Overview of 1 Samuel 16-31, Adult Discipleship Class

thinking about what was preached today, so grateful for the gospel and how it just impacts all areas of our lives. We think, Lord, about your plan of salvation and know that it has always been your plan and there’s never been a plan B with you. in your sovereign plan of salvation, Christ came, even from the very beginning, as we saw in the book of Genesis.

Genesis 3.15, that the seed of the woman would come to crush the head of the serpent. We thank you for your promises. We rejoice knowing of our great hope for the future in light of our salvation, and pray, Lord, specifically on our study today, that it would honor you and that we would understand the text better. It’s in your name we pray these things, amen.

So, last week, turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel, please, if you will. Last week we weren’t able to finish it. We looked at the lives of Samuel and Saul, but today we’re going to take a look at the life of David. As we talked about last week, the structure of the book can be divided into three different sections. First section, if you will, is primarily concerned with the narrative of Samuel’s life. That’s chapters 1 through 7. The second section is that of Saul, which is focused specifically in chapters 8 through 15, and then David in chapters 16 through 31. But before we take a deeper look at this text itself, I think an important theme that has appeared multiple times in our study is worth mentioning.

And it’s the fact that God as revealed in the Bible, the true and the living God, is unlike any other. From the very beginning of our study in the book of Genesis, we saw that as Moses revealed to the Hebrews that had been delivered from Egyptian bondage, that God is the creator of the whole universe, sovereign over everything.

There aren’t multiple gods not like the idolatry they were used to in Egypt but you know, he is the true God the one who created the whole world in six days and Specifically called Israel to be a special people to himself and Another word for that that we hear often is holy. God is holy. He’s other he’s different. He’s set apart and And because of that, because he’s holy, he also wanted to demonstrate his holiness in making a holy people for himself. We saw that in the book of Genesis. Him calling Abraham, or Abram back then, in Genesis chapter 12, right? And he gave him the Abrahamic covenant, which has three elements to it. Does anyone know any of the three elements?

Come on. Land? Yes. Seed? Yes. Blessing? Great work, everybody. I was tempted to make you all raise your hands again there, but I won’t this time. We’re not Pentecostals. So, absolutely, so Abraham was set apart. He was called out by God, and God promised him those three things to his descendants, that a great nation would come from Abram and Abraham. Those promises were reaffirmed with Isaac and Jacob, and were still true even in the midst of the Egyptian bondage as we saw at the beginning of the book of Exodus. Their god demonstrated again that he is unlike any other god in his plagues that he brought about on the Egyptians, making a mockery of the Egyptian gods, especially with the last of those plagues before the death of the firstborn being darkness, making fun of Ra, the Egyptian god of the sun. And in so doing, he eventually brought Israel out of Egypt to Sinai. And there he gave them two specific roles, or revealed to them two specific roles he had for them among the rest of the nations.

They were supposed to be a kingdom of priests, good job, and a holy nation. Good work. Once again, there’s a difference between priest and prophet, right? Sometimes we use those interchangeably. But in the Old Testament, a priest was someone who brought the people to God. The prophet was the one who brought God to the people through revelation.

And so Israel was supposed to be a kingdom of people that brought the other peoples, the nations, to God. And in light of this, in pointing to God’s character, that he is holy, they themselves were to live holy. They were to be other, in other words, set apart, different. Their lifestyles were to look totally different than those of the outside nations.

But as we saw in the book of Exodus, shortly after God gave them that, including the Ten Commandments as well, Israel was unfaithful. Moses went up 40 days, 40 nights, came back down. Israel had made the golden calf. They were demonstrating that even though they left physical bondage, they still were under spiritual bondage.

And the question at the end of that book that we ask as we see all of the requirements for building the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God, special dwelling place of God, is how can a holy God like this dwell in the midst of sinful people? And the answer is found in Leviticus. It’s through an appropriate worship. It’s through sacrifice. And also through a walk with God, an obedient lifestyle.

These laws, if we were to take a look at the book of Leviticus in our morning devotions and only read a few verses at a time, They might seem a bit random. We wonder why are some of these laws this way? Why can’t you breed two different types of cattle, wear two different types of fabric in your clothing? Why can’t we eat pork or crustaceans? Praise the Lord in the New Covenant, am I right? Why can’t we?

And the answer was, is Israel specifically was to be different. The rest of the nations were doing those things. God commanded them to live differently so that in living differently, they wouldn’t adopt the idolatrous practices of the nations. Eventually, as we saw in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 27 and 28, God promises to Israel as a nation that if they obey him, if they worship him, the holy God, living holy lives, seeking to honor him in light of what he has done for them, He promises them as a nation blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. But as Israel demonstrates again and again, they’re sinful.

We saw in the wilderness wanderings, they’re complaining or their unbelief that God promised Abraham. He promised him, right? He promised him land, descendants and blessing. And Israel doubted that God really could conquer the Canaanites. And so the first generation died out. And Moses himself even wasn’t exempted. From that the new generation would visit the promised land. They would be part of the conquest and Moses transferred His role over to Joshua But you see the conquest to we’re following the same theme.

Holy God. Holy nation. The conquest wasn’t like normal conquests I mean, I don’t know about you but marching around a very fortified city six times in six days, and then seven times on the seventh day, and then just letting out a loud shout, I don’t think that’s the smartest way for tactical warfare. And that’s the point. It’s a holy conquest.

It demonstrates that God’s the one that’s fulfilling His promises. It’s ultimately dependent upon Him, not in their own strength. And Israel, even though God is the one that has already promised them the land, was not faithful in driving out all of the peoples. And as a result, they were ensnared by the idolatry of the peoples around them that stayed in the land.

We talked about the tumultuous time of the judges. But even in the time of the judges themselves, the judges weren’t people that we would look to as spiritual role models. Maybe Othniel, but besides that, we wouldn’t. I mean, Samson, sorry Sunday school teachers, you know, from a long time ago. Lots of great fun lessons about him, but he wasn’t a hero. And in fact, it’s more a tragedy, if you will.

All the cycle of the judges is a downward spiral out of control. And so we take a look at all of those judges. Anything that was good that happened was because of God’s hand. It wasn’t normal. I mean, Samson’s strength was not normal. It was other. It was different. It was almost a holy strength. Every single time Samson had some great feat, it was always because, the text says, the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him. It was God. It was not Samson.

And so you think Israel, in light of everything that they have seen in their history, would know that God does things differently. They shouldn’t rely on their own strength. They shouldn’t rely on what they see, the normal way of doing things. Instead, they should trust God.

And that’s where Samuel comes in. In the time of the judges, there was no king. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. And eventually, because of the corrupt spiritual leadership of Eli and Samuel’s sons, The people ask for a king in 1 Samuel. Now, if you’ll turn with me, let’s take a look. I believe it’s 1 Samuel chapter 8. Please correct me if I’m wrong. 1 Samuel chapter 8.

This is a short review of what we talked about last week. Israel’s request for a king wasn’t necessarily inherently wrong. It wasn’t necessarily bad. It was bad because of the heart behind the request. But God had already given Israel certain stipulations for the future kings. They were not to multiply wives for themselves. They were to depend on God for their descendants and their heirs. They were not to multiply horses for themselves. This is found in Deuteronomy, so that they rely on God’s strength, not their own. They were not to multiply gold for themselves because they needed to trust in God’s provision, not their own strength or their own riches. And so it’s already expected, and including, if you take a look at the judge’s narrative too, it’s like, it’s pointing to Israel needing a king.

God has ruled over them, and we saw in the time of the judges that the angel of the Lord visited Gideon. We saw the angel of the Lord visited Samson’s parents. And we saw in the text itself, it’s pretty clear that that’s God. God visited them. God was ruling over Israel at that time. We think of the commander of the armies of the Lord found in the book of Joshua before Joshua went and conquered Jericho and receiving his worship. It’s very clear that God has already been ruling and yet the narrative itself doesn’t doesn’t speak too terribly about a future king.

And so the question when we get to 1 Samuel chapter eight is why is God so angry over this request? And we find this really in verse five. The people speak to Samuel because Samuel’s sons are corrupt. And they asked him at the end of verse five, now appoint a king for us to judge us like what?

All the nations. Alarm bells should be going off if we’ve been studying the Old Testament up till now, because that’s not Israel’s plan. That’s not what they were called to do. They were not called to be like the rest of the nations. God was to demonstrate his glory, that he was not like the gods of the nations, by making for himself a holy nation, to set apart other, different, doing things differently. And Israel instead wants a king so that they can kind of fit in, be with the cool kids, do things the way they want to do them rather than trusting in God.

Verse 7, The Lord replies to Samuel, says, listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. And we really see this vividly portrayed in verse 20, after Samuel warns them, you know, if you have a king like the rest of the nations, you’re gonna have lots of problems, you’re gonna have taxes, you’re gonna have all sorts of stuff. And verse 19, let’s go to verse 19 instead, actually. The text says, nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel.

And they said, no, but there shall be a king over us that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. Think about the implication of that. We want a king so that he can go fight for us. If you’re Samuel, you’re probably a massive facepalm, right? Like, have you not been watching the whole history of us as a nation?

All the way from the very beginning, God has been fighting for us. It is very clear, the conquest itself was not a natural conquest. This is a supernatural one. This is holy, it’s other, it’s different. God has been fighting for us and yet you want a king to fight for you. Any sort of discipline or lack of success that came upon Israel as a nation was because of their own disobedience corporately, right? If we think about the Mosaic Covenant. And so Israel wants a king. They want a king like the rest of the nations. And so what God does is he gives them an act of discipline or his judgment to them as a nation corporately and giving them exactly what they want. They give him salt or he gives them salt.

And this specific character, Saul, that we see, verse 2 is described, of chapter 9, sorry, is described as a choice and handsome man. Now, he was from his shoulders up. He was taller than any of the people. Once again, in human, from a human perspective, we were to think about a successful king. They would look on the outer appearance. Is he strong? Is he someone that is perhaps a great warrior? Is he someone that would represent physical strength, reliance on themselves rather than God?

And what we’ll see today specifically is that God’s plan was different. We saw in Ruth that God had already planned for David to be king. and orchestrating the romance of Boaz and Ruth. But we also see when we look at David specifically today that he’s just so different than Saul, so different than Saul. Saul starts out pretty decent, but ends up not doing super well.

Let me see here. So chapter 15 is key also as well. Please turn there. Once again, I kind of rushed through this last week, but this is important. When Saul is going to go fight the Amalekites, Saul does not wait for, or actually, no, with this specific one, he doesn’t kill all of the Amalekites that God commanded him to kill. Verse 9 of chapter 15 says, Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, the ox, and the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly. And because of this, the Lord tells Samuel in verse 11, I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not carried out my commands. Now, as mentioned last time, if we skip all the way to verse 29, it says, the glory of Israel will not lie or change his mind.

That word change his mind, that’s one word. It’s the same one as in verse 11 for regret. And so what we see here is something’s going on. God’s expressing his distaste for sin, but it’s not regret like you and me would have. Like, oh man, I messed up with that decision. Or, oh man, you know, on to plan B or whatever. But rather, no, he is displeased with Saul’s sin. Samuel says specifically in verse 22 to Saul, now, 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, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king. To obey is better than sacrifice.

God couldn’t care less if you just have the externals and the hearts far from him. We even, I think at the very beginning of 1 Samuel, of Hannah’s song, right? About how God looks at the heart, right? It’s a man looks at the outer appearance, God looks at the heart. We’ll see that specifically with this call of David. But it doesn’t matter how much Saul might want to try and look righteous on the outside. God knows his heart, and God is going to choose a man after his own heart.

Which brings us to chapter 16, which is where I believe we left off last week. This is about the life of David, the beginning of the life of David. First and Second Samuel were originally one book, and so in our English Bibles, there are two. But originally they were meant to be read as one narrative entirely, so we have more to come of David in 2 Samuel. But God tells Samuel that he has a different king that he has chosen for himself now. And when he, verse seven is really important.

It says, the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance when he’s looking for this king, or at the height of his stature. Real quick, who was the person that Israel cared a lot about his height and stature? This is completely, totally different because I’ve rejected him.

For God sees not as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. Man might want a king like the rest of the nations, might want a conquest like the rest of the nations, might want to live a life like the rest of the nations, but God is different. He’s holy and because of that, he cares not only about the outside, but he cares about the inside as well.

And so eventually we see that David’s anointed. He’s also funny enough, verse 12, described as having beautiful eyes, having a handsome appearance. And it says in verse 13, the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. And in verse 14, we see a contrast that the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul.

Now real quick, before you want to build a whole pneumatology of the Old Testament, Pump the brakes a little bit. This is where the analogy of faith comes in, that scripture interprets scripture. That whenever it comes to specific doctrinal things, it’s important to use the more clear texts to interpret the less clear texts. And in this specific instance, this ministry of the Spirit of the Lord is one that can be a bit confusing if we don’t take New Testament context as well. But specifically it says, the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him.

And so eventually, David becomes a musician with his reputation. In 18, one of the young men tells him, 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. Once again, if the text can’t. Say he’s handsome enough. There we go. And the Lord is with him. David’s the youngest of Jesse’s sons. He’s not the oldest. He’s a shepherd boy.

I mean, all of these details are so different than who Saul was. His outer appearance doesn’t seem like the one that would be the natural candidate for king, and yet he’s the one that God chose. David became so close to Saul, the text says in verse 21, that he eventually became his armor bearer, very close, almost like cupbearer to the king, very, very close.

And then in chapter 17, we get the beginnings of the challenge of Goliath. Many of you have likely heard this story. I mean, one of the most popular Old Testament narratives, David and Goliath, David ends up going to go visit his brothers. Chapter 17 says to give them some supplies from his dad. When they’re fighting the Philistines, And verse 23, chapter 17 says, as he was talking with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine from Gath, named Goliath, was coming up from the army of the Philistines.

Now, this language is very similar to our study in Ruth. It sounds almost coincidental, you know, as he was talking with them, behold. But we know from the text already, this is part of God’s plan. It’s very ironic that he was there just at that time. And it’s not really ironic so much as it is provident.

God’s orchestrating his plan to make David king. David’s not happy with this Philistine, even though everyone else is afraid of him, including Saul. He says in verse 26, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should taunt the armies of the living God? David trusts the Lord, even though Goliath on outer appearance would be very intimidating.

And then verses 31 and 32. and onward, we see the rest of David and Goliath, and there are many interpretations. Maybe some of you have heard this classic sermon, you know, you are David, your trials are Goliath, you just gotta go kill the giant, right?

Don’t take that as the main meaning of the text. That’s not the main meaning of the text. Some of you might have heard, too, that, you know, there’s evidence here that Goliath could have had some sort of physical deformity, and because of that, giants aren’t necessarily all that they seem. That’s not the point of the text either.

What the text is showing is that God is behind who, David or Saul? David. That’s the point. David, from outer appearance, would not be the one we would expect to lead Israel next. But God wants that specifically because he’s already showed he’s not a god like the rest of the gods of the nations.

He’s the living and true God. The rest of the gods in the nations cannot see, they cannot hear, cannot taste, cannot smell. They’re dead, right? Even any influence that would come from them would be demonic, which is still under God’s sovereignty. They can’t exercise their own sovereignty as a god. Israel as a nation is a holy nation. And as a result, to give God even more glory, he wants the king to be a holy king. Other, different, set apart.

I think that this interpretation is very vividly portrayed in verses 38 and 39 when David tells Saul his plan. Trusting God, David tells Saul, he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. Verse 38 says, then Saul clothed David with his garments and put a bronze helmet on his head, and he clothed him with armor. David girded his sword over his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. So David said to Saul, I cannot go with these for I have not tested them. And David took them off.

The whole point is, you would think in normal conventional battle strategy, is armor a good thing or a bad thing? It’s good, right? Yeah, it’s good. But the whole point of the narrative is showing God is not working in the normal ways that we would think. He’s working in a holy way that’s set apart and different to bring himself to glory.

Not David, not Saul, not any of us, to give himself the glory. So eventually, verse 42 says, this Philistine Goliath looked and saw David. He disdained him for he was but a youth and ruddy, and once again with a handsome appearance. So even Goliath recognizes that David’s a tall glass of water or whatever people say. And eventually, Goliath says to David in verse 43, am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? And he specifically cursed David by his gods. But then David responds, and this is really awesome.

He says, you come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, normal conventional battle weapons. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have taunted. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hands and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. Once again, coming from this youth, this would seem so crazy.

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. So, that all the earth may know, it’s pointing back the kingdom of priests and holy nation. It’s pointing back to Israel’s role as bringing God glory by pointing the peoples to him.

David recognizes this role, knows that what God has promised for obedience and is trusting in God’s promises. And he says in verse 47, in that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear, one’s own strength, the conventional battle strength. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands. Verse 48, we know the story, it reads, 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.

Also, this isn’t about, you know, some people talk about too, about maybe David’s genius of using a slingshot to beat Goliath. Like, that’s not the point of the text. And even though that might be true, that isn’t what the text is trying to show. It’s showing that God is the one who’s fighting Goliath. And it says, And David put his hand into his bag, and took from it a stone and slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead. And the stone sank into his forehead, so that he fell on his face to the ground.

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 a sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.” What’s really interesting about this is it says here in verse 50 that David struck the Philistine and killed him, okay?

The stone went into his head. I’m no scientist or anatomy expert, but my guess is if a stone goes into your head, your chances of survival are pretty slim, right? It’s like a bullet taking a bullet to the head. So he’s dead. It’s not like David’s grabbing the sword to then all of a sudden, you know, just we got to make sure he’s dead necessarily so much as to demonstrate that Goliath is lost and God has won. It almost makes us think all the way back to Genesis chapter 3, the kingly language of the promise of the seed of the woman coming to crush the head of the serpent. Only this one here, One of the ancestors of the seed of the woman that would come to crush the head of the serpent doesn’t decide to step on his head or crush his head, but instead cut his head off, giving God the glory. And so this is, it’s really amazing.

Chapter 18 talks about Jonathan and David’s friendship. Last week we talked a little bit about Jonathan and David. Jonathan I feel like is one of the most unsung heroes in the Old Testament. I mean, such a humble guy. He was the heir to Saul’s throne and yet recognized the way that God had blessed David and became his number one cheerleader. There’s so many practical things we can learn from that.

But verse one of chapter 18 says that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David and Jonathan loved him as himself. And once again, this is not what we normally think. We would think that a rival to the heir to the throne, they would kind of have a very competitive relationship, but no. Jonathan recognizes the way God is working through David.

And then eventually, David is successful and the people, the women on the streets sang, verse seven, and played the saying, Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands, and Saul loves that, right? No, he doesn’t. And at the end of verse eight, Saul says, now what more can David have but the kingdom? He recognizes him as a threat to… to his throne, and so verse nine says that Saul looked at David with suspicion from that day on. And so verse 10 of chapter 18 says, now it came about on the next day that an evil spirit from God came mightily upon Saul, and he raved, not like dancing lights and everything, no, like just madman, 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. Saul hurled the spear, where he thought, I will pin David to the wall.

But David escaped from his presence. How many times? Not once, multiple times. Saul is hitting a new low, it seems like. The more we go through the narrative, Saul is just getting worse and worse, which is paving the way for who to become king. David, right? Absolutely. And so David escapes Saul, one of the many times he escapes him.

Verse 14 says that David was prospering in all his ways for, why? Was it his own strength? Was it his very dashing, devilishly good looks? No, it wasn’t because of his wits or anything like that. It says in the text, verse 14, that it was because the Lord was with him.

Once again, holy God, holy nation, and holy king. And then eventually, even though Saul dreaded David, verse 15, verse 16 said that all Israel and Judah loved David. And so, he eventually has this idea, Saul, and he wants David to go die. He says, he wants him to go kill 100 Philistines. I’m gonna be a bit vague here. And says, you can have my daughter if you kill 100 Philistines. So David decides to kill 200.

And then verse 29, Saul was even more afraid of David. Saul even recognized, too, that the Lord was with David, verse 28, and that Michal, his daughter, loved him. Everyone loves David, it seems, right now, except for Saul. Saul is kind of, the narrative is beginning to push him out, which will be very clear, especially at the very end. David’s protected from Saul in chapter 19, we see. Jonathan verse 1 it’s mentioned again that he greatly delighted in David God had placed Jonathan in Saul’s household to protect David providentially And so I Saul promises Jonathan in verse 6 that he won’t put David to death, but we see Saul’s word.

Does it really mean anything anymore? No, I mean, we even saw that with his vow to kill his son Jonathan, right, for their success. If anyone ate and Jonathan had eaten some honey and he went back on his word, which he shouldn’t have made that vow anyway. And so Saul’s word means nothing. But then we eventually see in verse 10, what does it say?

Saul tried to pin David to the wall with a spear. You’re not reading double, okay? I mean, you’re actually kind of reading triple. This is the third time this has happened. Saul is acting like a madman because he recognizes David, God’s blessing David, and Saul’s reign is coming close to an end.

And so eventually, verse 11 says that Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him in order to put him to death in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, told him, if you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow, He’ll be put to death. So she let David down through a window, verse 12 says. He fled and escaped. But notice verse 13.

It says, Macau took the household idol and laid it on the bed and put a quilt of goat’s hair at its head and covered it with clothes. You know, trying to make everyone think that’s David is sick, but it wasn’t him. Goes to show, see how far, you know, even what David says, you know, how the mighty have fallen, right? How Saul started off pretty good, But now, I mean, he’s at the point where there’s idols in his house now. Very clear, this is not a holy king. This is not the one that God has chosen after his own heart.

And so, Saul wants to try and kill David. They end up finding out that David had escaped. And so Saul tries to send messengers to go and get David and take him back so that he could kill him. But we see in verse 20 that the first time he sends messengers out, the spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul and they prophesied.

In other words, they were completely taken over. And so, you know, maybe second time’s the charm. He tries again, verse 21, same thing happens. And then the third time as well. And then Saul himself ended up having to come. Like, what’s happening? All of these guys are failing.

Once again, not normal, pointing to God’s help of David through making him king. So eventually it says in verse 23 that the spirit of God came upon Saul. And Saul made a fool of himself. Verse 24 says, by stripping off his clothes and prophesying before Samuel and laying down naked all that day and all that night. In other words, God gets the last laugh. You want to try and mess with God’s king, the chosen king of Israel? Well, good luck with that one.

Eventually, Jonathan, his love for David’s further displayed. I think a great verse is chapter 20, verse 13. where Jonathan tells David, may the Lord be with you as he has been with my father. Just showing the humility of Jonathan, the heir, amazing. Jonathan makes a covenant with the house of David, verse 16 says, and we’ll see later that David honors that covenant even after Jonathan’s death. And verse 17 affirms again that Jonathan loved, David loved each other as their own lives. And so eventually Saul finds out that Jonathan has been on David’s side. And Saul is angry with Jonathan.

Verse 30 of chapter 20, he says, you son of a perverse, rebellious woman. I’m not going to think about any modern equivalence or anything like that. That would not be appropriate. 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?

And eventually in verse 33, it says that Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him down. You see how Saul isn’t operating logically anymore. Think about it. He was angry at David. He’s angry at David for almost usurping his throne, wanting to protect his heir and Jonathan. And now he’s going to kill his heir or attempt to kill his heir. He’s very clearly operating out of a sinful heart, not a logical thinking. And so eventually David takes consecrated bread. Chapter 21 talks about that. And he goes before Achish king of Gath in verse 10. We see that David isn’t perfect, even though he’s much better than Saul, he still isn’t perfect.

He disguises his insanity, disguises himself as being insane before them. Verse 13 says, and acted insanely, scribbled on the doors of the gate and let his saliva run down into his beard. Rather than trusting God, the God who’s already delivered them, He decides to take things into his own hands and feign insanity so that the Philistines, I mean, the Philistines are smart in not wanting David to be there, but David should have trusted God with that. But once again, God doesn’t work because of David’s error. He works in spite of it. The priests that help David out are slain. Saul ends up having his own people killed, the priests of Nob or Nob.

And so, yeah, David continues to be successful throughout this book. Chapter 23 shows that. Jonathan meets David again, same chapter, 23 verse 16. It says that he encouraged him in God, Verse 17 he says do not be afraid because the hand of Saul my father will not find you and you will be king over Israel and I will be next to you. It’s just amazing humility. And Saul, my father, knows that also.

Eventually, David spares Saul’s life in chapter 24. He could have killed him, but he decides not to, and so instead he tears off part of his garment and shows that he didn’t want to touch God’s anointed, recognizing his trust in God’s work rather than taking things into his own hands with his own strength. He knows that God has chosen him as king and that God would take his life when God would. He did not want to take things into his own hand. Samuel dies, chapter 25, there’s the whole account of Nabal and Abigail. Abigail is wise and Nabal is not. She intercedes for her foolish husband and Nabal dies. Verse 38 says David ends up marrying Abigail. And then chapter 26, we’re not reading double again, David spares Saul’s life yet again.

Yet again, and his people are telling him to kill Saul, but once again, verse 9, David said to Abishai, do not destroy him, for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed and be without guilt? David also said, verse 10, as the Lord lives, surely the Lord will strike him 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. And so once again, like kind of tearing off the piece of his garment, they decide to take the spear and the jug of water that are right next to Saul’s head as he slept, And they use it to show that he didn’t end up killing Saul. It actually said that Saul and none of his men awoke because it said in verse 12, the sound sleep from the Lord had fallen on them. I would kind of like that last night. I don’t know about you. Sound sleep from the Lord sounds pretty great.

David shows that to Saul, shows that he didn’t kill him. Saul recognizes his own foolishness in the moment. But once again, Saul continues to be foolish. Chapter 27 shows David fleeing to the Philistines. rather than being with God’s people. And he tells Achish, he actually lies to Achish about where he had made a raid. Once again, showing David’s not perfect, but God works in spite of his lying, not because of it. Saul’s evil descends to a new low in chapter 28.

We see eventually that Saul in verse seven says to his servants, seek for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her, And his servants said to him, behold, there’s a woman who is a medium at Endor, a friend of the Ewoks. No, not really, sorry. That was a stupid Star Wars joke. But no, he’s so disobedient that he goes and consults a medium. I mean, this is forbidden all over in the law, to go consult someone who consults with the dead rather than trusting God.

This is something that the nations would do. Now Saul has truly demonstrated he is a king like the rest of the nations and that God has rejected him. And so eventually, even though David has hidden with the Philistines, they end up mistrusting him in chapter 29.

David continues to be victorious. Some of the people, because one of their camps had gotten pillaged by their enemies, wanted to sort of have a mutiny against him, verse six. But it says, David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. Very different than Saul.

In verse eight, David inquires of the Lord if he should overtake this band that had come and pillaged their camp. And it says before, I forget where it was at, that David had done something very similar. And actually don’t go there, but chapter 23 verse two, David inquires of the Lord of where he’s supposed to go. It’s very different than what we saw with Joshua and the Gibeonite deception of the peoples that snuck in because they did not consult the Lord. David’s different. Something’s better here, perhaps better than Joshua. So the things are looking up and David continues to be successful.

Chapter 31 ends for Samuel, where Saul and his sons are killed. Verse 2 says the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons and the Philistines killed Jonathan and Abinadab and Melchizedek the sons of Saul. Saul ends up being badly wounded and wants one of his his servants, his armor bearer specifically to take his life, but he He wouldn’t because Saul couldn’t bear the idea of being killed by someone from the rest of the nations, demonstrating that he was not a faithful king. But eventually Saul takes his own life in verse four.

And that’s where we sort of end in 1 Samuel. It’s very bleak for Saul, but we see God is blessing David and understanding what God has already promised to Abraham, land, seed, and blessing. He’s promised to Israel blessings for obedience, curses for disobedience. and knowing that the scepter would not depart from Judah, we see now that the tribe of Benjamin has been moved out of the forefront, and now the spotlight is on the son of Judah, David himself, and we’ll have to see how well he does next week in 2 Samuel.

Let’s pray. Lord, thank you for your word. Lord, that it’s alive and powerful, that we also know that these stories written in the past are written for our instruction, that we can learn many things from them. We think of much of the error of Israel and know that apart from your grace, we would be no better. We look at Saul’s life, Lord, and know that apart from your grace and in his circumstances, we certainly would fall short, perhaps even worse than him. We think of David Lord and your choice of him as king and even looking forward to the Davidic Covenant To you Lord ruling and reigning forever knowing that even in the midst of our circumstances The crazy culture and everything that’s going on that we can rest knowing that you do reign and that you will reign forever as the as the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant Lord, please grant us grace this week to grow in our knowledge of you and that we might love you more and we ask all these things in your name, amen. Normally then, like I said last week, Zeke would play out a song if this was a sermon.