A man after God's own heart is what David is called in I Samuel 13:14. So, it is very helpful to discover that he is not sinless but a man of great passions and driven by great desires. He has a violent temper and is a vicious, cruel killer. However, when the Lord puts the finger on him, he is also completely repentant. He has the whole spectrum of emotions that you and I have, yet God calls him a "man after His own heart," because, even though he fails God many times, he loves God wholeheartedly.
As a background for our study of David, I want to look at a "man after the world's own heart." We will start with a quick review of the life of Saul in order to see the contrast between Saul and David. In putting Saul on the throne, God was giving the Israelites the king they clamored for. Saul was not a straw king nor was he a pawn in the hands of God. God put him on the throne to reign over Israel and to reign forever. God chose him and was committed to him. The problem was Saul's lack of commitment to God. As a result, God had to first disqualify his line from reigning and then to disqualify Saul and actually take him off the throne. We see in Saul a vivid demonstration of the flesh, a picture of a carnal believer, and, according to Samuel, he was a believer. Even though Saul was a prophet of God, God finally had to take him home. Beginning, then, with Chapter 8 of 1 Samuel, we will do a short review of Saul's life to see how the flesh acts so we can get some concept of why God had to disqualify him. Saul just would not deal with the flesh.
If you want a simple definition of the flesh, it is "Me without Christ"; all the great things in a life; all the bad things in a life. It can be giving your body to be burned as a sacrifice to Christ, or it can be taking Bathsheba and murdering her husband to cover up her pregnancy and your adultery. It can be a good thing, self-sacrifice, or a despicable thing, self-centeredness. The flesh runs the whole gambit of human actions, motives, and attitudes, but it is "without God" and "without Christ." That is why it cannot please God. Romans 8:8 says the flesh "cannot" please God. It does not say it "will not." It is not an issue of the will. The flesh wants to please God much of the time, but it cannot..
The flesh "cannot" please Him because instead of allowing God to be God in us, the flesh does its best to be God in God's place. We simply will not believe Scripture, so we try to do our best for God and consequently tell God he is a liar. We are saying that the sacrifice of God's Son, and the risen and indwelling life of his Son is not really enough for everything in our lives. We need to help out a little. We are also telling God that we are not incurably, hopelessly self-centered in our own being, but that somewhere in us is a little bit of good, a little spark of deity. All we have to do is fan it, and it will burst into a beautiful flame with walking on water, healing and everything else. But the fact of Scripture is that we are totally depraved. It does not mean that we are as bad as we could be, but it does mean that there is no possibility of me, in my own strength, ever pleasing God. There is God's standard as God and nothing less than God is acceptable to Him. The sooner we understand this the sooner we will stop trying to be godly in and of ourselves and allow God to be God in us. Since God is God, he can be godly without effort. For Jesus Christ it is easy to be Christlike. Anything he does is Christlike.
So let us take a look at Saul in the flesh. In Chapter 8 we start with the old prophet Samuel who was raised by God to rule the nation of Israel. The Israelites have gone into the land, but they have not taken all the land as they were instructed. For their own economic benefit, they have allowed the nations in the land to live. Because of this, the nation of Israel is sliding into idolatry chasing foreign gods, as God had warned them they would. In sin and taken captive by invading forces, they are plunged into the pit of despair. So they cry out to God in repentance, and God raises up a Judge [a Leader] who releases them by the power of God. As long as the Judge lives, the Israelites behave. Then down to the pit they go, and again God gives them over to their captors. Again they cry out in repentance, and God responds with a Judge. God raised up Samuel as the last of the Judges and the first of the prophets. God is moving now from a theocracy, by which he governs his nation through these Judges and through the priesthood, to a monarchy where he will rule the nation through kings, prophets and priests. They are all to be equal. The priests mediate between God and man, the prophets speak from God to man, and the kings reign for God over man.
So in I Samuel, Chapter 8 we see the Israelites being threatened by the Ammonites, a vast group of vicious people living across the Jordan River, who came out of the incestuous union of Lot and his youngest daughter. They have been a thorn in the side of the Israelites for years. They worship Molech, a great metal idol with outstretched hands that they heat until it is red hot. Then, as a sacrifice to this god, they lay one of their new born babies on those red hot hands. This is the kind of people they are. The Israelites are not allowed to touch them, however, because they are the children of Lot.
At this time Samuel is old, and his sons are just like the sons of Eli, the priest before him. Samuel was not a good father. Apparently he was too busy about the Lord's work to raise his family properly. Now his sons are dishonest and are taking bribes. The people are saying about Samuel, "You are old. Your sons are dishonest. We do not want you anymore. We want a king to rule over us who will fight our battles and who will deal with the Ammonites." Samuel runs to God feeling very rejected, and God says, "It is not you they are rejecting, Samuel. It is me." Israel wants a king they can see, a king who looks like a king not some God they cannot see. So God warns them, "You asked for a king like all the other nations; I'll give you a king like all the other nations. But he will draft your sons into his army and take them away from the plow. He will take a tenth of all your goods to feed them. Your daughters will become bakers and cooks in his kitchen. He will, if he likes, take a tenth or more of your land to give to his warriors. This is what a king will do for you. As God, I own everything. I'm free. You can have me for nothing, the "grace of God," or you can have a king and a throne and it will cost you everything. What do you want?" "King!" came the reply. So God said, "All right,, I will give you the king you want."
Here you see "the wrath of God" in action. As in Romans 1:18-32, he gave them over to what they wanted. The wrath of God acts in the lives of both believers and unbelievers, and if God wants you to go His way and you insist on going your own way, the worst thing that can happen to you is for Him to let you have your way. That is exactly what he does with the Jewish nation. He gives them what they want, a king just like the nations around them.
In Chapter 9, Saul is sent out by his father to look for some lost donkeys. God brings Samuel and Saul together and tells Samuel, "This is the king." Samuel takes Saul aside for a long discussion, probably laying out his responsibilities as God's king over Israel.
Even though the Israelites have rejected God in favor of a human king, they are still his people, and he does not forsake them. He has committed himself to giving them the king they want and has picked out Saul. Saul is an unusually handsome man, probably the most handsome in all Israel, a choice man in the prime of life, bigger and more comely than any other in Israel; the perfect specimen of a king. He is the son of a valiant father, the ideal picture of a man's man, a martial king coming from a long line of martial men. His father Kish and Abner [later commander-in-chief of Saul's army] are brothers who come from a long line of warriors. Saul is just what the Israelites ordered, but, as we will see, he is a fleshly man.
It would appear "the flesh" fulfills every requirement for whatever is needed. If it would only say, "I am evil," we would not have half the problems we have. But it is so treacherous because it says, "That need out there and my skills here mesh. I don't need God. I can handle this." As a classic example: I have an MBA from Stanford with a major in investment. I had the finest teachers in the land, and all you have to do to make money is buy low and sell high. Simple? But the only major investments I have made in my whole life have failed. Without consulting God I have made investments, and I have had a consistent pattern of failure. According to my natural strength I should be wealthy. This is the key to the flesh: "Natural Strength" not "Godly strength".
God has chosen a king for Israel, and he intends for him to reign well even though he is a fleshly man. Will the flesh hinder a sovereign God from working out his perfect will for my life, or for the nation of Israel, or for the kingdom of God? No, it will not! Saul is known by God to be a failure, but he has chosen him, and he is committed to him. The Scriptures say so. Actually, Saul is a good king by fleshly standards. He throws off the yoke of all the enemies around him and is certainly no failure in this area. Even in the flesh God can use us to accomplish his will. He used the vicious Assyrians to take the 10 Northern tribes of Israel into captivity. He used the Babylonians to take the 2 Southern tribes of Israel into captivity 125 years later. He used the Medio-Persians to bring the Israelites back into the land. These three nations were totally pagan, and yet they all three did the will of God. So, you see, God can use the flesh. The problem lies in what happens at the judgment seat of Christ. When I stand before the Lord and the things I have done in the body are judged, the question is, "Will they be good or will they be worthless?"If God accomplished them through me when I was acting in the flesh, they are burned up! They are worthless! Do not kid yourself; God will never honor the flesh.
The first person I ever led to Christ was an act of the flesh. There was a file clerk at Standard Oil in Los Angeles who gave me a very bad time when I accepted Christ. Before I became a Christian, I lived a pagan life before my colleagues. After I became a Christian, I tried to undo all I had done, and this file clerk gave me nothing but trouble. She constantly needled me. One day I let fly and told her she was going to hell. I literally scared the hell out of her, and I did it because I was angry as hell. She could not sleep that night and at 6 o'clock in the morning called up her brother, who was a Christian. He took her to his pastor, and she received the Lord. Now I can give you a written guarantee that at the judgment seat of Christ it is my temper that will be discussed not the soul that came to Christ because of my temper. God is not thwarted by us. While acting in the flesh, we have nothing to offer the Lord that warrants a "Well done, thy good and faithful servant" or any reward. I firmly believe the "rewards" at the judgment seat of Christ will come from the ability to glorify the Lord. Therefore, the above is an area of my life in which I could have glorified Christ but did not, so in the area of glorifying Christ, I will be missing something for all eternity.
In Chapter 10 Samuel, as a sign of Saul's kingship, takes a flask of oil, pours it on his head, kisses him and says, "Has not the LORD anointed you a ruler over His inheritance?" He also gives him certain signs, one of which is that he will be filled with the Spirit of God and will prophesy, which he does. Then Samuel warns him saying, "You shall go down to Gilgal."
Gilgal was where the Jews crossed the Jordan River before taking Jericho. Apparently during the 40 years of wandering no circumcision had been done. So at Gilgal, which means "rolling", the whole nation was circumcised, thus rolling away the reproach of the years of disobedience in the wilderness. Before God allows the Israelites to take over any of the Promised Land, he insists that they all be circumcised. Why? Colossians tells us. Circumcision is a deliberate, objective symbol of the removal of the flesh. It is intriguing that Saul makes his headquarters at Gilgal, a symbol of the removal of the flesh, and that he fails every time he goes to Gilgal because of the flesh.
Continuing in Chapter 10, Samuel tells Saul, "There will be a critical time when I will come to Gilgal, offer offerings and show you what to do." But as a prophet of God, God would be the one to instruct him. Saul does experience the enabling power of God, and God does change his heart. Saul was not sent out in the flesh to do the job. God called him and God equipped him.
If God commits himself to Saul, fills him with the Spirit "mightily", allows him to prophesy, to become a prophet of God and changes his heart, who, then, is responsible for the failure of Saul? It cannot be God. So, do not ever accuse God of causing you to fail. We are going to see that Saul does exactly that. Whatever God calls you to do, God equips you to do. Saul understands where the power lies to do the job. Saul, who does not come from a school of prophets, [in fact the people question what he is doing when he prophesies] is allowed to experience the indwelling power of God in a way he has never experienced in his whole life. He gets a taste of what could be his if he obeys. God really wants Saul to succeed. He does not like for Christians to fail. He is a loving father. Therefore, before He does anything with regard to Saul's kingship, he lets Saul understand all the power of God is at his disposal if he chooses.
In Chapter 11 Nahash the Ammonite surrounds Jabesh-gilead, a town that belongs to Israel. He has so much power and such disdain for the Israelites that when the men of the town wish to make a treaty with him, he says, "I'll make a treaty with you if you let me gouge out your right eyes." [Soldiers in that day protected their left eyes with their shields, and used their right eyes for the sword. Therefore, if the right eye was removed, they could never fight again.] This was a very common way not only of humiliating but also of disarming a people. With only one eye, they also lacked depth perception.
So Jabesh-gilead pleads with Nahash,
"Give us seven days respite that we may send messengers through all the territory of Israel. Then, if there is no one to save us, we will give ourselves up to you."
Nahash, which means "the serpent", says, "Go ahead."
The men of Jabesh send word to Saul, and when Saul hears what has happened, he goes to Jabesh and destroys the Ammonites. It was a tremendous victory. Scripture says "the spirit of God came upon Saul mightily." Now, as king, he has had an experience of the power of God.
There were some people who did not want Saul as Israel's king because he stemmed from Benjamin the smallest of the tribes. When the majority of the people see what a tremendous job Saul has done, they say, "Bring all the people who did not want Saul as king that we may put them to death." Saul says, "Not a man shall be put to death this day, for today the LORD has accomplished deliverance in Israel." At this time, he is still God's man. So Saul is "made king before the LORD" at Gilgal, and he starts out as a beautiful picture of the power of God.
In Chapter 12, Samuel, in his final speech, demands of all Israel that they bring forth any charges they have against him. He admits that his sons are no good, but he claims that he himself has had a perfectly honorable reign. He admonishes them that they have sinned against God in rejecting God as king, and he calls down a thunder storm as proof of this. The people get frightened because of the thunder storm and repent of their choice of a king. Whereupon Samuel says, "Do not fear. God has forgiven you, but remember, you must fear and obey your God if you want a king who will fear and obey your God."
Paul wrote Romans 13:1-7 when Nero, an evil man and evil ruler, was on the throne. He persecuted the church, made torches out of Christians, threw them to the lions, murdered his own mother and lived with a young homosexual whom he castrated and made into his wife. He was insane, but Paul admonished the Christians to pray for him. He did not change and died insane. We won't know until we get into eternity how much, if any, those who obeyed God and prayed for him restrained him, but they were faithful. That is the point. If the Israelites are faithful to God, they may not change Saul, but they will be changed. That is God's purpose, and Saul will be without excuse for any failure as king.
In Chapter 12 God warns them that if only they will fear and obey him, he will not abandon them. He will be their God, and they will be his people.
In Chapter 13 we will see Saul begin his movement toward rejection as king, and unfortunately his downward slide as believer. The Philistines are a people from out of the Aegean Sea area who went to Egypt, were thrown out of Egypt, and wound up on the southeastern seacoast of the Mediterranean where they cannot be dislodged by the Israelites. They have learned iron smelting, the process of which they keep secret. When a Jew wants his plowshare, his ax or his scythe sharpened, he must seek the Philistines. The Philistines realize that as long as they keep a monopoly on iron the Israelites cannot make weapons of war. With this new monarch of the Jews posing a threat to them, the Philistines set out to eliminate him. The Jews feel really trapped.
In Chapter 10, Verse 8 we saw that Samuel promised to meet Saul in Gilgal seven days hence at which time he would offer burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings. But in Chapter 13 we see the Jews beginning to desert, because the Philistines are approaching with iron swords, spears and chariots, and all they have are mattocks, scythes, and axes. Only Saul and his son Jonathan have a sword and a spear.
Chapter 13, Verse 8:
"Now he [Saul] waited seven days according to the appointed time set by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattering from him."
So Saul says,
"'Bring to me the burnt offering and the peace offerings.' And he offered the burnt offering. And it came about as soon as he finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him and to greet him."
What does the flesh always do when God does not appear on schedule? It takes over, "If God won't do it, I'll do it for God." We have an incurable desire, or demand, that God adhere to our time schedule. He has told Saul, "I will be with you forever. Just fear and obey me." Samuel has promised, "I will be there in seven days." Apparently Saul waits seven days, up to but not including the last minute, and the people are deserting. So, instead of fearing and obeying his God, because the people are not fearing and obeying their God, he takes things into his own hands. Worse yet he offers an offering that only the priests are allowed to offer. [Samuel was a priest, as well as a prophet, as well as a judge. He was from the tribe of Ephraim, but he was also a Levite.]
Interesting enough Saul offers a "sweet odor" offering, the "burnt offering," the holocaust, the one that was totally consumed on the altar. The non-sweet odor offerings were the sin offering and the guilt offering. The "sin" offering was the death of Christ for the penalty of sin, and the "guilt" offering was the death of Christ for the injury of sin. They were "non-sweet odor" offerings because they involved the death of God's beloved Son. But "sweet odor" offerings, the peace offering, the cereal offering and the burnt offering, pictured the perfections of Christ. The cereal offering pictured Christ's suffering through temptation yet without sin. The peace offering was sacrificed, and then eaten with your friends and the priest. It was a picture of peace with God and the peace of God. It was yours in Jesus Christ. But the key offering was the burnt offering. It pictured Christ totally consumed to do the Father's will. So, here Saul sacrifices the burnt offering in direct violation of the known will of God. He knows he is not allowed to do this, but he does it anyway, thus making a travesty of it. The flesh always, even when it tries to please God, makes a travesty out of the situation.
The very moment Saul finishes offering the burnt offering here is Samuel right on God's schedule. One minute to midnight, and he says, verse 11,
"What have you done?"
Listen closely to the flesh when it is pinned down.
Saul says first, verse 11:
"Because I saw that the people were scattering from me,"
Who is at fault? The people. Saul is in essence rationalizing thus, "If they fear and obey God, then I will fear and obey God. If they had done it, I would have done it So they are to blame."
Second rationalization:
"...and that you did not come within the appointed days"
"They are at fault, and so are you, Samuel."
Third rationalization:
"...and that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash,"
[Michmash was only 8 miles NE of Jerusalem; not very far] "It was the circumstances. I couldn't help myself, you see."
Fourth rationalization, verse 12:
"Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not asked the favor of the Lord."
Who is number 4 on Saul's fault list? God himself. "He apparently is not going to help me, so I had better buy him off."
Fifth rationalization:
"...so I forced myself and offered the burnt offering."
"The people, Samuel, the circumstances and you, God, twisted my arm, and I just could not help myself."
This is the flesh in action. The major thing missing in the reasoning of Saul is repentance. He has remorse but not repentance. There is the key. In the life of David we will see rotten actions, but David is a repentant man.When the finger is put on him, he confesses and repents [changes his mind about what he has done] and fully acknowledges his sin. The flesh can never ever acknowledge it is wrong. It only rationalizes and blames someone or something else. The incurably self-centered flesh believes to the depths of its soul that there is something still there, no matter how badly it has behaved, that can still please God. There may be only be a little spark, but it is totally and irrevocably committed to the idea that that little spark somehow can be fanned it into a flame that will glorify God. The flesh can never repent. It has only remorse. That is all Saul has.
Thus the tragedy is that Samuel has to say to Saul, verse 13;
"You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, for now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever."
If he had obeyed this one test, and it was a scary one [Philistines with a vast army and iron weapons], the Lord would "have established his kingdom over Israel forever."
Samuel continues, verse 14:
"But now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought out for Himself a man after his own heart,...because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you."
The time is not yet right for David to ascend the throne for Saul has not yet been disqualified, but God has rejected Saul's line because of his actions and the actions of the people who wanted a human king in place of God.
Chapter 14 gives us a picture of Jonathan, the son of Saul, who is a magnificent man, a man of faith. Just he and his armor-bearer sneak up and attack one of the outposts of the Philistine garrison and destroy it. His statement is, "God can save by little or by many. Let's go." The armor-bearer says, "I'm right with you." Those two alone go up the hill, take on the Philistines and slaughter them. Then God answers that act of faith and fear comes over the Philistine host. There is an earthquake. They get all confused, begin butchering each other, and scatter.
Saul hears what is going on, looks around to see who is missing from his army and discovers it is just Jonathan and his armor-bearer. He then calls for the Ark of God in order to inquire of God. This sounds great. The only problem is that, as he looks out, he sees the Philistines fleeing and takes off after them as he says to the priest, "Withdraw your hand." He does not complete his inquiry of God. In the flesh he pursues the obvious which is to slaughter Philistines. He also makes a rash oath and says Chapter 14, verse 24;
"Cursed be the man who eats food before evening, and until I have avenged myself on my enemies."
Me, myself and I, the unholy trinity of the flesh. He puts God aside and flees after the enemy. With no food, all the men run out of energy. They don't kill half of the people they should have killed. By evening they are so hungry that, when they come across part of the spoil of the Philistines, they tear into the meat and eat the flesh with the blood, thus sinning against the Lord.
Meanwhile Jonathan has not heard anything about this oath of his father's since he was fighting, so when he finds some honey, he dips the end of his staff in the honeycomb and puts his hand to his mouth.
Saul wants to go on attacking the Philistines and taking spoil all night and "not leave a man of them." The priest suggests they "draw near to God." So Saul asks God, "Shall I go after the Philistines? Will you give them into the hand of Israel?"But the Lord does not answer him. Saul, therefore, figures there must be some great sin amongst the Israelites. So he says, "Let's cast lots and find out who the sinner is. Even if it is my own son I will kill him." When they cast the lots, they find out it is indeed Saul's son, Jonathan, the hero, who had brought about this great deliverance in Israel. Saul says, "You shall surely die, Jonathan." Do you see the flesh here? Saul is willing to kill his son to save face. True he did made an oath to the Lord, and even though he should not have made it, an oath to the Lord is binding. So, since Jonathan did break it, the lot fell on him. God was rebuking Saul to his face because he had not inquired of God and had instead made an impetuous oath. Fortunately the people would not let Saul kill Jonathan.
To sum up, let me say again that the flesh will do anything to maintain its ego. It has only one standard, i.e., self. Whether I like it or not and whether I will admit it or not, my flesh comes before my Lord, before my wife, before my children, before anything in my life. It loves Me, first, last and always, and it will never change. If I do not believe that, look at Saul who would have killed his beloved son, his innocent son, heir to his throne, to maintain "face" in front of his people, and Saul knew he was wrong. The flesh is dirty, filthy, wicked, and we must not allow it to live at anytime in our lives.
The last part of Chapter 14 gives a description of the tremendous things Saul does in freeing Israel.
Up to now Saul has only forfeited the right of his line to rule Israel. In Chapter 15 we will see the climax of his life and the loss of his kingship.
Prayer:
Father, we thank you so much for your Word and the way it illuminates our lives and makes us see ourselves as we really are apart from You. We really have nothing to offer you at all, and in my flesh there dwells no good thing, not even one. It shows that I am incurably, irrevocably, hopelessly self-centered. I love me so much in the flesh, Father, that nothing, not even your Son's death for me will ever change the self-love, and if that flesh is not put to death and rendered inoperative and kept in its place, I will allow that filthy "old man" out of the pit to posses me to the detriment of my God, my wife, my children, everything I hold dear. God help us to realize how deceitful, how desperately wicked, the flesh really is and, therefore, be willing to deal with it ruthlessly as Samuel does in Chapter 15. Thank you, Father, in Jesus' Name. Amen.
Paul, talking about his ministry in I Corinthians, 9: 24-27, says:
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.
There is a graphic illustration in 1 Samuel, Chapter 15, of the disqualification of a believer whom God personally chose and anointed. Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit and filled "mightily." God equipped him with everything needed to do the work of the King of Israel. He intended for Saul and his line to be the reigning kings of Israel from this point on. Saul was not set up to be knocked down; He disqualified himself. It is critical to understand this since, in our study of the life of David, we will see that he has all kinds of problems yet is never disqualified. We will also see how we can have struggles and failures and sin mightily and still not be disqualified by God. We do not have to be a Saul. We may right now have some besetting sin we cannot break. It is hurting our ministry. It may be destroying our family or wiping out our testimony, and we know it. Thankfully, God does not look at our performance. He looks at our attitude. What is the attitude toward this besetting sin? Are we willing to offer it on the altar to God? Do we really want to be free of it, and are we willing to pay the cost of being free of it or, do we insist on having our own way? "I'll give you ten of these, God, but that one stays." With an attitude like that, I guarantee you, based on the Word of God and on 1 Samuel 15 and 1 Corinthians 9, we will be disqualified. However, I also guarantee you, based on the life of David, which we are about to study, that if we desire to be rid of that sin and are willing to pay the price, even though at the moment we are failing miserably, we will not be disqualified. We will be victorious when God has finished with us!
How does a man chosen of God, anointed by God, promised and guaranteed a ministry by God, empowered by the Spirit of God disqualify himself? We will see how in Chapter 15. Up to now we have just seen a gathering storm, but in Chapter 15 we see it all wrapped up.
At this point the line of Saul has been disqualified even though God himself had promised that not only Saul but also his line would reign in Israel. Saul caused this to happen by failing to obey Samuel. Without waiting for Samuel to appear, as promised, he offered sacrifices that only the priests were allowed to offer. He did this as a dedicated, zealous, religious, albeit fleshly, effort to please God. Interestingly enough, he did it at Gilgal, the very place where, after crossing the Jordan River, the Jews had been circumcised-- God's symbol of the cutting away of the flesh. Now, even though his line has been disqualified, Saul himself is still king. God has not yet disqualified him. God still wants him to succeed. So let's look at what he does to disqualify himself.
God will give Saul one more major test. Chapter 15, verse 1;
Then Samuel said to Saul, "The LORD sent me to anoint you as king over His people, over Israel; now therefore, listen to the words of the LORD. Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'"
In other words, every living thing of Amalek's is to be put to death. Amalek was the grandson of Esau. Esau, as we saw in the book of Hebrews, was a fleshly man. He was called "godless" and "immoral." The word "immoral" literally means "secular." He was not immoral in that he had a lot of illicit affairs, but he was a godless man. He married pagan Hittite wives, which he was not supposed to do. He married an Ishmaelite, which he was not supposed to do. He took the purity of the line of God and mixed it with paganism. Then he was also secular. He sold his birthright for a bowl of lentil stew. He wanted the flesh fed now. The birthright was his as number one in the family, the first born. In the patriarchal days, it would have made him the priest in the family and the mediator between his family and God. But he did not care about that. All he wanted was the present fleshly need of the fleshly body taken care of now. So he sold his birthright. He still had the "blessing" which was to come. The "blessing" was the oral binding will of the father given on his deathbed to his first born. It provided the first born twice as much as anyone else and put him over the head of the family. You can see Esau's reasoning, "Who cares about being God's man. Who cares about a birthright. I don't want all the problems of being the religious head of the family. But I will take the double share and the headship, and I'm sure I'll get those since Isaac likes me best. So let Jacob have the birthright. He can play the priest. I'll take the blessing and I'll play king." Of course, in God's scheme of things he lost both the birthright and the blessing. Now, Amalek was his grandson.
In the Scriptures, Amalek is a picture of the flesh at work. He attacked the Jewish nation as they came out of Egypt and headed down the barren rugged peninsula toward Sinai. The Jews were rather soft slaves coming out of Egypt. Although they had spent their time building bricks, which could be strenuous, they were not used to long hard marches. They were not yet the lean, mean, guerrilla warfare people they would be forty years later when God was through with them. When they were weary and straggling, the Amalekites charged down on them, attacked the weak ones in the rear and picked them off one by one. So, the Jews went to war with the Amalekites. As you will remember during that war, as long as Moses pointed his spear up toward God, the Israelites won. As his arm grew tired and his spear sagged, the Israelites were pushed back. So Aaron and Hur, brother and brother-in-law, propped up Moses's arm, and the Jews destroyed the Amalekites. God says from this time on, "exterminate them." They were a picture of the flesh. They deliberately positioned themselves against the Lord God Almighty, who had just delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians with a devastating blow at the Egyptian pantheon of gods.
If you will look at the ten plagues of Egypt and lay them alongside the gods of Egypt, you will see that each plague struck at a god or gods of Egypt. The highest god was Ra, the sun god. All the firstborn were dedicated to him, and God's ultimate stroke against the Egyptians, which broke their backs and broke Pharaoh's will, was the destruction of their firstborn. We have indirect confirmation of this in the so-called "Dream Inscription of Thutmose IV" recorded on an immense granite slab near the Sphinx at Gizeh. [All the details on this are available in Merrill Unger's book "Archaeology and the Old Testament" in the chapter on "The Date of the Exodus." The destruction of the first born of Egypt did actually happen!]
The Amalekites have the audacity to attack these people of Yahweh after he has just wiped out Egypt, the country in control of all that area, part of which is Amalekite territory. The Amalekites are not just fighting the Jews, they are shaking their fists in Yahweh's face. That is not a healthy thing to do. God had said, "There will be continual war between me and the Amalekites. There will never be peace with them. In fact, when I have given you the land of Canaan [which is a picture of the rest of God], and you are at rest there, I want you to exterminate them." He meant man, woman, child, infant, oxen, camel, sheep, goat, everything!
This may seem cruel to you, but if you will remember, God promised Abraham that if there were ten righteous men in Sodom he would spare the whole valley, the whole cesspool, not just Sodom but Gomorrah, Zeboim, Admah, Bella, the whole five cities of the plain. "For just ten righteous men in Sodom, I will give you the whole valley," he said, and he would have. The Lord himself, in Matthew 11:23-24, told Capernaum, his headquarters in Galilee and the home of Peter, "The works I have done in you, Capernaum, had I done them in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented. Therefore, I tell you, Capernaum, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah at the Day of Judgment then it will be for you." God does not delight in the death of the wicked. He does not delight in judgment. It is called his "strange" work.
In examining this command to "exterminate" the Amalekites you may ask why? It is because the flesh is something like cancer cells in the body. When a doctor operates, he attempts to get every single one. To leave even one in your body could bring you back for another operation. Like cancer cells, the flesh must be continually cut out of our lives to prevent its recurrence. The flesh is incurably evil, incurably malicious. The word used to describe it sometimes is "pernicious." [i.e., Webster, "destructive; having the power of killing, destroying, ruining or injuring; fatal; deadly]. It is also incurably deceitful. It does not broadcast, "Destroyer." Instead it appears enticing and noble.
God has been giving Saul every opportunity to be God's man. He does not want to have to judge him. He is testing Saul to see whether Saul is going to be ruler of Israel or whether God is going to be ruler of Israel through Saul. God is not creating a monarchy after the example of the monarchies in the Ancient East. He wants a theocracy, the king, the prophets and the priests all at the same level.
Getting back to I Samuel, Chapter 15, verse 4:
Then Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim, 200,000 foot soldiers [those would be the Northern Tribes] and 10,000 men of Judah [the Southern Tribes]. And Saul came to the city of Amalek, [situated way down in the southern part of Canaan, called the Negev today] and set an ambush in the valley. And Saul said to the Kenites. "Go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for you showed kindness to all the sons of Israel when they came up from Egypt." So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. So Saul defeated the Amalekites, from Havilah as you go to Shur, which is east of Egypt. And he captured Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But [There is the but] Saul and the people spared Agag [who, of course, is the worst of all. He is their king] and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good [what was good in their eyes] and were not willing to destroy them utterly; but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.
Notice that God never forgets when you have obeyed. The Kenites were a Midianite tribe. In Exodus, Chapter 18, when the Israelites were coming out of the wilderness, Jethro, the priest of Midian and the father-in-law of Moses, met Moses, blessed him and thanked the Lord for what the Lord had done for the Israelites. He noticed Moses trying to govern 2,000,000 people all by himself and said, "That is not good. Why don't you appoint captains over 1,000s and 100s and 10s? Pick people who have maturity, wisdom, ability to discern, and let them make judgments. Then you represent them to the Lord." In Numbers, Chapter 10, Moses asked Hobab, his Midianite brother-in-law, to lead the Israelites through the wilderness. These Kenites were nomads and knew that territory like the palm of their hand. They joined the Israelites and led them through the wilderness. Finally they settled with the tribe of Judah in the Promised Land. Although by this time they had wandered down into the southern part of Judah and may have been dwelling with the Amalekites, 400 years before they had made a choice. That choice was to follow God and be God's instrument. God remembered that. Now, 400 years later, the Kenites are separated and spared during the slaughter of the Amalekites.
You will note that Agag the king of the Amalekites was spared. The ancient kings used to keep the kings they captured. They did not kill them. They kept them alive as a monument to personal success. One king in the Bible chopped off the thumbs and the big toes of the seventy kings he had captured. He kept them under his table and threw them crumbs. Without thumbs, they would not be able to grasp things. Without big toes, they would not be able to stand straight but would sway. He treated them like pet dogs. Incidentally, Judges 1:6-7 indicates he received payment in kind.
So, it appears that Saul fell right in with the pagan kings. He and the people had killed everyone of the Amalekites except the king. What do you suppose went through Saul's mind that he kept the king? Well, Saul was a man of the flesh. The flesh always feels, "Wasn't it fortunate that I was on God's side today. What a good job I did for the Lord." Agag was a visible monument to Saul's success. The flesh loves that. Have you every had that feeling? Yes, you have, and so have I. Well, the Lord had probably 100 other people who could have done the same job Saul did, or the same job you and I did.
Now, let's look at the "best" of the things? The people's reasoning might go something like this. It's how the flesh reasons. "Could God possibly mean that we should kill even non-moral animals. Surely not! Look at all these fine specimens. What a waste! I know, we'll keep the best. Then we'll take the best-of-the-best and sacrifice them to God. Won't God be pleased." There is only one problem with keeping the "best" and sacrificing the "best of the best" to God. In Leviticus 27 anything that is "devoted to destruction", anything that God puts under the ban proscribed to be exterminated, is already sacrificed to God, already belongs to him. It is not allowed to be used for sacrifice. So, the people are violating one of the principles of Scripture. They are keeping what is God's already, giving it back to God and expecting him to give them brownie points. What they are really saying is, "I am as smart as God. God made a mistake, and I am going to straighten Him out."
Scripture goes on, Chapter 15, verse 10:
Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel saying, "I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not carried out My commands." And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the LORD all night. And Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul; and it was told Samuel, saying, "Saul came to Carmel, [not Mt. Carmel up by Galilee. This was down 7-1/2 miles south of Hebron], and behold, he set up a monument for himself, [here's good old Saul again] then turned and proceeded on down to Gilgal."
Here Saul goes right back to the place where God cleansed the Jews from the reproach of Egypt by circumcision, a symbol of the "cutting off" of the flesh.
Verse 13: [Watch these pronouns.]
And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, "Blessed are you of the LORD! I have carried out the command of the LORD." But Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" And Saul said, "They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD your God; but the rest we have utterly destroyed." Then Samuel said to Saul, "Wait, and let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night." And he said to him, "Speak!"
Notice again how beautifully the flesh rationalizes, how it never accepts responsibility for its actions. Saul says, "I carried out the command of the Lord, but they spared the best." Typically the flesh will obey God as long as it does not cost anything. The people didn't mind killing the men, women, children, infants and worthless of the flocks, but when it came to the best of the flocks what happened? This is when the flesh will never obey God. When it really costs what you want, then the flesh springs into action. That is exactly what you see here.
It is interesting to note, in verse 11, that Samuel himself is greatly distressed that God regrets having made Saul king. Why? Samuel, a known prophet of God, has publicly anointed Saul and publicly declared to the people, "This is the king God has given you." Well, remember Samuel is oriental. He is Mideastern and "face" is very important to them. He has publicly proclaimed, "This is God's man." Now God has said, "This is not God's man." How does that make him look? The flesh is still the flesh even in a prophet of God.
Samuel goes on, chapter 15, verse 17:
And Samuel said, "Is it not true, though you were little in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the LORD anointed you king over Israel, and the LORD sent you on a mission, and said, 'Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are exterminated.' Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD, but rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the sight of the LORD?" Then Saul said to Samuel, "I did obey the voice of the LORD, and went on the mission on which the LORD sent me, and have brought back Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God at Gilgal.
Notice Samuel says to Saul, "'Though you were little in your own eyes,' Saul, when God chose you." And he was. Remember in chapter 9, verse 21, when Samuel tells Saul he has been picked by God as king, Saul says;
Am I not a Benjaminite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then do you speak to me in this way?"
Saul was being used of God here, and a man of the flesh cannot handle being used of God without applying it to himself. A good way to tell whether you are walking in the flesh or walking in the Spirit at a time like this is to check your feelings. I hate to tell you how many times the thought has crept into my life, "How lucky the Lord is to have me on his side." You will feel great, but there are two different ways of feeling great. There is one that says with quiet confidence, "Though I am little among the people, God condescended to use me to change lives, and I am grateful to a great God." If there is a very natural, and not put on, gratitude and thankfulness to God, then you are safe. But when your feel, "I was extra special this morning. I did a good job of counseling that couple. I'll have to remember that technique." Then you know you are in trouble. The flesh always takes credit. It always points toward self. It may be disguised, but it always points toward self.
Samuel knows this, chapter 15, verse 22:
And Samuel said, "Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, [incidentally Saul destroyed all the witches. He put them to death himself] and insubordination is an iniquity and idolatry, because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also reject you from being king."
Since in the Old Testament God himself ordained the sacrifice, why would Samuel say, "to obey is better than sacrifice?" What are you sacrificing when you obey God that you are not sacrificing when you sacrifice an animal? Self. I give up my rights to my actions, to my person, to my thought processes. Here are these goodly animals. They would make a great sacrifice. But, if I bring them into the nation of Israel, I am questioning God. However, if I don't bring them in, I am sacrificing me, my will, my rights, my thought processes. That is when the going gets tough.
Chapter 15, verse 24:
Then Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned; I have indeed transgressed the command of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and listened to their voice."
Here is another mark of the flesh. Saul fears the people rather than the voice of God. We fear the response of our peers rather than the voice of our God.
Verse 25:
"Now, therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me, that I may worship the LORD." But Samuel said to Saul, "I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel." And as Samuel turned to go, Saul seized the edge of his robe, and it tore. [literally, 'it was torn off,' in the original]. So Samuel said to him, "The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to your neighbor who is better than you. [Saul is disqualified.] And also the Glory [or the Eminence] of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind." Then he [Saul] said, "I have sinned; but please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and go back with me, that I may worship the LORD your God." So Samuel went back following Saul, and Saul worshiped the LORD.
The flesh is told Saul is no longer king of Israel. What does it do? It still demands. Saul still demands to reign. God has told him, "Today you are no longer king." If he had been a godly man, he would have said, "O.K., I accept the will of the Lord, and I will abdicate." But that was not Saul's response. God had said, "The [Eminence] Glory of Israel will not change His mind. He is not a man that he will repent." There is no turning God back from what he has just finished saying. What is Saul's attitude toward that? "Make me look good in front of the people. I am still going to be king. I am still going to reign." This will show up every time in the flesh. The flesh will keep on trying in every way possible to reign in your life even though it has been rendered inoperative, has been crucified and even is alien there. That is exactly what is going on in Saul here.
Interestingly enough what did Samuel do at this juncture? He said he wouldn't go back, and then he did. Why? Samuel understands the New Covenant. So, when Saul insists, Samuel says, "O.K., I'll leave it up to God. It is not my issue. It is between you and God, and I'll go back with you." Saul never understands this. Why do you think David twice spared Saul when Saul was delivered into his hands, as we will see later on? David allowed God to be God and to work things out in his own time and in his own way. He did not touch Saul because Saul was God's anointed. He left him in God's hands.
In verse 22 we have seen God reject Saul as king of Israel and yet Saul actually reigns for some time to come. We are going to see Saul used as a training tool for David. God chooses David and Samuel anoints him in the very next chapter, but Saul still reigns. In our lives why does God leave the flesh? God can do anything, so, why doesn't he remove the flesh from our lives and leave just Jesus Christ, the Holy One of God, as our new nature with no "Old Man" hanging around? We learn through struggle. We learn faith and obedience. God is going to teach that to David, and we are going to see a man after God's own heart as he learns it.
Chapter 15, verse 32:
Then Samuel said, "Bring me Agag, the king of the Amalekites." And Agag came to him cheerfully. And Agag said, "Surely the bitterness of death is past." [I have been beaten. You have won. I am a slave.] But Samuel said, "As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women." And Samuel hewed Agag to pieces before the LORD at Gilgal.
Here is a helpless man, probably in chains, whom Samuel chops up into little pieces while doing the will of God. That should give us some idea that our attitude toward the flesh should be utterly ruthless and without mercy.
Finally, verse 34:
Then Samuel went to Ramah, but Saul went up to his house at Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death; for Samuel grieved over Saul. And the LORD regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.
It is intriguing that both God and Samuel have deep emotional hurt over this situation. What does Saul have? Nothing. He just goes on being king.
Prayer:
Father, we thank you now for the way you demonstrated the flesh and what it is like and how it acts. Father, we just pray that we might not be disqualified, that we might realize that each one of these things that you ask us to do pleads for obedience, that obedience is better than the fat of rams, is better than any sacrifice, for obedience involves our will. So, Father, we just give you ourselves and ask you to be Lord and God in our lives and bring up each little area of our lives that needs dealing with and let us be ruthless, Father, as you are ruthless, to something that you know will hurt your children. Thank you, Father, for being a ruthless, loving God, who will not allow anything that is hurting us to live, but will take whatever step is necessary, without mercy, to deal with that thing in our lives that could disqualify us. Thank you, Father, in Jesus's name. Amen.
Today we begin a look into the life of David. We have looked at Saul, a man of God, chosen by God to rule, and have seen how he was "disqualified." In Chapter 16, we will look at another man of God who was chosen by God to rule. This time, however, we will see a man who, though not sinless and with all the failings, foibles and tendency to do stupid things that you and I have, yet was a man after God's own heart. God rejected Saul as king and accepted David as king, and both of them performed very badly; a striking illustration of the fact that God accepts us because we are his and not because we perform. Our performance is something in addition to our acceptance. Later when Samuel is called up from the dead, he says to Saul, "Tomorrow you and your sons [one of whom was Jonathan, a tremendously godly man] will be with me." So God did not reject Saul as Saul. He rejected him for the purpose for which he had been called. That is disqualification [I Corinthians 9:24-27] not loss of salvation.
David's performance is as bad as, if not worse than, Saul's, but he is not "disqualified." The difference between these two is the attitude of the heart. When Saul was confronted with disobedience, he either rationalized or blamed somebody else. He never accepted the discipline of God. David, on the other hand, commits murder, adultery, is vicious, cruel, bloody, and emotionally unstable, but when God puts the finger on him, he cracks. He just breaks. No arguments! No rationalizations! He repents. Now, until God puts the finger on him, he rationalizes, but when he is confronted, he breaks every time. David really wants to be God's man. He is not quite sure how to go about it, but inherently that is what he wants. This is the only difference between these two kings. One is disqualified. One is called "a man after God's own heart."
That is not to say that God winks at bad behavior. David must face the consequences of his rebellion or his stupidity. His household is destroyed. The seeds he sows in Solomon's life wipe out the kingdom. Solomon begins as an extraordinary man of God and ends up a tyrant estranged from his God. There is no escaping the consequences of rebellion, but also there is no escaping the love, the grace, the mercy and the acceptance of God.
Let us look, now, at the beginning of Chapter 16. We know from Chapter 15 that Samuel is grieving over Saul. He has left him and has no more contact with him, even though they live only a few miles apart. Only at the end of Saul's life, when Samuel is called back from the dead, do they meet again. Remember how rejected Samuel felt when the people insisted on a king? But God instructed him to anoint Saul as king , and he did. In public! Now Saul has been "disqualified." It would appear to Israel that Samuel is not a very good prophet, so he is grieving not only over the loss of Saul, but probably over the loss of face also.
Chapter 16, Verse 1, God rebukes him:
Now the LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel?" [You are acting contrary to what I have chosen to do] Fill your horn with oil, and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have selected a king for Myself among his sons." But Samuel said, "How can I go? When Saul hears of it, he will kill me." And the LORD said, "Take a heifer with you, and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.' And you shall invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for Me the one whom I designate to you."
There was nothing wrong with Israel requesting a king. God made provision for it in Deuteronomy. He knew such a day would come. The issue was the kind of king they wanted. In Deuteronomy 17:14-20, look at God's qualifications for a king, verse 14 of Chapter 17:
When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it [Moses is addressing the Israelites on the eastern side of the Jordan. This was Deuteronomy, the second giving of the Law, a recapitulation of all that God had done. It was the funeral oration of Moses, in a sense, because he died shortly afterward], and you say, "I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me." [One] You shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses [He is to be chosen of God] [Two] one from among your brothers, [It says "countrymen" here, but literally it is your brothers.] you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your brother. [He must be one of you, a Jew.] [Three] Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses , since the LORD has said to you, 'You shall never again return that way.' [Four] Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; [Five] nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself ["for himself," "for himself," "for himself." He is not to use the office to personal advantage. He is to be God's representative to the people and is not to be somebody special]. [Six] Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests [an exact copy]. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statues, [He is to be a man of the Word of God. The law of God is to rule supreme over the king and, through him, over the nation.] that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen [The king is to be a servant of the people, not their lord. There is to be only one Lord in Israel, Yahweh. So, as a prophet is to speak for Yahweh to the people, and a priest is to mediate for the people to Yahweh, the king is to rule as a vicar, or deputy, for Yahweh.] and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left; in order that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.
Those are the rules that God laid down for the king of Israel. We will see that David fulfills these requirements. We saw that Saul did not. Although Saul was a big kingly man, from the valiant tribe of Benjamin, a tremendous leader and warrior, freeing a lot of Israel from the enemy, he was not a man of God, not a man of the Word, and not a servant. He was, however, the king that Israel wanted and so God gave him to them.
Now God is going to return to the rules of Deuteronomy 17, and we will see his king out of the tribe of Judah, David.
At this time, the Ark was not in a central sanctuary. It had just been brought back from the Philistines, who had captured it, and it was being kept in Kirjath-jearim, a few miles northeast of Jerusalem. As a result, Samuel regularly traveled around sacrificing for the people and drawing them to God. So, when God wanted David anointed, he told Samuel to just take a heifer and go down and sacrifice as he normally did. He was then to invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and God would designate the person to be anointed.
By this time, and in spite of the fact that he had been set aside by God, Saul is apparently willing to commit murder to retain his place on the throne. [He does, in fact, murder all the priests of God except one, as we will see.] Here is a perfect picture of the flesh in action. It will do anything to maintain its hold. Either you reign or it reigns. There is no halfway mark.
Chapter 16:4:
So Samuel did what the LORD said, and came to Bethlehem. And the elders of the city came trembling to meet him and said, "Do you come in peace?" And he said, "In peace; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice." He also consecrated Jesse and his sons, and invited them to the sacrifice.
You will remember that the priest, the king and the prophet were all equal in God's eyes. Therefore, Samuel, a prophet from the tribe of Ephraim, had all the authority of God in Bethlehem of Judah, and the Israelites knew it, as witness by their fear of him. You notice, also, that the man of God, appointed over the sheep of God, is to be a servant to those sheep and not their lord.
I am a pastor and elder of Peninsula Bible Church. My authority, however, comes from the Word of God and my servitude. The moment I begin to lord it over the flock is the moment I lose my authority. I can exercise tyrannical authority, but I no longer have authority from God. Israel may have had a king, but Samuel, as a servant of God, exercised tremendous authority as long as he continued to be a servant. When God said, "Go anoint." He went and anointed. He may have pleaded with God not to let Saul murder him, which is a very human feeling, but when God indicated, "Don't worry. I'll take care of that. Go!" He went. As you see, the concept of leadership in the church is totally different from the concept of leadership in the world.
After Samuel had consecrated Jesse and his sons and had made the sacrifice, he proceeded to search for the one to be anointed and again God rebukes him.
Chapter 16, verse 6:
Then it came about when they entered, that he looked at Eliab [Jesse's eldest son, one of Saul's warriors, and apparently a big husky fellow who looks like a king should look] and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed is before Him." But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." Then Jesse called Abinadab [the second son, also one of Saul's warriors], and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, "Neither has the LORD chosen this one." Next Jesse made Shammah [the third son, another one of Saul's warriors] pass by. And he said, "Neither has the LORD chosen this one." Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. But Samuel said to Jesse, "The LORD has not chosen these."
The Lord looks upon the heart, not the outward appearance. Every once in awhile when you look in the mirror and say, "Isn't God fortunate that I am available today ," remember I Corinthians 1:26ff:
Consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God.
This is resurrection power. This is what God has in mind for David.
It is often said that because someone is weak and perhaps having emotional problems he grasps at Christianity as a panacea. Well, those are the ones the Lord uses. One of the pastors, much used of God, at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church just put out a tape on fear. All of his life he has had a deep problem with fear. Every Sunday he is terrified. Every Friday and all day Saturday his wife reassures him about his message, but every Sunday he is terrified. The moment he begins to proclaim the Word of God, however, God honors his message. He once said, "I guess I am going to be frightened all the rest of my life. Here I am called to be a preacher, and I am terrified of preaching." This is what I Corinthians is talking about.
The word for fear of circumstances or of people and for "fear" of God is the same word in the original. The word is phobos. We get the word "phobia" from it. It can mean a fear that totally debilitates, or it can mean a reverential awe. When I am in fear of man, I have a phobia. I am bound and cannot act. When I have a reverential awe of God, however, anything that God chooses is possible. It is my choice. Fear of man can give me a phobia and I will be "fearful" while "fearing." But if I "fear" God and am a man of God, I will be "fearless" while "fearing." Same word; two variations. Big difference!
Now in Chapter 16, verse 11, we get to David:
And Samuel said to Jesse, "Are these all the children?" And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, and behold, he is tending the sheep." Then Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here."
Let us slip in a little background here to see perhaps why David was the man he was. In I Chronicles 2 and II Samuel 17, we find that he was the son of Jesse's second wife. Jesse's first seven sons were probably by his first wife, and then, assuming she died, he married again to a woman who had previously been the wife of Nahash. She had two daughters by Nahash, Zeruiah and Abigail. David probably was much younger than his sister Zeruiah, was probably a step-brother to all the other brothers, and was quite possibly much younger than anyone else in the family, which would make him runt of the litter and earn him that kind of treatment. His brothers, particularly Eliab, did not like him [as we will see when we study David & Goliath] and probably picked on him continually.
Samuel had already offered the public sacrifice in the city of Bethlehem. Now came the private feast. He had personally invited Jesse and his sons to share the priestly portion of the sacrifice with him. A great honor! This was the special private affair that happened to a family maybe once in a lifetime, and as you see, Jesse did not even mention David until Samuel insisted. [It is possible that David's treatment by his brothers and his father was the reason he was such a poor father. He indulged his sons every whim. He never said no, and it destroyed them.] We do not want to judge David too harshly when we see the terrible things he does. If we place his actions against his background, we may be able to understand why the grace of God intervenes and why God does not judge him as we would.
God allowed much the same thing in his Son's childhood. In a small community, Jesus was known as a bastard and was sung about by drunkards. He had to support his family at an early age with hard physical labor in a crummy little caravan town like Nazareth. He was kept in humble grinding poverty until he was 30 years old. He was also probably hated by his brothers. The gospels tell us that the whole family tried to have him taken into custody because they thought he was insane. In John, Chapter 7, his brothers tried to get him killed. Knowing he could not go to Jerusalem because the Jews were out to kill him, they bait him with, "No one who does the things you do doesn't want to go down to Jerusalem." James, the brother closest in age to Jesus, had probably suffered all his life in comparison to Jesus.Then at age 30, Jesus takes on the religious authorities, violates the Sabbath and probably makes it difficult for James with the local Rabbi. I can feel for James and so could the Lord Jesus. In the list of personal appearances of Jesus Christ risen from the dead, two of them are very individual; the appearance to Peter who denied him three times after saying, "I will never desert you," and the appearance to James, his brother. As a result of that visit, James became head of the Jerusalem church, James the Just, and died for his Lord.
Chapter 16, Verse 12:
So he [Jesse] sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, [reddish, which means he had red hair. It was highly prized in the Middle East where black hair predominated] with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance [Chapters 17 and 18 indicate he was also very swift and very strong.] And the LORD said, "Arise, anoint him; for this is he."
When David is finally brought in, we are told he is good looking and also strong. Out in the wilderness, God has been preparing him to be a king. All alone with the sheep, no one else to depend on, totally debased, a miserable childhood, he pours out his heart to God and fellowships with him. This is exactly the kind of person God says he uses. Everything about this young man seems to coincide with I Corinthians 1:26ff, and this is the man God chooses.
Chapter 16, Verse 13:
Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers [or "from among his brothers." This can also be translated "from among." I suspect they were not present. They probably passed through and out]; and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward [Here is the filling of the Spirit. David is now filled and empowered in a special way to do the work that God has called him to]. And Samuel arose and went to Ramah.
There are differences of opinion among noted Bible authorities on the enabling of the Spirit in Old Testament times. My theology, and I believe it is consistent with what Scripture teaches although there are fine theologians who disagree with me, is that the Spirit of God did not indwell believers in the Old Testament. He filled them. He empowered them, but he came and went. He does it with David. He did it with Saul.
Whenever believers were open to God and the Spirit of God filled and empowered them, however, they experienced the same depths of relationship to God that we experience. The Psalms portray that. The walk of Abraham with God portrays that. Moses portrays that, as does David. In the Old Testament there was no sacrifice for sins of willfulness. So, when David was confronted by God for murder and adultery, he should have died under the Old Testament covenant. He said, "With offerings and sacrifices you are not pleased, but a broken and contrite heart you will not despise." That is all he offered and that is what his God accepted. Which shows David had an intimate knowledge of his God. In II Samuel 12:13, Nathan the prophet told him, "The Lord...has taken away your sin, you shall not die."
In the New Testament, [with the coming of the Spirit of God, John 14 through 16], the Spirit now indwells believers. Romans 8:9b says, "But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him." This time the Paraclete, [the "one who walks alongside to help"], will be "walking alongside" in the believer. Christ said, "If I go away, I will send another one just like me." The "helper, comforter, intercessor" now lives inside the believer forever. The filling of the Spirit gives all the fruit of the Spirit whether in the Old Testament or the New Testament. The fruit of the Spirit is eternal because the Spirit is eternal.
So David is anointed and the Spirit of God comes upon him.
Chapter 16, Verse 14:
Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit [literally a spirit of evil] from the LORD terrorized him. Saul's servants then said to him, "Behold now, an evil spirit from God is terrorizing you. Let our lord now command your servants who are before you. Let them seek a man who is a skillful player on the harp; and it shall come about when the evil spirit from God is on you, that he shall play the harp with his hand, and you will be well."
God takes the Spirit of God from Saul and gives it to David, and he sends literally a "spirit of evil." I do not think this is a demon but rather an angel that God sends to trouble Saul. You could say that the spirit ["the destroyer", Exodus 12:23] that God sent to Egypt to kill all the first born was a spirit of evil as far as the Egyptians were concerned.
There is a New Testament principle at work here, again out of Corinthians. God is not trying to make Saul a manic depressive, which is what he becomes. Heights and depths! Heights and depths! God does indeed send this spirit. Even Saul's courtiers recognize this. [The word "servants" has the idea of those around him, the courtiers.] But God, in his grace, is trying to kill Saul's flesh. The flesh is Saul's problem, and God knows it. In I Corinthians, Chapter 5 what did Paul command them to do to a Christian who was living with his father's wife, a sin that even the Gentiles would not permit themselves? [Fornication everyday but not incest.] Paul says, "Deliver his body to Satan that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." This is an Old Testament principle in that New Testament passage. God is delivering Saul over to the spirit that will drive him to despair. In order to get Saul's attention, God plans to wipe out everything he clings to. God really loves Saul. He wants him to know what is going on and to know this is not a punishment for his disobedience. God is doing this because he loves Saul and yearns to bring him back into a relationship with himself.
The same is true today. God so loves us that he will go to any length necessary, up to and including physical illness, or even death [I Corinthians 11:29-30], to woo us back, but he never leaves us in the dark when he does it. He did not in I Corinthians. He did not here. All the courtiers knew, and they told Saul, "Behold now, an evil spirit from God is terrorizing you."
Next time we will see how God brings David into the palace. In his sovereignty, he has the very man who is to be replaced bring his replacement anointed into the palace.
Prayer:
Father, we thank you now for your Word. We are just thankful for the way it shows particularly your love and your grace toward us for we are all Sauls at heart, Father. We are Davids too. We have ups and downs, but none of us can perform properly without you whether we are up or down. We still have a fleshly relationship with you at times, Father, and we thank you so much that you are committed to dealing with that, to putting it to death, to hacking it to pieces that there will be no Agags in our lives. You are going to take care of the Amalekites. They are going to be exterminated. They are going to be taken out of our lives, not because we can handle them, but because you are going to do so. Thank you, Father, for your faithfulness to us and that you will never let us go. We thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen
Today we will see how the Lord, in his sovereignty, has the man who is to be replaced bring his replacement into the palace. You will recall that Samuel anointed David King of Israel, at which time the Spirit came mightily upon David and departed from Saul. God, then, sent a spirit of evil, which even Saul's courtiers recognized was from the hand of the Lord, to bring Saul to repentance. To combat the depressions brought on by this spirit, Saul's servants requested permission to seek a man who was a skillful player on the harp. It was very common to do that in those days. It was even common in the Greek world. So, in I Samuel Chapter 16, Verse 17, we see Saul requesting his servants to provide such a man.
We pick up now in I Samuel 16, Verse 18:
Then one of the young men answered and said, "Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is a skillful musician, a mighty man of valor, a warrior, one prudent in speech, and a handsome man; and the LORD is with him. So Saul sent messengers to Jesse, and said, "Send me your son David who is with the flock." And Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread and a jug of wine and a young goat, and sent them to Saul by David his son. Then David came to Saul and attended him, and Saul loved him greatly; and he became his armor bearer. [This is another word for "aide-de-camp" They might have up to 10 armor bearers, as Joab, David's general, did] And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, "Let David now stand before me; for he has found favor in my sight." So it came about whenever the evil spirit from God came to Saul, David would take the harp and play it with his hand; and Saul would be refreshed and be well, and the evil spirit would depart from him.
It is worthy of note that, as part of David's training to be a shepherd of Israel, God has made him a shepherd of sheep. Looking at some of the results of that wilderness training, we see that David is a "skillful musician." Not only would music benefit David, but it would also quiet his sheep. Animals are calmed by the voice of a man singing, especially if it is the voice of someone they know. David would look at the stars, think of the God behind those stars and make up beautiful songs which he set to music. So, out of his loneliness and his desire to quiet his sheep came up to probably 73 Psalms, [at least he is named in 73 of the Psalms]. This affected not only his sheep and himself, but down through the ages when people are troubled most of them turn to the Psalms. When I do hospital visits, I generally read in Romans and in Ephesians, to give patients assurance about what they possess in Christ. Then I read the Psalms to calm and quiet them and to get their eyes off their circumstances [the nurses, the doctors, the tubes, the I.V.s] and onto their God. David was deeply troubled many times and expressed his thoughts and feelings in words with which God gifted him, so the patients I visit can relate to those words even though they come to them across 3,000 years. The Comforter given to David is the same Comforter that reaches into their hearts.
We also see that David was "a mighty man of valor." Out in the wilderness with his sheep, he was also faced with marauding bears and lions. Since he was alone and without help, he bore the sole responsibility for protecting those sheep. God was preparing him with a courageous heart.
He was also "a warrior." The Philistines came and went as they chose. Even though Scripture calls them "uncircumcised", they were a highly intelligent and highly civilized people. They came from Greece, the Aegean area, and had a very complex, although a very vicious, culture. They were a wicked warrior people who knew how to fight. They invaded Egypt where they remained until they were driven out. They then went into Judah, the Southern part of Palestine, where they remained. They also had control of iron smelting and did not allow any blacksmiths in Judah. So the Israelites had to go to the Philistines to have their iron plows and pruning spears sharpened and repaired. The Israelites were essentially left with wooden weapons, spears, javelins, bow and arrows and, of course, the sling shot. As a result, they became experts with the sling shot. The Book of Judges [Chap 20, Verse 16] speaks of 700 men from Benjamin who could "split a hair" with a sling shot. So, alone in the wilderness, David became an accomplished warrior using only a sling shot or a wooden javelin to protect his sheep from warriors armed with iron weapons.
We also read he was "one prudent in speech." If you are the smallest boy in a huge family, you would probably either become prudent in speech or become the most bruised boy around. He was number eight son, even possibly, as Psalm 51 hints, an illegitimate son of Jesse's marriage in his old age. In Judah in those days, in the Jewish culture, that was a real stigma. The Lord faced exactly the same stigma 900 years later when he was considered the bastard of Nazareth.
He was also "a handsome man."
But, finally, the most important thing about him, according to this Scripture, is that "the Lord is with him." His life was such that one of Saul's servants, in the court way up in Gibeah, recognized that the preincarnate Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty, Yahweh of the Old Testament, was with David. There was something that made this apparent. When the king suffered from a spirit of evil from Yahweh, then, who else but someone who had Yahweh with him could be of help? So, Saul himself brings David into the palace, and loves him greatly because when David plays and sings, the spirit of evil from the Lord is indeed driven off and Saul is calmed. The only problem is that Saul's love for David is fleshly and selfish. He loves David essentially for what David can do for him. Down the road he discovers what David can do to him and his love turns to hate. For fear of losing his kingdom, he then begins a planned and premeditated campaign to eliminate David. That is the tragedy of fleshly love. It lasts only as long as it benefits the one being loved.
Ponder a moment on why a spirit of evil sent to Saul to discipline him would depart when David sang a Psalm. The Psalms of David were created by the inspiration of God, literally the "outbreathing" of God and are just as inspired by the Spirit of God as the prophesies. So when David was singing to Saul he was singing inspired Scripture. Do you see the graciousness of God here? In a compassionate attempt to reach Saul, he takes the very Scripture of the Bible, the Word of God, and has it sung to Saul. [A Psalm is just a sacred song put to music.] God really wants him to repent. We have, along with this beautiful picture of the grace of God, also a picture of the sovereignty of God. God has had Saul bring into the palace the very man God has ordained to replace him on the throne.
Chapter 17 now brings us to the confrontation with Goliath. In Chapter 14, thanks to Jonathan's bravery, the Israelites under Saul defeated the Philistines, but because of Saul's rash oath that kept the Israelites from eating all day, they did not destroy nearly as many as they should have. Now the Philistines are back again.
All through Scripture the Philistines are a picture of those things that hinder, enslave or place in bondage the people of God. Goliath of Gath, as the champion of the Philistines, pictures a particularly besetting sin, one that is entrenched. In the episode of David and Goliath, we see not only an historical event, but also a beautiful spiritual application of how a Christian can deal with the areas of life that are Philistine, invaders, alien and particularly with the Goliaths that are so entrenched in a life.
So let us look at Chapter 17, beginning with verse 1:
Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle; and they were gathered at Socoh which belongs to Judah [they were trespassers. They did not belong there], and they camped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim [just 17 miles south of Jerusalem]. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered, and camped in the valley of Elah, and drew up in battle array to encounter the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on the mountain on one side while Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with the valley between them.
The valley was a dry wash with very high cliffs and a brook in the middle. It was a typical dry wash, or wadi, filled with a rushing torrent during the winter rains but dry the rest of the time, and it ran northwesterly into the Philistine strongholds of Ekron and Gath. The Philistines, having just been beaten rather badly by the Israelites, are not about to go down the hill and then have to fight the Israelites on an uphill slope. It is also possible that, in their rout of the Philistines, the Israelites picked up a lot of iron weapons. On the other hand, the Israelites have no desire to go down into the valley and fight uphill against the Philistines who are fully equipped with iron weapons. So they do what is quite common in ancient warfare, they decide on representative conflict. Instead of the two armies fighting, each army chooses a champion to fight. The outcome of their battle determines which army wins the victory, and which one takes over the territory in question.
The Philistines had what they thought was an ace in the hole, "Goliath of Gath." Goliath was an Anakim. He was of the sons of Anak, the giants. In those days there was a whole civilization of giants that went right up the Jordan Valley. [Hundreds of skeletons of giant people have been found up the Jordanian Valley.] They were called Rephaim, Zamzummim, Emim, Anakim, Nephilim. You find them both before the flood of Noah and after the flood of Noah. They were at least "six cubits and a span." [Using the 18" cubit, that is 9-1/2 ft tall; using a 21" cubit that is 10-1/2 ft tall.] It is called a megalithic civilization, mega = big, lithic = stone. They built huge stone buildings. There really was a race of giants. They really did inhabit the Jordanian Valley around the hill country of Hebron. They were driven out of the area by the Mesopotamian Chedorlaomer and his coalition in the days of Abraham. They were driven out again by the Jews under Joshua, but they were never driven out of the country. They ended up in the southwest part of Palestine where they joined forces with the Philistines. So, we have Goliath of Gath who is no Sunday School tale made up by a Sunday School teacher. He is historically accurate and comes from a whole civilization of giants.
So from the Philistines point of view, picking champions this is really the way to go, "Wait until you see our champion."
Chapter 17, Verse 4:
Then a champion came out from the armies of the Philistines named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span [either 9-1/2 or 10-1/2 feet tall. Men, at that time, were about 5-1/2 feet tall, so David is looking at someone about twice as big as he is]. And he had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was clothed with scale-armor [overlapping scales] which weighed five thousand shekels of bronze [that is about 160 lbs. His armor weighed more than David did soaking wet]. He also had bronze greaves [or shin guards] on his legs and a bronze javelin slung between his shoulders.
He came out morning and evening when the sun was at the right angle, a solid hunk of shining metal 10-1/2 feet tall walking like a robot down that hill, and there stood the Jews on the other hill with their slings and their wooden weapons. [Some had swords, but many did not.]
Chapter 17, Verse 7:
And the shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and the head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron [That was 20 lbs. Just the spear head weighed 20 lbs. This fellow threw a spear that had a 20 lb. shot in the front of it shaped like a point, and he threw it easily]; his shield-carrier also walked before him. [He had to have someone lug his shield for him] And he stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, and said to them, "Why do you come out to draw up in battle array? Am I not the Philistine [hear his arrogance] and you servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me [into the valley where he is]. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will become your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall become our servants and serve us." Again the Philistine said, "I defy the ranks of Israel this day; give me a man that we may fight together." When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
Goliath came out each morning and each evening when the sun was at the right angle and stood there flexing his armor and flashing it around, giving this taunt and humiliating the people of God, because their trust was in size, and their "size" was a coward.
Here is a typical contest between the flesh and the Spirit. On one side you have all the might of the flesh, Goliath of Gath. He stood head and shoulders above the Philistines, and he demanded a mighty champion like himself as an opponent. On the other side there was Saul. The Israelites chose him as king because of his physical stature. He stood head and shoulders above all of them. But what made him a mighty warrior, the Spirit of God, had now departed from him. What he had at Michmash was gone, and without the Spirit, he was a spineless coward. When the Spirit of God came mightily upon him, he took over the armies in Israel, defeated the Philistines, and rescued Jabesh-gilead. But, when the Spirit of God was withdrawn, we see him as he really was, a coward and also a murderer, ready to kill anyone who might try to usurp his throne. Since, as the leader goes so goes the nation, the fear of Saul infected the whole nation. When he ran, they ran. Their courage was all based upon what looked great rather than upon what was great. They did not realize that the courage of Saul was not based upon his stature but upon the Spirit of God.
Now we come to David and his errand here. He has already been anointed king. He is God's ruler and he knows it. Saul is a usurper, and he knows that. Look at how God trains his anointed king who is already filled with the Spirit of God.
Chapter 17, Verse 12:
Now David was the son of the Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, whose name was Jesse, and he had eight sons. And Jesse was old in the days of Saul, advanced in years among men [Jesse is a very old man. David has no model for a father with whom he can identify]. And the three older sons of Jesse had gone after Saul to the battle. And the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the first-born, and the second to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. And David was the youngest. Now the three oldest followed Saul, but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father's flock at Bethlehem [Whenever a mood came upon Saul, he would snap his fingers and up would come David to play his harp. When Saul was through with him, back he would go to the flock. Again he was the lowest man on the totem pole]. And the Philistine came forward morning and evening for forty days, and took his stand
David is nothing more than a messenger boy for Saul. He comes at the beck and call of the king he is to replace. Look at what else he is made to do.
Chapter 17, Verse 17:
Then Jesse said to David his son, "Take now for your brothers an ephah [35 quarts] of this roasted grain and these ten loaves, and run to the camp to your brothers [These are the brothers who do not accept him, who pick on him, who treat him like the runt of the litter]. Bring also these ten cuts of cheese to the commander of their thousand, and look into the welfare of your brothers, and bring back news of them. For Saul and they and all the men of Israel are in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.
David is not only a messenger boy for Saul but for Jesse also. You would think that God, having anointed David as king and having filled him mightily with the Spirit of God, would put him right in the palace. Instead here he is running errands, jumping for Jesse, jumping for Saul. What is God doing?
We talked about authority last time. God's authority is that of Lord and God. Nobody else is Lord. All other men are brothers. As we used to say in Navy boot camp, "You are not fit to command until you learn to obey." What caused Saul to be disqualified? Disobedience. He never really obeyed God. So, God is not going to put David on the throne until he has learned absolute obedience. David is not fit to command the nation of Israel until he is in absolute obedience to the God of Israel, Israel's only Ruler, Yahweh, The Preincarnate Jesus Christ. So God runs David up and down in the back woods, while all the time he is God's anointed king of Israel. Any authority David has will come from obedience.
On a personal level, where does any authority we might have come from? Same place. Obedience, the Lordship of Christ. We have no right, no right whatsoever, to talk to anyone about their soul, or about their walk with the Lord, unless our life is in obedience to Jesus Christ, insofar as we are personally able to make the right choices. We have no authority otherwise. If, however, we are obedient to Christ, as far as our will is concerned, stumbling though we may be but with a real desire to be obedient, then we have tremendous authority. We have all the authority of Jesus Christ, and people will see it and sense it.
A pagan Centurion sensed it in Jesus Christ. Jesus was coming into Capernaum, a major seaport and headquarters of his Galilean ministry, when a Centurion, who was the equivalent of anywhere from a Captain in our army to a Colonel, depending upon the importance of his command, approached him. This Centurion was a big man in the city. He had built a whole synagogue for the Jews with his own money. He had a slave he greatly loved who was sick, and he wanted Jesus to heal him. Why would he come to Jesus? He was one of the conquerors of the Jews, not in subjugation to them. What was there about Jesus that impressed this Centurion? It was his authority, and this Centurion knew about authority.
He said in Matthew 8:8b;
"...just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I, too, am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one. 'Go!' and he goes, and to another, 'Come!' and he comes, and to my slave, "Do this!' and he does it."
He knew about authority. He knew authority could just say the word and things happened. Where did the Centurion get his authority? He got it from absolute obedience to his Tribune. When he was in absolute obedience to his Tribune, he could command men to be put to death for disobedience, and they had a very slow, painful way of killing disobedient soldiers in those days. It was quite effective and quite fatal. It is said that a Roman soldier was more afraid of his commander then he was of the enemy. Here he saw Christ in absolute obedience to a higher authority, in this case His Father, so he knew he had absolute authority over others.
If Christ's authority lies in absolute obedience to the Father and the Christian's authority lies in absolute obedience to the Lordship of Christ, husbands, you whose wives are to submit to you in everything as unto the Lord, from where does your authority come? Your obedience to your Lord, of course. Your wife has no confidence or peace in submitting to you in everything as unto the Lord unless you are obedient to your Lord. She may give you grudging obedience because you are her husband, or she may give you willing obedience because of the Lordship of Christ in her life, but you, yourself, have no authority apart from your own obedience.
Parents, from where does your authority over your children come, the lash, the whip, or the most dreaded of all punishments, turning off the TV? No, they learn to obey or disobey from watching you obey or disobey. During the 60s there was a struggle with the kids at Stanford over smoking pot, trying speed, and dropping acid, among other things. And why not? Every night they would watch daddy come home from the office and load up on three double martinis before dinner. Our authority as parents comes from modeling our obedience to Jesus Christ.
So, God is putting his king through boot camp. David is not fit to command the nation of Israel until he has learned to obey absolutely Yahweh, the Lord of Israel, with no questions asked.
Christ's absolute obedience contributed to his being called "meek." Meek, however, is a very poor word in English. The actual literal meaning of the word is "strength under control." The word "gentle" is a good word for it. Scripture calls Moses the "meekest man on the face of the earth," but he had strength under control. He was anything but a push over. He led 2.5 million people through a howling wilderness. He was a gentle person, but he had authority. Why? Obedience. When Miriam and Aaron, his sister and brother, said, "Who is Moses anyway? We are all of the same family. How come he is such a hero?" God says, "Moses, Miriam, Aaron, come out here in front of the tent of meeting. I want to talk to you." Then, he looks right at Miriam and Aaron and says, "How dare you talk to Moses like that. To the prophets, I appear in visions and in dreams, but to him I talk face-to-face. He is the meekest man on the face of the earth. How dare you talk to him like that. [Numbers 12:1-8]" Immediately Miriam became a leper, and Aaron had to plead with Moses to intercede for her. God said, "O.K., I will do one thing for you. 'If her father had but spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut up for seven days outside the camp, and afterward she may be received again.'[Numbers 12:14]" Seven days she stayed outside the camp, unclean, a leper. "Don't you ever talk to Moses like that again." Meekest man on the face of the earth. A lily?. Oh, no! That is power under control, and it came from obedience.
This is what we have in David. God is going to make him a powerful man, and he does it by making him absolutely obedient.
I Samuel 17, Verse 20:
So David arose early in the morning and left the flock with a keeper and took the supplies and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the circle of the camp while the army was going out in battle array shouting the war cry. And Israel and the Philistines drew up in battle array, army against army. Then David left his baggage in the care of the baggage keeper, and ran to the battle line and entered in order to greet his brothers. As he was talking with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine from Gath named Goliath, was coming up from the army of the Philistines, and he spoke these same words; and David heard them. When all the men of Israel saw the man, they fled from him and were greatly afraid. And the men of Israel said, "Have you seen this man who is coming up? Surely he is coming up to defy Israel. And it will be that the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel." Then David spoke to the men who were standing by him, saying, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?" And the people answered him in accord with this word, saying, "Thus it will be done for the man who kills him."
When Goliath comes out and challenges the Israelites, they all flee. Why? Where is their mighty leader, the man called by God to head the nation of Israel and be its leader? Instead of dealing with this Philistine champion in the strength of the Lord, Saul is cowering somewhere devising an alluring material reward for anyone who will kill Goliath. He is offering "great riches and will give him his daughter [son-in-law-to the king] and make his household free in Israel [no taxes, no draft, no tithes]." The magnificent leader that the Israelites picked because of his great stature and kingly appearance is buying off someone to go do his job for him. This is why Israel is weak. Their king is weak.
Why do you suppose David asks this strange question? It sounds pretty selfish.
"Then David spoke to the men who were standing by him, saying, 'What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine, [now watch these words] and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?'"
Not the armies of Israel, you will note. If you do not read carefully, it would appear David is hoping to make a deal. He has no money. He is poverty-stricken, low man on the totem pole. Here is a chance to get rich, not to mention a little prestige. But look closely to where he is focusing their attention. He focuses from Goliath, to the living God. "Who will kill this Philistine and take away the reproach from Israel?"
Two things David focuses on. The first: "For who is this uncircumcised Philistine..." Why does he use the word uncircumcised? You will remember that God made a covenant with the nation of Israel in the time of Abraham. Part of that covenant was that God would 1) bless the nations of the earth through the descendants of Abraham, and 2) that they would possess forever the land from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates and from the Mediterranean to the great desert. As a mark of his covenant, he required circumcision, and David is saying, "This man is uncircumcised. He is not part of the covenant and has no right to the land." God chose circumcision as a symbol of the removal of the flesh. But while the Israelites, including their king, may have been physically circumcised, at the moment they were looking at their circumstances from a purely fleshly standpoint. They were denying their circumcision. Israel was in such a state at this time that one of their prophets indicated the name of God was blasphemed among the Gentiles because of them.
The second thing David focuses on "...that he should taunt the armies of the living God?" Goliath is taunting the God of Israel, the armies "of the living God." He is not taunting the armies of Israel. David is trying to transfer the people's sight from the circumstances to the Person involved in those circumstances. The tragedy of the flesh is that it gives up access to God. Saul had given up the right to inquire of God. When he could do it, he would not. Now when he would do it, he cannot. Scripture warns about this; God will give you over to what you choose [Romans 1]. So, do not take advantage of God. Saul had access to God up until the time the Spirit departed from him, but he did not use it. He did his own thing. Remember the battle at Michmash [Chapter 14]. He started to inquire of God. He even got the priest up there, but as soon as he heard the yelling of the Jews and figured the battle was going their way, he said to the priest, "Withdraw your hand," and away he went. He shoved God right into the background and took off in the flesh. He made that hasty vow and lost the real victory. Now when he needs access the most, it is gone.
But then what happens when you start acting in faith, Chapter 17, Verse 28:
Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab's anger burned against David and he said, "Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your insolence and the wickedness of your heart; for you have come down in order to see the battle." But David said, "What have I done now? Was it not just a question?" Then he turned away from him to another and said the same thing; and the people answered the same thing as before.
The moment you act in faith you can expect opposition, oftentimes from your own family. At his first coming, Christ said in Matthew 10:34;
Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth: I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's enemies will be the members of his household.
Jesus said, "I am going to cut right down the center of families, and some of your greatest opposition may come from the ones closest to you." It is not any different in the Old Testament as witness Eliab's response when David steps out in faith.
Next time we will pick up in Chapter 17, Verse 31 and we will see David fight Goliath. As you read through these next verses, watch the three attitudes; the attitude of David, a spiritual man in Christ; the attitude of Saul, a carnal man in Christ, and the attitude of Goliath, an unbeliever. Then notice the effect of the attitude of the spiritual man upon the other two. There is a wonderful little picture here.
Prayer:
Father, we just thank you for your Word and for the way it takes things of history and shows us how they apply to our lives today. We thank you that we truly are your covenant children and that we are born of you, that we have the right to reign as kings and not to be slaves, and yet that right, Father, is based upon full obedience to you because there is only one Lord. We are brothers, and so our authority only rests in our obedience to you. You are the only one who has true absolute authority. Help us, Father, to realize that as we serve one another in obedience to you, we are exercising your authority in the way you exercise it by going to the cross for us. Thank you, Father, for the beautiful opportunity of giving ourselves for others, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Today we will look at the duel between David and Goliath. Since the Philistines had a monopoly on iron smelting, one of the weapons the Israelites depended upon was the sling shot. They became very proficient with it. The stones they used were 2" to 3" in diameter and were placed in a leather cup on the end of two long leather cords. They would whirl this cup over their heads until momentum built up, then they would let go of one of the strings. The rock, traveling at about 200 hundred feet per second, would hit its object with a force of about 5,000 foot pounds of energy. It was designed to crush bone. They could use it against men in armor because it was designed to penetrate.
Leading up to this confrontation between David and Goliath, we have seen some principles. Number one: the Philistines are intruders in the land. The land was given to the Israelites in a covenant God made with Abraham, reaffirmed with Isaac and Jacob, and then reaffirmed again through the people he had Moses and Joshua lead to the promised land. But, even though the land was promised to them by God, they were forced to fight for it.
Canaan is not a picture of heaven. There will be no fights in heaven. It is a picture of resting in God in the middle of the battles down here. The battles we are fighting are already won. We are to fight from a position of rest, depending on God's resources and God's schedule. Our enemies have been defeated in Christ and our job is to possess the land by faith. The Philistines are invaders in the land.
Number two: the Philistines are to be exterminated. As long as they are around, they will be a warlike, hostile, uncircumcised people. They had been a thorn in the side of Israel for years because they had never been totally exterminated. The Israelites, on the other hand, owned the land because God graciously gave it to them not because they earned it. He marked this covenant with them by the sign of circumcision. Circumcision was not only God's sign of the seed promise [in Genesis to Abraham] but also the sign of the land promise. So, every Israelite male in that army standing on the cliff across the valley from the Philistines had a mark on his body that said, "This land is mine. God gave it to me, and I have the right to it forever." Yet there they stood, marked by God, letting an enemy, who had no right to be there, immobilize them.
Scripture tells us that, through Christ, born again believers also have been "circumcised." We are marked men and women. So, even though by God's deliberate will these Goliaths are allowed in our lives, no enemy has the right there. Resting in Jesus Christ, we are to reign as kings. We are to exterminate and conquer right down here in the land God has given us.
Number three: as long as Goliath held the Israelites at bay, he was a reproach and a disgrace to them. They were the "armies of the living God," yet they were terrorized by one uncircumcised Philistine.
If we allow the Goliaths in our lives to possess us, we are disgraced in the same way. We need to realize that and to never make peace with them. Look at Joshua. He rid Canaan of all the Goliaths, all the giants, except for those in the little Southwest corner of the land. They came back to haunt him.
Number four: not only are Goliaths a reproach to us, but they also make a mockery of the living God. If we believe our God is God of the universe, that Jesus Christ maintains the universe by the word of his power, that he is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and we do not act like he is, we make a mockery of our God.
At this juncture, the Philistines were ahead. They held much of the western seacoast and the western slope of the mountains. They controlled iron smelting, which reduced the Israelites to wooden weapons. There was no inducement for them to even consider Israel's God, "Yahweh," as a viable option.
The Goliaths in our lives are like this. If we let them win, we are saying to ourselves, and to the world, "My God is too small. He is not adequate. He can handle cigarettes, but he can not handle jealousy, or pride or ego or lust, or whatever." Yes, it is hard. No one wants to give up the rights to himself, but that is what God wants. Number one on his priority list is me.
So, now let us look at a man of faith. The Israelites are on one side of a canyon. The Philistines are on the other. Goliath is down in between defying the armies of Israel, the armies of the living God, and they are cowering in fear. David comes and asks them a question, trying to get them to focus on their God. His question in I Samuel 17, verse 26:
What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?
"The armies of the living God," he says. He is trying to focus them on their God, the same God that supplied his needs when the lion and the bear attacked his sheep.
1 Samuel 17, beginning with verse 31,
"When the words which David spoke were heard, they told them to Saul, and he sent for him. And David said to Saul, "Let no man's heart fail on account of him [Goliath]; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine." Then Saul said to David, "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth while he has been a warrior from his youth."
David and Saul were both Israelites but they were focused on different things. David looked at God. Saul looked at David. God had anointed David to reign as king over Israel. He had not said, "I have anointed you king, now go get killed by Goliath." So, David, looking at his God and the covenant his God had made with him, expected to kill this giant. It was not because he believed he was bigger or better or smarter than the giant, but it was because his God had made a commitment to him. David would reign. Now, it would be on God's timetable, but David would reign. God was committed to that.
Saul, on the other hand, took a look at the present resources, a youth with lovely red hair, beautiful eyes, small of stature, and it did not add up to destruction of giants. So, Saul looks at David and says, "No way!" But, David looks at God and says, "No problem!"
To continue, verse 34:
But David said to Saul, "Your servant was tending his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I went out after him and attacked him, and rescued it from his mouth; and when he rose up against me, I seized him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted the armies of the living God."
David's victory over a bear or a lion was not due to David's ability, his strength or his size. But with Yahweh on his side, he could walk up to a bear, snatch back his lamb, grab the bear by its beard and plunge a knife into him. He was used to infighting bears, whose claws rip and tear, or lions whose jaw could crush a human skull. An African lion (I don't know how they were in Palestine) can jump over a 6 or 7 foot thorn hedge, take a bullock in its mouth and, still holding the bullock, leap back over the hedge. Of course, they first crush its skull so it doesn't fight, but they are extremely strong. I don't know if the lions in David's time were that big or not. It is possible they were more like the pumas of today, which would still be pretty mean to wrestle. David looked at God's faithfulness in the past [There was no way a small shepherd boy with only a stick and a sling could take on a lion or a bear by himself] and based upon that, realized God would be faithful in the present.
He goes on in verse 37:
And David said, "The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."
That is a very poor translation. The Hebrew is a beautiful play on words. You can see the contempt. The more proper translation is, "The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the paw of this Philistine." "He is just another animal like the bear and the lion, and the Lord will deliver me as he has in the past."
And Saul said to David, "Go, and may the Lord be with you."
Saul, being a man of the flesh, does not surprise us by his actions. Following is sincere flesh in action, verse 38:
Then Saul clothed David with his garments and put a bronze helmet on his head, and he clothed him with armor. And David girded his sword over his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them.
Saul was sincere about wanting David to win. He gave David the best he had; his own armor, his own helmet, his own sword. But Saul was head and shoulders over all of Israel, you will remember, and David was a rather small young man. Saul's armor probably came down to his feet. Not only could he not run, he probably could not even walk in it. Also, there was a difference between the battle Saul was trying to fight and the battle David knew was the real issue. There was a difference also in the weaponry of Saul and the weaponry of David. Saul saw only a physical enemy. David saw that God was the issue. He wanted to put on the whole armor of God, which, in this battle, turned out to be only a sling shot & 5 smooth stones. When we fight a battle, our weaponry is not the whole armor of Saul. It is the whole armor of God.
So David said to Saul, "I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them." And David took them off. And he took his stick in his hand [note the armor of God was not a sword. There were not many swords around] and chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in the shepherd's bag which he had, even in his pouch, and his sling was in his hand; and he approached the Philistine.
In this case, the armor of God was a shepherd's staff and a shepherd's sling, the very things that David had used in fighting the battles of God before. God does not strike with lightning. He does not provide supercharged weapons to wage warfare. Neither does he ask you to put your mind in neutral when you walk by faith. He wants you to take whatever he has given you, whatever you are used to using, and step out in faith expecting him to use those same things again and again. He is a faithful, systematic God, and what has worked in the past will work in the future. If you have walked in quiet obedience to your Lord in the past, and have overcome cigarettes by that quiet obedience, when lust is staring you in the face, walk in that same quiet step-by-step obedience and you will overcome the Goliath of lust.
What you and I do not have the right to do is to box God in. We do not know how long we must walk in faith before we defeat our Philistine Goliaths. Nevertheless, we should take the normal thinking man's precautions, use the weapons God has given us and step out. David went to the brook and picked up five stones. He did not say, "Listen, God, I am going to pick up one stone, and you had better make that hit the target." What if he had stumbled? Instead he took five smooth stones, just as he had many, many times before, and stepped out. Although in the Book of Judges the Benjaminites had 700 slingers that could split a hair, David did not know how many stones it would take to slay a 10 foot man. He knew God was going to defeat this man, but whether it would be number 1 or number 5 stone, he did not know. So, he took the normal, everyday number of stones and gave God the option to do what he chose.
Do not test the living God. Do not put out fleeces. It is childish. Do say, "Thank you, Lord, I have the victory. I know it is mine. How or when you will give it to me, I to not know, but I know it is mine. So I am going to do whatever is normal and natural and obvious and prepare myself for whatever you call me to do. I will use this mind you have given me, put it in low gear and head out." That is exactly what David did.
Verse 41:
Then the Philistine came on and approached David, with the shield-bearer in front of him. When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth, and ruddy, with a handsome appearance. And the Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks? [Not even a sword] And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine also said to David, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field."
Note also "The Philistine cursed David by his gods." I believe that translation misses the point. "Gods" is the same Hebrew word as in Genesis 1:1 which speaks of the true God as creator. I feel it should read, "cursed David by his (David's) God" because in verse 45, David says Goliath has taunted the God of the armies of Israel. I think Goliath blasphemed Yahweh when he screamed at David, and then and there he became a dead man. David said to himself, "I have him now. He just took on Yahweh, and he is a dead man."
Goliath was about 10 feet tall, clothed in armor of bronze, with a javelin at his back, a spear in his hand, a sword at his side and a shield-bearer in front of him. On the other hand David had a stick, five stones in a pouch and a sling-shot over his shoulder. So you might say Goliath's attitude was confidently arrogant.
Now look at the actions of David in verses 45 through 47. Verse 45:
Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name [In Hebrew the phrase, "the name," indicates all the power, authority, rank, all that the person is] of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted.
And, after properly focusing on who is fighting whom, see the security and assurance that David has, verse 46:
This day the Lord ["Yahweh," in Hebrew the covenant God of Israel. David is claiming that covenant. By circumcision, he has the mark of that covenant, on himself. This land is his by the gift of Yahweh, and he is putting God to the test in that sense. He is saying, "You have given us the land. I am taking you up on your promise.] will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you.[That is quite a phrase considering David has no sword. But Goliath has, and he has been a dead man ever since he blasphemed Yahweh.] And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord [Yahweh] does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord's [Yahweh's] and He will give you into our hands [not my hand].
David sees an issue here between the glory of God and the glory of man. He says, "God is going to deliver you into my hands, not for my sake or my glory, but for his."
Notice, David declares God has two redemptive reasons for defeating the Philistine. One: "...that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, " David is saying, "Israel is where God lives. The Israelites are God's people. If you want to know about the true God, He is in Israel." Remember Christ's answer to the Samaritan woman when she said, "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain [Gerizim] and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship" His response to her flippancy was, "We worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews." A very loose translation might be, "Even though unbelieving Sadducees are bungling it, the basic concept of sacrifice and the Old Testament law, prophets and psalms is the way of salvation, and it is from the Jewish nation. It is not found in Samaria where you will not accept any of the Bible but the Pentateuch. Your sacrifices on Mount Gerizim are a stench in the nostrils of God."
Two: "...and that all this assembly may know that the Lord [Yahweh] does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord's [Yahweh's] and He will give you into our hands." Probably here he looks back at the Jews. He wants them to know that their covenant God [and that would get their attention] does not deliver by sword or by spear, [the way they tried to arm David]. He wants them to know the battle is Yahweh's, and Yahweh will give the Philistine into Israel's hands. He will not be giving him into David's hands.
In Deuteronomy 17, God indicated one of his rules for the kings of Israel was not to multiply horses unto themselves. Every other nation used horses and camels and chariots of iron, but God told the Jewish people that it was a key issue that their king not go back to Egypt to multiple horses. David noted why when he indicated "the battle is the Lord's."
A good example is King Jehoshaphat. He was a good king, but he had some problems with the flesh. During his reign "the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon, together with some of the Meunites came to make war against him" [2 Chronicles 20]. The Lord told him, "Go to battle with the priests in front singing hymns and the people dancing," This they did. As they approached the battlefield they saw that these enemy armies, who were a variety of nations thrown together to take on the Jews, had gotten into a brawl among themselves and had completely destroyed each other. Jehoshaphat's army went forth to battle and all the enemy lay dead. His enormous standing army, supported for years by the taxes of his people, did not shoot one arrow. They just collected the spoils. The battle was the Lord's
God's idea was to have the Jewish nation always at a disadvantage so they would put no trust in human resources. God does not want our will, our integrity of character or our most valiant efforts to deal with the Goliaths, or even the little Philistines behind them, in our lives. The battle is the Lord's. He may deal with us until we bottom out, until we lie hopeless before him, before he brings us back. He wants to teach us that out of death comes resurrection power. Until we have been crucified and have put to death everything we count on outside of Jesus Christ and his indwelling life, we cannot experience the fullness of the resurrection power of Christ. Our God is determined to put us through afflictions, persecutions, and perplexities, so the life of Jesus Christ may be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
Verse 48:
Then it happened when the Philistine rose and came and drew near to meet David, that David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.
Note that David "ran quickly" to approach Goliath. He was taking on a 10 foot giant along with a javelin, a spear, a sword and a shield-bearer, yet he eagerly approached Goliath because the battle was already won, and he knew it. Goliath had challenged Yahweh, and David was just a vehicle in God's battle.
Verse 49:
And David put his hand into his bag and took from it a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead [Goliath was so certain of victory he did not even cover his forehead]. And the stone sank into his forehead, so that he fell on his face to the ground.
You would think with all his paraphernalia that Goliath would be invincible, but I have never seen any Philistine helmets that had a visor covering the forehead. They did wear a kind of band, but it would not have stopped a rock the size David used. According to drawings of the time, even with their helmets, their foreheads looked to be quite exposed. That is why they used a shield.
Verse 50:
Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and he struck the Philistine and killed him; but there was no sword in David's hand. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.
We need to remember that as Christians we are fighting battles already won. Colossians 2 tells us that at the cross Jesus Christ triumphed over Satan much as Roman conquerors in the days of Rome. A Roman field general who had taken vast new territory and killed great numbers of new enemies [old revolts did not count], had the right of a triumphal entry. He would chain his enemies to his chariot hubcaps and march them through town; those chained to the front hubcaps would be trained by the Romans and go back to serve Rome as local officers; those chained to the rear could not be trusted, and went to the coliseum to be slain. As the conqueror paraded through town in an open chariot, flowers were scattered before him, incense was wafted about. The incense to those in front was the sweet incense of life unto life. The incense to those behind was the incense of death unto death. The conquering general marched up to the Emperor, who crowned him with the stephanos, the crown of victory. [It was made of laurel leaves, woven together like the one given victors in the Olympic games.] It was the highest honor a conquering general could receive.
This is the exact idiom used in Colossians 2. At the cross, Christ chained Satan and all his demonic hosts to his rear hubcaps and marched them through the streets of heaven. He made "a public display of them." They are all going to hell. So, in Christ, you are seated in the chariot with the Lord , and Satan and all his hosts are chained to the rear hubcaps being dragged through town. As a child of God, you are fighting a battle already won.
Now look at what happens to all the men around when David exhibits that strong act of faith, verse 52:
And the men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines as far as the valley [probably entrance to the valley, probably Gath], and to the gates of Ekron [those were the two major fortified cities of the Philistines] And the slain Philistines lay along the way to Shaaraim, even to Gath and Ekron. And the sons of Israel returned from chasing the Philistines and plundered their camps. Then David took the Philistine's head and brought it to Jerusalem [this is sometime later], but he put his weapons in his tent.
With renewed faith in their Lord, the Israelites took on the Philistines and their iron weapons. Still using mainly wooden weapons, slings and very few swords or spears, they chased them down the wadi to their fortified cities, pummeling them all the way. The Philistines, laden with armor, could not run very fast, so the slingers picked them off one by one. Then on the way back, the Israelites picked up all that great iron weaponry they had not been allowed to have. God armed the Israelites with the weapons of the Philistines.
David took the head of Goliath and hung it in Jerusalem. At that time, Jerusalem was a stronghold of the Jebusites, Canaanites whom the Jews were supposed to have exterminated but never could. David eventually made Jerusalem his city, his capital, the center of the worship system. He united the tribes of Israel there, and it became known as "the city of David." I believe he nailed that head right outside the gate of the stronghold of Jerusalem as a way of saying, "Jebusites, I am going to get you. Look at Goliath and remember I will be back." And he was. He took the city. He took the stronghold. He conquered the Jebusites. Nobody beats the army of the living God.
We are the temple of the living God. Nobody mocks us or taunts us without taunting Yahweh. Any battle we fight we are fighting with Yahweh as our champion. He wants us to win because he does not like his temple [whose temple we are] to be dirtied by Philistines. David believed that and so should we.
Prayer:
Father, we thank you so much for this illustration of how you operate, for that fact that we are victors even now in Jesus Christ, that we are fighting battles that are already won, and how dumb it is to be tied by some Philistine or Goliath who is really fighting you, when all we have to do is step out in a normal, natural, obvious way and by faith believe that you have already won. Then we can cut off the Goliath with his own sword. Thank you, Father, so much in Jesus' name. Amen.
Chapters 18, 19 and 20 present a striking picture of both carnality and spirituality. Today we will look at carnality.
I firmly believe Saul was a saved man. He was chosen of God, anointed by God, filled with the Spirit of God, and used of God until he allowed his ego and his personal desires to dominate him. He was a godly father. Jonathan, who was a product of Saul, was a very godly man. Saul's three sons, Jonathan, Abinadab and Malchishua, stayed with him through all his madness and deterioration and died fighting beside him on Mt. Gilboa. He did a superb job as a father.
David's sons, on the other hand, were all worthless. Even Solomon, who was given a supernatural gift of wisdom by God, became a tyrant and, before the end of his life, withdrew from the Lord. The record of the sons of David was a stench in the nostrils of God. Yet God said David was "a man after my own heart."
When Saul, the night before the battle in which he was slain, called Samuel up from the dead, Samuel said to him, "Tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me." This would seem to indicate that Saul would be in the same place as Jonathan, a godly man, and Samuel, a godly man. To me the only interpretation is that Saul was born again; born again but carnal. I believe his life was a stern warning that carnality can destroy your effectiveness, and even you, in the life down here. But, as your eternal salvation is a gift of God based entirely on his grace, it is not affected [Ephesians 2:4-9].
Then there was David. He was a man of formidable struggles, a myriad of emotional problems, monstrous obstacles to overcome, a failure as a father, but with a heart committed to God. He was not quite sure how to properly appropriate the life of God, but he was "a man after God's own heart," because it is attitude of heart, not performance, that counts.
In these chapters, we will look at two relationships; Saul and David and Jonathan and David. We will see a vivid picture of life in the flesh and life in the spirit and also a vivid picture of two kinds of love. In chapter 16 when David and his harp comforted Saul during those attacks that were intended to drive Saul back to God, Saul loved David "greatly." Jonathan also loved David. They both began by loving David greatly, but we will see different patterns emerge from those loves.
In I Corinthians 3:15, Scripture clearly warns that some of us might stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ with all of our works burned up, "saved so as by fire." I think Saul, and also Lot, Abraham's nephew, are examples of that. I hope we will not be. We are saved by the life of Jesus Christ, but we receive rewards based on the acknowledgement of our helplessness, our appropriation of the life of Christ and our walk in obedience to that life. We can fight obedience to Jesus Christ all of our lives, and still be saved, "so as by fire." If we named the name of Jesus Christ as our Lord, and took a stand for Jesus Christ as our Lord in this age of His rejection by the world, even if our life is a shambles after that, the Lord Jesus will never forget that one day when we first said, "I belong to Jesus." Never forget, however, that I Corinthians 3:15 and II Corinthians 5:10 both promise we will all one day stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ "that we might be recompensed for the things done in the body whether they be valuable or valueless "
Chapter 18 shows the deterioration that sets in when a man chooses something God has declared a false god. Saul was told by God that because of his disobedience his line would not inherit the throne. Next, because he did not wait for Samuel, as instructed, but took over the priesthood and performed functions outside his jurisdiction, he himself was set aside as king. You will remember, he even tore a piece from Samuel's garment in an attempt to get Samuel to honor him before the Israelites. Samuel's response was, "The Lord has torn the kingdom from you and given it to your neighbor who is better than you." This is a direct word from God that: one, Saul no longer has the right to be king; two, the kingdom has already been given to someone closely associated with him, and three, in God's sight, the "neighbor" is better fit to reign as king. Saul's response was, "I will be king of Israel, and I will establish my line no matter what God says." That is rebellion, and rebellion, like a snowball, tends to gain mass and inertia [resistance to change] as it continues its journey downward.
Scripture speaks to this. Let us look at the three "giving overs" in the "snowballing" of fallen man as he continues his rebellion against God. If we continue to choose to rebel against God given light, God will give us over to increasing darkness. [Saul was a striking example.] Let us look briefly at Romans 1, verses 18-32.
Romans 1:18:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth [they know better] in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse [they have had adequate light to respond to God but have rejected the light God has given them]...Professing to be wise, they became fools [it strikes me as ironic that atheists always profess to be wise in their rejection of God] and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. [The very same things God destroyed in the flood of Noah's day when mankind previously committed this same folly, Genesis 6:5-7] Therefore God gave them over [first "giving over"] to the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
First God "gives you over" to your emotions. I like the term, "impulses." [I am not using technical psychological terms here but am just describing three stages of deterioration.] First God gives you over to impulses and allows you to be driven by the winds of emotion. He gives you over to ungodly emotions, ungodly desires, not necessarily perversion yet, but impulses that grip your bodies and souls and minds.
Verse 26, the second "giving over." Now we have a condition, a compulsion, no longer just an emotion:
For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned [literally, "burned out"] in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
"Degrading passions" is far more intense than "lusts of the heart." Lust is less severe than passion. You have now reached "compulsion" which involves perversion of God's norm for mankind. You are a victim. What originally was done, or not done, based upon how you felt, is now impossible to stop. Remember your first cigarette? You may have sucked a lemon to kill the smell and the taste, but you could quit any time. How about when you were smoking two packs a day? In spite of statistics which showed you were killing yourself, you could no longer quit. Somewhere along the line lust turned into passion. You went from choice to compulsion. That is what happened here. Literally the words are not "women" and "men" but "females" and "males." They have become like animals in their sexual behavior. In fact, they are behaving worse than animals. They have reached compulsion.
Verse 28, with the third "giving over" we see a depraved mind. Because it has continually rejected truth, the mind can now no longer discern truth from error. I call this "consumed:"
And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled [perfect tense in the Greek. they are in a state of permanency in this situation] with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, [Unloving is not a very clear translation. It means literally "without natural affection." The basic word is the word for the natural love of a father for his son, a brother for his sister, a husband for his wife, parents for children but with a negative prefix.] unmerciful...
One of the marks of this last stage is the use of the closest intimacy within the family solely to benefit one's self. It is the same word used in II Timothy 3:3 of the last days when people are totally depraved. We will watch Saul reach this stage. He will wantonly use his daughter, whom he loves, and his son, whom he loves, just to accomplish his own desires.
Verse 32:
...and, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
Verse 32 indicates that at this stage they know what they are choosing is wrong. They know it is worthy of death, but they just do not care. That is a depraved mind.
There is a play on words here. In verse 28, "Just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God" means literally that they put God on trial to see if he would meet the specifications they had laid down for him, and when he did not, they rejected him. When they did that, God gave them over to a depraved mind. The word "depraved" is literally the adjective form of the verb used in "to put God on trial" and signifies a trialess mind. Loosely translated it means, if you put God on trial, he fails to meet your specifications and you choose to reject him, God, then, gives you over to a mind that can no longer even make a trial. Since you have rejected God's truth, God says, "You want error, all right, you can have error." That is exactly what he does in II Thessalonians 2:9-12 in the last days. Because man has rejected and refused the love of the truth, God gives him over to error that he might be deceived.
This does not apply just to non-believers. If, as I Corinthians 3:15 says, I could, at the Judgment Seat of Christ, be saved "so as by fire," or, with all my works burnt up and my total Christian life worthless, then Romans 1:18-32 could happen to me. This principle of disobedience applies to both non-believers and believers. A believer is not special in the eyes of God when it comes to getting away with sin. God is willing to destroy the persistently willful sinning believer's life down here so that his lifestyle will not continually blaspheme the name of his Lord. That is what he did with Saul.
So, beginning with verse 55 of chapter 17, we will continue our look at Saul and David. Verse 55:
Now when Saul saw David going out against the Philistine, he said to Abner the commander of the army, "Abner, whose son is this young man?"
Saul is not interested in who this young man is. He knows it is David. He wants to know his background. Saul had promised his daughter to the man who killed Goliath, and, being a very proud man, he wants to know the lineage of this possible son-in-law.
Verse 55b:
And Abner said, "By your life, O king, I do not know." And the king said, "You inquire whose son the youth is." So when David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the Philistine's head in his hand.
Here stands David with his credentials. He has the right to Saul's daughter, the right to all the riches that were offered and the right to have a house in Israel that is free from taxation and conscription. His credentials are in his hand.
Verse 58:
And Saul said to him, "Whose son are you, young man?" And David answered, "I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite." [Who is a nothing.]
Not only was Jesse a nothing, but also there is a possibility David was illegitimate. Then, too, there is indication in Scripture that David's mother may have been previously married to Nahash the Ammonite, a non-Jew, which was a stigma of major proportions in those days.
It would appear there was quite a conversation between the end of Chapter 17 and the beginning of Chapter 18. Verse 1 which has not been recorded:
Now is came about when he had finished speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as himself.
Jonathan was probably in his 40's; David probably in his late teens or early 20's. Upon hearing this young man's story and his background, Jonathan's soul was knit to David in love and compassion. Saul, however, had no intention of letting David become his son-in-law.
And Saul took him that day and did not let him return to his father's house.
Saul loves David for what David can do for Saul, but, in spite of his promise, he does not love David enough to give him his daughter and make him part of the family.
Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with his armor, including his sword and his bow and his belt.
Jonathan, as the oldest son of Saul, was heir apparent to the throne. In ancient times, what he did here was a mark of highest honor. The heir apparent, the Prince of Wales of the nation of Israel, gave up his own armor to his rival. He was not yet aware that David was his rival, but he loved this young man and honored him in front of everyone.
So David went out wherever Saul sent him, and prospered; and Saul set him over the men of war.
David apparently became Saul's Chief-of-Staff which probably initiated the conflict between Abner and David. Later on Abner chose to align himself against David.
And it was pleasing in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants.
At this time Israel consisted of twelve tribes, each one with its own agenda. To mold them into a nation, they needed a unifying force. David could have been that force. They all loved him. Even Saul's courtiers, the inner circle, those striving for their own little empire, loved him. The people of Israel did not all love Saul.
Although Saul began with a love for David, here we see the first step in the downward slide, Saul's jealous suspicion of David. I Samuel 18:6:
And it happened as they were coming, when David returned from killing the Philistine, that the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy and with musical instruments.
In those days when a king returned from war, he was honored in this way. As he and his armies marched through town, the women poured out to dance in the streets and mimic various aspects of fighting the enemy. They played tambourines and triangles and put on quite a performance. Unfortunately these women have a new song which Saul does not appreciate. Verse 7:
And the women sang as they played, and said, "Saul has slain his thousands [Saul's head size expanded and brass buttons popped off his uniform, but then came the second stanza]. And David his ten thousands."
To a man who was an egomaniac, those were no words to sing. This song became very popular too. We will see later that even the Philistines knew it.
Then Saul became very angry, for this saying displeased him; and he said, "They have ascribed to David ten thousands, but to me they have ascribed thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom?" And Saul looked at David with suspicion from that day on.
Saul knew from Samuel's prophecy that the kingdom had already been snatched from him by God and given to his "neighbor." From that same prophecy, he knew it had been given to "someone closely associated with him who was better than he." Saul was no dummy. Who was better than he by ten times, according to the voice of the people? Who was close to him, his Chief-of-Staff? Who, by the hand of the Lord, had killed Goliath? So Saul's love for David, beginning the downward plunge, changed to jealous suspicion. Saul was now being ruled by his emotions. He did not consider what David was as a person, or David's performance, or what the kingdom needed. He only knew what he felt, and, from that day on, he looked at David with suspicion. He had made a choice, a choice against God. It was God who took the kingdom and the kingship from him. It was God who said, "I give it to your neighbor." It was God who said, "He is better than you." Saul chose to take on God and to deny God's evaluation of the situation.
The next move is from suspicion to fear, verse 10:
Now it came about on the next day [evil spreads very quickly] that an evil spirit from God came mightily upon Saul, and he raved in the midst of the house, while David was playing the harp with his hand, as usual; and a spear was in Saul's hand. And Saul hurled the spear for he thought, "I will pin David to the wall." But David escaped from his presence twice.
The spear was a symbol of authority. It was a scepter for a warrior king. Apparently Saul threw it once, missed, got it back, and when David returned to his place, threw it again. Now fear. Verse 12:
Now Saul was afraid of David, for the LORD was with him but had departed from Saul.
Do you see any pattern in this progression of sin? When the spirit of evil from God first came upon Saul to disturb and upset him enough to drive him to God for mercy, if David played the harp and sang his beautiful songs inspired of God, Saul's rages and mania subsided. This was God's mercy trying to tell Saul to repent. Now, since Saul had rebelled against God, against truth, David's playing no longer worked. Saul still raged. He still tried to murder. David's psalms, just as inspired by the Spirit of God as they were before, had lost their impact on Saul.
This can also become true of us. When we deny the truth of the Scriptures, they lose their effect on us. In the beginning they convict; they prick our consciences, and we respond. We may not respond correctly. We may not know exactly how to respond, but at least we respond. We have guilt, and it is good guilt, not false guilt. But if we deny the right of the Scriptures to be the standard in our lives, soon they will no longer prick. The same truth will no long have any effect upon us. It will make no change in us.
So, Saul had reached step one, Romans 1:24, the first "giving over" by God. He was afraid of David. He realized the Lord was with David, and, of course, he knew the Lord had departed from him. He had lost that feeling of power that comes when the Spirit of God takes over. He knew David was now God's man, and he knew he was not. He was caught in this emotional situation.
Next he moved to Romans 1:26, the second "giving over." He understood the problem. He knew the evil spirit was from God, even his courtiers knew it, but he refused to repent. Instead he took the next step in his downward path, and God gave him over to "compulsion," the depraved condition.
Verse 13, instead of responding, he did exactly the opposite:
Therefore Saul removed him from his presence, and appointed him as his commander of a thousand; and he went out and came in before the people.
Apparently this was a demotion. David had been Chief-of-Staff over men of war, but now Saul sent him out as a field commander over 1,000 men. Saul wanted to get him out of the court, away from himself, away from his courtiers, away from the people, out where he would be an unknown and no longer a threat to Saul's throne. Notice, the verse has not yet said Saul sent him out to be killed. He sent him out to get rid of him. Saul had not yet taken step three.
And David was prospering in all his ways for the LORD was with him.
This phrase must have driven Saul wild with frustration. He put David over just 1,000 men, sent him way out in the hinterland and all the Philistines chose to go there too. So, David routed them. Then, as he moved, the Philistines moved. Wherever David went, the Philistines seemed to go, and wherever the Philistines went, David routed them. God prospered him wherever he went. Verse 15:
When Saul saw that he was prospering greatly, he dreaded him.
Saul is now getting very close to the "consumed" condition. Dread comes over him.
But all Israel and Judah loved David, and he went out and came in before them.
In a sense, humanly speaking, David was the one person who could have made Saul's throne secure for him. But Saul forgot all about his kingdom, and turned his attention to pursuing David. As a result, the Philistines came back into the land and took over. Israel wound up a divided kingdom because of Saul.
Saul had not been able to get rid of David by sending him out into the field, so he began to deliberately plot his death. Mind you, he was deliberately plotting the death of a man he knew the Lord was "prospering in all his ways for the Lord was with him." Saul had not only lost his love for his Lord, but also the natural love a father has for his children. So, he moved into the third "giving over," into what I call the "consumed" stage, one of the marks of which is "unnatural affection" [lack of natural love for one's family].
Verse 17:
Then Saul said to David, "Here is my older daughter [who should have given to him a long time ago] Merab; I will give her to you as a wife, only be a valiant man for me and fight the LORD's battle." For Saul thought, "My hand shall not be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him"
Saul could sanction having his own daughter's husband destroyed, but he wanted to be sure no finger was pointed at him. Knowing David would be in the forefront of any action, he said, "You may have my daughter if you valiantly fight for me," but he thought, "I don't want to look like a murderer. Let the Philistines get him." [Does this sound like another king? "If I put Uriah the Hittite in the forefront of the battle..." Uriah, Bathsheba's husband and one of the thirty great warriors of Israel, was one of David's best friends. Bathsheba's father was also one of the thirty and a good friend of David's, but David did not consider either one. When he sinned against the Lord, unnatural affection struck him, too. Where did he get the idea? Is it possible Saul was his mentor? The flesh, even in a "man after God's own heart," is always thoroughly rotten.]
Now David began to get a little suspicious.
Verse 18:
But David said to Saul, "Who am I, [I am persona non grata in the courts, being stationed way out in the hinterland] and what is my life [I have no social standing. We discussed that in chapter 17] or my father's family in Israel, [I have no lineage, and you know it, Saul. You didn't give me your daughter when you should have.] that I should be the king's son-in-law?" So it came about at the time when Merab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, that she was given to Adriel the Meholathite for a wife.
Saul may have been trying to provoke David into revenge, hoping he could get him for treason. We do not know. But, David did not take the bait, and Saul did not push further. Besides, Saul had an ace in the hole, his second daughter, Michal. He knew she loved David, and apparently David loved her. Saul reasoned, "I can use my daughter, who loves David, as the instrument to destroy him." He had no regrets that he would be destroying his own daughter's husband and lover. Because of David's love for Michal, he had high hopes David would respond to this plan. But, sensing David's suspicions, he arranged secret negotiations.
Verse 20:
Now Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David. [This probably infuriated Saul. Jonathan loved David. Michal loved David.] When they told Saul, the thing was agreeable to him. And Saul thought, "I will give her to him that she may become a snare to him, [He did not care what happened to his daughter] and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him." Therefore Saul said to David, "For a second time you may be my son-in-law today." [I will give you another chance to be my son-in-law] Then Saul commanded his servants, "Speak to David secretly [I cannot go to him openly, so you slip the word to him privately], saying, 'Behold, the king delights in you, and all his servants love you; now, therefore, become the king's son-in-law'" So Saul's servants spoke these words to David. But David said, "It is trivial in your sight to become the king's son-in-law, since I am a poor man [I cannot give you a dowry] and lightly esteemed?" [I have no lineage to offset the lack of dowry. He does not seem to be suspicious of this offer as he was before] And the servants of Saul reported to him according to these words which David spoke.
Verse 25:
Saul then said. "Thus you shall say to David, 'The king does not desire any dowry except a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, [take vengeance on the king's enemies. Saul planned to have David fall at the hands of the Philistines.]
When the Ammorites came sweeping down the Fertile Crescent, the eastern Ammorites [those in Mesopotamia] did not practice circumcision. The western Ammorites [those in Palestine] did. Circumcision, as practiced by many tribes, was just a rite of puberty, but with the Israelites, it had a religious significance. In Israel on the eighth day, as part of the child's dedication to God, he was circumcised. The Philistines, who had migrated from the Aegean Sea area, were noted for being uncircumcised in the midst of the circumcised. Saul wanted David to fight Philistines, who were superb warriors, well-armed, highly trained and skilled in warfare, not Ammorites who were poor fighters. How could he be sure? Bring back 100 sets of ears? No! But foreskins! Those had to come from Philistines. He wanted proof positive that 100 Philistines were killed by David. He assumed that would take care of David. Unfortunately for him it did not.
Verse 26:
When his servants told David these words, it pleased David to become the king's son-in-law [Now he really wants to. He wants Michal. He loves her very much, and she loves him] Before the days had expired David rose up and went, he and his men, and struck down two hundred men [double the dowry] among the Philistines. Then David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full number to the king, that he might become the king's son-in-law. [Saul is now stuck. He has promised in front of all his courtiers and even used them as a go-between] So Saul gave him Michal his daughter for a wife.
Verse 28. Look at the tragedy here. Saul goes from suspicion, to dread, to an "enemy continually." He has reached the third "giving over," the "consumed" stage.
When Saul saw and knew that the LORD was with David, [he has full and complete knowledge, and he does not care] and that Michal, Saul's daughter, loved him, [She was very special to Saul, one of his most prized possessions for he does not kill her when she helps David escape from him, and yet he has no concern about using her], then Saul was even more afraid of David. Thus Saul was David's enemy continually.
Saul knew God had chosen David. He knew his own daughter, whom he loved dearly, loved David. He also knew as long as David was alive his throne would never be safe. So, he deliberately chose to become the "enemy continually" of the man his own God had chosen. He had a "trialess" mind. He could no longer see things clearly, for in choosing to become the "enemy continually" of God's chosen king, Saul also chose to become the "enemy continually" of God Himself.
I want to show you the deterioration that happens to a man in this position. Verse 30:
Then the commanders of the Philistines went out to battle, and it happened as often as they went out, that David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul. So his name was highly esteemed.
If God is going to destroy you, my friends, he always goes first class. He was determined, now, to destroy Saul physically. As Saul had no intention of giving up the throne voluntarily, God let the Philistines remove him bodily. He increased and increased those things which contributed to Saul's wrong choices, and Saul just kept on making them.
What happened? Chapter 19, verse 1:
Now Saul told Jonathan his son and all his servants to put David to death.
Saul now made it an open established policy to kill David. He did not try to hide it. But Jonathan "delighted" in David and interceded for him. Based on the fact that the Lord obviously blessed David, that God greatly used him to mightily bless Israel, that Saul himself at one time rejoiced over him, and that David was innocent of any wrong doing, Jonathan pleaded with his father. [Chap. 19:2-5] Saul "repented" of his policy, but unfortunately it was only a temporary feeling of remorse and not true repentance.
Chapter 19, Verse 6:
And Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan, and Saul vowed, "As the LORD lives, he shall not be put to death." Then Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all these words. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as formerly.
Until the first threat comes along, Chap 19:8:
When there was war again, David went out and fought with the Philistines and defeated them with great slaughter, so that they fled before him.
God doubles and doubles the pressure on Saul as he rebels against God.
Chapter 19:9-10:
Now there was an evil spirit from the LORD on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, and David was playing the harp with his hand. And Saul tried to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away out of Saul's presence, so that he struck the spear into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night.
That was the last time David reported to Saul. He now knew Saul was irrevocably committed to killing him. He had only returned at Jonathan's request, but now it was impossible. Saul was so committed to the destruction of David that he made plans openly. That night he sent messengers to the house of David, intending to kill him in the morning. Meanwhile, Michal, who loved David even more than her father, spoke to him, "If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be put to death." [Somehow she must have gotten the message from her father.] She lowered David over the wall, and he fled. In his place she put her teraphim, her household god, probably a fertility idol used to insure lots of children. [Saul's family had apparently kept some of their idols.] She wrapped its head in a goat hair shawl and covered its face to keep out the night air, as they did in the ancient east. She also padded the bed. In the morning when the servants came to take David, they discovered the teraphim instead. Then when Saul confronted Michal about her treachery, she lied to him saying, "If I had not let him go, he would have killed me." [Chapter 19:11-17]
When Saul was told David had fled to Samuel at Ramah, he immediately sent messengers in pursuit. But when these messengers came upon Samuel presiding over a company of prophets who were prophesying, the Spirit of God came upon them, and they also prophesied. Three times Saul sent messengers, and three times they prophesied. Scripture does not tell us what they prophesied. I personally believe, however, that because God sincerely wanted Saul to get a message, Saul heard out of the mouths of his own messengers that David was God's anointed. As a result, Saul would know, without a doubt, that he was defying God, as is the case in Romans 1:32. [Chapter 19:18-21]
Did Saul repent? No. He was so determined to kill David, that he himself set out after him. Along the way, though, even before he got to Ramah, the Spirit of God came upon him, and he began to prophesy.
Verse 23:
And he proceeded there to Naioth in Ramah; [Naioth means "dwelling." It is probably a living compound of prophets, the school of the prophets] and the Spirit of God came upon him [Saul] also, so that he went along prophesying continually until he came to Naioth in Ramah.
Saul was caught on the road by the Spirit of God [somewhat similar to the apostle Paul a thousand years later on his way to Damascus, Acts 9:1-9], and he prophesied all the way to Ramah. Verse 24:
And he also stripped off his clothes [literally; his upper garments], and he too prophesied before Samuel and lay down naked all that day and all that night. [In the Hebrew this is not something that happened to the messengers. It only happened to Saul. God gives him a double dose of being Spirit filled again.] Therefore they say, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"
Does that sound familiar? In our very first lesson, [Chapter 10: 9-12] when God first chose Saul to be king of Israel, he filled him with His Spirit, and Saul prophesied. Saul was not a son of prophets nor was he part of the school of prophets. He was an outsider. To see Saul, son of Kish, prophesying, caused quite a stir. It was proof from God to Saul and to Israel that, "You are my anointed to rule Israel." Now, after many years, the Spirit of God again filled Saul, and Saul prophesied. It re-established this saying, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"
Do you see the grace of God? God had done everything humanly possible, Godly possible, to bring Saul to repentance. He had even given him a very intense experience of what he once had. But the one thing he did not do was coerce Saul's will. A true lover never coerces the will of his beloved, and God loved Saul. The prophesying went on for a day and a night. Saul was probably prophesying his own downfall, but he could not change. What was once proof that he was God's anointed was now proof that he was God's rejected. Before, when Saul chose not to obey God, his mind could still make a trial. But now he had a trialess mind, a mind that could not choose. His only thought was, "the throne for me and the lineage for my family." In spite of God's gift of some twenty-four hours of a Spirit filled life again, Saul could not change. "Because they refused the love of the truth, God gave them over to error that they might believe what was false." Saul had not lost his God-given gift of eternal life, but he had certainly destroyed his life here because of his consistent rejection of God's known will for him.
Do not trifle with God. Even if you are his anointed, do not trifle with God. I have, unfortunately, heard many stories of godly men with tremendous ministries who have destroyed their lives and their ministries. Do not ever presume on God. I do not care how he is blessing your ministry. I can name people whose books you have in your library who no longer have a ministry because they did not take God at his word. Do not ever, ever presume on God.
Prayer:
Father, we thank you so much that you are a God that loves us enough to really hurt us if you have to to get our attention, that you are a God who will even take us home if you have to in order that we will not destroy your work down here. But, God, all the way along the line, before that ever happens, you give us warning, after warning, after warning because you really do not want us to have to go home "before our time." You really do not want us to stand before you only, "saved as though by fire." You want us to stand before you and hear, "Well done thou good and faithful servant." Father, we want to be mindful that Saul started out loving you, but Saul loved Saul more, more than you and eventually Saul was destroyed. You did not love Saul any less than us. You play no favorites. So, Father, let us be mindful of the high and holy calling and the tremendous responsibility of being sons of the living God. So let us walk softly before you and take heed lest we fall, and thank you so much for your love for us. In Jesus Name we pray. Amen.
Last week we looked at the relationship between Saul and David and saw Romans 1:18-32 played out in the life of a carnal man. This week we will view the relationship between Jonathan and David and see Romans 1:18-32 played out in the life of a righteous man.
There is a progression in Romans 1:18-32 that, depending upon the choices made, leads either to the righteousness of God or the wrath of God. Last week we saw Saul progressively deteriorate as he made one choice after another in defiance of the known will of God. We saw him progress through three stages of deterioration: from an "impulsive" stage, [Romans 1:24] where he was gripped by his impulses and emotions, to a "compulsive" stage [Romans 1:26] where he made deliberate, willful, knowingly evil choices and finally to a "consumed" stage, a trialess mind, [Romans 1:28] where he could no longer tell truth from error.
How tragic! Originally Saul loved David "greatly." He even chose him as Aide-de-Camp. But, as David increased in popularity, Saul became jealous and suspicious. Then, as God continued to bless him, Saul actually came to fear David. Finally, when Saul became obsessed with maintaining his throne and passing it on, God gave him over to a trialess mind. He could no longer tell truth from error, and he openly ordered David killed. How sad! God had offered Saul the kingdom and a royal line, but Saul, by his choices, set himself, not only against David, but also against Yahweh.
II Thessalonians, Chapter 2, tells us that judgment of this kind will occur in the last days. Because the world refuses the love of the truth, God gives them over to "the delusion," the anti-Christ, that they might believe the lie because they rejected the truth. God gives us our choices if we insist on having them.
If you have ever made a snowball, you know it begins small enough to hold in your hand. But, let it roll down a hill, and it gathers more and more mass and with more and more mass comes more and more inertia, until, at the bottom of the hill, you no longer have any control of it. Well, along with the evil snowball we have just seen in Saul, there is a snowball on the other side of the hill, a good snowball. It follows the same exact pattern. Romans 6 talks about this. In verses 1-14, it looks at whether a Christian can live, settle down and make his home, in sin? [present, habitual tense] The answer is no! He has died to sin. Well then, can a Christian, just once in awhile, make a deliberate choice to have a fling at sinning because he has been good for so long? God says no! [Romans 6:15ff] Why? Because there is a process involved, and that process reacts the same whether dealing with good or bad choices. Whatever we choose to obey becomes our master. See: Romans 6:15-19.
Verse 15:
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! [This is a different tense. These are little acts of sin, deliberate, willful little choices, not a lifestyle of sin. Can we choose to do intermittent acts of sin? He says, "May it never be."] Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, [such as to lustful thoughts] you are [it is not an issue anymore] slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, [Have you ever noticed that sin never satisfies. It only gratifies. It takes more and more to get less and less. So, as you present the members of your body to sin for lawlessness, it takes more and more lawlessness to get the same thrill you used to get.] so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
Now let's look at Jonathan's relationship to David during the same time frame as we looked at Saul's relationship to David. We will see the same process, but opposite results. Jonathan begins with emotion just like Saul, and let me say there is nothing wrong with emotions if godly directed. We will look at 1 Samuel, Chapter 18, verses 1-4 but this time with Jonathan in mind.
Jonathan followed along with his father as Saul talked to this young man who had just killed Goliath. Saul had been checking David's genealogy to see if he measured up as a son-in-law. Saul had made this promise, you recall, that whoever conquered Goliath would be rich, would be given Saul's daughter in marriage, would have his house set free in Israel, would have no more taxes and no more conscription. Well, David had conquered Goliath, but he was also a shepherd boy. Saul quizzed Abner, his general, concerning David's lineage and found he was a nothing. So he failed to keep his promise and denied David his daughter. During this discussion, apparently between the last part of Chapter 17 and the first part of Chapter 18, Jonathan listened, but his reaction to David's lineage was completely contrary to Saul's. He was drawn to David. I do not believe it was just by the Spirit of God, because they both were godly men. Nor do I believe it was because they were alike, as many of the commentators do. I think they were opposites. I believe Jonathan was a very compassionate, loving man. He had all the things that David had never had, and he longed to share them with David.
1 Samuel, Chapter 18, verse 1:
Now it came about when he [David] had finished speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as himself. And Saul took him that day and did not let him return to his father's house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with his armor, including his sword and his bow and his belt [the whole ball of wax].
I mentioned that, upon hearing David's story, Jonathan had exactly the opposite reaction from Saul. Jonathan reacted with righteous emotions; Saul with selfish emotions. It is worth noting that Saul and Jonathan had similar backgrounds. Saul was the son of Kish, a very wealthy and powerful man. He had all the security that comes with wealth. His name meant "prayed for" or "desired," so, along with the security of wealth and power, he had the love of a father who really wanted him. He also had the security of a very religious father. Saul was "gifted" by God, a "choice" man. [The word literally means "excellent."] He was gifted by God with height, the tallest in Israel, and with good looks, the most handsome in Israel. All his life he had been naturally accepted. Wherever he went he was the most handsome, the biggest, the most muscular, the richest. He was fully accepted, a natural leader. His self-worth, his self-esteem, was very secure. The calamity was that he let it turn into pride. He let it become perverted.
Jonathan, a product of Saul, had a similar background. His name meant "YHWH given," indicating Saul saw him as a gift from God. Jonathan had an undying love for his father, so Saul must have been a good father. Jonathan also had a very secure background, a very wealthy background, a godly background, and he was loved by the people. [Remember in Chapter 14 when Saul made that rash oath that no one was to eat food until the Philistines had been slain, and Saul was going to kill Jonathan because he had broken that oath, all the people refused to allow that.] Jonathan was a very well liked, gifted, natural leader, and a loving godly person, secure in his home life. There he stood with good self-worth and good self-esteem, a man of God. He loved his neighbor as he loved himself.
As Christians we can not love our neighbor unless we have a proper godly love for ourselves. I stress "godly." We need to understand who we are in the sight of God, not in ourselves We were chosen by God before the foundation of the world. We are His elect. We are the dwelling place of our God, the sanctuary [actually the Holy of Holies], of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We are adult sons in the household of God, by the gift of adoption, the gift of son placing. It means taking into your home someone who is not yours by natural birth. It also means declaring them an adult son. By the declaration of God, we are adult sons in his household. During World War II I was made an officer and a gentleman by an Act of Congress, a fiat declaration of Congress. Likewise, by fiat declaration of God, we are his adult sons. By the grace of God, we have been given this self-worth. We are extraordinary! Now, we are extraordinary, by grace not merit, but we are extraordinary!
So Jonathan, a godly man, secure in self-worth and self-esteem, saw this poor shepherd boy and heard his story. Also, he had undoubtedly heard of Eliab's scathing remarks and how David was treated when he showed up in camp, "Eliab's anger burned against David and he said, 'Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your insolence and the wickedness of your heart.'" Mistreatment of this type had been David's lifestyle. He responded like a whipped cur, "What have I done. I only asked a question?" David knew, socially speaking, he had nothing to offer Saul. His mother had probably been previously married to Nahash, as Ammonite, a Moloch worshiper, an anathema in Israel. He was possibly illegitimate; one of the Psalms implies that. He was not even accepted by his parents; another of the Psalms implies that. He had seven half-brothers and two half-sisters; none of his brothers were friendly to him. He was all alone. He had never had anything that Jonathan had had. I think Jonathan was just drawn to this young man as an older brother would be. He wanted to help him grow up to be a man of God.
There is emotion here too, but it is godly emotion. Saul loved David for what David could do for Saul, but Jonathan loved David for what Jonathan could do for David. So right away we see contrasting loves. Saul refused to accept David into his family. But Jonathan accepted him completely. Saul dishonored David publicly. Jonathan now honored him publicly. He stripped off his regal cloak [David was probably wearing goat skin], and gave it to him, along with his armor, his sword, his bow and his belt. He identified himself completely with David. Out of his riches, Jonathan equipped David in a glorious manner so he would not have to be ashamed in the court of Saul. Saul once loaned his armor to David, too, you remember, but it was so David would fight in his stead. Jonathan gave his gear to David when it did not matter. Goliath was already defeated.
I often wondered why Jonathan himself did not fight Goliath, but, after looking at his relationship with his father, I believe he was determined to see his father carry out the duties God had called him to. Saul was the champion of Israel. Jonathan wanted him, trusting in the Spirit of God, to do what he had been called to do. He would not fight Saul's battle for him.
So, Jonathan's soul was knit to the soul of David and David's soul to the soul of Jonathan. Finally, David had total, unconditional, unqualified acceptance, an older brother, a flesh and blood somebody, who loved him. He began to get some concept of what it meant to be totally accepted. Jonathan was going to be God's instrument to build David into a man after God's own heart, and to give David some concept of how God loved him. A godly love always elicits a godly response of love, and David, now, began to love responsively to Jonathan. Up to now he had only had a love affair with God. Growing up he had had to fight for everything. He was a feisty little fellow, cruel and vicious. We will see that. But now instead of depraved emotions, as before, we begin to see godly emotions.
Saul had depraved emotions. Jonathan had godly emotions. Next, Saul made willful deliberate evil choices and ended up locked into compulsion. Jonathan made willful deliberate righteous choices and ended up more and more committed to David and more and more in a position from which he could not retreat. Saul went from the impulsive to the compulsive. Jonathan went from emotions to a commitment. He had to make a choice between his father and his friend, and he made that choice. Interesting enough, he did not in any way play down, put down, leave or become a traitor to his father. Instead, he tried every way possible to help Saul become the man God wanted him to be.
Going on to Chapter 19, we will look at the first 7 verses. Here is the second step in the contrast between Saul's and Jonathan's relationship with David. This is one of the best examples in the whole of Scripture of what I would call godly civil disobedience.
I saw numerous instances of "civil disobedience" at Stanford. They were supposedly done in the name of society, or progress, or freedom, but were actually a purely selfish desire to shake a fist at authority. With few exceptions there was absolutely nothing godly about them. They were pure anarchy. Godly civil disobedience does have a place, however, and we will look at it here. It was done by Jonathan, and you will see two attitudes, both redemptive, that mark godly disobedience. One is an attempt to redeem the person being sinned against. The other is an attempt to redeem the person sinning. If those two marks are lacking in any civil disobedience, it is not godly civil disobedience; it is ungodly. Look at Chapter 19, verses 1-7:
Now Saul told Jonathan his son and all his servants to put David to death. [Literally, Saul intended to put David to death.] But Jonathan, Saul's son, greatly delighted in David. So Jonathan told David saying, "Saul my father is seeking to put you to death. Now therefore, please be on guard in the morning, and stay in a secret place and hide yourself. And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak with my father about you; if I find out anything, then I shall tell you." Then Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father, and said to him, "Do not let the king sin against his servant David, since he has not sinned against you, and since his deeds have been very beneficial to you. For he took his life in his hand and struck the Philistine, and the Lord [Yahweh] brought about a great deliverance for all Israel; you saw it and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood, by putting David to death without a cause?" And Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan, and Saul vowed, "As the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death." Then Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all these words. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as formerly.
Saul's policy now was to kill David. He told Jonathan and all of his courtiers, "This is the policy from now on. This is my intention." In light of this unrighteous policy, Jonathan made a choice. He defied the policy of the powers that be, his father. But notice how he defied this ungodly policy. First, he tried to save the one who had been sinned against, David. Second, he put his own life on the line. He did not randomly put a pipe bomb in a building. Third, he tried to save Saul from committing an unrighteous act.
Romans 13 clearly teaches that the powers that be are ordained of God, and you violate them at your own risk. Romans 13 was written when Nero was on the throne in Rome. Nero was a homosexual, a mad man, a vicious killer. He was known to cover Christians with pitch and burn them to light his banquets. He tossed Christians, along with their children, to hungry lions. The tragedy of it all was that, at the beginning of his reign, there was a golden age He had two very brilliant advisors, and, as long as he listened to them, he was an outstanding ruler. Sadly, he traveled the same path as Saul [Romans 1:18-32] and ended his days a tyrant, utterly insane. Paul pointed out, however, that the government of Rome [Nero's] was ordained of God and you disobeyed it at your own risk. Nero had expanded the cult of Emperor worship and demanded that everyone say, "Nero is Lord." He was the personification of Rome. He was called "Lord" in the same way we salute the flag of the United States. When Christians would not call him Lord, it was godly civil disobedience, but it was also treason. Thousands of Christians went to prison, or paid with their lives, for their refusal, but they were up front with their disobedience, and they paid the penalty. Christ opposed the civil authorities and paid with his life. He did not hide. He did not behave as the Zealots who hit and ran [Simeon the Canaanite, one of Jesus' disciples, was previously a Zealot. They incited the revolt that ended in the Roman siege and sacking of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.]
So we see here that Jonathan took a deliberate, willful, open stand against his father, publicly declaring his opposition, and in so doing, put his life on the line, but he did it as an appeal for his father to make a godly reversal of his policy. Jonathan wanted to save not only David but also Saul. He pointed out that Saul was sinning against innocent blood. Also, since Yahweh had greatly blessed David, Saul was sinning against Yahweh too. Even Saul himself had rejoiced in the victories of David. There was no occasion whatsoever for Saul to adhere to his policy. We do need to remember, however, that Saul had periods of madness at this time, so that could have played a part in his conduct.
What was the result of Jonathan's godly civil disobedience? He did save Saul, be it only temporarily, but for awhile Saul did repent and did have remorse. He did see his position as wrong, and did change his mind. How about David? He went back to court, back to the palace. Jonathan was dealing with two men, one righteous and one unrighteous, trying to bring them both to a position of righteousness. He accomplished that. It was very risky, too, since Saul was in that stage where he was dreading David.
Notice, by making godly choices himself, Jonathan helped others make godly choices. By standing up to Saul, he helped Saul make the godly choice. The tragedy is that Saul soon felt threatened again and locked himself into a position from which he could no longer retreat. So in chapter 20, Jonathan was faced with a second choice. Saul began his death threats again, began trying to kill David. You remember, he tried to have him ambushed at his house, but David escaped. He sent messengers after him, but they prophesied. He was irrevocably committed to having David killed. So, Jonathan had to make a second decision. He had to make a righteous choice against his own father, to deliberately choose to, in a sense, become his father's enemy. That was what he did.
Chapter 20, verse 1:
Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came [secretly] and said to Jonathan, "What have I done? What is my iniquity? And what is my sin before your father, that he is seeking my life?" And he said to him, "Far from it, you shall not die. Behold, my father does nothing either great or small without disclosing it to me. So why should my father hide this thing from me? It is not so!" Yet David vowed again, saying, "Your father knows well that I have found favor in your sight, and he has said, 'Do not let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved.' But truly as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is hardly a step between me and death."
We have been watching Jonathan make one righteous choice after another. Let us look at the results in the lives of the three men involved. First, Jonathan. What effect have these choices had on Jonathan so far? The more he chooses righteously, the more he reaches a settled condition of loving trust, rather than suspicious dread. He has a loving trust of anybody. Even with Saul he always gives him the benefit of the doubt. He really does not think Saul is capable of killing David. To the end he trusts and respects his father. Even in the midst of Saul's madness and unrighteousness, Jonathan is still loyal to him. Notice, also, how he deals with David, the one he knows has been anointed by God to replace him on the throne. He really loves him.
Jonathan is a lesson for us, too. You cannot minister to someone if you do not love them, do not trust them. They will know it. But as you allow the Lord to "snowball" you down the righteous side of the hill, he will let you love your enemies, and this is what will win them. A person, particularly an unbeliever, knows if you are truly loving. It does no good to quote platitudes and Scripture and try to be loving, if you are not. The person you are trying to minister to will spot your hypocrisy at once. Jonathan became truly loving and trusting.
Second, what effect did Jonathan and his righteousness have on David's attitude? David was dealing here with the eldest son, the heir apparent to Saul's throne. Since David had already been anointed king of Israel and was, therefore, a threat to Jonathan's throne, they should have been enemies. But when Saul was trying to kill David to whom did David flee? To the person he should have feared the most; the man whose throne he was anointed to claim. And yet he trusted him with his life and loved him like a brother.
And lastly, what about Saul's attitude toward Jonathan? Was Saul threatened by Jonathan? Even though he knew Jonathan would confer with David, he did not consider Jonathan an enemy or a traitor. He still trusted him, and he still loved him. And, to spare Jonathan grief, he even attempted to keep from him his own determination to kill David. Jonathan had an intriguing rapport with both sides---two enemies--- simply because he was an unselfish, loving person.
How did Jonathan get the kind of attitude he had? What let him love Saul the way Saul was at this time? How can you get this loving attitude toward an enemy? Yes, it is from God, but how do you acquire it in your own life? You choose righteousness. You choose righteousness for righteousness sake no matter the cost. That is what our Lord did.
I can remember when my father, who was a Christian, was in business in Hollywood and worked with a lot of Jewish clients who where very astute businessmen. When these Jewish businessmen were dealing with each other, they did not want a Jewish broker between them because they thought a Jewish broker just might happen to keep a little something for himself, even though he was a brother. There was something about the life of Jesus Christ in my father that said, "This fellow is safe. We want him in the middle." So, for a long long time, many of dad's clients were big Jewish merchants or big chain store owners, for whom he played middleman, because his life spoke of the righteousness of God. I am sure he had lots of struggles in his Christian life. I look back and realize how imperfect he was as a Christian, as I see how imperfect I am, but, interestingly enough, there was an aroma about my father that said to those Jews, "We can trust this man." They would give him carte blanche to buy property, and they always came through with the money.
We sometimes have a nasty attitude toward Jewish businessmen. Yes, these were shrewd businessmen, but I think God gave the Jews a special gift for business so they could stay alive during the centuries of anti-semitism. My father worked with them for years in Hollywood, and he really loved them. They always had the money. They always kept their word. They always paid their debts. They never welshed. He thought the world of them. He said, "Yes, when they have money, they have greater "visibility." They have longer cars, bigger houses, flashier clothes." But think, if, in the name of Jesus Christ, you had been persecuted and hounded for 2,000 years, forced to wear funny clothes, live in ghettos and get the short end of the stick and then you made it big in Hollywood. [And make no mistake, the Jews were big in Hollywood. That was not Gentile country down there; Gentiles worked for the Jews. I grew up down there, I know.] Well, you just might buy a big Cadillac too. So would I. You do not categorize people by their race. You categorize them by their love and their actions, or sadly in the case of King Saul, by their lack of love.
Prayer:
Father, we thank you so much for the fact the you love us. Because you first loved us, we respond in love, and, Father, we just thank you so much for the fact that you are committed to us, committed to make us men of God, to teach us how to love our enemies, to teach us to be righteous men and to make righteous choices, to be firm in those choices and committed to those choices and thus to snowball down the right side of the hill. And as we continue to make choices righteously before you, it becomes easier and easier to make the next choice as the momentum grows. Father, we thank you so much that in your Word you have made it so plain that that is the way you want us to fly, and as a result of that we will have a righteous life. It may be a short one, as in Jonathan's case, but it will be one that will be glorifying to you and it will reach out to people that are unloving, that are enemies and it will give them a sense of trust and rest in the person of Jesus Christ as they see him in us. Father, help us to be that kind of person. Help us to be your manifestation in an ungodly world. Thank you, Father, in Jesus Name. Amen.
Last week we began a look at Jonathan and David. Today we will continue to examine their relationship. Our picture of Saul and David showed us Saul, a man in the flesh, destroying himself. Although I am convinced Saul was a believer, we saw him follow the pattern of Romans 1:18-32, which is the wrath of God on those who turn to their own way in deliberate disobedience.
Saul began, first, impulsively controlled by his emotions, but then he became a victim of those emotions. This was the "impulsive" stage. Next, he began making deliberately willful, evil choices and became "compulsive." At this stage, he was driven by his emotions and could no longer really make a choice. Lastly, he reached the stage where God gave him over to a "trialess mind," one that could no longer make a trial, a reprobate mind. In direct defiance of God, he continued to reject the truth that God had torn the kingdom from him and had given it to David, so he was given over to a trialess mind.
In Romans 6:15-23, however, we see there is another side to the coin. There is also a pathway which leads to righteousness. Saul had a choice, a choice to be slave to either sin or righteousness. He chose sin. Now let us see what Jonathan chooses.
In the beginning, he also was controlled by his emotions, in a sense. He fell in love with David, but for him it was a godly love, a love of self-giving. It knit together the souls of Jonathan and David. From there he, too, progressed to the choosing stage. He chose to side with David against Saul, but he did it to preserve David's life, and also to redeem his father. He was making willful, deliberate choices and getting more and more locked into righteousness, into following God's man, David, who would replace him on the throne. Both Saul and Jonathan were losing their kingship. Saul, fought God to the last ditch to keep his. Jonathan, on the other hand, chose deliberately to give himself over to the man God had sent to replace him. So he was making a choice contrary to his temporal feelings, looking to the eternal issue.
We saw in our last lesson, Chapter 19, that Jonathan made a godly choice, using godly tactics and godly methodology, in committing civil disobedience. It was civil disobedience because Saul, who was the authority, stated to Jonathan and all his courtiers that he intended to kill David. Jonathan, however, chose to disobey his father.
Remember there are two things that mark godly civil disobedience, that always mark it, and that were not present in most of what I saw at Stanford in the 60s. First, the intent to redeem, or save, the person who is being unrighteously persecuted. Second, and just as important, the intent to redeem the persecutor. Jonathan intended not only to save David's life [save the unrighteously persecuted], but also to bring Saul back to a walk with God [redeem the persecutor]. If those two factors are not present, the disobedience is ungodly, for the law is the instrument of God to run the affairs of state, even though, as in Paul's day, a Nero, a madman, may be sitting on the throne.
So Jonathan looked very good in Chapter 19, but Chapter 20 is another matter. His civil disobedience here was ungodly. His desire to save David was godly, but his methodology was ungodly, and you can watch the deterioration of relationships. When he used godly methodology, Jonathan was open and transparent with both David and Saul; he restored the relationship of Saul, David and himself, and everything was in harmony. Admittedly, it only lasted for awhile, but Jonathan's first approach did restore harmony and peace between two opposing factors.
Now let us look at Chapter 20. To put things in context, David had fled to Samuel in Ramah, to Naioth, and Saul had tried to pursue him there, but God intervened. Every time Saul sent a messenger, or messengers, in pursuit of David, God filled them with the Spirit and they prophesied. Finally Saul went himself, but he, too, was filled with the Spirit and prophesied. Thus God prevented him from laying a hand on David. In an attempt to woo Saul back to himself, God made it plain to Saul that he was acting in direct opposition to God.
Chapter 20, Verse 1:
Then David fled from Naioth ["dwellings" It is probably a compound of prophets in Ramah] in Ramah, and came [undoubtedly secretly] and said to Jonathan, 'What have I done? What is my iniquity? And what is my sin before your father, that he is seeking my life?' And he [Jonathan] said to him, 'Far from it, you shall not die. Behold, my father does nothing either great or small without disclosing it to me. So why should my father hide this thing from me? It is not so!'
Jonathan has the utter love and trust of his father, and he has utter love and trust for his father. So even though Saul could see Jonathan siding with David, he still loved his son and trusted him enough that he did not want to hurt him. So, again, we see this beautiful relationship between son and father.
Verse 3:
Yet David vowed again saying, "Your father knows well that I have found favor in your sight, and he has said, 'Do not let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved.' But truly as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, there is hardly a step between me and death." Then Jonathan said to David, "Whatever you say, I will do for you."
The tyranny of the urgent! David had said, "...as your soul lives, there is hardly a step between me and death." The emotions of Jonathan took over now and circumvented his reason. He made a very rash promise. "Whatever you say I will do." Because of his love for David and the urgency of the circumstances, and without waiting to see what God would do, Jonathan made this rash vow and opened the way for a little deceit by David.
Verse 5:
So David said to Jonathan, "Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I ought to sit down to eat with the king. But let me go, that I may hide myself in the field until the third evening. If you father misses me at all, then say, 'David earnestly asked leave of me to run to Bethlehem his city, because it is the yearly sacrifice there for the whole family.' If he says, 'It is good,' your servant shall be safe; but if he is very angry, know that he has decided on evil."
Notice David is totally centered on David. He is not interested in Saul nor does he think about Jonathan. No transparency here. He is only interested in escaping from Saul, and is not above deceit. He is using his friend's emotion to manipulate Saul and to save his own skin. So he deliberately asks Jonathan to lie.
[In those days there was no central location of the Ark, so no permanent place of worship. The Ark had been captured by the Philistines, but, because God visited them with tremendous afflictions, they returned it to Israel. Israel then stored it at Kirjath-jearim, which was about 7 miles west of Jerusalem, but it did not constitute a central place of worship. So, the Israelites celebrated feasts, like the new moon feast, wherever they happened to choose. It was David who finally established Jerusalem as the headquarters of the civil law and the religious worship.]
All loyal Jews were expected to attend the feast of the new moon, and Saul was expecting David to show up. David, however, was afraid to go because he knew Saul had plans for him.
Do you see anyone missing in all this? Nowhere do you hear anything of Yahweh, the God of the Covenant, the God who anointed David king. David knew, from God himself, that he had been anointed, not to be killed by Saul, but to replace Saul on the throne. God told Samuel he was going to tear the kingdom from Saul, and give it to the "neighbor," who was better than Saul. In fact, he had torn it from Saul, and Samuel had anointed David king. So David knew he was king over Israel, and that he was to replace Saul. Please note, however, this kingship was by God's appointment not by David's merit. When David was walking in the flesh, as in this instance, he was no better than Saul for he, like Saul, had taken matters into his own hands, leaving God out of the picture.
It reminds me of that funny little tale in the gospel of Mark where the Lord tells the disciples, "Let's get in the boat and go over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee." They get in the boat and are out in the middle of the water when a fierce gale comes up. The Lord is asleep on the fan-tail, at peace with the world, relaxing in his Father's love. The ship is going up and down. Waves are coming over the side. The disciples take a look at the waves. They take a look at Jesus sacked out on the fan-tail and dash back, "Lord, don't you care if we perish?" What does Jesus do? Does he give them any kind of consolation? No, indeed. He rebukes them for their lack of faith. Why? The Lord had not said, "Let's go out in the middle of the sea and drown." He had said, "Let's go across to the other side." They had taken their minds off Him. He could walk on water. He could still storms. He could stop winds. He could multiply loaves and fishes enough to feed 15,000 to 20,000 people. He was not a victim of creation. He was not a victim of circumstances. He had ordered the disciples onto the sea, but they had taken their minds off Him.
David has done the same thing here. He has forgotten all about his anointing by God. He has one thought in mind, the unholy trinity: "me, myself and I." David has one friend, Jonathan, who loves him like a brother and has made a covenant of brotherhood with him. So he throws himself on Jonathan's mercy and poor Jonathan, in his distress at David's suffering, gets his eyes off the Lord, too. David cinched it when he threw himself on Jonathan's mercy, but remember, circumstances never justify deliberate deceit. David was a man after God's own heart, but David was stepping right out of the will of God. Yes, he might be only a step away from death, but that step was God's step. It was a mile long, and David was not even aware of that.
When David threw himself on Jonathan's mercy, Jonathan became the victim of his own emotions, Chapter 20, verse 8:
"Therefore deal kindly [literally the word is "loyally." This is really a sharp thrust] with your servant, [How? By being disloyal to your father.] for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the LORD with you. [a covenant of brotherhood] But if there is iniquity in me, put me to death yourself; for why then should you bring me to your father?" [He throws himself on Jonathan's mercy and says, "If there is anything wrong with me, you kill me, my brother." Of course, this pulls at the heartstrings of Jonathan. So he, too, gets his eyes off the Lord.] And Jonathan said, "Far be it from you! For if I should indeed learn that evil has been decided by my father to come upon you, then would I not tell you about it?" [This is probably what sways Jonathan to agree.]
Now, maybe we can say about David, "O.K. here is a fellow who probably has always had to live by his wits. He is the runt of the litter, not accepted by his family, maybe illegitimate, always gotten the short end of the stick and had to fight for everything. So it is not be too unusual for him to fall back on his old pattern of living." But what about Jonathan, does he have to live by his wits? No! He is secure, remember? He is the beloved son, Jonathan, "Yahweh given." He has wealth, power, pomp and circumstance. He is accepted. He is the crown prince, Israel's next king. He has no need to rely on his wits. He falls into this trap because of his love for David. Yes, his love for David makes him vulnerable, but love, without control by God, causes all kinds of trouble. Jonathan, without realizing it, allows his love for David to sway his emotions. As a result, he is disloyal to his father and rationalizes his fleshly behavior, when he, of all people, should know better.
Chapter 20, verse 10:
Then David said to Jonathan, "Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?" [Saul obviously knows that David and Jonathan have a pact. Then how is Jonathan ever going to tell David, if he finds out, without Saul knowing it, again forgetting about God.] And Jonathan said to David, "Come, and let us go out into the field." So both of them went out to the field.
Now, Jonathan begins to get a little anxious, and we see the irony of deceit. If you deliberately choose to deceive, you always end up self-deceived. So Jonathan becomes insensitive to the very Lord who will be the one to help him, while at the same time pleading with David to become sensitive to that Lord. There is an interesting little dichotomy here.
I Samuel 20, Verse 12:
Then Jonathan said to David, "The LORD, the God of Israel, be witness! When I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if there is good feeling toward David, shall I not then send to you and make it known to you? If it please my father to do you harm, may the LORD do so to Jonathan and more also, if I do not make it known to you and send you away, that you may go in safety. And may the LORD be with you as He has been with my father. And if I am still alive, will you not show me the loving kindness of the LORD, that I may not die? And you shall not cut off your loving kindness from my house forever, not even when the LORD cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.
Notice how many times Jonathan has mentioned the LORD in this passage. He did not say anything about him the last time, but now he temporarily forgets David and focuses his eyes on the Lord. How many times does he mention the Lord, Yahweh, the covenant God? One, two, three, four, five times. He keeps focusing on Yahweh, the God of the covenant, while totaling forgetting the covenant that the God of the covenant made. He is trying to get David to look upon the covenant, while he, himself, is taking his eyes off it. When you begin to deceive, you begin to become self-deceived. What he is trying to accomplish for his friend, he is losing in his own life.
The first thing he points out to David is the Lord, the God of Israel, is the one in charge. "Get your eyes off your circumstances, David, and onto Him." And he points out "May the LORD be with you as He has been with my father." There was a time when Saul had the Spirit of God. He was anointed of God and filled with His Spirit. He was God's man. Now Jonathan's will for David is that he have that same exact experience, since he also has been anointed with God's Spirit.
More than that, he knows, apparently, that David has been anointed king and will in fact be king. Notice, "And if I am still alive, will you not show me the loving kindness of the LORD, that I may not die? And you shall not cut off your loving kindness from my house forever, not even when the LORD cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth." He knows in his heart David will be king. He knows, too, that God does not require a vast army to handle Saul. He can handle by few.
Where did he get that concept? Do you remember, in their campaign to restore Israel, the first Israelite victory over the Philistines? How did that victory at Michmash begin? It was Jonathan alone with his armor-bearer, and what did he say to encourage his armor-bearer? "'The Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few.' Even though there are only two of us, let's just go up and take on the Philistines" The army of Saul was at Gibeah and across the valley were the Philistines at Michmash. Jonathan and his armor-bearer, all alone, crossed the valley, stole up a high promontory, and on the flat area up there, took on the Philistines and butchered them. Because of this act of faith, God triggered an earthquake, which terrified the Philistines, and they scattered in disarray. Sudden confusion turned into crushing defeat as the armies of Israel pursued the Philistines to their own land. You will remember, from what we have already studied, that there were only two iron swords in Israel. Saul had one, and Jonathan had the other. The rest of the Israelites fought with iron farming equipment or with wooden weapons. The Philistines discovered the secret of iron smelting and controlled it. They allowed no smiths in Israel to prevent the Israelites from making swords or spears.
Interestingly enough we have a repeat of this battle 3,000 years later. Ray Miller, who is a retired Brigadier-General, likes to study the doctrine of warfare. Here is something he discovered from the history books. This is World War I. The British are in Palestine under General Allenby who was a Bible student and may or may not have been a believer. Let me just read you a little article.
An officer of the British 60th Division serving in Palestine in 1918 tells a story.
"February 13th we took over the Dier Ibu Obeid--Ras es Suffa--Hizmeh line from the 53rd Division, and on the fourteenth of the same month operation orders were issued for an attack on Jericho with the object of driving the enemy back across the river Jordan. [Michmash and Gibeah are located to the west of Jericho. The British were going to attack to the east, force the Turks out of Jericho across the Jordan River and use that as a line of defense. This was going to be expensive.] Before the main attack could take place it was necessary to strengthen the line by the capture of a small village, directly to our front, known as Mukhmas or Michmash. [Exactly the same place] Michmash was on a high rocky hill. The brigade outpost line was on a chain of hills, too, and between us and the enemy ran a deep valley [This is that same valley that Jonathan crossed] A frontal attack was decided upon; that is, supported by artillery and machine guns, the brigade was to advance down into the valley just before dawn, and take Michmash from the front. [With a frontal assault, there would be a lot of casualties. By the time they started down that hill, the enemy would be shooting down on them. Then they would have to go up a hill, and the enemy would be shooting down on them again. It would be a bloody battle, but they had to take the pass. They had to take this high part to stabilize their line as they crossed to Jericho] All orders were given out, and the troops were getting what rest was possible before zero hour. In his bivouac, [his temporary camp] by the light of a candle, the brigade major was reading his Bible. When the raid was first discussed the name Michmash had seemed vaguely familiar, although he could not quite place it. Just as he was about to turn in for the night, however, he recollected and thought he would look it up. He found what he was searching for in Samuel I, Chapters 13 and 14: [which we covered awhile back, and here is a quote right out of this chapter] 'And Saul and Jonathan his son, and the people that were present with them, abode in Gibeah of Benjamin: [That is on one side of the valley, the Southern side] but the Philistines encamped in Michmash. . . .[on the other side of the valley on the high place] Now it came to pass upon a day that Jonathan, the son of Saul, said unto the young man that bare his armour, 'Come and let us go over to the Philistines' garrison, that is on the other side.' But he told not his father...
And the people knew not that Jonathan was gone. And between the passages, by which Jonathan sought to go over unto the Philistines' garrison, there was a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other side: [There were two promontories in this valley] and the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh. The forefront of the one was situate northward over against Michmash, [over on their side] and the other southward over against Gibeah. And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armour, 'Come, and let us go over unto the garrison. . .It may be that the Lord will work for us: for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few.'" [That is how he encouraged the armour bearer to go with him] And the major read on how Jonathan went through the pass, or passage, of Michmash, between Bozez and Seneh, and climbed the hill dragging his armour-bearer with him until they came to a place high up, about 'an half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plow'; and the Philistines who were sleeping awoke, thought they were surrounded by the armies of Saul, and fled in disorder, and 'the multitude melted away.' Saul then attacked with his whole army. It was a great a victory for him; his first against the Philistines, and 'so the Lord saved Israel that day, and the battle passed over unto Beth-aven.' The brigade major though to himself: 'This pass, these two rocky headlands and flat piece of ground are probably still here; [3,000 years later] very little has changed in Palestine throughout the centuries,' and he woke the brigadier. [The General in charge]
Together they read the story over again. Then the general sent out scouts, who came back and reported finding the pass, thinly held by Turks, [You do not expect the enemy to attack straight up a rough promontory] with rocky crags on either side, obviously Bozez and Seneh; whilst in the distance, high up in Michmash the moonlight was shining on a flat piece of ground just about big enough for a team to plough. [Exactly as the Scriptures said] The general decided then and there to change the plan of attack, and instead of the whole brigade, one infantry company alone advanced at dead of night along the pass of Michmash. A few Turks met were silently dealt with. We passed between Bozez and Seneh, [the two promontories] climbed the hillside, [exactly where Jonathan pulled up his armour-bearer] and just before dawn, found ourselves on the flat piece of ground.[Where Jonathan slaughtered the Philistines] The Turks who were sleeping awoke, thought they were surrounded by the armies of Allenby and fled in disorder. We killed or captured every Turk that night in Michmash; so that, after thousands of years, [3,000 years] the tactics of Saul and Jonathan were repeated with success by a British force.
And unbelievers say the Bible is out of date!
The key thing to remember is that Jonathan, along with only one other man, was instrumental in the first victory at this place, and it was accomplished while only one of them had an iron weapon and against an army equipped with iron weapons. Of all the people who knew the ability of God to "deliver with few," Jonathan knew it. So what is his problem right now? His desire to save David is godly, but he is resorting to the flesh. He is not doing something obviously evil or dirty. It is the love he has for his "younger brother," who has never had a break, that has caused him to lose his moorings.
Can you see that "love" is not enough? It matters not how "godly" it appears to be or how self-giving. Jonathan is deliberately being disloyal to a father whom he loves and respects [and dies for eventually] in order to save David, but he is sinning against Yahweh. Only when love fits the pattern of Scripture is it valid love. Otherwise it is strictly human emotion, no matter how noble. Paul said, even if I give my body to be burned, without the indwelling love of Christ as a motivating force, it is worthless. Here we see an accurate picture of that. It would seem Jonathan should be the last one to be caught this way, but he is. He is now going to add a little deceit of his own.
Verse 18:
Then Jonathan said to him, "Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed because your seat will be empty. When you have stayed for three days, you shall go down quickly and come to the place where you hid yourself on that eventful day, and you shall remain by the stone Ezel.
The first time Jonathan pleaded with Saul, [Chapter 19:4-7] he was transparent. He just laid the facts before Saul without trying to manipulate him. He wanted his father to face up to the fact that David had served him properly, had won great victories for him in Yahweh's name, had in no way threatened him, and that Saul had rejoiced in David's victories for the nation of Israel. While Jonathan was confronting his father, David hid in a field waiting to see how Saul responded. When Jonathan was openly transparent and just laid out the facts before his father, Saul responded. He repented, and David went back to the court. Now David is back in the same spot as on that eventful day, probably in the same location. He is leaning by the stone Ezel, which is the sign of demarcation.
Jonathan knew his father was not above using his children to get to David. He had already used Michal, David's wife. Being a child of Saul, Jonathan now becomes a suspicious son who no longer trusts and loves his father with unqualified acceptance and unconditional love. He figures, "If Father did that to Michal and Merab [Jonathan's sisters], he might use me too, so I need to work out a plan to deceive him." That is exactly what he does here.
Verse 20:
"And I will shoot three arrows to the side, as though I shot at a target. And behold, I will send the lad, saying, 'Go, find the arrows.' If I specifically say to the lad, 'Behold, the arrows are on this side of you, get them,' then come; for there is safety for you and no harm, as the LORD lives. But if I say to the youth, 'Behold, the arrows are beyond you,' go, for the LORD has sent you away. As for the agreement of which you and I have spoken, behold, the LORD is between you and me forever."
"How do I make sure the little lad is not Saul's spy? I will deceive him too."
From verse 22, what does Jonathan recognize even during this deceit? If David has to go, he has to go because the LORD wants him to go. And then, verse 23, how sure is Jonathan that David will be king, ? Remember the agreement he made with David? "That the LORD is between you and me forever." He recognizes David will be king because God has anointed David king, and nobody can stop God. He wants that agreement to last forever, not just for himself but for his house.
Do you see what self-deception does? You can feel you are correct. You can have the best intentions in the world, and you can still be sinning. The results are always the same. No matter how godly your intentions, if you use the flesh to make those godly intentions work, you will always reap the flesh.
Verse 24:
So David hid in the field; and when the new moon came, the king sat down to eat food. And the king sat on his seat as usual, the seat by the wall [The king sat against the wall so he could see everyone in front of him]; then Jonathan rose up and Abner sat down by Saul's side, but David's place was empty.
Jonathan, as the crown prince, was seated at the right hand of his father, who was seated as king of Israel. Saul held his spear in his hand, the scepter of a warrior king. When he slept, we will see later, the scepter was at the back of his head. This scepter marked the king. It marked his right to reign. So there he sat spear in hand. Remember, Saul was a seasoned warrior. He could throw a spear with great accuracy, and but for the hand of God, would already have speared David twice. Jonathan knew what a fighter his dad was. So what did he do? He rose from the place of honor, and gave it to Abner, the general. What do you think God was trying to tell Jonathan?
Have you ever noticed that when you begin to play little games of deceit you begin to feel uneasy, not quite right about things? Up to now Saul and Jonathan have been side-by-side, very close, and Jonathan has had total freedom and trust in his father. He faced right up to Saul about the plan to destroy David, even though Saul was given over to violent rages that he could not control. As long as Jonathan was transparent, he felt perfect peace and security with his dad. But now he feels guilty and uneasy. So he probably reasoned in his mind, "Daddy has a spear, and where I am sitting, one thrust and I've had it." So, he gets up and gives the place of honor to Abner. "If daddy gets angry let Abner get skewered," [a little more deceit], and this is a godly man. We will see shortly that Jonathan's reasoning was absolutely correct, but he overlooked one factor: God!
Do you notice the steps downward? Jonathan did not start out this way. He started out with a love affair, but now he is ready to sacrifice Abner to protect himself. See the pattern?
It is reminiscent of Abram. He started at Ur of the Chaldeans, went on to Haran and then down through the land of Canaan. As he went through Canaan, in the valley, he saw vicious tribe after vicious tribe living in fortified cities and, in the highlands, wandering Bedouin tribes who were also vicious. They were all bigger and tougher than Abram.
When he left Haran to go into Canaan, in obedience to God, Abram played a little game with his wife Sarai. Although middle-aged, she was a beautiful woman. She had had no children; she had not lost her figure; she was a Semite, and married Semite women wore no veils. Since beautiful women, who were foreigners, had no rights, Abram was afraid that as they went through Canaan someone would kill him to get his wife. There was a peculiar moral code in those days. A man could take any number of unmarried women, but he could not touch married women, so what he did was eliminate the husband. The woman became unmarried and thus fair game. Even King David followed that pattern in a slightly different manner.
So, Abram told Sarai, "We will be going through vicious country, and since you are a very beautiful woman, they are going to want you. Because I am your husband, they will kill me to get you. So do me a favor and say you are my sister. It's only half a lie. We did have the same father, just a different mother. So, for my sake, just say that you are my sister."
Now, he went all the way down through Canaan and never once used this deceit. He felt totally secure in this vicious land because he was where God wanted him. God met him and said, "This is the land I gave you." Abram built an altar to God and got very religious.
But then came a famine. The winds off the Mediterranean did not blow and Abram had a lot of livestock and a large household. So, instead of trusting Yahweh to take care of him in the land that Yahweh had just given him, he followed the Canaanites right down to Egypt to buy grain. As soon as he left the Negev, the south country, and got close to Egypt, he told Sarai, "Remember that little deal we made, start now. I am your brother, and you are my sister." Right there he should have been tipped off that he was not where God wanted him.
Then the very thing he feared happened. Pharaoh's courtiers saw this gorgeous Semite, and the Semite woman said, "I am his sister," and the Semite man said, "I am her brother." In Pharaoh's land Pharaoh could have all the unmarried women he wanted, so he took Sarai for his wife. Now Abram was his brother-in-law, so Pharaoh gave him cattle, sheep, oxen, camels, male and female servants, and Abram was forced to take them all, which sealed Sarai's fate. You do not make a fool out of an oriental despot in the land in which he is the oriental despot.
This is what is happening here. Godly Jonathan is putting Abner in jeopardy to save his own skin, just as Abram did with Sarai, his wife.
Verse 26:
Nevertheless Saul did not speak anything that day, for he thought, "It is an accident, he is not clean, [This is a religious festival, and he apparently thought David was ceremonially unclean so he could not come to eat] surely he is not clean." And it came about the next day, the second day of the new moon, that David's place was empty; so Saul said to Jonathan his son, "Why has the son of Jesse not come to the meal, either yesterday or today?" Jonathan then answered Saul, "David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem, [notice what Saul calls David in contrast to what Jonathan calls him? The name David means, "Well beloved," but Saul now hates him. Jesse is a nothing in Israel. He has nothing in the way of possessions. He has no lineage. He is married to a woman who was probably previously married to an Ammonite. He has no money, no status, nothing! So we see the old put down, "son of Jesse." Jonathan calls him "David" because he loves him. But here comes the lie] for he said, 'Please let me go, since our family has a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to attend. And now, if I have found favor in your sight, please let me get away that I may see my brothers.' For this reason he has not come to the king's table."
According to Jonathan, David approached Jonathan, the Crown Prince, asked permission and got permission for this journey. Being a godly man though, Jonathan was not a very good liar, and his nervousness apparently gave him away. Saul was no fool. He might be mad, but he was shrewd in his madness. Not only that, but he could read his son like a book. The young man was his oldest son, and had been with him for 40 years. Saul spotted the deception right away. In using deceit to avoid getting killed, all Jonathan did was make his father angry.
Verse 30:
Then Saul's anger burned against Jonathan [one of those uncontrolable rages] and he said to him, "You son of a perverse, rebellious woman! Do I not know that you are choosing the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother's nakedness? [This is a gross insult. To an oriental this is worse than a slap in the face. Saul is telling Jonathan right in front of the court, "You are not acting like the son of Saul, so you are illegitimate. You are a bastard. Your mother was a perverse rebellious woman and you were not born of me, you were born of her and someone else." Of course, it was not true, but it was a vicious slap in the face. Saul's love turned into hatred here.] For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Therefore now, send and bring him to me, for he must surely die."
You can see why Saul wants to kill David. He wants to establish a line of hereditary. At this time, Israel is made up of twelve autonomous tribes held together by a very loose alliance. The only unifying force is David, and Saul is mad enough to destroy that unifying force in order to establish his line on the throne.
What had God told Saul after his first disobedience? "You won't have a line. Your line will not succeed to the throne." Saul was allowed to continue to reign, but his line was cut off. After Saul's second disobedience, God said, "Now, even the throne is torn from you." Saul knew this, but he was determined to keep the throne and establish an inherited line even if he had to kill God's anointed to do so.
Looking at Jonathan, do you see where deceit has brought him? In Chapter 20, Verse 31 Saul said to him, "Therefore now, send and bring him [David] to me, for he must surely die." We are admonished to obey the powers that be because they are ordained of God. Jonathan has placed himself in a position where he has to openly and willfully rebel against the authority of his father, against the authority of the powers ordained of God. We will see what effect this has on his father next week.
As we continue our study of Jonathan next week, you will see a beautiful redemption of him after his downward slide.
Prayer:
Father, we thank you so much that even though we are foolish at times and we try to manipulate you and try to do things in our own strength and we forget all about the past experiences where you have come through every time and produced exactly what you said you would produce in your promises, we still try to play God. We still try to do things in our own strength. We still do not listen to you. We still do not seek your will. We still try to manipulate people in the name of Jesus Christ. Father, help us to realize that this is sin. I do not care what the intentions are; I do not care how godly the intentions are, it is sin to manipulate, to be deceitful. Father, teach us to be open and transparent as you yourself are. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
We are looking at the contrast of the relationship between Jonathan and David and the relationship between Saul and David; Jonathan, a man after the Spirit; Saul, a man after the flesh. Last week we finished in I Samuel chapter 20, roughly about verse 32. We saw Saul run the gamut downward that you see in Romans 1:18-32. He began with a suspicion and fear of David, the "impulsive" stage. Then, as he began to make bad choices, he developed a dread of David and entered the "compulsive" stage where he was no longer in the saddle. Finally, with more bad choices, he reached what I call the "consumed" stage. He knew God had appointed David to be King and David's line to become the reigning line of Israel, but Saul did not care. He could not care. He was literally driven to oppose God and became David's enemy "continually." He had reached the stage expressed in verse 32, of Chapter 1 of Romans, "although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them." They become perniciously evil. The tragedy of Saul was that of a godly man gone wrong. He would go to be with the Lord when he died, but all the way to his death he fought God and ultimately God had him killed.
On the other hand we have seen Jonathan's handling of the same situation, the contrasting side of the "snowball rolling down the hill." Saul's loss of his kingdom and his line was also a loss for Jonathan, the crown prince. But even though he and his family would not reign in Israel, Jonathan fell in love with his rival David. Their souls were knit together. David was rejected by Saul but accepted by Jonathan, and rather than fear David or have suspicions about him, Jonathan loved him with very godly emotions. He took off his own armor, his own cloak and his own weapons and garbed his rival as a prince of Israel. He was willing to accept God's ruling. He took his rival David and made him a prince.
Next step was a righteous choice to intercede for David with Saul on a very open, honest, godly basis, and it turned Saul around. True, only temporarily, but it did turn Saul around so that Saul and Jonathan and David were all at peace with one another.
Then Jonathan made another choice. The intent was godly, but the method was not. David, with his terror of Saul and his eyes off of YHWH, cast himself on the mercy of Jonathan. The tyranny of the urgent caused Jonathan's emotions to be swayed, and he made a godly choice to preserve David's life. The problem was he used very ungodly methodology. He went along with David's deceit of his father, and he practiced a little deceit of his own. The result was disaster. Your desire does not sanctify your methodology. You may have the world's greatest desires, but if they are not founded on Scripture, you are in trouble. Because of his choices, that is where we find Jonathan now.
Picking up from last week, Saul has seen right through Jonathan's deception and also through David's deception. He has literally called Jonathan a bastard in front of the whole court. He has greatly insulted him and caused him to "lose face," a grievous humiliation in an Oriental culture. You would think that would generate a deep resentment in Jonathan, but it does not. Jonathan is a very godly man, and he loves his father. He loves him no matter what he is or what he does. He accepts him and loves him as he is. We will see shortly that this has a tremendous effect on David.
We pick up at I Samuel 20, verse 32. Because Saul has become so enraged at the deceit, Jonathan attempts to return to the righteous method by telling Saul, "Let's face up to the facts of life." Instead of becoming angry at the painful insult delivered by Saul, he appeals to Saul's conscience, which had worked before, but Saul is so enraged now that Jonathan's godly method is too late, and it does not work.
Verse 32:
But Jonathan answered Saul his father and said to him, "Why should he be put to death? What has he done?" [He is appealing to Saul's conscience again] Then Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him down; so Jonathan knew that his father had decided to put David to death. Then Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger [He gets enraged. He has been called a bastard. He has been struck at by his father and for once he gets his eyes off of God. He gets his eyes off his love for his father and acceptance of his father, and he gets mad. The flesh is still the flesh even in Jonathan. He walks out on a holy feast and insults and dishonors his father] and did not eat food on the second day of the new moon, for he was grieved over David because his father had dishonored him.
Jonathan, while enraged at his own dishonor, is even more enraged at David's dishonor, which leads to his demeaning his father. Who started this dishonoring process? David! Who was next? Jonathan! David started it by deceiving Saul. Jonathan continued it by going along with David. And then he wondered why he and David were dishonored by Saul. Dishonor breeds dishonor. The moment you get your eyes off of Jesus Christ, [or YHWH of the Old Testament, the same Person] you are just as fleshly as any fleshly man. Your spirituality lasts only as long as Christ is your life. The flesh is totally unconverted.
I had a horrifying experience this week. I was privileged to see myself as I really am. It was a very healthy, but humbling, experience. I have this strange idea that my flesh is getting a little sanctified. But it is not! God drew the veil aside this week and let me have a good whiff of me, and the aroma was not pleasant. I have been a Christian for 25 years, and in 25 years my flesh has not improved one iota.
Likewise, Jonathan's flesh, even though he is a mighty man of God, is incurably evil. It "cannot please God" [Romans 8:8]. Notice! It is not an issue of the will. Many times the flesh longs to please God, to look good in His sight, but the Scriptures state it is totally incapable of pleasing Him. The flesh simply does not have the power to do so no matter how sincere and dedicated it may be.
Do you see the tragedy here? When we left Chapter 19, harmony had been restored between Saul, David and Jonathan. David was back in court and everyone was honoring everyone. Now what do we have? Saul is angry with both Jonathan and David, and he is not just angry, he is enraged. Who is Jonathan angry with? His father, and he also is enraged. How about David? He is angry with Saul and probably a little put out with Jonathan because he didn't pull off this beautiful scheme. So now how does Saul feel toward David in contrast to Chapter 19 when he welcomed him back into court? He is hardened now. He is really hardened against David. This little trick to con Saul into bringing David back into court has had exactly the opposite effect, and Saul is now irrevocably committed to slaying David.
Contrary to how it may look, Saul is not a monster. Later on in his pursuit of David, when David twice has an opportunity to kill him but does not, he responds with great remorse and guilt. He confesses his wrong attitude, calls David righteous, tells him he will be king of Israel and then goes on home. Now, the remorse does not last because he is driven by his paranoia, but he is not a monster.
What kind of a night do you think Saul had [quoting the first phrase of verse 35], "Now it came about in the morning?" He had just called his beloved son a bastard in front of the whole court and had even tried to kill him. This was the son whose love and acceptance he desperately needed because he had rejected his God? He must have had one agonizing night of guilt and remorse and was not about to put a tail on Jonathan. All he undoubtedly wanted was to regain Jonathan's love and acceptance.
But what was Jonathan's attitude toward his father? He had just been publicly dishonored, his beloved brother of the covenant dishonored and his mother insulted with the worst of Oriental insults and all without reason? His attitude was one of rebellion, but it was also one of suspicion. Twice Saul had used his daughters to try to eliminate David. Why not his son? So Jonathan succumbs to more deceit. He persuades David to hide in the field as he shoots arrows. If he says to the lad with him, "Come here get the arrows in front of you," his signal would mean, "Come back, David. There is safety for you." But if he shoots his arrows past the lad and says, "Go get the arrows." That means, "Go, David. Get out of town." This way he planned to fool the lad with him, thinking he was Saul's informant. Since no one else would be in the field, they would not have had to go through all this to hide their plot from anyone but the little child. Jonathan's mind was so mixed up that he did not trust his father nor did he have any concern for guilt or remorse his father might be experiencing.
Verses 35-39.
Now it came about in the morning that Jonathan went out into the field for the appointment with David, and a little lad was with him. And he said to his lad, "Run, find now the arrows which I am about to shoot." As the lad was running, he shot an arrow past him. When the lad reached the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the lad, and said, "Is not the arrow beyond you?" [The sign to David "Get out of Town."] And Jonathan called after the lad, "Hurry, be quick, do not stay!" And Jonathan's lad picked up the arrow and came to his master. But the lad was not aware of anything; only Jonathan and David knew about the matter.
Saul had not planted the lad out there. Saul was full of remorse and guilt and longed for fellowship with his son. He had not done anything tricky, but David and Jonathan [particularly Jonathan] had. Jonathan saw his father as he saw himself, at the moment, hostile, angry and embittered and imputed to his father his own feelings. He thought this young boy was his father's spy, so he wanted him absent so he and David could have a meeting. Verse 40:
Then Jonathan gave his weapons to his lad and said to him, "Go, bring them to the city."
The Spirit of God makes very clear that only Jonathan and David knew anything about this whole matter. When you are out of fellowship with your Lord, you are out of fellowship with your loved ones, and you impute to them you own hostility, suspicions and anger. This, of course, is what breeds anger and hostility. Your loved ones can feel your hostility, and pretty soon you have a dog fight on your hands, and, unfortunately, when you are out of fellowship with your Lord, you almost always impute dishonorable things.
Have you ever noticed when you get upset with someone and are bitter and resentful toward them, you actually impute that bitterness and resentment to them. Then, as you harbor it within yourself, it festers away? Eventually when the Lord takes you out to the woodshed and straightens you out, you discover the fellow you held so much resentment against was totally oblivious to it all. You had just churned yourself into an ulcer while he was out playing golf with a totally clear conscience, maybe even wondering what was wrong with you. This was exactly where Jonathan and David were.
But God is a redemptive God and he begins to move. Verse 41:
When the lad was gone, David rose from the south side and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed three times. And they kissed each other and wept together, but David [wept] more. And Jonathan said to David, "Go in safety, inasmuch as we have sworn to each other in the name of the Lord, saying, 'The Lord will be between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants forever.'" Then he [David] rose and departed, while Jonathan went into the city.
Why do you think David wept so bitterly? For once in his life he had an older brother who really loved him, who was committed to him and had put him first, even before his own interests. He had clothed David in the clothes of the crown prince and had made a covenant with him acknowledging he would become king. David saw Jonathan as a man who was loyal when loyalty really counted. But he knew Jonathan would stick by his father. Saul was fighting YHWH and had trapped himself into a destructive situation from which there was no escape. Jonathan would accompany his father down the path to destruction hoping he might be able to help.
We have discussed before why Jonathan did not fight Goliath. He did not fight because he would not fight, not because he could not fight. The champion of Israel, Saul, was head and shoulders above all Israelites, just as Goliath of Gath, the champion of the Philistines, was head and shoulders above all the Philistines. Jonathan, obviously filled with the Spirit of God, could very readily have taken on Goliath. He, alone with his armor-bearer, had just taken on the whole Philistine army at Michmash. Remember what he said, "The Lord can save by many or by few," and indeed God gave them total victory over the Philistines. So, if Jonathan was not afraid of the armies of the Philistines, where he could have gotten hit from any angle, why would he be afraid of Goliath who could only throw in one direction. No, he was committed to making his father face up to the fact that he was in rebellion against God, that the Spirit of God had departed from him, and that Saul was without courage. Up to then, Saul had a magnificent record as God's king. He took care of the Ammonites, the Edomites, the Moabites and the Syrian coalition. He was an extraordinary king, a superb fighter, a wonderful general and a brilliant battlefield tactician. But now he stood trembling before one man. Jonathan knew for his father to really become a man of God, he must face the fact that he had lost the Spirit of God. So Jonathan would not pull his father's chestnuts out of the fire.
It has been suggested that possibly Jonathan did not want to hurt his father's pride by taking on Goliath and doing what Saul would not do. But, I do not think he would ever have tried to save his father's pride. Jonathan was a very godly man. I think he wanted to make his father face the fact that the Spirit of God had departed from him, and that he had better get right with his Lord. Now, I cannot quote Scripture on this, but why would a godly man like Jonathan, who was filled with the Spirit and had just had a rousing victory at Michmash, not take on the enemy? Sure the enemy was 9 feet tall, but Jonathan was a fighter, a killer, a skilled warrior. So I feel very strongly, although I cannot support it by Scripture but only by the character of Jonathan, his prior actions and his loyalty to Saul, that he wanted to make Saul face the fact that he was fighting the Lord
Saul may have been a very carnal man, but he built godly principles into Jonathan's life and Jonathan never changed. Neither did his other sons. They all died alongside Saul. They were loyal to their father to death, and even though he was destroying himself, they would not leave him.
David, on the other hand, was a terrible father, and he lost all his sons, including Solomon, his chosen successor. Although Solomon began his kingship as the wisest man in the world, he ended it as a tyrant who departed from his God. He took numerous foreign wives in direct violation of Deuteronomy and even built temples right in Jerusalem to the gods of those wives. He multiplied horses and had a multitude of chariot warriors. He taxed his people unmercifully, making silver and gold just like dust when Deuteronomy admonished against putting silver and gold into your own pockets. He violated everything God had decreed for a king and ended up estranged from the God he had once so fervently loved.
I think we can take a lesson from this. We need to begin right now building into our children. It starts right here with each one of us. It does not start with the schools. It does not start with the government. It starts with me. It starts with you. You can be a "man after God's own heart" and still wind up in trouble if you do not practice God's truth. As we have just seen, Jonathan's beautiful intent of reuniting Saul and David wound up with them hating each other when ungodly methods were used. Intent is not enough. It is the practice that counts!
So, here we have Jonathan going back to his father, and down to destruction with him because he loves Saul, and, I think, because he loves David. How else is he going to keep David from being killed and Saul from killing him.
Why do you think God took this special relationship from David at this particular time? Do you remember what God did to Abraham when he wanted him to become a man of God? "Go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you." (Genesis 12:1). Additionally what does He say to a husband and wife about marriage? "For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife and they shall become one flesh." (Genesis 2:24) There is no possibility, in the Hebrew, of having a "cleaving" relationship without a "leaving" relationship first. It does not mean to abandon, but it certainly does mean to leave behind any prior dependencies. And God is about to put David through "boot camp."
When I went through boot camp in the service, the first thing they did was take me from Southern California, where all my ties were, and ship me clear across the country. They totally isolated me from any prior dependency because they wanted me to depend entirely on them, so they could mold me into a man who would obey instantly without question. They deliberately uprooted all of us, took from us everything we could cling to, threw us into the great cauldron and began to turn up the fire-- and it worked!
What did the Assyrian and Babylonian kings do when they conquered a people? They took a whole nation, uprooted them and took them 1,000 miles away. Why? Because you do not fight for foreign soil, you fight for your own land. [When you rent a house, how well do you care for the lawn? When you own the house, how well do you care for the lawn?]
The Babylonians were very smart. The Romans were not so smart. They did not move people bodily around, and, therefore, their legionnaires were stretched very thin. Since the captive people were always on their own turf, they were always rebelling. Caesar should have moved all the Jews right out of Palestine, 1,000 miles away, but he did not. He left them there and the Jewish Zealots caused trouble year after year after year. Still Caesar did not move the Jews. Instead he stationed legions all over to keep and restore order. But the only way the Romans knew how to restore order was to butcher the people revolting, which only led to more rebellion and the eventual destruction of Jerusalem.
Do you remember when Saul sent three different sets of messengers after David and, instead of harming David, they began to prophesy? Then Saul, himself, went to find David, and he, too, began to prophesy. God was saying, "Saul cannot lay a hand on you, David, because I will take even the enemies of God and make them do my bidding." God made a prophet of Saul, in his disobedience, the same as he had when Saul was obedient. Remember the saying, "Is Saul among the prophets?" Well, that saying came from obedience, but then God took Saul in disobedience and made him do exactly the same thing, and the saying was repeated. "Is Saul among the prophets?" That should have told David, "No matter what Saul is like, he is going to do my bidding." Did David get the message? No. He ran to Jonathan and said, "My life is only one step ahead of death." David had gotten his eyes off YHWH and was depending on Jonathan. He ran to Jonathan, not to YHWH. So, God had to get Jonathan out of the picture. David was going to have to get all alone with God with no other dependencies
As an illustration of how beautifully God operates, what memory of Jonathan was David left with when he and Jonathan parted? The memory of a man returning to his father in a loving, accepting manner when his father deserved nothing except hatred, bitterness and resentment. What did David learn from Jonathan's relationship with Saul concerning the love God had for David; that it is never ending and not based on performance; that God loves the unworthy and the undeserving even in the midst of their unworthiness. He learned God had an irrevocable love for him.
While, at this point, Saul, in his madness, was trying to kill David, his friend, David himself later on, when king of Israel, actually killed his own friend. Scripture says nothing about Saul having sexual problems, but David took and, for all intents and purposes, raped [even though it appears she did not try very hard to resist him] Bathsheba, the daughter of one of his best friends, Eliam, and the wife of another of his best friends, Uriah the Hittite, both men of the "thirty", the great warriors of the inner circle, his key bodyguard. Then, having taken her, he killed her husband to cover himself when she became pregnant. Saul, as mad as he was, never did that.
David learned God had an irrevocable love for him even when he committed murder and adultery; crimes that, according to the Law of God, were punishable only by death. David, however, when confronted by Nathan the prophet, offered [in Psalm 51] the only "sacrifice" he could, "a broken and contrite spirit and a broken heart you will not despise." I think Jonathan was the one who modeled for David this amazing grace of God. David understood that brokenness was all that God required. In God's love for David, 1000 years later He would sacrifice His Son to pay the penalty of death for David. While David, of course, did not understand all of the theology involved, he had an amazing grasp of the love and grace of God.
I think David also learned from Jonathan to "love your enemies and be good to those who despitefully use you," a requirement to be a "man after God's own heart."
I would like to skip ahead a little and take a look at God's redemption. Turn to Chapter 23, verses 16 through 18, the last meeting that David had with Jonathan. Saul is relentlessly pursuing David now. He is determined to kill him. He plans to trap and kill him, and David knows it. At this time David is delivering people from their troubles and helping them, but, in spite of that, they are betraying him for Saul's benefit, (part of David's "boot camp.") In the midst of all this, Chap. 23, verse 16, Jonathan, goes to David and encourages him in the Lord.
I Samuel, Chapter 23, Verse 16:
And Jonathan, Saul's son, arose and went to David at Horesh [in the wilderness], and encouraged him in God. Thus he said to him, "Do not be afraid, because the hand of Saul my father shall not find you, [YHWH won't let it happen] and you will be king over Israel [God has anointed you as king. "Get your eyes off your circumstances and onto your God, David'] and I will be next to you [I am relinquishing my rights to the throne. I will be your counselor, your Chief of Staff. I will be second to you.] and Saul my father knows that also. [David, you are fighting a battle already won. Don't act like you are a loser. (Jonathan draws him right back to YHWH and the faithfulness of his God.) You have been anointed king over Israel and so you shall be king over Israel.
You will remember, the choices Saul made finally resulted in a "depraved mind," a trialess mind, a mind that could not see things in proper perspective. He could only see things from the way they affected Saul. Jonathan, on the other hand, by his choices, wound up with the mind of Christ. He gave up his temporal kingship, which would have been his the moment David died. He saw things from God's perspective, not looking at the temporal things of this life but at the eternal things of God.
It is intriguing to me the repetition here, verse 18:
So the two of them made a covenant before the LORD; and David stayed at Horesh while Jonathan went to his house.
"Went to his house," is essentially the same phrase as was used in Chapter 20:42, the previous time Jonathan left David to return to Saul. Thus Jonathan went back to his father, and died alongside him.
I am fascinated that some of Jonathan's last words to David were, "I will be next to you." This is a real prophecy, but how could it be? In a real sense, Jonathan was next to David as his counselor, his Chief-of Staff, but in the spirit. Jonathan was a model of what a king ought to be. He was a model of a person who gave up his life for someone else. He gave it up out of love for his father. He gave it up out of love for David. I am sure one of his motivations in returning to Saul was to see that David did not get trapped, that during his father's more rational moments, he could plead the cause of David and he could be an advocate in court for his covenanted brother. Wherever David went, "next to him" was the model of a man after whom David could pattern his life.
Jonathan is a beautiful picture of the Spirit of God, while David is a type of Christ in the Old Testament. What is the Holy Spirit's job in relation to Christ? Is it to plead the cause of the Holy Spirit? No! It is to convict the world of sin and unbelief in Jesus Christ; to convict the world of its unrighteousness because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which He modeled before the world during His earthly life and which He continues to manifest through His disciples by the indwelling Holy Spirit; and to convict the world of the accomplished judgement of Satan because of Jesus Christ's conquering of Satan at the cross [Col. 2:13-15]. Since the Holy Spirit is God Himself, He is the equal of the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet he puts himself in subordination to Christ and points people to Christ and away from himself.
That is exactly what Jonathan did. So because Jonathan chose the "right snowball," he ended up a spiritual man with the mind of Christ. He saw things from God's perspective. He gave his life for the love of his father and the hope that he might return Saul to a right relationship with YHWH and that he might also protect David.
As we have seen, Saul, on the other hand, because of his choices, wound up with a "depraved mind," a trialess mind. He could only see things from his own perspective. He got worse and worse. Finally he hunted down a witch at Endor, [the only one he missed when, in the name of God, he had killed all the witches in Israel] to seek counsel from the occult. He was in direct opposition to God and he knew it, and God rebuked him for it.
It was mentioned that it was interesting to see God exercise his prerogatives by removing the honorable heir to the throne and replacing him with a seemingly lesser man. Not only was Jonathan the rightful heir before God took the throne away from his father Saul, but he seemed to be a much better, more righteous man than David at this time.
That is one of the beautiful things about the Scriptures. God does not look at the outward man, the outer performance. He looks at the heart, and David's heart, he says, is equal to or better than Jonathan's. "There is a man after my own heart," God says about David; yet David did everything wrong in the book. We are going to see that. But every time he got cited by God for his sinning, he ran straight to God and confessed. He took his lumps. He did not do what Saul did and rationalize his sin. We are going to see that when he gets in real trouble and is offered three options, one of which is to fall into the hands of the living God, he says, "I want that one. Don't let me fall into the hands of my enemies. Let me fall into your hands." He had a relationship with God that was beautiful and deep. His lifestyle left much to be desired, but not his relationship with God.
This is what God is trying to tell us. It is not our lifestyle; it is not our performance; it is our relationship with Him. It is not whether we conquer sin in our lives; it is whether we want to conquer sin in our lives that counts. God is looking for a deep yearning on our part to be God's man or woman. He will take care of how far and how soon and what sin and in what order--those are God's prerogatives--but He will begin to sanctify your life, and make it righteous, the moment you get serious before Him about dealing with your sin.
In chapters 21 and 22, next time, we will see the high cost of situational ethics. If you are ever tempted to do something you know is wrong because the situation seems to demand it, and you think you can probably get away with it, Chapter 21 and 22 will tell you what it is going to cost you in the end. It is David's first real lesson in his spiritual "Boot Camp."
Prayer:
Father, we thank you so much for the Word of God, for the way it speaks to our hearts, for the way it shows people as they really are, and shows us how we can be such fallible people even though we may be "a man after your own heart." Our motivation may be entirely right and totally holy and yet the moment we put ourselves in the act, we can foul it up in the most ugly way and come out totally ungodly having butchered the whole works. Father, teach us to be smart enough to realize that both the desire and the operation have to be of You. You have told us in Philippians 2:12-13 to "exploit" our salvation because you are the one who is in us both to give us the desire and to put into action what you want us to do, that you do both things for us, Father. The godly intent and the godly power are both from you, never from us. God, help us to be that smart. Help us to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Help us to be Christians. Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name.
Beginning today we will talk about David's wilderness experiences. There is talk about his fight with Goliath and occasionally about David and Abigail. Or we flip over to David and his trouble with his son Absalom or his adultery with Bathsheba. But very little is said about his wilderness experiences. Interestingly enough, however, the Scriptures devote probably 10 chapters to his wilderness experiences while devoting relatively few chapters to his victories.
Apparently God is very interested that we learn from what David went through in the wilderness and is not too concerned about what David went through in his victories, since the victories are the fruit of what he learned in the wilderness.
I have spent some time looking at David's wilderness experiences. God used these experiences to make David a man of God and to make him fit to rule, much as he took the nation of Israel out of Egypt and into the wilderness for 40 years to make them a nation fit to manifest God and to rule. There is an interesting parallel here.
The wilderness experiences in our lives are deliberately designed by God to form us into men or women of maturity. As C. S. Lewis says, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, but he shouts to us in our pain." Pain is God's megaphone to get our attention. So our struggles and stresses, which can be emotional, physical or spiritual, are God's way of telling us, "I'm going to make you into a man after my own heart. Don't fight it. Just allow me to mold you and shape you into the image of Christ."
So we will see David have experiences and attitudes that we have. We will see him angry with God, obeying God, making it big, plunging to the depths. We will see all the peaks and valleys that a normal person experiences. This is God's man we are watching, a "man after his own heart." It is a comforting thing.
We left David, in league with Jonathan, fleeing from Saul and heading into the wilderness. Having fled directly from his meeting with Jonathan, he had no weaponry, no food, nothing. So, he had some real needs. The tragedy was that David used what I call "situational ethics" to satisfy his needs. Our modern philosophy says the situation determines the ethics; the end justifies the means. You see it all over; in our government, in our churches, even in our own lives. Well, I have news for you, it did not start in the 20th century. It has been around ever since the fall of man, and 3,000 years ago "a man after God's own heart" used the same tactics.
Granted David's needs were legitimate. He needed food. He needed protection. The needs were real. It was how he supplied them that was wrong.
David was in Gibeah of Saul, a city in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin, about 10-15 miles north of Jerusalem. He fled from there directly to the city of Nob, the city of the priests and the tabernacle, which is probably 5 miles south of Gibeah. He was fleeing to someone with whom he had had a lot of contact. David, as the champion of the armies of Israel, in his wars for Saul's sake, would have gone many times to the high priest to have him find the mind of God, ["whether I should go out in this battle; what I should do in this battle."] David had a very good relationship with the high priest of Israel, and what would be more natural than for him to again go to one of his best friends for advice.
The tragedy was that David fell victim to the tyranny of the urgent. He had once before failed miserably to trust God. Remember when God sent Saul and his three groups of messengers up to seize David and deliberately had them all prophesy. It should have indicated to David, "I can take care of you no matter what happens, no matter how they come after you, no matter who comes after you. Even when Saul came personally, I gave him a double treatment." Saul did twice as much prophesying. In fact he did not even get to Ramah before he began prophesying. He spent 24 hours lying on the ground prophesying. Still David did not get the message. Instead, he ran straight to Jonathan, and they came up with their deceitful scheme. It backfired, and David has now become a victim of his own plotting.
Verse 1 of Chapter 21:
The David came to Nob to Ahimelech the [high] priest; and Ahimelech came trembling to meet David, and said to him, "Why are you alone and no one with you?" And David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king has commissioned me with a matter, and has said to me, 'Let no one know anything about the matter on which I am sending you and with which I have commissioned you; and I have directed the young men to a certain place.'
How does it look to Ahimelech? Here is the leader of the armies of Saul, and he is alone. It is a Sabbath. The "Law" forbids travel on the Sabbath. David never traveled alone. He traveled with an army, or at least a band of bodyguards. Ahimelech, knowing the kind of conflict going on 5 miles north, is sure to wonder what is happening. David, knowing Ahimelech probably understands the conflict in the palace and fearful that Ahimelech will not provide his needs, lies to him. He indicates he is coming from the king on a special secret mission and that his young men are in a different place. It is called "situational ethics." David has needs. The needs are real. The needs are legitimate. The process is wrong. Instead of trusting God, he uses his wits. He uses deceit. As we have noticed before, deceit always breeds deceit; the flesh always produces the flesh, and the flesh can never please God [Rom 8:7].
Then he goes on, I Samuel 21, verse 3, to compound his deceit:
"Now therefore, [He acts as though he is truly sent from Saul and he demands that he be supplied] what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found." And the priest answered David and said, "There is no ordinary bread on hand, [The city of the priests was apparently very poor at the time. It may have been that the Philistines had come by and taken the harvest away] but there is consecrated bread;
This was the "bread of the Presence," the twelve loaves that were baked every week on the Sabbath, brought into the tabernacle, into the Holy Place, laid on the table, six loaves in each portion, each loaf representing a tribe of Israel. Each loaf was dedicated to God. They sat there the full seven days, and were sanctified to God. They indicated God was the total provider for all the needs of Israel. At the end of seven days, 12 fresh loaves were brought in to replace the twelve loaves on the table. The high priest, and the priests of the nation of Israel, could eat those loaves which were replaced. They were set apart for the use of the priests but could be eaten only in the Holy Place. So all Ahimelech had was consecrated bread, bread that had come right off the table of the Lord.
To continue, I Samuel 21, verse 4b:
"...if only the young men have kept themselves from women."
Under the Levitical system, any emission from the body made you ceremonially unclean, including a seminal emission. Anything coming from you, instead of from God, made you unclean. So, Ahimelech can see David is going to demand something of him, and he just hopes it will not violate too much of the ceremonial law. Apparently, however, he is willing to give David what he needs.
So David lies again, verse 5:
And David answered the priest and said to hm, "Surely women have been kept from us as previously when I set out [David is saying that on prior trips he observed the ceremonial law. He made sure that everyone had kept themselves ceremonial clean before going out to battle] and the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was an ordinary journey; how much more then today will their vessels be holy?"
The word "vessels" was not just the body, but anything having to do with life, including clothing, food, whatever. Whenever David went out on a mission for Saul, he went out "holy," ceremonially pure. He wanted God to bless him. So he said, "This has been my practice in the past, and you, of all people, should know that because I consulted with you each time I went out. So, how much more this time when I am on a secret mission for the king and on a Sabbath day. Surely the young men have kept themselves from women. Yes, they are sanctified. Yes, they are holy." He is going to get that bread by hook or by crook, mostly by crook.
Verse 6:
So the priest gave him the consecrated bread; for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence [literally the bread of the "Face", the bread that signified the presence of God] which was removed from before the LORD, [These were the old loaves to be eaten by the priests in the Holy Place] in order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away.
So, the priest gave David the bread which, under the ceremonial Law, was to be used by priests and eaten only in the Holy Place. But it was bread which had been given to God, sanctified by God, and given back to the priests to be used for their needs.
Now, let me ask you a question, "Was it wrong for David to eat the consecrated bread?" (Unless you know your gospels you are going to get tricked.) Answer from the audience, "According to the New Testament, it wasn't." That is right! David's actions, which were deceitful, were not condoned by Christ, but He did condone the eating of the bread because that fulfilled a legitimate need. Had David been straightforward and honest, Ahimelech could have given him the bread without violating anything in God's Law. God says, in chapter 12 of Matthew, that the ceremonial Law was never to interfere with real human need. God designed the Sabbath for man's benefit, not demanding man to conform to the Sabbath [i.e., also in Mark 2:27, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath."].
In Chapter 12 of Matthew starting at verse 1:
At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath through the grainfields, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat.
It was a common practice in those days. All the grain fields had paths through them. Spreading out like spokes from the little villages were these paths which crisscrossed the various fields. Under the Mosaic Law, since everything belonged to God anyway, you could walk along the path, and, anything you could reach with your hands, you could take and eat. That was food for the traveler, for the poor, for the hungry, for the necessity of life, for a legitimate need. You could not take a scythe with you and chop someone else's grain down, but you could reach out and take a person's grain to assuage your hunger. It had to be a legitimate need, though. So, since the crop belonged to God anyway, as the hungry disciples were walking along on the Sabbath, they took some grain, rubbed it in their hands to get the husks off and popped it in their mouths. Well, the Pharisees had so written the Law that that was illegal.
Matthew 12, verse 2:
But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, "Behold, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath." But He said to them, "Have you not read what David did, when he became hungry, he and his companions; how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath, and are innocent?"
When no one was supposed to be working, the priests were in the tabernacle tending to the vessels of the Sabbath, replenishing the incense, replenishing the oil, baking and replenishing the loaves. Their work on the Sabbath was part of their ministry to God.
It is interesting to me to hear people talk about not working on the Sabbath. That is the preacher's busiest day. All preachers take Monday off. Our work is on the Sabbath, if you count Sunday as the Sabbath. Some churches have rules for keeping the Sabbath, and the biggest violator of those rules is the minister of the church that has those rules. He is the one who gets up early in the morning and bones up on what he is to preach; the one who rushes to church to get everything organized. He is busy, busy, busy all day long, marrying, burying, baptizing, while the church's set of rules says, "Thou shall not work on the Sabbath." Who is doing all the work? The minister who wrote the rules.
So the Lord says here, "Have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath, and are innocent?" They work on the Sabbath. They bake bread on the Sabbath. They replenish loaves on the Sabbath. In fact, they circumcise on the Sabbath. According to the Law, a male child had to be circumcised on the eighth day. So they circumcised regularly on the Sabbath in order not to break the circumcision Law. They had to break one Law to keep the other. Circumcision was the mark of a man with the flesh cut off, the old life cut away. God considered this dedication of infants to Himself to be more important than the observance of the minutia of the Law. So the Sabbath was regularly broken by the priests.
Matthew 12, verse 6:
"But I say to you, that something greater than the temple is here? But if you had known what this means, 'I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath"
Christ said, "The bottom line on the whole ceremonial law is that God desires compassion, not sacrifice. He desires that man's needs be met and not that the meticulous rules of the Law be kept if they interfere with the needs of men." That was the bottom line of the Levitical system which had been forgotten by the time of the Pharisees.
So it was not wrong for David to eat the consecrated bread. He had a legitimate need. What was wrong was he did not come in an open and honest way. He cheated. In deceiving the high priest, he was actually cheating on God. Legitimate need; wrong methodology. According to Christ's own word, David could have gotten the same consecrated bread from Ahimelech; he could have eaten it with no sin attached and been totally free before the Lord, "For the Lord desires compassion not sacrifice." Instead, he blew it.
The tragedy with the flesh, when it starts snowballing, is that it always gets worse. God gave David a warning though. God is a wonderfully patient and faithful God. You do not have to get up every morning saying, "Lord, I don't want to break the Law. I don't want to do things that are wrong. I am going to get out my check list and consult it all day long being sure I do everything I am supposed to do and abstain from things I am not supposed to do."
The Lord is not like that. You are not under Law you are under Grace. That does not mean you should be sloppy. It means you should so open your mind, your heart and your will to the Holy Spirit of God that He can actually be your mind, your thoughts and your will. Then, as you walk through your day, doing your normal, natural things, you will be sensitive to the Spirit of God, and He will tell you, "Slow down there, or take a left here, or stop that, or watch it." God is the one responsible for my walk each day, not me. My only responsibility is to choose His way. Then He becomes responsible.
Now, I can choose the rules of PBC, go through my little check list, be meticulously "righteous" and be a stench in the nostrils of God. That is self-righteousness. Or I can give my life to Jesus Christ, step out in obedience and do whatever is in front of me, thanking the Lord that when I begin veering in the wrong direction, the Spirit of God will alert me. He is the Holy Spirit of God. His first name is Holy. He will direct my paths. He will even pray through me "with groanings too deep to be uttered." I just have to be the Lord's vessel, and He will warn me when I am veering away. He will also assure me when I am walking with Him by the quiet witness of the Spirit. There is no stress in the authentic Christian life. There will be struggle, but not stress.
Right after David pulls his deceit, God thrusts something in Verse 7 which says, "Hey, wake up." I Samuel 21, verse 7:
Now one of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD; [some reason for purification] and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's shepherds.
Why do you suppose God put this little bit of information in here right after David had done his deceitful deed? Why did He suddenly make David see Doeg, the fearful, the cringing, the compromiser, the man who left the Edomites, apparently because Saul had beaten them, to join up with Saul, "Whichever side is winning, that is the side I am on." You know he is going to ingratiate himself by tattling to Saul. [He had become a proselyte to the Jewish faith, even though, as we will see, he did not believe a word of it.] He is a nothing.
Why does God give David a view of Doeg the Edomite, the compromiser, the fellow who lives by his wits, by his deceit, by expediency, chief of Saul's shepherds, "big man on campus" back at Gibeah of Saul? Why right here? David knows Doeg will go back and tell Saul. What position did David put Ahimelech in? Saul is a mad man, remember. He is going to keep the reins of government no matter what YHWH wants, and should YHWH's anointed king, David, get in his way, David dies. Saul is about to embark upon a campaign that destroys Israel in order to destroy David, and David knows that. What do you think goes through David's mind about the chances of Ahimelech coming out of this unscathed? He is assuredly going to get hurt. How much does David care about that? David has now focused totally on himself, "Nobody has it as bad as I do. These are legitimate needs." God deliberately, at this point in time when David first starts his deceit, brings him Doeg, and he has a chance, therefore, to come clean so the right report gets back to Saul. [David admits later on that he knew Doeg would go and tell Saul.] But what does he do? Well, he is too focused on self and cares little about Ahimelech. When you are focused on self, you do not care about anybody else. It is just "My needs. My problems."
So, I Samuel 21, Verse 8:
And David said to Ahimelech, "Now is there not a spear or a sword on hand? For I brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's matter was urgent."
There is a bald-faced lie again. David is a good liar, and this is a "man after God's own heart." This is the flesh of a "man after God's own heart." But the flesh of a believer is no more acceptable to God than the flesh of an unbeliever; in fact it is probably more repugnant as the believer does not have to live dominated by the flesh while the unbeliever has no other choice.
Verse 9:
Then the priest said, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, behold, it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod.
[The ephod was the sacred garment of the priest. It was similar to a fancily embroidered shortie nightgown and ran from the shoulder straps to about the thighs. It was used when uttering oracles to reveal the will of God.] So, in a place of holiness in the sanctuary, wrapped in a cloth, dedicated to God, behind the very ephod of the High Priest was the sword of Goliath. David, you remember, in Chapter 17 had taken the weaponry of Goliath into his tent. So later he apparently took the sword, the weapon with which he actually killed Goliath, and, as a symbol that God had given him victory, dedicated it to God. [The stone knocked Goliath on his back. It crushed his frontal plate, but he was still alive. It was the sword with which David cut off his head that killed him.] Goliath's sword was now in the sanctuary and was no longer David's. It was not Ahimelech's either. It belonged to God alone. As the "bread of the Presence" belonged to God for as long as he wanted it, so the sword belonged to God for as long as he wanted it. God gave back the "bread of the Presence" for human use, but the sword was still behind the ephod, so it still belonged to God alone.
Verse 9b:
"...if you would take it for yourself, take it. For there is no other except it here." And David said, "There is none like it, give it to me."
There certainly was none like it. The sword had belonged to a man well over 9' tall. David would have had to use it as a two-handed sword and it would really work in a melee. It would cut in both directions, and you could use a two handed sword like a double bladed axe. It was a beautiful weapon for killing. But what would wearing it say to everyone? David might as well have worn a banner saying, "I killed Goliath of Gath." Nobody in the whole of that area had any sword that looked like Goliath's. This would get David in trouble later on.
Was David wrong to take the sword of Goliath? He had killed Goliath. In the rights of warfare you took your enemy's uniform, his goods, his weapons. They were yours by right of conquest. The only problem was David had given Goliath's sword to God. Was David right, now, to take the sword of Goliath? He was right to take the consecrated bread. [if he had not lied about it] The Lord implies this clearly in the context of Matthew 12:3-4.
No, he was not right because he had dedicated it to the Lord. What had the Lord done with the bread that he had not done with the sword? He had given the bread back for man's use in time of need. He had not done that with Goliath's sword!
Do you see the principle here? There are areas in our lives where we have conflicts, or struggles, or weaknesses, or hang-ups and when we come to Christ, God says, "These must be mine," and he takes them. Now, as we mature in Christ, he will give some of them back, because, as we grow, we can handle them. But have you ever noticed, there are other areas that you can never ever fool with? There are certain areas in your life where you have a weakness that God will never let you fool with again. Do not ever mess with those! When we start our Christian walk, we make rules and regulations, dos and don'ts. We change our whole lifestyle. Then, as we grow in Christ, we begin to get more and more freedom, and some of the things we thought we could not do, God allows us to enjoy again. There are other areas, however, that he never lets us enjoy again because they only gratify and enslave. They do not ever satisfy. And God help you if you take those back. Christ told the man at the pool at Bethesda, "Go and sin no more lest a worse thing befall you." In my own experience, I have taken some of those areas back, and, I have news for you, a worse thing does befall you. God means exactly what he says, and what God has not given back, you do not take. But David took the sword.
I Samuel 21:10
Then David arose and fled that day from Saul, and went to Achish king of Gath.
Is David worried when he flees from Saul and walks into Gath carrying Goliath's sword? Not in the least! He was thinking, "The Philistines are enemies of Saul. I am the enemy of Saul. I am a great warrior. They will welcome me as a mercenary." But he carried this great sword which signified that he had wiped out their champion, who, by the way, had many relatives in Gath. Goliath had at least three or four brothers, we will find out later. Admittedly the closest town was Gath, but David was wearing an advertisement that said, "I am the fellow who wiped out your champion, who humiliated you, who sent you fleeing from the Valley of Elah where we chopped you to pieces. Remember me?" He also had red hair when there were very few red haired fellows carrying huge swords wandering around. Even the Philistines could put two & two together.
When you start messing with deceit, you end up being what? Self-deceived! You cease to think straight. Of all the dumb places for David to go, that was the dumbest, but, of course, it was closest to Nob and all David wanted to do was get away from Saul. So, he walked into a buzz-saw.
I Samuel 21, verse 11:
But the servants of Achish said to him, "Is this not David the king of the land? [Don't forget that he is wearing Goliath of Gath's sword] Did they not sing of this one as they danced, saying. "Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands?'" And David took these words to heart, and greatly feared Achish king of Gath [This is where Psalm 56 comes in].
Do you remember the first time all the Israelite women sang that song [I Samuel 18:6-7]? It became very popular. In fact, it became Number 1 on the Israelite's "Hit Parade." Who were the thousands that Saul slew and who were the tens of thousands that David slew? Philistines! They do not think too much of David. In fact, they hate him! Now he is in their hands.
There is a comment from the audience here that, according to this last verse, the Philistines already acknowledged David as king, "the king of the land."
"King of the Land" is probably just a popular expression. The Philistines probably do not know David has been anointed by YHWH as king of Israel. But they do know there is a rivalry going on because they are getting possession of a lot of land as a result of Saul's chasing David instead of them. So, I wouldn't press that expression as far as to say they knew David had been anointed King of Israel, but he sure was an up and coming contender to the throne and was gaining in popularity.
David had slain ten thousands, and now the Philistines had him in their hands. Psalm 56 would indicate they seized him and dragged him into Achish's presence. Poor David. Now he is trapped and in real trouble. He is out of the frying pan into the fire.
So, David, being a sharp young man, does a very tricky thing. In the Orient in those days, a person who was mad was thought to be "seized by spirits." Therefore, everyone was so terrified of them, that they would neither touch them nor harm them. Nebuchadnezzar, when he was King of Babylon, went through a period of madness, and they let him roam around like an animal. They never tried to kill him. His rivals had a golden opportunity to kill him and take over his kingdom, but nobody touched him. We know from ancient Babylonian archaeology that they considered a mad man "seized of a god." If you read Daniel, chapter 4, very carefully, you know that is exactly what God did to Nebuchadnezzar. He was boasting about his vast works and the Babylon he had built when God struck him with madness, fulfilling a prophecy of Daniel's. Nebuchadnezzar became like an animal. He wandered about eating grass, with fingernails like claws and hair like fur, and no one killed him. The ancient Orientals were scared to death of mad men. The gods had seized Nebuchadnezzar. The gods had seized David. Achish did not want any part of him. David knew this, so he played on this superstition.
Verse 13:
So he disguised his sanity before them, and acted insanely in their hands [they have taken him and have dragged him into Achish's presence] and scribbled on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva run down into his beard.
This was the future King of Israel drooling all over his face. This was a "man after God's own heart." He made a complete ass of himself. But he was afraid for his life, and he had left his God behind. He was living by his own wits, now, and he was willing to do anything, no matter how humiliating, to save his skin. All the courage and the beauty of David had disappeared. All that was left was David in the ugliness of his flesh, and all he wanted to do was get out of this predicament alive. Well, it worked!
Verse 14:
Then Achish said to his servants, "Behold, you see the man behaving as a madman. Why do you bring him to me? Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this one to act the madman in my presence? [more literally "to rave against me." He is afraid of this man. Madmen have a tendency to injure people and do violent things of that nature. Achish wants no part of this man.] Shall this one come into my house?
So Achish sent David away. If you read Psalm 34, when David flees to the cave in Adullam, you will see that God straightens out David's thinking. David finally realizes he did not get away from Achish by his wits. He got away because God took care of him, that God was the faithful one, and that He would have been faithful the whole time. It brings David to repentance.
There are eight Psalms written about this period in the wilderness, and all eight of those Psalms express David's deep trust in and commitment to his God. Yet there is also this strange feeling of undeserved persecution. He struggles between deep trust in God and a feeling of unfair persecution. God is taking him through this wilderness experience to teach him absolute faith. This is one of the places that he learns it; this place where he makes an ass of himself in order to escape death.
There is a question from the audience here as to why the Lord gives us wits and a brain if we are not to handle things on our own.
The answer is, we need to reverse the procedure. God has given us a brain to handle things, but the first thing he wants us to do with that brain is to give it back to Him. The first thing I do is give my life to the Lord, my mind to the Lord, and allow him to think through my mind, for whatever needs to be done according to His processes. We should not start out on our own working hard and then handing the results to the Lord, with a "Lord, please bless this mess." We should start by saying, "Lord, here is my mind, here are my emotions, here is my will, here is my body, here's my person, and here is the day. Think your thoughts through me. Feel your emotions through me. Love your love through me. Empower me to do any of these things." Then away we go! "I am going to do the first thing in front of me, and thank you that you will be doing it through me." The thinking process is exactly the same, but it is controlled by God, and the power to do the process is God's. He tells us we are "to work out our own salvation (Philippians 2:12 which is literally to use something you already have, not to gain it) with fear and trembling, (with the desire to please God, not cringing fear) for it is God who is at work within you ("energeo" in the Greek; God energizing you for this work almost always means supernatural power in the Scriptures) both to will and to do (that is "energeo" again) of his good pleasure." God will supernaturally energize you to choose what he wants you to do, and then he will empower you to do it. But it is up to you to make the choice, to let him be the power. You will still be using your brain, but it will be used of God. Don't get the cart before the horse.
Chapter 22 next time.
Prayer:
Father, we thank you so much for your Word, for the fact that we see a man after your own heart just falling flat on his face, and you still are faithful when he is unfaithful, that you still pick him up and get him out of town, in spite of his nonsense, the ridiculous things he does to try to save his own skin. And yet, Father, as we read this next chapter, we see that when we live in the flesh, there are consequences that occur that you do not stop. These are inevitable consequences of sin, Father, that you allow in your wisdom to work out to their own natural end, and we see the tragedy and the horror of them in Chapter 22, so, Father, let us not get smart and play around with flesh and play around with sin, thinking, as long as we confess it and put it away, that we are home free, when there are these consequences, the natural fallout, which inevitably occurs. Somebody always gets hurts. so help us to be mindful that there is a Chapter 22 after Chapter 21. We thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen
We are in I Samuel, chapter 22 studying David's life in the wilderness. With God's training, he is beginning to learn the high cost of situational ethics. In Nob, which is just below Saul's headquarters in Gibeah of Saul, he deceived Ahimelech, the high priest of God, into giving him food and also the sword of Goliath. Apparently he also had Ahimelech inquire of the Lord for him. Then, to get away from Saul, he raced over to Gath just across the border of Judah. There he again used deceit to escape from Achish, the king of Gath, and head for the cave of Adullam. We will now pick him up, having lived by his wits, forgetting to talk to the Lord, and not doing very well.
Chapter 22, verse 1:
So David departed from there (Gath, the nearest major city in Philistine country where he ran from Saul) and escaped to the cave of Adullam, and when his brothers and all his father's household heard of it, they went down there to him. And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented, gathered to him; and he became captain over them. Now there were about four hundred men with him.
The cave of Adullam is about 10 miles back toward Bethlehem up the Valley of Elah which is pock-marked with caves. It is an ideal hiding place and is very close to the border of the Philistines, where David can again flee if he has to get across the border in a hurry. It is also reasonably close to Bethlehem, his home town. So, from his perspective, he is pretty centrally located.
Have you ever noticed it is a principle of life that God takes away something only to give back something better? Remember in Chapter 18 how by a covenant with Jonathan David gained a brother. But then God deliberately moved Jonathan out of David's life, and he lost his brother. Now here at the cave of Adullam God gives him back his real brothers.
David's whole life he had been the runt of the litter. He had been the object of ridicule by his brothers, particularly his oldest brother. In Chapter 17, remember, Eliab, his oldest brother, really cut him down when he came up to the battle line to eventually face Goliath. But it should also be remembered that Eliab and the next two older brothers at this point are still soldiers of Saul. So they have committed treason by throwing in their lot with David. They are now traitors and would be killed if they were caught. His father and mother also go down to David. Probably, partly to escape reprisal from Saul, but God deliberately brings the whole family together and finally gives David what he has never really had before, a family, all united down in Adullam. But God does not stop there. David is not only going to be head of his family, he is also going to be king of Israel.
Let us consider for a moment Israel and the people who make up this nation. What kind of people are they? What are they noted for all through the wilderness? They walked out of Egypt with all its wealth, and the first thing they did was what? Rebel. They griped. They groused. They were discontent, and there were how many tribes? 12, [actually 13, but the Levites were not counted as they were assigned to service the tabernacle], They all had their own petty jealousies, their own prejudices, and David is going to be king of these people. So, he is going to have to learn how to bring together all kinds of diverse units, all kinds of viewpoints, all kinds of prejudices, all kinds of nasty people and still be God's man. David is about to enroll in "The School of Hard Knocks."
Most of David's life, up to now, he has been a shepherd, a shepherd of sheep! And sheep obey, don't they? If they do not, the shepherd gives them a whack with his staff, or he puts the crook of the staff around their neck or leg and gives them a meaningful jerk. David has been "king" of his sheep and his "subjects" have obeyed him. They may have been helpless and stupid, but they were obedient and did not talk back. Up to now he has had a pretty soft life as far as getting along with others except, of course, for his family.
In the midst of his extremities, what kind of people does God deliberately send to David at the cave of Adullam? All the malcontents in Israel. Notice that? This is going to be a "boot camp" to end all "boot camps" for David in learning how to rule over the twelve separate tribes of Israel. First, "Everyone who is in distress" All of these had problems, probably with Saul and also in just making it in their daily lives. Secondly, "Everyone who is in debt" Fellows who had too many credit cards. [By the way this may imply that Saul allowed interest to be charged when lending money. It was illegal for a Jew to charge another Jew interest, but it may have been to ensure his supporters continued loyalty that Saul had allowed some "loan sharks" to ply their trade. [We know this happened under some of the later kings of Israel.] But anyway these were people who could not handle their monies and took the easy way out by skipping out on their debts. Lastly, "Those who are discontented." The word is stronger than that; literally it means "bitter of soul." People who were deeply resentful, bitter and hostile. Where are these three types of people going to live? In a cave. 400 discontented, nasty people crowded together in one tight little unit. David is going to have to learn to deal with this situation if he is going to survive as their leader.. God is beginning to prepare him for his future. What, on the surface, looks like flight from Achish and from Saul and growing up as the runt of the litter is actually the preparation of a king who is going to reign as "a man after God's own heart."
Then something interesting happens. David now has his family back and apparently has established a real love relationship with them. So, since he is living on the run, he becomes concerned about his elderly father and mother. By now, the cave of Adullam is well known by much of Israel. It is only 10 miles from Gath, and David may have to make a hurried departure again.
Look what happens in verse 3:
And David went from there to Mizpah [the fortress] of Moab; and he said to the king of Moab, "Please let my father and my mother come and stay with you until I know what God will do for me." Then he left them with the king of Moab; and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. And the prophet Gad said to David, "Do not stay in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah." So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth [which is to the west of the Dead Sea].
David takes his father and mother down to Moab and asks the king of Moab to please care for them while he is being pursued by Saul. How is it that David has such close ties with Moab when he knows Moab considers the nations of Israel, and Saul in particular, as its enemy? Well, remember that David's great-grandmother was Ruth the Moabitess. He has Moabite blood in his veins. Beyond that, Saul roundly defeated Moab [I Samuel 14:47] before David became a great warrior for Saul, and thus the Moabites hatred is focused on Saul rather than on David. Thirdly, all of David's great victories, up to this time, were apparently against the Philistines, so the Moabites have no compelling reason to hate David as they do Saul. Lastly, Saul, their enemy, is trying to slay David [who is part Moabite] just as Saul had slain many of them in the past. Any enemy of Saul's is a friend of Moab.
By the way, remember David's great-great-grandmother was Rahab the Canaanite harlot. If you want to take a purely objective view of this whole issue, David had the worst possible bloodline for a Jewish king. Jewish exclusiveness was totally wiped out in David. He had a Moabite great-grandmother, and a Canaanite great-great-grandmother. Also, before his mother married Jesse, she was apparently married to Nahash the Ammonite. This young man is not only the runt of the litter, he is a mongrel. In an exclusive society where the Israelites greatly value genealogy and purity of the Jewish line, this is God's man, "a man after God's own heart." God deliberately chose a mongrel to be king of Israel. He is telling Israel loud and clear that it is the desire of a man's heart-- not is heredity -- that counts with God
Let me just toss in here, at absolutely no extra charge, another interesting note along this line. Moses, the founder, under God, of the nation of Israel, had essentially three main periods of 40 years each in his life. The first 40 year period was Moses "the son of Pharaoh's daughter." Moses, as an Egyptian nobleman, would have been married by his mother to a daughter of the Egyptian nobility or priesthood befitting his rank as "the son of Pharaoh's Daughter", just as some 400 plus years earlier, Joseph, the son of Jacob, was married by Pharaoh, on becoming his Viceroy of Egypt, to a daughter of one of the highest ranking priests of Egypt. Thus Moses' first wife was an Egyptian.
The second 40-year period Moses spent in Midian as a fugitive from Pharaoh, tending the flocks of Jethro, the priest of Midian. The Midianites were descendants of Abraham's concubine, Keturah, who, after the death of Sarah, became his wife . Thus while they were a Semite people, they were not direct descendants of Jacob and the 12 tribes of Israel, and so were not Israelites.
The last 40-year period of Moses' life was spent leading the nation of Israel out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and up to the border of the Promised Land. Early in this period Moses married a Cushite woman. The Cushites were Ethopian or Nubian, a Hamitic people like the Egyptians rather than Semitic.
Thus, Moses, the founder of the nation of Israel, never did marry "A Nice Jewish Girl."
Let me ask you another question. Who else was God's chosen "mongrel?" The Lord Jesus Christ! Have you ever read the genealogy of Jesus in the first chapter of Matthew? There is a very fascinating study there about the woman in Jesus' bloodline. Five women are mentioned in the total genealogy of Jesus. All five are "tainted" women from the perspective of the Jews and of the world: four of them "tainted" rightfully; one of them "tainted" not rightfully but still as far as the Jews were concerned,"tainted" all the same.
Matthew, chapter 1, verse 1:
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David [the descendant of three of these "tainted" women and the husband of another of them], the son of Abraham [who, as a resident of Ur, was involved in some of the most grossly sensual idolatry of his day until God called him. Abraham was able to break free from the grip of the perverted sensuality, but his beloved nephew, Lot, was never able to even though he, too, became a true believer in Abraham's God]
verse 3:
...to Judah was born Perez and Zerah by Tamar;
The first "tainted" woman's story is a little difficult to explain. Her name was Tamar and she was the daughter-in-law of Judah, one of the patriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel. Her husband, Er, was the first born of Judah by his Canaanite wife. But Er was such a wicked man that God slew him. So, Judah gave Tamar Onan, his second born son, to raise up children for his slain first born. The Mosaic Law said if a man died without issue, his brother was to take this widow and raise up children to carry on the dead brother's name [and in this case the dead brother's first born rights]. Unfortunately for Tamar, the second son of Judah was also very wicked, and "whenever he went in to his brother's wife, he wasted his seed on the ground, in order not to give offspring to his brother" [Genesis 38:9]. In direct defiance of God's Law, Onan wanted to get the first born rights for himself, not for the dead brother's son. So, God slew him also. Finally Judah promised Tamar his youngest son when he matured, but Judah, through his marriage, had become so immersed in the superstitious Canaanite culture that he apparently thought Tamar was cursed and he did not give Tamar his youngest son.,
So Tamar took matters into her own hand and, putting a veil over her face, sat by the side of the road appearing to be a cult prostitute knowing that Judah would be coming by. Judah, now thoroughly steeped in Canaanite sexual practices as well, went into her thinking she was a cult prostitute. Since he did not have with him the usual payment of a kid of a goat for a cult prostitute, he left as a pledge his ring and his staff. As soon as Judah left, Tamar unveiled herself and went home to the compound of Judah. Eventually it was discovered that she was pregnant. As soon as Judah heard of his daughter-in-law's pregnancy, he became very self-righteous and demanded, "Bring her out and burn her." She responded, "The one by whom I am pregnant is the owner of this ring and this staff", which, of course, were Judah's She had an incestuous relationship with her father-in-law in order to raise up children to her dead husband's name. Judah publicly confessed that Tamar was "more righteous than I" since he had broken his promise to give her his youngest son. Thus Tamar's first born son, Perez, of the twin sons that she bore Judah, became directly in the line of Jesus.
Then down in verse 4 we read:
...and to Ram was born Amminadab; and to Amminadab, Nahshon; and to Nahshon, Salmon;
Salmon is the son of Nahshon, who was a prince of the tribe of Judah.
...and to Salmon was born Boaz by Rahab;
The second "tainted" woman was Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute. The Hebrew indicates she was just a common prostitute of the streets, selling her body to make a living. But because of her belief in the Israel's God and her act of faith in saving some Israelite spies because of this belief, she was allowed to join Israel and she eventually married a prince of the tribe of Judah.
...and to Boaz was born Obed by Ruth;
They had a son named Boaz, and Boaz married Ruth, the Moabitess, the third "tainted" woman. [Moabites worshipped Baal with all the filthy sexual practices involved.] By the time of her marriage to Boaz, Ruth was a convert to Judaism, having married into a Jewish family who migrated to Moab during a famine in Israel. All the male members of the family died in Moab during the famine. When it was over, Ruth's mother-in-law decided to return to Israel and Ruth chose to return to Israel with her. She abandon her Moabite culture and gods and adopted Israel's in their place.
Verse 6;
...and to Jesse was born David the king. And to David was born Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah;
Here is our fourth "tainted" woman. Notice, God does not call her Bathsheba. Why "the wife of Uriah?" God had made provision in Scripture for a married woman or a betrothed virgin about to be raped. If she was out in the field, where crying out for rescue would do her no good, she was considered innocent. However, in town where she could have been heard, if she did not cry out, she was considered to be adulterous and was stoned along with the man who had the adulterous relationship with her . There is no record Bathsheba ever cried out; she apparently went along with King David in their adulterous affair. So God called her, "the wife of Uriah the Hittite." She was an adulterous woman in the eyes of God even though David later, after having her husband murdered, legally married her.
Then in verse 16, there is the betrothed virgin Mary, who was innocent of any wrong doing but was considered adulterous by the people of her day. She was impregnated by the Holy Spirit of God, but according to a Jewish tradition it was thought she was impregnated out of wedlock by a Roman soldier. While she was not stoned, she was certainly the object of scorn as was Joseph for going ahead with their marriage.
In the genealogical line of His Son, God deliberately names five women, and only five, who from the world's perspective, were all "tainted". From that same line He picked a man after his own heart who would become the greatest king in the history of Israel. What do you think He is trying to tell us by that? He does not care who our ancestors are, what our lifestyle is, who we are, as far as our activities go. All he wants is us. His Son's act of redemption covers all sin -- and in the case of King David this involved both adultery and murder.
All the women named had social stigmas attached to them, but God in deliberately publishing that fact, is saying, "I know they had problems, but I made provision for that, and I want you to know that I have made provision for you too."
So David left his parents there in Moab because of his blood ties to the Moabites, and he returned to his stronghold in the cave of Adullam.
Then God sent Gad, the Prophet, to David to tell him to leave the safety of his stronghold and go back into the wilderness of Judea. [Gad, has a long career as a prophet (II Samuel 24:1) with David. In fact, he and two other prophets, Samuel and Nathan, write David's biography which we are studying in these chapters (I Chronicles 29:29)] Why would God call a prophet, probably away from Samuel up in Ramah, to come all the way down to David to tell him to get out of the safety of his stronghold and go back over into the land of Judah where Saul is waiting? Yes, that is exactly what God is calling on David to do. This is what is known as "tough love."
How will David ever learn to trust God with all his heart, to be a man after God's own heart, if he is safe in his stronghold at Adullam where his safety is tied to a physical relationship of hiding in a cave with his 400 men instead of a spiritual one of simply trusting God in time of danger? So, God deliberately sends him back into Judah where there is risk. The Christian life is a life of risk taking. It is called "faith." Faith is when you step out and act like you believe that what God says is true, even when you do not see how it is ever going to work out. So, David is called to go back into Judah and become a man of faith.
Now, he is back in the land in obedience to God, but the fact remains that he did deceive Ahimelech. He did lie and cheat, and while he is now back in the land in obedience to God and his fellowship with God is restored, that does not stop the natural consequences of his sin. There is a law of God in Galatians that says, "Whatever a man sows, that he shall also reap. [starting in this life down here]. He that sows to the flesh shall reap of the flesh corruption [starting down here]. He that sows to the Spirit shall reap of the Spirit life everlasting." And remember that Galatians was written to Christians.!
David sowed to the flesh and the corruption process goes right on in spite of the fact that David is now back in the land in obedience to God. Here begins the corruption. I Samuel 22, verse 6:
Then Saul heard that David and the men who were with him had been discovered. [Now that David is back in Judah with a force of over four hundred men] Now Saul was sitting in Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand, [that acts as his scepter since Saul is a warrior king] and all his servants were standing around him. And Saul said to his servants who stood around him, "Hear now, O Benjamites! [Apparently only his own tribe constitutes Saul's standing army at this time.] Will the son of Jesse [David was of Judah a rival tribe] also give to all of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds? For all of you have conspired against me so that there is no one who discloses to me when my son [Jonathan] makes a covenant with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you who is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in ambush, as it is this day."
Did you pick up the implication as to how Saul guaranteed the loyalty of his own tribe despite his increasing madness?. He bought their loyalty, didn't he? [Apparently the government "pork barrel" was not invented by the United States Congress after all.] In chapter 8 of I Samuel, what did God warn the Jews would happen when they got a king? He told them that their sons would be conscripted as soldiers and would have commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds placed over them. He said the king would take their vineyards and their fields and give them to his followers. That is exactly what Saul did. He bought himself followers by treating them royally with other people's property. He told them quite frankly, "You are not going to get out of the tribe of Judah what I have given you." Saul projected his own greed, his own desire, onto his own people. Interestingly enough, they are the one tribe that should be loyal to him since he is a Benjamite. Also he projected onto the two most loyal people in his realm his own bitterness and hostility against God and his blindness and greed and desire for power. He considered both Jonathan and David traitors: the two people who really love him and were willing to die for him.
What does that say happens to you when you allow bitterness, hostility, rebellion to reside in your life? Blindness! And what do you do when you allow those things to live in your life? What do you do with those feelings, those emotions, those attitudes? You project them onto everyone around you, don't you. You see them through your eyes, not through the eyes of God. They do not become objects of your love, of your grace, of your compassion. They become threats. They are just like you, and you do not like you. You know what you are like. So, you look at them and you see them as being like you. You cannot trust them, and you cannot love them, and you cannot have compassion for them. Everybody is your enemy. Because who is your worst enemy? Yourself, and you project yourself onto them. This is what Saul has done. This is the wage of his sin.
I Samuel 22, Verse 9:
Then Doeg the Edomite, [the man who was in the presence of Ahimelech back at the tabernacle. He was going through the rites of purification for some reason and therefore, he was a proselyte to Judaism, although he was an Edomite,] who was standing by the servants of Saul, answered and said, "I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub And he inquired of the Lord for him, gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine."
This is exactly what Saul has been waiting to hear.
Then the king sent someone to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's household, [the whole high priestly family] the priests who were in Nob; and all of them came to the king. And Saul said, "Listen now, son of Ahitub." [When Saul started calling you "the son" of something, watch out. First it was "the son of Jesse" and now it is "the son of Ahitub]" And he answered, "Here I am, my lord." Saul then said to him, "Why have you and the son of Jesse conspired against me, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him, that he should rise up against me by lying in ambush as it is this day?"
Why does Saul leap on this thing so desperately? Who is Saul really angry at? God. Who rejected Saul? God. Who chose David? God. Who sent a spirit of evil to harass Saul? God. Who won't answer Saul when he inquires of Him? God. Saul is really angry at God. But, how can you strike against someone who is invisible? You can't! So, how do you get even with God? By picking on someone who is the visibility of God, the priests of God, and one other person. What is David? God's anointed. What does the word "anointed" mean in Hebrew? Messiah! Saul is after God's Messiah and Saul is after God's believing priests. He is going to wipe out both, if he can. Who is Satan after? Who are his two primary targets? 2,000 years ago he tried to get one of them, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, God's anointed. And who has he been trying to destroy for the last 2,000 years? God's priests, you and I, the believers. See who has taken possession of Saul's thinking processes now. This is not a physical battle. This is only the playing out of an action that has been going on in the spiritual realm. Saul is playing the role of Satan's tool down here, and he does not even know it. Saul has become spiritually blind.
Now, who does Satan really want to be? [Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28.] God! He wants to be God. He thinks he is equal to God. He is called the "Prince of the power of the air" in the New Testament. We'll see how Saul fits into this same picture.
Verse 14:
Then Ahimelech answered the king and said, [Essentially the high priest's response follows this pattern: Why wouldn't I have shown favor to David when he stood in this relationship to you Saul?] "And who among all your servants is as faithful as David," [He is your most faithful servant] "even the king's son-in-law," [you gave him your daughter in marriage.] "who is captain over your guard," [You made him head of your picked troops.] "and is honored in your house?" [Who sits in a place of honor in your court] "Did I just begin to inquire of God for him today?" [I've done this many times before with your knowledge.]
Apparently David, as he went out to fight for Saul, always inquired of God, through Ahimelech, whether or not to go. Ahimelech did inquire of God for David back at the tabernacle of Nob. It was not recorded at that time, but it is recorded here, and what did David do right after he left Nob? He fled to Gath. And what did he have to do at Gath to save his skin? Deceive. What would this seem to indicate about whether God answered David or not? He undoubtedly did not get an answer. God did not answer David when David was deceitful. So David, living by his wits, fled to Gath where he almost got killed. What should God's refusal to answer David back at Nob have told David? "David there is sin in your life. Deal with it. You do not have access to God in your present state," but he ignored it. He lived by his wits, went down to Gath and only avoided getting killed by being deceitful. God was trying to stop this process, but David would not behave himself.
Now, here goes Saul, verse 16:
But the king said, "You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's household!" And the king said to the guards who were attending him, "Turn around and put the priests of the Lord [the priests of YHWH whom Saul now considered his enemies] to death, because their hand also is with David and because they knew that he was fleeing and did not reveal it to me." But the servants of the king were not willing to put forth their hands to attack the priests of the Lord. [Even his own tribe were afraid to touch the priests of YHWH] Then the king said to Doeg, "You turn around and attack the priests." And Doeg the Edomite turned around and attacked the priests, and he killed that day eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod. [The ephod was the sacred garment, the mark of office of God's priests. He wiped out 85 of the 86 priests that were in the high priest's family] And he struck Nob the city of the priests with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and infants; also oxen, donkeys, and sheep, he struck with the edge of the sword.
Saul put the city under the ban. Do you remember the provision made in Deuteronomy why cities were to be put under the ban, in other words, were to be totally destroyed? Deuteronomy 13 gives us a concept of where Saul's mind is now, and who is Saul's god now. In Deuteronomy 13 God gives some commandments on how to deal with false prophets, the people who lure His people away from the true God himself.
Deuteronomy 13, verse 12:
"If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you to live in, [this is talking about Jews in Jewish cities] anyone saying that some worthless men have gone out from among you and have seduced the inhabitants of their city, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods (whom you have not known), then you shall investigate and search out and inquire thoroughly. And if it is true and the matter established that this abomination has been done among you, you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, [now these are Jews killing Jews for idolatry] utterly destroying it and all that is in it and its cattle with the edge of the sword. [the city is to be obliterated] Then you shall gather all its booty into the middle of its open square and burn the city and all its booty with fire as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God; and it shall be a ruin forever. It shall never be rebuilt. And nothing from that which is put under the ban shall cling to your hand [you cannot take any booty out of there], in order that the Lord may turn from His burning anger and show mercy to you, and have compassion on you and make you increase, just as He has sworn to your fathers, if you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, keeping all His commandments."
Saul orders the city of the priests of YHWH put under the ban. Who is Saul's god now? Himself! [He doesn't recognize that it is Satan.] He sees idolatry against himself as idolatry against his god, namely himself. Saul is an Old Testament man. He knows the punishment of God for idolatry. He executes on the city of Nob, the priests of YWHW, the very ban that God says is to be exercised on those who go against God.
A city is to be put under the ban because of what? Idolatry! False gods! What does Saul consider YHWH right now? A false god. What do you think Satan offered Saul? What did he offer Eve? What was the key offer to Eve? "Be like God." What do you think he has offered to Saul? "Be like God." Saul has been suckered into being his own god. This same sales talk worked on Eve who was deceived into disobeying the known commandment of God, and, with Adam's willful deliberate disobedience, plunged the whole human race into the fall. Satan has not changed his approach one iota in thousands of years. Why should he when it has been working so well on those who are not focussed on the true God.
What does this say that you and I should be particularly careful about? Any approach to us by Satan will have as the key appeal "pride," the exaltation of "self," the putting of "self "in the place of God. Wondering, "Is God really fair?" That is what Satan told Eve, "Is God really fair? Is he really what He claims to be: holy, righteous, just and good?" And Eve doubted God and left herself wide open to Satan's influence in her thinking, and the fall of man followed.
We would never ask that ourselves, would we? Would we? Would you like a little gauge of whether you would or not? Saul just had killed 85 priests of YHWH, plus women, children, infants, cattle, sheep, and oxen all of them free from involvement in any wrong doing in this situation, and God let him do it. On the other hand, God kept alive, protected and will make king of Israel David who caused it all, and caused it all by his own deceit and wrongdoing. Now, how fair do you think God is? Don't pick on Saul if you are wondering in your heart, was God fair? Does God have the right to allow innocent people to be killed while He saves the life of the wicked sinner who caused their destruction? Can He assert that right and still remain fair? How you answer that will determine your theology, my friends. I am asking you, what was the first reaction deep in your own heart when I put that question to you? Wasn't it, "He was not fair!" Thus you see that we are still open to the same deception that Saul and Eve were. Do not kid yourself; the moment you begin to question God's sovereignty is the moment you open the door to Satanic assault. Satan always comes in by picking on the character of God, the character of Christ. The cults do exactly this in their perversions of true theology. They always involve the character of Christ, making him something less than the Lord God Almighty. It works for them so why should they change Satan's sales pitch. So if any of you had a feeling that God was not quite fair, be careful. Don't let Satan sucker you.
If you had the feeling, "What a rotten deal that David is alive, the one who caused the problem and even infants were killed by the sword," then let me ask you another question, "Where did the infants go when they died?" To be with God. "Where did the children go when they died?" To be with God. "Where did the believing priests and their families go when they died?" To be with God. Now, if you really believe what the apostle Paul states in Philippians when he says, "I would rather depart and be with Christ which is very much better," [The future life in heaven is so much better than this present earthly one, that if I had a vote, Paul says in Philippians, I would vote to go home.] then you can see God gave these that were slain a gift. Instead of continuing on through the struggle and the suffering of "boot camp" down here, he promoted them from their earthly life to live in His presence forever more. But we are so "this world" oriented, however, that our first thought is, "God is not fair." We must remember always to keep an eternal perspective when we read the Word of God.
Someone from the audience just asked "What do you mean when you say 'God just allowed this to happen,' that God had no responsibility in that?" No, God takes full responsibility for whatever happens to his own. He never evades his responsibilities,and I make no excuses for my God. God could have stopped this whole episode with the snap of a finger. All he had to do was give Saul a massive heart attack, and that would have been the end of that. There was no Stanford University Medical Center in those days. However, he did not. He chose to make David king of Israel, and David would be Israel's greatest king. God was going to make David into what God Himself calls him "a man after my own hear," and when God finished working on David, David would be exactly that. Two of the advantages that go with being God is that you are always right and that you always win; and the sooner we learn this and bow to its implications in our lives, the sooner we will really enjoy being God's children.
God's apparent "extravagance" with the lives of believers is classically illustrated in the martyrdom of the early Christians. They, together with their families, were thrown into arenas as food for lions. They were put on stakes, covered with tar and lit as torches for banquets. Actually the word "martyr" in the Greek simply means "witness." But because in those days so many times witnessing cost you your life, the term became consistently used as a witness by death. "Martyr" today means to die for your witness. Those early Christians died by the hundreds and God could have stopped that, but he did not. But, again, take your eyes off this life a moment and think, "Where did those believers go when they died and with Whom were they after death?" Additionally, early accounts show that numbers of pagans became Christians by watching the way Christians died. Again, if God chooses to evangelize the lost in this manner, it is His right. "The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church."
Next God is going to deal with David. God is going to teach David a lesson in unjust suffering. He does discipline his own. While He does protect them, He also disciplines them. Next week Chapter 23.
Prayer:
Father, we thank you so much for the way you expose the fallacy that goes around that this earth is so important, that this life is where it is, that we can be like gods and have our own little empires and our own little ego trips and do all our own little things and it does not really matter. Thank you, Father, for making us realize that when we begin to question you and your actions and your attitudes, we begin to put ourselves in the place of God, and we open the door wide to the god of this world, and he moves right on in and reinforces our stupidity. Help us, Father, to be mindful that that is exactly what occurs just as night must follow day. Make us wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name.
[Teaching on the first 12 verses of I Samuel 23 is missing. They are quoted here for continuity.}
I Samuel 23, verses 1-2:
Then they told David, saying, "Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and are plundering the threshing floors." So David inquired of the Lord, saying, "Shall I go and attack these Philistines?" And the Lord said to David, "Go and attack the Philistines, and deliver Keilah."
Verse 3:
But David's men said to him, "Behold, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the ranks of the Philistines?"
Verses 4-5:
Then David inquired of the Lord once more. And the Lord answered him and said, "Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand." So David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines; and he led away their livestock and struck them with a great slaughter. Thus David delivered the inhabitants of Keilah.
Verses 6-8:
Now it came about, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand. When it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah, Saul said, "God has delivered him into my hand, for he shut himself in by entering a city with double gates and bars." So Saul summoned all the people for war, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men.
Verses 9-11:
Now David knew that Saul was plotting evil against him; so he said to Abiathar the priest, "Bring the ephod here." Then David said, "O Lord God of Israel, Thy servant has heard for certain that Saul is seeking to come to Keilah to destroy the city on my account. Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down just as Thy servant has heard?" And the Lord said, "He will come down."
Verse 12:
Then David said, "Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?" And the Lord said, "They will surrender you."
[The teaching continues.]
I Samuel 23, verse 13:
Then David and his men, about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When it was told Saul that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the pursuit.
Suppose you are a people with very little loyalty to anyone but yourself and your own little tribal situation, and suppose you, too, dream of fields and vineyards and power and delightfully attractive things which Saul has been doling out to his own people, the Benjamites, the least of the Judahitesand not to the Judahites . How can you [the men of Keilah] get your share of the spoils of Israel? Deliver David into Saul's hands and then you will get fields and vineyards and power over thousands and hundreds.
Besides, David isn't even a real Jew. His great-grandmother was a Moabitess and his great-great-grandmother was a Canaanitess.
You can see the thoughts going through the minds of the Judahites. David would be Social Security for whoever gave him up, an annuity plan, stock options with a capital S. And David; he has nowhere to go except to God. Look what God does to him.
I Samuel 23, verse 14:
And David stayed in the wilderness in the strongholds, and remained in the hill country in the wilderness of Ziph [which is to the west of the middle of the Dead Sea in an exceedingly barren area]. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand.
Day after day after day Saul tried to trap David. Day after day after day YHWH protected him. David has six hundred men now, armed with weapons of iron and well provisioned. He has very skillfully avoided Saul day after day. It is almost inevitable that he would think, "I am a pretty good general. We are living off the land, not a very friendly land either, and we are making it. We are beating Saul at his own game." And, of course, the longer David keeps his men safe, the more their loyalty to him grows. So David is going to get a second little testing to teach him about his own resources.
But God is a very faithful God. Before he ever puts you through a test, he adheres to his promise in I Corinthians 10: 13 where he says he will never test you beyond that which you are able to bear but will, with every testing, provide a way of escape that you might be able to go through it. He will in some way strengthen you before the testing, so, when it comes, you will be walking in righteousness with him and will be able to handle the test and not collapse. In this case he does a beautiful thing.
I Samuel 23, verse 15:
Now David became aware that Saul had come out to seek his life while David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh. And Jonathan, Saul's son, arose and went to David at Horesh, [Remember Jonathan was at home. He would not take part in hunting David, and when he finds out his father is going to go down to Horesh, he goes down first] and encouraged him in God. Thus he said to him, "Do not be afraid, because the hand of Saul my father shall not find you, and you will be king over Israel and I will be next to you; and Saul my father knows that also." So the two of them made a covenant before the Lord [before YHWH, the God of the Covenant] and David stayed at Horesh while Jonathan went to his house. [He went back home. He would not participate.]
To strengthen David before the next test, which is really going to be tough, God sends him Jonathan, the one man who has the most to lose if David lives. He would not only lose his vineyards, his fields, and his command of thousands but also the kingship. With David dead, Jonathan would be king of Israel and Saul's dynasty would continue. But God deliberately sends Jonathan, who makes a covenant with David, [before the Lord, YHWH, the God of the covenant who anointed David and covenanted to make him king of Israel] that he will be second to David and that David will be king. So of all the people who stood to gain by David's death, the one with the most to gain is the one sent by God to make a covenant with David regarding the kingdom,. Jonathan gives up everything when, with just a single knife thrust to the stomach, he could have had it all. Jonathan is committed to David becoming king.
Now, having strengthened David, God puts him to the second test. The Keilahites, you remember, were planning to betray David, but they were not going to initiate the betrayal. They would let Saul do that. He was going to surround their city and destroy it in order to be sure he got David and all his men. The Keilahites would just hand David over. But now we have the Ziphites. The Ziphites live to the west of the Dead Sea, right in the heart of Judah. They are members of the same tribe as David. You would think they would be on his side, but all the fields and vineyards and command of thousands and hundreds are going to the Benjamites. Like the Keilahites, the Ziphites want a share of the spoil, and God has delivered into their hands David, the very thing they need to gain all they want the most.
I Samuel 23, verse 19:
Then Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah, [They go all the way up to Benjamin territory, to Saul's headquarters. They initiate the betrayal] saying, "Is David not hiding with us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon? [the desert] Now then, O king, come down according to all the desire of your soul to do so; and our part shall be to surrender him into the king's hand." And Saul said, "May you be blessed of the Lord [YHWH]; for you have had compassion on me. [It is interesting how religious the flesh gets, and not just blessed of God, but blessed of the God of the covenant, their God, for a little betrayal. But Saul is no fool] Go now, make more sure, and investigate and see his place where his haunt is, and who has seen him there; [get your intelligence really down solid] for I am told that he is very cunning. [This is probably true. This is probably the thing that God is now going to deal with in David] So look, and learn about all the hiding places where he hides himself, and return to me with certainty, and I will go with you; and it shall come about if he is in the land that I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah."
I believe by now David is really convinced he is very cunning. He now has a reputation for being very cunning. He has a pretty good track record for being very cunning, and I think he believes he is actually becoming very cunning, Somewhere along the line YHWH is being displaced by David when in reality it is YHWH taking care of David.
This is very easy to do. I find it true here. I have had people come up and tell me how much this study has blessed them. Do you know my first thought? "What a great Bible teacher you are, Bob. Isn't the Lord lucky to have you on his side instead of some everyday run-of-the-mill kind of guy?" Do you know how I start studying every Monday morning? In sheer panic. Have you ever read I Samuel through? Take chapter 23, for instance. I read the passage and say to myself, "What on earth is in there? It is just nothing but a Travelogue, and I am not allowed to use slides." David goes from Adullam to Keilah and back to Adullam and runs around the country a little bit. That is it! Big deal! I say to the Lord, "Lord, down the road on Sunday, I have to teach this passage and there is nothing here!". Now cold clammy sweat begins to possess me, and all of a sudden I don't think I am the world's greatest Bible teacher or that God is all that lucky to have me on his side. I am extremely fortunate that God even consents to deal with me, and, if He doesn't start talking through his Scripture, I am one dead teacher come Sunday morning. It is a very healthy, but a very unpleasant experience, and it occurs every Monday morning.
So that is what God is teaching David here. David thinks he is very cunning, and he is going to be "out-cunned" by some people who are smarter than he is. These Ziphites are brilliant in their deceit.
I Samuel 23, verse 24:
Then they [the Ziphites] arose and went to Ziph before Saul. Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon [which is just south of Ziph] in the Arabah [the great Rift Valley that runs from the Sea of Galilee all the way down the Jordanian Valley to the Gulf of Akabah] to the south of Jeshimon [the wilderness. They are out in a desert area]. When Saul and his men went to seek him, they [the Ziphites] told David, [Saul comes looking after David, and the Ziphites go to David and say, "Hey, you know who is coming, Saul.] and he came down to the rock
There is a mountainous range in this wilderness of desert. "The rock" is probably a conelike mountain or mound sitting out in the desert all alone. It would be a beautiful hiding place as long as no one knew you were there, but the Ziphites have told Saul all of the hiding places of David. Everyone of them! Trying to capture a guerrilla band like David's is like hitting a body of mercury. It goes in all directions! Saul needs to get David holed up somewhere, like he had in Keilah, so he can surround him. The Ziphites tell David, "Saul is coming after you," so he heads for this cone where he can hide. No one is going to look for him in the middle of the desert on a barren mountain with very little water, in fact, there is very possibly no water there at all. No pasture either, and 600 men needing food and drink. Ordinarily no one would look there but the Ziphites tell Saul exactly where David is. So there is David holed up, and Saul's got him.
And when Saul heard it, he pursued David in the wilderness of Maon [Where did Saul hear of it? From David's dear friends the Ziphites. They had already counted the vineyards and fields, and they were putting on their armor and putting on their braid] And Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain; and David was hurrying to get away from Saul, for Saul and his men were surrounding David and his men to seize them.
Saul knows exactly how to trap David on a conical mountain. He goes around one side and David goes around the other, just like a merry-go-round. Somewhere along the line one of them is going to have to break loose and head out into the desert where they will very easily be spotted. Once they are spotted, they are dead. Saul has David just where he wants him now. Saul knows it, and so does David. All of a sudden David is going to get that Monday morning panic feeling. He will be reading a travelogue with no slides, and he has to produce, or he is one dead pigeon. This is exactly where God wants him. He wants dead pigeons, for generals, for kings, for Bible teachers. All God wants from us is a hunk of dead meat, and the deader the better. That way he can take that hunk of dead meat and make it alive with his life. So whatever comes from it is Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty, and not the flesh doing its best to help God run his kingdom. He wants David as a hunk of dead meat, so he can take that dead meat and make it a king "after his own heart." If he has to, God will run David around that mountain until he is ragged. And God does, but remember, he will with "every temptation, provide a way of escape," and here is David's escape.
I Samuel 23, verse 27:
But a messenger came to Saul, saying, "Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid on the land." [Philistines are not so dumb either. If Saul is going to be down in the south of Judah with all his armies, it leaves the northern part of Israel wide open, and it is threshing time. So the Philistines are having themselves a ball with all the wheat harvest while Saul is busy down south chasing one guy.] So Saul returned from pursuing David, and went to meet the Philistines; therefore they [David and his men] called that place the Rock of Escape
They commemorated it. That says something about David and his men's view of their own resources as adequate. They memorialized that place as a worship act to their God, as an altar like Abraham. As Abraham trekked through the land, wherever God appeared to him, he erected an altar. David and his men knew who got them out of that mess, YHWH, and they called it the Rock of Escape, literally "the Rock of Slipperies." They slipped away from Saul.
I Samuel 23, verse 29:
And David went up from there and stayed in the strongholds of Engedi.
Engedi is way up, in the middle, on the western side of the Dead Sea. It is full of limestone cliffs and pock-marked with limestone caves, honeycombed with little valleys, the kind of place David ought to be. He is not going to be trapped again. He is no longer quite so smart, and now he realizes but for YHWH he would be dead. By the way, there is a tremendous water supply up there. It is called "The Fountain of the Young Goats" So everything David needs to supply him is there.
How did God provide a way of escape that David might be able to get through the desert? Who were the real agents? The Philistines, the enemy. One thing God likes to do in your life and my life is to take the very enemies that have you petrified and use them to provide a way of escape. Have you ever noticed that? That is what he does here. He takes the very people David feared to make his enemies, but which God made him make his enemies, and uses them to rescue David. With great reverence I say, God loves to throw his sovereignty around to show us what kind of a God he really is, totally adequate for any of our needs. He loves to deliberately take the thing you fear the most and use it to deliver you from that fear, just as he has done here with David.
Next time we will look at Chapter 24.
Prayer:
Father, we just thank you so much for your Word and what it says to our hearts. It brings up these wonderful principles of your faithfulness, Father, not our ability, and how you are committed to making us men and women of God, men and women after your own heart, men and women totally dependent upon you as our Lord as we walk this earth. Father, we just pray that we might remember that this is your purpose and that nothing happens apart from this purpose to make us totally your availability, totally your visibility, totally yours. Father, teach us to look upon everything that happens in our lives as having this purpose behind it, having the sovereignty of a God who can take our enemies, our fears, our greatest horrors and use them as instruments to allow us to go through the suffering, through the testings and make us glorious creatures in the end. Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.
You recall last week in Chapter 23, God taught David not to leave back doors open as a means of escape instead of wholly trusting God. He was giving David, what we call in the Navy, our standard cold salt water bath. He was teaching him how to become a man of God, and it was a pretty rough process. Remember David left a back door to the Philistines open in case he needed to flee there, but God instructed him go up and recapture Keilah from the Philistines which made him odious in their eyes; therefore, that back door was slammed shut. Neither could he go back into the land of Israel without being pursued by Saul. Last week we saw him caught on that somewhat conical hill in the wilderness of Maon with Saul surrounding him. He could not flee into the desert because he would be very visible. At this time, the Philistines, taking advantage of Saul's absence, mounted an attack, which drove Saul away from David to them. So, at this time, the very enemy that David was afraid of making was used of God to save him salvation from Saul.
Now God is going to deal some more with David. Saul has fled back to fight the Philistines and to save Israel, while David has fled to the wilderness of Engedi, which is about half way up the Dead Sea and west of it. It is a very wild area, but that particular location has a water supply and is pockmarked with limestone caves, which are ideal for hiding. David has 600 men, possibly families too. However, tradition tells us that one cave is big enough that 30,000 people hid in it during a violent storm. So we are talking about mammoth caves even if that number has been exaggerated over time.
Here in Chapter 24, we have David safe in Engedi, away from Saul and everything under control. You might think, "Now God will leave him alone." Well, look what happens.
I Samuel, Chapter 24, verse 1:
Now it came about when Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, saying, "Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi." Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel, and went to seek David and his men in front of the Rocks of the Wild Goats.
This time Saul is going to get David for sure. He does not just send down troops. He gets together, what we call in the Navy, a special task force: 3,000 hand picked men. His fighting men out number David's 5 to 1, and this time he means to wipe him out. If Saul does not get David fairly soon, he will lose his kingdom to the Philistines. They are infesting the area. So he comes right back to pursue David and to relentlessly hunt him down.
Why is God so relentless? You would think David had had enough. What is God after? What has been the experience in your life when God, in his relentlessness, will not let you go? Have you every thought what God is preparing you for? Why is he doing this? What is His perspective compared with our perspective? How do we view this time, this life? This life is only a temporary thing, and God is determined down here in "Boot Camp," or if you are an Army veteran, "Basic Training," to perfect us, to bring us to completion for the goal he has for us for all eternity. A true lover never lets his beloved fall short of what the true lover wants for her. That is true in a marriage. It is true in the parent and child relationship. If you are a proper parent you will not let up in teaching your children right from wrong. You will hang in there and hang in there and discipline them as often as you have to so they will learn the things you do not want them to forget. You love your children relentlessly, as God loves us and by this very relentlessness with which he pursues us, God is preparing for us an "eternal weight of glory," and he will pursue us right to the grave. The Apostle Paul says, "I am confident of this very thing that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." [Philippians 1:6]
There is a second reason God relentlessly pursues us. When you successfully handle something difficult, it not only makes you stronger but also a good counselor. Why? Because you now have experience in that area of life. If you are having struggles in your marriage, what can a Catholic priest do for you? He has never been married. If you are having a struggle with your kids, what can he do for you if he has never had children? To whom do you want to go when you are hurting? If you are an alcoholic, you want to go to an alcoholic who has made it back to sobriety. If you are on drugs, you want a former addict who has been there and come out of it and is now clean. If you are having emotional struggles, you want somebody who has been in the pits. You need someone who has been where you are. So God will do to us exactly what He did to his Son, Jesus Christ, whom he loved with all the infinite love of his heart. What was that? Ultimately He crucified Him, but before that look at the life He gave Him. Right off, He was probably considered an illegitimate child in Nazareth because his mother conceived him out of wedlock. He was born into a poor family. In His teaching He would have been considered an upstart by the rabbis of his day because he had no background, no education other than some synagogue schooling. Additionally He spoke with that peculiar Galilean accent rather than a pure Judean one. His father apparently died quite early, and he became the carpenter of Nazareth. In Nazareth the soil conditions were such that it was necessary many times to dig down many feet to build a house on bed rock. [Remember the parable about building your house on a rock and not on sand?] Jesus must have sweat through many hours of hard manual labor and become darkened by the sun to reach that bed rock and to build houses that would stand firm. Then his public ministry of healing the sick, raising the dead, always, doing good, teaching truth, exhibiting a sinless life while befriending sinners, from prostitutes to greedy tax collectors, produced for Him what? Hatred, relentless persecution by the Jewish religious authorities, eventual desertion by his disciples, and finally the worst kind of death the Romans could inflict. As the Scriptures point out, the Son of God learned obedience from the things which He suffered.
But what about now? What does Hebrews 4:14-16 say about the high priesthood of Jesus Christ with reference to us? How is it we can run to our High Priest with a sense that he will understand us? Because he has been where we are. We do not have a High Priest who cannot be reached by the feelings of our weaknesses since He is "One who has been tempted in all thing as we are, yet without sin." Therefore, we are to draw near to Him with confidence [literally the word has the idea of "with freedom of speech"] to the throne of grace, [undeserved favor] that we might receive mercy [even if we have already fallen flat on our faces in the gutter] and may find grace to help in time of need [Just when we are about to give in to temptation]. How is this possible? Because He knows our feelings; He knows what we are going through; He knows all our struggles. Thus He wants us to come to Him with confidence. Don't play games with him; He has been there. In the same way, God is determined to make David a "priest," as well as a king; Someone who can reach out and empathize with sinners.
From a human standpoint, if you had to pick the worst situation you could think of in your Christian ministry, who of all the people in your life would you think would be the worst person to minister to? Your enemy, of course. Here is David being relentlessly pursued by Saul who has now become a usurper on the throne, who is someone who hates him, who is trying to kill him, who has drafted a special task force to do the job. David meanwhile is righteous and has been anointed by God as rightful king of Israel. Here he is a hot-headed Jew, runt of the litter, obliged to fight his brothers and sisters all his early life to get his fair share, but now anointed king of Israel and what does he get; Saul on his tail everywhere he goes. He is undoubtedly thinking, "How come God is letting this happen to me? What did I do to deserve this?" The red hair starts standing on end, and he needs another cold salt water bath because God wants to use him to minister to his enemy Saul. God loves Saul with all his heart and wants him to repent. He does not want him to founder as he is now doing. And God wants to use David as His instrument to bring Saul back to Himself.
So let us see what happens.
First let me read this poem which appears in Chapter 2 of Ray Stedman's book "The Servant Who Rules, Mark 1-8". It is anonymous:
When God wants to drill a man,
And thrill a man,
And skill a man;
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part,
When he yearns with all his heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch his methods, watch his ways--
How he ruthlessly perfects
Whom he royally elects.
How he hammers him and hurts him,
And with mighty blows, converts him
Into trial shapes of clay
Which only God understands,
While his tortured heart is crying,
And he lifts beseeching hands.
How he bends but never breaks
When his good he undertakes.
How he uses
Whom he chooses,And with every purpose, fuses him,
By every act, induces him
To try his splendor out.
God knows what he's about.
This is exactly what God is doing with David now.
I Samuel, Chapter 24, verse 3:
And he [Saul] came to the sheepfolds on the way, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the inner recesses of the cave. And the men of David said to him, "Behold, this is the day of which the Lord said to you, 'Behold; I am about to give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good to you.'" Then David arose and cut off the edge of Saul's robe secretly. And it came about afterward that David's conscience bothered him because he had cut off the edge of Saul's robe.
As Saul comes out of bright sunlight, which reflects off the limestone cave, into a dark cavern, David is sitting in the back of the cave with his 600 men, or at least a good number of them. Saul sits down, facing out, minding his own business. To the oriental mind, this is a God given opportunity. Saul who has been pursuing David and his men, making their life a living hell, is sitting in the light at the front of the cave while they, who outnumber him maybe 100 to 1, are in the dark at the back of the cave. Saul is theirs! So David's men put the pressure on. Don't bother to check with God. "Look at the circumstances! They must be from God. God has delivered Saul into your hands." Unfortunately David listens to them. "Then David arose and cut off the edge of Saul's robe secretly."
Why did he do that? Have you ever done this? You can't do what you really want to do so you do a symbolic act, in this case a token slaying. Have you ever had the boss chew you up one side and down the other, while you sit and say, "Yes, Sir" and "No, Sir" in the proper order? You have to because you have a mortgage, kids with teeth being straightened or kids in college, and you need the job. So you suffer unjustly as he chews on you all day long. By day's end, you are really angry. You can't talk back to your boss or you will lose your job, but you have a wife at home, and since you are both Christians, she has to stay with you. So, you go home and snarl at her. Who are you really snarling at? Your boss! You are symbolically saying, "Stick it in your ear, boss."
Well, Saul has been trying to kill David for sometime, and David would love to kill Saul to get even, but Saul is the Lord's anointed, so David's hands are tied. But he can't resist sneaking up and symbolically killing Saul by cutting off the edge of his robe. Boy, it feels good! But who is David really cutting off? God! Who has allowed that nasty boss to unjustly chew you up one side and down the other? God! So who are you really angry at? God!
David is no more given to resisting temptation than we are. Here is his opportunity to kill Saul, and he cannot resist. In his heart he indeed killed Saul. Remember what the Lord said about adultery in Matthew 5:27? He says, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery'; but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.'" If you savor the lust in your mind, you have already committed adultery or fornication, and you need to confess it before God, repent and put it away. You do not congratulate yourself that you refrained from the physical act.
This is where David is. David wanted to kill Saul, and in his own mind, he did kill Saul, and it tasted delicious. That is why verse 5 says, "...it came about afterward [after he had cut off the edge of Saul's garment] that David's conscience bothered him because he had cut off the edge of Saul's robe."
I Samuel 24, verse 6:
So he said to his men, [David now realizes he has sinned against God. He knows in his heart that Saul is God's anointed, and that God has allowed him to stay on the throne this long because God chose to do so.] "Far be it from me because of the Lord that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord's anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the Lord's anointed."
He is convicted about "stretching out his hand" against Saul.
I Samuel 24, verse 7:
And David persuaded his men [literally "tore apart" his men. These men really want to kill Saul. Remember they were people "in distress," literally "bitter of soul," people who were being hounded by Saul now and previously people who were misfits in Saul's kingdom. They were not nice people, and they all had something against Saul.] with these words [It must have taken quite a bit of persuasion and it must have been done in very whispered tones] and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. And Saul arose, left the cave, and went on his way.
What did David do here? By cutting off Saul's robe he did kill Saul in his mind. Then, when conscience smote him, he did what? "For the Lord's sake," he essentially said, "I can't do this," and he took a positive step of repentance. Mind you it was not just a little confession, "Sorry, Lord." It was a positive step of repentance. Do not ever kid yourself that when I John 1:9 says, "Confess your sins," that it means just a little, "Sorry, Lord," and then it's O.K. to repeat the offense. "Confess" literally means "To say with God;" to see it exactly as God sees it and to call it what God calls it. Then God forgives you and you are cleansed. As we saw, the process may possibly involve a salt water bath, but it requires true repentance, a change of mind. David made a positive step of repentance here.
Now, when you have confessed your sin and have truly repented of it, and have claimed the forgiveness and cleansing of God, how useable are you of God? Well, Romans 8:28 says, "All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose?" Having sinned, which has eternal consequences, since you have lost some reward at the judgement seat of Christ, what does a redemptive God do with that act of sin? He makes it work for good. He takes the very person who did the sinning and makes him available to be used with other people with the same problem. That is exactly what he does here with David. The sin was wrong. God does not condone it and there is an eternal loss of reward on David's part , but God does open up a ministry.
Now, why would David's ministry to Saul be so effective in Saul's life? If I have been through what the people I am ministering to are going through, I do not have to play games with them. I have been where they are, and this gives me a freedom and authority in talking to them which I would not otherwise have. I have been there. I have been freed. I know what works. I know that if they will face up to the same thing that I faced up to, if they will call it what it is and take a true step of positive repentance, it will be freeing for them too.
So look at what God does with David now that he has been through the steps. What was David's sin? Murder! What is Saul's sin? Murder! They are both murderers. They both want to kill each other. But now that David has mastered that desire, he is the ideal person to use in the life of Saul. Watch how God uses him.
I Samuel 24, verse 8:
Now afterward [After this process of committing the sin, of repenting when he saw it was actually against God and of taking a positive step of repentance] David arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, saying, [Apparently there is now some distance between David and Saul] "My lord the king!" And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the ground and prostrated himself.
What is the first step in dealing with a person who has the same sin you have, particularly if they are older? As Paul tells Timothy, in I Timothy 5, "Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but appeal to him as a father." The fact that you have become victorious over this particular sin does not make you superior. You were saved by the grace of God and but for the grace of God you would still be a Saul. It was only by the grace of God that you were able to appropriate the life of Christ and become victor. You are not better than the victim, and, therefore, you are to treat that person as an equal or in the case of an older man, as a father. It should not give you a judgmental perspective but a brother's perspective. You are both victims of the same problem. "One of us happens to have been able to appropriate the life of Christ, and I would like to tell you how you can do it also and have the same freedom I have." David does not denigrate Saul, he bows to the earth and calls him, "My lord, the king."
I Samuel 24, verse 9:
And David said to Saul, "Why do you listen to the words of men, saying, 'Behold, David seeks to harm you'? Behold, this day your eyes have seen that the Lord had given you today into my hand in the cave, and some said to kill you, but my eye had pity on you; and I said, 'I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord's anointed.'
What does David recognize about Saul and his position as king? David has been anointed king of Israel by God, but Saul is still on the throne? Saul is determined to stay there by his own might, but he is still there because God has allowed it. He is still God's anointed king of Israel. David is not yet ready. David now, having repented, gets God's perspective on the situation; he no longer sees it from his own perspective that says, "I was anointed king years ago, but Saul is still sitting on that throne." No, he is a kid yet compared to Saul, and God has a whole training program for him. Saul is on the throne by God's permission not by Saul's wisdom or purity. So David now sees Saul from God's perspective.
I Samuel, verse 11:
"Now, my father, [that is exactly what I Timothy says to call him, your father] see!"
What does the word "my father" say about David's attitude toward Saul? What has happened to David now that he looks at Saul from God's perspective? He feels love for him even though Saul still wants to kill him. God loves Saul, and he loves him right where he is, as a murderer and usurper. David, now, seeing him from God's perspective, can look upon Saul, his enemy, and see him as a man who needs help, and he loves him. He comes out with, "My father," not with "My king," but "My father."
I Samuel 24, verse 11b:
"Indeed, see the edge of your robe in my hand! For in that I cut off the edge of your robe and did not kill you, know and perceive that there is no evil or rebellion in my hands, and I have not sinned against you, though you are lying in wait for my life to take it."
This is a glorious passage. When David repents and agrees with God, God takes that very piece of robe David had sinfully cut off and sanctifies it! He takes the very thing used for sin and uses it for righteousness. This is the redemption of God; Romans 8:28 in full bloom. Cutting off that robe was cutting Saul's throat in David's mind. It symbolized murder. However, in the hands of God and a repentant man it becomes an instrument of redemption. Since David has dealt with his own sin and understands that it was against God, he is now used of God as a mediator for Saul. He begins to focus Saul on the real issue in Saul's life which is God's will because he has finally realized God's will was the real issue in his life too.
I Samuel 24, verse 12:
"May the Lord judge between you and me, and may the Lord avenge me on you; but my hand shall not be against you. As the proverb of the ancients says, 'Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness;' but my hand shall not be against you. After whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom are you pursuing? A dead dog, a single flea? The Lord therefore be judge and decide between you and me; and may He see and plead my cause, and deliver me from your hand."
David is trying to get Saul to focus on YHWH, the God of Israel, the God of the covenant; the God who anointed Saul king; the God who allows Saul to stay king. Saul is not fighting David, he is fighting God. God would like Saul to repent too, and he uses David who can now focus Saul on God because he himself has seen his need to focus on God.
There is an interesting simile here. In that day a dead dog was a cur, a mangy cur. According to David, who is the king of Israel pursuing? "A dead dog." What is he implying there about his ability to wrest the throne from Saul? Does David feel in his heart that he has any ability to get that throne on his own? No, he sees himself as "a dead dog." Dead dogs can not bite. "I have no ability to take this throne away from you, oh King of Israel!" What else does he feel like, "a single flea." On the carcass of this dead dog, Saul is after this one flea from all the infestation of this whole carcass. That is pretty stupid, isn't it? Well, what is Israel being infested with right now while Saul spends his time chasing one young man?. The Philistines! They are infesting the country. There are fleas everywhere in Israel, and Saul is giving away the kingdom piece-by-piece while chasing "one single flea" on the carcass of "a dead dog." David not only points Saul toward God, he also appeals to his reason in an attempt to get him to focus. David also asks that the Lord plead his cause, which God does beautifully. But what does it say about how much the Lord really wants Saul to repent, this man who is violently opposed to God? How far will God go to redeem a sinner? All the way! Saul deserves nothing but the condemnation of God, and God still loves him and wants him to repent.
Now at least Saul feels remorse if not true repentance yet. I Samuel 24, verse 16:
Now it came about when David had finished speaking these words to Saul, that Saul said, "Is this your voice, my son David?"
What has Saul been calling David up to now? "Son of Jesse," son of that family with Moabitesses and Canaanites in it, [even one marriage to an Ammonite], a nothing kid, that runt of the litter who comes from a mixed bag of a background, not even a pure Jew. What happens when David shows compassion and mercy to Saul and calls him, "My father," shows him respect which Saul does not deserve, prostrates himself and calls him, "My lord, my king." What does it do to the heart of the enemy? It melts it, doesn't it? "David, my beloved," is what Saul really means when he calls him "my son, David."
I Samuel 24, verse 16b:
Then Saul lifted up his voice and wept.
Has it ever struck you that the tragedy of Saul's life is that it is lived in a constant state of tension? He really does love David. There really is a father-son relationship there. Saul is not a degenerate maniac. He is an outstanding man, although admittedly living in his own strength instead of God's, but he really is an outstanding man. He is a far better father than David. He was a great king while he was walking with the Lord. He is a superb general. His own sons love him. His son, godly Jonathan, goes to his death with him. His other sons also stay with him and are killed alongside their father Saul in his last battle. In the midst of his madness, Saul's sons die with their father. What do the sons of David do? They fight among themselves and one son even tries to kill David and take over his throne. Humanly speaking Saul is really an extraordinary man. Tragically though, Saul lives much of his live dominated by the flesh even though he has a godly background. "Saul" means "prayed for." Since his father named him "prayed for," he probably was an answer to prayer. And Saul, in the depths of his soul, really wants to do good, but he is in bondage to the flesh which says, "I come first." "Me, myself and I," the unholy trinity. Have you ever thought about the horrendous tension Saul must have undergone? Let me read you about another Saul 1,000 years later.
Even though 1,000 years apart the two Sauls have essentially the same experience. In Chapter 7 of Romans, the Apostle Paul [Saul of Tarsus before his conversion] a Benjamite, from the tribe of Saul, named for Saul the king, starting in verse 14 writes to the Roman church:
Romans 7, verse 14:
For we know that the Law is spiritual [God given]; but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin [I am a victim not a victor]. For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good. So now, no longer am I the one going it, but sin which indwells me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin [the flesh] which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other with my flesh the law of sin.
That is a perfect description of what Saul of Tarsus and a thousand years earlier Saul of Benjamin went through. The life of Saul of Benjamin was just an agony of tension. A man who really wanted to do good but who was driven by the flesh. You can see it here. He just breaks down and weeps when he is confronted with the love action of David his son.
In I Samuel 24, verse 17 he says:
And he said to David, "You are more righteous than I; for you have dealt well with me, while I have dealt wickedly with you. And you have declared today that you have done good to me, that the Lord delivered me into your hand and yet you did not kill me. For if a man finds his enemy, will be let him go away safely? May the Lord therefore reward you with good in return for what you have done to me this day."
He makes a public confession and fully acknowledges that David is doing right. He is a broken man, but do you notice one thing about his blessing? It is the same kind of blessing that he voiced before. Remember in Chapter 23 he blessed the Ziphites for betraying David into his hands. "May you be blessed of the Lord for your compassion on me." What does his blessing here emphasize again? "May the Lord therefore reward you with good in return for what you have done to me this day." The flesh is incurably self-centered. Even when it blesses, the blessing is self-centered. Even when it is religious, it is self-centered. It demands something for itself.
We see it in our worship systems. It is apparent in these beautiful cathedrals. Their stained glass windows, gorgeous wooden carvings, great high altars are designed to make you feel in the presence of God. The beautiful music they play is designed to give you a sense of worship, but instead of supplementing the teaching of the Word as it should, in many places it has taken over as the main event because it makes you feel religious. The pastor will follow with at most a twenty minute message on how good you really are deep down inside your being, encourage you to try harder, to do the best you can, and declare God will reward you. That is right out of the pit! The message of the gospel is that we are hopeless and helpless and cannot do anything that is acceptable to God in and of ourselves. The flesh cannot please God. Therefore God has taken steps to do in us and through us what we cannot, and even many times will not, do ourselves. Don't try harder. Trust! Walk in obedience to your Lord and while you are doing it, have an attitude of thanksgiving that He is doing continually in you and through you what you cannot and will not do yourself. You can go to hell in the most beautiful cathedrals in all the world.
When I was a youth, I attended for awhile a church down south with a new million dollar [in those days a lot of money] "sanctuary," which is what they called it and which is not Scriptural. [You are the sanctuary of God if you are indwelt by Him]. It was actually just a building with a mortgage. I admit that it was beautiful. But at the same time they redid the hymnal and removed any reference to the blood of Jesus Christ when the Scriptures teach in both the Old and New Testaments that without the shedding of His blood there is no forgiveness of sin. They previously had had a godly old Scotch preacher who taught right on line with the Word of God. When he retired they brought in a young man from one of the liberal seminaries and in one generation that church lost its way. It is now one of the most beautiful places I know of in Southern California to go to hell.
Now on to verse 20. God pleads David's cause and he pleads it from the lips of David's enemy: I Samuel 24, verse 20:
"And now, behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. So now swear to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants after me, and that you will not destroy my name from my father's household." And David swore to Saul. And Saul went to his home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.
The very lips of his enemy are what God uses to plead David's cause. And Saul himself confirms that he knows David will one day be king. The very man David wanted to kill is the very man God uses to strengthen David's faith.
But there is an conspicuous flaw in David's character that shows itself here. It was very common in the ancient east for a new dynasty to eliminate man, woman and child, particularly male children, of the old dynasty. And it was also very common for a new dynasty to eliminate all brothers, flesh and blood brothers, of the old dynasty. They wanted to eliminate all chance of opposition. In fact, when we get into the book of Kings, the wicked kings of the northern ten tribes do this again and again.
What did Jonathan ask David to do when he convenanted with David and acknowledged David would be king some day? Remember? "Do not cut off my relatives. If I am alive, be good to me and if I am dead, be good to my relatives." Saul asks the same thing here. What is the flaw in David's character that these two people who love him and know him very intimately are aware of? It is something God will deal with in the very next chapter. Something David just demonstrated in this chapter. He is a great warrior, but he is more than that. He is a vindictive warrior. David likes to get even. We are going to see it again and again. God is going to make David a man after God's own heart. How will he do it? What did God do about your sins? Get even? God is a holy God whose holiness must be satisfied. How can that holiness be satisfied? By God giving himself. He paid for your sins and my sins. He did not "get even" with us. Instead He went to the cross himself for us and died in our place. David has to learn this, and God is going to teach him this principle.
Next time in chapter 25 we have David and Abigail and you will see how God begins to deal with David's vindictiveness. In Chapter 26 we will see David's vindictiveness put to the test. God is a very faithful God in correcting the flaws in our character.
Prayer:
Father, we thank you so much for your Word, for how it shows us what we really are and what you really are and how you love us with an everlasting love whether we receive you into our lives or not, whether we obey you or not. You love us because we belong to you. We are your creatures and those of us who belong to you, Lord, are your children. Whether we accept you or reject you, you love us until the day we die, and you even love us in eternity even though you may have to condemn those of us who will not receive Christ as Savior and Lord. Father, we do not understand that kind of love, that loves its enemies that loves them intimately and that loves them for all eternity; a God that loves Satan so much that you even describe yourself as beating your breast in anguish when Satan fell even though You hate everything he stands for and have condemned him to hell for all eternity. We can't understand that infinite degree of love, but we thank you for it and rest in it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
This morning we will be looking at 1 Samuel 25. As we closed last week we were talking about the streak of vindictiveness in David. He had a very strong and violent temper and a revengeful spirit. As king he could not reign over Israel if he could not reign over his own passions. This spirit was so obvious that Jonathan, his dearest friend, made him swear that as king he would neither deal out nor destroy Jonathan's family [Chapter 20]. In chapter 24 Saul made David promise that when he became king he would not destroy Saul's family either. Later on in this chapter we will see that even one of the shepherds, just from living with David, understood his vindictiveness. Both the Old and New Testaments indicate God must deal with this. God laid down a principle for Christians which is seen all through the Bible. In Romans 12:17ff, Paul quotes that principle right out of the Old Testament. Writing by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, he says this:
Romans 12:17ff:
Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God for it is written, [Here he quotes right out of Deuteronomy 32, which is available to both Abigail and David] "Vengeance [or retribution] is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. "But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
So David, being a man of the Word, knew this principle was one of the requirements for a King of Israel [Deut. 17:18-20]. Obviously Abigail also knew this commandment, so both of them knew that retribution, or vengeance, was the work of the Lord. When a man steps in to seek vengeance, he is usurping God's prerogative, and God is very jealous of his prerogatives. Only He is able to judge rightly.
So, beginning in I Samuel 25, watch how God deals with David's vindictiveness and, interestingly enough, how he deals with it through a woman. If you ladies want to know how to deal with your helpmates who may have problems with anger, temper, violence, etc. see the beautiful way it happens here.
Let me caution you not to judge Abigail by the New Testament truths found in I Peter 3. She lived 1,000 years before they were written. Instead look at what she really desired for her husband and David. Remember God did not expect her to understand Ephesians 5:33 or I Peter 3:1-7.
I Samuel 25:1:
Then Samuel died; and all Israel gathered together and mourned for him, and buried him at his house in Ramah. And David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.
Samuel, of course, was David's champion. He was the one friend in court who had the stature to do something about Saul, and he had tremendous power in Israel. The king, the priests and the prophets all had equal standing, so Samuel was not subservient to Saul. He reigned as God's man, as God's mouthpiece. He anointed David as king. So, in a sense, there was a prophet, and a whole school of prophets, praying for David and, to some degree, keeping restraint on the works of Saul. When Samuel died, David figured everything was lost. [Ramah is just north of Gibeah where Saul had his headquarters.] So David left Engedi [which is on the western side of the middle of the Dead Sea], and headed down to the wilderness of Paran on the Sinai peninsula [the wilderness where the Israelites wandered for 38 years because they disobeyed God] David, fleeing from Saul, left Judea, where the Lord wanted him to be, and scurried to the wilderness of Paran which is a howling wilderness. There is nothing there, and David had 600 hungry men who needed "man-handler" soup not gruel and broth.
God, using circumstances, is going to bring David back to Judea where he will be harassed by Saul and will have to trust in the work of the Lord and not his own wisdom or force of men. Let us see how the Lord brings him back. I Samuel 25:2:
Now there was a man in Maon [Remember that is the wilderness where in Chapter 24 Saul almost trapped David until the Philistines invaded Israel and Saul had to go back] whose business was in Carmel; [which is about half an hour's journey north of Maon in another wilderness area, the wilderness of Ziph where the Ziphites previously betrayed David. It is all dangerous enemy territory where nobody is loyal to David, but this fellow Nabal should be.] and the man was very rich, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And it came about while he was shearing his sheep in Carmel (now the man's name was Nabal, and his wife's name was Abigail. And the woman was intelligent and beautiful in appearance, but the man was harsh and evil in his dealings, and he was a Calebite), that David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep.
Here we have a very rich man in Carmel, which is between two wildernesses and which to David is enemy territory. When Nabal's shepherds tended his huge flocks, they had to go great distances into the wildernesses and were wide open to marauding bands of bedouins who could sweep up out of the Paran wilderness, grab animals from the flock and race back to cover. Because David and his crew stayed with these shepherds and provided a wall around them and protected them from the marauding enemy while never touching a sheep or giving the shepherds any trouble, naturally he expected some kind of recompense. Unfortunately Nabal's name meant "fool," and he was said to be "a harsh man and evil in his dealings." Harsh has the idea of hard, unbending, unyielding, unteachable, irascible. He was also evil and a wicked business man. However, he was not stupid. The biblical definition of "fool" is not stupidity. According to the Bible, "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God'"; in other words, "I shall be my own God. I shall set up my own laws. There is no future only the present, so I am going to make it big and enjoy it now." That is a fool. He can be a brilliant fool, and Nabal was. He had made it big. Like the rich man in Luke 12 whose barn overflowed with grain and who said, "I'll tear down my barn and build bigger ones. With them full I can sit back, take it easy, rest and relax. I've got it made" (Free translation). But what did God say? "You, fool, this night your soul shall be required of you, then whose shall all these things be?" The answer to God's question is, of course, "The IRS and your heirs." That is a fool.
How do you think an intelligent, beautiful woman like Abigail, whose name meant "joy of her father," ever got paired with a fellow like Nabal? The daughter of a Hebrew did not choose a husband for herself. She was placed by her father. So, her father, to get the best possible deal for her, chose a man who materially had it all. Apparently her father did not consult the Lord about these things. He took the "joy of his heart" and married her to Nabal, the fool. Sure, she lived in a rambling ranch-style tent with "four-on-the-floor" camels parked outside, but look at what she had for a husband. Remember, she was an intelligent woman
What does "intelligent" in Scripture mean? If a "fool" is one who says there is no God, what denotes an intelligent person? What is "wisdom" according to Scripture? "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom"[Psalm 111:10]. Wisdom is belief in God, belief that he is in charge, that there is a day of reckoning. A wise man orders his life by God's standards, by God's revelation, by the Word of God. Abigail knew Deuteronomy 32:35, "Vengeance is mine. I will repay says YHWH." That was written about 1400 B.C., 500 years before Abigail. It had been around a long time, and she undoubtedly knew it well.
A good question was just asked: "Might it also be that Nabal thought everything had to be good because he was of the house of Caleb?" That might well be right. Caleb was a giant of a Hebrew. He and Joshua were the only two men of the twelve who spied out the land of Canaan who did not go against the Lord. When God turned the nation loose in the wilderness he said, "I am going to destroy every single male that is over the age of 20, [mustered males, the army that could vote with their weapons and who refused to go in and take the land God had given them]; only Joshua and Caleb will I allow in the land because they believed me." Nabal is a Calebite. The word can mean "capable" or it can also mean "dog." I think it means both in the case of Nabal. He is a capable dog. The word "dog," is Hebrew for the cur that roams the streets and eats garbage; a vicious, ugly, mangy beast. Nabal is a capable mangy beast. He has acted like it. He has proven it.
Getting back to the text, David expected something. "He [Nabal] was shearing his sheep in the wilderness." That was harvest time for a shepherd, a time of great festivity and a great harvest festival. Everybody pitched in. The traveling professional shearers came and there was a tremendous banquet. Half the tally was the law of the bedouin, and they were to give freely and liberally because God had given freely and liberally. Nabal had a tremendous harvest because David had been protecting Nabal's flocks. Therefore, David naturally believed Nabal should respond generously.
I Samuel 25: 5:
So David sent ten young men [He expected to bring a lot back], and David said to the young men, "Go up to Carmel. visit Nabal and greet him in my name; [David was the hero of Israel, even though he was in flight at this time, and it was his men who had guarded Nabal's flocks, so David said, 'I want you to tell him it is David who sends you.' That will open the door. We'll get so much I'll need to send ten of you.] and thus you shall say, "Have a long life, peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have. [Interesting how wonderfully David can bless you when he is feeling good about you. Very shortly though, he will be planning nor only a short life for Nabal, and all the males in his household, but also to abscond with a number of Nabal's sheep. When you behave yourself with David, you get this wonderful blessing. When you cross David you get just the opposite] And now I have heard that you have shearers [It is harvest time, in other words, festive time]; now your shepherds have been with us and we have not insulted them, nor have they missed anything all the days they were in Carmel. [While we were there nothing happened to them, neither in the wilderness of Ziph nor the wilderness of Maon] Ask your young men [your shepherds] and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on a festive day. [A harvest festival where you are to be hospitable and generous] Please give whatever you find at hand to your servants and to your son David. [He puts his request on a personal relationship basis]
Now, let's see what happens when we go on to verse 9:
When David's young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in David's name; then they waited. [To see if the doors would open because of David's name] But Nabal answered David's servants, and said, "Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants today who are each breaking away from his master. Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men whose origin I do not know?" So David's young men retraced their way and went back; and they came and told him according to all these words.
Nabal is no fool, humanly speaking. He knows the winning side. He lives in Carmel which is only 30 miles south of Gibeah where Saul has his headquarters. Saul has been going back and forth through the wilderness of Maon and the wilderness of Ziph looking for David. If Nabal crosses Saul, he is in big trouble. With Nabal friendship ceases when it costs something, and if you want to insult a Mideasterner just question his heritage, his parentage. Nabal not only turns David down saying, "Who is David?" (a national hero a few years back), but also "'Who is this son of Jesse?,' this poor family with no background? He is just a slave running away from his master, and there are a bunch of those all over the place." In fact, a lot of David's men may well be exactly that. If you remember, his force is made up of "discontents," men in debt, those who are "bitter of soul." So Nabal may even be making an allusion to the kind of people David is running around with. Nabal deliberately is going out of his way to insult David. Why? Because it will ingratiate him with Saul. He chooses sides. He takes the expedient way, but unfortunately he runs into a redheaded Jew. You just don't do that to redheads.
I Samuel 25: 13:
And David said to his men, "Each of you gird on his sword." So each man girded on his sword. And David also girded on his sword, and about four hundred men went up behind David while two hundred stayed with the baggage.
David now gets ready to go up into enemy territory with four hundred men where he is going to run into trouble. He knows this. He is not taking just a few men; he is taking an army just to kill one family, all the males in one family. What has he not done here that he has almost always done before when undertaking such a large expedition? He has not inquired of the Lord. Why? What is David's problem? His name has been questioned. His parentage has been questioned. He has been humiliated in front of his men and in front of all the Nabalites. You just do not do that to David. Now he is angry. He is hostile. He has one thing in mind and that is to save face, and he fails completely to inquire of the Lord. This is typical of David. Interestingly enough, he will not touch Saul who is trying to kill him. He twice lets Saul go. Why? Because Saul is God's anointed. But Nabal is a nobody. David is what the Epistle of James calls "One who holds his faith in the Lord with an attitude of personal favoritism" at this point in time. Human life only has value to him in reference to how it relates to YHWH and his own future. See where David is now? He is on the same level as Nabal. Since David is running and Saul is not only in the ascendency but also closer, Nabal sticks with Saul. He plays the expedient card. David does the same. If he kills Saul, God's anointed, he is in trouble with YHWH, but if he kills the fool Nabal and all his males, he figures that won't have much of an impact on YHWH. So he also judges by the circumstances. He has now reduced himself to the same level as the man he plans to kill.
This is a basic principle. Have you ever noticed it? If you return evil for evil, it puts you on the same level as the person who did you evil. I am supposed to be a representative of Jesus Christ, and He says I am to love mankind because He loves mankind. I am to have a totally different standard of conduct from the world around me. Besides, only God understands the motivation of the one who "did me evil." I have no idea of the circumstances leading to what he did to me. Only God is able to judge and to give adequate retribution if necessary. Judgement is the work of God.
So, we have David heading right back up into Ziph where he almost got killed. It is the worst possible tactical error for him, but sin always blinds reason. When we are angry and hostile and want to get even, we do not think about consequences of our act. God says in the Psalms he takes the wrath of man and uses it to do His will. What can He possibly accomplish with David's wrath here? Well, where does God want David? Does He want him in the wilderness of Paran with no threat from anyone except wandering bedouins? Why did He kick David out of Moab and where did David return? Why did He kick David out of Gath, and where did David return? He wants David right back in Judea where the danger is greatest, right where David will have to trust Him. And He is going to get him back there.
I Samuel 25: 14:
But one of the young men [of Nabal] told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, "Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, and he scorned them. Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not insulted, nor did we miss anything as long as we went about with them, while we were in the fields. They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the time we were with them tending the sheep. Now therefore, know and consider what you should do, for evil is plotted against our master and against all his household; and he [Nabal] is such a worthless [also means "lawless"] man that no one can speak to him."
Here is an interesting commentary on the character of David. This shepherd way up in Carmel, did not know anything about what David had said to his men down in Paran about putting on swords and getting revenge, but he had been living in the wilderness with David for some months, and he had observed the character of David. When Nabal insulted David's messengers and questioned David's heritage and parentage, this shepherd was sure what David would do. He knew David's temper, and said, "I know this guy. I lived with him, and I have seen him in action, and he is going to come up here and not only kill Nabal but also Nabal's whole household." Do you see why God wants to deal with this particular problem in David? How can David reign over Israel if David cannot reign over David? He has to learn to be God's man. Here is where Abigail makes her move.
Remember, there is a huge feast now with all kind of goodies, but Nabal does not want any of those goodies given away. In fact he said he wouldn't even give David meat, bread or water much less roast lamb or fig cakes. But, with the large supply of food available, Abigail moves. Don't judge her actions by Ephesians 5 and I Peter 3. She is disobeying those principles. She is moving behind her husband's back and knowingly disobeying him. Judge her on her motives in the light of her knowledge of God back then, nearly 3000 years ago.
I Samuel 25: 18:
Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread and two jugs of wine [literally "skins of wine" a whole animal full of wine] and five sheep already prepared [they had probably already been butchered, dressed and roasted on the spit, ready to eat, smelling delicious, just what young men would love to have] and five measures [60 quarts] of roasted grain and a hundred clusters of raisins [They used to pack them together, so this is a huge amount of raisins] and two hundred cakes of figs [packed the same way], and loaded them on donkeys. And she said to her young men, "Go on before me; behold, I am coming after you."But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
Remember, Abigail is a woman of the Word. Remember also a man named Jacob who stole both his brother's blessing and his brother's birthright. As a result, his brother Esau said, "When our father Isaac dies, I am going to kill Jacob," and Jacob fled. He was away for many years and, by the hand of the Lord, became very wealthy. When he came back into the land, he had to get on good terms with Esau, and Esau was a violent man. Remember what Jacob did? He took a group of sheep and put them in one drove, a group of goats in another drove, a group of camels in another drove, a group of cattle in another drove and a group of donkeys in another drove. Then he said, "Now, each drove go ahead of me by itself [Jacob had sent word to Esau that he was coming back, and had received notice that Esau was coming to meet him with four hundred men. This news undoubtedly made Jacob feel like, "I'm a dead man."] As each drove arrived, Esau said, "Whose are these?" And Jacob's messengers said, "They are from Jacob, and they are a present for you." Then here came another drove, and another present, and another drove and another present. Five enormous presents before Esau could get near Jacob. Well, Esau had four hundred men who had made a very long, and probably a very fast, journey. Thus they were probably short on rations and very hungry. They were husky young men with no Campbell's Manhandler soup around. How do you get yourself a hearing on the best terms you can find? You just send a feast. With the smell of roast lamb on the minds of Esau's men and the availability of all that food, Jacob undoubtedly figured he had the battle half won. After all, some years before when Esau was very hungry, he sold his birthright to Jacob for a big helping of lentil stew. Abigail, being a woman of the Word, knew Genesis 32 like the back of her hand. She was a wise, intelligent woman. What worked for Jacob was going to work for her.
I Samuel 25: 20:
And it came about as she was riding on her donkey and coming down by the hidden part of the mountain [down some narrow pass in the mountains which was very hidden], that behold, David and his men were coming down toward her; so she met them. Now David had said, "Surely in vain I have guarded all that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him; and he has returned me evil for good. May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if by morning I leave as much as one male of any who belong to him [This is what David had been mumbling all these many miles].
Do you see David's problem in this passage? Let me read it again with slight emphasis. "David had said, 'Surely in vain I have guarded all that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has return ME evil for good. May God do so to the enemies of DAVID, and more also, if by morning I leave as much as one male of any who belong to him."
What is David's problem? Ego. His pride has been injured. It is not the welfare of his men that bothers him, although he is undoubtedly going to take care of them by taking a number of Nabal's sheep. The trouble is David's ego has been crushed, and you just do not shaft David especially in front of others. All his life he has been the runt of the litter. All his life people have stepped on him. All his life he has had this resentment, this hostility, building up in him. Someday he is going to get even, and here he has four hundred skilled guerilla warriors armed with iron weapons which they have taken from the Philistines at Keilah. Nabal only has a household with a few weapons and relatively few servants. It is going to be a total slaughter. David is going to get even for all the things that have happened to him down through the years. All the way up toward Nabal's home he has been turning revenge over and over in his mind, fueling the flames of his passion. How on earth can you deal with somebody like that? But God has an instrument. In this particular story, who also acts like David is presently acting; who always looks after number one; who is a hard, unteachable, unreasonable, perverse person? Nabal. Who has learned the skill of dealing with a hard, unreasonable, unteachable male in his anger? Abigail. She has had years of experience as Nabal's wife. Do you see how God takes his chosen instruments and, over the years, trains them for a ministry. Her father thought he was doing Abigail a big favor. He married her to a wealthy man who turned out to be impossible to live with. Yet, through all those years, she hung in there as God's woman and served that impossible man. I'll bet she even loved him, as far as she could. She learned how to deal with him for the time when God's king, David, who also needed dealing with, would come into her life. God does not mind spending years to train a person for a single, short ministry. As far as we can tell, dealing with David was all the ministry Abigail ever had, but it lasted a lifetime.
We'll pick up here next week. I won't tell you how it ends. We've got God's man, God's woman and a poor fool who is going to learn about God the hard way. Next week we will find out what happens.
Prayer:
Father, thank you so much for your Word and for the way it makes us see ourselves as we really are and opens us up to the truth; how it shows us how gracious and loving and kind you are, how long suffering. Father, you will spend years to train a woman to minister to the man of your own heart, to make him finally want to behave like a man after your own heart. Thank you, Father, for faithful women who quietly serve by hanging in there, while they trust you to turn their husbands around. Thank you for my wife who led me to Christ and helped me to grow up in Him. Thank you, Father in Jesus' name. Amen
You will remember last week we left David just about to encounter Abigail Nabal's wife. It was sheep shearing time at Nabal's, a time of great banquets and lavish hospitality. David had sent a delegation up to Nabal in his own name requesting food for his men. They reminded Nabal that the harvest was great because of David's watchfulness over Nabal's flocks. But instead of food Nabal deliberately insulted David. Nabal may be a "fool" because he believes there is no God, but he is no fool from a worldly standpoint. He knows that Saul, who is only 30 miles north of him, is winning, and David, way down in the wilderness, is losing. He not only refuses David's request, but he also deliberately insults him on a personal level when David makes a personal request. Word gets back to David, and he is enraged. Without consulting God, he has 400 of his 600 men strap on their swords, and he heads north to kill Nabal. He is not only going to kill Nabal but also every male in Nabal's household. He intends to wipe the name of Nabal from the face of the earth leaving no offspring to carry on his name. David is a very angry young man.
Fortunately one of the shepherds who has lived with David in the wilderness is a very discerning young man. He has observed this vindictiveness in David and, although he does not know exactly what David is planning to do, he is aware of David's character. He knows exactly how David will respond to a personal insult like this. So he warns Abigail that, since her husband is a fool and cannot even be spoken too, she had better do something. The word "fool" here has the concept of a hard, unbending, unteachable, unreasonable person who will not listen to people. Abigail quickly gathers together a great feast and takes off through a hidden part of the mountains where she thinks David will come. We left her last week having run into this mountain pass and having sent her servants before her with roasted lamb, roasted grain, wine, cakes of figs and clusters of raisins, a feast fit for a king. She has deliberately defied her husband and done what she knows he would not want her to do. This is where we get the "Abigail syndrome" sometimes encountered in counseling. I want to look at that syndrome later on.
Here we have a woman who by God's definition is intelligent, which means she is godly. "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord," the Scriptures say. And we have a husband who is a fool. The Scriptures say, "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" As defined by Scripture a fool or a wise man is determined by his attitude toward God. So we have a godly woman and an ungodly husband. The godly woman has defied her husband, but with his best interests at heart, and gone out to stop David.
Now in I Samuel 25:23, Abigail comes upon David. As we saw in verses 21 & 22, David has been mumbling in his beard all during his northward trek about how he is going to annihilate Nabal because of what Nabal has done to him, [notice the personal pronoun in verses 21 and 22].
Let us look at 1 Samuel 25:23 and following. This is a beautiful example of how to argue with an angry man. I Samuel 25:23:
When Abigail saw David, she hurried and dismounted from her donkey, and fell on her face before David, and bowed herself to the ground. [That is the first step in dealing with an angry man.] And she fell at his feet and said, "On me alone, my lord, be the blame. And please let your maidservant speak to you, and listen to the words of your maidservant. Please do not let my lord pay attention to this worthless man Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name and folly is with him [He is a fool]; but I your maidservant did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.
Let's look at this little portion first. First Abigail approaches an angry man by humbling herself. She does not approach David whining for her rights, and believe me, she has rights. David is up there on an ego trip. He does not have any kind of legal or moral right to kill off all the males of Nabal's family. However, Abigail has lived all her married life with an angry man, a fool, a man who is ungodly, and David right now is very ungodly. She knows that ungodly angry men do not respond to reason. You cannot argue your "rights" and expect an angry man to listen. Angry ungodly men will not respect even God's rights, how could you expect them to respect yours? So, she starts out with the approach of I Peter 3, "Wives be submissive to your own husbands so if any of them are disobedient to the word [the condition in the Greek is "and they are"], they may be won without a word by the behavior of they wives as they observe your pure and respectful behavior." In other words, if you have a husband who is non-persuasive to the Word of God, then you win him without a word. [It is a play on words here.] You keep your mouth shut and live a life before him that is both pure and respectful when he deserves neither the purity nor the respect. That is exactly what Abigail does here. She comes to an angry man, who is on an ego trip, who has no right to be where he is, and the first thing she does is show him respect. She falls on her face before David, which was the way of showing respect in that ancient East culture. She is, by-the-way, the wife of a very wealthy man. She has servants. She has flocks and herds. She is a "big woman on campus." She is not just some little peasant girl.
Secondly, she puts the blame on herself which is very wise to do. In those days, unlike today when women have "equality," they did not take revenge on women. So Abigail knew she was safe if she put the blame on herself, "On me alone, my lord, be the blame." She tries to take the blame off her husband, even though he does not deserve it, and put it on herself. Even David, as angry as he is, is not going to slaughter women.
Thirdly, she then begs him to listen because she is used to a man not listening to her. "Please let your maidservant speak to you, and listen to the words of your maidservant." Just give me a hearing. That's all I ask.
Then she begins to move. First of all she agrees with David that he is right, and Nabal is a fool. "Please do not let my lord pay attention to this worthless man, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he." Nabal was a fool. He did act ungodly and there was no excuse for his actions, but she does not try to cover. "Nabal is his name and folly is with him;" however there is another side to the coin. "but I your maidservant did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent." There are a lot of innocent people, David, who did not hear what you ask for and would have responded had they known. Therefore, it is not right to annihilate them when they did not even have a chance to hear.
Then she begins an interesting argument which relates David to his Lord. I Samuel 25:26:
Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord lives, [she begins to immediately focus David's mind and his thoughts on YHWH, not on the issue, not on Nabal or her rights , but on YHWH himself] and as your soul lives, since the Lord has restrained you from shedding blood and from avenging yourself by your own hand,
I love this argument. This is typically female. She assumes what is to be argued as being already settled. I have never yet understood the female mind, but some how when you get into a discussion with them, you have lost before you even start discussing. It happened to the Lord with his own mother. At Cana of Galilee the Lord begins his public ministry. He goes down to Cana, which is not too far from Nazareth, and Mary his mother is part of the wedding party. Obviously she is in charge of getting things done. They run out of wine. That is a terrible insult and loss of face to an Easterner, an Oriental. The bridegroom is to supply the needs of the whole family for probably up to seven days. Guests come from long distances, and to run out of wine in the middle of the celebration shows a lack of concern for your in-laws. So, the poor host is going to be greatly humiliated. Now, here comes the Lord and his disciples as guests at the feast. Mary, as part of the wedding party, looks at her son and says, "They have run out of wine." She knows what she means, and he knows what she means, "Do something!" She knows that he is the Son of God. Don't forget the angel told her that before he was conceived, and she has seen a sinless life for 30 years. The Lord tells her, "Woman, [which is impersonal but not an insulting term. He is saying "There is a new relationship established now, Mary. I am no longer under your motherhood."] what have I to do with you. My time has not yet come." This is telling her "No" very nicely and very quietly but very firmly. What does she do? She turns to the servants and says, "Do whatever he tells you," and walks away. There stands the Lord with egg on his face. Every time I read that I think the Lord must have had kind of a wry smile on his face, "Of all the people who ought to know better than to argue with women, I who made them ought to know." Of course the Lord, in order not to embarrass his mother and to keep the bridegroom from being humiliated, does his first miracle and, "humanly" speaking, does it against his own will. She won. Abigail, has come from a long line of "Marys" and assumes as true what is about to be argued.
I Samuel 25:26b:
Now then let your enemies and those who seek evil against my lord, be as Nabal.
In essence Abigail says, "God, will deal with the ungodly. A fool is an ungodly person, David, and God will deal with the ungodly. You don't have to do that. He is a Nabal. He is a fool. He is ungodly. He will get his. You have no right to move in where God has sovereignty."
I Samuel 25:27:
And now let this gift which your maidservant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who accompany my lord.
There are four hundred hungry, thirsty young men there, and in one bold move she just wins four hundred votes. The odds are now 401 against David. And she does it very beautifully. She says, "If this gift is not good enough to give to you, just give it to your young men." So far she has done a beautiful job of bringing David to the point where she wants him.
Now she has to move in and insert somewhere that sin against YHWH would have been involved in what David had planned to do. She does that beautifully too. I Samuel 25:28:
Please forgive the transgression of your maidservant; [She brings in the word "transgression" here, a deliberate and willful rebellion] for the Lord will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the Lord, and evil shall not be found in you all your days.
She now begins to relate David to his Lord. Having pointed him toward the Lord, she begins to show the relationship between the two. First the Lord is going to make an enduring house for David because David represents YHWH. He is not a free man to do his own will. He fights the Lord's battles. Therefore, he is under the sovereignty of the Lord. He does not have the right to "rule" on his own. Even when he becomes king and even though he has already been anointed king, he still reigns under YHWH.
Secondly, in the midst of a feast, he cannot do evil in the name of YHWH by using four hundred armed guerrilla warriors to butcher a helpless family, including small male children. She really begins to move in on him. I Samuel 25:29:
And should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, then the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God; but the lives of your enemies He will sling out as from the hollow of a sling [or from the cup of a sling].
In the customs of those days, if you had something very precious, you bound it up in something and wrapped it around with something so it would not get hurt. She is saying, "You are the anointed of God. God has taken your life and bound it up in the bundle of his life. Your life is in the center of the Lord's. His life protects your life. You do not have to fight your battles, David. God has you packaged with himself. Nor do you have to go after your enemies, David, for God will take your enemies and put them in the cup of a sling and fling them away. You don't even have to fight your enemies, David. God will take care of you and them."
Why do you suppose she used the word "sling?" What did David do when he was a young lad? He slew a giant fighting for whose honor? YHWH's! He told Goliath, "I am going to kill you because you are defying the armies, not of David or of Israel, but of the living God." It was God's honor that was at stake when he won with that sling shot. It was not David's honor or David's rights, and God honored that. As a lad David, dressed in a shepherd's jacket and with only a little sling shot and five smooth pebbles, slew that giant who stood 9 feet tall and was fully armed and armored. She points him back to what made him famous; being a godly man and fighting God's battles for God's honor. She points him right back to the past.
Then she points him to the future, I Samuel 25:30:
And it shall come about when the Lord shall do for my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and shall appoint you ruler over Israel, [Here she goes for the jugular vein] that this will not cause grief or a troubled heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause ["David, you have no right to do what you are going to do and you know it," and she was a woman against 401 men] and by my lord having avenged himself. [Taking the prerogatives of God into his own hands, and this really hits home] When the Lord shall deal well with my lord, then remember your maidservant.
She is an amazingly discerning woman. She senses in David, because of the way God has been acting in the lives of David and Saul, that David is going to be king, that he has been the hero of Israel and that, before he was chased into the wilderness by Saul, he was the unifying force in Israel. Yet she has seen in the actions of Saul and David the deterioration of Saul and his empire and the exaltation of David even though he is still a fugitive. She can see the hand of God in this. She is a godly woman.
She also can see something else. Why do you think she says, "And when the Lord shall deal well with my lord, then remember your maidservant?" What does she also see? She sees David's future. As a godly woman, who else's future does she see? Hers, yes, but how would hers suddenly be available to David? How can a married woman talk about David "remembering me?" What does she also see? Just as surely as David shall be king because he is acting righteously so she is also certain something else will happen because someone else is acting unrighteously? Nabal is going to get it. The same God who rewards the righteous by making him king is going to deal with the ungodly. Just as surely as one is true, so is the other. She knows her husband, somewhere along the line, is going to get taken care of by God, and when David is king and her husband is removed by God, she wants David to remember her. This is really a godly woman.
So, a godly woman's godly response gets a godly repentance. The Spirit of God takes her words like a two-edged sword and carves David right in the heart. Look at his response, and it is a beautiful order of progression. I Samuel 25:32:
Then David said to Abigail, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me,
The first thing he does is see that the hand of YHWH is in this. By focusing entirely on YHWH, Abigail has brought this out. He sees that now. He does not change his mind about Nabal, or his rights, or fight with Abigail and argue against her and try to win the argument. He realizes the issue is between himself and YHWH. That just removes any vestige he might have of his own rights.
Secondly, I Samuel 25:33:
...and blessed be your discernment,
Now, she was both intelligent and beautiful. David likes beautiful women. He gets in a lot of trouble in chapter 11 & 12 of II Samuel because of a beautiful woman. As king, David will probably have up to ten wives and concubines. He violates the law of Deuteronomy 17 by multiplying wives. But what strikes him most of all here is not her beauty, it is her discernment. It strikes him to the heart. The beauty probably got her a hearing. That Chanel #5 wafting about as she bowed herself before him undoubtedly got a look, but it did not win the argument. It did not get his eyes on YHWH. It was her discernment that accomplished that.
Then the third thing he sees is in her person. I Samuel 25:33b:
...and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodshed, and from avenging myself by my own hand. Nevertheless, as the Lord God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from harming you, unless you had come quickly to meet me, surely there would not have been left to Nabal until the morning light as much as one male."
He fully confesses his intentions. "But for you, Abigail, I would have killed everybody in your house that was masculine." He confesses and repents of his actions and acknowledges fully that she was the one God used to turn him around.
See how you win an argument with a willful, rebellious, unrepentant, angry man? You point him to the Lord and take the humble place. You get yourself out of the argument and get it between him and his God, instead of you and him with God somewhere around the periphery. That is all she did. She got him focused on her and then got out of the way and got him looking at YHWH. Pretty soon David began to realize, "Hey, I'm not fighting Nabal or my honor. I'm dealing with the living God." That is what broke him.
I Samuel 25:35. I just love verse 35. I chuckle when I read it.
So David received from her hand what she had brought him, and he said to her, "Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to you and granted your request."
He acted like he had been running everything himself while the whole time he had been led around by the nose by the Holy Spirit through this beautiful woman.
Now, notice what Abigail does not do. She does not desert her husband. She does not deceive her husband. She goes right back to her old abusive, hard, unteachable, irascible, evil Nabal, instead of running off with David.
I Samuel 25:36:
Then Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk: so she did not tell him anything at all until the morning light. But it came about in the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, [He's got a splitting headache, and he is depressed and nauseated.) that his wife told him these things, [Now, he has just had his life saved by her actions.] and his heart died within him so that he became as a stone. [He has a massive stroke. He is still alive but he is paralyzed, probably both by fury and by fright . Nabal was undoubtedly enraged by what his wife had done. She had deliberately taken food and given it to David after he had told David no. And yet he is also frightened to death because he realizes he came that close to having his head lopped off.]
Now look at the next verse. I Samuel 25:38:
And about ten days later, it happened that the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.
Let me ask you a question. Let your sanctified imagination wander a little. If I were God I would have snuffed Nabal's life out just like that with a massive coronary, "You mess with Me and that is what you get, Nabal." It would have had a lot more impact. Why did God allow Nabal to live 10 helpless days, without any ability to manipulate people, where his wealth could do him no good, where he could do nothing except lie and look up? God loved Nabal. He loves fools. Have you ever heard of what I call "The Noah forty day principle?" God demonstrated this same principle before. Way back in Noah's day, God had one person who was righteous. He said to Noah, "Noah, I am going to give mankind 120 years more and that is it. You start building a great big wooden box up on the mountainside because there's going to be a flood." [As far as we can tell there had never been any rain on the earth yet] "What's a flood, God?" "Don't worry about it. Build the box 450' long, 75' wide, and 50' high." [This is using the 18" cubit.] It took him 120 years to build that huge box with stories in it, a roof on it, windows all the way around. While Noah was pounding those pegs in and while his sons were working for him, he was preaching righteousness. Noah warned about a coming judgment of God against the life on earth. Of course, people would nod and say, "Hey, there goes old crazy Noah lugging another timber up there. Hey, what are you building, Noah? Where's the water, Noah? What's a flood, Noah?" You can see they would be having a big ball. Noah sat there and took that guff for 120 years until he put the animals in the ark, and he entered with his family.
Then Scripture says, "God shut the door."
Then the fountains of the deep opened up and the heavens opened up. [Apparently there was some kind of heavy cloud canopy around the earth in those days that came pouring down.] The intriguing thing is God did not send a gigantic flood that swept everyone away just like that. He had the water slowly rise for 40 days and 40 nights until it finally covered the top of the highest hill. Why? Why did God deliberately do this in an unhurried way? What were the people doing while the water was slowly, inexorably rising, pushing them to the top of the hills before covering them? What is God giving them? Time to repent. [What did God give the Jews at Kadesh-Barnea? Forty days to go in and see if the promised land was exactly the way he had said it was, but even though it was, they still refused to go in. So they spent a total of 40 years in the wilderness until that generation died off. [During that time, though, many did repent.] God loved those wicked people of Noah's day. God gave them 120 years of Noah's preaching righteousness, and then he gave them 40 days of inexorable approaching death to repent. He really wanted them to repent. In II Peter 3:9, Peter argues that God is long suffering. "God is not slow concerning promise as some men count slowness," he says, "but he is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (change their mind)" I think God honored the I Peter 3:1-6 principle for Abigail's sake. My personal feeling is that those 10 days in which Nabal had to lie helpless looking up while Abigail loved him and ministered to him were deliberately given to him so he would have an opportunity to repent. I like to think that he did..
I Samuel 25:39:
When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Blessed be the Lord, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal,
Don't judge David, now, by the New Testament. He was very grateful that Nabal got it and that David was thereby vindicated in the eyes of men. Some of the Psalms also say this, but David is 1,000 years before the New Testament, and he is 3,000 before our time. So do not judge him based on the New Testament.
I Samuel 25:39b:
...and has kept back His servant from evil. The Lord has also returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head."
He sees that had he done something, he would have usurped the prerogative of God. God was about to take care of it the very next morning, and he dealt with the one man who needed dealing with and not the whole family, or all the males. "The soul that sins, it shall die," the Scripture says. God holds each individual accountable. The principle in the Mosaic Law is that the son shall not die for the sins of the father, nor the father for the sins of the son. Each shall die for his own sins. Each man stands before his God alone.
I Samuel 25:39c:
Then David sent a proposal to Abigail, to take her as his wife. When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, "David has sent us to you, to take you as his wife." And she arose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, "Behold, your maidservant is a maid to wash the feet of my lord's servants." Then Abigail quickly arose, and rode on a donkey, with her five maidens who attended her; and she followed the messengers of David, and became his wife.
Interesting, Abigail has a choice, doesn't she? She is now the widow of Nabal, a very wealthy man, heir to a vast estate. All she has to do is play footsy with Saul, and she can keep it. Or she can choose to go with God's man who is still a fugitive in the wilderness, whose future is out there somewhere and a little bit dim at the moment. She will end up in flight all the time until God comes through someday. Same choice Moses had. He was a son of Pharaoh's daughter but he chose to deny the riches of Egypt and the pleasures of sin for awhile in order to accept the reproach of the people of God.
What does Abigail do? How quickly does it take her to make up her mind? Who is it going to be Saul or David? YHWH's man or the man YHWH has rejected? Just like that she makes her choice. You can imagine, of course, what Saul will do to her property the moment he finds out she is with David. It will go into the royal exchequer to be given to someone else.
Now the intriguing thing is you would think because Abigail did all these things God would give her a long life, and she would walk happily into the sunset hand-in-hand with her David as queen of all Israel. But it does not happen that way. In Scriptures she does not appear when David is King of Israel. She does have a son, Chileab, for him when he becomes King of Judah in Hebron. One son only and then she disappears off the scene. She may have died in childbirth. Chileab, the son, does not appear after that either. She has a very short life span apparently, a very short ministry. Intriguing thing is they did have a son called Chileab, and Chileab means "restraint." The same word used in I Samuel 25, verse 33 "who have kept me this day from bloodshed." Here is this beautiful woman and what is it that David remembers most about her still? What is the thing that lives in David's mind about Abigail? Restraint! This godly woman who was used to keep God's king out of trouble apparently was not given a long life by God, but her impact on David went on for years.
It is similar to John the Baptist with Jesus Christ. John the Baptist was to be the messenger of Christ, the forerunner of Christ. He was set apart to this ministry from his mother's womb and was filled with the Spirit of God while yet in her womb. He was a priest, the son of a priest. His mother was even from a priestly family. His whole ministry was preparation. Thirty years he spent preparing for one short ministry which lasted about a year to 18 months at the most. He had tremendous popularity in the beginning. Then he was asked by God to give up his popularity. He was told by God, "When you get this big following, point them to Jesus. You must decrease and He must increase."
Finally, he did not die a hero's death. He chose to rebuke King Herod who had charge of Galilee and Perea, which were adjacent to Samaria and Judea. King Herod had taken his brother Philip's wife to be his queen, because Herodias had designs on becoming a queen. While he was in Herod's territory, John the Baptist rebuked Herod and Herod imprisoned him. After Salome, daughter of Herodias by Philip, inflamed Herod with a sensuous dance, he made a drunken oath to her in front of his debauched guests, "I'll give you anything up to half of my kingdom." She went running to her mother and said, "What shall I ask for?" [The Greek indicates "for myself."] She didn't know what was going on. Herodias immediately responded, "The head of John the Baptist on a platter." So John's head was chopped off for a drunken king, a young naive pawn and a wicked woman. Tradition says Herodias did an obscene dance around his head. That may just be tradition. Herodias hated him, and she won. That was God's "reward" on earth for his messenger whom the Lord himself said was "the greatest of the Old Testament prophets."
Do you see what this says? It says, if we look only at this life for the righteousness and justice of God, we are going to be disappointed. God has all eternity in view. He will take his only Son, bring him up in a miserable caravan town like Nazareth, have his parentage disputed, have him spend thirty years in preparation and only three and a half years in ministry then snuff him out like that! He can do that to us, but all we have to do when we look at Abigail or John the Baptist or our Lord Himself, is remember the eternal, long range consequences. Because Christ was crucified, someday "every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father." Because Abigail apparently was allowed to have a tremendous impact on David's very formative years, wait until we get upstairs and see what she is like now. If you think she was intelligent and beautiful down here, wait until you see her glorified, the godly woman that restrained David.
Let me bring out a couple principles. The Abigail principle does not give you the right in the New Testament to go out and deliberately do something against your husband's wishes, knowing that you have usurped his place of headship. In the New Testament you are to submit to your husband in everything-, as to the Lord, trusting the Lord to deal with your husband as Abigail did. She went back and lived with Nabal as his wife. She went back to spend the rest of her years with a man who was going to be abusive and angry and hostile to her. She did not run off with David or run home to mother. She went back to her husband, willing to accept whatever the consequences were of her actions, for YHWH's sake.
Secondly, David took it from Abigail in his anger because she gave it to him gently. I Peter 3 points out that you win a husband by a "gentle and quiet spirit" not by a fish wife's approach. All that does is build up a wall of defense and deep-seated resentment.
Thirdly, David responded to Abigail's plea because she focused him on the Lord and not on herself. She made it her aim to get David to see that the issue was between him and his God, not between him and her rights. When you are dealing with your husband and he is non-responsive to the Word of God, do not assert your rights. Point him to the Lord and trust the Lord to deal with him.
David learned out of this to thank Abigail not for her beauty but for her restraining him from ungodly actions. Long after you women have gotten older, have wrinkles, and sag a little here and there, you can still hold your husband by bonds of steel if you build a life of character as his wife; if he loves you because of your discernment, your godliness, your walk with the Lord, your loveliness instead of your prettiness. I wish I could get that across to women. You are suckered by the TV everyday of the week. Use this, buy this, get L'Oreal and fix your hair all up. It is very expensive, but "You're worth it." That is the biggest con you ever heard in your life. No, what David remembers about Abigail is not her beauty, and David likes beauty. He remembers her loveliness, her godliness, and that is what is going to bind a husband to you forever, long after your prettiness is gone. Abigail went before David to do what God wanted her to do, not to assert her rights but to be God's instrument. Are you willing to be that in your husband's life even though he may be churlish, unteachable, unbending, unyielding? That's what Nabal was, and Abigail chose to be God's instrument not only in David's life but also in Nabal's.
Let's look next time at chapter 26, and I want to try a different approach with this chapter. I am going against some of the commentators. I am using some sanctified imagination next week. However, I think I am right on Scripturally, but I will give it to you as an option.
Prayer
Father, we thank you so much for your Word, for the fact that it shows what the real values in life are. The things that count with you are not prettiness but true beauty and true godliness. The things that will have lasting quality are not things that last long on earth necessarily, but things that have eternal value, the spiritual not the physical. Father, we ask now that we might be wise enough to realize that your value system is entirely opposite from the world's, and we must be constantly on guard against allowing our value system to be perverted by the world. Help us to keep our minds and our thoughts on eternal issues and eternal values, so we take the things in this life and see them from your perspective, trusting you even in the midst of adversity because we know that you are right and that you never make a mistake. Thank you, Father, that you are that kind of a person and that we can trust you in everything and in every situation, and you will never, never fail us. Thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.
Today we are looking at I Samuel, Chapter 26. I do not agree with some of the commentators on this particular passage, so I present this interpretation to you as an option. Some of the commentators believe David was going to the hill of Hachilah to make Saul repent; that he was going with the idea of forcing Saul to come to terms. Looking at the passage, I do not agree. I believe David was going there in anger and fury. I think God was testing him; testing both Saul and David. I want to approach it from that viewpoint. I am offering this as an option. I believe it is a valid option. I will not be dogmatic about it, but I do not think a leopard ever changes its spots. David is a vindictive, hostile person. Just in the last chapter he intended to wipe out Nabal. From a human standpoint, Nabal deserved to be wiped out, but David intended to wipe out not only Nabal but all of his children plus any male servants in the household. When he is angry, David has a strong tendency to fly off the handle and take matters into his own hands. However, in Chapter 25 David repented of killing Nabal, made a confession and, in a sense, told God "No more."
Saul is also a vindictive, violent man. You will remember in Chapter 24 that while chasing David (with God's permission), he was trapped in a cave with David and could easily have been slain, but David held off. Saul, therefore, swore repentance, confessed his sin, and told David, "No more."
So in effect now, both men have made confessions regarding their sin of violence and revenge and have agreed their actions were wrong.
But how can you tell a true confession? 1 John 1:9 says, "If I confess my sins [literally 'say with God,' agree with Him about my sins] God is faithful and righteous to forgive my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness." He will always do it because He is faithful. He has to do it because He is righteous. In Chapter 24 Saul was sorry about his actions toward David and apparently confessed publicly. In Chapter 25 David was sorry about his actions toward Nabal and made a public confession in front of his 400 men and Abigail.
A true confession requires repentance, and repentance means a change of mind, a turning around, some positive step to stop doing whatever was wrong. With that kind of confession God forgives and God cleanses. However, if it is not that kind, God does not forgive and God does not cleanse. Understand this, the present state of mind or the present state of activity has nothing to do with eternal destiny. If you have received Christ as your Lord and your God, positionally you are forgiven in Christ. He died for all your sins, past, present and future. There is no question about that. What we are talking about here is experiencing God's forgiveness, His fellowship, fellowship with a Holy Being. For that we need to keep short accounts with God. We need to agree with him that we need forgiveness. Then we need to do something about our former way of life.
While both Saul and David are already God's anointed, they are two men running in opposite directions, Saul in the flesh, David in the spirit. David has his ups and downs spiritually, but his general trend line is up. Saul also has spiritual ups and downs, but unfortunately his general trend line is down.
We have just seen them both confess. Now God tests their confessions. For Saul, it is a tragic test and he fails it badly. According to Scripture, this is the end of testing for Saul. God takes him home. He does not, however, lose his salvation. We will later see him joined with Samuel.
David, even though his trend line is up, is still tested. I think that is a key, so let's look at it.
I Samuel 26, verse 1:
Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, "Is not David hiding on the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon?" [he wilderness] So Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having with him three thousand chosen men [here is that Task Force again] of Israel, to search for David in the wilderness of Ziph.
Before we go further, let's look at Saul's confession. Does it meet the test? In Chapter 24 Saul publicly confessed to David, "You are more righteous than I; for you have dealt well with me, while I have dealt wickedly with you." However, at the next opportunity to commit the same exact sin, Saul with an army of three thousand men travels all the way from Benjamin down to Ziphite territory to seek David out. Now you don't move an army of that size without a lot of thought and planning. There's no change of direction here, and Saul fails the test of a true confession.
To continue, David has gone into the realm of the Calebites, up around Carmel, Ziph, just to the west of Engedi which is right on the Dead Sea about its middle point. About 12 miles into Judah, is the area of Maon, Ziph and Hebron founded by sons of Caleb. These people are Judahites, David's tribe. David is there married to Abigail, who is from one of the leading families in that territory. He has also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, which is only 3 miles north of Carmel. She is probably from one of its powerful families too. David is a king, and he is making alliances for the future. So he has married into two powerful Calebite families right in this territory.
Because of these alliances, the one spot in Judah where David ought to be safe, is the area of the Ziphites, the Calebites. Well, not so Once before the Ziphites deliberately told Saul where David was hiding, after tricking him into an untenable spot,and except for God's intervention, David would have been lost. Now David is back, but this time he is family. Does that make a difference? No. The first thing the Ziphites do is travel all the way to Gibeah of Benjamin and tell Saul, "Hey, he's back again. Let's get him." If you were a red-headed, impulsive Irishman with a touch of Jewish blood, and inclined to get even, how would you respond when betrayed by your own family? How about David?
Before we go further, why does God bring Ziphites in to sneak and tell? Why does he bring contrary people into our lives? God's deliberate design is to work on some character flaw in us. Has it ever occurred to you that what you see mirrored in the person you cannot get along with is what is mirrored in you in the eyes of God, and incidentally, in the eyes of man? We never see ourselves the way we are, and when we run into people who reflect us as we really are, our backs go up and so do our defenses.
David has to learn to deal with Ziphites, and he does. When he becomes king he never takes vengeance on any of these people, and he becomes king of Judah first. He does learn his lesson, but he doesn't like it right now.
I Samuel 26, verse 3:
And Saul camped in the hill of Hachilah, [about 6 miles east of Ziph, about half way to Engedi in the wilderness. David likes this place. Apparently it has the advantage of being isolated. It must also have a good water supply and good game available because he has 600 mouths to feed.] which is before Jeshimon, [the wilderness] beside the road, and David was staying in the wilderness. When he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness, David sent out spies, and he knew that Saul was definitely coming. David then arose and came to the place where Saul had camped. And David saw the place where Saul lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the commander of his army; and Saul was lying in the circle of the camp, and the people were camped around him.
When David left his wilderness headquarters in the Cave of Adullam near Gath, where he was safe, and took up the defense of the city of Keilah which was being besieged by the Philistines, what was the first step he took? He inquired of God. When he heard Saul was going to come down to get him, what did he do? He inquired of God. When he wondered whether to stay in the walled city of Keilah and defend himself or to flee, what did he do? He inquired of God. God told him to go defend Keilah. God told him Saul was definitely coming, and God told him to get out of that city. Step-by-step David inquired of God. He could because God had sent him Abiathar the High Priest with the ephod, the royal vestment that was used in those days to divine God's will.
Do you see anything conspicuous by its absence here? David is the aggressor this time. He is the guerrilla. Saul has brought this massive army into David's territory, and David has had it with Saul. From his spies, he knows Saul is definitely coming. Then David arises and deliberately goes to Saul's camp. He can readily find where Saul is sleeping, since the king always sleeps with a spear at his head. David has plans for that spear. He is going to move it over about a foot right through Saul's head. I believe David is moving here in hostility. God is allowing David to check out his repentance, his confession. God is a very faithful God. He will never lead you into temptation for you to fail or test you for you to fail. He leads you into testing that you might succeed. He always provides the means by which you can succeed if you choose to use those means. Let's look at the means he uses here.
I Samuel 26, verse 6:
Then David answered [on the spies' report] and said to Ahimelech the Hittite and to Abishai [David's nephew] the son of Zeruiah, [David's sister] Joab's brother, saying, "Who will go down with me to Saul in the camp?" And Abishai said, "I will go down with you." [Abishai is a very brave man and becomes David's leading general later on. He is also a rather opportunistic young man] So David and Abishai came to the people by night, and behold, Saul lay sleeping inside the circle of the camp, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head; and Abner and the people were lying around him. Then Abishai said to David, "Today God has delivered your enemy into your hand; ["Everyone is sound asleep. Go down the middle of the camp to where Saul lies asleep with his spear right there. Just pick it up, move it over one foot, voom, and that takes care of all your problems. Nobody will even wake up." Abishai is reasoning, "God has delivered him into your hands. Give it to him."] now therefore, please let me strike him with the spear ["the" spear. He plans to use Saul's own spear] to the ground with one stroke, and I will not strike him the second time." [I won't even have to strike him again.] But David said to Abishai, "Do not destroy him, for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be without guilt?"
Remember before when Saul came into that cave to relieve himself and was silhouetted against the bright sunlight? David and his men seated inside in the darkness had Saul totally at their mercy. What did his men say that time? Almost exactly the same thing, and that time David listened to them. While he could not quite bring himself to kill Saul, he did slash off a piece of his robe and thoroughly enjoyed thinking, "This is really Saul I am cutting." But his conscience immediately smote him. The action was not the issue here. The desire of the heart was the issue. God knew it, and David knew it. The Spirit of God put the finger on David right away. Guilt hit him immediately. Then he fought his men; literally, "He tore his men apart," when they encouraged him to kill Saul. He responded to the Spirit of God with true guilt. He fought his men and stopped them from killing Saul. He said "No" to the temptation.
There is a principle in Scripture. Your flesh will never change. All your life you will be assaulted in the avenues of weakness resulting from your lifestyle. Maturity does not come by no more assaults. Maturity comes by beginning to say, "No" to those assault points Satan uses on you. As you begin to say, "No, No, No" instead of "Yes, Yes, Yes" you discover the same temptation begins to trigger a "No" instead of a Yes." The temptation has not changed, but your response has changed. Because David took a strong stand back in that cave and saved Saul, when the same phrase cropped up again, "'...God has delivered your enemy into your hand,' give me the spear." it does not trigger a "Yes," it triggers a "No." The second time it was easier to resist, and David said, "Who can do it without guilt. I've had this trip before. I don't want it again. You cannot touch the Lord's anointed without guilt."
So why, then, did he go up to Saul's camp? I think he went in anger. However, the Lord gave him a choice. The Lord did not leave him without resources. At the key point of decision, Abishai uttered almost the exact words that were mouthed to David once before. He said "No" to them then, so when the temptation came again, the same words trigger a "No" again. Without the flesh ever being changed, David began to build a path toward righteousness. We kid ourselves when we think our flesh will change. It will never get better. Only our choices can get better. What we do with the flesh is what is going to change. David made a stand against the flesh in that cave, and he became strong in the faith in that cave. Now God deliberately has Abishai, without his knowing it (I think), mouth exactly those same words. What hits David, "Oh, No, I've been this route before, and the Holy Spirit stuck me with the spear of guilt. I don't want any part of this." David resists and says, "Who could do this without guilt."
David now begins to look at things from God's perspective. He sees that God himself will do the job that he would love to do. Look at I Samuel 26, verse 10:
David also said, "As the Lord lives, surely the Lord will strike him [same phrase he used for Nabal, something like a stoke or a massive coronary. You cannot live in contention with Jehovah and stay healthy. Nabal is a good example of it.] or his day will come that he dies, or he will go down into battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed; but now please take the spear that is at his head and the jug of water, and let us go." So David took the spear and the jug of water from beside Saul's head, and they went away, but no one saw or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep, because a sound sleep from the Lord had fallen on them.
David thought he was so smart, and so sly and such a good guerilla fighter, but God had anesthetized the whole of Saul's camp. Do you see the horror of that? If you want to go your route and you insist on it, God will let you. If David had wanted to go ahead and kill Saul, God would have let him, and nobody would have awakened. The irony is that God is about to kill Saul a couple of chapters down the road. So David would have sinned in killing Saul while actually doing the will of God. You think that God loves you so much he will stop you from those willful, deliberate choices that you make. No he won't. He loves you so much that he will let you do what you should not do when you choose to do what you know you should not do.
You ask, even though everyone was asleep how was David able to approach the camp? Wouldn't there have been some kind of out post on the alert? Saul slept in the middle of the camp surrounded by the men, while the guards would have been out in wilderness country. With about 3,000 men, they would have been all spread out and not a nice little group around a camp fire. Once David got by the outer guards he'd be OK. That is why I am sure Abishai went around to Saul's head. He didn't want a sound, not even want a groan, from Saul.
David, after making this statement, "God forbid I should stretch out my hand," says, "Now please take the spear that is at his head and the jug of water and let us go." David has a purpose here. The spear, which before was to have been an instrument of unrighteousness, is now going to be an instrument of righteousness used to convict Saul. David is human though. Look at 13.
I Samuel 26, verse 13:
Then David crossed over to the other side, and stood on top of the mountain at a distance with a large area between them. [He still knows Saul, and he wants to get plenty of room between himself and Saul. Listen to the line now] And David called to the people and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, "Will you not answer, Abner?" Then Abner answered and said, "Who are you who calls to the king?" [How dare you disturb the king's sleep] So David said to Abner, "Are you not a man? And who is like you in Israel? [He is in command of all the army. He is the man who has been bugging David for the last 10 years, chasing him like a hare in the hills.] Why then have you not guarded your lord the king? For one of the people came to destroy the king your lord. [There is the action of David's heart. If David had not really wanted to kill Saul, this taunting would have had no value in David's sight. But, oh, it did taste good. However, he has had a victory over it, see.] This thing that you have done is not good. As the Lord lives, all of you must surely die, because you did not guard your lord, the Lord's anointed. And now, see where the king's spear is, and the jug of water that was at his head." [In other words, "Hey, Abner, I take better care of your king than you do.]
Notice David's humanness. He has just had a tremendous spiritual victory, but he cannot resist just one little jab. Now, David can not coarse talk Saul because in Exodus 20, Scripture says you are not allowed to revile God or curse the ruler of your people. However, it says nothing about cursing the General of your people. So David has a little proxy vengeance here. He goes way over on the other side of the hill and holds up the spear and the jug of water. The jug was right by Saul's head as was the spear. He takes this opportunity to taunt Abner, the man who has been harassing him. This is a very tactical error. (Abner is now commander of the king's army. David used to be commander of Saul's army. Possibly there was rivalry between them even then.) Abner is quite a general, and David causes him to lose face in front of 3,000 of his troops. Abner is an oriental. How do you think Abner is going to respond? Poor old David just can not resist this kind of thing. When David, upon Saul's death, becomes king of Judah, Abner takes the remaining son of Saul, Ishbosheth, and with the ten northern tribes sets up his own kingdom in opposition to David. He does not return to David until Ishbosheth insults him and he loses face in Israel. Only then does he deliver Israel to David. David's little indulgence here may well have kept him from becoming king of all of Israel for several years. When you have a spiritual victory, don't push your luck. The retribution of God is always there. When you disobey God you will pay for it somewhere down the line. I think this incident is one of the basic reasons Abner refused to allow the ten tribes of Israel to join with Judah. under David as king.
Now how about David and Saul? I Samuel 26, verse 17:
Then Saul recognized David's voice and said, "Is this your voice, my son David?" And David said, "It is my voice, my lord the king." He also said, "Why then is my lord pursuing his servant? For what have I done? ["You call me your son David, so what's with this 3,000 man army?"] Or what evil is in my hand? Now therefore please let my lord the king listen to the words of his servant. [Where did David get that phrase to get Saul to listen to him? Abigail to David. Those are almost her exact words when David came running down in his rage to kill all the males in her family. Back in chapter 25, verse 24b she says, "Please let your maidservant speak to you and listen to the words of your maidservant." And he did listen and got out of trouble. David pleads with Saul based upon an experience he has just had when he was kept from sin.] If the Lord has stirred you up against me, let Him accept an offering; [This is interesting theologically. David recognizes that God does allow you to go your willful way, and he will, for example, put the whole camp asleep for you. He realizes he came down here with a heart to do evil, and God let him come. So he is telling Saul, "If God is letting you do this evil, all right then bring Him an offering." This is a technical term. This is the bloodless offering of good works. It is the very offering David has just offered God because of his own attitude. David wanted to kill also, and God almost let him do it, but David repented. Now he tells Saul, "Saul, you are being allowed to do this by God, then the answer to your problem is to offer an offering of good works just like I did."] but if it is men, cursed are they before the Lord, for they have driven me out today that I should have no attachment with the inheritance of the Lord [Just write me out of the nation of Isarel] saying, 'Go, serve other gods.' [In a sense they are making me flee Israel and flee Jehovah. You've dragged me out of my inheritance and away from my God.] Now then, do not let my blood fall to the ground away from the presence of the Lord; for the king of Israel has come out to search for a single flea, just as one hunts a partridge in the mountains."
That is an intriguing metaphor. Remember before when David said, "You have come out to look for a dead dog and a single flea." Of course, dead dogs won't bite. A single flea is ridiculous when you are infested with Philistines. So he makes Saul look ridiculous, "You come out here to look for one single flea." Then he changes his metaphor because of what just happened. The Israelite partridge runs along the ground. It does not fly. It escapes by fleeing, by running. In the flat lands large coveys are chased until they become exhausted. Then the Israelites throw sticks along the ground, strike them in the legs, knock them to the ground, catch them, break their necks and eat them.
So David says, "Saul, you are not being very bright. You are hunting a single partridge up in the mountains when there are coveys down there in the valley. There are Philistines everywhere, and in the mountains the partridge has the advantage. You can't chase him up and down hills very long. He can hide, and this particular partridge can turn around and bite you. Dead dogs may not bite, but a partridge named David can bite, and you just had a chance to see that."
So David gives him this veiled warning, and Saul gets the message. I Samuel 26, verse 21
Then Saul said, "I have sinned. [There is his confession again worth about two bits] Return, my son David, for I will not harm you again because my life was precious in your sight this day. Behold, I have played the fool and have committed a serious error." And David answered and said, [And look at the freedom a man of God has to rebuke the king of Israel, God's anointed. It is not sin to rebuke a man on a godly basis] "Behold the spear of the king! Now let one of the young men come over and take it. [He gives back to Saul his scepter. He is not trying to get the kingdom. He's not grabbing that symbol and keeping it] And the Lord will repay each man for his righteousness and his faithfulness; for the Lord delivered you into my hand today, but I refused to stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed. [He senses that God had arranged this thing and had allowed it to happen and he made the right choice] Now behold, as your life was highly valued in my sight this day, so may my life be highly valued in the sight of the Lord, [Not in Saul's sight. He can't trust Saul anymore] and may He deliver me from all distress." [And, of course, he means mainly you. He's telling Saul, "You are no longer a man of your word. I cannot trust you, but I can trust YHWH, and that is where I rest my case, and it hits] Then Saul said to David, "Blessed are you, my son David; you will both accomplish much and surely prevail." [literally "vanquish" "You are going to win."] So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place.
David took two things, a spear and a jug of water, literally "a pitcher" of water. He did not return the pitcher of water. I would like to offer a Roe sanctified theory here as to why I think he did not return the water. Turn to II Samuel 23, where the mighty men of David and some of their deeds are being described. The particular deed described here happened just prior to this action in I Samuel 26 when David was at the cave of Adullam, the cave just outside of Gath back in Chapter 22.
II Samuel 23, verse 13 says:
Then three of the thirty chief men went down and came to David in the harvest time to the cave of Adullam [That is the one just 10 miles east of Gath where David is hiding] while the troop of the Philistines was camping in the valley of Rephaim. And David was then in the stronghold, while the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem [The Philistines would come at harvest time, drive the people inside their walled cities and then take all the crops that had already been harvested. It devastated the land. This is what was happening at this time.] And David had a craving and said, "Oh that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem [his home town] which is by the gate. [Now the Philistines were sitting right there in Bethlehem] So the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines, and drew water from the well of Bethlehem which was by the gate, and took it and brought it to David. Nevertheless he would not drink it, but poured it out to the Lord; and he said, "Be it far from me, O Lord, that I should do this. Shall I drink the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives? Therefore he would not drink it.
David's men brought him the water he craved. It was an offering of their love for him and was at the risk of their lives, I might add. That water symbolized the blood of those men which might have been poured out had they not been successful. "The life of the flesh is in the blood," the Lord said in Leviticus 17. "I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls." Therefore, no Israelite could eat or drink blood. The blood was precious to God for it represented the life of the person that was sacrificed. So David, before this latest episode, had offered to the Lord this drink offering a symbol of the blood of these men.
I believe David kept the jug of water he picked up by Saul's head because it represented Saul's blood to him. The spear represented David's ability to kill Saul. It also represented Saul's authority to reign as God's anointed until God put him away, either by stroke, by natural death, or by perishing in battle. So the spear David could give back to Saul, but not the water. The water represented the desire of David to shed the blood of Saul, and he cannot give that back to Saul. That had to go to Jehovah. So he poured it out as a drink offering. He realized that except for Jehovah he would have taken innocent blood. This is why I believe he did not give the jug back. He did not want to usurp the prerogative of God by shedding innocent blood. David passed the test, but Saul did not. That is my sanctified opinion. You can take it or leave it, but I personally feel it is possible from Scripture. It also ties into the way David acts both before and after.
What, then, can we say about I John 1:9 then? What does it really mean to confess? And what does it really mean to repent? It means to deliberately do something positive in the opposite direction. If you honestly see things as God sees them, then you will know that the sin you call a peccadillo, just a slip, will separate you from God, and alone would be enough to cause Christ, the Son of God, to die for it. That gives you some concept of how to look at sin with the eyes of God. That produces a real desire to change. David did. He confirmed his position of true confession. So, my friends, do not claim I John 1:9 unless you plan to take a positive step in the opposite direction. You will either be a Saul or a David every time.
Before we close let me go back to something that came up very early in this message. I said, "If you have received Christ as your Lord and your God, positionally you are forgiven in Christ. He died for all your sins, past, present and future. There is no question about that." Someone asked, "If that is true then what is meant in Philippians 2:12-13 which says, '...Work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.'"
The word for "work out" means "to exploit" something you already possess. The Greek word means to take something that is your and wring it dry. It is from secular documents of that time. For example, one of the documents was written by the Romans to their silver mines in Gaul. They said "exploit" those mines. They already possessed the mines, but they told the manager, "We want those mines 'exploited.' Get all that silver out." So, that passage means "exploit" your salvation, which you already possess, with fear and trembling. The word "fear and trembling" does not means cringing fear. It does not mean fear of God but rather a trembling sensation of, "I want to please God, and I do not want to fail." It is a positive emotion. Why? For it is God who is at work within you ("energon" the word that is only used for supernatural power) both to give you the desire to do this, and also to energize you ("energein" again), to give you supernatural power to fulfill your desire. It has nothing to do with gaining something. It refers to what you are doing with what you have.
Next week we'll look at I Samuel, chapter 27.
Prayer:
Father, we thank you now from your Word, and we just ask for your blessing upon our lives that he might truly look at our lives and see them in your sight. We thank you for David, Father, who was a man after your own heart and a man after our own hearts. He had all the feelings and emotions we have and all the foibles and fallacies and You are in the process of molding that man into a really solid citizen, a man who will represent you, a man who will be a picture of Jesus Christ, a type of Jesus Christ all down through history. Father, we have a high and holy calling being made in your image and your likeness and some day we shall be exactly that, but, Father, help us to walk seriously before you knowing that you are at work in our hearts, that you want us to exploit our salvation with fear and trembling and with a deep desire to please you, but all the while resting in the fact that you are the one who is at work within us empowering us both to desire to do your will, and then in turn to give us the supernatural power to accomplish your will because everything does come from you. We are the choosers. We are not the actors. We have no power to act, but we do have power to choose. Father, help us to make the right choices. Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.
We are coming to the last days of Saul's reign and the beginning of David's. It is a picture of two believers who are totally at odds with God, yet one of them is restored by God and one of them is taken home by God. David is obviously restored. Saul is not. In Saul's death, I think we have an illustration of the "sin unto death" alluded to in I John 5:16 or I Corinthians 11:30. We'll talk more about that in a couple of weeks.
I would like to look at David first. We will cover chapter 27 and a couple of verses of chapter 28 today. Next week it will be chapters 29 & 30. After that we'll pick up Saul in the latter part of 28 and then chapter 31. Even though both men are believers, they show the depravity of the natural man.
As Chapter 26 ended, David had refused Abishai's invitation to kill Saul even though God had anesthetized the whole camp and Saul's spear was right at hand. He makes the statement in I Samuel 26, verse 10, "As the Lord lives, surely the Lord will strike him, [as he did with Nabal maybe a stroke or cardiac arrest] or his day will come that he dies, [a natural death] or he will go down into battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed." Then in verse 24 he confronts Saul with his evil in pursuing David when David is not harming him, "Now behold, as your life was highly valued in my sight this day, so may my life be highly valued in the sight of the Lord, and may He deliver me from all distress. Then Saul said to David, 'Blessed are you, my son David; you will both accomplish much and surely prevail.' [literally vanquish. You are going to win] So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place."
Now, David has just had a mighty spiritual victory. He has resisted the opportunity to kill Saul and left Saul in the hands of God. It would seem that, of all times, this would be the time when David would be walking securely with the Lord with no problems of faith. God has just demonstrated his adequacy and David has just made an extraordinary statement of faith. So what happens next? David takes his eyes off the Lord and looks at the circumstances.
There is a pattern here. I John 2:15 indicates "stop loving the world and the things that are in the world,...for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, [the word "lust" merely denotes a strong desire not necessarily sexual desire, and it can be either good or evil.] the strong desire of the flesh, and the strong desire for the material things in life or the strong desire for the boastful pride of life [status, pomp, ceremony, power, position] are not of the Father but are of the world and the world is passing away and its strong passionate desires; but the one who does the will of God abides forever." There is a progression to sin. It begins with normal, natural desires. In the case of Christ and his testing in Luke, it was his normal natural desire for food after forty days without food but a desire outside the will of God. It starts with a normal natural desire, but one outside the will of God. Then it progresses into a desire for things for things sake. You make little gods of something other than the true God and possessions become your desire. The last go around is when you make yourself God, the boastful pride of life. This is the progression downward. It is exactly what happened to Eve in Genesis 3. Why should Satan change his tactics. They have been working for thousands of years. A thousand years before David look what happened to Eve.
Genesis 3, verse 1:
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent. "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.'" [God never said that, but there is a tree she wants and she starts putting little restrictions on here] And the serpent said to the woman, "You surely shall not die! [The Hebrew emphasizes the "Not" "NO! you shall not die," a flat denial of what God had said] For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." [The ultimate destiny of man apart from God. You'll be like him. You'll be a god.] When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, [a strong desire of the flesh, just normal natural desire. Secondly] and that it was a delight to the eyes. [She wanted to possess it. Beauty is part of a gift of God to women. They love beautiful things. Thirdly.] and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, [Like God, the boastful pride of life. The ultimate god] she took from its fruit and ate; an