Saul and David
1 Samuel 16–31
Samuel Lesson #058
August 9, 2016
www.deanbibleministries.org
Opening Prayer
“Our Father, we are so very grateful that we have You to come to in prayer. Father, You have provided so much for us and through Jesus Christ we have direct access to Your throne of grace. He is our High Priest. He is the One who has opened up the veil so that we have access to You. What a privilege that is that we can come into the very presence of the Creator God of the heavens and the earth and the seas and all that is in them and that we can focus upon who You are and how You have worked so magnificently in human history, and for that we give You praise.
Father, we pray that You would help us to understand what we are studying tonight and understand Your hand in history as even now we face what appears to be to many of us, a horrendous election. Yet, we know that You are still in control and give us the strength, the wisdom, and the courage to continue into what appears to be further deterioration and decline in this nation that we may stand forth, as Paul says, as shining lights in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation. We pray this in Christ’s Name. Amen.”
Slide 2
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.
Slide 3
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, that 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 who 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:
- God providentially protects him from being in the Philistine army, which is going to attack Israel. The other Philistines become suspicious of David. They tell Achish that he has to get rid of David. Achish sends David back home.
- When he goes back home David discovers that there has been this assault by the Amalekites. They have captured the wives and the children of many of his people. David goes after them. Once again he is functioning as a messianic king, protecting his people and providing security. He does that while Saul is going to the necromancer.
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.
Closing Prayer
“Father, we pray for our nation. We pray for our leaders. We know that there are some men who are godly men, who have godly values, godly character, who are in positions of influence and positions of power, but the pressure they are under is incredible. Maybe some of them have some failures and flaws in their life that have been brought to someone’s attention. Maybe they are being blackmailed. Maybe they are being threatened.
We see men who go to Congress. They have all the right ideas and the right values, and then all of a sudden they have done a 180º. We cannot explain it. We see others who go to Congress. They do not make much money, but within a few years they are worth maybe a million or two million or three million dollars. The corruption is extensive. Father, the only thing that can turn around a culture is a turn to Your Word. Only a transformation from the inside out, only as the heart is changed and it can only be changed by God the Holy Spirit and the Word.
Unless that happens, as long as this country has people and leaders who follow after the lust pattern of their sin nature, then this culture will be under Your judgment and it will continue to suffer greatly because what needs to happen is that there needs to be a transformation of the heart. That can only come by turning to You. Apart from that there is no hope, nothing to give us stability.
But Father, we pray that You in Your grace give us someone we do not deserve, someone who has eternal values, someone who can lead, someone who can motivate, and someone who understands what the real issues are. We pray that you will provide such a person for us that we may continue to be a light to the world by sending out missionaries, proclaiming the gospel, and being a bulwark of faith in Jesus Christ. We pray this in His Name. Amen.”