• A Tale of Two Fools (1 Sam 25)

    Sermon Audio: A Tale of Two Fools (1 Sam 25)

    Sermon Video: A Tale of Two Fools (1 Sam 25)


    Sermon Discussion Questions:

    1. What surprised you in this story?
    2. Was there anything you learned about yourself, sin, or Jesus that you didn't beforehand?
    3. What is the connection between being a fool and worship? See Prov 1:7 and Ps 14:1.
    4. What tends to make you angry most? If anger is a response to something you love being threatened, what do you love in those situations? Do you think that is righteous or sinful anger?
    5. "A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back," (Prov) 29:11. How can we "hold back" our anger?


    Power corrupts…but how?


    The 19th century historian Henry Adams was being metaphorical, not medical, when he described power as “a sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim’s sympathies.” 


    In 2017, The Atlantic published an article on how power affects our brains, citing a study from UC Berkeley, they said, “Subjects under the influence of power,…in studies spanning two decades, acted as if they had suffered a traumatic brain injury—becoming more impulsive, less risk-aware, and, crucially, less adept at seeing things from other people’s point of view.”


    This leads to what the articled dubs “hubris syndrome”, a malady that affects those who remain in a position of power for an extended period of time. The only remedy? Remember when you were powerless or feel powerless. The article goes on, “Insofar as it affects the way we think, power, Keltner reminded me, is not a post or a position but a mental state. Recount a time you did not feel powerful, his experiments suggest, and your brain can commune with reality. Recalling an early experience of powerlessness seems to work for some people—and experiences that were searing enough may provide a sort of permanent protection. An incredible study published in The Journal of Finance last February found that CEOs who as children had lived through a natural disaster that produced significant fatalities were much less risk-seeking than CEOs who hadn’t.”


    The story of 1 Samuel in so many ways is a cautionary tale of what power can do to warp us, and how weakness can serve us. David has been estranged from power, been on the run, been the little guy—nevertheless, today we see how not even David is exempt from the lure of power on his life.


    1 Now Samuel died. And all Israel assembled and mourned for him, and they buried him in his house at Ramah.

    Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. 2 And there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3 Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved; he was a Calebite. 4 David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. 5 So David sent ten young men. And David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal and greet him in my name. 6 And thus you shall greet him: ‘Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have. 7 I hear that you have shearers. Now your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing all the time they were in Carmel. 8 Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.’”

    9 When David's young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David, and then they waited. 10 And Nabal answered David's servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. 11 Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where?” 12 So David's young men turned away and came back and told him all this. 13 And David said to his men, “Every man strap on his sword!” And every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword. And about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage.

    14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, “Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them. 15 Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long as we went with them. 16 They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. 17 Now therefore know this and consider what you should do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his house, and he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.”

    18 Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared and five seahs of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys. 19 And she said to her young men, “Go on before me; behold, I come after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. 20 And as she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men came down toward her, and she met them. 21 Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has returned me evil for good. 22 God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.”

    -       1 Sam 25:1-22


    A Greedy Fool


    And there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3 Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved; he was a Calebite. (1 Sam 25:2-3)


    Right away we have a “Beauty and the Beast” pair with Nabal and Abigail. Nabal is a successful, wealthy businessman, but he is a brute, he is badly behaved (lit. doing evil), and he is harsh, a term used in association with King Saul (“roughly” in 1 Sam 20:10). If our children could draw a cartoon of what Nabal looked like, they might imagine him as a squat man with knuckles dragging in the dirt, slack jawed, maybe some drool hanging out his mouth. His name “Nabal” is likely not his real name, but a nickname, since the word “Nabal” in Hebrew means “fool”—doubtful that his parents gave him that name. His wife, Abigail, however, is the exact opposite. We are told she is discerning (lit. having good sense) and is beautiful, a term used in association with David (1 Sam 16:12). “Good sense” or “discretion” is used repeatedly in the book of Proverbs as a synonym for wisdom. 


    So we have two polar opposite characters, united together in what we can assume is a fairly unhappy marriage. But today is a special day: it is sheep shearing day! Like a harvest, the shearing of sheep represents both an enormous amount of work and a great celebration—the culmination of that work. So, it was common to throw a great feast when all the work was done to celebrate (cf. 2 Sam 13:23-26). David hears that Nabal is shearing his sheep, so he sends ten young men to Nabal to greet him in his name and then tells them:


    And thus you shall greet him: ‘Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have. 7 I hear that you have shearers. Now your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing all the time they were in Carmel. 8 Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.’” (1 Sam 25:6-8)


    David and his men are not intimidating Nabal (Nice sheep you have here, sure would be a shame if something bad happened to them…), this isn’t The Godfather. They are pointing to the service that they have rendered to Nabal. They have protected the herds and shepherds from wild animals and from thieves—a service that the servants of Nabal have recognized (1 Sam 25:14-17). Further, it is a feast day! And while we may assume that showing up unannounced to a feast and requesting food sounds impolite, it certainly wouldn’t be so to those living in an eastern culture—it would be impolite to turn someone away! Especially someone who has performed a great service for you and who has approached you with such respect and humility as these young men are now doing.


    But Nabal’s response is typical of his name:


    10 And Nabal answered David's servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. 11 Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where?” (1 Sam 25:10-11)


    Nabal’s response is as rude as it is foolish. He asks: Who does David think he is? He isn’t asking this because he doesn’t know David—everyone knows who David is. Especially given the recent scandals with Saul. Yet, he likens David to a nobody, a runaway slave showing up to beg for food. Notice the emphasis on “I” and “my” in verse 11: “Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where?” Despite being wealthy and having a superabundance, Nabal views everything as his own. He is like the rich fool in Jesus’ parable who lays up treasures for himself but isn’t rich towards God (Luke 12:16-21). What’s the purpose of wealth?, the rich fool thinks, Heaping up more wealth! But what does God say to that man? “Fool.”


    John exhorts us: “But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?” (1 John 3:17). God’s love doesn’t abide in Nabal. Why? Because he is a fool. We tend to assume that the word “fool” means something akin to a simpleton, a naïve youngster who doesn’t understand how the world works, or someone with a low IQ. But in the Bible the “fool” is something much more serious than that. It does not merely refer to someone who lacks intelligence or street-smarts, but to someone who is morally corrupt and self-centered. We can get a better picture of the kind of fool Nabal is by seeing how the term is used elsewhere in the Bible:


    -       “The nabal says in his heart, “There is no God.”” (Ps 14:1; cf. Ps 53:2). So, either literal or practical atheism, a life lived without any sense that there is a God who stands over you as Lord and King.

    -       “Thus says the Lord GOD, Woe to the nabal prophets who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!” (Ez 13:3). A fool is someone who doesn’t care for what God said, at least not as much as they care about what they think, what their gut tells them. But they’ll happily use God’s name as a cover for what they already want.

    -       “For the nabal speaks folly, and his heart is busy with iniquity, to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the LORD, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink,” (Isa 32:6). That sounds just like what Nabal is doing here, does it not? He does not care about other people, his mouth speaks folly, and he insults the anointed king. A fool is a selfish person.


    Derek Kidner, in his classic commentary on the book of Proverbs writes that being a fool refers to, “a man’s chosen outlook, rather than his mental equipment.” So, being a fool isn’t inevitable, it isn’t something that we have no choice in. There are a lot of factors that go into someone being a fool: who their friends are, whether or not their parents disciplined them, whether or not they willing to listen to people who disagree with them, how they respond to authority, etc. But the central issue is this: Do they fear God? “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction,” (Prov 1:7). If you are wondering: how would I know if I am a fool? First off, if you are willing to take that question seriously, you most likely are not one. Secondly, you can ask yourself: do I have a healthy fear of the Lord? 


    Nabal is a greedy fool. But, Nabal isn’t the only fool in our story. 


    An Angry Fool


    David’s men return and tell him of Nabal’s response, and then we are told:


    “And David said to his men, “Every man strap on his sword!” And every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword. And about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage…. Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has returned me evil for good. (1 Sam 25:13, 21)


    David explodes in anger at the insult that has just been delivered him. David had spoken “Peace…peace…peace” to Nabal in vs. 6, but now in vs. 13 we hear “Sword…sword…sword.” He has given Nabal good, and then been repaid with evil—so he is ready to meet blow for blow. If peace isn’t what you want, then a sword it shall be. What a surprising reversal from the way we saw David exercise self-restraint just one chapter ago! David had settled in his mind that he must not strike the Lord’s anointed, but here? When there is even a smaller offense? David takes 400 men to go slaughter Nabal’s entire household. If we shore up our reserves of self-control towards one temptation, Satan will shift tactics and come another way. We can’t presume on yesterday’s obedience to face today’s temptations. David responded honorably in the cave in chapter 24 by sparing Saul, by trusting God, but here he is taken off guard and responds with a murderous rage.


    He vows, “God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.”” (1 Sam 25:22). 


    Now, who does that sound like? That sounds just like Saul! Remember back in chapter fourteen, where Saul makes a rash vow concerning the destruction of his enemies (1 Sam 14:24, 44) and in chapter 22 where Saul slaughters an entire city. David’s anger, David’s pride, David’s ego have turned him into the very enemy who is seeking his life. 


    The offense that Nabal has given David is real and it genuinely is a humiliating slap in the face of the king. Yet, David’s anger now turns him into…a fool himself. He is about to kill an entire household, a wildly disproportionate response, all because…he has been offended? 


    “A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back,” (Prov 29:11).

    “Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense,” (Prov 19:11)


    Have you ever done something you regretted because you were angry?


    Anger itself isn’t inherently sinful, which is why we are commanded to “be angry, and do not sin” in Eph 4:26 (cf. Ps 4:4). Anger is a powerful thing and it can be used for good, but most of the time it used for bad. It is like a lunar rocket strapped to the top of your car. You can use it, but you better make sure you have the coordinates punched in correctly, or you are going to wind up somewhere you had no intention of going, real fast. So most of the Bible’s teaching on anger encourages us to restrain our anger:


    “Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city,” (Prov 16:32).


    David is mighty, David can take a city, he has a sword in his hand, he has power—but he cannot restrain himself, so he is a fool. 


    Anger is what arises in us when something we love is threatened. So, if you love your reputation, and it is maligned; if you love your free time, and it is taken; if you love being in control, and control is taken from you—then you snap. A coil of emotional energy is released, and you try to reclaim what was lost, or at least punish those who took it from you. David’s reputation is tarnished, and he can only see red. Anger is like the home security system on your heart there to alert you when something you love is in danger. And it also can serve as an idol-detector.


    The book of 1 Samuel is a cautionary tale of what the idol of power can do to people. How it can warp you. It can even warp a man as righteous as David. If you are thinking to yourself, “I don’t think I have a problem with letting power get to my head,” then a good diagnostic question is: How do I respond when people under my authority disrespect me? If our children mouth off at us or if our employees slander us—it’s normal to feel disappointed or frustrated. And the problem should be addressed. But if our first response is sinful anger, “How dare you!?”—whether that is lava hot or icy cold in how it displays itself--then that is a good indicator that power has become an idol in our life. 


    How do hold back anger? How do you rule over your spirit? You can’t just clamp down on your anger with tactics, you can’t even just “love things less.” Even if you are able to stop caring so much about your performance review or how tidy the house is, nature abhors a vacuum, and something else will take its place in your affections. So what must you do? You must love God more. He must become bigger and grander and more important to you. 


    A Faithful Servant


    Who is the hero in this story? Well, there are actually two—neither of them are David. One of them, of course, is the beautiful and wise Abigail who—unlike David and Nabal—has good sense (Prov 19:11). We will look more at her response next week, but who is the other hero? It is the unnamed servant who approaches Abigail and warns her (1 Sam 25:14-17). We don’t even know this person’s name, but he exhibits great courage in approaching Abigail and speaking truthfully. He tells Abigail of Nabal’s belligerent attitude towards David’s men; of the kind service that David and his men provided for them; and of the coming destruction unless someone intervenes. 


    Without this person, Abigail would have never known that David was coming and never would have been able to intervene, and David would have performed a serious sin, a Saul-like sin.


    While the figures of the Bible can serve as helpful models for us in godliness—we can learn much from David and Moses and Abraham—the reality is that they all fall short. They all are sinners and at some point they all fail. Every hero just has clay feet, every role model will let you down at some point. 


    All except one. Jesus Christ is the photo-negative of every failed leader, and the 3-dimensional, full-color fulfillment of every good leader we find.


    Jesus isn’t like Nabal. He isn’t a fool. In fact, He is the very wisdom of God in whom all treasure of knowledge and wisdom are found. He isn’t a self-centered miser who treats all of His belongings as being solely for Himself. No, despite being the richest being in existence, He is also the most generous—freely showering on us every good and perfect gift, but even more than that giving His very life. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich,” (2 Cor 8:9). 


    Jesus isn’t like David. He doesn’t fly off the handle, He doesn’t snap, He doesn’t punch holes in the wall or berate you or do things He later regrets. He doesn’t have a short wick. He is the God who says: I am slow to anger, abounding in grace, compassion, and steadfast love. Could you imagine if Jesus reacted to you the way David does to Nabal every time you offended Him?


    Jesus is the truer and better faithful servant. The one who had no beauty that we should desire him, one who came from a nobody-town and lived most of his life with a nobody-job, and when he spoke up and began teaching, the leaders said: Who are you? But He wasn’t a nobody. He was the Son of God, the Prince of Heaven, God in the flesh. He is the one who has all power, yet, He doesn’t use it to exploit, and it doesn’t make him calloused and indifferent to those under Him. He is tender and sympathetic. He goes down to them! He made Himself into a lowly servant, and taught His disciples that greatness was found in obscurity and service. And like the faithful servant here who pleads with One who has power to intervene and save life, Jesus intervenes on our behalf with the Father to save us.


    You see, not only is Jesus patient with you, but He also is willing to stand in the place your sins to keep you from experiencing the right anger of God. And this is no wrath of sinful, petulant man, this isn’t the weak wrath of sin that is mixed with vanity and pride—this is the pure, unalloyed, holy wrath of perfectly just God who has been slow to anger, but who will judge sin—something far, far more terrible. And Jesus stands in to deliver you—you, foolish, angry, selfish, you.


    This is the key to loving God more—you see how He loves you.

    This is the key to not being warped by power—you realize that you are saved by grace alone, not by your own power or goodness.




    1. Vengeance Is Mine (1 Sam 24)

      Sermon Audio: Vengeance Is Mine (1 Sam 24)

      Sermon Video: Vengeance Is Mine (1 Sam 24)


      Sermon Discussion Questions:

      1. What stood out to you most? What surprises you most about this chapter?
      2. What's the connection between grace and not taking ourselves too seriously? Would people around you (spouse, friends, coworkers) describe you as someone who "takes themselves too seriously"?
      3. Why was David cut to the heart?
      4. Can you think of an example of someone else in the Bible who was tempted to think that God's promises "needed a little help"?
      5. How does a robust understanding of the justice and wrath of God provide the means to love our enemies? See Romans 12:19-21


      Our most embarrassing versions of ourselves (I think) come from our Middle School years, so let me share an embarrassing story of my own. When I was in seventh grade, I had about as fragile of an ego as you could: held-together-by-toothpicks-and-dry-leaves kind of fragile. So, like any insecure young man, I overcompensated with bravado and swagger, desperate to project an image of someone tough and resilient. One day on the bus, some kids were goofing off in the back, throwing something—a lunch bag or water bottle, I’m not sure—back and forth. One kid missed the pass and the object hit me in the back of the head. I reared around and yelled: WHO THREW THAT? Everyone pointed at some kid and I screamed: YOU’RE DEAD. Why did I do that? I have not the faintest idea. It just came in a flash. I wasn’t violent or aggressive. I had never been in a fight and was by nature gentle. But I had a reputation I was trying to carefully cultivate on the bus, and when the thing hit my head something flashed through my head: “The kind of person you want to be wouldn’t stand for that.” I charged at the kid who sat there, sheep-like and unphased, apparently not finding my oncoming presence a terribly foreboding one. But once I got to him I stopped. Immediately I realized: (1) I have no desire to hurt him, I know it was just a mistake and (2) he is much bigger than he looked originally. I hesitated for half a second. But I was in too deep at this point, I had to do something. So, I just shook his shoulders limply, the way a mother might scold a child, and said, “HEY…don’t…do that again…or else!” He looked at me with a knowing, Are you serious? look. Everyone on the bus saw that I was just a lot of talk, another puffed up little guy who was more eager than able to prove to the world otherwise. Everyone laughed at me. I made a fool of myself. And it was so good for my soul, so good. We all know that it is an attractive and wonderful thing to respond to offenses with grace, poise, and compassion. To be flexible, not brittle.


      And while it is easy to see how a seventh grade version of myself ought to have done differently, it might be more difficult to see how to do that when we raise the bar on the level of offense. What do we do when someone really hurts us? When it isn't a small thing to brush off?


      How do you become a person who can respond to hurt, offense, and sin with grace, compassion, wisdom, and love?


      When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, “Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.” 2 Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Wildgoats' Rocks. 3 And he came to the sheepfolds by the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. 4 And the men of David said to him, “Here is the day of which the LORD said to you, ‘Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.’” Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul's robe. 5 And afterward David's heart struck him, because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe. 6 He said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD'S anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the LORD'S anointed.” 7 So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul. And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way.

      8 Afterward David also arose and went out of the cave, and called after Saul, “My lord the king!” And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage. 9 And David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Behold, David seeks your harm’? 10 Behold, this day your eyes have seen how the LORD gave you today into my hand in the cave. And some told me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, ‘I will not put out my hand against my lord, for he is the LORD'S anointed.’ 11 See, my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand. For by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it. 12 May the LORD judge between me and you, may the LORD avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. 13 As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Out of the wicked comes wickedness.’ But my hand shall not be against you. 14 After whom has the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog! After a flea! 15 May the LORD therefore be judge and give sentence between me and you, and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand.”

      16 As soon as David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. 17 He said to David, “You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. 18 And you have declared this day how you have dealt well with me, in that you did not kill me when the LORD put me into your hands. 19 For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe? So may the LORD reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. 20 And now, behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. 21 Swear to me therefore by the LORD that you will not cut off my offspring after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father's house.” 22 And David swore this to Saul. Then Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.

      -       1 Sam 24


      At this point, Saul has thrown spears, political traps, and armies at David. He has hunted him the way a hound hunts a fox, the way a warden seeks an escaped convict. But the only crime David has committed so far is exposing just how fragile Saul’s sense of self really is. David, a young clear-eyed man, has only ever seen a simple straight line between where he was and what obedience to God required. He was unaware of the coils of vanity that had wrapped around Saul, how that straight line would cut right through those coils, and how it would jeopardize his own life. 


      Despite being on the run, David has what Saul lacks. Saul knows that the Lord is with David, and that it’s just a matter of time before David is king. But, he is terrified by that thought and so becomes irrational; he thinks if he can kill David he can stop God’s plan. So, chapter 23 records Saul clipping at David’s heels, narrowly missing him because of a perfectly timed Philistine incursion he must go deal with (1 Sam 23:27-29). But here, he now returns with “three thousand chosen men out of all Israel,” an elite squad of assassins to get rid of the son of Jesse once for all (1 Sam 24:1-2). But, the mighty king who thinks he can thwart the living God in His tracks is just a man, and his creatureliness shows itself: nature calls. The army stops its pursuit, so the king can go relieve himself inside a cave, but of all the many caves that exist in the wilderness of the Engedi, he selects the cave that harbors the very prey he has been hunting. 


      David and his men have sought relief from the heat of the day in the cool dark of the cave when they see a figure walk across the entrance of the cave. Lo and behold, it is Saul himself! Saul, the vile, Saul the cruel, Saul the wicked, and now he has come alone into a cave, preoccupied, guard down. What a ready-made opportunity! The school bully has his shoelaces tied together and doesn’t know it! Surely, this must be God’s divine providence smiling upon David, delivering his enemies into his hand! “And the men of David said to him, “Here is the day of which the LORD said to you, ‘Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you,’” (1 Sam 24:4). We don’t have any previous promise of this given to David, but it’s hard not to see this moment as God throwing David a break, right? Scene after scene after scene from chapters 18-23 have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Saul is rotten to the core, and David is righteous. 


      David creeps forward to the unassuming, pathetic Saul. He feels the familiar weight of the blade in his hand and eyes the man who has sworn to kill him; the man he has served faithfully, fought for, bled for, and who has repaid him only with violence. Saul is hunched over, as pitiful as he is repulsive. Doesn’t his very act in the moment seem like a fitting parable of what Saul has become? One who produces defecation, defilement, and death? That’s what Saul has become. How easy it would be, how right it would feel! But then, David notices Saul’s royal robe tossed aside, a symbol of Saul’s kingship not unlike a crown, and, for reasons not given to us, he reaches out and cuts a corner of it off. And suddenly, wham! a blow smites David’s heart! 


      He creeps back to his men and as forcefully as whispers allow, he demands his men stand down. David solemnly vows to his men: “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD'S anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the LORD'S anointed,” (1 Sam 24:6). David has a very strong conviction that because Saul is in his position as the king of Israel, anointed by the Lord, he is forbidden from raising a hand against him. This conviction might be coming from Moses: “You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people,” (Ex 22:28; cf. 2 Sam 19:21). Do not revile God nor curse a ruler of your people—those are linked because God is the One who installs the rulers over us, which is Paul’s argument of governing authorities in Romans 13. To dishonor them is to dishonor the God who has put them there.


      Saul finishes his business and walks away. The opportunity is gone. David takes a calculated risk and runs to the mouth of the cave and cries out to Saul, holding up the corner of his robe as evidence that (1) Saul was in David’s hand and (2) he spared him. He vows that anyone who has been telling Saul that David seeks his harm is a liar (1 Sam 24:9). He will not touch the Lord’s anointed (1 Sam 24:10). He bows before Saul, honors him, and calls him “father.” Now, it is Saul’s turn to be cut to the heart. You can see the clouds clear from Saul’s mind for moment as he speaks, “Is this your voice, my son David?” And Saul lifted up his voice and wept,” (1 Sam 24:16).


      Saul admits that David is more righteous than he is, repaying him with good, while Saul has only given David evil. He cannot deny the mercy that David has shown him in the cave—he knows that if the roles were reversed, he would have quickly killed David (1 Sam 24:17-19). And then he confesses, “And now, behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand,” (1 Sam 24:20). For the first time, Saul finally says what he has feared, what he has known all along (cf. 1 Sam 23:17). David vows to preserve Saul’s offspring, and they part ways (1 Sam 24:21-22).


      David is a professional soldier; he has killed many. Why does David spare Saul? Why does he show him mercy? Is David being foolish? Two perspectives:


      “A man loses power when he pities,” taught Nietzsche. To pity someone is to be in a position of power over them yet restrain yourself, to hold back. “On the whole, pity thwarts the law of evolution…It preserves that which is ripe for death…Nothing is more unhealthy in the midst of our unhealthy modernity, than Christian pity,” (Nietzsche, The Antichrist, aphorism 7). Nietzsche views the Christian ethic of pity—its care for the poor and sick and love of enemy—as a kind of plague that prevents humanity from progress. 


      In the Lord of the Rings, Frodo speaks with Gandalf about the repulsive Gollum character who was spared by Frodo’s uncle, Bilbo. Frodo tells Gandalf, “What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had a chance!” Gandalf wisely replies, “Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need.”


      “I am sorry, but I do not feel any pity for Gollum…He is an enemy. He deserves death.”

      “Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”


      Nietzsche represents the viewpoint of a consistent Darwinian materialism, while Tolkien represents the viewpoint of Jesus Christ, who teaches us to bless those who curse us, to love our enemies, and to reserve judgment for God alone. 


      Now, if you aren’t a Christian in here, just curious: which world would you rather live in? If you say Tolkien’s world, yet claim that there is no God, then Nietzsche will argue that you still are functionally acting like a Christian, even while denying it; a “sheep in wolves clothing.” If we find the ethic of love and care for the downtrodden to be attractive, plausible, then we must consider the theological foundations it rests on.


      When we look at the story we find three reasons why David spares Saul:

      David didn’t take himself too seriously

      David trusted God’s Promise

      David trusted God’s Justice


      David Doesn’t Take Himself too Seriously


      “Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense,” (Prov 19:11).


      The more important you are, the harder it is to let an offense go. If you walk around with a “I’m kind of a big deal” mentality, then you’ll find grievances ten times more difficult to overcome. In David’s interaction with Saul, we get a couple of clues that demonstrate that David didn’t take himself too seriously. When he confronts Saul, he begins with bowing to the ground and paying homage to him (1 Sam 24:8) and then asks Saul, “After whom has the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog! After a flea!” (1 Sam 24:14). And lest we think that David is just blowing smoke to schmooze Saul off his trail, David exhibited similar humility when he was twice approached by servants of Saul to marry one of his daughters (1 Sam 18:18; 23). Remember, David was the runt of the litter, the eighth son, the little one. He knows that he doesn’t have any secret sauce. 


      Have you ever noticed that when someone hurts you, if you find yourself stating your resume and title, the hurt suddenly becomes more severe? I can believe she would talk to me like that when I’ve been nothing but good to her…I’m her Father, for goodness’ sake! As we say it, the hurt deepens and hardens. A second voice in our head responds with: Wow, I can’t believe they would treat you like that.


      But if you don’t have that commentary? You are free. Inflated egos are fragile and sensitive (Example A: Saul). But humility is relaxing. You can let it go, not take it so personally, and even forgive. But how can David think so little of himself? Don’t they sing songs about him? Isn’t he the Goliath slayer? What does David know about himself? I’m nothing special. He knows that all his victory and success has been by the grace and mercy of God, not the might of his hand (1 Sam 17:37).  Until you realize that you realize that everything you have is a gift, that it’s all grace, as long as you think that you’ve earned your spot, you’ll never be able to respond with the flexibility that grace engenders.


      David Trusted God’s Promise


      David’s cutting of the corner of Saul’s robe is significant and pregnant with meaning for us as readers. The robe is used a symbol of royalty (cf. 1 Sam 18:4), and most importantly it is Saul’s tearing of Samuel’s robe back in chapter 15 that is interpreted as a picture of what will happen to Saul’s kingdom: “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you,” (1 Sam 15:28). Here, in the cave, the neighbor “who is better” than Saul stands with his robe torn in his own hands. The kingdom is David’s.


      Yet, as his knife tears through the robe, remorse tears through his heart. The only other place we are told that David’s heart is struck is when he sins by taking the census near the end of his life, and confesses, “I have sinned greatly,” (2 Sam 24:10). One commentator writes: “…one has the impression that he is most devastated by what he might have done…David has acted with compassion, but he has stared into the abyss of violence. He knows how close he was to raising his hand against the Lord’s anointed one…He is overwhelmed by what he has discovered within himself,” (NIB).


      As David looks down at the robe in his hand, what is he thinking? God has promised the kingdom to me—it is in my hand. Is it right to snatch the kingdom forcefully? 


      No matter how understandable it would seem, despite all his men telling him to do otherwise, David’s heart is sensitive, he listens to his conscience, so he turns away from temptation. If Saul is going to be disposed of, it will be the Lord’s doing; he need not take matters into his own hands. God’s promises don’t need to be helped along, and David knows that if he strikes Saul down, he will have circumvented the path of promise that God has laid out for him. He knows, “I cannot sin my way into God’s blessing.” God’s promise to David undergirds David’s ability to keep God’s Law.


      Picture David, years from now, sitting down with his grandchildren around a fire, and they all say, “Grandpa, grandpa, tell us the story of how you became the king!” What story does David want to tell them? Well kiddies, picture old king Saul squatting in a cave, and I saw my golden opportunity, so I grabbed my knife and stuck him like a pig…if you want to get ahead in life, you got to be willing to do whatever it takes. Or, does he want to say, God was faithful to fulfill His promises—so I kept my integrity and trusted in the living God. Assassinating your political rival while his pants are down is not the kind of story that makes listeners think: Wow, God must be real! But maintaining your integrity, trusting in God’s promises, when all of the circumstances around you make it seem impossible not to—that underscores the beauty of faith. 


      This can be applied in any set of circumstances in your life where deviating from God’s Law looks tempting. Can God’s promises be trusted? But let’s look specifically at the command to love your enemies:


      But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. 37 “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” (Luke 6:35-38)



      David Trusted God’s Justice


      “I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it. May the LORD judge between me and you, may the LORD avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you.,” (1 Sam 24:11b-12). 


      Here, we see that David isn’t only trusting in God’s promise of the kingdom, but he is also trusting in God’s justice. He is confident that God will stand between him and Saul and judge fairly, will bring vengeance. Saul has done some morally outrageous things. He has used and abused the people around him, hunted David’s life, slaughtered whole cities of innocent people, and dragged God’s name through the mud. David knows this. David doesn’t have some sycophantic perspective of Saul, he isn’t wearing rose-colored glasses. Hey, no big deal, Saul! That isn’t why he spares his life. He is free to withhold judgment because He knows that Someone much more qualified and capable will. 


      Forgiveness isn’t pretending that everything is fine. It is acknowledging that God alone can judge. When Joseph’s brothers, at the end of Genesis, come to him trembling and ask for forgiveness for all of the terrible things that they did to him, he replies, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?” (Gen 50:19). Judgment, vengeance, punishment—those belong to the Almighty, not us.


      “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good,” (Rom 12:19-21).


      Often, skeptics of religion will claim that this teaching is a way that the powerful keep the weak under the yoke of bondage. Don’t worry about justice now, just wait for heaven. 


      But do you see how a robust understanding of the wrath of God actually provides the key to stopping the cycle of vengeance? One person hurts another. They strike back. Their family retaliates. So, the tribe retaliates back. At each turn, the vengeance amplifies, slaughter takes place, and wars roll on. Nat Turner was a slave in 1831 who led a slave-rebellion in Virginia that resulted in the mass murder of 57 people, mostly women, infants, and children. After the militia put down the rebellion, there was an outbreak of mass lynchings across the south and more than 200 hundred black men and women, slave and free, were tortured, burned, and decapitated. 


      When someone really hurts you, really does wrong, and there is no final judgment, no recourse, no account that the perpetrator will face, then vengeance is the only the option. But if there is an omnipotent holy God? 


      God is a righteous judge,

      and a God who feels indignation every day.

      12 If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword;

      he has bent and readied his bow;

      13 he has prepared for him his deadly weapons,

      making his arrows fiery shafts. 

      -       Ps 7:11-13


      “The small and the vulnerable own a protection great enough, if you could but see it, to melt you into jelly,” (Leif Enger, Peace Like a River). If there is a God like that, then I don’t need to pick up the sword. In fact, I am so free from that, that I can pick up food and feed my enemies, care for them, and overcome evil with good. In fact, even more than that, because the final judgment isn’t the only place where sin is dealt with. There are two places where the punishment of sin will be dealt with: Hell or the cross. Because Jesus died for sin, that means the enemy standing before me—if he or she brings that sin to Jesus—could turn out to be my brother or sister, one who is just as dependent on the grace and mercy of God as I am.




      1. The Hand of God (1 Sam 23)

        Sermon Audio: The Hand of God (1 Sam 23)

        Sermon Video: The Hand of God (1 Sam 23)


        Sermon Discussion Questions:

        1. Saul uses his power to destroy, David to save. Saul assumes his power comes from himself, David knows it comes from God. What are ways you can use the position and capacities and authority you currently have in ways that reflect Saul and ways that reflect David?
        2. What is the paradox of strength illustrated by David and Saul? (The blessing of weakness and the curse of strength). Read Deut 8:11-18 together. How does this speak to you?
        3. What does it mean to take the name of the Lord in vain? See 2 Tim 2:16-19.
        4. How can we reconcile the claim that "we live in the best of all possible worlds" with the pain and suffering and sin we all experience?
        5. How is Jesus a better "Rock of Escape"? Look at 1 Sam 2:2 and 2 Sam 22:2-4. (Compare Exodus 17:6 and 1 Cor 10:4)



        I am attempting something different with my sermon notes. Rather than writing a manuscript, I am trying to use an outline with bullet points. Below is my outline notes:


        One year ago…


        Hands can be used to hurt, and to heal; to destroy, and to build; to kill, and to save.


        O God, save me by your name,

        and vindicate me by your might.

        2 O God, hear my prayer;

        give ear to the words of my mouth.

        3 For strangers have risen against me;

        ruthless men seek my life;

        they do not set God before themselves. Selah

        4 Behold, God is my helper;

        the Lord is the upholder of my life.

        5 He will return the evil to my enemies;

        in your faithfulness put an end to them.

        6 With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you;

        I will give thanks to your name, O LORD, for it is good.

        7 For he has delivered me from every trouble,

        and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.

        -       Ps 54


        -       The theme of the “hand” in 1 Samuel 23-24 (used 18x)

        o   The hand represents power and capacity

        o   Why were Dagon’s hands cut off alongside his head? To demonstrate his weakness.

        o   “But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him… The hand of the LORD was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory.” (1 Sam 6:4, 6)

        o   The theme is intended to reveal to us how godly and ungodly persons use power.

        §  We should ask ourselves:

        ·      Where does this power come from?

        ·      What is the power used for?


        The Hand of David

        -       Now they told David, “Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are robbing the threshing floors.” Therefore David inquired of the LORD, “Shall I go and attack these Philistines?” And the LORD said to David, “Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah.” 3 But David's men said to him, “Behold, we are afraid here in Judah; how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?” (1 Sam 23:1-3).

        o   Keilah: an Israelite city that resides (currently) outside of Israel’s territory, behind enemy lines. The Philistines are taking advantage of this by plundering.

        o   The men’s fear reveals just how precarious their situation is. They do not feel prepared to go fight the Philistines—they are barely surviving as is.


        -       “Then David inquired of the LORD again. And the LORD answered him, “Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand.” And David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines and brought away their livestock and struck them with a great blow. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah,” (1 Sam 23:4-5).

        o   God is the one who gives the enemy into David’s hand.

        o   Where does David’s power come from? The Lord.

        o   What does David use his power for? Salvation.


        -       “When Abiathar the son of Ahimelech had fled to David to Keilah, he had come down with an ephod in his hand,” (1 Sam 23:6).

        o   What is the ephod?

        o   Where does David’s power come from? The Lord.


        -       “David knew that Saul was plotting harm against him. And he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod here.” 10 Then David said, “O LORD, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city on my account. 11 Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O LORD, the God of Israel, please tell your servant,” (1 Sam 23:9-11)

        o   We will return to this in our next point, but notice David’s posture, his tone, his desperation: please tell your servant.

        o   Where does David’s power come from? The Lord


        -       “David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh. 16 And Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God. 17 And he said to him, “Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Saul my father also knows this.” 18 And the two of them made a covenant before the LORD. David remained at Horesh, and Jonathan went home,” (1 Sam 23:15-18).

        o   What a great picture of Christian friendship!

        §  Inconvenience yourself (even risk your life!) to go encourage a friend. A godly friend will remind you of God’s promises and strengthen your faith. 

        ·      Don’t you want to be that kind of friend?


        o   David’s posture: prayerful dependence—it always has been.

        §  “O God, hear my prayer; give ear to the words of my mouth,” (Ps 54:2)

        §  How did Saul view prayer? Prayer, for Saul, was a religious act to codify what he had already planned (cf. 1 Sam 14:18-19; 36-37). Why? Because Saul fundamentally found his strength and guidance in himself. David, in the Lord.


        §  The blessing of weakness: you can’t be deceived into thinking your power comes from yourself.


        §  The danger of strength: you can forget where your power really comes from.


        §  “Take care lest you forget the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth,” (Deut 8:11-18)


        o   Jonathan strengthens David’s hand in God, but also points out the weakness and malice of his father’s hand.


        The Hand of Saul

        -       “7 Now it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah. And Saul said, “God has given him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars.” 8 And Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men,” (1 Sam 23:7-8).

        o   The language of Saul’s statement mirrors the language we saw with David in verse 4. Both think that at the city of Keilah God will give their enemy into their hands, except God told David that He would give his enemy into his hands, while Saul just assumes this himself. 

        §  Further the enemy really is the enemy (Philistines) and for Saul his enemy is no enemy at all (David). The only reason David is Saul’s enemy is because the Lord is with David. (1 Sam 18:28-29)

        o   What does Saul use his power for? Destruction and death.

        o   Where does Saul’s power come from? Himself. He doesn’t inquire of the Lord, but presumes.


        -       10 Then David said, “O LORD, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city on my account. 11 Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O LORD, the God of Israel, please tell your servant.” And the LORD said, “He will come down.” 12 Then David said, “Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?” And the LORD said, “They will surrender you,” (1 Sam 23:9-12).

        o   David fears that Saul wants to create a Nob 2.0 (1 Sam 22:16-19)

        §  David’s concerned for the life of his men and himself, but also concerned for the city.


        -       “Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the expedition. 14 And David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hand,” (1 Sam 23:13-14).

        o   Saul’s hand is weak

        o   The paradox of power: you can be strong/weak (Saul), or you can be weak/strong (David).

        §  This is the theology of Hannah’s song (1 Sam 2:1-10)—it is not by might that man prevails. The Lord raises up, and the Lord casts down. It is the Yahweh who gives strength to the king (1 Sam 2:10).


        -       “Then the Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah, which is south of Jeshimon? 20 Now come down, O king, according to all your heart's desire to come down, and our part shall be to surrender him into the king's hand.” 21 And Saul said, “May you be blessed by the LORD, for you have had compassion on me.” (1 Sam 23:19-21)

        o   The Ziphites know how Saul uses his power and what the desires of his heart are: murder.

        o   Saul’s blasphemy: May you be blessed by Yahweh!

        §  What a perverse, Satanic use of religion.

        o   Ironically, “Compassion” here is the same word (hamal) used in 1 Sam 15:

        ·      “Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them,” (15:3)

        ·      “But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep.” (15:9)

        ·      “Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep.” (15:15)

        §  Showing a wicked king hamal is what led Saul to lose his kingship (15:28), and now Saul praises the Ziphites for showing him hamal. What is the author showing us? Saul is a wicked king, devoted to destruction, just like Agag was.


        o   What does God think of Saul using Him like this? He believes God has given David into his hand back in vs. 7, and here he explicitly uses the name of the Lord to bless the Ziphites for informing him. What do the Ziphites think of Yahweh now?

        o   “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain,” (Ex 20:7).

        §  What does it mean to take God’s name in vain? 

        §  “Take” (nasa) means “to take up, to lift, to bear”

        o   God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Ex 3:14)

        o   The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Ex 34:5-7)

        o   God’s name = God’s character

        §  When the Ziphites inform Saul of where David is, Psalm 54:1, “O God, save me by your name…”

        ·      “I will give thanks to your name, O LORD, for it is good,” (Ps 54:6)


        o   “The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. 27 “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” (Num 6:24-27; cf. Deut 28:10; 2 Chron 7:14; Dan 9:18-19)

        o   “Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads,” (Rev 14:1; cf. Rev 3:12, 2:17)

        §  People should look at Israel and the Church and see what God is like.

        o   So, taking God’s name in vain, is much more than using “God” as a curse word. It is claiming to represent God, to bear His name, but your life rejects that. This is Saul. He continues to speak and act as if he represents God, when his life is a gross rejection of God.


        o   Paul, in speaking of false teachers who promote ungodliness, writes: “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.” (2 Tim 2:19).

        §  How do we guard God’s name from being misused today?

        o   “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Matt 28:19). 

        You cannot baptize yourself—God has given the keys of the kingdom over to the Church, the heavenly embassy who has authority to say: “This person bears God’s name, this person doesn’t.”

        §  If your brother sins against you…And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector,” (Matt 18:17)

        §  But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. (1 Cor 5:11)


        The Hand of God

        -       “Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshimon. 25 And Saul and his men went to seek him. And David was told, so he went down to the rock and lived in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon. 26 Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain. And David was hurrying to get away from Saul. As Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them, 27 a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid against the land.” 28 So Saul returned from pursuing after David and went against the Philistines. Therefore that place was called the Rock of Escape. 29 And David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of Engedi,” (1 Sam 23:24-29)

        o   This is the only extended section in the chapter where we don’t see either David or Saul’s hand mentioned. No one’s hand is mentioned. So, whose hand is at work? God’s hand.


        o   God’s Power

        §  We were told specifically that God prevents Saul from capturing David back in 1 Sam 23:14, “God did not give him into his hand.” Here, we are not given that commentary, but the same reality is just as evident through God stirring up the Philistines to raid Israel and so cause Saul to retreat.

        §  It doesn’t matter how strong Saul is or how weak David is because it is Yahweh who gives strength to the king (1 Sam 2:10).

        §  “Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life. He will return the evil to my enemies; in your faithfulness put an end to them,” (Ps 54:4-5).

        o   God’s Wisdom

        §  Consider: “Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O LORD, the God of Israel, please tell your servant.” And the LORD said, “He will come down.” 12 Then David said, “Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?” And the LORD said, “They will surrender you.” (1 Sam 23:11-2)

        ·      God’s knowledge is so complete that He not only knows everything that does/will happen, but also knows what would happen in any given set of circumstances (cf. Matt 11:21).

        ·      Take God’s power, God’s knowledge, and God’s goodness, roll them together, and what do you get? That we live in the best of all possible worlds.

        ·      Tim Keller’s Watergate illustration

        ·      This is crucial for us to remember—sometimes it doesn’t feel like this. Sometimes it feels like there are many different versions of reality that would be far superior. 

        o   We know that the Philistine raid on the Israelites was a means God was using to deliver David. But the Israelites being raided didn’t know that. “God never does one thing only. In everything he does he is doing thousands of things. Of these we know perhaps half a dozen.” – John Piper


        o   Deep in unfathomable mines

        Of never failing skill

        He treasures up His bright designs

        And works His sov’reign will.


        Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;

        The clouds ye so much dread

        Are big with mercy and shall break

        In blessings on your head.


        §  God’s Deliverance

        ·      For he has delivered me from every trouble, and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies. (Ps 54:7)

        ·      “The Rock of Escape”

        o   “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior; you save me from violence. 4 I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.” (2 Sam 22:2-4)

        o   David’s salvific imagination—just as that rock was providentially placed there to be a barrier between him and Saul, so too did He see God as a greater Rock.

        §  The cleft rock that Moses hides in

        §  The split rock that gives water to Israel

        ·      Jesus is our greater Rock of Escape who stands between us and our great enemies: sin, death, and the devil.

        ·      Jesus is our substitute




        1. Many Are the Afflictions of the Righteous (1 Sam 21-22)

          Sermon Audio: Many Are the Afflictions of the Righteous (1 Sam 21-22)

          Sermon Video: Many Are the Afflictions of the Righteous (1 Sam 21-22)


          Sermon Discussion Questions:

          1. When you compare and contrast the characters of David and Saul in these chapters, what do you learn? Are circumstantial comforts and positions a clear indicator of God's blessings?
          2. In what ways does Saul serve as a cautionary tale here for the worship of power?
          3. Read 1 Sam 21:10-15 and then read Psalm 34. What stands out to you as you compare and contrast these two passages?
          4. "Most of the Bible looks like David, and less like Moses." What does that mean? How does the perspective that God works through our work help you and give you opportunities to "taste and see that the Lord is good"?
          5. Read Psalm 52. How does God's justice provide comfort for us when the wicked seem to triumph?


          We have been studying the book of Samuel for sometime, but today we come to a place in David's life where we find an abundance of psalms written by David (Ps 34, 52, 54, 56, 57, 59, 63, 142). So, let's read an excerpt from Psalm 34, a psalm written during the period of time our passage in 1 Samuel 21-22.


          11 Come, O children, listen to me;

          I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

          12 What man is there who desires life

          and loves many days, that he may see good?

          13 Keep your tongue from evil

          and your lips from speaking deceit.

          14 Turn away from evil and do good;

          seek peace and pursue it.

          15 The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous

          and his ears toward their cry.

          16 The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,

          to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

          17 When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears

          and delivers them out of all their troubles.

          18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted

          and saves the crushed in spirit.

          19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,

          but the LORD delivers him out of them all.

          20 He keeps all his bones;

          not one of them is broken.

          21 Affliction will slay the wicked,

          and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.

          22 The LORD redeems the life of his servants;

          none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

          -       Ps 34:11-22


          Life is hard. And life is hard, no matter what. You can choose to lead a godly, religious life, and life will be hard. Or, you can live a non-religious life where you shirk off tradition, and life will be hard. You'll notice that the ending of the psalm (vs. 19, 21) show us that both the righteous and the wicked experience affliction. Everyone experiences affliction, but one leads to deliverance, and one leads to destruction.


          The Afflictions of Righteousness


          David is on the run. He knows beyond a shadow of a doubt of Saul’s desire to kill him, and so he flees so suddenly that he has no time to gather supplies. And where does he flee to? He runs to the tabernacle, the house of God. We aren’t told why David chooses this location to flee to—it certainly wouldn’t have been a secret location, but a public space frequented by many who would easily carry the information back to Saul (which is precisely what happens, 1 Sam 21:7). Nor would it have been a place that was abounding in equipment or resources. This is a holy place, a sanctuary, a place of worship. And perhaps this is precisely why David flees there. He is distraught and confused and longs to be near his God in whom he takes refuge.


          However, Ahimelech seems to be aware of the tension between Saul and David, and so approaches David trembling, not wanting to get roped into the spat between the two of them (1 Sam 21:1; cf. 1 Sam 16:4). David seems to respond with an outright lie, claiming that he is on an errand for the king of the utmost secrecy (1 Sam 21:2)—maybe the reason he doesn’t use Saul’s name is because he is trying to not lie, maybe viewing “the king” here as God, not Saul. Either way, David asks for bread and is offered the holy bread that is used in the tabernacle, provided David (and the soldiers he is allegedly meeting up with) are ceremonially clean, to which David assures him they are (1 Sam 21:3-6). 


          “Then David said to Ahimelech, “Then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste. And the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me,” (1 Sam 21:8-9). David again claims, rather unconvincingly, that he has simply forgotten to bring along his weapons with him and so asks for a spear or a sword and is given the sword of all swords—Goliath’s. It has been kept in the Tabernacle like a trophy in a museum, and it seems fitting that the Giant Slayer should now wield the Giant’s sword.


          Things are dire for David. He is on the run, but he has been to the house of God, has bread in his sack, and the sword of all swords in his hand! He is well prepared for another victorious outcome like the battle of Goliath, is he not? Surprisingly, what follows are three brief stories that emphasize David’s weakness, danger, and shame. There is no heroic moment here, no giant’s head who gets lopped off.


          1.     David Flees to Gath (1 Sam 21:10-15)


          David, hoping that Saul won’t follow him into enemy territory, runs to the Philistine capitol. However, he is immediately recognized (as the king of Israel!) and apprehended. But, just as he is brought before the king of the Philistines, David pretends to be insane; writhing around, frothing at the mouth, and beating upon the doors, letting “his spittle run down his beard,” (1 Sam 21:13). He is then mistaken for just another madmen, and is expelled from the court.


          2.     David Flees to the Cave of Adullam (1 Sam 22:1-2)


          David then hides in a hole in the ground, where his family (apparently fearful for their life as well) meets him. But then a grouping of unsavory characters begin to show up. “…everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men,” (1 Sam 22:2). David doesn’t run them off, but embraces them, and becomes their commander. Like Jesus, David draws together the sinners and rebels and ragamuffins. Like Jesus, David isn’t ashamed to call them brothers (Heb 2:11). 


          3.     David Flees to Moab (1 Sam 22:3-5)


          David needs to find somewhere for his elderly parents to be safe and remaining in a cave isn’t a good long-term solution. So, perhaps relying on his great-grandmother’s family connections (Ruth), he travels to Moab and asks for his parents to be safely kept there till, he knows not when, hoping that these ancient enemies of Israel will show him mercy.


          In all three of these brief vignettes David’s life appears to hang precariously in the balance. Not only that, but David who has been beloved and honored by so many, been in a position of prominence as the commander of the armies of Israel, is now degraded and shamed. He saves his own skin by pretending to be insane, hiding in holes in the ground with the lowest caste of society, and is counting on pagan enemies to look after his family. David is not in an enviable position. 


          Now, what did David do wrong to deserve this? Nothing, of course. In fact, David did everything right. He was faithful to the Lord, so he fought Goliath. He was faithful to the Lord, so he went out and fought Israel’s battles. He was even faithful to Saul. And yet, sometimes our life gets harder, not because we did something wrong, but because we did what was right. As David sings, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”


          But for the wicked? Affliction will slay them.


          The Afflictions of the Wicked


          “Now Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men who were with him. Saul was sitting at Gibeah under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him,” (1 Sam 22:6). Could there be a starker contrast between David’s location and Saul’s? David is on the run, casting honor aside, surrounded by the scruff of society, while Saul is seated in honor up in the high places, surrounded by servants, and with his ever-present symbol of power in his hand: his spear (cf. 1 Sam 18:10; 19:9, 10; 20:33; 26:7, 8, 11, 12, 16; 2 Sam 1:6). 


          And Saul said to his servants who stood about him, “Hear now, people of Benjamin; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, 8 that all of you have conspired against me? No one discloses to me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. None of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day,” (1 Sam 22:7-8). 


          Saul’s madness has taken a hard conspiratorial bent. Saul is surrounded by his kin, other members of the tribe of Benjamin, yet he accuses all of them of being bribed by David to “conspire against” him. Of course, we are not told anywhere that David has done such a thing. 


          Saul accuses his fellow tribesmen of plotting his downfall by failing to report that Jonathan and David made a covenant together—something that the narrator described openly in 18:3, immediately following Saul’s glowing approval of David in 18:2, as if it happened directly under Saul’s nose. Yet, Saul now believes this was a secret coup intended for his overthrow. So, Saul pouts like a moody child that nobody is sorry for him, nobody cares to tell him what’s going on. Saul is the center of his own world, untethered from reality, and willing to attempt any tactic to get what he wants.


          Amidst the awkward silence that follows, one person speaks up. “Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, “I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, 10 and he inquired of the LORD for him and gave him provisions and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine,” (1 Sam 22:9-10). Who is this guy? Back in 1 Sam 21:7, while David is speaking with Ahimelech, we are told this passing comment: “Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen,” (1 Sam 21:7).


          Doeg, a non-Israelite, is happy to provide this critical piece of information to a desperate king. He is already the chief of Saul’s herdsmen—an important office—yet he is eager to rise further in Saul’s ranks. David’s psalm about Doeg seems to imply that he was financially motivated in these affairs (Ps 52:7). 


          Saul summons Ahimelech, and all 85 priests, to come to him. “And Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him, so that he has risen against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?” (1 Sam 22:13).


          Then Ahimelech answered the king, “And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and captain over your bodyguard, and honored in your house? 15 Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? No! Let not the king impute anything to his servant or to all the house of my father, for your servant has known nothing of all this, much or little.” (1 Sam 22:14-15).


          Ahimelech’s answer is imminently reasonable. He gives six reasons why he is innocent of the charge of treason: 1) David is Saul’s most faithful servant, 2) he is the king’s son-in-law, 3) captain of Saul’s personal bodyguards, 4) he is revered in Saul’s house, 5) Ahimelech has inquired of God numerous times before on behalf of David, and 6) if aiding David was wrong, he had no knowledge of it. As he lays this out, it is hard to see how anyone could conclude that Ahimelech was a traitor, or that even David is a traitor. Ahimelech’s answer is so good that it makes Saul’s plot against David look embarrassing itself. Don’t you realize that David is innocent, that he is your loyal servant, that your plot to kill him is insane? But what is obvious to everyone isn’t obvious to blind Saul, and you cannot reason someone out of a position that reason never led them to.


          And the king said, “You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's house.” (1 Sam 22:16). The phrase “you shall surely die” comes from Genesis 2:17, the consequence of eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In all the Bible, the only people who use this phrase are God and Saul. What does that tell us? Saul thinks he is like God. But what happens when a creature exalts himself like he is the Creator? What happens when you try to use a toothpick like a load-bearing bolt? The man Saul is sheared in half. He becomes irrational (four times in Samuel, Saul pronounces this sentence of death, each time on an innocent person 1 Sam 14:39; 14:44; 20:31; 22:16), and increasingly impotent. Every time he pronounces the sentence of death like he is God, the person isn’t killed. Worship power, and you become weak. “And the king said to the guard who stood about him, “Turn and kill the priests of the LORD, because their hand also is with David, and they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me.” But the servants of the king would not put out their hand to strike the priests of the LORD,” (1 Sam 22:17). 


          Saul’s soldiers know he is insane, they know it is ludicrous to kill the priests Yahweh for this, so they refuse. Saul’s authority is flaccid and the soldiers fear God more than Saul. But, there is one figure who is eager to please the king, “Then the king said to Doeg, “You turn and strike the priests.” And Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore the linen ephod. 19 And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword; both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey and sheep, he put to the sword,” (1 Sam 22:18-19).


          The 85 priests who had been summoned to the king are executed by Doeg, but that still isn’t enough for Saul. He wants to send a message that anyone who helps David will suffer, them and their people. So, he annihilates an entire city, man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey and sheep. That language sounds familiar, doesn’t it? The last time we heard something like that was the command that Saul was given to destroy God’s enemies, the Amalekites back in chapter 15—the command that Saul disobeyed. But here? Saul carries out his bloodthirsty vengeance, not against enemies who were raiding and pillaging Israel, not against those God had placed under judgment, but against those who were under Saul’s judgment—Saul thinks he is God. 


          One man, Abiathar, escapes and runs to David and tells him what Saul has done. “And David said to Abiathar, “I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I have occasioned the death of all the persons of your father's house. 23 Stay with me; do not be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life. With me you shall be in safekeeping,” (1 Sam 22:22-23).


          The Difference Between Saul and David


          David is fleeing, powerless, and shamed; Saul is stationary, established, and powerful.

          David is hiding in holes in the ground; Saul is seated on the height.

          David has no spear; Saul’s spear is always in his hand.

          David is surrounded by the losers and ruffians; Saul is surrounded by servants and soldiers.


          In so many ways, the circumstances of Saul’s life sounds so much better than David. But there is vastly different internal reality going on between these two men that could not be more different.


          David seeks out the tabernacle to receive help from God; Saul seeks out the tabernacle because he thinks he is God.

          David pretends to be insane; Saul is insane.

          David seeks out non-Israelites to save life; Saul seeks out non-Israelites to destroy life.

          David takes responsibility for others; Saul evades responsibility and blames others for his problems.


          “Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice,” (Prov 16:8). 


          Application


          In the book of Psalms, there are thirteen psalms that give us the historical setting in which they were written. Eight of those thirteen come from this period in David’s life (Ps 34, 52, 54, 56, 57, 59, 63, 142). Maybe take some time later today or this week to read through all of those. That in of itself is instructive for us: some of David’s most difficult seasons in life led to some of his deepest praise and communion with the Lord. Let’s look at just one of them from our story today to reflect on:


          Magnify the Lord!


          1 I will bless the LORD at all times;

          his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

          2 My soul makes its boast in the LORD;

          let the humble hear and be glad.

          3 Oh, magnify the LORD with me,

          and let us exalt his name together!

          -       Ps 34:1-3


          What does it mean to “magnify the Lord”? You magnify what can be easily missed or hidden. You put a telescope on a tiny pinprick of light in the sky, and you see that there is an enormous planet that you have been missing. Put a scoop of dirt under a microscope, and you find a whole world teeming with life. We can be blind to the glory of what is, especially when it comes to God. We must widen the frame, and see what is there. This is what David does, and he gathers others to do it alongside him. Let’s exalt his name together!


          4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me

          and delivered me from all my fears.

          5 Those who look to him are radiant,

          and their faces shall never be ashamed.

          6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him

          and saved him out of all his troubles.

          7 The angel of the LORD encamps

          around those who fear him, and delivers them.

          8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!

          Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

          9 Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints,

          for those who fear him have no lack!

          10 The young lions suffer want and hunger;

          but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

          -       Ps 34:4-10


          What is David writing about? What would need to be going on in your life for you to write those words? To be confident of God’s supernatural intervention, personal answer to prayers that make you say, “I lack nothing.” That makes you explode with joy and summon others to “taste and see” the goodness of the Lord?


          He is writing about his escape from the Philistines in chapter 21, when he pretends to be insane. Now, think of that story, and set it against David’s interpretation of the events in this psalm. David saw his deliverance as coming exclusively from God’s intervention, as if he sent the angel of the Lord as a sentry to personally protect him. When we read the story, we strain to see such supernatural intervention. It appears that God didn’t intervene, but that David simply thought quickly on his feet. It also seems odd for David to claim that those who look to the Lord are “radiant” and “their faces shall never be ashamed.” David saved his own skin, literally, by shaming himself, by letting the spittle dribble down his beard. 


          What we lack is David’s perspective on the Lord’s work. We need to widen the frame. When you read David’s psalms, he attributes all his deliverances and salvations and helps to the Lord—spectacularly to the Lord, as if God rips the heavens opens and steps down to personally aid him (cf. 2 Sam 22). But David’s life isn’t like Moses or Elijah. It isn’t filled with the shock and awe and miracles of those prophets. David is a soldier and a king who practices an earthy spirituality. The battle is won because he fights, he wields the sword, he pulls the bow. Yet, David claims, God does it. “He trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle” (Ps 144:1). When God helps Moses by parting the Red Sea, we think, That’s what I’m talking about—I want that kind of help, but when we see David save his life by resorting to false insanity, we think: I would like to receive help different way, please. 


          But most of the Bible looks like David, and less like Moses. Consider one example, where Paul tells us regarding the other apostles, “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me,” (1 Cor 15:10). Paul sees the rigorous efforts he poured into his ministry—something that he thinks is outstanding—can ultimately only be attributed to God who was working through the channel of Paul’s effort. We work, but God works.


          But if we can pay attention to what others may be blind to: how God intervenes and delivers us through our work, then we have a cornucopia of joy and gratitude and praise before us. And perhaps it will deliver us from our own apathy and passivity if we realize that our labor and God’s labor are not mutually exclusive.


          The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous

          and his ears toward their cry.

          16 The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,

          to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

          17 When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears

          and delivers them out of all their troubles.

          18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted

          and saves the crushed in spirit.

          19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,

          but the LORD delivers him out of them all.

          20 He keeps all his bones;

          not one of them is broken.

          21 Affliction will slay the wicked,

          and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.

          22 The LORD redeems the life of his servants;

          none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

          -       Ps 34:15-22


          Everyone experiences affliction: the righteous and the wicked. Everyone receives God’s face; the righteous and the wicked. We can endure the same realities, yet have vastly different experiences—if we take refuge in Him.


          John, the gospel writer, while recounting the story of Jesus’ crucifixion cites this passage from Psalm 34. Nestled between the afflictions of the righteous and the afflictions of the wicked is verse 20, “He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.” David here is explaining that while the afflictions of the righteous are many, yet God’s deliverance prevents the righteous from being shattered, from having their bones splinter. John sees this fulfilled finally in Jesus Christ: “So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs… For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” (John 19:32-33, 36).


          Even at the cross, where Jesus is forsaken by the Father, where He absorbs the sins of the world and suffers their punishment, even there, God does not abandon His Son, the Righteous one, over to affliction as severely as He does the wicked. He places His hand between His Son and Affliction and says, “No further.” And three days later, Jesus resurrects from the dead to life and victory and joy. And if we have faith in Christ, that shall be our trajectory as well. Our afflictions may be numerous, but there stands between us and the affliction a loving Father who will say, “No further,” and the hope of resurrection waiting for us. For those who take refuge in Jesus Christ, they will find the Lord to be a great Redeemer, Deliverer, and Savior.

          1. The Blessing of Friendship (1 Sam 19-20)

            Sermon Video: The Blessing of Friendship (1 Sam 19-20)


            Sermon Discussion Questions:

            1. If so many people throughout history have prioritized friendship, why do you think we tend to sideline it today? Do you think you have an accurate view of friendship? (Consider: what do you think of Jesus describing Himself as your friend? John 15:14-15)
            2. How does Saul's suspicion become a self-fulfilling prophecy?
            3. What do you do to fight against the isolating-tendencies that are common today?
            4. What did Jonathan have to lose by remaining loyal to David? What does that tell us about the nature of godly friendships?
            5. Read back through the list of practices to grow in friendship. Is there anything you want to begin doing?


            Let me give you four quotes, and you guess at what fills in the blank:


            Writing in the 4th century, the church father Gregory of Nazianzus in a letter to Basil the Great, wrote: “If anyone were to ask me, ‘What is the best thing in life?’ I would answer, ________.


            In the 5th century, St. Augustine wrote: “Two things are essential in this world—life, and _______. Both must be prized highly, and not undervalued.” 


            In the 12th century, Aelred of Rievaulx, an English monk, wrote: “Absolutely no life can be pleasing without _______.”


            In the 18th century, pastor and poet John Newton, wrote: “I think to a feeling mind there is no temporal pleasure equal to the pleasure of _________.”


            I could go on with many other quotes from Anselm, Aquinas, Luther, Spurgeon, Lewis. What pleasure could be so serious that so many of the greatest minds across history agree on its supremacy? What is the best thing in life? What is essential? If we could poll our neighbors, what would they say? What would you say? The answer, quite simply, is: Friends. The pre-modern world knew something about friendship that we have mostly lost today. Lewis, in The Four Loves, argues that so few modern people value friendship today because so few of them have experienced it. So, we tend to emphasize erotic love as the highest form of love, second familial love, and then lastly philial love. But, Lewis argues, in the pre-modern world the order was reversed: if in time our marriages and families will melt away in the light of heaven, then friend-love, philial-love is the closest to the angels. Of course, you should have philial love towards your spouse and children as well. But this is augmented by the way men and women in the past considered the priority of friendship:


            Shakespeare wrote that with the friends we have, we ought to, “Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel.” Don’t let friends go! Don’t let friendships be transient, fickle, disposable. George Herbert, the puritan poet, describing friendship exhorts us to bring our friend into “thy bosom: wear his eyes / Still in they heart, that he may see what’s there.” Don’t let friendships be superficial, thin, and fake. Let your friends see your heart, know you. 


            In our text today, we will consider two pictures of relationships: one of isolation and suspicion, and one of friendship and loyalty.


            And Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted much in David. 2 And Jonathan told David, “Saul my father seeks to kill you. Therefore be on your guard in the morning. Stay in a secret place and hide yourself. 3 And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak to my father about you. And if I learn anything I will tell you.” 4 And Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, “Let not the king sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have brought good to you. 5 For he took his life in his hand and he struck down the Philistine, and the LORD worked a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it, and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause?” 6 And Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan. Saul swore, “As the LORD lives, he shall not be put to death.” 7 And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan reported to him all these things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before.

            8 And there was war again. And David went out and fought with the Philistines and struck them with a great blow, so that they fled before him. 9 Then a harmful spirit from the LORD came upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing the lyre. 10 And Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night.

            -       1 Sam 19:1-10


            Saul: The Curse of Isolation


            Saul, the king who once gained such vitality and power from the people, from the affirmation of others around them, has now become like a snail covered in salt: recoiling back into a shell of isolation and despair. The voices of the crowd that once shouted “Long live the king!” (1 Sam 10:24), have now started shouting, “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands,” (1 Sam 18:7). In chapter 18, the already-fraying threads of Saul’s sanity finally snap. In chapter 19, Saul attempts to kill David twice: once by throwing a spear at him, and again by sending soldiers to kill him in his bed, but David evades both times. Then, in chapter 20, David and Jonathan create a plan to flush out whether or not David can remain in Saul’s court or must flee. David fails to show up at an important feast in Saul’s court and when Jonathan is asked, he will tell Saul that David asked his permission to attend a certain ceremony in his hometown in Bethlehem. When this happens, Saul explodes in rage and attempts to kill Jonathan because he suspects that his son has aided David. This confirms that David is not safe, so Jonathan relays this to David through a coded message, and David departs.


            Saul has become a Gollum character: poisoned and mutated by his idolatry of the approval of people. Saul was once a normal, healthy, good person (1 Sam 9:2). But now he is haunted by demons and exploding in irrationality. But God did not turn a switch inside Saul from “good” to “evil.” Long before we are told of God sending an evil spirit to harass Saul, he has already been giving himself over to sin and idolatry. No, God handed Saul over to the budding and blossoming evil within his heart (cf. Rom 1:24) and let it rot into what we now see. So, Saul becomes unhinged, erratic, and violent. 


            From now till his death, we will see three major themes develop in Saul’s life: impotency, irrationality, and isolation.


            Impotency


            We continue to see the motif of impotency in Saul’s repeated attempts on David’s life. Back in chapter 18, he attempts to impale David with a spear, but fails (twice) (1 Sam 18:10-11). Then he attempts to kill David indirectly through a marriage to one of his daughters and the campaigns on the Philistines that will entail, but fails (again, twice) (1 Sam 18:17-30). Here in chapter 19, Saul (again) tries to kill David by hurling a spear at him, but fails (1 Sam 19:10). Then Saul attempts to kill David in his bed, but his wife Michal warns him ahead of time, so he (again) fails (1 Sam 19:11-17). Then, Saul sends a troop of assassins to go dispose of David at Ramah where he is hiding out with Samuel, but as soon as they draw near, they immediately begin prophesying, halted in their murderous footsteps by the overpowering Spirit of God (1 Sam 19:20). So, Saul sends another troop, and the same thing occurs. And another troop, and still the same thing happens (1 Sam 19:21). Don’t send a soldier to do a king’s work, Saul thinks, so he goes to take matters into his own hands.


            But, the exact same thing happens to Saul, only we are told that he also strips all his clothes off, and writhes around on the ground all day and all night (1 Sam 19:22-24). David slips away while this occurs (1 Sam 20:1) and Saul is left humiliated and emasculated. What did he think would happen? If the Spirit of God overcame the three troops of assassins he sent previously, did he think he would be able to contend with God? No, Saul’s powerlessness and feebleness is displayed for all to see as he lay naked, raving.


            Irrational


            In 19:6, after Jonathan’s speech about David’s faithfulness in serving Saul, Saul makes a vow: “And Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan. Saul swore, “As the LORD lives, he shall not be put to death,” (1 Sam 19:6). But just four verses later, Saul breaks that vow by attempting kill David (1 Sam 19:10). This is especially jarring when one remembers how adamant Saul was about sticking to his unwarranted, sinful vow back in chapter fourteen, even though it meant the death of his own son, Jonathan (1 Sam 14:24-46). There, he only broke the vow out of public embarrassment and pressure. Here, though the vow to spare David’s life is righteous and no one is pressuring him to break it, he gives it up almost immediately. And from now on, this mercurial volatility will mark Saul. He says one thing one minute, but then does another the next.


            The most jarring display of Saul’s unraveling sanity is depicted in chapter 20, when Saul realizes that Jonathan has helped David escape Saul’s clutches: “Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman, do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother's nakedness? 31 For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Therefore send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die.” 32 Then Jonathan answered Saul his father, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” 33 But Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him. So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death,” (1 Sam 20:30-33).


            Saul, blinded by rage, pours out vile language to insult his son (and indirectly insulting his own wife, calling her a perverse and rebellious woman). Saul is venting white hot anger. He can’t even mention David by name, only referring to him as “the son of Jesse” and admits that he knows that he is going to be king, that he is going to replace Jonathan as the next king of Israel, and therefore he must die. Jonathan asks “Why?” and Saul attempts to kill his own son because he asked a question. He has gone insane. He views his own son with the same suspicion as an enemy.


            Isolation

            A three cord strand is not easily broken, and the tragic final cord of Saul is his isolation. Of course, most significant of all, Saul has been spiritually isolated by his rejection of God, and God’s departure from him. Saul finds the heavens to be silent to him. But also, all the people closest to him—not just the crowds—but his closest advisors (1 Sam 18:5), his former mentor, his daughter, and his son, all have sided with David over him. Saul is a sad oyster; a solitary figure, suspicious of all, shut off from God and others. 


            But, of course, this is only from Saul’s distorted perspective. Amazingly, Jonathan doesn’t abandon his deluded and maniacal father (even after his attempt on his life). Further, his estimation of David is completely untethered from reality. He assumes that David’s rise in popularity necessarily means his downfall; that the love everyone has for David comes at the diminishment of his own. Because Saul has made the approval of others his god, it is a zero-sum game for him. He needs all the attention, and for any of it to be diverted to David means that David is now his enemy. Which is ludicrous of course, but in the dark distortions of Saul’s conspiratorial mind, it all makes sense. And, ironically, his distortions become a self-fulfilling prophecy, as he uses and abuses those around him.


            Isolation makes everything worse. We all can give ourselves over to the insanity of sin, we all know what it is like to kick against the goads, to try to fight what God has determined. But, when we sever ourselves from others, then the silliness of our sin doesn’t seem so silly anymore. Have you ever found a time where you finally told someone a fear you had or something you were ashamed of, and as you said it out loud you realized: Oh, that sounds silly. But, about five seconds beforehand, it didn’t sound silly at all. In the dark cloister of your mind, it sounded titanium-strong. It felt like an irreversible truth. But the, you said it, you told someone else, and then it deflates in size. 


            Saul is an extreme case, here. But it didn’t start that way for him, and he is a cautionary tale for us all. “Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment,” (Prov 18:1). Do you isolate yourself? It has never been more easy in the history of humanity to isolate yourself. If you want, you can easily spend most of your life interacting with no one. 


            Saul’s isolation, though, wasn’t out of a desire for convenience, but out of jealousy.

            Are you envious of others? Comparison is the thief of joy.


            Do you harbor suspicions easily? Nurse grudges? This is not the way of love. Consider Paul’s famous teaching on love as a prescription for our posture to one another: “4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things,” (1 Cor 13:4-7).


            David and Jonathan: The Blessing of Friendship


            If Saul is Hyde, then Jonathan is Jekyll. Saul views David as a competitor, an enemy, who poses an existential threat to Saul’s empire, life and joy. Jonathan, on the other hand, views David as a friend. “There are no portraits in the Bible of love and loyalty between friends to match this one,” (NIB: 1 Samuel).


            Loyalty


            Jonathan is the one who really shines when it comes to the display of loyalty to David by telling David repeatedly about his father’s intent on killing him, but standing up for David to his father, and even risking his own life. Which is astonishing given that David is going to be replacing Jonathan as the next king (cf. 1 Sam 20:31). Jonathan is the anti-Saul. He is not motivated by jealousy or fear, but by steadfast love. The loyalty between these friends is displayed formally in their pledges to one another:


            “If I am still alive, show me the steadfast love of the LORD, that I may not die; 15 and do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever, when the LORD cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth,” (1 Sam 20:14-15).


            “Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, because we have sworn both of us in the name of the LORD, saying, The LORD shall be between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring, forever.’” (1 Sam 20:42).


            Like two soldiers walking into war, they promise that if anything happens to either of them, they will take care of each other’s families. And this is precisely what happens. Later, when Jonathan dies, David cares for Jonathan’s son, Mephibosheth (2 Sam 4).


            Love


            Like we said last week, at this point in the story, everyone loves David (1 Sam 18:16, 20). But Jonathan sees something in David that causes him to especially love David: “As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul…Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul,” (1 Sam 18:1, 3). The covenant that Jonathan makes is likely a political and military covenant with him. Jonathan, the son of the king, sees in David a remarkable military ally and wants to arrive at a contractual commitment with him. But, make no mistake, Jonathan loves David. His soul is “knit to the soul of David” and he “loved him as his own soul.” We are told this again in chapter 20, “And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul,” (1 Sam 20:17).


            But we see the depth of affection these men have for one another when it comes time for David to depart, thinking that he will never see Jonathan again: “And as soon as the boy had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap and fell on his face to the ground and bowed three times. And they kissed one another and wept with one another, David weeping the most,” (1 Sam 20:41). While it is less common in our culture to kiss as a common form of greeting and parting (cf. the five commands to “greet one another with a holy kiss” in Paul’s epistles), a more typical expression for us would be an embrace, a hug. These are men who have fought together, who have labored together, who love one another, and now that they must depart, it is agonizing for them. 


            This has caused some to suspect that there was a homosexual relationship between David and Jonathan. But, that reveals more about us than it does about David and Jonathan. “Those who cannot conceive Friendship as a substantive love but only as a disguise…of Eros betray the fact that they have never had a Friend,” (Lewis, The Four Loves). 


            This isn’t merely tangential. The suspicion that leads some to suspect that David and Jonathan, Sam and Frodo, Hrothgar and Beowulf—men who love one another and openly proclaim their affection—belies the fact that our current culture has been put on a total starvation diet of meaningful friendship. We assume that erotic love is the highest and truest form of love and, ever since Freud, we assume that erotic desire is the basic subterranean reality of affection. So when we read of Jonathan’s soul being knit to David’s soul, we assume that must translate into the romantic realm. But like a golfer bragging about how high his score is reveals he doesn’t understand the game, the more we make those claims, the more we reveal we have fundamentally misunderstood the purpose of friendship. Consider an excerpt from a public letter that Anselm, a theologian in the 12th century, wrote to a fellow friend of his:


            “For since your soul and my soul can by no means endure to be absent from each other, but are incessantly entwined together, there is nothing in us that is missing from each other except that we are not present to each other bodily,” (Anselm). The effusive display of affection between two men may seem odd to us, but that reveals that there is something in us that needs to be repaired. “We, not they, are out of step,” (Lewis, The Four Loves).


            Deaths of despair are on the rise (suicide; overdose; liver disease). Loneliness has become an epidemic in the Western world, affecting most (1) young people, (2) mothers of young children, and (3) men. The church has an opportunity to serve a relational feast to a starving world.


            “This world is full of sorrow because it is full of sin. It is a dark place. It is a lonely place. It is a disappointing place. The brightest sunbeam in it is a friend. Friendship halves our troubles and doubles our joys,” (J.C. Ryle, Practical Religion, 317).


            How Can We Grow in our Spiritual Discipline of Friendship?


            Technology

            -       Don’t confuse the flattened digital interaction with the fully orbed embodied experience. A text doesn’t compare with a hug.

            -       Evaluate your digital habits and consider whether they are helping or impeding your relationships. Does your screen time lead you to crave isolation?

            -       Consider taking a typical solitary event (playing a video game, watching a show, or movie) and turning it into a community event.

            Time

            -       You make time for what you value. 

            -       Are you crazy-busy or lazy-busy? Whenever we tell someone “I’m so busy” we often really mean: “I don’t have time for you.”

            -       Be friendly to all, enjoy friendship with some. Don’t be a cruise ship with a thousand friends on the surface; be a submarine that goes deep with a handful. Different people have different relational capacities. Find yours.

            -       Have you prioritized the right things in your schedule?

            -       Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Where you invest your time will bear relational fruit.

            Tasks

            -       Don’t let tasks be an impediment to friendship, use them. Don’t build the tree house alone, invite some friends to join.

            -       Friendship isn’t created by staring at friendship, but by staring at something else together.

            Talk

            -       Be curious. Ask more questions. People are fascinating.

            -       Be transparent. Vulnerability takes time, but make it your destination.

            -       Be encouraging. Tell people how much you appreciate them.


            Here is a good test of how much you value friendship. When the Bible describes Jesus as a “friend,” does that seem quaint to you? “You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you,” (John 15:14-15). Jesus is our Lord, our King, our Master—yes and amen. But He is also our friend. When Jesus was accused of being a “friend of sinners” (Matt 11:19), what did that mean? Look at what Luke tells us, “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him,”(Luke 15:1). Jesus was approachable. Jesus spent time with sinners. And Jesus tells us:


            “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends,” (John 15:13). The epitome of love is displayed through a sacrifice made for a friend. And what are you to Jesus? His friend. And how does He display His great love to you? By laying down His life for you. By dying for your sins. Maybe you realize that you aren’t a very good friend. Maybe you realize that you are selfish, and vain, and aren’t very loyal. But take heart, Jesus is a friend of sinners. He sees your hypocrisy and self-centeredness and isn’t repulsed by it. In fact, He is willing to take your sins from you and bear them away at the cross. He is eager to receive you and cleanse you and embrace you. And what a model for friendship! What a display of loyal-love! As those who have received such love, what great bounty do we know have to share with those around us, with our friends. The Church has a unique opportunity to serve a banquet of meaningful Christ-like relationships to an emaciated world.


            1. The Providence of God (1 Sam 18)

              Sermon Audio: The Providence of God (1 Sam 18)

              Sermon Video: The Providence of God (1 Sam 18)


              Sermon Discussion Questions:

              1. What stood out to you the most?
              2. Why is Jonathan, second only to David, the hero of 1 Samuel? How can grow to be more like him?
              3. How is our ego like an elbow?
              4. Saul's story is an extreme example of what happens when you are controlled by the approval of others. Do you see any strains of this temptation in your own life?
              5. What unique resources does Christianity offer for those who struggle with being controlled by what others think of them? (see Isa 43:4)



              Does God always get what He wants? Is His will ever frustrated? Just think of the last thing that frustrated you: maybe it is as simple as trying to get out of the house on time with young children, or maybe it is as serious as contemplating the last tragedy that is breaking in the news or last political scandal roiling our country. As we look at our life and the world, it is easy for us to feel frustrated. But, does God feel that?


              “Our God is in the heavens, He does all that He pleases.” – Ps 115:3


              That is an astounding truth. Whatever God wants to do, He does. “Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps,” (Ps 135:6).


              Now, here is the question for us: does God’s unstoppable power and incontrovertible will cause you to rejoice, or to recoil? Does it make you happy, or worried? In our story today we will see two very different response to the providence of God—one of joy, the other of fear.


              6 As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments. 7 And the women sang to one another as they celebrated,

              “Saul has struck down his thousands,

              and David his ten thousands.”

              8 And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands, and what more can he have but the kingdom?” 9 And Saul eyed David from that day on.

              10 The next day a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand. 11 And Saul hurled the spear, for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David evaded him twice.

              12 Saul was afraid of David because the LORD was with him but had departed from Saul. 13 So Saul removed him from his presence and made him a commander of a thousand. And he went out and came in before the people. 14 And David had success in all his undertakings, for the LORD was with him. 15 And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him. 16 But all Israel and Judah loved David, for he went out and came in before them.

              -       1 Sam 18:6-15


              Jonathan’s Humility


              The story picks up right after the fateful encounter between David and Goliath. David’s stunning display of courage and trust in God has inspired all of Israel. “As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. 2 And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father's house. 3 Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. 4 And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt,” (1 Sam 18:1-4).


              Twice we are told that he loved David “as his own soul,” even making a covenant with David. Jonathan sees in David the same zeal and faith he has. If you compare the story of Jonathan storming the Philistine garrison with his armor-bearer in chapter fourteen with David and Goliath and you’ll see many similarities. In both all of Israel is paralyzed with fear at the power of the Philistine army, in both it is the faith of a young man who courageously challenges the Philistines against impossible odds, confident that God will deliver him. In both, they refer to the Philistines as the “uncircumcised.” And in both, Saul and the rest of the army sit back until it is evident that the battle is already decided in their favor. 


              Verse 4 of chapter 18 tells us that Jonathan gives to David his robe, armor, sword, bow, and belt. Many commentators remark that these items are likely symbols of royalty (cf. Esther 6:8, where permitting one to be clothed in the king’s robes was a high honor), but it is hard to tell if Jonathan is self-consciously saying, “David, you’re the king now,” by this act. This could just be a statement of how highly Jonathan regards David that, nevertheless, still ironically foreshadows David’s future royal status.


              On the other hand, later in 1 Samuel Jonathan seems to be aware that David will be king soon. In a few chapters, Jonathan tells David, “You shall be king over Israel,” (1 Sam 23:17; cf. 20:14). Plus, it would seem likely that Jonathan is aware of Samuel’s rebukes back in chapter thirteen and fifteen, since they were given publicly: “The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be prince over his people,” (1 Sam 13:14) and “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you,” (1 Sam 15:28). So, it is possible that Jonathan sees the faithfulness of David, his zeal for the Lord and realizes here is (1) a man after God’s own heart and (2) one who is better than his father. And perhaps even better than himself. Jonathan didn’t step forward to fight Goliath, but David did.


              Jonathan is the unsung hero of 1 Samuel. There is no one in Samuel who is more committed in their love to David than Jonathan. Despite the fact that David’s continued rise certainly means that Jonathan will never be king (1 Sam 20:31-32). Jonathan is the eldest son of the king, the prime candidate for the next king in Israel, yet he loves David, his replacement. Jonathan is a John the Baptist character, content to see the Messiah increase, even though it means that he decreases. He knows that he isn’t the bridegroom, he is just the friend. He is the pastor of the small church who is praising God that revival has come, even though it is being poured out upon the church down the street.


              What a great model for us. Consider Paul’s teaching: “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together,” (1 Cor 12:26; cf. Rom 12:15). How do you do that? I think it is more intuitively sensible to weep with those who weep—if someone else is struggling with barrenness while you have children of your own, it is easier to weep with them, to say, Man, I am so sorry. Because you are still in a position of having the thing that everyone wants. But if you are the barren one, the one without, how do you rejoice when someone else welcomes another child into their family? If you’re without work, how do celebrate someone else getting a promotion? If you are the heir apparent to the throne, and along comes someone else who is going to displace you, how do you rejoice as they rise to power? How do you not become jealous, or bitter?


              Two steps:

              1.     You trust God’s providence. Trust not the Lord with feeble sense, but trust Him for His grace; Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face. Jonathan doesn’t kick against the goads. He believes that the lines have fallen for him in pleasant places, and is content to see God’s plan unfold, even if it means he now has less power and status. But he is content, and you can be too. When it seems like the Passover is working in reverse, and God’s blessings seem to keep passing over your home, you trust that God can is masterfully weaving together all things for good (Rom 8:28). His purposes shall ripen fast, unfolding every hour; The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower.


              2.     You pursue humility. Jonathan isn’t thinking about his advantages or disadvantages—he is thinking about God’s kingdom and glory. A truly humble person isn’t a person with the lowest self-esteem (that person is just as much enthralled to their own ego as the braggart). They aren’t thinking about themselves. They are thinking about other people—not for what they get out of them—but they are just genuinely interested in others. They have been set free from the suffocating closet of themselves to enjoy God and His creation and His image-bearers. I doubt many of you have thought about your elbow today--unless, of course, there is something wrong with it. Your elbow just quietly works without drawing attention to itself. That's how our ego should work, just quietly functioning without drawing attention to itself.


              “[God] wants to bring…man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less)…glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another. [God] wants [man], in the end, to be so free from any bias in his own favor that he can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbor's talents--or in a sunrise, an elephant, or a waterfall.” (Screwtape Letters, Letter XIV)


              Saul’s Jealousy


              All throughout this chapter we are repeatedly told of just how much everyone loves David. Of course, right away, we are told that Jonathan loves David (1 Sam 18:1-4), but also that:

              “But all Israel and Judah loved David,” (1 Sam 18:16a).

              “Now Saul's daughter Michal loved David,” (1 Sam 18:20a).

              Even back in chapter sixteen, we are told that Saul loved David greatly (1 Sam 16:21).


              Why does everyone love David? Because he is the hero. Not only did he just conquered Goliath, but also because he is conquering everything: “And David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him, so that Saul set him over the men of war. And this was good in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants,” (1 Sam 18:5). We are repeatedly told all throughout this chapter that David is unstoppable in battle, and whatever he does, he succeeds. The final verse of the chapter tells us: “Then the commanders of the Philistines came out to battle, and as often as they came out David had more success than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was highly esteemed,” (1 Sam 18:30).


              The word for “esteemed” there is the same word for “precious,” as in, rare precious metals, like gold (cf. Isa 13:12). This is what David’s name has become to all of Israel. His reputation is solid gold. Now, what does Saul think of that? Let’s quickly just chart out again Saul’s story:

              -       The genesis of Saul’s kingship begins before he is even on the scene, back in 1 Samuel 8, where it is literally the voice of the people who brings his role into existence. The prophet Samuel is told to “obey the voice of the people” (1 Sam 8:7, 9, 22), a starkly unusual command for a prophet to be given by God. Normally, a prophet’s role is to summon the people to obey God’s voice (cf. 1 Sam 12:14-15; 15:19, 22; 28:18).

              -       Saul is dragged against his will into the position of kingship by the people (1 Sam 10:23)

              -       Saul, afraid of losing the people, offers an unlawful sacrifice (1 Sam 13:11)

              -       Saul vows to kill his own son, Jonathan, because he violated his rash vow, but is overruled by the voice of the people (1 Sam 14:45)

              -       Saul confesses that he feared the people and obeyed their voice, and so he sinned by sparing Agag and the best of the livestock and plunder of the Amalekites (1 Sam 15:24). This final example forms an inclusion with the first: the first place we are told that someone is “obeying their voice” is Samuel’s charge by God to make Israel a king (Samuel is told 3x); the last place that phrase is used is in the mouth of Saul here in chapter fifteen. The point? Saul was created by the will of the people, and so he is a slave to the approval of the people.


              So, what does Saul really care about? The voice of the people. He wants his name to be precious in their eyes, to be highly esteemed. But now, what does he hear coming from the voice of the people?


              As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments. 7 And the women sang to one another as they celebrated,

              “Saul has struck down his thousands,

              and David his ten thousands.”

              -       1 Sam 18:6-7


              As Saul and David return back from the battle with the Philistines, the women have obviously heard of what has taken place, so as they rush forward to meet the men returning they break out into song, celebrating the magnitude of what David has done in contrast with Saul’s past victories. Notice, we are told that they run out to meet King Saul, but sing about David. The only role Saul plays is the benchmark to contrast with the surpassing greatness of David. And internally, something snaps in Saul. A good indicator that you're dealing with an idol is the depth of your reaction. Anyone who was in Saul's position would likely be offended by the crowds only using him as a benchmark to emphasize David's greatness. But because Saul worships the approval of the crowds, his reaction is extreme. He goes crazy.


              It might be good for us to pause here and ask ourselves: how do we keep ourselves from turning into Saul? Do you find yourself controlled by what other people think of you? Anxious about how you are being perceived? Play back social settings in your mind, reevaluating how you could have done things differently? It might seem tempting to think that the answer is: don’t care about what people think of you! You need to learn to love yourself and accept yourself as you are. Boost your self-esteem with self-acceptance and self-love! But this assumes that your evaluation of yourself is weighty enough to buoy you up. But this kind of self-affirmation feels like a “How to lose weight without changing your diet or exercise!” schtick. We need more. We need a voice outside ourselves to affirm us, to encourage us, to look at us and say you matter. 


              “Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life,” (Isa 43:4). The word for "precious" here is the same word for "esteemed" in 1 Sam 18:30. This is what Saul is longing after from the crowds, but here this is what is freely given by the God that Saul is ignoring. What tender language from the King of the Universe. He loves you; He honors you; He finds you to be precious in His eyes. And what do we know that those in our story don’t? God doesn’t just give up anyone in exchange for our life, He gives up His Son. The One to whom David—in all his stunning faithfulness and success and fame—merely pointed to. How much does God love you? How precious and esteemed are you in His sight? Enough to give up His precious Son, Jesus Christ, to die for your sins, so that if you trust Him, you can be saved. This is the tonic we need to deliver ourselves from our slavery to approval—we need God’s approval. Satisfy your heart-hunger on God’s affirmation, and the scraps of this world will be less enticing.


              Saul was blind to that; he didn’t see rightly.


              “And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands, and what more can he have but the kingdom?” 9 And Saul eyed David from that day on,” (1 Sam 18:8-9). David is the golden boy, the shiny new hero who is precious in everyone’s sight. So Saul begins to think conspiratorially—this kid thinks he is the one to supplant me! So he “eyes” David. The word for “eyed” there is actually the same word for “iniquity” (עָוֺן)—it is a clever play on words that draws our mind back to David’s anointing as king, where we are told that there is a wrong way to look, and a right way to look (1 Sam 16:7). Saul’s eyesight is literally evil (cf. 18:8, where “this saying displeased him” is literally, “the saying was evil in his sight”). 


              “The next day a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand. 11 And Saul hurled the spear, for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David evaded him twice,” (1 Sam 18:10-11).


              Saul has become a satanic figure, an antichrist, haunted by the demonic, an offspring of the serpent intent on killing the offspring of the woman (Gen 3:15). David is in the court serving King Saul as his court musician (cf. 1 Sam 16:14-23), yet Saul tries to kill him—twice! But David is able to escape. And this becomes the theme for the rest of the chapter (and really, the rest of the book of 1 Samuel). Saul attempts to kill David, but is constantly foiled. He attempts to offer his eldest daughter, Merab, to David in marriage with a promise from David that he will continue to fight the Philistines, secretly hoping that it will result in David’s demise (1 Sam 18:17-18). “But at the time when Merab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite for a wife,” (1 Sam 18:19). No reason given—Saul’s plan is foiled. But Saul tries again with his next daughter, Michal: “Saul thought, “Let me give her to him, that she may be a snare for him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him,” (1 Sam 18:21).


              And so Saul sets a grotesque bride price of 100 foreskins from the Philistines, hoping that this will result in David’s death. But, not only does it not kill David, but David comes back with double the required amount (1 Sam 18:25-27). “But when Saul saw and knew that the LORD was with David, and that Michal, Saul's daughter, loved him, Saul was even more afraid of David. So Saul was David's enemy continually,” (1 Sam 18:28-29). Evil hates good. Wickedness despises righteousness. But here, we see what lay at the heart: evil fears good. Everything that Saul has done to try to stop David, has done nothing—the last test has actually even made David’s fame rise even further. 


              God’s Providence


              What does this chapter teach us about God’s providence? 


              Jonathan: Happy in another’s blessing, even at his own expense. God isn’t merely useful to Jonathan, but beautiful. He loves God, and so when he sees God’s kingdom advance—whether by him or another—he is content.


              Saul: Miserable in the triumph of the righteous. If God isn’t useful for his own advancement, then what’s the point? Saul thinks he can actually circumvent God’s providence. Nothing succeeds, nothing works. He is just as hemmed in by God’s providence as anyone else—note: the fact that we are told that “evil spirit” comes from God is a clear picture of this. Though Saul is in rebellion, he is not outside of God’s sovereignty. Satan is a wild dog on a leash held by the Lord. He is not a free agent. 


              David: “Saul was afraid of David because the LORD was with him but had departed from Saul. 13 So Saul removed him from his presence and made him a commander of a thousand. And he went out and came in before the people. 14 And David had success in all his undertakings, for the LORD was with him. 15 And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him.” (1 Sam 18:12-15).


              Nothing can stop him. Nothing can thwart his rise. This doesn’t mean his life is easy. In fact, his life is now about to become much, much more difficult. But He will be held in the hand of God’s tender providence. Every device of Satan to upend God’s providence will turn into another step by which God fulfills His master plan. Haman builds the gallows that will be used to execute himself; Saul will push David further and further into seasons of difficulty which will cement him deeper and deeper into his role as the King; the Pharisees, Herod, Pilate, and Judas do everything to silence the Son of David, only to find that they have played perfectly into His hand. 


              Jesus: “…for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place,’ (Acts 4:27-28).


              Us: What was David’s secret weapon? The Lord was with Him. And the Lord is with you. “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose,” (Rom 8:28).


              “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet,” (Rom 16:20)




               The word for “raved” here is actually the word “prophesy,” but I don’t think the point is that Saul is prophesying, but that he is just overcome by an intelligence and power that is not his own. The sentence “a…spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved” is nearly verbatim the same sentence from when Saul was anointed as king back in chapter 10, where we were told that “the Spirit of God rushed upon [Saul], and he prophesied,” (1 Sam 10:10). The author uses the same verbiage to demonstrate that Saul has become the exact inverse of what he once was.  

              1. David (1 Sam 17)

                Sermon Audio: David (1 Samuel 17)


                Sermon Discussion Questions:

                1. Briefly recap the three main points of the sermon. How does seeing rightly lead to feeling rightly and acting rightly? What did David see, feel, and do?
                2. What does it mean to "see rightly"? How did Saul and Israel see wrongly? How might you see wrongly? Can you think of appearances that you are easily deceived by? Think of what you are most easily impressed with, or what you are most intimidated by.
                3. "Your emotions follow what you value." Do you think that is true? What did Saul value and what did David value?
                4. How do we grow in our zeal for the Lord? What is the "negative" and "positive" aspects of zeal that David had?
                5. If we see rightly, we feel rightly, and so act rightly. C.S Lewis warns us, "The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel." Was there anything that the Lord convicted you to act on?
                6. Read 2 Cor 4:16-18. How does this encourage us to take bold steps of faith, even if it results in us "losing" rather than "winning," as the world defines it.


                When you were a child, what made you think someone else was living “the good life”? When I was a kid I always thought “the good life” was found on the other side of what my parents sad was too expensive. So, if another kid got Lunchables or cups of chocolate pudding in their lunch, it wasn’t a sign that their parents were laxer with nutrition, it was a sign that they were in on “the good life.” Oh, my third-grade heart pined, what would it be like to have Fruit Gushers! When you are a child, you think like a child. Your standards are limited by the small circle of experience you have. So, you ascribe outsized significance to things that don’t deserve them. Just think of the anxiety you had on your first day of middle school or high school, how much you thought about impressing others with your looks, clothes, or your “I don’t care about impressing anyone” persona. One of the joys of growing older is the freedom to laugh at yourself for what you once cared too much about.


                Another, more important, joy of growing older is a shifting of values. What “the good life” means in your 30’s, isn’t what it meant when you were a teenager. And in your 50’s, you probably look back at your 30’s with the same thought. Even more so in your 80’s. Like stepping onto a yet higher vista, your perspective grows with time, and perhaps how you define what “the good life” is changes too. The cheap pleasures of youth give way to the deeper pursuits of vocation and career, which finally give way to the lasting joys of family and relationships. But unfortunately, just as we are at our wisest, the grave comes and cuts us down. But what if we could have a perspective, a vantage that came from one who went beyond the grave?  Well, that’s exactly what the Bible is. But the path that Jesus lays before us to “the good life” is a very odd one.  It is a path that prizes weakness, not strength; humility, not fame; confession of lack, rather than boasting of fullness.  Life teaches us that the inner circle of “the good life” is full of those who are one or two or twenty notches above us on the scale of wealth, popularity, education, etc. Jesus, however, teaches us that the good life is found below, in the low places of emptiness, need, and pain; on a path that leads to a cross before it leads to a crown.


                Today, we are returning to the famous story of David and Goliath, a story that should recalibrate our values and cause us to reconsider our assumptions about what the path of faithfulness looks like, what the route to “the good life” will take us through. 


                When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD'S anointed is before him.” Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart,” (1 Sam 16:6-7).


                Last week, we examined how this story fit in to the wider message of Samuel and the Bible, pointing us to Christ. Today, we are going to look at how David provides a model of faithfulness, by looking at what David saw, what David felt, and how David acted, and contrast those with how the rest of Israel acted, felt, and what they saw. Seeing rightly, Feeling rightly, and Acting rightly.


                Seeing Rightly


                What is the wrong way to see? 


                Circle back to Samuel’s first encounter with Jesse’s sons back in chapter sixteen. When Eliab, the firstborn, steps forward—tall and strong—Samuel thinks This must be the new king, he looks like a king! But God warns Samuel: “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart,” (1 Sam 16:7). Man looks at what the eye alone sees: the appearance. But God says: don’t do that, look deeper.


                We see people’s appearances, their stature, their strength, their looks, their class, their status. And in the Valley of Elah, Israel and Saul see two things: the power of Goliath, and the weakness of David. So, Eliab tells David, “Why have you come down?” (1 Sam 17:28), and Saul tells David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth,” (1 Sam 17:33), and Goliath tells David, “Am I a dog that you come against me with sticks?” (1 Sam 17:43). What is everyone doing to David? The same thing that Samuel did at first: judging by the outward appearance. And by the outward appearance, it seems foolish for David to go out to Goliath. David looks like a shallow-chested asthmatic being sent in to fight the heavyweight champion of the world.


                What does David see? When the soldiers are running in fear of Goliath, one of them grabs David and asks, “Have you seen this man who has come up?” (1 Sam 17:25a). Yes, David sees him; in fact, David sees more clearly than anyone else. He sees two things: the power of God and the weakness of Goliath. Remember back in 1 Samuel 16, Samuel saw Eliab’s stature and thought: his height and strength and age qualify him for greatness. Here, we see an inversion of that: just as Eliab’s height and strength didn’t qualify him as king, because the Lord looks on the heart, so too does Goliath’s enormous stature and strength not exclude him from the judgment of God, because the Lord looks on the heart. And David sees Goliath’s heart—more than he sees his appearance—and sees that Goliath’s heart is bent on mocking God. God didn’t look at Goliath and think: wow, how scary! He doesn’t care about that.


                And because of these David’s weakness and inexperience and Goliath’s size and strength are entirely immaterial. It doesn’t matter that Goliath has been a man of war since he was a youth, and it doesn’t matter that about five minutes ago David was babysitting sheep. When my children make a tower of blocks, I may be impressed by its height, but I know that the taller it becomes, the more terrific will be its fall. It’s size doesn’t translate into permanence; it only takes the slightest nudge, and it all comes tumbling down in a great crash. So too does David view the leering Giant: the battle is the Lord’s (1 Sam 17:47), and He is bigger.


                So, how can we see like this? An irresponsible way of interpreting this story would be: whatever stands in your way is going to fall! No, why did Goliath fall and David stand? Why was their relative size of no importance? It was because of their heart’s posture: one was proud, and one was humble; one was arrogant because of his strength, and the other was consumed with zeal for God. So, how do we see like David? We prioritize what God prioritizes: The heart. He isn’t impressed or fooled by appearances. So, we learn to put a greater emphasis on the heart than on outward appearances. Behind the veneer of outward appearances—be they strong or weak—lies something much more important. 


                We can be fooled by outward appearances when something looks very positive: The potential spouse may look attractive physically; the new job opportunity may look exciting and very financially secure. Or, we can be fooled when something looks very foreboding and intimidating: The non-Christian friend of yours is very intelligent and you feel as if you could never articulate yourself clearly enough to invite them to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. The prospects of being shunned professionally or socially by peers is just too intense to not at least tacitly go along with the sexual revolution underway. But the story of David here tempers us. There is something far more decisive and conclusive that lay beneath the surface. The path into sin may appear imminently wise and appealing and the path of faithfulness may seem terrifying. Do not look only to what can be seen.  


                What might you be deceived by? Ask yourself: what am I most easily impressed with? Or, what am I most intimidated by? How do we keep our vision clear-eyed and tempered by what God prioritizes? We build our lives upon the solid rock of God’s Word. We let God’s Word be the final judge and arbiter of all our opinions. We let it guide the innermost longings of our heart, channeling them into what they ought to long for. This is what Christ did, as the book of Hebrews tells us, “let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God,” (Heb 12:1b-2).


                Jesus was constrained by the joy that was set before Him to look beyond the shame of the cross to what was beyond it. David was constrained by God’s promises to Israel, His history of what He had done for them, and what He had commanded. So, he did not look to what was seen, and this kindled within him a great energy of feeling.



                Feeling Rightly


                Your emotions follow what you value. What did Saul and the soldiers value? Strength.


                When Goliath steps out onto the field, what do Saul and soldiers feel? “When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid,” (1 Sam 17:11). Saul prizes strength and power and sees that Goliath has far more of it than he does, so he is left terrified.


                The word for “dismayed” literally means “to be shattered”—they aren’t just worried, they are broken to pieces, utterly paralyzed by fear. This dramatic word picture draws us back to Hannah’s song (the only other place that this word, חָתַת, is used in 1 Samuel 2), “The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces (חָתַת); against them he will thunder in heaven,” (1 Sam 2:10a). What does God give to His enemies? Thunder from heaven that leaves them shattered, broken to pieces. But here in 1 Samuel 17 it is Saul and Israel (following his lead) that are shattered. Saul has become God’s enemy, and so he is emotionally crippled. In the Bible, courage is a moral virtue, it is not based on competency (i.e. I am brave because I know I am strong). Rather it is the righteous who are bold as a lion, while the wicked flee even when none pursue (Prov 28:1). Integrity means that your life is a whole; there is no part of you that is fractured from another part. Hypocrisy, on the other hand, means that you are divided internally. Thus, the wicked are shattered, while the righteous stand strong.


                What does David feel? The other half of verse 10 of Hannah’s song tells us that God gives strength to His anointed (1 Sam 2:10b). When David first comes to the battlefield, Goliath walks out and taunts Israel, and all the soldiers run in fear (1 Sam 17:24), but what melts the others hardens him. “For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Sam 17:26). David has a sense of righteous outrage at what is being done (see also 1 Sam 17:36). This Philistine is mocking the God of Israel and thinks that his god is mightier, and every day that ticks by, Goliath is more and more confident that Yahweh is small compared to Dagon—and maybe even some of the Israelites start to wonder that too. Your emotions follow what you value. Saul values strength, power most; so when Goliath, the epitome of strength, mocks the God Saul claims to believe in, he doesn’t have a wave of courage come over him—why? Because God is just as small to Saul as He is to Goliath. But what does David feel? Well, what does he value most? David cannot stand by while Goliath continues to belittle and blaspheme the God he loves and worships. So he is charged with a holy zeal, a Christ like consuming zeal that overturns tables and drives out money changers (see John 2:13-17).


                I wonder if you ever struggle with feeling rightly about the Lord. Did you know that the Bible commands you to be zealous? “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord,” (Rom 12:11). Do not be slothful in zeal. What is zeal? It is a fervent eagerness, willingness, and earnestness. What is slothful? George Herbert, the Puritan poet, when describing the sin of slothfulness, charges Christians: “Spit out thy phlegm, and fill thy breast with glory.” Slothfulness is like having your lungs full of mucus, and Herbert exhorts us to expel it, and fill our chests with the fresh wind of glory. And Paul hits that note, but explicitly with the fervency and zealousness of our service to the Lord. Meaning, we should consider emotional indifference to the reputation of God as something to be repaired within us.


                In Good Will Hunting, we see a picture of zeal when the young Matt Damon goes to visit the therapist played by Robin Williams. Damon has visited several therapists and finds them all to be ridiculous or push-overs, so he assumes Williams is one as well. But when Damon, who isn’t aware that Williams’ wife is deceased, begins to flippantly insult her, Williams suddenly pins Damon against the wall and says, “If you ever disrespect my wife again I will end you.” That’s zeal. Now, of course, as Christians our zeal isn’t manifested through threats of physical violence, certainly—I am not advocating that. But what do you feel when God is mocked? When Paul walked through Athens and saw their rampant idolatry, are we not told that he was provoked in his spirit at the sight? (Acts 17:16). Was not Lot’s righteous soul tormented day after day at the lawless deeds of Sodom and Gomorrah? (2 Pet 2:8)


                John Calvin, the Protestant reformer, wrote: “A dog barks and stands at bay if he sees any one assault his master. I should be indeed remiss, if, seeing the truth of God thus attacked, I should remain dumb, without giving one note of warning,” (Calvin, Letter 130, To the Queen of Navarre, 1545).


                But David’s zeal isn’t only negative (outrage at Goliath) but it is also positive: David wants to use this opportunity to proclaim a message of the power of God: “that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear,” (1 Sam 17:46b-47a). David is not just motivated by a “how dare you” anger, but a “God is worthy” zeal. God is worthy to receive Israel’s trust, even in the face of Goliath; God is worthy to be honored and praised, even by Goliath; God is worthy to receive all praise, and honor, and glory, and power forever and ever. He is worthy! You don’t need to be born again to be outraged at people who disagree with you. You don’t need the Holy Spirit’s anointing to want to fight fire with fire. But if you have seen that the Lord is good, then you are jealous for His glory to be seen and savored, you are zealous to see imposters and mockers see the power and goodness and grace of God. Godly zeal isn’t only negative, but has an expansive, evangelistic, and totalizing view of God’s beauty and goodness being seen for what it is.


                And we must have both halves of that zeal, the positive as well as the negative, lest we fall into error. If we are not motivated in our zeal by a positive picture of God’s glory, we may actually unwittingly motivated by a concern for our own glory. If someone criticizes our faith, we may be outraged, but not because God is being dishonored, but because we are—how dare they talk to me like that. And then our zeal devolves into silly vanity and ego, and we become the parody that is internet outrage culture. Jonathan Edwards warned: “There is nothing that belongs to the Christian experience that is more liable to a corrupt mixture than zeal,” (Jonathan Edwards, Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England, 1742).


                How do you feel rightly? What do you do if you don’t feel zealous for the Lord?


                Emotions are not simple. Keeping your heart’s affections turned to the Lord is a continual discipline, a vitamin not a vaccine. But you can start by asking yourself: what do I look to most? What do I value? Look at your emotions now and chase their tail up to the heart, and you’ll find what you value most. 


                I have set the LORD always before me;

                because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

                Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;

                my flesh also dwells secure.

                -       Ps 16:8-9


                Look to Christ set forth for you in the gospel, more full of grace than you are of sin. He is at your right hand, He is with you, and He is for you. He has removed your sins as far as the east is from the west.


                Acting Rightly


                David sees rightly, and it is his correct sight that kindles his zeal, and so he feels rightly, and this leads him to act rightly. The exact opposite is true for all of Israel and Saul. They see only Goliath’s strength, not God’s, so they feel only fear, not courage, so they run away, instead of standing and fighting.


                David, however, has lofty ambitions. David tells Saul, “Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine,” (1 Sam 17:32). Isn’t that kind of arrogant for David to say? Eliab, his older brother, certainly thinks so. David thinks he can go out and do what no one else can do. When Goliath taunts David, David responds with serious confidence, threatening to cut off Goliath’s head and slay the entire Philistine army (1 Sam 17:46). Is this wild, narcissistic, megalomania? No, David has just seen rightly, and felt rightly: “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied,” (1 Sam 17:45). David sees God looming over Goliath, and he burns with righteous zeal at Goliath’s impudence and the shame he has heaped on God’s name. So, he acts.


                Faith produces works. If we say we have faith, but no works, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. It is entirely possible for someone to see rightly and even feel rightly, but when it comes to implementing, to actually taking action, we hesitate, we push it off, we make excuses. C.S. Lewis, writing as the senior demon, Screwtape, to the junior demon about how to keep his patient from growing in repentance, explains:


                “As long as he does not convert it into action, it does not matter how much he thinks about his new repentance. Let the little brute wallow in it…No amount of piety in his imagination and affections will harm us if we can keep it out of his will…The more often he feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel.” (Lewis, Screwtape, Letter 13).


                What is God asking you to do, right now? Do it. Today. Don’t let the zeal wither on the vine of indecision.


                But, you might think, what if I lose? What if I take the step of faith and do what God has convicted me of, and I fall flat on my face? What if Goliath won? What if while David was giving his bold speech, Goliath just hurled his javelin through David’s chest?


                Well, that actually happens often in the Bible. The Bible is not a fairy tale about good guys always being victorious in this life. Often, it is a story of suffering, persecution, and death. Think of Stephen, the proto-deacon, full of the Spirit and wisdom. In Acts 7 he is accused of blaspheming the temple by the religious authorities, and so he launches into an incredibly sophisticated biblical exposition of God’s dealing with His people across the Old Testament, demonstrating God has never been limited to the temple, and God’s people have always struggled to follow Him, before courageously concluding by accusing the religious authorities of resisting the Holy Spirit. And what do they do? They kill him. They drag him outside of the city and throw large stones at him until he stops breathing.


                But what about I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me? Well, we have to read that promise in light of the verse that precedes it:


                “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me,” (Phil 4:12-13)


                I can do all things through him who strengthens me…like starve. What if God’s will for your life isn’t to win, but lose? What if you are Stephen, not David? And what if that is God’s blessing for you? Our aim in life isn’t limited to success and victory as the world defines it. The path of faithfulness sometimes—often—takes us down to the low place of shame and pain. But it is there that we find our joy. That is what Stephen found. As he is being stoned to death, he looks up and what does he see? Christ, standing, waiting for him. His joy! And we can see that too, even as we may go down, even as our life may mirror Stephen more than David.


                So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal,” (2 Cor 4:16-18).

                1.  — Edited

                  Goliath (1 Sam 17)

                  Sermon Audio: Goliath (1 Sam 17)


                  Sermon Discussion Questions:

                  1. "You pay attention to what your imagination is captive to." What captivated the imagination of Saul and Israel? What captivated David's?
                  2. Why do you think this story is so popular?
                  3. What does this story do for demonstrating to you that God uses the weak to shame the strong? How does that affect how you view your own weakness?
                  4. In what ways is Goliath connected with the god of the Philistines, Dagon?
                  5. Read Genesis 3:15. How does this passage unroll into the David and Goliath story? How does it roll into the gospel?
                  6. What was David zealous for in the battle?

                   

                  You pay attention to what you expect you will see. 

                  You pay attention to what your imagination is captive to.


                  Two wrong ways of interpreting this story:

                  1.     I am David, Goliath is my problem.

                  2.     David serves as no model at all, only points us to Jesus.


                  We need to see how David and Goliath both points us to Jesus and also provides a model of courageous faithfulness.


                  When is this happening?

                  There are several instances in this chapter that make it somewhat difficult to discern when this event is taking place. At times it feels like we are bring re-introduced to David again, like we weren’t just introduced to him back in chapter 16. For instance, at the end of the chapter Saul is asking who David’s father is (1 Sam 17:55-58), yet at the end of chapter 16 Saul is corresponding with Jesse already, asking his permission for David to remain in his service (1 Sam 16:22). Or, when David volunteers to fight Goliath, Saul says this is impossibly since David is only a youth (1 Sam 17:33), but at the end of sixteen David is described as a “man of valor, a man of war” (1 Sam 16:18), and in 16 we are told David becomes Saul’s armor bearer (1 Sam 16:21), yet in 17 when David is outfitted with Saul’s armor he says he is unfamiliar with it (1 Sam 17:39)—further, it is improbably that an armor-bearer would be given leave to tend sheep in the midst of a battle, yet David is described as journeying back and forth between the battle and the sheepfold in 17:15. Thus I think it is likely that the events of chapter 17 are actually taking place after David’s anointing as king (1 Sam 16:1-13) but before David’s entrance into Saul’s court as a musician and armor bearer (1 Sam 16:14-23). (See 1 Sam 18:2 compared with 16:21-22, likely describing the same event).

                   

                  Why would the author of Samuel rearrange the material like that?

                  1. Rearranging the sequence of chronology is a common device in the Bible.
                  2. To emphasize that theological theme of sight and blindness in chapter 16 we discussed last week.
                  3. The weakness of “strong” Saul being helped by the strength of “weak” David at the end of 16 through David’s music helps prepare you as the reader for the even greater reversal in chapter 17 of the weakness of Saul being contrasted with the strength of David in the dramatic exposé of God blessing weakness in the face of worldly strength.


                  41 And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. 42 And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. 43 And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” 45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD'S, and he will give you into our hand.” 

                  -       1 Sam 17:41-47


                  Scene 1: Fearful Israel


                  We find ourselves in Ephes-Dammim, stationed on the precipice of a hillside. The ancient enemy of Israel, Philistia, is encamped on the opposite hillside. Between the both of us runs a small creek and the green Valley of Elah (1 Sam 17:1-3). The Philistines had begun another incursion into the land, and so Saul has drawn up the battle line to stop them. Perhaps the Philistines still have their ego bruised from when the ark of the covenant humiliated their god, Dagon, and they were forced to send the ark back, defeated, and embarrassed (1 Sam 5-6). Surely, given Israel’s past and how God has delivered them they will be boldly facing down the enemies with confidence and courage, right? Not so much.


                  The Philistines have brought a secret weapon with them: “And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span,” (1 Sam 17:4). If you don’t know anything at all about this story, you know that Goliath is really, really tall. It could be that Goliath is a descendant of the Anakim, an ancient Canaanite people know for the enormous stature (cf. Deut 9:2). In fact, Joshua 11:21-22 tells us that the city of Gath, Goliath’s home, was a residence of the Anakim. The word for “champion” literally means “a man in-between.” Goliath is one who stands in front of the army, gets in-between the two armies and challenges Israel himself. And he has good reason to. He is anywhere from 6 and half to 9 and half feet tall!


                  Not only that, he is well outfitted: “He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. 6 And he had bronze armor on his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. 7 The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron. And his shield-bearer went before him,” (1 Sam 17:5-7). The enormously heavy “coat of mail” catches our attention, not just because it weighs five thousand shekels of bronze (120 lbs.!), but because the word for “mail” is the Hebrew word kashkashim, which is only ever used in the Bible to describe the scales of a fish (eg. Lev 11:9) or the scales of a serpent/dragon (Ez 29:3-4). So, the author here could be using this word to associate Goliath with the Philistine god Dagon (who was half fish) or with the offspring of the serpent, Satan (Gen 3:15). This has already happened once before in Samuel, when Saul defeated the king of the Ammonites, Nahash (1 Sam 11:1), whose name means “serpent.” Whether Goliath should be seen as being associated with Satan overtly or Dagon, either way he represents a demonic or overtly Satanic entity. His super-height (g’boah, 1 Sam 17:4) corresponds with Hannah’s warning: “Talk no more so very g’boah g’boah (proudly)” (1 Sam 2:3). Goliath is tall in stature, tall in heart, and so he is tall in speech. 


                  Goliath walks into the open valley below and taunts Israel, challenging them to single-combat to determine the outcome of the battle: “And the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together,” (1 Sam 17:10). Now, who is the man who should be stepping forward to face this incredibly tall giant? Israel has her own giant, of a sort, in their king: tall Saul, who stands a whole head above everyone else (1 Sam 10:23). In fact, hasn’t he defeated a serpent-king before? But what is Saul doing? “When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid,” (1 Sam 17:11). What enabled Saul to victory before wasn’t his own strength or stature, but the Lord, and the Lord has departed from Saul (1 Sam 16:14), so he and all Israel are crippled with fear.


                  And there they stay for quite some time: “For forty days the Philistine came forward and took his stand, morning and evening,” (1 Sam 17:16). What is happening here sounds oddly familiar. Back in 1 Samuel 13, Saul goes to war with the Philistines and Israel becomes so frightened at the sight of the enormous size of the Philistine army that they run in terror, actually crossing over the Jordan river—leaving the promised land! (1 Sam 13:5-7). This is the land that God had promised to them and had sworn that He would Himself deliver to them from the hands of their enemies, like the Philistines. But they struggled to see that in the presence of the enormous army, and now they are struggling to see that same truth in light of the enormous descendant of the Anakim in front of them, Goliath. This is what has happened ever since God’s people came to the land God had promised them. When Moses first led Israel to the edge of the promised land, they sent in the twelve spies and they returned saying that the land looked wonderful, but that there was no way little Israel would be able to take the land. So Israel complained to Moses: 


                  “Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.”’ (Deut 1:28). There are giants there! But Moses recounts, “Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. 30 The LORD your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ 32 Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the LORD your God,” (Deut 1:29-32). And so, what was their consequence? They were forced to wander around through the wilderness for forty years (Deut 8:2) until all in that generation had died for their fearful faithlessness. And here, in our story, Israel is paralyzed by fear for forty days in the presence of a giant of Canaan, once again forgetting that God is the one who fights for them, God is the one who can be counted on, even when others—like Goliath—say otherwise. The author of Samuel is pointing out to us that Israel’s problems haven’t changed much.


                  But this is the way the Serpent works—obscure what God’s Word says with what your eyes see and what your ears hear. This is what he has always done. Did God really say…? Look at how desirable this fruit is, is it not a delight to the eyes? (Gen 3:1-7). We know that voice. We know what it is like to lay paralyzed by fear, to be drained of strength by temptation, to feel like God’s promises and warnings, what once felt as strong as shining steel, now seem like a memory of mist. And in the moment, caving in to fear or lust or cold bitterness seems so plausible, so sensible. The voice of Satan doesn’t often seem like a sharp turn away from wisdom—sometimes it looks like wisdom itself: “When the woman saw…the tree was to be desired to make one wise,” (Gen 3:6). What else could we do in the face of such enormous problems that taunt us, that promise to slay us in single-combat? What would it be for you? What looms and leers over you, 10 feet tall, snickering at your childish faith, mocking your backwards convictions in the light of real power and strength? 


                  When Jesus was teaching His disciples that His path was a path of humble service, not celebrity like fame, and that it would be ultimately displayed in His humiliation through death on a cross, Peter is so flustered that he actually rebukes Jesus, and what does Jesus tell Peter? “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man,” (Mark 8:33). Peter had no categories for a crucified, servant Messiah; for strength to be displayed through weakness; for victory to come by defeat. How does that work? Maybe that sounds good in stories, but in the “real world,” that just doesn’t work. And maybe that is what Saul and Eliab and the rest of Israel is thinking too. But Jesus would say to Israel, You are setting your mind on the things of men, not God. 


                  All Israel, except one.


                  Scene 2: Faithful David


                  David is sent to the battleline by his father with food and a request to bring back a token from his three eldest brothers to ensure they are okay (1 Sam 17:17-20). David arrives at the encampment just as the two armies are lining up on the battle line, and he finds his brothers, but as he does Goliath steps forward and again takes up the same taunt as before (1 Sam 17:21-23). As soon as Goliath thumps down, “All the men of Israel…fled from him and were much afraid,” (1 Sam 17:24). “And David said to the men who stood by him, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Sam 17:26). David hears that Saul is offering a monetary reward and his daughter’s hand in marriage to the Israelite who will face the Philistine champion (1 Sam 17:25), but he is mostly outraged that this Philistine is mocking the living God.


                  “Now Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men. And Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.” 29 And David said, “What have I done now? Was it not but a word?” (1 Sam 17:28-29). Some classic big-brother-little-brother dynamics going on here. But why is Eliab so angry? Remember, last chapter, Eliab, the eldest brother, was passed over for the role of king by Samuel who chose little, young David instead. That had to sting for Eliab. And here that same little brother comes waltzing in and talking like he isn’t afraid of what every grown soldier is afraid of. Who does this kid think he is? Maybe there is also mixture of shame in that response? If you remember, back in chapter 16 we were told that Eliab himself was a tall man (1 Sam 16:6-7), so perhaps he has thought, or even had others suggest, that he should be the one to go face Goliath. But that’s the thing about putting your confidence in worldly strength: there is always someone stronger, faster, smarter, or better looking than you are. Eliab is big, but he knows he isn’t Goliath big.


                  Now Saul hears that someone isn’t trembling over Goliath, so he summons David and David confidently asserts: “Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” 33 And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth,” (1 Sam 17:32-33). When your toddler offers to help while you are working on bills, its cute, but not very helpful. When your friend who is a powerful tax attorney offers to help, it isn’t cute, but it is very helpful. When your sixteen-year-old confidently asserts that they can sort through your problems with the IRS, it is neither cute nor helpful. David’s offer to go fight Goliath feels like that. This is a serious problem and the offer of help from a teenager isn’t helpful, particularly when the other combatant, a grown man, has been fighting in wars since he was a teenager. 


                  But David is undaunted, “But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. 36 Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 And David said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you!” (1 Sam 17:34-37).


                  What did David have? He had two things: (1) He paid attention. He had a mind and imagination that was dominated by all that God had done for him, and (2) he had a heart that was set ablaze with jealousy for the glory of God. And this blossomed within him a confidence that God would help. David is consumed with this that he wins skeptical Saul over.


                  “Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail, 39 and David strapped his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” So David put them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine,” (1 Sam 17:38-40).


                  What did Saul want? He wanted to help David, certainly. But do you notice what Saul provides sounds just like Goliath? A bronze helmet, coat of mail, and a large sword—the same type and order of armor and weaponry that Goliath has, albeit not as substantial. Saul’s thought is totally natural: to fight Goliath you need to be outfitted with the same technology and advantages he has. But this isn’t the way David will win. The armor is clunky and unfamiliar, David knows that he can’t fight in them, so he sheds them, and instead grabs the instruments he is familiar with: the tools of the trade that has led to him being scorned, mocked, and overlooked—his shepherding instruments. Eliab, wanting to make a dig at the confident David in front of everyone threw in his face: Where are those few sheep you are supposed to be babysitting? Because watching sheep would have been just that: babysitting. Not an impressive or honorable trade. Yet, it is those very tools that David takes with him out into the Valley.


                  Scene 3: Fateful Encounter


                  And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. 42 And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. 43 And the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” (1 Sam 17:41-44). David’s approach is laughable to the mighty Goliath; he calls David a pretty boy and compares him to a stick before cursing him by his gods and summoning the birds to come close to feast on David’s soon-to-be-dead body.


                  What does Goliath have? Size, age, battle experience, armor, a shield, a sword, javelin, spear, the support of his army, and incredible confidence.


                  What does David have? He is small, young, inexperienced, vulnerable, no armor, no sword, no spear, no javelin, lacks the support of his own army, and…is incredibly confident. “Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD'S, and he will give you into our hand,” (1 Sam 17:45-47). Where on earth is David’s confidence coming from? He is planning on cutting Goliath’s head off, but he doesn’t even have a sword in his hand. Goliath may have threatened to give David’s body to the birds, but David claims that he will offer the entire Philistine army to the birds!


                  David’s confidence comes from his certainty that this is really a battle of the gods. Goliath may have cursed David by his gods, but David knows that His God is bigger. And he knows that God has put him here in this Valley for two reasons:

                  1.     That the whole earth may know that there is a God in Israel.

                  2.     That Israel will learn that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s.


                  It is not by might that man shall prevail (1 Sam 2:9), and the tall Goliath is talking very, very proudly (cf. 1 Sam 2:3).


                  48 When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine,” (1 Sam 17:48). The battle begins and David is running. But unlike the rest of Israel, who “fled from” Goliath (1 Sam 17:24), David is running to Goliath. “And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground,” (1 Sam 17:49). Boom. Game over. The immense size of Goliath did nothing but provide a bigger target, and his full towering height crashes down like a fallen cedar.


                  “So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. 51 Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled,” (1 Sam 17:50-51). 


                  Those who worship false gods become like them (Ps 115:8). When the ark of the covenant was taken into Dagon’s temple, it fell with its face on the ground at first, and then had its head cut off (1 Sam 5:1-5). Goliath, who was just taunting David by his god, Dagon, has now shared his same fate. When the Philistines see that Goliath has fallen, that their “champion”, their “man in-between” is dead, they turn and flee. And, just like Jonathan’s stunning victory dislodges the fear out of Israel’s hearts, so too does David’s, and Israel rushes after the Philistines in victorious pursuit (1 Sam 17:52ff). 


                  fear not, for I am with you;

                  be not dismayed, for I am your God;

                  I will strengthen you, I will help you,

                  I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

                  -       Isa 41:10


                  Application


                  David was the unexpected champion of Israel, their own “man in-between” who stood up for them while they trembled under the sentence of death. And, in weakness, he snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, falling the giant, and using his own weapon to kill him. This should draw our mind to the truer and better David, Jesus Christ, who is the ultimate “man in-between”, the unexpected and overlooked Savior who saves the fearful and faithless through the strange path of weakness. But the giant that Jesus faces is much more serious. There is a record of debt that stands against us, a record of our sin, and that record of sin is what empowers Satan to condemn and attack and torment us. And because God is just and righteous, He cannot merely pretend that the record doesn’t exist. Wrongs must be punished, and Satan gloats in accusing us as “wrong-doers.” He looms and leers over us, 10 feet tall, mocking us, taunting us, condemning us. And we tremble. But Jesus comes down and steps “in-between” us and our judgment that awaits. David was remarkable for risking his life, but it would have been a very different story had Goliath just impaled David with his spear in the middle of his speech. David risked his life, but Jesus was impaled. Crude nails were driven through his flesh. It looked like Satan won. 


                  And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. (Col 2:13-15).

                  1. The Lord Looks on the Heart (1 Sam 16)

                    Sermon Audio: The Lord Looks on the Heart (1 Sam 16)


                    Sermon Discussion Questions:

                    1. What was the connection between Hannah's song (1 Sam 2:1-10) and this chapter (1 Sam 16)?
                    2. Read Luke 16:15. What comes to your mind when you think of "what is exalted among men"? Why do you think God "abominates" those things?
                    3. What weakness in your life do you most often fantasize disappearing? What "strength" do you tend to be envious of? What does it look like for you to embrace 2 Cor 12:9-10?
                    4. Read 1 Sam 16:7. In what ways could this verse serve as a great comfort to God's people? In what ways could it serve as a warning to others?
                    5. How was worldly power demonstrated as actually being weakness in this chapter?


                    Imagine your life like a marathon (2 Tim 4:7). You know that what lies ahead of you will be difficult, but worth it, so you prepare. As a Christian, you could allegorize all sorts of images here. Perhaps proper breathing is your prayer life, and good running shoes are your feet shod with the readiness of the gospel (Eph 6:15), and the map you follow is your Bible reading, and so one and so forth. But as you are stretching, King Jesus walks down to you and asks you if you would like His grace to sustain you and His power to be fully given to you throughout the race. Of course! We would all say. So, He reaches down and places in the bottom of our shoe a long, sharp thorn.


                    What? Why would Jesus do that? That was the apostle Paul’s question. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul is explaining the remarkable revelations that God has given him, but then explains: “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me,” (2 Cor 12:7-8). Paul pleads with God because, well, thorns hurt! Thorns distract you. Thorns slow you down. Thorns keep you from running as quickly and as effectively, right? But the Lord’s response to Paul’s request was: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong,” (2 Cor 12:9-10).


                    What on earth does that mean? Strength the absence of weakness; power is the overcoming of weakness. But in Christ, our lack, our limits, our inexperience, our chronic suffering and pain, our depressions, our ignorance, our humiliation—all of it is the channel through which we access the deepest pools of God’s grace and power. We see this vividly portrayed in our text today.


                    Turn with me to 1 Samuel 16: 


                    The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” 2 And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” And the LORD said, “Take a heifer with you and say, I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’ 3 And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.” 4 Samuel did what the LORD commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, “Do you come peaceably?” 5 And he said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.


                    6 When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD'S anointed is before him.” 7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” 8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the LORD chosen this one.” 9 Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the LORD chosen this one.” 10 And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The LORD has not chosen these.” 11 Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.” 12 And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the LORD said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.” 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.


                    14 Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the LORD tormented him. 15 And Saul's servants said to him, “Behold now, a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you. 16 Let our lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the lyre, and when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will be well.” 17 So Saul said to his servants, “Provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me.” 18 One of the young men answered, “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the LORD is with him.” 19 Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me David your son, who is with the sheep.” 20 And Jesse took a donkey laden with bread and a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them by David his son to Saul. 21 And David came to Saul and entered his service. And Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor-bearer. 22 And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, “Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight.” 23 And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.

                    -       1 Samuel 16:1-23


                    The Appearance of Power


                    The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons. (1 Sam 16:1)


                    So Samuel arrives in Bethlehem under the pretense of offering a sacrifice and invites Jesse’s family to join him for the sacrificial meal to be enjoyed afterwards. And as the sons line up to receive the blessing from the prophet, we are told: “When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD'S anointed is before him,” (1 Sam 16:6). Eliab was not only the firstborn (the most obvious choice for a leader) but obviously impressive looking. As soon as Samuel sees Eliab he thinks he has found the next king. Verse 7 specifies that Eliab was tall, and we are reminded that Saul was similarly described as being exceptionally tall (1 Sam 9:2; 10:23-24). Samuel is looking for a Saul-replacement and Eliab seems to fit the bill well.


                    But the Lord immediately speaks to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart,” (1 Sam 16:7). Sight is a crucial theme in this entire chapter. Back in vs. 1 (when God told Samuel that He had “provided” a king for Himself) the word for “provided” in Hebrew literally is “I have seen” (ra’ah)—much like we would say in English, “See to it.” The king that God provides is the king that He sees, how He sees. When Eliab steps forward we are told that Samuel looked (ra’ah) at Eliab and thought his physical appearance qualified him as king. But God says “Do not look at his appearance.” The word for “appearance” actually comes from the same word for “look”—so God tells Samuel, “Do not look at what can be looked at, do not see what your eye alone can see. You must see like I see.” So, he tells Samuel to not look at two things: his appearance and his height. Which is sort of redundant, isn’t it? Height is, of course, a part of a person’s appearance.


                    Well, like I said earlier, Samuel was probably assuming that the next king to replace Saul should at least resemble Saul. Maybe the last CEO with the Ivy League credentials has been fired, but it makes sense to look for another candidate who is at least similarly qualified and credentialed, right? When Saul is first put forward as king we were told, “Then they ran and took him from there. And when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward. And Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see him whom the LORD has chosen? There is none like him among all the people.” And all the people shouted, “Long live the king!” (1 Sam 10:23-24). Remember, that a king was primarily a military fixture, so being a formidable physical presence on the battlefield made a lot of practical sense. So why does God tell Samuel to disregard height? On the one hand, God is saying: I don’t need someone who fits the typical credentials, I don’t need strength, I am interested in something else. God is not so weak that He needs your strength.


                    The word for “height” and “tall” has a double-meaning. It can also mean “proud.” Back at the very beginning of Samuel’s book, Hannah’s song warned us all, “Talk no more so very proudly,” (1 Sam 2:3). “Proudly” and “tall” are the same word (g’boah), and here the word is doubled for emphasis—talk no more “proud, proud” or “tall, tall.” To be “proud” to “walk tall” means you have what the world defines as strength, and are proud of it—you are attractive, intelligent, wealthy, successful. But God says: watch out, it is not by might that man shall prevail.


                    While you are here in church, it might seem attractive or nice to think about the idea of God choosing the weak. But by the time you leave the church parking lot, the rush of traffic, the clamor of hungry children, the anxiety of all the work that needs to be done on Monday, all of it begins to whisper to you: In the ‘real world’ weakness is a curse. It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, so don’t be a chump and let other people walk all over you. Or, to put it another way, we might claim to believe the first beatitude, “Blessed are the weak,” (Matt 5:3), until our weakness is actually exposed. But theoretical weakness is not real weakness. Weakness hurts. Weakness is frustrating. Weakness is exhausting. And when we find out that others think we are unqualified, unattractive, or undeserving? At that moment, we don’t think weakness is actually a blessing anymore, but a curse. Why? We assume that it is by might that man prevails. So we need to be as mighty, and good looking, and competent, and qualified, and prepared as possible so that we can prevail, so that we can live “the good life.” 


                    And that’s exactly what Saul was. Saul was a king of the people, and so he reflected what they valued. He was physically formidable, a natural leader, a savvy military commander, concerned for the needs of the people, and appeared to be religiously motivated. He even possessed a modicum of modesty (1 Sam 9:21). And yet his literal height was a portent into the pride of his heart, and so a portent into the people of Israel themselves. They were looking “as man sees.” 


                    The Power of Weakness


                    “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart,” (1 Sam 16:7). If God rejects those who tower over others in their human success, who appear to have it all, then who does God look to? What does God look at? We are told, “the Lord looks on the heart.” God can peer through all the vestiges of success and power, all the accolades and skills, all the mistakes, all the failures, all the things that make us cringe most, into what lies beneath, down to who we really are. Hebrews reminds us, “And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account,” (Heb 4:13). God has never been fooled or misled. He sees you.


                    And God has been looking for one to replace Saul. Back in 1 Samuel 13 Saul was warned that, “The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart,” (1 Sam 13:14). This is what God is looking for.


                    So, the carousel of Jesse’s sons pass before him, all seven of them. And the seven-fold totality of what Jesse has to offer—the kind of sons he thinks are qualified—is summarily rejected by God (1 Sam 16:8-10). Samuel is confused. “Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here,” (1 Sam 16:11). There is an eighth son, the ”youngest,” or “littlest/smallest.” The son who Jesse assumed was so small and insignificant that he wasn’t even considered as an option, the 8thstring quarterback, is out tending sheep—a job that Eugene Peterson compares to sacking groceries at the local food mart or babysitting the neighbor’s kids. Doing a nothing job, overlooked, and ignored.


                    “And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the LORD said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he,” (1 Sam 16:12). Ironically, the one who is literally overlooked by his father, is the one that God looks to. David’s physical description seems odd, given that Samuel was just told not to look at outward appearances. Of course, his good looks do not qualify him to be a king, since Samuel doesn’t provide the same evaluation of David as he did of Eliab. David just happens to be a good-looking young man. But, the phrase “beautiful eyes” literally means, “beautiful to see (ra’ah).” Given the importance of the theme of “seeing” in this chapter, the description could also be cluing us in that in God’s vision of the heart, he sees David, and what he sees is lovely: here is a man after my own heart.


                    “Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah,” (1 Sam 16:13). In the midst of his brothers, the seven-fold presentation of what Jesse assumed would catch the prophet’s eye, the runt of the litter is chosen and anointed as king. David is the exact opposite of Eliab; he is the lastborn, and he is the littlest. If tallness is associated with pride, then does not being “little” ironically make you great in God’s eyes? What led David to be discredited by his father and brothers, is precisely what qualifies him in God’s eyes. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.


                    This is just the fulfillment of what Hannah’s son was all about: God takes the exalted and brings them down low, and takes the low and exalts them:


                    The bows of the mighty are broken,

                    but the feeble bind on strength.

                    5 Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,

                    but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger.

                    The barren has borne seven,

                    but she who has many children is forlorn.

                    -       1 Sam 2:4-5


                    Hannah’s song is a song of reversals. Those who are on top, the mighty, the full, the plentiful, will be brought low. And those who have been stepped on and forgotten will be exalted. How does this happen? In what kingdom do weak people rule, poor people cease to hunger, and barren women rejoice? In God’s kingdom. God wants to show His strength amidst your weakness; His fullness amidst your hunger; His life amidst your barrenness. You lack underlines just how much He has. So far from disqualifying you from being “on top” in His kingdom, you are blessed—He does the work.


                    9 “He will guard the feet of his faithful ones,

                    but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness,

                    for not by might shall a man prevail.

                    -       1 Sam 2:9


                    I wonder if you feel overlooked by others. I wonder if you look with a deep, deep jealousy at those who seem to have it all and think if only…


                    Here is what Jesus says to those who have it all: “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God,” (Luke 16:15)


                    The Weakness of Power


                    “Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the LORD tormented him,” (1 Sam 16:14). This is a sharp contrast with what we were just told back in vs. 13 of David, “And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward,” (1 Sam 16:13). But we must remember that this isn’t referring to Saul losing his salvation, but instead losing the equipping empowerment of his kingship. God has rejected Saul as king, and so He has pulled the power plug from His monarchy, and instead given it to David. The experience of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament was qualitatively different than those in the New Testament; in the NT individuals receive the new covenant experience of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as a gift and sign of their salvation. In the Old Testament, the Spirit had a much more limited role. 


                    And God permits a demonic spirit to torment and assault Saul so that he is periodically drawn into bouts of extreme depression, irrational anxiety, and insane jealousy. The attendants around Saul recognize what is happening and suggest that Saul find himself a skilled musician who can soothe his troubled soul. “So Saul said to his servants, “Provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me.” 18 One of the young men answered, “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the LORD is with him,” (1 Sam 16:17-18). And David comes and plays for Saul, and Saul finds relief in the music of David (1 Sam 16:23), so Saul sends to Jesse and says, “Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight,” (1 Sam 16:22). Two points of irony here that underline the weakness of Saul’s power:


                    1.     Saul, the mighty, powerful, tall king of Israel, is utterly powerless. He is helpless and must be delivered by the small, overlooked David.

                    2.     Back in vs. 1 where God said that He has “provided” for Himself a king, literally He has “seen” a king—and that king that Yahweh sees is David. Saul here uses the exact same phrase in vs. 17 when he says, “Provide for me a man…” (lit. “see to it”). And Saul’s servant responds by saying, “I have seen a son of Jesse.” And then Saul explains to Jesse that David has found favor in his “sight.” It’s a delicious kind of literary irony that the author has woven into the story: Saul, like Eliab, had the appearance of a king—when you looked at him, you saw power. David, by worldly standards, is overlooked. But in God’s vision, people like Saul are dismissed, and little David’s are seen. But Saul has now become spiritually blind like old Eli; though he continues to see David, he cannot see that he has just welcomed his own successor into his very court. Even the lengthy description Saul’s servant provides, which sounds like a list of qualifications for a king (a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and [especially] the LORD is with him) doesn’t register in Saul’s mind. Why? Because Saul only sees as man sees. It isn’t until much later when David begins winning military victories that Saul sees him as a threat.


                    God brings low the exalted, and exalts the weak. God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. This is just who He is. Many centuries later, another descendant of Jesse, born in the little town of Bethlehem, will be anointed, will be the anointed one. But, like David, He will be overlooked, dismissed, and even rejected by those who only see as man sees. One who, “had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not,” (Isa 53:2-3). And this son of David, Jesus Christ, whose heart was after God’s own heart, will triumph, but not through strength, but weakness. Weakness to the point of death, even death on a cross. Your sins have distanced you from God and have earned God’s wrath. None of us measure up to God’s Law. But Jesus has come down to the weak, wounded, and weary sinners like us, and in the most supreme display of infinite strength, died on our behalf, suffered the punishment that our sins deserved, so that we could be reconciled with God. 


                    For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord,” (1 Cor 1:26-31)


                    Do you chafe under your weakness? Have you ever considered that the weakness that comes into your life is a sign of God’s love and mercy, not the opposite?


                    Guide me, O my great Redeemer,

                    pilgrim through this barren land;

                    I am weak, but you are mighty;

                    hold me with your powerful hand

                    1. To Obey Is Better (1 Samuel 15)

                      Sermon Audio: To Obey Is Better (1 Samuel 15)


                      Sermon Discussion Questions:

                      1. What about Saul in this chapter do you find relatable?
                      2. Why did Saul modify God's command? What did he fear?
                      3. "To modify God's Word is to reject God's Word." Is there any command of God's Word that you find tempting to modify?
                      4. How can we keep ourselves from being deceived by sin? (read Hebrews 3:13)
                      5. What about Saul's confession (1 Sam 15:24-25, 30) reveals that he is not truly repentant? Compare Saul's sin with David's sin with Bathsheba (2 Sam 11)--which sin seems worse? Now compare Saul's confession with David's in 2 Samuel 12:13. What is different between them?
                      6. We are all sinners. So what are our two options when we sin? (see 1 John 1:8-10)
                      7. How would you explain the "regret of God" in this chapter? (see 1 Sam 15:11, 29, 35)


                      You may be an ambassador to England or France

                      You may like to gamble, you might like to dance

                      You may be the heavyweight champion of the world

                      You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls


                      But you’re gonna have to serve somebody…it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody. 


                      Bob Dylan here touches on the universal reality that—whatever your station in life—you are a slave to something. Servanthood isn’t reserved for the poor and destitute, but for the wealthy, the successful, the powerful as well. We all look at something, it could be our reputation, our ego, our comfort, and say: I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you. A decade later, Bruce Springsteen told us the same truth when he sang that “everybody’s got a hungry heart.” There is something in us that craves, that needs, that says: there is something wrong and you need to figure out how to fix it.


                      10 The word of the LORD came to Samuel: 11 “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the LORD all night. 12 And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal.” 13 And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed be you to the LORD. I have performed the commandment of the LORD.” 14 And Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?” 15 Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the LORD your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.” 16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! I will tell you what the LORD said to me this night.” And he said to him, “Speak.”

                      17 And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. 18 And the LORD sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the LORD?” 20 And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the LORD. I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. 21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.” 22 And Samuel said,

                      “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,

                      as in obeying the voice of the LORD?

                      Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,

                      and to listen than the fat of rams.

                      23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination,

                      and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.

                      Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,

                      he has also rejected you from being king.”

                      24 Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. 25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the LORD.” 26 And Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel.” 27 As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe, and it tore. 28 And Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you. 29 And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.” 30 Then he said, “I have sinned; yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may bow before the LORD your God.” 31 So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul bowed before the LORD.

                      32 Then Samuel said, “Bring here to me Agag the king of the Amalekites.” And Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” 33 And Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.

                      34 Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. 35 And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the LORD regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.

                      -       1 Sam 15:10-35


                      One of the major themes in this chapter is listening. The word for “obey” in Hebrew is the same word as “hear.” In verse 1 Saul was told, “The LORD sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore listen to the words of the LORD,” (1 Sam 15:1). Saul had been installed as king, from one angle, by God for the purpose of delivering Israel from the nations who had been oppressing them (1 Sam 9:16). But from another angle, Saul became the king because of the people refused to listen to the voice of God through Samuel (1 Sam 8:19) and then Samuel is told by God, “Obey their voice and make them a king,” (1 Sam 8:22). It was popular demand that installed Saul into his position and popular demand that controls Saul’s position. But fame and popularity are fickle things. And everybody’s gotta serve somebody, even the king of Israel. If your status rests on keeping the people happy, even if you are in a position of prominence, you are a slave to the likes and follows and compliments of the crowd. 


                      The two outward sins that leads Saul to lose his kingship are the failure to destroy all the livestock and king Agag. In the text, we are explicitly told that (according to Saul) that it was the demands of the people that led to the sparing of the best of the livestock. But why does Saul keep Agag alive? The text doesn’t tell us, so we can’t be sure, but perhaps Saul was following the common practice of parading conquered kings around as a demonstration of his own power. We are told about a monument Saul erects for himself in vs. 12, so he obviously is interested in displaying his military prowess. And for these sins, Saul is rejected by God. If we read of Saul’s demise here with a shallow eye, we may be surprised at the severity of God’s judgment, puzzled even. But the transgression of Saul in this chapter is just the tip of an iceberg of something much more sinister that runs far, far deeper in him.


                      Sin Grieves


                      Perhaps you noticed right away the strange notion that God “regrets” that He has made Saul king, mentioned at the very beginning and very end of the story (15:11, 35). But, nestled in-between those two we are told that “the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret,” (15:29). How are we to make sense of that? In verse 29 Samuel is responding to Saul’s request for his sin to be pardoned, but Samuel makes it clear that God’s word of judgment has fallen—he has rejected Saul as being king, so He will not go back on His word; He isn’t a man, so He doesn’t lie, which means when God says He will do something He won’t change His mind (cf. Num 23:19). Samuel makes it clear that when we are told that God “regrets” Saul becoming king it isn’t the regret of God saying, “Oops, I wish I wouldn’t have done that. If only I had known better.” 


                      So what is it then? The “regret” of God here is an anthropomorphism that demonstrates the emotional pain God experiences in Saul’s disobedience. It is similar to what we are told in Genesis 6:6 just before the flood, “And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.” 

                      This touches the reality that our sin grieves God. Perhaps we think of Paul’s warning, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption,” (Eph 4:30). God is not indifferent to sin. You and I can grow callous to sin, but that is because we are sinners ourselves. There is no sin in God, so His heart is infinitely more sensitive to the wretchedness of sin than we are. 


                      Sin Deceives


                      One of the most common characteristics of sin is that it is ‘deceitful.’ Sin always lies. It lies to you about what you are missing out on, what it offers, and what it costs. When God warned Cain of sin He told him that it is “crouching at the door” for him (Gen 4:7)—sin always presents itself smaller than it really is. This story is a perfect display of what the deceptiveness of sin looks like.

                      After Samuel is told of Saul’s sin by God, he goes to confront Saul: “And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed be you to the LORD. I have performed the commandment of the LORD.” (1 Sam 15:13) This is literally the exact opposite of reality. God told Samuel that Saul, “has not performed my commandments,” (1 Sam 15:11). Yet, through twisted logic, Saul has convinced himself that he has indeed done what God said. And while it is tortured logic that leads to Saul’s confidence, if we are honest, it is also familiar. Who of us haven’t been in a position where we have been caught or confronted and been embarrassed and ashamed and tried to grab some fig leaves to hide behind?


                      14 And Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?” 15 Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the LORD your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction,” (1 Sam 15:14-15).


                      Though Saul listened to the command, he did not hear. And, ironically, Samuel hears the evidence of Saul’s disobedience: the bleating of sheep and the excuses of Saul. Notice: when explaining the undeniable and indefensible, Saul pushes responsibility out (They have brought…the people spared), but when explaining the aspects of the situation that perfectly line up with obedience to God’s command, Saul includes himself (the rest we have devoted to destruction). Saul is really good at spinning a story. He sees Samuel coming, so he greets him with an official blessing and boldly proclaims his total obedience to God’s command. Of course, he can’t hide the droves of bleating sheep and lowing oxen behind him, but perhaps if he confidently asserts his obedience, it will throw the grumpy prophet off kilter. Why do I have all these sheep and oxen from the Amalekites when God told me to devote them to destruction? Well, you know how the people are, they just hated the idea of wasting perfectly good sheep that they could offer to Yahweh in worship (they’re heart is in the right place, after all) and who am I to get in-between them and sacrificing to the Lord? But don’t worry, I remember what you said, I personally made sure that everything else was totally destroyed.


                      But Samuel is not fooled and yells at Saul to just stop (1 Sam 15:16) and asks Saul:


                      “Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the LORD?” (1 Sam 15:19) Samuel isn’t buying Saul’s version of the story. He doesn’t think that they have spared the sheep and oxen for altruistic purposes nor does he think Saul is innocent in the matter—“Why did you pounce on the spoil?” But Saul only doubles down:


                      “And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the LORD. I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal,” (1 Sam 15:20-21). With a clever use of verbal jiu-jitsu, Saul makes a stack of proclamations of what he has done in obedience, but slides in part of his disobedience in there and treats it like obedience: I have brought Agag the king of Amalek. Saul speaks as if this is what he was supposed to do, but that wasn’t what he was supposed to do—he was supposed to execute Agag. But he hopes the train of his rhetoric will smooth that out, and finishes by (again) pinning the blame on the people. Saul sounds just like Adam in the garden: it’s the woman you gave me, she gave me the fruit, it’s her fault—really its your fault God, since you gave her to me (Gen 3:12). Honestly, he sounds like us. When our sin is confronted, how easy is it to qualify and excuse and defend why what we did wasn’t actually wrong, why the rules don’t necessarily apply to us here. Especially if you see a good reason to deviate from God’s commands some. Saul thought he could flex God’s commands a bit because he found a holy, religious justification for it: we’ll make it a sacrifice! But Samuel reminds us:


                      And Samuel said,

                      “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,

                      as in obeying the voice of the LORD?

                      Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,

                      and to listen than the fat of rams. (1 Sam 15:22)


                      God is not pleased with sacrifices, offerings, good deeds, donations, or anything that comes at the expense of simple obedience to His commands. It may feel tempting to modify God’s commands to something that makes more sense, is less uncomfortable or challenging, but Saul’s story is a sobering reminder that to modify God’s word is to reject God’s word. Is there any command that God has given that you have felt like you don’t technically need to follow? Is there forgiveness you have been withholding? Lust you have been indulging? Honesty you have hidden? Do you feel like directly obeying the plain force of God’s Word feels unbelievably overwhelming? 


                      How do we prevent ourselves from being deceived? “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin,” (Heb 3:13). We need one another. The Christian isolated from others is in mortal danger.


                      Sin Bereaves


                      Sin will cost you more than you can imagine. The sin that seemed so justifiable in the dark of Saul’s mind and in the company of the crowds, now, in the daylight of God’s Word, seems like a monster devouring everything dear to Saul. His kingdom and rule are now, in God’s eyes, over. Sin promises you everything (you’ll be like God!) and takes everything. We see the cost of sin played out in God’s rejection of Saul (1 Sam 15:23) and Agag’s execution (1 Sam 15:33). Both are the proportionate judgment for their sin by God: Saul has rejected God’s word, so God rejects Saul as king; Agag’s sword made women childless, so shall his mother now be childless by the sword. What you reap is what you sow.


                      The judgment from Samuel gets Saul’s attention. Twice he admits his fault and pleads with Samuel:

                      24 Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. 25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the LORD.” (1 Samuel 15:24-25)

                      30 Then he said, “I have sinned; yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may bow before the LORD your God.” (1 Sam 15:30)


                      We may wonder, why didn’t God accept Saul’s apology? He admitted his sin, yet his request is denied by Samuel (1 Sam 15:26). Isn’t God forgiving and merciful? Isn’t He slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love? Yes, of course He is. But just because someone says, “I’m sorry,” doesn’t mean they are actually sorry. Paul warns of the difference between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow, true repentance and fake repentance. If we look at Saul’s two confessions, we can discern that there isn’t much genuine repentance here.

                      -       First, in vs. 24 Saul admits that he “feared the people and obeyed their voice.” That is exactly right and fits with the entire character arc of Saul in the book. He is a slave to the opinion of everyone else. But notice his request for Saul to “return with” him indicates that he is still in the same bondage. The second request he doesn’t even mention anything about a request for pardon, but just says, “honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel.” Samuel has already once publicly opposed Saul (1 Sam 13), and Saul knows his political career cannot sustain another blow from the head of the Church.

                      -       Notice the pronouns in vs. 30: “honor me before…my people…that I may bow before the Lord your God.” Who is Saul’s god? The people, not Yahweh.


                      Honoring God with your lips while your heart is far from Him doesn’t please the Lord. God sees what Saul loves, what Saul serves, what his heart hungers for—and it isn’t Him. In fact, this chapter artfully draws us to compare Saul and Agag. I was speaking with another pastor this week about why Saul spares Agag, and he suggested that perhaps Saul spares Agag because he sees something of himself in him and couldn’t bring himself to issue out what justice requires, knowing that he himself deserves something similar. Notice how the author compares the two:

                      1.     Both are kings

                      2.     Both are associated with armies

                      3.     Both are rejected by the Lord

                      4.     Both approach Samuel cheerfully (1 Sam 15:13; 15:32)

                      5.     Both have their sins specifically named (1 Sam 15:9; 15:33)

                      6.     Both are cut to pieces by the Lord: Saul’s kingdom is “torn” to pieces, Agag himself is “hacked to pieces before the LORD” (1 Sam 15:27-28; 15:33)


                      Samuel’s execution of Agag would have served a powerful object lesson for Saul: this is what your sin leads to. While that may seem prophetically dramatic and over the top, don’t miss the lesson for ourselves: sin will cost you. 


                      We all are sinners, here. Eradicating sin out of our life entirely simply isn’t an option. So what do we do when we sin? How do we keep ourselves from offering phony confessions that God rejects? Look at 1 John:


                      If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:6-10)


                      What must we do? We must be honest about our sin. If we are honest, what happens? We have fellowship with one another and we receive the forgiveness of sins that Jesus’ shed blood has secured for us. If we deny our sin, we are deceived and we call God a liar. What foolishness!


                      When we sin we have two options: 

                      1.     We stand with our sin and defend it against God

                      2.     We stand with God against our sin