June 01, 2025
• Rev. Dr. Rob Fuquay
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St. Luke’s UMC
June 1, 2025
Communion Sunday
David: A Man After God’s Own Heart
“The Gift of Rejection”
1 Samuel 29
Did you know that JK Rowling had a manuscript rejected by 12 publishers until someone agreed to publish her unusual story about a kid named Harry Potter? Did you know that a guy named Jack Ma was rejected from Harvard 10 times, and even passed over for a job at KFC, before he went on to start an online shopping company called Alibaba, and now he can probably buy KFC. Or did you know that Oprah Winfrey was fired from her first job as a news anchor or that Harrison Ford was told by a director early in his career that he doesn’t have what it takes to be an actor.
Have you ever thought of rejection as a gift?
That’s a good question to consider as move into the next chapter of David’s life, probably one of the least known yet one of the more surprising and unusual episodes in David’s story. Today’s episode is about the time he took refuge with his enemy…the Philistines.
We left off last week with David on the run from Saul. Saul was the first king of Israel who proved to be unfaithful, so God sent Samuel to anoint a highly unsuspecting person to be the next king, David. This, of course, was an act of treason. Current kings don’t typically like to hear about people who are going to take their place. So Saul began a campaign to eliminate the threat of David, but as I pointed out last week the story gets a little weird. David is also Saul’s son-in-law, and his best friend is Saul’s son, Jonathan. So if you are into weird plots, you don’t need Netflix, just read the Bible.
Well at the height of Saul’s attacks on David it says, “David thought to himself, “One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.” (1 Samuel 27:1)
Notice how this story begins, “David thought to himself.” That sounds innocent enough, except in all other similar places when David faced overwhelming odds or wasn’t sure what to do the Bible says, “David inquired of the Lord.” Nine times, in fact, David inquired of the Lord when he was at a crossroads. But in this instance, getting weary and worn out by the relentless attacks of Saul, there is no mention of God, no turning to God. You just have David thinking to himself. And so, he comes up with a plan to go to his enemy, the Philistines.
In the insert today I offer some helpful back information on who the Philistines were and where they came from. They settled mostly along the sea coast of the Mediterranean. This land became known as Philistia and a derivative of that word is Palestine. There were five key Philistine cities: Gaza, Ashdod, Askelon, Ekron and Gath. Goliath, whom David fought, was from Gath. Now, Gaza, of course, we recognize today.
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The war between Israel and Gaza goes back over 3,000 years. The idea that you can destroy an enemy doesn’t really work.
Back to David, he goes to one of the Philistine kings, Achish, son of the king of Gath. He pretends to be a traitor. And here’s where things get complicated. To prove his loyalty, David goes out everyday with his men and raids villages of former enemies of Judah, and brings back the loot to Achish, except David reports it as if he has been attacking Israelites towns. This makes Achish think David is trustworthy, because his own people won’t put up with him now.
To cover his tracks, David has to kill every person in the villages or the word would get back to Achish that David wasn’t really attacking Jewish towns. And this is where we start to see another side to David, a side that suddenly isn’t so innocent like the boy who defeated Goliath, a side that isn’t so appealing like the man after God’s own heart.
Scholar Walter Brueggemann says in his commentary, “One must pause to marvel at this scene in David’s career. David is no political innocent; he is ruthless and calculating, confident enough to manipulate Philistine cover for (his own) advantage.” (Interpretation Commentary, First and Second Samuel, p190)
And it all started when David talked to himself instead of inquiring of the Lord. David is forced not only to do devious things but evil things to protect himself. And David lives this way for a year and a half! You get the sense in reading the story that this is coming to a head.
But then the story pauses to step away and tell about an episode of Saul. You know how modern shows some weeks step away from the plot and main character and they spend a whole episode on a minor character. Well Hollywood writers got that idea from the Bible! Chapter 28 of 1 Samuel is about the story of Saul and the Witch of Endor. Another really weird story, but I highly recommend you read it. It’s odd but good!
Then chapter 29 returns to the plot. The chickens are coming home to roost for David. The Philistine armies have squared off once again with the armies of Saul. David and his men are in the rear of the Philistine armies. How is he going to get out of this? If he fights against Israel he and his men will never return home. And if he turns on the Philistines, he may not survive. How will David get out of this pickle?
As it turns out, he didn’t have to. The Philistine generals rebuke Achish for allowing David and his men to be there. They knew the risk of David and his men being there and so demand that Achish tell them to leave. So David and his men return to the town that Achish gave them to live in, Ziklag. And this is where they discover the price they paid for this whole ploy. In retaliation for their raids on villages, the Amalekites come and burn down Ziklag and take David’s wives and the wives of all his men hostage. And David’s men start to turn on him. It is the lowest point in David’s life, and…that is the focus of next week’s story!
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The point in this part of the drama is that David was in a place where he didn’t belong. He wasn’t supposed to be taking up residence with the Philistines, and he needed to be spared. It’s been observed that David didn’t write any psalms during this time. He didn’t inquire of the Lord. And God is not mentioned. But you kind of wonder, if maybe God was behind David getting out of his problem. It took a rejection to begin to turn David around. The Philistine kings rejected David and his men being with them and sent them away. That’s what starts a turnaround in David’s life. Could God have caused the generals to reject David? Could God have been working quietly behind the scenes, secretly moving in a way that helped David get back to where he was supposed to be, and using rejection as the tool.
Have you ever experienced God that way? Maybe there was no blinding light. You maybe hadn’t even been praying or seeking God’s help, but looking back you see that despite that fact, God was perhaps moving in a way to get you where you should be?
After I completed seminary I served a church in England for a year. It turned out to be a great experience. I was single. It was what I refer to as my BS days, Before Susan. People there became like family to me.
Then I came back to my conference in Western North Carolina. I was assigned to two small churches in the mountains. My first day I drove up to the parsonage and some people from the church were there to greet me. They helped unload my stuff. All my possessions at that time could fit in a Toyota Corolla. It took about ten minutes. After they left I walked the perimeter of the house and didn’t see another home. I went inside and sat down. It was the worst silence I’d ever experienced. I never felt so alone.
That first year was hard. Almost everyone in the churches was 40-50 years older than me. If I can relate to be being depressed in my life, it was then. I remember mornings when I would wake up and think, “If I don’t get out of bed today, who is going to know?” And I thought to myself (like David!), “I can’t do this. I’ve got to get out of here.”
I talked to a friend of mine with the World Methodist Council. He told me about the pastor of Wesley Chapel Methodist Church in London who was looking for an assistant. I wrote to that pastor and he invited me to come visit. So I bought a plane ticket. It was about 3 weeks worth of salary, but I was eager to get out. The pastor had told me in the letter to come to worship on the Sunday morning I was there and then we would meet afterward. So I did.
After the service I could not find him. Someone told me to knock on the door of his residence that was beside the church. He answered the door. He was eating lunch with his family. He forgot all about my visit. He asked if I could come back in an hour. So I did. He wasn’t even sure if he would have a position but thanked me for coming.
I left feeling embarrassed and rejected. I flew home somewhat depressed but turning to God and saying, “If this is where I have to be right now, then help make it feel like home.” Eight months later I met Susan Wilke. A year later we married. And during that time I came to love being in that place. A year after that my bishop called me and said,
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“Rob, I need you to go to our latest growing church in the conference as the lead associate.” I couldn’t believe the bishop was calling me! But now I had a problem. Because I didn’t want to leave. The place I tried to get away from had become home.
I called Susan’s dad for advice. He was a bishop in Arkansas. He said, “I don’t want to tell my new son-in-law what to do, but I will say your bishop called you and said, “I need you.” That’s important!” I thought, yeah, spoke like a bishop. But I moved and that continued my life on this path. And looking back I realize I was not meant to stay in England. That’s where I was for a year. It was a good time and space for me. But I wasn’t meant to stay there. It took a rejection to get me home.
Rejection can be a mighty gift. It can be something God uses to get us where we should be. No rejection is ever pleasant. No rejection is ever meaningless. If you feel rejected, it’s because you really wanted something. But getting what you wanted can sometimes be a fate far worse, and the sad thing is we would never know it. We only know the satisfaction of getting what we hoped for and wondering why it did not turn to be all we hoped for. It sometimes takes a rejection to get to a better place.
We worship a God who specializes in the use of rejection. Rejection was a theme of Jesus’ life. Even before he was born he experienced rejection. There was no room in the inn. That’s why Jesus was born in a stable. When he first preached in his hometown of Nazareth he was rejected. He was rejected by a Samaritan village where people shut their doors to him. He said, “The Son of Man has no place to lay his head. The Gospels describe Him as “the stone the builders rejected.” He was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, “He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity…” (Isaiah 53:3)
Jesus knew what it was like to be rejected, and yet God used that rejection to bring hope. God used his rejection to put him in a place that made his life of redemptive value to you and me. That by his death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, Jesus takes our wrong turns, our mis directions, our bad choices, our sins, and grants us forgiveness and new hope. He allows those events to become U-turns in the right direction. He even takes our rejection of God and turns it into an opportunity to discover the God who never rejects us, who loves us and never stops guiding us home.
Have you ever thought of rejection as a gift, or at least something that can become a gift?
Amen.