Saul and David
1 Samuel 16–31
Open your Bibles with me to 1 Samuel 16. Tonight I want to do a flyover.
We finished the first part of the book, 1 Samuel 1–15, which deals with the
first seven chapters, the person of Samuel, and how God provided a new prophet
in a dark time to bring light to the nation. Then we looked at the second
division, which started in 1 Samuel 8–15. That focused on the personage of
Saul, the first divinely anointed king of Israel.
There is one king that was anointed before, but not under God’s
direction. That was the son of Gideon, Abimelech. That is always one of my
favorite trivia questions that most people slip up on: Who is the first person
anointed king of Israel? The text in Judges 9 says that Abimelech was. He
reigned for two years in Shechem. Saul is the first divinely authorized and
anointed king of the United Kingdom of Israel. In these chapters we see the transition
from Saul to David. That is going to be our focus tonight.
I want to say a word because a couple of people have asked me already
how the event went on Sunday. It went very well. This was the first time they
have done an event like this in Dallas. It was held in Temple Shalom, which a
reformed synagogue in North Dallas. The purpose for this was that one
individual who is a very large and generous donor for AIPAC (American Israel
Public Affairs Committee) wanted to put on an event in the Dallas area for Jews
and Christians to educate them on issues related to Israel, and to bring in a
lot of people who are good speakers on different topics related to Israel.
A number of these speakers were key people who had spoken at APAC at
the National Policy Conference, including the national president of APAC. It
was all very well done. The donor was from Dallas. They had three sessions. The
hostess spoke, and there was another individual who is founder of an
organization Why Israel Matters. You
may want to look up the website, www.whyisraelmatters.com.
This speaker had a lot of information from a secular viewpoint of the
importance of Israel, her existence, and how Israel benefits and blesses the
whole world through the very presence of the nation, through technology,
through medicine, and a host of different things.
Then there were around 15–16 smaller breakout sessions. The attendance
was a little over 300 total. One breakout session was on BDS
(Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions). That was the most well attended breakout
session. There were about 65–70 in the group that I went to. There was another
breakout group at the same time as mine. There were two breakout sessions that
started at about 1:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. These were the second most well
attended sessions.
The Jewish people have a tremendous curiosity, as well as suspicion
about why evangelical Christians support Israel. They have a lot of
misconceptions. Christians, I have found, have a lot of misconceptions about
the Jewish community, and the Jewish community has a lot of misconceptions
about the Christian community. It is important to talk about this.
Pam overheard two men talking in the hall before the session. These men
did not understand how Christians can all of a sudden, it seems to them, be
pro-Jewish and pro-Israel when you have got close to 1,800 years of Christian
anti-Semitism that has produced some of the most horrible persecution and
opposition toward any race in the history of mankind?
That question has to be answered. I did a good job of doing that, I
think, with a background in Jewish history. Those men did not ask their
question when it came time to Q&A. That tells me I must have answered their
question. It was a good group. It was well attended. The people seemed to be
very responsive. They had really good feedback. I was very glad that I had that
opportunity to go and to speak.
In 1 Samuel 16 we want to look at the broad overview of Samuel. Samuel
is the first personage in 1 Samuel 1–8. Then starting in 1 Samuel 9 you have
the rise of Saul. Then you have his decline from 1 Samuel 16–31 as David rises.
What you will see is not precise in terms of chapter to chapter. It would have
been interesting if whoever divided the Old Testament into chapters had
recognized that the narrative goes back and forth between David and Saul and
actually used that as his chapter divisions.
There are too many chapters where the first five or six verses talk
about Saul or David, then the rest of the chapter talks about the other one. It
is not a clean outline or a clean division. That is going to be our focus. Many
Christians, over the years, love to study the life of David for a variety of
reasons. I think one reason that many of us like to study the life of David is
because David was a flawed human being like many of us. He has tremendous
spiritual failures, but he also has some remarkable spiritual successes.
When you look at the Scripture, God’s description of David is what
matters. He said that David is a man after God’s own heart. That is a contrast
with Saul who was a man after the peoples’ heart. He was the kind of king that
the people looked for. They wanted to have a king like all of the other nations.
God gave them a king like all the other nations. I believe Saul was a believer,
but he was a failure as a believer. Whereas there were times that David was a
failure, but he was not a failure as a believer.
That gives great encouragement, or it should, to all of us. That no
matter how greatly we fail that we may still find our names inscribed in God’s
list of the great faith heroes of the Church Age. You look at those that are
listed in Hebrews 11 as the great heroes of faith down through the Old Testament
period. There are some people there who really, really disobeyed God and had
incredible failures, even Samson the womanizer is listed there, and Jephthah,
who sacrificed his daughter to God as a burnt offering.
Hebrews 11 shows that God’s way of evaluating us is based on grace. He
understands that we are sinners and that we are flawed. When we trust in Him we
go counter to our default position, which is a great basis for rejoicing in the
heavens. That is the issue with David. Being a man after God’s own heart does
not mean that David always made the right decision. He did not. It does not
mean that David did not commit incredibly gross sins. He did.
What it means is that, like many of us, our core heart’s desire is that
we want to grow as Christians. We want to know the truth. We want to live out
the truth to the best of our ability, but we have a problem with our gnarly
little sin natures that constantly get in the way. As Paul says in Romans 7,
too often we find ourselves doing what we do not want to do and not doing what
we do want to do because we are not really walking by the Spirit. We have that
ongoing spiritual struggle.
I think that many of us relate to David. We like to read the Psalms that
David wrote. As we go through this section we will look at the Psalms that
David wrote in the context of our study of 1 Samuel and of his life. That
brings it home so much more. Many of David’s songs do not have a historical
indicator in them, but there are about twenty or so that do have a historical
indicator. We will go through those. That is a good way to understand how a
believer thinks and works through problems and learns to reflect upon God in
the midst of extremely difficult circumstances.
Historically and archeologically there has been a great debate over the
existence of David. In fact, up until fairly recently, about twenty years ago,
there was no historical validation of the existence of anybody named David.
When you look at the Bible and we see this great kingdom that David
established, the expansion of Israel under David, and then we look at how great
that kingdom reached under its apex under Solomon. We realize that this was an
awesome empire in the ancient world.
Yet when you read ancient histories, or go to university and study the
curriculum in ancient history, which most people do not study, or you study
Egypt, or the Mesopotamian cultures, or Babylon, Greece, and Rome, and there is
no mention of probably the greatest kingdom that existed, even though it was
short, was the kingdom of David and Solomon.
Many liberals, because their default position is that if the Bible says
it then it probably did not happen, and unless you can find it archeologically
there is no support for the Bible. Their default position is that it is not
true unless we find it mentioned somewhere. Whereas, as a Bible-believing
Christian, it is true and eventually we will probably find some validation.
Just because we have not found it yet does not mean that we have gotten to the
end of the story yet.
One of the great examples of that is that liberals love to taut the fact
in the late 19th century that the Bible talked about this great
kingdom of the Hittites that no evidence had ever been found of a Hittite
nation. People were throwing out their Bible because the Bible talked about a
people that did not actually exist. Then in 1927 archeologists discovered the
capital of the Hittite Empire in Boğazkale in Turkey. Then all of a sudden all
those liberals had mud in their face.
Just as in politics, liberals and theology never quite get mud to stick.
No matter what happens liberalism is made out of Teflon and nothing sticks.
They can still teach tremendous distortions and lies about the Bible and
archeology. People will believe it because they are suppressing the truth in
unrighteousness. In 1993–94 there was a discovery made of an inscription up
near an ancient gate near a place near Tel Dan.
A tell is a hill or a mound where various
layers of civilization have been. Tel Dan is an ancient site of Dan. The Bible
talks about the extent of Israel being from Dan to Beersheba. Dan was the most
distant point in the north. Beersheba was the most distant point in the south.
Slide 4: In this inscription you can see these four or five letters that are
highlighted in white on the picture that says “the house of David.” This stele
was a monument that was written by Hazael the King of Aram that had killed Ben
Hadad after he was anointed by Elisha in 2 Kings 8:7–15. In this inscription,
Hazael of Damascus has defeated the Israelite city of Dan, which was part of
the Northern Kingdom. In that battle we know from Scripture that Jehoram, the
king of Israel, and Ahaziah, the king of Judah, were both defeated by Hazael in
2 Kings 8.
In the inscription the Aramaen king claims to have killed both of these
kings, the king of Israel and the king of Judah. That basically parallels what
we have in the Scripture except the Scripture says that it is Jehu who ended up
killing the two kings in a fairly bloody, divinely authorized, coup to bring
discipline. They had both been defeated in battle by Hazael.
Hazael erects this monument. It is important to note that he thinks it
is so significant that he has defeated the king of Judah. He has defeated
Ahaziah. He defines him or identifies him with the term “house of David.” That
implies that the “house of David” must have been something very, very great for
him to brag about defeating the “house of David.” This was an extremely big
deal.
It also indicates that if David were just some tribal chieftain living
in the backwoods of Judea that it would not be such a big deal that he would
put it on a stele. It indicates that David was of the “house of David” and
David himself was something significant. He was well known, and even 150 years
after his death Hazael wanted to brag about the fact that he defeated the
“house of David.”
It was the discovery of that inscription that made it clear that there
is historical, archeological verification of the existence of the house of
David. Nothing has ever been discovered that invalidates the Scripture. They
may not have discovered anything related to the existence of Abraham or Isaac
or Jacob outside of the Scripture, but you have to have something inscribed in
a fairly permanent way, like on a rock, a stele, or a monument for it to
survive.
We are introduced here to David. I want to do a flyover. What happens is
that we see a shift that occurs, a shift of emphasis from Saul in 1 Samuel 15
to David in 1 Samuel 16. If we look at what we covered in the last few lessons,
1 Samuel 15 explains that Samuel brought the indictment and the judgment
against Saul. In 1 Samuel 15:26 Samuel says that because Saul rejected or
repudiated the word of the Lord, the Lord had rejected or repudiated him from
being king over Israel.
That does not mean that Saul is fired instantly. He is still the king.
That is important to understand because he is going to continue to rule as a
carnal, spiritually rebellious individual. He will rule over Israel. But if you
look at 1 Samuel 15:28 Samuel says that the Lord had torn the kingdom of Israel
from him. 1 Samuel 15:28, “Samuel said to
him, The LORD has torn the kingdom of
Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who
is better than you.”
“A neighbor of yours” has the
idea of a companion, friend, or compatriot, something of that nature. This is
the announcement that is a foreshadowing of the shift that is taking place.
From this point on I will give greater definition to that term. At the end of 1
Samuel 15 we saw that Samuel goes back to his home in Ramah. Saul goes back to
his house in Gibeah. Samuel mourns the failure of Saul. The Lord also
regretted. We saw that was an anthropopathism. He does not change His mind.
That is the same word we see in 1 Samuel 15:29, “And also the Strength of Israel will not lie
nor relent, for He is not a man that He should relent.”
Then the Lord comes to Samuel. He has enough time to mourn. The Lord
comes to him in 1 Samuel 16:1, “How long
will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel?
Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite.
For I have provided Myself a king among his sons.”
What we see here in 1 Samuel 16–20, in these five chapters, we see how
God is going to promote and authenticate David as the Messianic King. We have
studied this before that the Hebrew word māshach
that is the verb, and meāshîach, the
noun refers to the anointed one. This is one that God has appointed to a
specific position. You can remember that through the rhyming of those two words
“appoint and anoint.” This is someone God has appointed to a specific task. As
such, the kings of Israel, as the anointed ones, stand as a type for a picture
of the future Messianic King who is the Lord Jesus Christ.
What happens is that we study the Old Testament.
We study a lot of stories. We study a lot of narratives. When we study a story
we study a narrative. We have to realize that this is not telling us what to
do. It is describing circumstances and situations in real-time scenarios that
if we are teaching in the Old Testament we can find examples of biblical
truths, but prescriptive data or commands are found in the New Testament.
What we see in these stories is a picture of what happened. It is
describing how things happened. We will see pictures of the grace of God. We
will see pictures of human failure. We see the illustrations of sin. We see
illustrations of God’s deliverance. We also see broader patterns. I want to
tell you that we have a pattern that takes place here that I think is important
to help understand some of the application that we see here.
There is a pattern in the Saul–David relationship here before David
becomes the enthroned king that helps us to understand something about the
Church Age. There is a king who is ruling the domain who is a spiritual
failure. He is carnal. He operates on his sin nature
continuously. He is a foreshadowing of the rule of Satan over the earth. Saul
serves as a type of Satan persecuting David, who is a type of the Messiah.
The domain of Israel during this time is a picture of the rule over the
earth at this time in history, our time in history, so that we live in a world
where Satan has been defeated, just as Saul had the kingdom torn from him, but
Satan is still the prince and the power of the air. Satan is still the ruler of
this age. He still has dominion. During this age, Jesus is like David was
during this particular time. He is anointed, but He is not enthroned.
That is the problem you have with amillennialism and progressive
dispensationalism. They see Jesus as being enthroned in Heaven after the
ascension. But what we learn from Revelation 2 and Revelation 3 is that Jesus
is seated on the right hand of God. He was not on His throne. This is the same
situation. David is anointed, but he is not enthroned yet. He is going to be
persecuted by the prior king.
During this period of time, it probably lasted for at least seven or
eight years, David is persecuted by the former king.
He has to leave everyone behind. He is being mistreated. He gathers to himself
a group of what appeared to the world to be ne’er-do-wells. They are become
known as his band of mighty men. During this time they are being trained and
equipped for their future positions once David takes the throne to be the key
players in his future kingdom.
The Davidic kingdom is a type of the future Messianic Kingdom. The band
of mighty men is a type or a shadow of the Church Age believer who is viewed by
the kingdom of the earth around us as being worthless, as being not significant
or important, so we are outcast, as it were, like David’s mighty men. We are
being trained for a future position to rule and reign with the Lord Jesus
Christ once He is enthroned upon His Kingdom.
What we are going to see throughout these chapters are various
depictions and various patterns that reflect upon the Church Age and also
reflect upon the future rule and reign of Jesus Christ. One of the patterns
that we are going to see is that the role of the Messianic King, the role of
the Messiah, is to protect His people. David again and again is protecting his
people. We never saw that with Saul. We saw that a little bit at the beginning.
Saul defeated some of the enemies at the beginning, but then he is more
concerned about establishing his own kingdom. He does not fulfill God’s plan.
We also see the pattern of David going to the Lord again and again. When
a decision needs to be made David will stop and inquire of the Lord. This is
not what we saw Saul doing, especially during the later part of his reign before
his failure. Saul is too headstrong. He is going to do it his way. But David
stops and inquires of the Lord. David is a pattern of the ideal Messianic King
who follows the Lord God, seeks His guidance, and seeks His will.
What we see at the beginning here is that God directs Samuel to anoint
David. He sends him to Bethlehem. He tells him to go so that he does not arouse
the suspicions of Saul. The Lord says to go to Bethlehem and to offer a
sacrifice when he arrives. The elders there are a little bit fearful, but
Samuel addresses them and says for them to consecrate and sanctify themselves
prior to the sacrifice. Samuel also consecrates Jesse and his sons. Jesse is
David’s father. He is the grandson of Ruth and Boaz from the biblical Book of
Ruth.
We will trace back that genealogy to see how God in His grace worked
that out. God is designing this so that He will bring Jesse into town.
Bethlehem was very small at this time. He brings Jesse’s family into town. He
brings his favorite boys, his older sons. David is the youngest one. He is out
with the shepherds. You know how it is. The dirty most menial jobs in the
family with a lot of kids tend to roll down to the youngest one. David is the
youngest. He is not looked up to. He is not valued. He is overlooked.
We see that typologically in Isaiah 54:1–3 that the servant of Yahweh, who is the Messiah, is the one
who is not valued. We did not look upon His appearance and value it. We did not
see Him as something significant. That is a depiction of Jesus coming to His
people. His people did not think He was a big deal. They did not think he was
very special. He is overlooked just as David is overlooked. Jesse runs his boys
out in front of Samuel. Samuel looks on the outside.
The Lord says something very significant. A verse you ought to
underline. 1 Samuel 16:7, “But
the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or at his
physical stature, because I have refused him.
For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man
looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’ ”
Unfortunately, we have entered into an age where people can see
political candidates. Ever since the election of Warren G. Harding we see
pictures. There was also some film at that time. People could see what the
presidential candidate looked like. As a result, people have put an emphasis on
the external rather than the internal. Of course the classic example is that of
the debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential
election. Nixon looked like some sort of ogre because he had a heavy five
o’clock shadow. People said that he did not come across well.
People today, in our existential post-modern world, are more concerned
about appearances than substance. We have created a whole government and
political system that operates on packaging and making everything look good.
Now we have all the sound bites down. We have got the quick little videos on
YouTube and things like that. It is all a violation of this principle that God
hammers Samuel with. Do not look on the outside. Look on the inside. Character
matters.
Unfortunately, the character that we get in a presidential election is
not necessarily a good character. I do not think that we have anyone with a
good character right now. That is because they reflect the culture in which we
live. Nevertheless, we have to choose between one of these candidates. We have
to choose that which is better than the other one. One may be a –10 and one may
be a –9.9, but you have to select the one even if it is marginal.
I think Thomas Sowell said last week said that in his opinion if you
vote for Donald Trump it is like playing Russian Roulette
with the future of the country. For those of you who do not own firearms that means you have five chances out of six of surviving. If you
vote for Hillary, Sowell said, you are basically sticking a shotgun against
your head and pulling the trigger. That means there is no chance that the
country will survive.
Sowell said that if you do not vote that you are quitter. He did not say
it quite that strongly, but that is what he meant. He said that you have just
given up. That is being a quitter. You have got to look at a lot of other
factors. Character does matter, but when you have two people whose characters
are as bad as they are, then you have to look at other aspects. The focal point
here is that God looks at the heart. Ideally we would have somebody who had a
character that we could admire. That is not the case.
The bottom line of the 1 Samuel 16:1–16 is that God instructs Samuel to
anoint David. David is not admired or respected by his family. We have a shift.
We start talking about Saul. In 1 Samuel 16:14 we learn that “But the Spirit of the LORD
departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit of the LORD
troubled him.” If
you have a New American Standard Version
it is an “evil” spirit, which I believe is a much better translation. It is an
evil spirit.
You can look and circle these words that you will see running through
here. “Evil” is mentioned two or
three times in these verses. “Troubling”
is mentioned two or three times. What we have here is an expression of demon
influence. We have to look at the significance of this in a study of demonism,
and the role of Satan in history and in human government. Saul is being
oppressed externally because it says in 1 Samuel 16:16, “the distressing spirit from God.”
Notice, God uses fallen angels to carry out His purpose of divine
discipline. We will have to look at that. “It
is upon you,” not in you. It is very important to look at those prepositions.
It is not the Hebrew preposition for “in,” which is demon possession. It is
external. It is “upon” you. He was being oppressed externally as part of divine
discipline.
Demon possession is not resolved by music, but the results of demonic
oppression are. They are looking at a gibôr,
a mighty man of valor, who can come and who has musical talents to sooth the
soul of Saul temporarily. David does that. David is brought out. We see God’s
providential care in bringing David to the foreground. David does not have to
promote himself. God is the one who is promoting him. As a result of his
ministry to Saul, Saul loves him greatly.
One point here is that a lot of people are influenced by silly little
cartoons and children’s Bible story books. They think
that Jonathan and David, Jonathan is Saul’s son, that they are young, little
boys, or at least pre-adolescent youth. Let me suggest that that is not the
case. We will get into it in more detail. Jonathan is conceivably fifteen or
twenty years older than David. Jonathan has already been a great military hero
throughout several chapters that we had studied.
David is probably a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old young man. He is
clearly a post-puberty young man. When he describes what he has done in
guarding and protecting the sheep he has engaged in hand-to-hand combat with
lions and with bears. That indicates that he has a strongly developed physique
and musculature. He is not a ten- or eleven-year-old kid who does not have any
strength. He is not doing it in the power of the Spirit like Samson did with
the miraculous power. David is doing it out of his own skill and ability.
David was very likely sixteen, seventeen, or even eighteen years of age.
He was probably not quite eighteen yet because he is not old enough to go out
with the military. He is made Saul’s armorbearer in 1 Samuel 16:21. This
indicates that he is a little bit older. He is not just a small child.
In 1 Samuel 17 we come to a great chapter that emphasizes that the
battle is the Lord’s. It is a lengthy chapter. It is a story that many of us
are familiar with, the story of David and Goliath and a battle that is taking
place in the Valley of Elah, which is a bit west of Bethlehem, the home of
David. We are told that the Philistines have gathered in battle against the
Israelites. They have a champion. It is an interesting background to understand
who Goliath is.
The culture of the Philistines is very Greek. It is a lot like what
happens in the Trojan War when Achilles and Hector come out as champions on the
field of battle where whoever defeats the other means that side wins. It is a
sudden death playoff with two champions, one from each side, determining winner
take all. The Israelites are timid and greatly afraid according to 1 Samuel
17:11. When David shows up it shows that they do not have any Bible doctrine.
When David shows up and he hears the taunt from Goliath, he says, “who is this uncircumcised Philistine” twice, 1 Samuel 17:26,
36. David identifies Goliath as an uncircumcised Philistine. Why is that
important? We need to talk about that. Circumcision is a sign of the Abrahamic
Covenant. The Abrahamic Covenant promises land to the descendants of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. What David is saying is that Goliath has no right to this
land. God gave it to us. The battle is the Lord’s. Let’s go defeat him. What is
the problem?
David volunteers. Saul wants his credentials. David talks about what he
did when he was a shepherd boy. That he killed the lion and the bear whenever
one came against the sheep. David would go out and he would kill the lion or
bear by hand. That is very possible.
A few years ago, after my dad died, I ran across genealogical records
that my folks had. One was on his side, and one was on my mother’s side of the
family. The one on my mother’s side of the family was quite interesting. If you
have ever read Louie L’Amour, that is how I got through seminary. It was a sort
of bubble gum for the mind. Louie L’Amour has these great western heroes. They
ran faster than a speeding bullet. They were more powerful than a locomotive.
They were always faster than anything else.
Well, one of my ancestors walked from Hope, Arkansas to Nacogdoches,
Texas pulling a mule with his wife and one year old on it. Then he went out and
hired off to a bunch of settlers on the Red River. That is what he did. He
hunted bear. I read this on the Texas State Historical Society website. In one
encounter a bear is chasing him down a trail and he hid behind the tree. When
the bear went by him all he had was his knife. He reached over and stabbed the
bear from the opposite side so the bear would think that it was being attacked
from the other side. He plunged his knife into the heart of the bear, killing
the bear.
Another time this relative is in a dugout canoe on the Red River. They are attacked by a bear that overturns the canoe. He
gets up and of course his powder is wet. This is around 1820, and you had flint locks. He started clubbing the bear. The first time he
hit the bear on the head he broke the stock of the rifle. All he has is the
barrel. He beat the bear to death with the barrel of the rifle. Those people
were real men.
David is like that. When people say that that is impossible for him to
kill a bear or a lion with his bare hands, no, it is not. We live in a pansy generation
today. People do not know what real men can do. That is what built this
country, real men who could do things like that. David was cut from that cloth.
He trusted the Lord. That is the additional factor. He trusted in the Lord and
that gave him a pattern.
Just like in our life, when we are doing our day-to-day jobs, we need to
learn to trust the Lord. When the big battles come we have practiced it and God
is able to take care of us. We are able to trust in Him.
David kills Goliath. He is awarded and rewarded by Saul. God is the one
who is ultimately rewarding him and elevating him in the eyes of the people.
After the defeat of Goliath, David is going to get Saul’s older daughter to be
his wife. That does not quite work out, so Michal is going to be given to
David. Also her brother, Jonathan, the oldest son, loves David. They become
close, close friends, closer than brothers. Jonathan and David made a covenant.
We are told three times through the narrative.
There is a covenant that is made between Jonathan and David. Jonathan is
pictured not only as a great warrior, but a man of integrity. He is very, very
different from his father. But as David realizes the acclaim of the people and
is elevated, being praised more and more, singing hymns, extolling his virtue,
Saul becomes more and more jealous. We continue to see this murderous rage
develop in Saul. In fact, I have listed as I have gone through this at least
fourteen different attempts by Saul to kill David.
Saul is clearly out of fellowship. He is clearly in rebellion against
God. He is clearly operating totally on his sin nature. David, as we will see,
in two different situations is alone with Saul. He has every opportunity. They
are saying to kill him, kill him. God has given him to you. It must be God’s
will. Look at the circumstances.
How many Christians mess up their lives because they make circumstantial
decisions based on what they think is God’s will? David’s men said that Saul
was right there. He is asleep. All you have to do is slide your sword right in
there and he is dead and you are king. David says that it is never right to
rebel against authority. That was the great condemnation against Saul. It was
rebellion. This is the sin of divination.
David refuses to rebel against Saul even when Saul is wrong. No matter
how wrong Saul got. That is real hard for us to understand. Saul is out to
murder him. Can’t David defend himself and kill Saul? David says that he “cannot lift my hand against the Lord’s
anointed.” The end does not justify the means. Two wrongs do not make a
right. I am not going to do it.
Throughout this period in these chapters, 1 Samuel 18–20, we see that
David is living with Saul but Saul continues to try to put his life in danger.
When he gives his daughter Michal to David as wife he says that he has a great
idea for a dowry. What Saul is really thinking is that he does not need to be
the one to kill David. I need to let the Philistines do it for me. Saul told
David to bring him one hundred Philistine foreskins. That means that you,
David, have to go out and circumcise one hundred Philistines. That probably
means you, David, have to kill them first because they will not let you get
that close otherwise. To kill one hundred Philistines is not going to be that
easy. He is probably going to lose his life.
David is very grace oriented. David goes out and he brings him two
hundred Philistine foreskins. He doubles it. God blesses him and gives him the
victory. Saul continues to have these encounters with this distressing or evil
spirit. In fact, Saul twice tries to kill David.
In 1 Samuel 18:11 it says that David escaped his presence twice. That
indicates two different attempts. Right now I have come up with at least
fourteen different attempts. Yet, throughout this time you also have the bright
light of Jonathan’s loyalty to David. In 1 Samuel 20 Jonathan shows his loyalty
to David. In fact, Jonathan enters into a second covenant there with David in
order to protect him.
What we see in 1 Samuel 21 is another shift that takes place. It goes
from 1 Samuel 21–31. We see this pattern of Saul continuously attacking David.
He seems like he is more concerned about killing David than he is about killing
other enemies or destroying the Philistines or finishing the job of finishing
the job of killing the Amalekites.
If you think about that it is sort of sounds a little bit like what
happens in modern politics. When sin reigns in a man’s soul it distorts his
values. What we have is a president who is more concerned about spewing hatred
toward his political opponents than he is dealing with the enemy of Islam or
the enemy of Iran. That shows that this man is totally under the control of his
sin nature. Nothing can be more destructive of a nation than to have a leader
who operates on his own narcissistic sense of reality. He is feeding his sin
nature.
What we have is a picture of this kind of thing with Saul and David. In
1 Samuel 22 we see that David has escaped from Jerusalem and that he has gone
to the cave of Adullam, which is somewhere near Bethlehem. He is in the cave of
Adullam. He begins to gather a group of those around him, his father’s house, his brothers join him. 1 Samuel 22:2, “And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and
everyone who discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them. And
there were about four hundred men with him.”
This will expand later to 600 men. This is his cadre. This is the core
of his future army. This will be the core of his administration. He is trying
to hide from Saul. We read first in 1 Samuel 21, as David is escaping he goes
from the Temple Mount north, slightly northwest, were the Hebrew University is
located today on Mount Scopus. This is where Nob, the city of the priests, was
located. David goes there seeking bread, seeking
sustenance for those who are escaping with him.
Ahimelech the priest is going to aid him and give him some of the bread
that is sanctified for the priests. This will be used as an
example by the Lord Jesus Christ later in stating that the Law was made for men.
Here were these hungry men and David fed them with the bread for the priests.
This was totally acceptable. But there is a spy out there watching them who is
going to report to Saul that David and his men have escaped and that the
priests have aided him.
In 1 Samuel 22, after we learn about David’s mighty men the scene shifts
back in 1 Samuel 22:6 to Saul. When Saul hears about what the priests have done
he orders their execution. Nobody will do it but this Doeg the Edomite. He was
the spy who reported on this. He is not an Israelite. He is an Edomite. He is a
distant cousin, a descendant of Esau from Edom. Doeg says that he will do it.
He turns out to be the great assassin who is going to kill almost all of the
priests.
Abiathar, who is the son of Ahimelech escapes. All the others are
killed. He escapes and he will be the next high priest. He joins David and
tells David what Saul has done in killing the Lord’s priests. David is going to
protect Abiathar. This is his function as the messiah. Then we are told that
David learned that the Philistines were attacking another city down in the
south, a city called Keilah.
Slide 5: Here we have a map picture. This is the cave of Adullam, west of
Bethlehem. Just south of there is Keilah. This town is being attacked. It is an
Israelite village. It is being attacked by the Philistines.
When David hears what does he do? He does not do as Saul and say let’s
immediately go take action. He inquires of the Lord. We are told in 1 Samuel
23:2 that David inquires of the Lord. Should I attack the Philistines? God says
to go attack the Philistines. Save Keilah.
When David tells his men, his men say that they are afraid to do this.
How do we know this is God’s will? This is going to be tough. The Philistines
outnumber us. They are tougher than we are. David went back and asked the Lord
a second time. The Lord said to go to Keilah. I will deliver the Philistines
into your hands. David tells his men and they go with him. We are told they
strike a savage blow against the Philistines.
Word gets back to Saul that David is down there. This is another attempt
on Saul. He decides to gather his troops to go after David. Saul is going to
attack David and try to kill him. Yet in all of this David is focused on the
Lord. David asked the Lord if he should stay in Keilah or leave. The Lord says
get out of town because they are going to betray you to Saul. David left town
with 600 men. He escapes because he is walking with the Lord. We see the
contrast between Saul and David.
David goes and is hiding. He goes to the Wilderness of Ziph. He goes
down to the Wilderness of Maon, and then he goes to this area called the Rock
of Escape because Saul has been chasing him. He hears about the Philistines
somewhere else. He gets diverted. That is the providence of God. He diverts
Saul’s attention. That is described in 1 Samuel 23:26–27. Saul has to go fend
off the Philistines. This allows David to escape. They call that place the Rock
of Escape.
David goes from there in 1 Samuel 23:29 down to En Gedi, which is
located along the coast of the Dead Sea, just north of where Masada is located.
Qumran is located about 15 miles north of Engedi. It is a beautiful, beautiful
site. David, we are told, is now wandering through the wilderness trying to
escape from Saul.
In 1 Samuel 24 we have the first of those incidences where Saul goes
into a cave. It is somewhat humorous. David and his men are hiding in a cave.
Saul goes into the cave to relieve himself. He is just a few feet from David.
David’s men say to kill him. You can stick your sword out there and stab him
and he will die. David cut off the hem of his garment.
Then the Scripture says that David’s heart sort of nagged at him. But
that is not the word in the Hebrew. The word in the Hebrew is “it smote him.”
It is the same word used for killing somebody. He is under serious conviction.
His conscience has been seriously violated. When Saul comes out of the cave
David goes out and apologizes for cutting off part of his robe. That violated
the authority of the king. The king is still the Lord’s anointed.
1 Samuel 25 is a long chapter. It is a very interesting story. I will
quickly summarize. The chapter begins with the death of Samuel and it ends with
David’s loss of his wife Michal, who is married off by Saul to someone else. In
between we are told the funny story of a man named Nabal. Nabal is a Hebrew
word for a fool. He acts a fool. He has a beautiful, wise wife. She is a great
pattern for biblical womanhood. He is a pattern of pagan foolishness.
When David sends messengers to ask Nabal to provide some logistics for
him, some food and some wine, he disrespects David’s messengers greatly. He
ridicules them and sends them off. When David gets the message he loses his
temper. He wants to go back and kill Nabal. He is on his way, but Abigail is
told what happened. She is very wise. She loads up as much food as she can,
gets on a mule, and heads out to head off David.
Abigail pleads with him and gives him a solid rational for why he should
not kill Nabal. David listens to her and does not do that. This keeps him from
doing a horrible sin. Abigail goes back. She tells Nabal. His heart is
hardened. In ten days we see God intervening. Sometimes we have to put
injustice in the hand of God. He may not resolve things in ten days, ten
months, ten years, or decades, but He will.
That is what David has done. He has put Nabal in the hands of God. God
takes Nabal out ten days later. Nabal is dead. Abigail becomes David’s wife.
This is also a problem for David because David is now violating the Mosaic Law.
He is beginning to multiply wives to himself. We see part of his flawed
character.
1 Samuel 26 is another incident where he spares Saul’s life. But after
all of this, by the time we get to 1 Samuel 27 David has to find some place to
go. He is under incredible pressure. He has six hundred people to take care of.
Saul is trying to kill him. David goes over to the enemy. He goes to the
Philistines, to Achish, the king of Gath. David is tells Achish that he will
work for him, but the men of Achish tell him that they are somewhat suspicious
of David.
David is given Ziklag. It is another village southeast of Gath. Here
David can put up his men. From this stronghold he is going to attack the
Amalekites and other groups in the south. David is not going to tell Achish whom
he is fighting. He is going to make it look like he is fighting the Israelites
so that Achish will trust him. David is actually continuing his messianic role
to protect the Israelite people and Israel, to provide for them, and to give
them security. David gains the trust of Achish.
In 1 Samuel 28 we have the story shifting back to Saul. Saul is now at
the end of his rope. He has lost it completely spiritually. He is going to seek
help from a witch, a diviner, a necromancer, the witch of En-Dor. Saul goes to
her to find out what he should do. Samuel is dead. He cannot get the word from
the Lord. The Lord God will not speak to him. What am I going to do? He is
absolutely panicked.
Let me tell you, this happens with believers. I have seen this any
number of times. The biggest test you are ever going to face is when you get
past 60 years of age. If you have not learned doctrine by then, you had better
start learning it after you are past 60. Things will happen. I have seen people
who have spent their life listening to the Word, but not totally internalizing
it. They get up into times when they get some serious health problems. They
will go to all kinds of “New Age, Juju Black Magic”.
These folks will try anything. They will go to anyone who says, “I can
solve your problem. I can do it through acupuncture, acupressure, through
aromatherapy. I can cure your stroke, your cancer.” They will spend their
fortune trying to solve a problem through something that is illegitimate. I am
not saying that every one of those is illegitimate, but they will not cure
strokes. They will not cure cancer. I have seen older believers waste their
fortunes in searching for a hope.
It reveals that there is something empty in their spiritual life. That
is the way Saul was. He goes to this necromancer to find out how he can defeat
the Philistines, and if he can defeat the Philistines. Saul wants the witch of
En-Dor to call up Samuel from the grave. When Samuel shows up, it scars her to
death because she has never done this. She has been in league with a demon the
whole time, and now Samuel actually shows up. Samuel announces to Saul that he
is going to die tomorrow. You and your sons will be with me. That is exactly
what happens. It is tragic.
But before we get to 1 Samuel 31 we learn two things about David in 1
Samuel 29–30:
The next day there is the battle between Saul and the Philistines on Mt.
Gilboa. Saul’s sons are killed. He is fatally wounded, arrows sticking out all
parts of his body. Saul begs his armorbearer to kill him. His armorbearer will
not take the life of the Lord’s anointed either. Saul has to fall on his sword.
That is where we end the story. Saul is dead. The Philistines decapitated him.
They hang his body from the walls of Beth-shan.
When the men of Jabesh-Gilead, who are distant relatives of Saul, hear
about it, they have a night raid on Beth-shan. They take down Saul’s body and
take it back across the Jordan. They bury his body over in Gilead. That is how
1 Samuel ends, but that is not the end of the story. Remember, the story
continues. 1 Samuel is really the first part of a whole book, a two-part book.
It could not be published in one volume, so they broke it into the two scrolls.
You have 1 Samuel and then 2 Samuel.
Then at end of 2 Samuel you see the glorious grace of God in elevating
Israel. They are given a leader, but not one they
deserve. You often have heard me say that we often get leaders we do deserve.
We have a leader this nation deserves right now. We will probably get another
one in November. But every now and then God gives us a leader we do not
deserve. The Israelites had not turned back to God. There is no indication
anywhere in 1 Samuel that they had turned to God. But God gave them a leader
they did not deserve. God graced them out and gave them somebody special. He
gave them David.
We need to pray in this country that God would give us a leader we do
not deserve, a leader that will be a man after God’s heart, because only then
will we see this country turn around. It is not going to happen just because of
politics. It can only happen if we have a spiritual reformation in this nation.
Otherwise, we will continue to deteriorate. Let’s close in prayer.