attempting to build a relationship with the Auca’s that would give them the opportunity to preach the gospel to them.

Their plan failed and, in the end, all five were killed by the Auca’s. 

That doesn’t change the thing.

Though they were killed, their wives eventually did make contact with those Auca’s, lived in the huts with the very people who had killed their husbands and won many of them to Christ.

And because of their testimony, the number of people who surrendered to be missionaries swelled over the next several decades.

Conclusion

John 3:16 (KJV)

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Romans 5:8 (KJV)

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

David was a man after God’s own heart.

A heart than sought first of all to save those who were lost.

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[1]This could be in the form of music that is allowed in church or the standards that the teachers submit to or the Bible that is preached from or the preachers that are invited to speak, etc.

[2]I use that term loosely. There are some who claim to be Baptists and are independent of any accountability, who are cult leaders and doctrinally heretical.