David Flees

1 Samuel 21: 1-15

The Reformer's Fire
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Exposition by Max A Forsythe

Question 68:
What is required in the sixth commandment?
Answer 68:
The sixth commandment requireth all lawful endeavors to preserve our own life, and the life of others.

While the sixth commandment seems very simple on the surface, there are complexities that are well drawn out in this sixty-eighth question of our catechism. Even more so does Question 135 of our Larger Catechism cover the true spiritual depths in meaning. So for this and the next two weeks we will study the considerable teachings associated with the sixth commandment.

Earlier, when we considered the psalm that is yoked with our passage from Samuel, some may have objected to my linking the destruction of the priests of Nob with the fact that David endangered them by seeking their help. We should realize from Psalm 34 that David's actions were accomplished because of his fear rather than the instructions of the Spirit. Only when David comes to the Spirit does he realize the danger he has put himself in as well as the leaders of the Old Covenant congregation who were slaughtered by King Saul's pagan associate.

How extremely well does this passage point out to us the teachings of our catechism that we are required by all lawful endeavors to preserve our own life and the lives of others. Unfortunately, David like Shakespeare's later Hamlet, pretends to be mad as the proverbial hatter to work out his political agenda. Providentially, unlike the Great Dane, David survives his escapades and honors His Lord and God with praise and thanksgiving. How much more noble would Hamlet have been if he like David had learned to depend upon providence instead of just bemoaning the fact that his kingdom had been usurped.

I do not know how many of you are familiar with the story of Hamlet, but unlike one of my students imagined, hamlet is not an omelette with pork! No, indeed, it is one of the Bard's greatest works and the difference between Shakespeare's character and God's character David, are great indeed. By his constant brooding, scheming and conniving to unseat his Uncle's usurpation, Hamlet destroys the love of his live, his mother and the whole sorry group of coconspirators. A lesson not unlearned by the rich and powerful in England. Given the tragic instructions of this and other plays by Sir William, the crowned heads of England and Scotland became a more civilized race. The great wars of the Roses and that of the Hundred Years over dynastic rivalry are finally tamed in the civilizing influences of the Bard's English which James the King make's England's own in the Bible set in the common tongue.

In all cultured homes, even down to the forties in our own country, any family with even minimal pretensions to being civilized would have a copy of the Bard's tales and a King James Bible somewhere on a shelf, coffee table or even well read to attest to their commitment to civilization in our western society. While the Bard is sometimes risque in his observations upon human frailties, constantly he sheds the light of providence upon tragedy, comedy and history. His great hero, "the Star of England", one Henry the 5th, speaks line after line about the God of heaven who enabled his rabble band to destroy the glory of France's nobility at Agincourt.

The wicked imitation of Ahab & Jezebel, otherwise named Thane & Lady Macbeth show how the insatiable desire to take to themselves the power of kingship by any and all means must ultimately lead to judgment and disaster. American writers in praying for Divine deliverance from the agents of another King coined the phrase "sic semper tyrannous". So always to tyrants as we would understand that in plain English. And may any "royal" couple who would demean and debase republican democracy which we have inherited from our Reformational heritage, may their fall from power be as certain and swift as that of the Macbeths and the House of Ahab! And may we all be thankful that such political changes in our day are not as bloody as history records from the past.

Of course, while we may pray for a revival, reformation and readjustment of the economic and political order in our day and time, in conjunction with this commandment, we must be extremely prudent in our association with any who espouse revolutionary activity or who seek to wreck bloodshed upon those who would enslave us or those who do destroy the weakest and least members of society. A lot of people would consider us extreme right wing because of the doctrines of grace and like Ahab's denouncement of Elijah, we conservative churchmen can easily be painted as troublers of of Israel. The right wing conspiracy theory has seemingly worked once again in the Media to put behind any judgmental assertions that the commandments have any importance in public society in our decade and century.

However, the reality of the matter is that the conservative movement has proved as little troubling as one tiny speck of sand in a quart of oil, when compared to the teaspoon full of sugar added to every gallon of gas used to empower the ship of state. Yes, we may feel like fleeing with David from the centers of power, but to do so would abandon this generation to the relative fate and fads of political correctness.

I once heard a feminist assert in public that it was time that white anglo-saxon protestant males were put out of power so that the killings associated with wars and genocide might finally cease. If this century be one in question, I would lay the battle deaths and related sufferings of the defensive wars fought by the men of the civilized Western powers alongside the feminist destruction of thirty-five million unborn any day of the week! Yes, all of those of us who claim the civilization empowered by the Holy Spirit, must always be careful and circumspect that we do not flee our responsibilities of leadership like David. Yes, we must be faithful in upholding biblical relationships within the home and society even in the face of opposition and even persecution. But we must speak the mind of God in all matters whether they be popular or not.

In all familial relationships, as well as political ones, the sooner truth of character is announced from the housetops and the public is aroused, the fewer are those who will be troubled or destroyed by public tyranny. By our standards of civilization the true Christian Church must by "all careful studies, and lawful endeavors, to preserve the life of ourselves and others, by resisting all thoughts and purposes, subduing all passions, and avoiding all occasions, temptations, and practices, which tend to the unjust taking away the life of any". That means pointedly three things in relation to the sixth commandment.

First, we are to resist the world spirit of the day that would rationalize and relativize every public attitude and biblical standard. Sin is sin, crime is crime and we may define them very succinctly from the revelations of scripture and the ongoing actions and reactions of history. Either the Law is King or the King is law. It doesn't matter if the "king" be the popular view of the majority or the familial power behind a powerful office. Every man, woman and child is called by the law of God to respect the lives of people, whether they be born or not! The purity of the law and the Spirit requires nothing less than this understanding. And whenever, or wherever the power of Christ's Church is used to support the destruction of human life, there you have a worldly new age organization and no church of the living God. Any of God's elect who find themselves in such ungodly denominations would be well advised to carefully consider their association with any organization that does not respect God's sixth commandment.

Second, all of the elect must be very judicious in looking into every nook and cranny of their lives to see if there be any habits or social relationships which lead to the destruction of themselves or other people. The alcoholic should consider the impact of his favorite chemicals not only upon his own liver, but also upon the soured relationships of every year he has created co-dependents. The lover of lust should consider the impact of his eye candy upon the lives of those who produce and participate in the inflaming of society. The misery of love lost and relationships shattered is as old as the tale of Camelot. But the broken families, wounded and abused children is real and life long lasting. Our passions must be subdued and the practices related to them must cease or we like David would be implicated in the deaths of those whom we would use for our own escapades.

One last point that is increasingly necessary. What with the increasing leftist extremism in the sites of power, there has unfortunately been a growth in rightist extremism which has led to the storing away of arms and the adoption of a siege mentality amongst many theonomists. Throw away the Militia papers, the extremist trash and learn once again to depend upon God and learn to trust in His providence. Had David not panicked and ran, and in doing so cause the deaths of so many friends, the Lord's purpose would have still been worked out. If the nineteen century abolitionists would have been willing to work with John Quincy Adams to effect a forty year plan to end slavery which he had negotiated with the Southern Senators, the American Civil War could have been avoided in the next generation.

May we take this commandment to heart and in so doing avoid the death and destruction of any new civil war which might remotely be possible. If the God of heaven can destroy the strongest communist power in the world in a couple of months, just so can he bring any government to its knees and bring the people to repentance, reformation and revival. Let us pray constantly that He might accomplish those ends in our own time.

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