The Lord is With …
1 Samuel 18:1–14
We are
moving tonight out of 1 Samuel 17 into 1 Samuel 18. I have titled this lesson,
“The Lord is With …” The Lord is with David. Three times in this chapter the
statement is made that the Lord is with David. I think that is the theme. That
is what is being demonstrated in the next two or three chapters. It is God’s
protection for David. David understands that. David knows that in 1 Samuel 16
that he has been anointed to be the king of Israel. He knows that that is God’s
plan for his life.
We do not
quite have those same assurances. We do not have special revelation telling us
what is going to happen a year or two or three or four down the road. But David
knew that he was eventually going to be king. That meant that he had great
confidence that when he goes into battle against Goliath, when he is dealing
with the opposition with Saul, when he is dealing with living among his
enemies, the Philistines, that God is going to protect him, because God has
given him a promise. God is going to fulfill that promise. He can relax because
he knows what the future is going to be.
We do not
always know what the future is going to be. We know that God is going to
protect us, but part of that protection may include taking us to Heaven
tomorrow. We have to understand that we do not have quite the same situation or
circumstances that David had. Nevertheless, there are a lot of things that we
can learn. We also know, as we talk about the Lord being with David, that the
Lord is with us.
Roman
8:31b, “If God
is for us, who can be against us?”
God plus
one is a majority. It does not matter what the external circumstances may be in
terms of politics or economics or health or opposition from people within our
circles. The Lord is for us. We need to be walking with the Lord.
As we come
to this part of Samuel I am going to lay out the basic outline for the second
half of 1 Samuel. We saw in 1 Samuel 16:1–13 that God sent Samuel to anoint
David. Again, I am showing you that in contrast to every outline you look at on
Samuel or any other book in the Old Testament I try to always structure my
outlines with God as the subject as much as I can. Especially in historical
narrative literature. These are hero stories all the way through. God is the
hero, because God is the One Who is working out His plan.
What we
see here is:
You are
not promoted unless God promotes you. You can manipulate. You can try to
maneuver things. You can try to do all kinds of things in order to make things work
for you. You may even appear to be promoted in the eyes of the world, but
unless God promotes you, you really have not been promoted. God promotes David.
We saw
that God sent Samuel to anoint David in the first half of 1 Samuel 16. In the
second half of the chapter we saw that Saul was being oppressed by a demon. God
was ultimately allowing this demon to come in through God’s permissive will to
oppress Saul. Saul needed relief. Saul’s advisors, his servants, said, “We know
someone who can do this.” That was David. God is the One who brings David out
of the sheepfold and into the presence of the king. That is the first time we
see David promoted. We saw over the last three lessons how:
We see
David as a real spiritual champion, and because he is a spiritual champion he
is able to be the military champion for Israel. This is where we stopped last
time.
We see
over the next three plus chapters that God is going to protect David from Saul.
David cannot protect himself. David cannot manipulate the situation. He cannot
do anything. Saul is bent on killing him, but David knows that he can relax and
trust God. God is going to protect him from these murderous assaults from Saul.
David
flees Saul and goes to live in the midst of his enemies, the Philistines. That
covers the rest of 1 Samuel.
Let’s
begin to look at the text. We have a lot of narrative in this section. It is going
to go a little more quickly than some other passages. We see something of a
transition here as we move David from being out in the sheepfold to being at
the heart of the kingdom, in the presence of Saul, and in the presence of the
court.
What we
see here is that God is protecting David from Saul. This starts in 1 Samuel
17:55 through 1 Samuel 20:42. In this first section, 1 Samuel 17:55–1 Samuel
18:4, the key question is: Whose son are you?
1 Samuel
17:55 takes place as a flashback. By this time David has already killed
Goliath. David has cut his head off. David has taken his head to Jerusalem. He
has mounted the head on a spear as a warning to the Jebusites in Salem that
their time was coming. Their days were numbered. Of course, this eventually happens.
David is the one who defeats the Jebusites and conquers the city for Israel.
After all
of this has taken place we have this flashback, 1 Samuel 17:55–56, “When Saul saw
David going out against the Philistine, he said to Abner (his General, who
is also David’s uncle), the commander of the army, ‘Abner, whose son is this youth?’ And Abner
said, ‘As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.’ So the king said, ‘Inquire
whose son this young man is.’”
The basic
thing that Saul is asking is who is this boy’s daddy? As soon as I read this
this morning I got a flash in my head about a cookbook. It is one of my
favorite cookbooks that is a Cajun cookbook. What Saul is asking what his
lineage is? What is his background? What is his family like? Because Saul has made
promises that whoever kills Goliath, the person’s extended family is going to
live tax free. The champion is going to marry Saul’s daughter. Saul is thinking
of who his in-law is going to be.
The title
for this Cajun cookbook is: Who’s Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make A Roux? by
Marcelle Bienvenu. I always thought that was a great title for a book. I guess
for Jews it would be Who is Your Daddy, are you Jewish, and Can You Get Me a Bagel?
This is
what Saul is asking. Who is David? What is his background? Who is the family
that is going to come into Israel?
1 Samuel
17:57–58, bringing it back from the flashback, “Then, as David returned from the slaughter
of the Philistine.” This is immediately after David has killed Goliath.
“Abner took him
and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. And
Saul said to him, ‘Whose son are you, young man?’ What is your lineage? Who
is your family?
“So David
answered, ‘I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.’ ”
There are
some people, liberals, who do not trust the Word of God. They say, “Well, wait
a minute.” We already have this situation back in 1 Samuel 16 where David has
come from the sheepfold. He is playing before Saul. He asks at that time whose
son he is. There is a different context. There Saul is asking for some
identity. But now, some time later, Saul has made these promises about the
family of the person who kills Goliath. He is promising the champion his
daughter.
There is
now more of a personal urgency or significance to this family. Saul is asking a
more specific question because now he needs to take Jesse off the tax rolls. He
needs to find out who the extended family is. He needs to get more precision,
more details; whereas the earlier question was a more general question. This
brings in David’s background. It sets up the transition. It flows directly into
the beginning of the next chapter.
That
immediately takes up from this point. What we see in the first four verses of 1
Samuel 18 is the shift of loyalty that begins to take place in Saul’s own
family, and to some degree with Saul. But he has problems, as we are going to
see. In the next four verses we see that Saul’s family begins to shift their
loyalty to David.
1 Samuel
18:1, “Now when
he had finished speaking to Saul the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of
David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.”
There are
a couple of things that we ought to point out here. I think this verse, more
than any other verse, specifically tells us a tremendous amount about Jonathan
and his character. If we take a look at the chronology of these events, we
recognize that David at this point is not quite old enough to serve in the army
of Israel. That age for serving in the army was 20 years old, according to the
Book of Numbers.
David is
less than that. He is probably 18 years old. He might even be 19 years of age.
We are going to err on the side of making him as old as we can. Let’s say he is
19 years old. Jonathan is quite a bit older. Jonathan, as we saw in the battle
of Michmash, is already at that time somewhat of an experienced warrior, an
experienced soldier.
If we make
Jonathan as young as we could, let’s say that by then he is married. He is
about 25 years of age at the time of the battle of Michmash. That battle is
difficult to date precisely in relation to the battle with Goliath. But let’s
say it is somewhere between five to ten years prior to the battle with Goliath.
If it is only five years, then that would mean that Jonathan was ten years
older than David by this time. Jonathan would be around 30 years old.
Some
people have placed the difference in the age of Jonathan and David as much as
20 years’ difference in age, that Jonathan is between 35–40 years of age. When
you think about that and look and hear that this 19-year-old young man is
befriended and given the loyalty of a man that is almost twice his age, that
shows something about the humility of Jonathan.
Jonathan
is the crown prince. He is the recognized heir of the throne of the kingdom. He
has already experienced all of the privileges and trappings that would go with
that. Yet Jonathan recognizes that David is the one who is going to be the next
ruler of Israel, not himself.
Jonathan
gives David his loyalty. That is what we see in this verse as Jonathan has been
observing this whole situation with David. Jonathan responds with a love and a
loyalty to David. We are told that “the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David.”
This is
the Hebrew word קָשַׁר qāshar, which means to bind something
together or to tie something together. This is the same word that is used in
Deuteronomy 6:8 in order to express the fact that “You shall bind them (the words of the Torah) as a sign on your
hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.”
This is
when the men would take the phylacteries and tie them around their foreheads
and on the back of their hands. It is binding. It is also a word that is used
to show deep affection and love for other people. It is used of the love of
Jacob for Joseph. After Joseph was sold into slavery and Jacob was told by his
sons that he had been killed, Jacob went into profound grief. Genesis 44:30
says that Jacob was bound with the life of Joseph.
We see the
same word, qāshar,
is of Jacob and Joseph to show this intimate love between two adults. The word
that is translated “love” is the general word for love in Hebrew. It is the
word אָהַב ’āhav.
At that
point it begins to approach a similarity to the word חֶ֫סֶד ḥeseḏ,
pronounced chesedh,
which is used many times of God’s loyal love. It is the word that is translated
“lovingkindness.” If you have a New American Standard Bible, it is usually
translated “lovingkindness.” Some versions translate it “faithful loyal love.”
It always has to do with God’s loyalty to His covenant.
אָהַב ’āhab is used to describe this as well. The reason I am pointing
this out is that especially in today’s environment when the liberals want to
come along and every time you see something like this you want to make it a
homosexual relationship. It shows that the liberals have an agenda. They are
going to impose that agenda upon the Scripture. That is just absolutely absurd.
You have a
number of places in Scripture where the idea of the love of one person for
another is mentioned. In fact, in 1 Kings 5:1, Hiram, who is the ruler and
builder of Tyre, has a love for David. It is the same word. It shows loyalty to
another person. That is the idea here. Jonathan is loyal to David. He loved
David as his own soul. Jonathan is going to be loyal to David.
The reason
we can say that is—I’m going to skip 1 Samuel 18:2 and go to 1 Samuel
18:3–4—because the immediate context tells us that we are talking about a
covenant relationship. It is incumbent upon anyone who wants this to mean
something else violates the context here, because we are talking about loyalty
to a covenant.
1 Samuel
18:3, “Then
Jonathan and David made a covenant ...”
This is
like becoming blood brothers in an American Indian environment. They are going
to pledge their loyalty to one another. They are of one mind.
Remember,
in 1 Samuel 14:6 Jonathan is the one that when he was going into the battle of
Michmash he took his armorbearer with him. They went outside of the lines of
Israel. They crossed extremely rugged territory and terrain. They climbed up
these cliffs in order to attack the Philistine garrison. Jonathan said at that
time to his armorbearer, “Come and let us
cross over to the garrison of these uncircumcised …”
That is
the same kind of language that David used when he approached the Philistine.
Jonathan shows his spiritual perception here. He understands that this is a
spiritual battle and a theological battle that the Philistines are
uncircumcised. They do not have a right to the land, because circumcision is
the sign of the Abrahamic Covenant, where God promised to the descendants of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the very land on which they stood.
Jonathan
has a theological perception. He has the moral and battle courage as a result
of that. He says, 1 Samuel 14:6, “… it may be that the Lord will work for us, for
nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by a few.” Jonathan shows
great spiritual perspicacity. He shows great spiritual application. He is
trusting in the Lord just as David does.
You can
see why when David comes to the tent of Saul and begins to tell him what he can
do and how the battle is the Lord’s. As Jonathan listens to David he is saying,
“He sounds like me! He sounds just like me!” We have the same mind. Jonathan
and David enter into a long relationship. It says so much about Jonathan.
Jonathan is often seen as a background figure, but he has great character and
great humility. It is a real tragedy that he is killed along with Saul on Mt.
Gilboa.
What
Jonathan does as a result of entering the covenant with David is to take off
his robe. He is the crown prince. His uniform probably had certain markings and
indications that he was Saul’s son. This is traditional throughout all
cultures, that the son of the king is going to wear special clothes, special
garments. Jonathan takes off his robe and he gives it to David. This has great
significance.
Giving
David his robe shows that Jonathan recognizes that David is the one who has the
right to wear these special clothes, because he is the one who will become the
heir of Saul. Jonathan also gives David his armor, even his sword, bow, and
belt. He takes all and gives it to David. This is a sign that he recognizes
that David is the one who has the right to be the next king of Israel.
This event
would not have been something that was unknown. The people would have heard
about this. The people would have seen that Jonathan had given these things to
David. The word would have gone out. The people would have recognized that
Jonathan understands that David is the one who will be the next king.
We skipped
1 Samuel 18:2 so we will go back to it briefly. After the battle with Goliath
Saul probably has another reason why he wanted to find out who David’s family
was, because Saul is going to tell his father that because of the bravery of
your son you are off the tax rolls, and before you start celebrating I am going
to take your son. He is going to come and permanently live and be garrisoned
with me and become one of my chief military commanders.
We are
told in 1 Samuel 18:2, “Saul took him (David) that day, and would not let him go home to his
father’s house anymore.”
What
happens in 1 Samuel 18:3–8 is David’s popularity not only has increased with
Saul’s own family, but it increases with the people. This begins to really
anger and upset Saul.
1 Samuel
18:5, “So
David went out wherever Saul sent him …”
This
terminology is military terminology. It is telling us that Saul is sending
David on various military missions. David goes on those missions and carries
them out well. It says, “… and behaved wisely.”
The word
used for behaving wisely is a significant word. It is the word שָׂכַל sākhal
in the Hebrew, which means “to be wise, prudent, or a man of understanding.”
That has particular theological significance, because he is going out into
various battle scenarios, but he is functioning as the commander of the king of
Israel. Yet this demonstrates that David is spiritually wise. That he is not
just militarily capable, but he is spiritually wise and that informs his
military capabilities.
This is a
term that is significantly used in Deuteronomy and in Joshua in relationship to
taking and conquering the land.
In
Deuteronomy 29:9 as Moses is beginning to wrap up what he is telling the
Israelites he says, “Therefore keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may
prosper in all that you do.”
In the
rest of Deuteronomy 29 Moses is going to warn them about what happens when they
do not obey. But Moses tells them that if you keep the words, obey the words,
then God will prosper you. In the context that means that you are going to
defeat the enemy. You are going to conquer the land. You are going to take the
land. There will be a great success in building a new nation.
It is also
used later at the opening of Joshua. These are a couple of great verses to
memorize, especially if you understand the context. Joshua is told by God:
Joshua
1:7, “Only be
strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to the law
which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or
to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.”
God is
telling Joshua that he is going to have victory over the enemies of Israel,
over the enemies of God in Canaan, if you will just obey the law and not turn
from it to the right or the left. You will prosper.
Joshua
1:8, “This
Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it
day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in
it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good
success.”
That word
“prosper, prosperous” is the same word שָׂכַל sākhal that
is used in those other places. It indicates David’s character in 1 Samuel 18:5
that “he
behaved wisely.” God is taking care of him and providing for him. When we
get into the New Testament the concept of prosperity is different.
Prosperity
is used in a couple of different passages:
1
Corinthians 16:2, “On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside,
storing up as he may prosper that there be no collections when I come.”
This is
the word EUODOO in Greek. It also means “to prosper.” Here it clearly has the
idea of material or economic prosperity.
3 John 2, “Beloved, I pray
that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”
What is
shown in the second part of the comparison is that the soul can prosper, but
that does not mean that there is necessarily physical health and financial
health prosperity. It is interesting that over the last 40–50 years in the
charismatic community they developed this whole theology called:
however,
you want to term it.
That led
to some big scandals in the 1980s. The scandal was Jim Baker and the “Praise
the Lord” televangelism ministry. I am sure many of you remember some of the
things that went on. Jim Baker ended up going to jail because of the financial
misdealing of the Heritage Community that they had developed. They had misused
the funds that Christians had sent to the ministry.
I can name
about ten seminaries that are doing the same thing right now, but that is
another story. Remember, these guys have a pulpit persona. Every time they are
on television they were in this character. But when Jim Baker got let out of
prison there was an interview that I saw on television with him. It was one of
the few times I have ever seen a great example of genuine repentance.
You may
remember that at the same time Jimmy Swaggart came out after his sins were
discovered. He was weeping and emotional. But Jim Baker came out and said in a
very normal everyday persona. He said that while he was in prison that he had a
chance to study Greek. That he did not have a whole lot else to do. I studied
Greek and came to understand that this verse, 3 John 2 (the proof text for the
“Health and Wealth Theology”) in the verse and word did not mean what we said
it meant. We were wrong. There is no biblical foundation for “Health and Wealth
Theology.”
That was
it. That was a great example of genuine humility and genuine repentance. I
really had to respect the man for being able to do that. We have to distinguish
that in the Church Age prosperity is different for the believer than in Israel
because of the promises that God had made.
Let me
give you three points of summary:
1. Success
is measured differently.
Prosperity
is measured differently in the Old Testament and the New Testament. They are
not the same. In the New Testament prosperity primarily focuses on spiritual
growth and spiritual maturity. It does not imply necessarily physical,
economic, or material prosperity.
2. In the
Old Testament demonstrations of God’s blessing in the Torah were tangible and concrete.
The people
are told “If you obey Me there will be rains in season and out of season.” The
crops will be productive. The economy will be good. When enemies attack one
will put to flight a thousand. All of these things were very physical.
If you
obey God the wild animals, the predatory animals will all go away. If you obey
God and obey the Law then women will be fertile, the wombs will not be barren.
But if you disobey Me, then the rains will not come. The sky will be like
bronze. The earth will be like iron. The crops will not be productive. The
wombs will be barren. The enemies will come and you will be destroyed by
various military powers.
Physical
and material blessing was a barometer for Israel to determine whether they were
obedient or not. One of the tithes that were taken every year was to be used
for an annual party, an annual celebration of the grace and the goodness of
God. If they were doing really, really well, if they had a gross domestic
product (GDP) of five trillion dollars, and if they took 10% of that and had a
party, that would be a heck of a party. You would have the best food, the best
champagne, the best beer, the best scotch, the best everything.
But if you
were disobeying God, and your GDP was a hundred million dollars, and you only
had ten million to spend on a party, you would be getting some kind of canned
beer that was mass produced. You would be getting some counterfeit bubbly to
use instead of the best champagne. You would be getting chicken instead of
steak. It was a real physical, visible barometer for whether you were obeying
God or not.
One year
you would go to this party and it is not so good. You are eating hot dogs and
chicken burgers. You might turn and say, “You know, I remember when I was a kid
we use to really have these great, great national celebrations. The food was
tremendous! What has happened?”
What has
happened is that you have become spiritually idolatrous and disobedient. My
point is that prosperity, physical, material, financial prosperity in the Old
Testament was linked to spiritual maturity. But that is not true in the New
Testament.
3. In the
New Testament prosperity is marked by a spiritual strength and maturity that is
not connected in any way with physical or financial prosperity. Your financial
situation is not necessarily a barometer of your spiritual situation.
That does
not mean that if you are a believer and applying the wisdom principles of
Scripture that you will not be materially and physically prosperous. That works
out that way for many people because they make wise decisions, but it is not a
necessary connection. That is what we have.
We
conclude from that that in the New Testament physical, material, and economic
prosperity is not guaranteed or related at all to spiritual prosperity, though
in some cases it might be. If a person is living wisely on the basis of God’s
Word, then he will often avoid the foolish decisions with money, which plague
those who live for purely selfish ends.
But it is
not a necessary barometer. Just because you see someone who is impoverished or
going through difficult times, that does not mean that they have been a failure
spiritually. God may be taking them through those tests because that is exactly
what they need in order to grow.
Wrapping
up the rest of 1 Samuel 18:5, “And Saul set him (David) over the men of war, and he was accepted in
the sight of the people and also in the sight of Saul’s servants.”
Initially
David’s success is tied to his military skills. Then this verse says that as he
was successful then he began to be accepted by the people, and also by Saul’s
close advisors, his cabinet. His upper echelon of leaders and associates began
to accept David. It was because he is oriented to God’s grace. He is oriented
to God’s Word. That is what enables him to trust in the Lord. Because David has
strong faith God is blessing him. Everyone is beginning to accept him.
The
problem begins because of Saul’s sin nature. In 1 Samuel 18:6, “Now it had
happened as they were coming home, when David was returning from the slaughter
of the Philistine …”
This is a
few days later. The army is now returning back to Gibeah, where Saul had
established his headquarters. As they go through the various villages, the
people throw ticker tape parades for the army. They have celebrations. The
women are coming out. They compose ditties to sing to praise David and to
praise Saul. The women come out with their musical instruments.
“… that the women
had come out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king
Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments.”
These are
not tambourines like we know it, but something similar. The word for tambourine
is a timbrel, which is like a tambourine without the jingles. You have metal
rings on a tambourine that jingle. The Israelites did not have those. It was a
round hoop that had animal skin over it. They would beat that. It did not have
the jingles.
There was
a lyre. There were different kinds of lyres. It was usually a three-stringed
instrument that were different shapes. You can see these in the slide. The
women would come out and sing. They would dance. This reminds us of other
situations in the history of Israel.
After the
crossing of the Dead Sea Miriam composed a hymn. The women came out and danced
and sang. This is their celebration of victory. It also happened in Judges 11
with Jephthah’s daughter, as she came out the women of Israel came out and
celebrated Jephthah’s victory over the Ammonites.
The women
come out. They are singing and dancing to meet king Saul with their musical
instruments. What they are singing is a very simple phrase, but it really
angers Saul.
1 Samuel
18:7, “Saul
has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”
The
comparison is clear. Saul may be a great warrior, but David is ten times
greater. This gets right to Saul. Remember, he is operating on his sin nature.
He is totally self-absorbed, completely concerned about his own prestige. He is
also probably embarrassed that this young shepherd has come out of nowhere to
defeat this giant. Saul and everybody else in the army cowered in their tents.
They did not come out to try to defeat Goliath.
We are
told about Saul’s response. This happens a lot. What happens is that people
hear something, see something, or are exposed to something. They react in anger
because of the threat that is present by the circumstance or situation. This is
described with Saul.
1 Samuel
18:8–9, “Then
Saul was very angry (literally, ‘burned greatly’), and the saying displeased him (literally,
‘it was evil in his eyes’); and he said, ‘They have ascribed to David ten thousand, and to me
they have ascribed only thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom?’
So Saul eyed [with suspicion] David from that day forward.”
Hebrew is
a very concrete language. Literally the idiom is Saul’s nose burned. But it
does not use the full idiom here in this verse. It just uses “he burned.” When
people get mad and really angry they get red in the face. Their nose gets red.
That is what the idiom was, that their “nose burned.” It is saying that Saul is
very or greatly angry.
The
saying, this song that they are singing, displeased Saul. Literally in the
Hebrew it says, “it was evil in his eyes.” Saul is really angry! He is going to
throw a tantrum. “They have ascribed to David ten thousand, and to me they have ascribed
only thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom?”
It becomes
clear to Saul at this point that the only thing left is that David is going to
take the kingdom from him. Saul is beginning to realize that David is his
competitor. What we see here is that Saul recognizes that what he desires the
most. Remember, in the beginning Saul did not want prestige. He did not want
power. He did not want the kingdom. Now it is going to be taken from him. He
sees David as the one who is going to do it. He focuses his anger on David.
From this point on it says Saul eyed with suspicion. It is a negative concept.
Saul is
looking at David. He is watching him. He is eyeing him suspiciously from that
day forward. Saul expects that David is going to do what he would do. That is
something underhanded, something manipulative in order to take the kingdom from
Saul. Things are going to go from bad to worse because now that Saul is mired
in all this emotional sin, these mental attitude sins of anger and resentment
and fear and vindictiveness.
It sounds
like one of our presidential candidates. Does it not?
1 Samuel
18:10–11, “And
it happened on the next day that the distressing spirit …”
That is
the word you saw before. It is an evil spirit. It is God’s permissive will
allowing a demon to oppress Saul.
“… that the
distressing spirit from God came upon Saul.”
We have
already studied this. I do not need to go into this in detail. It is not demon
possession. The demon does not go into Saul. It is from an outside position. It
is demon influence, demon oppression. It comes upon Saul.
“and he prophesied
inside the house.”
Is that
not interesting? What is the connection there with prophesy? I have taught this
before, that we think prophesy we think of as articulating the Word of God. But
it is also used in relation to singing. It is used of the various temple
musicians who played their instruments and prophesied to God.
Miriam was
said to be a prophetess. The only thing we know that she did was she composed a
hymn. You also see that with Deborah. Deborah was called a prophetess. She
composed a hymn. There is a meaning within this word prophet that focuses on
singing praise to God.
Saul is
prophesying inside the house. I cannot go any further than that. Nobody has any
idea what that actually fully means.
“So David played
music with his hand, as at other times; but there was a spear in Saul’s hand.
And Saul cast the spear, for he said, ‘I will pin David to the wall!’ But David
escaped his presence twice.”
What we
see here is that where Saul is, his spear is near at hand. He decides that this
is a great opportunity for him to kill David. Saul grabs the spear. He is
thinking, “I
will pin David to the wall!” Then we are told that twice David escaped.
This happened more than once. This is the first two times that Saul tried to
kill David. We are going to catalog these as we go through Samuel.
David does
not retaliate. He does not retaliate for two reasons:
1. Because
Saul is the Lord’s anointed.
2. This is
very important. Saul is not going out and trying to kill anyone else like this.
David knows that God is going to protect him. He can relax no matter what. Saul
is going to do all kinds of stuff. David does not have to do anything to
protect himself because God is. David can relax and trust in the Lord.
What we
see by observing Saul and observing the others we can summarize the sin cycle.
I want you to think about this. This is what can happen to each and every one
of us when we get apart from the Lord. We are no longer walking according to
the Holy Spirit, but we are walking according to the sin nature.
The Cycle
of Sin
1. As soon
as we stop walking by the Spirit we make that volitional decision to stop
depending on the Holy Spirit, Galatians 5:16. Control of the sin nature takes
over. In Galatians 5:17–18 there is a war between the Spirit and the sin
nature, but the sin nature is in control. When the sin nature controls it leads
to more personal sin or human good or both depending on your make-up.
Result:
Spiritual dullness.
Control of
the sin nature leads to spiritual dullness. At that point we start to lose. If
we confess sin and recover quickly, then the effects of that are limited. But
the longer we stay walking by the Spirit the more dramatic those results are
going to be as we start living in the house of the sin nature.
2. If this
continues then our trust in God begins to shutdown. It begins to deteriorate.
We no longer think about that as an option. We look to solutions in terms of
our own abilities to manipulate or to challenge things. Our faith toward God
begins to shut down. We begin to forget the doctrine that we have learned.
Our sin
nature has an affinity to human viewpoint solutions and pagan solutions
thinking that the flesh can solve the problem. It changes the way we think. We
start focusing on the wrong issues. We focus on the wrong priorities. Our
decision-making process begins to become seriously impaired.
Result:
Inhale human viewpoint/worldliness.
Rather
than taking in the Word of God we are taking in human-viewpoint paganism. We
are inhaling worldliness. The worldly concepts that provide rationalizations
for our sin nature begin to dominate.
3.
Increased arrogance: arrogance skills increase.
We have
talked about these many times. The basic orientation of the sin nature is
self-absorption. As soon as we start walking by the flesh everything is about
“me”. That is want we see in Saul. Everything is about him. Everything is about
what he thinks is necessary to have meaning and happiness, to be able to have a
legacy, all of these things are bound up in his ego and his sense of what will
make him fulfilled as an individual.
As a
result of that self-absorption, Saul wants to indulge himself. He is going to
give into that sin nature and it is going to dominate. That leads to
self-justification. We rationalize our disobedience because everyone else is
doing it, or whatever the rationalization is. There is a justification for
every kind of spiritual rebellion. That leads to self-deception. We can no
longer think objectively. We think subjectively.
We have a
whole country like this. It is amazing to listen to what the man on the street
talks about and says in relation to the problems facing us. They have no clue
what is going on. They are so divorced from reality. That includes most
Christians and many Christian pastors. I am amazed at what is going on in this
country. We have lost our anchor to the Word of God. This Scripture says that this
results in self-deification. We are worshiping our self. We become the ultimate
standard of right or wrong. That is what we see with Saul.
Results:
Increased arrogance results in foolishness. Foolishness is always contrasted
with wisdom in Scripture. Romans 1:18ff culminates in the fact that “professing to be
wise they became fools.”
Those who
rejected the existence of God are fools. They may have triple PhDs in
scientific studies that you and I cannot pronounce, but the Bible says that
because they have rejected God they are fools. The result is foolish thinking
dominates. There is a loss of reality orientation due to truth suppression.
They are living on the basis of a lie.
One of the
great myths that are going around the world today is the myth of global
warming. I was reading an article. I posted a link to it on my Facebook page
this morning. I think the original link came off of the Drudge Report, but it linked to a news
article that was describing a meeting of pro-global-warming activists.
What these
pro-global-warming activists want to do is change the definition of a
hurricane, because after hurricane Matthew, it was not as devastating as the
global-warming people wanted it to be. They want all these horrible
meteorological disasters to take place to justify their mythology, to justify
their false understanding of the weather.
If they
can reduce the definition to say that a hurricane starts at 50-mph winds
instead of 74 mph, then now we are going to have more hurricanes. Then we will
have more disasters. See, we were right after all. They are living in their own
fantasy bubble. They want the rest of us to join them. That is insanity. That
is psychotic. Yet we have a scientific community and a political community in
the White House and in Congress that buys into this kind of garbage. It is like
buying into evolution. It is a fantasy.
If you are
a Christian you cannot give any credence to any of this, but it is a result of
truth suppression. They are totally divorced from reality. As a result of that
they get more and more upset, more and more angry. Mental attitude sins
increase. That is what we see in Saul. He is angry. The text says that he is
going to be afraid of David, using the everyday Hebrew word for fear. Saul is
going to intensify. He is going to dread David. You see how Saul’s soul is
beginning to be destroyed by sin nature control.
This leads
to all kinds of:
4.
Idolatry: increased arrogance and foolishness leads to various forms of
idolatry.
Idolatry
is where you are worshiping wood or stone or metal. You are submitting to all
kinds of false authorities. You are submitting to emotion and peer pressure.
You are submitting to material possessions. I have to have things. I have to
have the things that money can buy because that defines happiness and success
or pleasure.
You have
the incredible rise of sexual orgies and sexual fantasies played out today that
are being exacerbated by the Internet, pornography, and many other things. This
intensifies the breakdown of marriages, the breakdown of family, and the
breakdown of personal relationships. Then you get into various forms of
escapism. Life is miserable, so I am going to escape.
You are
going to do it through drugs. You are going to do it through alcohol. You can
do it through entertainment, through pleasure, through eating. You can do it
through all kinds of things. You are worshiping these things as that which
defines life. Then there are all the false ideologies and religions that come
along that people worship.
Result:
Increased mental attitude sins and fragmentation in the soul. Anger,
frustration, depression, and fear that leads to further self-induced misery and
more attempts to mask the misery and to deny it. This is all part of demon
influence and demonic destruction. It characterizes our country.
Let me
give you a couple of other observations here. We are going to talk about Saul
and fear. Fear is the basic emotional orientation of the sin nature. It is basically
focused on self-absorption, but when self is threatened in any way, shape, or
form the immediate response is fear. This is what we see in Genesis 3:10 after
Adam and Eve had sinned, and God came to walk in the Garden with them.
Genesis
3:10, “So he said, ‘I
heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid
myself.’ ”
There is a
lack of security. There is an exposure before God there. The basic emotional
sin is fear. Fear comes when we realize that we have no security. Fear comes
when we realize that our hopes and our dreams are in jeopardy. It may be our
physical health. It may be our physical security and our safety is being
threatened. The response is fear. When we are afraid, we try to deal with the
fear by solving the problem on our own without depending upon God. This leads
to further problems.
One of
those further problems is anger. I think anger represents a complex of sins. We
get angry when we do not get our way. We start off being afraid because there
is no security. There is no safety net. We are afraid that we are going to lose
everything.
The fact
that we might lose everything means we are not going to get what we think we
have to have in order to be happy, in order to be safe, and in order to be secure.
What happens is fear produces anger. Anger comes basically when we do not get
our way. When things do not go the way the think they should. We perceive that
something is blocking or preventing us from achieving what we think will make
us happy.
We can
think about this in a lot of different ways. A lot of people get angry about
the political situation, because they think that for the country to be the way
they want it to be so that they can be secure, so that they can be happy, and
so that they can have the kind of life that they want to have, that the
political structure has to go a certain way. When that political structure
wants to go in a different direction, then what happens? You get angry. You get
mad.
You get
mad at all those people out there that are voting the wrong way, and all those
politicians that are going in the wrong direction. You get angry because you
are not getting your way. It is like a little kid who wants his way. His
parents say, “No, you cannot have it.” He gets angry. Angry is just not getting
our way. But when anger goes on for a while, and eventually we realize that we
are never going to get our way, that it is never going to change, then we go
into depression.
Then we
say: “We will never have stability! We will never have happiness! We will never
have security! Why should I even live?” You get into depression. Depression is
a long-term anger that recognizes that there is no ultimate solution to any of
my problems. This is what we see being depicted in Saul as opposed to David.
David’s
happiness is not based on people, on circumstances, or on events. That is the
way the believer should be. It does not matter if the Constitution gets
shredded next year and we get a communist dictator. My happiness is dependent
upon my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, not who is in the White House
or in the Capitol, or sitting on the Supreme Court. But there are a lot of
Christians who, unfortunately (I believe if things do not go right at the next
election) are going to be absolutely miserable because of what happens! That is
going to expose the fact that the believer is not focused on God as the Source
of happiness and stability.
There have
been Christians who have lived their entire lives under some of the most
oppressive regimes in history and had great happiness, great joy, great
stability, and great ministries to people. That does not mean that things were
good for them, but the Lord was in control. They were relaxed. We need to
recognize that our happiness is based upon the Lord and not based on
circumstances.
In John
15:11 Jesus said, “These things I
have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy
may be full.” Jesus says that only one of you (disciples) is going to live
past martyrdom, not die from martyrdom.
Jesus
knows what is going to happen to every one of them. Jesus is saying that each
one can have joy in the midst of all the torture, persecution, and oppression
just as He had joy when He went to the Cross. When He went throughen _all the
physical torment and everything else associated with the cross. Jesus is
bequeathing His joy to us.
James
1:2–3 says, “My
brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the
testing of your faith …”
The idea
here is the testing of your ability to apply the Word of God produces
endurance, and endurance will have its maturing effect. That is the difference
between a Saul and a David.
What we
see here, 1 Samuel 18:12 is the focal point of this lesson. “Now Saul was
afraid of David.”
Saul is
responding in mental attitude sins. Why? Because the LORD was with David. See,
we are going to have a whole culture that is mad at Christians because they
recognize the Lord is with us. They are jealous and mad, and they do not want
to be convicted. They are going to be attacking Christians. If you do not get
some doctrine in your soul and start applying it now when it is easy to apply
it, then it is going to be worse.
1 Samuel
18:13, “Therefore
Saul removed him from his presence …”
That is
the best way to get rid of somebody who is convicting you of truth by their
life. You send him somewhere else. Saul sent David somewhere else. Saul made
David “a
captain over a thousand; and he went out and he came in before the people.”
1 Samuel
18:14, “And
David behaved wisely in all his ways, and the LORD was with him.”
There is
the Hebrew word שָׂכַל sākhal again. “and the LORD was with him.” The Lord was
with David. He is with us. If God is for us, who can be against us?