1.  If you read biographies or watch the television program “Biography” you notice a pattern that is frequent in the lives of many great leaders. Early success and then years of obscurity and hardship – even rejection and exile. Two good examples are Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln. Child stars and prodigies often experience the same. Writers and artists may show promise – even brilliance – and then languish for decades before creating anything again. One hit wonders are common in music as are novelists who cannot produce a second best seller. Sometimes circumstances change beyond their control. Silent movie star Rudolph Valentino’s voice was not suitable for movies with sound. Yasha Heifitz was brilliant as an untaught prodigy but being taught how to read music ruined him for years. Marlon Brando had been in a ten year box office slump before “The Godfather” revived his career. Steven Jobs was fired from Apple when the company decided to move to professional management. George Washington lost more battles than he won for years while he waited for the one great victory that would undermine the moral support in England for the foreign war in America.

The same is true in Scripture. Look at the life of Moses. A prince of Egypt is self-exiled in the desert as a sheep herder for forty years. Caleb is forced to wander in the wilderness with the disobedient Israelites for forty years until he can take the land and fight the giants he saw as a young man.

In other words, early success – even brilliance is no guarantee of longevity or continued success.

Saints often go through years of what is called “the dark night of the soul” where they lose their connection with God and their prayer life dries up. Just read Mother Teresa’s journals or the writings of the early church fathers. Psalm 23 calls it the “Valley of the Shadow of Death” and that is accurate. It is not actual death but sometimes more painful than death.

These people battle for years with doubt – especially self-doubt.

They wrestle with fear, loss of confidence, loss of direction.

They fail where they used to win. They go into slumps and dry periods. You remember what Tom Hanks says to Gina Davis in the movie “A League of Their Own” when she wants to quit because it is too hard? “Of course it’s hard. If it wasn’t hard everyone would do it. It’s the hard that makes it great.

They face rejection instead of applause.

Sometimes merely associating with them endangers the careers and even lives of others.

It is what John Wooden, the great basketball coach at UCLA, called adversity. “Adversity is the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.” It’s true. How we handle adversity determines our character.

“So it is more useful to watch a man in times of peril, and in adversity to discern what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask is torn off, reality remains.”
― Titus Lucretius Carus

It is the necessary transition from the charmed life of early success and admiration to the courageous life.

2.  The passage this morning is taken from 1 Samuel 21-22.

21:1-22
22:6-23

Where was the sword hidden? In Nob, a city belonging to Saul’s tribe. It had been in David’s tent after killing Goliath but had somehow been moved. It was part of a pattern with Saul’s obsession with claiming credit for the victories of others and his fear of discovery. Time and again he reacts violently to the people’s praise of David. He lives in dread of losing face and being shamed.

But it’s the sword itself that is so interesting to me because swords through all of history have had unusual power. There are many, many stories of the discovery of the hidden sword.

Some of you remember the “Highlander” series where the swords were hidden and then appear out of nowhere.

In the “Lord of the Rings” there is the search for the lost sword of Gondor that glows blue in the presence of Orcs.

Part of the plot of the “Three Musketeers” is the reclaiming of the stolen sword of D’Artagna’s father.

We all remember the enchanted sword – Excalibur – whose rightful owner would be king if he could draw it out of the stone.

The ownership of the sword is always a symbol of unique power and position. It’s different from a gun, isn’t it? It’s what makes Samurai stories hard to translate into Westerns even though Clint Eastwood has tried. There is something about a sword that carries extra weight and symbolism. Don’t you get some of that feel from this story of the recovery of the lost sword of Goliath? Here is the true king who has recovered his sword.

But there is something else in the re-discovery of the sword. There is the power of remembering when you are running. What was it like when he last saw the sword?

Look at 1 Samuel 17:45-47:

45 David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

We, like David, when we are faced with adversity need to remember those times in our own lives when faced with enemies that seem too large and everyone around us is too afraid to act. We need to remember those times we were willing to risk for the honor of God with very little concern for our own lives or position. We need most of all to remember those times when God was faithful. We don’t need to reminisce – but to remember what God has done and who we really are.

That is why Scripture tells us so many times to remember – not to reminisce. Remember what you were when God called you. Remember who God is. Remember what God has done. More than 40 times in the Psalms David reminds us to “remember” God’s goodness, faithfulness, and everlasting love.

While much of the whole book of 1 Samuel is about the unraveling of Saul, we see it clearly here. He is sitting with all his officials around him and paranoid about a non-existing conspiracy against him. “None of you is concerned about me or tells me that my son has incited my servant to lie in wait for me, as he does today.”

Only Doeg speaks up but does so without telling the whole truth. Fearful leaders attract people like this who have figured out how things work. Later, David writes about him in Psalm 52:

1 Why do you boast of evil, you mighty hero?
Why do you boast all day long,
you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?
2 You who practice deceit,
your tongue plots destruction;
it is like a sharpened razor.
3 You love evil rather than good,
falsehood rather than speaking the truth.[c]
4 You love every harmful word,
you deceitful tongue!
5 Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin:
He will snatch you up and pluck you from your tent;
he will uproot you from the land of the living.
6 The righteous will see and fear;
they will laugh at you, saying,
7 “Here now is the man
who did not make God his stronghold
but trusted in his great wealth
and grew strong by destroying others!”

And in response, Saul does to his own family what he could not do to the enemy years before. He kills them all. It’s like a scene from the Godfather when Al Pacino is asked if he is going to kill everyone and he says, “Not everyone – only my enemies.” He discovers what Saul knew before him. Everyone, in the end, is an enemy.

Many avoid it because the pain is intense. Some even want to protect them from it. But a few go all the way through it and discover their true selves. “Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from all all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are.”

3.  And here, for me, is the essence of the story. It is the development of David from a charmed life to a courageous life. I like the way General Douglas MacArthur puts it. “Last, but by no means least, courage -moral courage- the courage of one’s convictions, the courage to see things through. The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It’s the age-old struggle – the roar of the crowd on one side and the voice of your conscience on the other.”

What do you do when the crowds are no longer there and you are being betrayed by those who found it convenient to support you when you were the fair-haired boy and in favor with the court? What do you do when you are an exile from what you once enjoyed?

David’s response:

a.  “I am responsible”. It is not overwhelming guilt but a simple statement of acceptance. “Your father died for me. A whole village died for me.” We all remember the response of Herod in Matthew 2:16-18. When he realized he had been outwitted he was furious and gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under. This is the slaughter of the innocents. Innocent people die when evil people are provoked.

b.  “Stay with me”. David is not alone at the beginning when he pretends to have men with him. Look at who has followed him. “All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.” Again, it’s not unlike those who came to Jesus and those he chose for disciples. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:26. “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential. not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are.”

c.  “Don’t be afraid”. Fear is never completely gone but we don’t live in fear. That is what happened to Saul. He lives out the rest of his life in fear. David is not a comic book superhero. He still has times of fear but he does not live in fear. That is the difference between charm and courage. It is the difference between an anointed life and a problem free life.

d.  “You are safe with me”. For David, there is no more complete freedom because he is now responsible for people. He has commitments and obligations that will tie him down for the rest of his life. He has set the pattern of his own leadership – his commitment to take care of people for generations, especially the weak. Look at his treatment of Mephibosheth, the crippled son of Saul. He was committed to those who disappointed him and disagreed with him. Look at Absalom, Joab and the prophet Shimei. As well, he had the extraordinary ability to attract champions – like the “mighty men” in 2 Samuel 23:8 who risked their lives to get David a drink of water.

David’s life took a turn that defined him for the rest of his life. “My life has changed. I didn’t choose it. It was forced on me but God has a purpose for my life.”

Billy Graham said, “Comfort and prosperity have never enriched the world as much as adversity has”, and that is probably true of our own lives as well as the life of David.

It’s the hinge point in his life – and often the hinge point in some of ours. There are things we don’t choose and that is the beginning of true courage. “Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death you are with me.”