Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Flourish in a Corrupt Culture | Historical Books | 1 Samuel 22:1-5

Episode Date: May 8, 2025

How did David respond to his enemies? Has our culture's deconstruction and cynicism burned you out? Are you following the good King? In today's episode, Patrick shares how 1 Samuel 22:1-5 encourages us to gather to Jesus, in his stronghold. If you're listening on Spotify, tell us about yourself and where you're listening from! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Samuel 22:1-5

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. If you've been going through the historical books with us this year, you may remember the story of Jeff The from Judges 11. If not, don't worry, here's a quick recap. And trust me, it matters for today's passage. Jeff The was born into a broken family. His mother was a prostitute, and his dad was some sort of landowner.

We don't know much about him. But from a young age, Jefftha was despised and treated poorly by his half-brothers. So they eventually disinherit him. They eventually exile him from his homeland. And so we're not crazy if we feel sympathetic for Jefftha. He's a character a lot like Joseph and maybe even later David. He seems like an innocent sufferer. But then the story takes a dark turn.

It turns out that Jefftha was actually a criminal. And when he leaves town, he gathers a gang of outlaws and violent criminals around him to basically raid and pillage both foreign and native towns alike. We read this in Judges 11. So Jefftha left his half-brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Lawless men joined Jefftha's gang and traveled with him. Maybe that's why his brothers wanted him out. Eventually, a foreign army invades Jefftha's homeland,

and his people call them to be their judge, you know, because judges were warriors, they were generals, and they asked him to help them. And here's the interesting thing. He is the only judge that God doesn't call, and God doesn't send. And it's totally clear that his criminality, it only highlights how bad Israel has become. They're so lost that they now ask a criminal and a rebel to defend them, rather than asking God to provide someone for them. Entered today's passage. David, like Jephtha,

is on the run. He's been exiled. His family ends up joining him, and he sends them into a different country to protect them. But they aren't the only ones who join him. When you read about the people who joined David's entourage, you can't help but hear an echo of Jefftha's story. We read in 1st Samuel 22, too, and everyone who was in distress, and everyone who is in debt, and everyone who is bitter in soul, gather to him, and he became commander over them. And they were with him about 400 men. If you're reading this story for the first time, and you don't know how it all works out, then I think you're supposed to kind of ask a question here. Is David going to become like Jeff the, you don't know. And I mean, that's certainly what Saul would have thought was happening.

To Saul and his entourage, David is a traitor and a rebel, and now he's proving it by surrounding himself with social malcontents and the criminal element. If you don't know how the story ends, you're supposed to be asking yourself that question. Is David becoming a criminal? Has Saul's unjust treatment of him turned him into an unjust man? Will he resort to raiding and pillaging Israelites under Saul's reign in order to feed himself and feed his men. Now, of course, you have to finish the whole story to get the answer. But, spoiler alert, David doesn't do it. David never uses his army to attack Israelites. In fact, he uses his army to protect Israelites that Saul refuses to protect. David won't lift a hand against Saul, and he won't

let his men attack Saul. But even this passage implies that David, unlike Jeff The, really is an innocent sufferer of injustice. In verse 5, we learned that a prophet is in his entourage and he's there to guide them. We read, Then the prophet Gad said to David, do not remain in the stronghold, depart and go into the land of Judah. So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth. Now this little passage implies that God is with David. He has a prophet who's come alongside David to instruct him. And the fact that David obeys the prophet, well that implies that David is following God. This makes him nothing like Jephtha. And that fact invites us to re-evaluate what's happening with the men who are joining

David. If we read this passage sincerely, not as a cynical critique of criminals, well, we come to discover that these men represent everything that's wrong with Saul's Israel. They've been treated unjustly like David. They've been pushed to the margins unfairly like David. Let's read it again. In everyone who was in distress, parentheses, because of how Saul was leading and reigning and ruling. and everyone who was in debt, parentheses, because of how Saul was disobeying God's law, and everyone who was bitter in soul, parentheses, because of how Saul wasn't trusting in the Lord. Well, those people gathered to him. The most interesting group in this list are the people who are in debt.

Now, Israel's law banned usury, and usury is just a fancy word for loaning out money with interest. Now, that might surprise us today because banking and lending and debt are just a normal part of our lives, and we don't think about any of it as being unjust. But just to ask people who've become victims of payday loan companies about predatory lending, basically people who are lending money at incredibly high interest rates that people clearly will never be able to pay off to get them in permanent cycles of debt, where they have to take out more debt to pay off the debt that they already owe. Well, if you ask people who are stuck in a cycle like that, they can tell you how debt

can literally devastate someone's life. But the problem with debt goes deeper for Saul. Not only was he turning a blind eye to the people who were breaking God's law against lending out money with interest. I mean, that was the law. It's all supposed to carry it out. He's not following it. He also seems to be creating the very situations that are requiring people to seek out money lenders. The passage is describing people who are in distress and bitter and soul. That means they've likely lost the land that the law said they were entitled to. It means they've likely lost the means of generating food and wealth and security that the law said they were entitled to. And before you think I'm reading between the lines, just remember what Samuel told the people

would happen if they crown Saul. He said there's going to be injustice. The land will suffer. It will not flourish. This is from 1 Samuel chapter 8. These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and all of orchards and give them to his servants. There goes your food supply, right? He continues, he will take a tenth of your grain.

This is in addition to what you're supposed to give to God, right? And of your vineyards, and he'll give it to his officers and his servants. In other words, he's going to use taxation to make some rich and others poor. He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys and put them for his work. He's going to take your property. He's going to take your family members. He'll take a tenth of your flocks,

and you shall be his slaves. It seems like maybe Saul's living up to Samuel's expectations. And perhaps that's why these men gather around David. They want the abundant good things at God's right hand. They want to live according to the law. They want to walk in the ancient past, to learn to fear the Lord, and to grow in wisdom, and perhaps with David,

launch a different sort of society from the one that Saul is Christian. created. Thus, we begin to realize that there's a deep redemption implied in this passage, or at least the hope of redemption. Those who are bitter in spirit, who have given up hope, have finally found something to hope in, this new leader who's chasing after God's heart. Today, it seems to me that we're living through a meaning crisis. It seems to me that everyone is burnt out on all the negativity and critiques and deconstruction that's happening all around us. The leaders of our society promised that if we followed them and burned down our institution,

and shouted about what we hated, well, then it would all end well. We'd be in a promised land, but that's not how it's worked out. They have turned out to be Saul's. It's just cynicism. It's just irony. It's just deconstruction. And so if you're burnt out on cynicism and fatigued by negativity and longing for a deeper meaning, I have good news for you. There is a king who is greater than David, who is gathering to himself everyone who is disenchanted by the emptiness of this world's promises, all of those who are bitter in soul after trying to enjoy the world's empty promises, all of those who are in debt after we've invested ourselves in all of this negativity and irony and cynicism and deconstruction, that greater king is Jesus. That greater king invites you to enjoy

the abundant good things at his right hand to make him your cup and your portion, your best drink and your finest food and deepest desire and truest satisfaction. Gather to him and his stronghold. Escape with him in this life to see what he could build. instead. He can give your life meaning. He can bind you to his holy society of the church. He can make us together into a counterculture for his kingdom, full of hope, full of meaning, full of purpose and joy and love and generosity.