Month: October 2019

We finally come to the scene that we hope will end this fighting and will end what can only be described as a one sided civil war with the king pursuing David and David not fighting back.  Take note that David was surrounded by people who told him that he should kill Saul who very clearly was his enemy.  But David had too much respect for the office of king in order to do that.  In fact, he even felt guilty for cutting off a piece of the robe and scolded his men for talking him into doing even that.  But would it not be fairly obvious to make the argument that the Lord has placed into your hands your enemy, take him out for it is God’s will.  But David fights that impulse.

I had forgotten that David approaches  Saul immediately after the king leaves the cave, and in this way was able to show him directly that he had an opportunity to kill him, but chose not to.  In fact, the king says: “Who has ever heard of a person letting his enemy go free without harming them?  You have given me good and I am only seeking your evil.  You are more righteous than I am.”  That last part isn’t a quote.

But I think we come to an end of the animosity and Saul asks David to promise him that he would not bring an end to his family, which was pretty common back then.  When a new king took over who was not in the family of the last king, then that former family tended to be decimated.  It also happens that within the family people are wiped out to pave the way for the new king.  Do you notice that David calls Saul: my father.  David’s approach to Saul is a great example of humility embodied.

As we read about the pursuit of David by Saul it just becomes more and more sad.  Not only is he facing servants and soldiers who refuse to obey his commandments (remember they didn’t kill the priests like he ordered them), but he is also facing a son who his perfectly content with being second fiddle to David.  He even tells David that his father, King Saul, knows very well that David is going to reign.  Saul isn’t okay with that, but Jonathan is.  

As we read through these Scriptures images keep coming  to my mind of the places we went when we were in Israel.  We were in Ein-Gedi where much of this pursuit takes place.  Saul is very close to David when he gets word that the Philistines were attacking the home country.  I’m surprised that Saul wasn’t as obsessed with killing David that he was willing to let his home town burn to the ground.  I guess his obsession only went so far.

Let’s talk a little about this ephod that we find in vs.6 to which David refers in order to understand the will of the Lord.  An ephod is the most prominent of the priestly garments and plays a significant role in discerning the will of the Lord in Exodus 28, 39, Hosea 3:4, Isaiah 30:22.  We don’t feel comfortable thinking of things that bring us closer to God, but what about the Bible.  Don’t we feel that we are closer to God when we read the Bible?  Okay, that is different simply because those are words that we feel are inspired by God.  It is not an inanimate object that somehow has power unto itself.  But God uses a fleece, and uses other objects to clarify His  will.  It is a bit tricky, though.  I guess the best example is the robe that I wear on Sunday.  Now, for the priests the ephod was much, much more elaborate, as many robes can also be much more elaborate.  I’m not really into elaborate.

When things go bad, they really go bad.  Saul is completely isolated now.  Even though he is surrounded,  the Scripture says, with all of his servants and with his soldiers, still he was completely alone.  David has settled in the cave of Adullam which is found in the wilderness of Judah.  This wilderness was long considered a hideout for those cast out by society. In fact, notice whom David gathers around him: those who were in distress, in debt, discontented and he ruled over them.  They turned into his army.

When Saul hears that David has settled down he is furious and wants to know how this has happened.  The story is told how David sought refuge from the priests in Nob and so the high priest and all of his family and all of the priests were summoned to see Saul.  There, Saul is furious and orders his soldiers to kill the priests.  All of his soldiers refuse.  Who in their right mind is going to kill a servant of God.

So, Saul has to look outside of his nation to allies in order to kill the priests.  He talks to Doeg the Edomite who would be more  than happy to kill priests who worshiped the Lord especially because they worshiped other gods and this would be seen as a huge bonus for them.  Their own gods would be so pleased that they killed priests of a competing god.  It is carried out and none of the priests or their families are spared.  Guess who reaches out to those who survived this attack?  David, he reaches out and tells them to join his gang of misfits.  I’m pretty sure if I were around when David  were around I would have asked him if I could join his gang of misfits.

It reminds me a bit of Robin Hood.  I remember growing up with this song.

We start to see a side of David that we haven’t seen before.  Let us keep in mind that David is now a convicted felon running from the law.  He doesn’t want Saul to know at all where he is so he makes up a story for the priest in Nob in order to get the bread of the presence.  He arrives at Gath and pretends to be a madman so that they would not see him as a threat and the king of Gath is insulted as to why anyone would bring a madman to his gates, as if he doesn’t have enough madmen in his city.

What David is willing to do in order to protect himself is pretty extraordinary.  He is willing to tell untruths, what we call lies.  This catches  up with him as he unethically seduces and rapes Bathsheeba.  He is willing to play the crazyman in order to protect himself.  What we will see is that in the long run all of this will catch up to him.  Right now there is no harm and no foul as he does these things, but they are offenses not just to the people with whom he interacts, but offenses to God as well.    Keep in mind that when we betray those around us we also betray the Lord.

I was pretty captivated by this story and it is easy to recognize that David and Jonathan have a friendship which is sincere and intense.  Jonathan has no idea that his father is looking to kill David, and David knows that this is the case and breaks the news to Jonathan.  They come up with an elaborate scheme which would protect David perpetually and provide Jonathan with proof that his father is indeed looking to take David out.  

They follow through on their plan, Jonathan discovers that indeed his father is looking to kill David and he is able to get David safely away with a weapon to protect himself.  What I want to look at is how Saul tells Jonathan that if David is not killed then Jonathan will never gain the throne, and that is of the utmost importance to Saul is that his son, Jonathan, would gain the throne.  That is not what is most important to Jonathan.  His friendship and his love of David supersedes all of his aspirations.  

Think about what you are willing to sacrifice in order to fulfill some preconceived idea of success.  It isn’t always finances that drives people, but sometimes it is power or the ability to dictate or to be seen as important.  Whatever it may be look at what it might be which takes priority over relationships in our lives.  God is a God who created us to be in relationship with Him and with each other.  Don’t sacrifice that for anything.

So the weird meter just went off if you happened to pick up on this chapter without reading the preceding ones.  Let’s get ourselves up to date.  Saul, who is currently reigning as king, is jealous of David because everyone sees him as the hero who killed Goliath.  David, who was anointed king but secretly lest the current king, Saul, find out, is now married to the current king’s daughter and has a very deep friendship with the king’s son, Jonathan.  This David, as one of you asked me today, is the same David who one day will rape Bathsheba after he sees her bathing on her rooftop.  So, now we should be all caught up.

This chapter finds us with both Jonathan and Michal, David’s wife, going to bat for David and really saving his life.  Jonathan by convincing his father that David was actually on his side, and Michal by lying on behalf of David and thus giving him the time that he needed to elude the men of Saul.   We end the chapter with Saul sending messengers to capture David after he had teamed up with Samuel, who was still the high priest.  

As each wave of messengers come to capture David they are overcome with the Holy Spirit in a good way.  They become messengers of the Lord and they are completely taken up with worshiping the Lord, so much so that they are not able to carry out their duty of capturing David.  After this happens three times the king himself, Saul, goes to see what in the world is going on.  As a result (vs.24): He stripped off his clothes, and he too fell into a frenzy before Samuel.  He lay naked all that day and all that night.  The meter just went to 11.

Wouldn’t it be amazing to be so caught up in the  Spirit of God that you are really unaware of anything else which is happening around you.  That was the state of the messengers, and then of Saul, as they were caught up in a Holy Spirit frenzy.

There is a bit of a conflation of time here as David is seen as returning from killing the Philistine, whom we know to be Goliath, and the women are enamored with him and shout out that he has killed 10 thousand Philistines and Saul, the actual king, had only killed a thousand.  Needless to say this was infuriating to Saul, the king.  They aren’t giving me any credit.  Not that he deserved any credit, but he was the king after all, and he should get the credit whether he deserved it or not.

Saul had promised that whomever killed Goliath would marry his daughter and after one false start David did actually marry Saul’s daughter, Michal, and so becomes the son-in-law of the king, Saul.  As a result of this we see that Saul places him in charge over soldiers who every time they go out they conquer and they win a battle.  Instead of this pleasing  Saul because he now has less enemies today than he did the day before, he becomes afraid of David because he is becoming more and more powerful.  

Why is it that the success of others often is seen as a threat to us?  Why do we feel jealous or of less worth when others do something good?  Why do we evaluate ourselves at times based upon the strength or weakness of those around us?  The converse can also be true.   Why do we sense a twinge of excitement or joy when someone whom we feel is not our ally has a bad day or is facing a difficult time.  Look over Matthew 5:44 and rethink that approach.  

If you look at vs.29 you read that “Saul was David’s enemy from that time forward.”  David’s fame continued to grow, the Spirit of the Lord departs from Saul setting up a combustible atmosphere which can only end with the king losing his reign.  That is coming up.

The timing of all of this is interesting, but let’s stick to the most attractive part of this chapter.  DAVID AND GOLIATH!!  Now that we know what we are talking about, you know the story.  Which of the details of the story which you read did you not know and with which were you not familiar?  Did you know that David’s brother scolded him because he was a bratty kid asking too many questions (vs.28)?  Did you know that David got the smooth stones after he had talked to Saul and tried on his armor (vs.40)?  Did you know that Saul had no idea who David was?  

This is where the crux of the problem arises simply because in the previous chapter we have David who comes in and plays the harp for Saul and soothes his soul when the evil spirit of the Lord comes upon him.  But let’s just assume we stepped back into time a bit, or something like that.  How about David defeating Goliath?

If you are going to focus on something in this chapter you have to turn to vs.45-47 where David pronounces that the Lord does not save by sword and spear.  Not by power, not by might, but by my Spirit says the Lord.  Look at Zechariah 4:6 and you see almost the same kind of sense from the prophet who says that it is not by our hand, it is not by our weapons, but it is by the Spirit of God that we are able to accomplish anything.  What a great lesson in this intensely militarized time period in which we live.  

This has to be my favorite chapter in this entire book of the Bible.  I want you to focus on vs.7 where we read: “The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”  What a powerful statement.  I think of the things that we do in order for people to see.  I think of what we say in a crowd, what we post on social media, what we pretend to align ourselves with simply for the reason so that those around us, or those who know us, can see what we are saying at the moment is our feeling or our stance.

What if God were the only who cared and saw what we felt and what we did and no one else would see?  How would our lives be different and how would we spend our time differently?  Samuel is told by God that people judge according to what we can see and what we hear and what we have heard and what we have said.  People judge on outward appearances and so we feel the need to keep up our appearances, to pretend that everything is going perfectly well, even if we are falling apart.  Now, this is not the topic of Samuel’s visit or the primary reason for these verses.

God had given up on Saul and so was determined for Samuel to go now and anoint his new king, who would be David.  When he sees David’s brothers, who would be perfect picks for kings, God says don’t look at them, but look at their hearts.  God looks at the hearts of people, and these hearts cannot be seen from the outside.  You cannot judge a person based upon what they are saying and doing on the outside, what they post on social media which often reflects a story that simply is not who they are or how they are feeling.  Judge a person based upon what is on their heart.  What they say when no one is listening, what they do when no one is watching, what they think when no one could ever know.  Choose that person who is not concerned about image but rather about integrity.