1 Samuel 22:5 Sermons: The prophet Gad said to David, "Do not stay in the stronghold. Depart, and go into the land of Judah." Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hereth.

◄ 1 Samuel 22:5 ►

Then the prophet Gad said to David, "Do not stay in the stronghold. Depart and go into the land of Judah." So David left and went to the forest of Hereth.

Sermons

A Summons to Duty	B. Dale	1 Samuel 22:5
A Friend and a Foe	R. E. Faulkner.	1 Samuel 22:5-23

Pulpit Commentary Homiletics

A Summons To Duty

1 Samuel 22:5. (MIZPEH OF MOAB.)

B. Dale

The prophet Gad was probably sent at the instance of Samuel to David, who was now "in the hold" in Moab, and with whom he may have become acquainted at Ramah. His message was important in relation to the future course of David (ver. 3). "According to the counsels of God he was not to seek for refuge outside the land; not only that he might not be estranged from his fatherland and the people of Israel, which would have been opposed to his calling to be king of Israel, but also that he might learn to trust entirely in the Lord as his only refuge and fortress" (Keil). There was also a special reason why he should be recalled in the incursions of the Philistines, which Saul failed to repel (1 Samuel 23:1). And the message furnished a test of his obedience to the will of God as declared by the prophets. "Immediately he conferred not with flesh and blood," but did as he was directed, and thereby afforded an instructive example to others. Consider the message as -

I. COMMUNICATED BY THE PROPHETIC WORD. This word is, for us, contained in the Scriptures of truth."

1. It speaks with authority.

2. It speaks plainly, "in divers manners," according to our need, and "for our good always."

3. It speaks in the reading of the Scriptures, in the voice of preachers and teachers, parents and friends, in the recollections of the memory, and often comes to the heart and conscience with peculiar force. "Believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper" (2 Chronicles 20:20).

II. CALLING TO UNEXPECTED DUTY; unexpected, inasmuch as, not unfrequently -

1. It is such as we should not naturally have supposed.

2. It differs from the course which we have chosen for ourselves. "Abide not in the hold."

3. It requires us to meet unusual difficulties and dangers. "Depart, and get thee into the land of Judah" (into the very presence of a deadly foe). "Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again?" (John 11:8-10; Luke 9:51).

"Do thy duty; that is best;
Leave unto thy Lord the rest."

III. COMPLIED WITH IN A RIGHT MANNER. "And David departed," etc.

1. Without question, like a good soldier at the word of command.

2. Without hesitation or delay.

3. Without fear. How different was it with Saul! (1 Samuel 13:11; 1 Samuel 15:11). "Whosoever will save his life," etc. (Matthew 16:25).

IV. CONDUCTING TO SAFETY, USEFULNESS, AND HONOUR.

1. Safety; for he was "kept by the power of God."

2. Usefulness; for he "saved the inhabitants of Keilah" (1 Samuel 23:5).

3. Honour; for he was more fully recognised as the true defender of Israel against their enemies, and his heroic band was largely increased (1 Samuel 23:13).

"Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dos, wear
The Godhead's most benignant grace;
Nor know we anything so fair
As is the smile upon thy face:

Flowers laugh before thee on their beds,
And fragrance in thy footing treads;
Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong;
And the most ancient heavens through thee are fresh and strong.

Give unto me, made lowly wise,
The spirit of self-sacrifice;
The confidence of reason give,
And in the light of truth thy bondman let me live."

(Wordsworth, 'Ode to Duty.') = - D.

Biblical Illustrator

And the prophet Gad said unto David.

1 Samuel 22:5-23

A friend and a foe

R. E. Faulkner.

I. THE VISIT OF GAD THE SEER. David had been brought very low through his own mistakes. God proved him in the hold. Then He sent to him. Wherever you are, wait for a message from God before you move,

II. SAUL'S APPEAL TO HIS SERVANTS. No one answered it but the alien Doeg. Notice, Herod was an Edomite. The race always conspicuous for hatred to Israel. What circumspection is necessary in God's children! Always a Doeg looking on! (Exodus 23:13; 1 Peter 2:12, 15, 16.) False witness, often nearly true. "A lie that is half a truth is ever the worst of lies" (Mark 14:55-59; Matthew 26:61). Built on supposition (Acts 21:27-29).

III. "GOD FULFILS HIMSELF IN MANY WAYS." The massacre of Nob, though unjustifiable in Saul, was God's sentence on Eli's house (1 Samuel 3:12-14; Isaiah 5:7, etc.) .

IV. SECURITY WITH DAVID (verse 23). This was beautiful faith. The outcast promising protection because the Lord was with him. He was willing to protect him with his life. So was Jesus. He was not only willing, but He did it (1 John 3:8, 16).

(R. E. Faulkner.)

People

Abiathar, Ahimelech, Ahitub, Benjamin, Benjaminites, Benjamites, David, Doeg, Gad, Goliath, Jesse, Saul

Places

Adullam, Gibeah, Hereth, Mizpeh, Moab, Nob

Topics

Abide, David, Depart, Departed, Entered, Entereth, Forest, Fortress, Gad, Hareth, Hast, Hereth, Hold, Judah, Prophet, Stay, Stronghold, Woodland

Outline

1. Companies resort unto David at Adullam
3. At Mizpeh he commends his parents unto the king of Moab
5. Admonished by Gad, he comes to Hareth,
6. Saul going to pursue him, complains of his servants' unfaithfulness
9. Doeg accuses Ahimelech
11. Saul commands to kill the priests
17. The footmen refusing, Doeg executes it
20. Abiathar escaping, brings David the news

Dictionary of Bible Themes

1 Samuel 22:5

4448 forests

1 Samuel 22:1-5

5086 David, rise of

1 Samuel 22:3-5

7266 tribes of Israel

Library

Covenanting Confers Obligation.
As it has been shown that all duty, and that alone, ought to be vowed to God in covenant, it is manifest that what is lawfully engaged to in swearing by the name of God is enjoined in the moral law, and, because of the authority of that law, ought to be performed as a duty. But it is now to be proved that what is promised to God by vow or oath, ought to be performed also because of the act of Covenanting. The performance of that exercise is commanded, and the same law which enjoins that the duties …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

The Exile Continued.
"So David fled, and escaped and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done unto him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth" (1 Sam. xix. 18)--or, as the word probably means, in the collection of students' dwellings, inhabited by the sons of the prophets, where possibly there may have been some kind of right of sanctuary. Driven thence by Saul's following him, and having had one last sorrowful hour of Jonathan's companionship--the last but one on earth--he fled to Nob, whither …
Alexander Maclaren—The Life of David

The Exile --Continued.
We have one psalm which the title connects with the beginning of David's stay at Adullam,--the thirty-fourth. The supposition that it dates from that period throws great force into many parts of it, and gives a unity to what is else apparently fragmentary and disconnected. Unlike those already considered, which were pure soliloquies, this is full of exhortation and counsel, as would naturally be the case if it were written when friends and followers began to gather to his standard. It reads like …
Alexander Maclaren—The Life of David

Ramah. Ramathaim Zophim. Gibeah.
There was a certain Ramah, in the tribe of Benjamin, Joshua 18:25, and that within sight of Jerusalem, as it seems, Judges 19:13; where it is named with Gibeah:--and elsewhere, Hosea 5:8; which towns were not much distant. See 1 Samuel 22:6; "Saul sat in Gibeah, under a grove in Ramah." Here the Gemarists trifle: "Whence is it (say they) that Ramah is placed near Gibea? To hint to you, that the speech of Samuel of Ramah was the cause, why Saul remained two years and a half in Gibeah." They blindly …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

And V the Kingdom Undivided and the Kingdom Divided
THE HISTORICAL BOOKS: I and II Samuel. I and II Kings. I and II Chronicles. NOTE.--As these three pairs of books are so closely related in their historical contents, it is deemed best to study them together, though they overlap the two divisions of IV and V. I. CHARTS Chart A. General Contents +--+ " I AND II SAMUEL " +-------------+-----+------+ "Samuel "Saul "David " +-------------+-----+------+----------+ " " " " I AND II KINGS "NOTE.--Biblical …
Frank Nelson Palmer—A Bird's-Eye View of the Bible

Subterraneous Places. Mines. Caves.
Thus having taken some notice of the superficies of the land, let us a little search into its bowels. You may divide the subterraneous country into three parts: the metal mines, the caves, and the places of burial. This land was eminently noted for metal mines, so that "its stones," in very many places, "were iron, and out of its hills was digged brass," Deuteronomy 8:9. From these gain accrued to the Jews: but to the Christians, not seldom slavery and misery; being frequently condemned hither by …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

Of Antichrist, and his Ruin: and of the Slaying the Witnesses.
BY JOHN BUNYAN PREFATORY REMARKS BY THE EDITOR This important treatise was prepared for the press, and left by the author, at his decease, to the care of his surviving friend for publication. It first appeared in a collection of his works in folio, 1692; and although a subject of universal interest; most admirably elucidated; no edition has been published in a separate form. Antichrist has agitated the Christian world from the earliest ages; and his craft has been to mislead the thoughtless, by …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Samuel
Alike from the literary and the historical point of view, the book[1] of Samuel stands midway between the book of Judges and the book of Kings. As we have already seen, the Deuteronomic book of Judges in all probability ran into Samuel and ended in ch. xii.; while the story of David, begun in Samuel, embraces the first two chapters of the first book of Kings. The book of Samuel is not very happily named, as much of it is devoted to Saul and the greater part to David; yet it is not altogether inappropriate, …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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