David vs. Saul - 1 Samuel 18-20
This week, Pastor Gene's wife Heather brought our message on the account of David and Saul after the defeat of Goliath. We see that Saul gets quite jealous and intends to kill David.
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good morning if you're new here among us welcome if you are not new you know who i am if you don't my name's heather i'm pastor dean's wife i take care of a lot of the administration here at the church which can sometimes be a very fun job and sometimes not so much so anyway i'm here and from time to time i'm given the opportunity to share a message with you where i put down my administrative duties and pick up the teaching part of the job to give jean a day off which is not really a day off for him he's more nervous when i'm up here than when he is so anyway we are working through our bible in the series the rest of the story where we dive into the details of the stories of the bible you may not have heard of or be as familiar with and we have been breaking down the details to better understand what it actually says not what we think it says or what we want it to say and last week gene went through the classic and very well-known story of david and goliath a story that many of us have often used through our journey as christians to relate to i know i did that in a job interview once who do you relate to in the bible i'm like david because i've overcome my goliath and last week gene enlightened us to the fact that the story of david is not about david it's not about us it's about jesus and how often do we make it about ourselves rather than about him the author of it all so david has conquered goliath and won the favor of saul to which we know he had already won this favor of uh since david was the one who played the harp or i think it's the liar depending on what version you read for saul because saul is inflicted by a tormenting spirit and it seems that david playing the harp is the only thing that calms him down so today i get the privilege of going through the next couple couple of chapters first samuel 18 through 20. now before i go into the story today any of you who have in-laws or know that your parents have dealt with their in-laws just keep in perspective that i don't think any of them are nearly as bad as david's father-in-law after we're done with the story today so i know myself i've had my own stripes but it puts it all in perspective once i read what david went through with saul so we're going to get into the story with the victory over the philistines finally after and especially after the 40 days and nights of the taunting by goliath the israelites naturally celebrate their victory much like jean's daydream last week where he imagined a float dedicated to him for winning the game there's an actual celebration for saul and david after this victory and it's customary the women come out into the streets and they come out singing and dancing with joy and they made up a song that's going to set saul on a path of envy and anger towards david the women saying for samuel 18 7 saul has killed thousands and david his ten thousands this enrages saul now through the story a lot is gonna enrage saul this is just the beginning believing that they wanted to make david their king and from that point on saul has a jealous eye on david so within a few days the tormenting spirit of god from god overwhelmed saul again he began to rave like a madman david's playing his harp as he did every time this happened however this time saul decides to hurl his spear at david intending to pin him to the wall okay david escaped twice which means that saul must have chucked his spirit him more than one time and the fact that it's readily accessible in this room is kind of a funny picture to begin with as well that he's like got it ready to hurl it david across the room and not the only time he's going to do this by the way so now we are in the aftermath of the defeat of goliath and how the story turns a bit south for david saul's love for him quickly turns to jealousy towards david and saul is afraid of david because the lord is now with david and no longer now with saul saul tends decides to send david away to make him his commander over thousand men david faithfully and loyally leads the troops into battle and continues to succeed in everything that he does because the lord is with him saul recognizes that the lord is with david and becomes even more afraid of him however all of israel and judah loves david even more so saul comes up with his first plan to use his daughters as a means to an end in getting rid of this david fellow who does everything saul asks him to do but somehow he needs to get rid of him first samuel 18 17-30 one day saul said to david i'm ready to give you my older daughter mirab as your wife but first you must prove yourself to be a real warrior by fighting the lord's battles sidebar like defeating goliath wasn't enough back in for saul thought i'll send him out against the philistines and let them kill him rather than doing it myself so that's the thought bubble this is what he actually says back and forth with david who am i and what is my family in israel that i should be the king's son-in-law david exclaimed my father's family is nothing so when the time came for saul to give his daughter mirab in marriage to david he gave her instead to adriel a man from mahola in the meantime saul's daughter michael had fallen in love with david and saul was delighted when he heard about it another sidebar not because his daughter was in love with david another thought bubble here here's another chance to see him killed by the philistines saul said to himself but to david he said today you have a second chance to become my son-in-law then saul told his men to david the king really likes you and so do we why don't you accept the king's offer and become his son-in-law so when saul's men said these things to david he replied how can a poor man from a humble family afford the bride price for the daughter of a king when saul's men reported back to the king he told them tell david that all i want for the bride price is 100 philistine foreskins not a fun task vengeance on my enemies is all i really want but saul had in mind was that david would be killed in the fight naturally david was delighted to accept the offer insert loyalty before the time limit expired he and his men went out and killed 200 philistines then david fulfilled the king's reque requirement by represent by presenting all their foreskins to him so saul gave his daughter michael to david to be his wife when saul realized that the lord was with david and how much his daughter michael loved him saul became even more afraid of him and he remained david's enemy for the rest of his life every time the commanders of the philistines attacked david was more successful against them than all the rest of saul's officers so as david's name became very famous it's funny enough saul uses his daughter's hands in marriage first meerab and then michael as a means of getting rid of david which obviously completely backfired on saul first marab who he promised to david then he marries her off to someone else that fails saul marries uh michael to david she falls in love with him and he's like oh great i'm gonna send him into battle and so david uses this opportunity to be an overachiever the wonderful part of the story thank you gene for assigning this to me 100 phil's team foreskins and he gets the 200 in less than the time allotted so between michael's love for david and saul constantly trying to use the philistine army to rid himself of david god's favor continues to shine through and david only becomes that much more successful and saw that much more hateful angry and envious toward david so now saul is going to try and kill david yes again unfortunately he tries to employ his son jonathan to assassinate david who happens to be best friends with david now jonathan is also the oldest son of saul so keep this in mind so jonathan was warned that his father was trying to kill him trying to kill david and tells david to hide until he can talk to his father so jonathan sets out to talk his father off of a ledge first samuel 19 4-7 the next morning jonathan spoke with his father about david saying many good things about him the king must not sin against his servant david jonathan said he has never done anything to harm you he has always helped you in all in any way he could have you forgotten about the time he risked his life to kill a philistine giant and how the lord brought a great victory to all israel as a result you were certainly happy about it then why should you murder an innocent man like david there was no reason for it at all so saul listened to jonathan and vowed as surely as the lord lives david will not be killed afterward jonathan called david and told him what had happened then he brought david to saul and david served in the court as before so this agreement sticks for a small period of time saul does not try and kill david for a little while then war broke out again david was successful again and now they're all back at home after the battle tormenting spirit comes over saul and again he hurls his spear at david while he's playing the harp this time david dodges out of the way leaves the spear in the wall and gets the heck out of there he's like i'm done so he goes home saul does not let up this time and he sends his troops to david's home now remember he's married to michael saul's daughter this time michael david's wife warns that david if he does not escape his her father is definitely going to kill him by morning so she helps him sneak out the window puts an idol in her bed with a cushion of goat's hair at the end at the head and the troops come in and she makes an excuse saying david's really sick he can't get out of bed saul hears about this troops go back say david's sick we can't get him out of bed saul does not care go get the bed with david in it and bring it back to me so i can kill him okay we'll go do that so of course this time on the attempt to get the bed out of the house to bring him they find out that it is in fact a decoy now saul's mad at michael for deceiving him she makes the excuse and says that david threatened to kill her if he didn't if she didn't help him to escape so david kind of running out of places to hide decides to flee to samuel and tells him about what saul has been doing to him samuel takes him in to live with him at naoth first samuel 19 18-24 so david escaped and went to rama to see samuel and he told him all this all had done then samuel took david with him to live at naoth when the report reached saul that david wasn't naoth in rama he sent troops to capture him when they arrived and saw samuel leading a group of prophets who were prophesying the spirit of god came upon saul's men and they also began to prophesy once all heard what had happened he sent other troops but they too prophesied the same thing happened a third time finally saul himself went to rama and arrived at the great well at siku where are samuel and david he demanded there at naoth and rama someone told him but on the way to nathan ramah the spirit of god came even upon saul and he too began to prophesy all the way to naoth he tore off his clothes and lay naked on the ground all day and all night prophesying in the presence of samuel the people who were watching exclaimed what is even saul a prophet if you remember gene had said this is not the first time that this has happened to saul where he prophesies so now david then flees from naoth now that's all has found him there and he finds jonathan and he asks him why is saul so bent on killing me what have i done what is my crime i've done nothing but be loyal to saul and done everything he asked me to do he just doesn't understand why saul cannot stop coming after him to kill him so jonathan consoles david telling him that his father tells him everything and if you were going to kill david he would know about it so to come up with a plan to find out whether saul is going to continue on this war path towards david to kill him and during that conversation they also pledged themselves to one another in a vow under god first samuel 25-16 david replied tomorrow we celebrate the new moon festival i've always eaten with the king on this occasion but tomorrow i'll hide in the field and stay there until the evening of the third day if your father asks where i am tell him ask permission to go home to bethlehem for an annual family sacrifice if he says fine you will know all as well but if he is angry and loses his temper you will know he is determined to kill me show me this loyalty as my sworn friend for we made a solemn pact before the lord or kill me yourself if i have sinned against your father but please don't betray me to him never jonathan exclaimed you know that if i had the slightest notion my father was planning to kill you i would tell you at once the david asks how will i know whether or not your father is angry come out to the field with me jonathan replied and they went out there together then jonathan told david i promised by the lord the god of israel that by this time tomorrow or the next day at the latest i will talk to my father and let you know once how he feels about you if he speaks favorably about you i will let you know but if he is angry and wants you killed may the lord strike me and even kill me if i don't warn you so you can escape and live may the lord be with you as he used to be with my father and may you treat me with the faithful love of the lord as long as i live but if i die treat my family with this faithful faithful love even when the lord destroys all your enemies from the face of the earth so jonathan made a solemn pact with david saying may the lord destroy all your enemies and jonathan made david reaffirm his vow friendship again for jonathan love david as he loved himself so jonathan returns to his father's table and david's absence is noted on the first night of the festival saul thinks to himself maybe david is just unclean and can't attend the first night unfortunately by the second night his absence is definitely noted and he asked jonathan where david was and he told him that david went home first ceremonial sacrifice with his family this of course enrages saul and saul proceeds to call jonathan a very nasty name that he wanted uh david as king as long as he is alive and jonathan will never be king and demands that jonathan go get david so he can kill him now the very nasty name i'm not going to say today we're going to go over it in bible study i asked gene about the translation i was like did it really say that and he said yes so tune in wednesday we're going to go over that a little bit more and the questions are in the app so you can kind of get a little and be ready ahead of time all right so now there's no doubt that saul has not changed his mind on wanting to kill david so jonathan goes out and completes the task to send the message to david another plane with the servant boy he was going to shoot arrows and if he said one thing david would know it was safe to return if he said another he knew that saul was going to kill him so he sends the right signal david comes out of his hiding place and now it's time for them to say their goodbyes first samuel 20 41-42 as soon as the boy was gone david came out from where he had been hiding near the stone pile then david bowed three times to jonathan with his face on the ground both of them were in tears as they embraced each other and said goodbye especially david at last jonathan said to david go in peace for we have sworn loyalty to each other in the lord's name the lord is a witness of a bond between us and our children forever then david left and jonathan returned to the town so we look at this story it is very sad to see how saul's anger and envy have torn apart his family he has cast out the one person david whom can keep him calm from the tormenting spirit that inflicted him and how often do we do that ourselves where we get rid of or ignore the one thing that is supposed to be good for us and practice that in our lives david being so loved by him that when the threat of his popularity threat in saul's reign he cannot help but trying to get rid himself of david in every possible way he uses his daughter's hands in marriage as a means to an end he tries to use his son jonathan who happens to be david's best friend he tries to use battles with the philistines his daughter michael every method he could think of and nothing worked i find this kind of interesting that in life when we don't listen to god and we try to force something to happen no matter how hard we try to put that square peg in that round hole it just doesn't work no matter how big the hammer no matter how hard we hit it just doesn't work consequence consequently on the other side like in david's case when the lord is with you and your efforts are lined up with god's will how when you're doing everything it's effortless it almost seems like everything falls in to place miraculously i know we have so many testimonies even when we we worked on the thrift store with integrity it happened so fast every single thing just fell into place so perfectly and that's what i've learned especially in leadership and being a christian over the past 10 years when i keep trying to put that square peg in that round pole and doesn't work i'm probably not lined up with god but our will is so strong sometimes that we don't stop and pray and listen to god guilty i do that all the time myself it's called accountability working with other people like why isn't this working like did you pray to make sure that this was in line with god's will oh yeah it probably was a good idea if i did that first so it's really important to make sure that we are working in line with his will for us not our will for us so you can see in saul's anger and envy how destructive it is to his family that both jonathan and michael two of his children choose to help david escape to make sure that he stays alive they betray their father and their king knowing what is right with his behavior not lining up with god the soul is not worth following so interesting like interestingly that david is in jesus lineage and you see this dividing line among families jesus promised that this was going to happen to us he came here not to bring peace but to bring a sword matthew 10 34-42 don't imagine that i came to bring peace to the earth i came not to bring peace but a sword i came to set a man against his father a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law your enemies will be right in your own household if you love your father or mother more than you love me you are not worthy of being mine or if you love your son or daughter more than me you are not worthy of being mine if you refuse to take up your cross and follow me you are not worthy of being mine if you cling to your life you will lose it but if you give up your life for me you will find it anyone who receives you receives me and anyone who receives me receives the father who sent me if you receive a prophet as one who speaks for god you will be given the same reward as a prophet and if you receive righteous people because of their righteousness you will be given a reward like theirs and if you give up give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers you will surely be rewarded so you can see how jonathan and michael have chosen what is right over listening to their father dividing the family they're not only dissipating their father but also their king they knew that their father had a tormenting spirit inside of them what i find interesting looking at them is that they did not seek revenge against their father or any ill will towards him they simply kept their loyalty to david in order to keep him alive and as david gave everything he had to saul to be loyal to his king regardless of the fact that saul kept trying to kill him now i'm not sure about you or your upbringing or your current family situation if you've heard my story there are some people who would say that i didn't win the lottery of parents so one thing that i found when i came to church and found christ was this peaceful sense of forgiveness for my parents they're all very very young when they had me and they had their own issues with their own parents and i know now they honestly did the best that they could considering their own circumstances and i was able to set my sight on christ understanding that having any expectations for my family or any of my parents to be perfect or change in the way that i wanted them to was completely unreasonable and honestly kind of selfish because the one thing that i found that can change anyone in this world is not me it's christ i came to church having never been baptized before and in the process of making that pledge and making that decision in my life i realized something i remember driving somewhere in naples just it came over me a sense of peace it was beyond anything i had ever felt before and it truly occurred to me that the one man and the one person in my life who i can truly count on to never change to always be there for me to meet all of my unrealistic expectations and that is christ didn't matter what my father did to me i have another father who is perfect because there's no man or woman in this world who can live up to the perfection of christ otherwise we wouldn't need him so when i made that decision to get baptized i realized i would never be alone again with his spirit in me i found a level of forgiveness and understanding for those who had hurt me or i felt that had hurt me forgiveness for myself because i know that i definitely hurt others and if christ could forgive the miles of shrapnel that i left in my path of wreckage from my addiction and my life before accepting christ then who am i not to forgive anyone else including myself and in the case of david and saul's two children siding with david they did what they saw was right in the eyes of the lord they still honored their father by not retaliating against him much like saul did those around him seeking revenge living his life in envy anger fear resentment which by the way before christ i would have related more to saul than to david because i know for me until i found christ i couldn't let go of those things now it's just progress not perfection and i know season driving tests that progress on a regular basis i know i'm i gotta do a little more prayers when i i say some not nice things when i'm driving around during season so jean's like you have to give that person pass next time so but again no one's perfect we rely on he who is perfect in order to line up with him more often so i can relate to these characters having loyalty to a fault david's loyalty to saul jonathan's michael jonathan and michael's loyalty to david since the lord was with david they were working towards god's will and sometimes showing honor to your family is disengaging in the drama following christ and doing what you know is right spending time in prayer and sometimes i'm going to give you a little secret today for everyone because this worked for me hopefully it'll work for you sometimes the best thing we can do is say nothing sometimes saying nothing says everything and how disarming is that being the light of christ and disengaged from the arguments not taking sides at family gatherings during the holidays imagine how disarming it would be if every time someone tried to bring up a heated issue you turned it into a positive or use it as an opportunity to talk about christ because just because our family is in sin or someone we know is in sin doesn't mean we have to be baited and engage in every argument that we're invited to you can politely decline the invitation to the arguments or to the event you know is going to bring you further away from christ and closer to him because i have news for you guys jesus is your new family you have a new church family who are your brothers and sisters in christ if you found that your family is tempting you away from your faith we are here to be a part of the body of christ together help you find your purpose live on spiritual terms working towards a kingdom that has no end or beginning because this world is fleeting think about how many empires kings queens leaders conquests have come and gone over the past two thousand years and who has remained completely unchanged and constant through it all you can say it christ and honestly don't think we're the first humans to debate about world issues imagine the arguments only a couple hundred years ago pick any time period in history literally any in the past 2000 years humans are notorious for arguing over issues that divide but imagine being peaceful and not engaging in the noise because honestly that's all it is there's noise christ is the only king that has and will be the only king of kings that ever matters we are blessed to be on a path and on the road with one perfect leader that can always be relied on and honestly i don't know about you but that brings me peace and all of the insanity in this world and here's a news flash it's always been crazy we're going through the old testament everyone's like things are so bad have you read the old testament like this is thousands of years nothing has changed because humans guess what we mess everything up since the beginning of time we have messed things up so let's put our eyes on christ not live in anger fear envy guilt shame or remorse and the sins of the flesh that can leave us feeling good for a moment but it's all it is is a moment and we can work on being happy joyous and free with christ in us knowing that whatever happens here on earth is temporary and ultimately those things won't matter in the larger reality that is god's world for us because he's the one in charge he's the one coming back this is his world not ours we're just passengers for a brief moment in time time then if we disengage in the noise we can spend instead in prayer and loving each other truly loving our neighbors as ourselves the main trick in that working is learning to love yourself as christ loves you try and treat everyone you come in contact with as if they are christ because that's what he tells us to do and honestly i know it seems difficult again progress not perfection but it really isn't when he let him do the work so we have a goal today let's let christ in if you haven't accepted him as your lord and savior talk to one of our leaders we will help you on your path accepting him into your life getting baptized getting plugged in becoming part of the church family a new family a new you and a new purpose with his will for you and a peace with the understanding that the king we serve and you can serve if you accept him into your heart as the only one that matters or will ever matter so when you leave here today i want you to remember two things one here at c3 church we love you no matter what your past no matter what you're going through we love you and we are here for you but most importantly if no one else tells you this today remember that jesus loves you thanks you