I'll read 1 Samuel chapter 26, trusting that it's God's inspired, inerrant, infallible, clear, powerful, sufficient word for you and me, his people.
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And went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand chosen men of Israel with him to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph.
And Saul encamped in the hill of Zekala, which is opposite Jeshimon, by the road.
But David stayed in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness.
David therefore sent out spies, and he understood that Saul had indeed come.
So David arose and came to the place where Saul had encamped.
And David saw the place where Saul had lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the commander of his army.
Now Saul lay within the camp, and the people encamped all around him.
Then David answered and said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother of Joab, saying,
Who will go down with me to Saul in the camp?
And Abishai said, I will go down with you.
So David and Abishai came to the people by night, and there Saul lay sleeping within the camp,
his spear stuck in the ground by his head, and Abner and the people lay all around him.
Then Abishai said to David, God has delivered your enemy into your hand this day.
Now therefore please let me strike him at once with the spear right to the earth, and I will not have to strike him a second time.
But David said to Abishai, do not destroy him, for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless?
David said, furthermore, as the Lord lives, the Lord shall strike him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall go down to the battle and perish.
The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed.
But please take now the spear and the jug of water that are by his head and let us go.
So David took the spear and the jug of water by Saul's head, and they got away.
And no man saw or knew it or awoke, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen on them.
Now David went over to the other side and stood on the top of a hill far off, a great distance between them.
And David called out to the people and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, do you not answer, Abner?
Then Abner answered and said, who are you calling out to the king?
So David said to Abner, are you not a man?
And who is like you in Israel?
Why then have you not guarded your Lord, the king?
For one of the people came in to destroy your Lord, the king.
This thing that you have done is not good.
As the Lord lives, you deserve to die because you have not guarded your master, the Lord's anointed.
And now see where the king's spear is and the jug of water that was by his head.
Then Saul knew David's voice and said, is that your voice, my son David?
And David said, it is my voice, O Lord, O king.
And he said, why does my Lord thus pursue his servant?
What have I done or what evil is in my hand?
Now, therefore, please let my Lord, the king, hear the words of his servant.
If the Lord has stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering.
But if it is the children of men, may they be cursed before the Lord.
For they have driven me out this day from sharing in the inheritance of the Lord, saying,
Go, therefore, and serve other gods.
So now do not let my blood fall on the earth before the face of the Lord.
For the king of Israel has come out to seek a flea, as when one hunts a partridge in the mountains.
Then Saul said to David, I have sinned.
Return, my son, for I will harm you no more, because my life was precious in your eyes this day.
Indeed, I have played the fool and erred exceedingly.
And David answered and said, here is the king's spear.
Let one of the young men come over and get it.
May the Lord repay every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness.
For the Lord delivered you into my hand today, but I would not stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed.
And indeed, as your life was valued much this day in my eyes,
so let my life be valued much in the eyes of the Lord and let him deliver me out of all tribulation.
Then Saul said to David, may you be blessed, my son David.
You shall both do great things and also still prevail.
So David went on his way and Saul returned to his place.
The word of God for the people of God.
Thanks be to God.
Please be seated.
Let's pray.
Oh, Lord, we thank you for your word that's living and active in the hand of the Holy Spirit, sharper than a two-edged sword.
We pray that your word, Lord, your sword will pierce into our hearts, divide us, expose us like no man, no words of man ever could.
Lord, we trust in your providence and your sovereignty.
We trust that you speak to your people.
You speak to us as a congregation as we come before you, as we listen, as we pray.
Lord, we ask that by your power, by your ministry, for your glory and for Christ's sake, you will do that for this church today.
Amen.
When is it hardest to wait?
We have to wait a lot in life.
For me, it's hardest when I'm not comfortable.
I had inflammation in one of my knees the last week or so.
You probably noticed me limping a little bit last week.
And it's hard even to drive from one place to the other and wait when you're not comfortable.
It's also hard to wait when there is no end in sight.
Some of you might feel like you're stuck on that right now.
I can't tell when this hard, stressful season will come to an end.
It might also be hard for you to wait when friends or other voices in your life or voices online are telling you that it's been long enough.
And they're giving you advice to say, you don't need to wait anymore.
Take matters into your own hands.
I think it's also very hard for us to wait in a lot of different settings when we we seem to recognize a broken pattern and we see it repeating itself.
It's hard to wait upon the Lord.
In this chapter, these 25 verses, David faces each of those temptations.
So waiting upon the Lord gets harder and harder and it's compounded upon him.
My goal in moving through this passage with you one more time is to analyze this chapter in its broader context in five different ways.
There's even more ways we could, but five for today.
And with God's help, I want to highlight and put before you a central theme, which is an encouragement for us who love and long for more of the Messiah's kingdom.
That theme is this.
Wait upon the Lord.
David's in the wilderness.
As Jonathan prayed in our opening prayer.
It's a wilderness out there in this world.
There's much trouble.
It's a parched and weary land and we get tired.
So my encouragement from this passage is that we wait upon the Lord in the wilderness.
Well, let's begin our analysis.
The first observation I want to bring to you is to notice all the parallels between this chapter 26 and the chapter that was two before this one.
Flip back in your copy of God's word to chapter 24.
And as you're scanning that, let me let me trace the connections between the two.
It's a repeat of all the same events and broad strokes in the exact same order.
And we just have to pay attention to that.
So I'll give you the verses in chapter 26 and you can flip between the two and see them for yourselves in chapter 24.
In both chapters, David is hiding in the wilderness in Judah in the southern region.
In both chapters, spies or informants come up from the wilderness in the land of Judah like the Ziphites to inform Saul way up in Gibeah, the headquarters of his Benjamin tribe up north.
And they come to tell Saul of David's location.
In both chapters, Saul travels with 3000 chosen men like we see in verse two.
Then David finds Saul vulnerable in chapter 26.
It's verse seven.
He's vulnerable because he's in a deep sleep.
And in chapter 24, it's because he's in a cave going to relieve himself.
In both chapters, David's soldiers are the ones who tempt David to kill Saul or to let them kill him.
To take matters into their own hands.
And they claim that God has delivered the enemy into his hand like verse six.
But in both chapters, David refuses to strike and he insists that no one can stretch out their hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless.
Like in verse nine.
In both chapters, David takes something that is Saul's.
In chapter 26, verse 12, it's the spear and the jug of water that were both by his head.
In chapter 24, do you remember what it was?
He cut off the corner of the rope.
And then in both chapters from a safe distance, like in verse 13, David calls out over the camp and to Saul's entire army.
And then Saul recognizes David's voice.
And he asked, is this your voice, David, my son?
Like in verse 17.
Then David presents his defense.
And he asks, what evil did I do?
He claims he's innocent.
Like in verse 18.
In both cases, David compares himself to a nothing like a flea or a bird in the mountains.
Being hunted by a powerful, mighty king that has a whole army.
In both chapters, like in verse 21, Saul admits, I have sinned.
He says that with his lips, at least.
And he blesses David.
They go on their separate ways.
And that's how the chapter comes to a close.
In verse 25 of chapter 26.
Aren't those parallels remarkable?
We have to pay attention now.
This is a literary device using historical narrative to draw our attention.
24 and 26 parallel.
There's David.
He's in the wilderness.
He's maybe more comfortable now in 26 because he's not hiding in a cave.
And maybe he's living in his new home now that he's married to Abigail.
Or the other wife he took from Judah.
But he's still not in the land that God has promised.
He's not ruling as king.
He's still in the wilderness.
He's still outside of the beaten path.
He's in a period of waiting.
And it seems like for David, at least by the end of the chapter, there is no end in sight.
He's waiting upon the Lord, but he doesn't know when the Lord is going to take Saul out.
He just knows it's not his time to do that right now.
And the third observation is that David's flesh could have easily been stirred up by the words of these soldiers and these men that come with him in both chapters.
And if we can recognize that pattern so clearly now in reading these chapters and briefly reflecting on it, how much more for David and all his men living through that?
There is a broken pattern here with King Saul.
And it's so obvious.
How can King Saul miss this?
And how can the rest of the nation continue to support this wicked, broken king?
Yet David waits upon the Lord.
And the simple application is that the Lord is pleased with this response from David.
Even from the lips of his enemy, the Lord blesses David for waiting upon him.
That's the first analysis, the parallels between chapters 24 and 26.
The second analysis I'd like to walk us through are now the differences.
When these two chapters are set up so similarly, it's almost like you've done those things when you get a menu, like a kid's menu, and you see two pictures that at first glance they look identical.
And it forces you to pay attention and see differences now.
And the purpose of this is to highlight the emphasis given to what's new now the second time.
Sometimes we'll get this with just two lines of parallelism.
It seems like the same theme almost word for word but intensified.
And so those details in which they're different intensifies what we're supposed to notice and pay attention to.
Let me point out at least three important differences now in chapter 26 compared to chapter 24.
I think you've already recognized these two.
Let me just make sure we're tracking together.
The first one, there's a difference in what David takes from Saul.
You notice that one.
In chapter 24, he takes that little corner of Saul's robe.
And now in chapter 26, he takes the jug of water and the spear.
Some have pointed out that this shows an intensification or a movement of progression highlighting Saul's demise.
Saul is getting weaker and weaker and he is on his way out.
Saul not only lost the office and the dignity by having the robe, the corner of the robe torn away, a symbol of the king, kingly garment with the law attached to the corner.
Now the spear represents his power.
He's powerless.
And the jug of water represents basic life support.
He has the title of king.
He's honored as the one the Lord anointed for this office.
But now in David's hands are not only the anointing, but also every symbol of actual survival, authority, life and power.
The second difference between these two chapters is is how the Lord protected David in chapter 24.
The Lord protected David by putting Saul in a vulnerable position alone inside a cave.
But now in chapter 26, Saul isn't going to make that mistake anymore.
Did you notice Saul's in the middle in the midst of the people?
It says the people are these 3000 chosen men and his right hand man Abner is the bodyguard.
But he's not going to be caught all alone in a cave this time.
It's almost asking, you know, OK, bring it on now, David.
Let's see if the Lord will help you in this case.
And certainly the Lord does.
David in verse 12, along with Abishai, were able to enter all the way past.
At least if it's like the radius, it's 1500 chosen men to get to the middle and then all the way back out.
That's a lot of sleeping soldiers you have to tiptoe past.
And if he had hung his robe up in the cave and that's how you didn't hear the sound of cloth being cut, the spear and the jug are both by his head.
Right close to your ear where you should be able to if you don't see something because you're you're sleeping the night watch.
You would hear it at least and be startled to wake up.
But the Lord puts not only saw and Abner is right hand man, but the entire army of 3000 chosen soldiers into a deep sleep.
Sleep. A deep sleep, we're told from the Lord.
It's the same Hebrew word used in Genesis 221 when Adam was put into a deep sleep and the Lord took from Adam's side and formed woman.
And it's also the same Hebrew word used in Genesis 1512.
A dreadful darkness or a deep sleep fell upon Abraham and the Lord passed through to solidify the covenant.
So this wasn't just physical exhaustion.
This was God demonstrating his power, divine providence shooting his anointed one for God's purposes.
David's safety did not depend on him being stealthy or a good soldier, but on God's active protection.
Doesn't that just draw out the irony here?
Saw thought that by bringing 3000 children chosen men and keeping watch for David around the clock, he would be safe.
Yet God made it so that not a single eye could stay open to accomplish his purpose.
And then the third difference that I want to highlight for today, at least, is who David addresses at the end of it.
Chapter 24, David is speaking directly to King Saul and talking about the advice he got from others.
But did you notice in chapter 26, David addresses someone different.
He speaks directly now to Abner first.
Abner was Saul's cousin.
He was the commander of the army.
He was the most powerful military figure in the kingdom of Saul and his role in this chapter.
It's a critique of Saul's reliance on human power.
In verses 15 and 16, notice what David does.
He publicly shames Abner.
He says, are you not a man who in Israel is like you?
David points out that Abner deserves to die because he failed to guard the Lord's anointed.
David, who Saul regards as an enemy, proved to be a better protector of the king's life than the man that Saul considered his most loyal commander.
David's restraint by the grace of Saul did more to keep Saul alive than Abner, along with 3,000 of his men.
He's showing that protection is best left in the hands of God.
Divine protection will far outweigh anything human effort can bring.
Abner, for Israel, represents the peak of human military strength, yet he's rendered useless by the active power of God, putting him all into this deep sleep.
And it reinforces the theme that Samuel has preached to the nation.
And they've so quickly forgotten.
Israel, your God is the Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies.
The battle belongs to the Lord.
Don't you see it now?
So the conclusion in these differences is the same.
Wait upon Yahweh, Lord of hosts.
He will fight for you.
The battle is the Lord's.
The third analysis I'd like to draw your attention to is on two different relationships with God.
First, Saul's relationship with God and the next, David's relationship with God.
And it's revealed in the theology of this chapter.
Think of the picture painted for us of King Saul with these men in the deep sleep at nighttime in the dark of the wilderness.
It highlights the failure of Saul's pattern of ruling the nation depending on himself.
And it also shows us the spiritual state of the kingdom under King Saul.
Just as the camp was physically asleep and Abner is unaware of the danger, Saul and this nation of Israel that wanted him as king, they are asleep to God's will.
Psalm 63 is a wonderful psalm.
We're told it's a psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah at this moment.
And notice to some of the language David, David cries out and sings.
If not in the moment, then in retrospect, he says the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped.
God will stop their mouths.
He will shut them up.
And those who seek my life to destroy it shall go to the underground.
They shall fall by the sword and they shall be the feast of jackals.
A jackal is like an Israeli coyote.
It's a scavenger dog of the wilderness.
And that's the fate of Saul and those that rely on the pattern of the world.
If you do not wait on the Lord, you take matters into your own hands and you think you're the king forever for your own glory.
You have death coming your way.
It's the way that perishes.
See the broken relationship between Saul and God and how it affects everything under Saul's jurisdiction.
But by contrast, look at David's relationship with God.
In the dark of the night, a deep sleep over the entire army.
David is the only one awake.
Physically and spiritually in that moment, you can say.
David's discerning God's timing and refusing to take matters into his own hands.
And this is complex.
And we have to understand here what God's given us.
Raises maybe more questions than we have answers for.
Was it the Lord that caused David to go and tiptoe?
And he was he was leading.
Who will come with me to go do this?
We don't know.
Was it the Lord stirring him?
Was that a moment of weakness in his flesh?
We certainly know it was the Lord restraining David in that moment, standing over Saul.
And we can let our imagination just just, you know, think through the dominoes as they would have tipped the other way.
If Abishai with David would have taken that spear.
And like he said, with one fell swoop, pinned Saul into the earth.
Most likely Saul would have let out a great scream.
The entire nation's army, the 3,000 chosen men, if God would have allowed them, could have woken up in that moment.
And if in the cave David had the opportunity to walk out to the edge of the cave like that with the head of Saul dangling there.
And pronouncing now I'm your new king, follow me.
Those soldiers would have followed him.
What would have been the reaction now?
Here's Saul pinned to the earth.
Crazy Saul.
And here's David with his right hand man.
They probably would have taken out Abner too.
And now receive your new king and your new commander.
And here's 3,000 men now ready to go to battle and follow David.
God had anointed him, by the way.
Since we don't have more details here, let's turn again to Psalm 63.
And hear these words beginning at verse 19 and then also verse 24.
David says, if the Lord has stirred you up against me.
This is in our own passage.
Verse 19.
Let the Lord accept an offering.
An insight into David's relationship with God.
He says, if I have sinned and God is sending you to judge me and punish me.
I know the Lord is compassionate.
There's forgiveness of sins for sinners like me.
Let the Lord accept the sacrifice that he's provided.
That's his way of showing mercy.
But if the children of men are the ones stirring you up against me, let them be cursed before the Lord.
For they have driven me out this day from sharing in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, go serve other gods.
You see, in verse 19 of 1 Samuel 26, David is saying, I was kicked out of the land by the nation.
They're saying, we don't want you to be a servant of God here.
Go serve pagan gods.
You don't have any inheritance from the Lord in this land.
They've excommunicated David.
In verse 24 of 1 Samuel 26, David says, as your life was valued much this day in my eyes.
So let my life be valued much in the eyes of the Lord and let him deliver me out of all tribulation.
His relationship with the Lord is trusting God's grace through the sacrificial system and trusting in God's forgiveness and restoration.
The Lord will value my life.
The Lord wants to take me out.
May he do it.
But if the Lord preserves me, it's because of his favor to me.
In Psalm 63, David cries out, I will meditate on you, Lord, in the night watches.
Everyone's asleep.
It's the night watch.
David's using spies.
He's staying awake.
He's finding out the strategic moment to advance.
And in that moment, according to Psalm 63, David is waiting upon the Lord.
He's seeking God's mind.
In these two relationships with God, in this contrast, we can learn as well.
We need to wait upon the Lord in the wilderness.
Ask the Lord to search us.
Confess any sins the Lord exposes.
Be quick to own our part in our weakness.
And we look to the offering that the Lord accepts, just like David.
And we trust God's word, his promise that God values your life.
He sees you in the eyes of the Lord.
Your life is precious.
You who wait upon God.
Let God deliver you out of tribulation, but let him do it in his own way.
He will sustain you.
Abide in your relationship with him.
Well, the fourth analysis of this chapter, hopefully the part you've all been looking forward to by now,
are shadows or pointers to the anointed one, to Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
I'd like to draw out four of those for us from this chapter.
The first one, think of how David now, in these previous three chapters, was tempted in the wilderness.
In chapter 24, tempted to take matters into his own hands.
Chapter 25, tempted to take matters into his own hands.
In chapter 26, the same temptation, but wait upon the Lord.
And this foreshadows our Lord Jesus Christ, the great anointed one, three times tempted in the wilderness to take matters into his own hands.
And instead, our Lord Jesus refuses any shortcut.
He waits upon the Lord to deliver him in God's way.
He does not bow to the kingdom of this world, the kingdom of Satan.
Instead, he entrusts himself to God and the timing of his father.
The second pointer and shadow of the Messiah is this.
David had the power to kill his enemy, but he chose mercy instead.
Just like in chapter 24, David could have brought his mighty men with him and put up a fierce fight in trusting the help of God.
But instead, he deferred to God's power to avenge him the way God would want to.
Our Lord Jesus, in the same way, had the power to call down 12 legions of angels, we're told in Matthew 26, 53, to destroy those who hunted him down.
But instead, Jesus submitted to God's timing and allowed his enemies to live while he took the path of suffering in the wilderness.
Outside of the people.
The third shadow is that David stands up from a distance and shouts, declaring his victory.
Not by the sword or the spear, but by the grace of God, causing him to practice a righteous restraint.
Think of how our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, he did not come as a military zealot to overthrow earthly kings and topple the Roman Empire by force.
But he conquered sin and death through his own humiliation and meekness and gentleness.
As we're reminded in 2 Corinthians 10, 1.
David spared Saul, who was a flawed king, but God the Father did not spare his own perfect son.
God struck Jesus on the cross so that we, his enemies, could be reconciled to God.
Like in verse 19, our Lord Jesus Christ was driven out from sharing in the inheritance of the Lord.
He was banished.
They said, go serve other gods.
In Psalm 63, verse 7, David cries out, because you have been my help.
Therefore, in the shadow of your wings, I will rejoice.
Think of our Lord Jesus crying out these words, praying Psalm 67.
My soul follows close behind you, Lord.
Your right hand upholds me.
The king shall rejoice in God.
And God accepted Jesus Christ's offering.
Using the language of verse 24 of our chapter, Jesus Christ passed through all tribulation in our place.
He died and he was buried for us.
And the life of Christ was valued much in the eyes of God.
Our Lord Jesus rose from the dead and he claimed his victory and all the blessings God had promised him for it.
The fourth shadow fulfilled in Christ, the substance is verse 15.
Having won this victory in God's way in this moment, David made a show of Abner openly.
Having secured the victory in the wilderness, he comes back and pronounces his victory to the entire army.
Think of how our Lord Jesus Christ in Colossians 2.15, having spoiled principalities in darkness, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in his victory.
Our Lord Jesus waited on the Lord.
He waited on God, the Father, and he was richly rewarded for his obedience and his faith.
Just like David brought an end to being hunted in this chapter, at least, our Lord Jesus brought an end to the law of sin and death, which were hunting down his people, but now have no power over those who have found favor with God, their king.
You see these wonderful shadows of the coming anointed one in this chapter?
Well, the fifth and final observation for today is a question for you and for me.
Which covenant has your heart?
Would you flip back to the previous chapter?
And let me remind you, looking at verse 37.
Because we have to go back now to the midpoint between these two chapters that are parallel one to another, each one following the other almost verse by verse.
It has to send us back to the middle of them.
Chapter 25.
And what is the great theme that's highlighted as the focal point?
By God's own design.
I want to show you this connection with one last verse from chapter 26.
Look at verse 21.
In verse 21, Saul is left with nothing but this confession that he has played the fool.
Do you see that in verse 21?
When you hear that word, the fool, in Hebrew, Saul has played Nabal.
And it throws you right back to the middle of these two parallel chapters.
So from scripture itself, we now have to go back again to chapter 25.
Which reminds us, there's a theme.
God is slowly developing and deepening.
And it's a glorious theme.
Saul and Nabal.
Much in common.
Both are pawns of Satan.
Opposing the advancing of God's kingdom.
Both are fools on the way that perishes.
Like Psalm 1 says.
They feast in luxury.
They enjoy all this world has to offer them.
Their way of living is patterned after worldliness.
But both are blind to the coming of Messiah's kingdom.
And as David foreshadows Christ in these three chapters.
The people of Israel and every believer is to identify ourselves with Abigail.
Abigail is given wisdom from above.
Like James 3.17 says.
She recognizes.
She's not blind like Nabal and Saul.
But she recognizes that the world and its lusts are passing away.
But the one who does the will of God will abide forever.
Psalm 1.
It's the way of wisdom.
And she believes in David's enduring house.
That's her words to David encouraging him of God's promises.
And she shows that her eyes are fixed.
Not on the things which are seen.
But on the things which are unseen right now.
Things that are not temporal.
But things which are eternal.
It's the language of 2 Corinthians 4.18 for us, the church.
And notice in chapter 25, verse 37.
When Nabal's heart dies within him like a stone.
Abigail is liberated from that old pattern of life.
She chooses, using the language of Hebrews 11.25.
Rather to suffer the affliction with the anointed one.
And the true people of God.
She rejects this world and that old way of life.
When she was married to the fool.
Because the true king has her heart.
This is the covenant that has gripped her.
She chooses the God of covenant faithfulness.
Through his servant, the anointed one.
Church, Romans 6.6 tells us.
We know that our old self was crucified with Jesus Christ.
In order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing.
So that we no longer would be enslaved to sin.
2 Corinthians 5.17 says.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ.
He is a new creation.
The old has passed away.
It's perished.
Behold, the new has come.
Ephesians 4.22.
We're to put off that old self.
Which belongs to your former manner of life.
And its corrupt ways.
And instead, we put on the new self.
Created after the likeness of God.
In true righteousness.
In holiness.
And in union to Christ.
We can go back to Psalm 63.
And we can pray as Christ prayed.
His righteousness covering us.
These words as his followers.
Oh God.
You are my God.
Early will I seek you.
My soul thirsts for you.
My flesh longs for you.
In a dry and thirsty land.
Where there is no water.
So I have looked for you in the sanctuary.
To see your power.
And your glory.
Because your loving kindness.
Is better than life.
My lips shall praise you.
Thus I will bless you.
While I live.
I will lift up my hands in your name.
My soul shall be satisfied.
And my mouth shall praise you.
With joyful lips.
Amen.
Brothers and sisters.
Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus.
Be like Abigail.
See God's covenant faithfulness.
Receive his word of promise.
Trust him.
See his love.
For you and me.
Who were his enemies.
In Christ Jesus.
Watch him work out his covenant faithfulness.
In your life.
Enjoy true communion with God.
The living God.
A true covenant bond.
What scriptures calls the marriage.
Of Christ.
To the church.
United to him.
Abide in the peace.
Of his spiritual kingdom church.
Even as you wait upon the Lord.
In the wilderness.
Amen.
Let's pray and thank our Lord.
For his great faithfulness.
O God.
You are wise beyond all words.
You are kind Lord.
In ways we can't even understand.
You are so gracious Father.
We pray that you'll press home.
The reality of your kingdom.
Onto the hearts of us.
Your people.
Push through our weakness.
Through our brokenness.
Through our limitations.
Grab hold of us Lord.
Bring us into covenant with you.
Remind us of your covenant faithfulness.
And stir our hearts to respond.
Like Abigail.
We throw ourselves at your feet.
We feast with you.
And your army.
With bread and wine.
And it's a pleasure and a joy.
To wash the feet.
Of your soldiers.
Your church.
This is a work only you can do Lord.
Please do it.
In my life.
In the life of each one.
That's hearing these words today.
By your providence.
And in our life.
As a congregation.
We ask.
For your glory.
For our good.
And for Christ's sake alone.
We pray.
Amen.