Month: October 2019

The protagonist in this chapter is really Abner, who was the commander of Saul’s army, and had really kept the family of Saul in power through Saul’s son Ishbaal after Saul’s death.  But we begin the chapter by reading that  Saul’s family was getting weaker and David’s kingdom was getting stronger.  As a result Abner can read the writing on the wall and decides to make peace with David and swear allegiance to him so that the two kingdoms, Judah and Israel, can once again be reunited under one king, which would be king David.

David demands that if he were to agree to this then he wanted his old wife back, Michal, who was presently married to Paltiel.  The king of Judah, Saul’s son, sends Michal back to David with Paltiel weeping behind her the whole way.  This serial sinner David begins his exploits of taking women away from their husbands and claiming them as his own early on his kingdom.  This is replayed when David takes and rapes Bathsheba.  

So while Abner and David have a peace treaty signed not everyone is on board, especially that family who had lost loved ones in battle against Abner.  This family, Joab and his brothers, coax Abner to a corner and kill him in cold blood.  David is distraught and refuses to eat until the time of mourning is over which is supposed to show that he had nothing to do with the killing.  The story will continue next chapter as Saul’s family continues to fall apart and David’s reign gets even stronger.  So the glue that held Saul’s family together, Abner, is dead.  Everything will now unravel.

We have a bit of a divided kingdom here as David is anointed king by the people of Judah.  He gives thanks to the people of Jabesh-Gilead since they took a risk and buried the body of Saul.  Even though at the point of Saul’s death he was a sworn enemy of David, still he was king of Israel.  It is only when the current reigning king was dead could David be anointed.  

But, Saul had children and the commander of Saul’s army placed one of his children in control of Israel instead of David.  His name was Ishbaal which means man of shame.  That is appropriate since he was placed in power not by the Lord God, but by a commander in the military.  So now you had those who followed David from Judah and those who followed the man of shame from Israel.  This can be confusing if you are not careful.  Judah is the southern part of what we consider Israel today, and what is called Israel in this Scripture is the northern part of current day Israel.

The two sides meet at Gideon and decide to have a UFC fight and no one really wins it.  So instead they just get into a basic old fashioned war.  David loses 19 soldiers and Saul’s son loses over 300.  It does seem that David won this battle.  Here is a map of the kingdom which is now divided.  This will mark the conflict that will be cover David’s reign.

David gets the news of Saul’s death and he is distraught in a number of different ways.  First of all, look at the story that the Amalekite brings to David.  Keep in mind that David had just finished pursuing the Amalekites (vs.1) who had raided their camp and taken their women and children.  So this Amalekite comes to David and reports that Saul had been killed and he witnessed the whole thing and took his crown and amulet to David.  You know he was hoping for an atta boy.  Instead he got a sword right through him because he raised his hand against the Lord’s anointed.  See why I thought David could never go into battle against the Israelites?

David weeps, fasts, and teaches people a new song.  Here is a song that is supposed to be similar to what was taught.  Who knows, but I see David weeping as he sings this.  

We come to the end of the chapter and we come to the end of the life of Saul.  He does go into battle against the Philistines and he loses that battle handily, to the point where he and his sons are all killed.  Israel was conquered and Saul was able to see that he did not have a chance so instead of being taken alive he asked his trusty armor bearer to kill him.  That didn’t go over well, he said no, so Paul killed himself and the armor bearer also killed himself.  

Notice when the Philistines realized that they had killed King Saul.  It wasn’t until the next day in vs. 8.  They took his body and cut off his head and used it as a trophy to display for whoever would see that they were able to do this.  They also attributed their victory to one of their gods, Astarte, who happened to be the goddess of war and sexual love.  They put  Saul’s body in her temple.

There were some Israelites, we assume, from Jabesh-gilead who saw the atrocities the Philistines were committing and they took down Paul’s body and those of his sons and gave them the proper cremation burial and fasted as they were supposed to.  So ends the life of Saul, but also of his son Jonathan which, as we will see later, really bothers David.

David gets back after being rejected by the Philistines, for whom he worked for a number of years now, and finds that his village, Ziklag, had been raided and burned to the ground.  All of his wives and children were taken off by the Amalekites and there was nothing left.  There was almost  a mutiny, as it says in vs.6 that David was in great danger.  He wasn’t sure what to do so he did what most people ought to do, he asked his pastor.  His pastor told him to pursue those who were taken and he would surely bring them back safe and sound.

He does that, on the way 200 of the 600 stayed behind at a river along the way, for they were too tired to go any further.  They find the camp of the Amalekites and slaughter them and get back all that which had been taken from them.  There is an interesting coda to the story which is often overlooked.  As they were making their way back to their home, Ziklag, they stopped at the stream where they had left the 200 who simply were not able to go any further.  In vs.22 it tells us that all those who were worthless and corrupt out of the 400 thought it would be a good idea not to give those 200 who stayed at  the stream any of the spoil.  They should only get what was originally theirs, their wives and children.

You can tell by the fact that the idea was attributed to those who were worthless and corrupt that it was not a good idea.  David says: “For the share of the one who goes down into the battle shall be the same as the share of the one who stays by the baggage, they shall share alike.”  What a great  example of equity and further proof that David is going to make a good ruler. 

David is well  ensconced with the Philistines and has shown his loyalty to them with all the battles on their behalf which we went over in earlier chapters.  But now a problem arises.  King Achish under whom David is serving and for whom he is now the chief bodyguard, is not, apparently, as highly placed as we thought.  As the Philistines are getting ready to battle Israel, David is marching in with Achish and the others of David’s troops.  There are thousands of troops getting ready to go up against Saul when the Philistines who were actually in charge object to David being among them.  They probably remember getting whopped by him a few years before that.

They demand that David not be allowed to go into battle with them because who knows, he just might turn sides in the middle of the battle.  I’m with them, especially when we saw that twice David had a hard time hurting the one whom God had anointed to rule over Israel.  Remember both those vents with Saul where David did not hurt him, but let him know that he could have taken him  down.  But Achish had  to tell David and David didn’t really understand why and he ends up obeying and doing what he was told to do.  So ends the story.  But, this events sparks a turn in David especially once we see what happens at the beginning of the next chapter.  I know, you can’t wait can you?

So, this is  where the pastor better have some ‘splaining to do.  Saul calls up Samuel from the dead and asks advice from him?  First of all I thought that wasn’t possible, and secondly, if it were possible, it can’t be a good thing.  On the second statement first.  You are absolutely right, if it is possible, it is not a good thing.  As Protestants we do not have a veneration of the saints where we believe that we can communicate with the dead or ask favors or help from those who are dead no matter how important they were when they were living.  The primary reason for this is because we are in direct communion with Almighty God who is omnipresent and omniscient so why would we need to go to anyone but God for help and direction?  Trying to interact with the dead is a dead end (see  what I did there)?  

Now, the Bible is filled with examples where the dead interact with the living but we never see this either as a positive thing or as something that we ought to emulate.  Moving within that realm is not only confusing to me but there is also an element of fear simply because I know that it is not something that God would approve.  I would very easily call it sin, so it is best to stay away from it and not even try to enter into that territory.  

Saul is in trouble because he cast out not only all the mediums and sorcerers, which is something he should have done anyway according to Leviticus 19:31 and 20:6, 27, but he has also cast out all the priests so he very simply on his own.  Keep in mind that while Saul is trying to figure out if God is on his side, which He is not, David has become the head bodyguard for the Philistine ruler.  Things are not going in Saul’s direction at this time.

This is a different side of David from what we have seen before.  This is the warrior that looks to ensure that his kingdom is solidified and that those who serve him are well treated and given what they need.  It is also the soldier who doesn’t hesitate, as the Scripture states, to “strike the land, leaving neither man nor woman alive.”  

David didn’t trust Saul any longer so decides to take up his habitation with the sworn enemies of the Israelites, the Philistines.  Remember Goliath, you know the one that David killed, well he was a Philistine.   What is that saying, politics makes stranger bedfellows.  This is a perfect example of that.  David residing with the Philistines, living in their land and getting the blessing of their king is where we find ourselves.  

The king of the Philistines in fact thinks to himself that because David has done this: “he has made himself utterly abhorrent to the his people of Israel.”  He thinks that they will never welcome David back.  Well, that doesn’t really work out in his favor as we will see later on.

This story may sound vaguely familiar to you, although instead of a cave this story takes place on the battle field.  David once again hears that Saul is pursuing him.  David in the dead of night sees where Saul is, sneaks in and steals his spear and water jug, and then taunts the person who was supposed to protect Saul by saying that he was pretty much worthless as bodyguard.  

Saul hear’s David voice and says how sorry he is and says how much better of a person David is and that great things will happen to David.  Does that sound at all familiar?  It should, and if it doesn’t then go ahead to chapter 24 and you will find the identical story, except for one pretty key component.  

At the end of chapter 24 David and Saul meet together and it is a really important kum ba ya moment.  They depart in peace and I said something like, finally, this whole adversarial thing is over.  David and Saul get together, they embrace, things are back on track.  Well, here things seem to get back on track but David doesn’t go back down to greet Saul but rather has Saul send someone up to get his spear and water back.  David’s trust of Saul, if at all present before, is completely gone.  

I don’t want to spoil anything but… the words of the next chapter are the following:  “David said in his heart ‘I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul.'”  He knew that Saul would never give up on pursuing him and trying to take his life by stealth.  It is time to make plans on his own and figure out how to embrace the future while Saul is trying to take his future away. 

Isn’t it the truth that sometimes we try to rely upon things that are super tenuous and don’t really hold up real well, but somehow we trick ourselves into thinking that they will work, or at least this one time it will work even if every other time it didn’t work at all.  Don’t rely upon what you hope will happen, you must rely upon God’s guidance and your hard work to make things happen.

We find a very elaborate story which is pretty much set up to give us David’s next wife.  We find out in verse 44 that  Saul had given David’s wife to a neighbor which meant that  David  was out a wife.  I guess it was the easiest thing to do for Saul especially when he was seeking out David’s life to kill him.  But here in this chapter we see him meet Abigail.  

Abigail was the wife of a very, very rich man.  This rich man was approached by David’s men who asked basically a hand out in return for the protection that they gave his shepherds.  It does remind me of a bit of an extortion.  The guy, Nabal which means fool in Hebrew, was not going to have it and so sent them away empty handed.  The servants of Nabal tell his wife, Abigail, that these soldiers of David had come and Nabal had yelled at them and insulted them.  She panics.

Without her husband knowing she loads up her donkeys and goes out to meet David whom she knew must be coming in to destroy Nabal and his family, including her.  David receives her gifts and agrees not to destroy Nabal and his family.  Ten days later Nabal dies of natural causes and David sees it as a sign that the words of Abigail were righteous and wise.  He calls for her to be his wife and she agrees.  This is how David and Abigail get together.  We will see she comes into play later on.