1 Samuel 18 - 20

1 Samuel — Steve Gregg

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1 Samuel 18 - 20

1 SamuelSteve Gregg

In this passage from 1 Samuel 18-20, Steve Gregg discusses the relationship between Saul, Jonathan, and David. He explains how Saul became increasingly threatened by David's popularity and success, leading to attempts on David's life. Gregg also highlights the strong bond between Jonathan and David, and how Jonathan risked his own life to warn David of his father's plan to kill him. Through this passage, Gregg presents a complex and nuanced portrayal of the relationships between these key biblical figures.

Transcript

We come now to the 18th chapter of 1 Samuel. We were introduced to David in chapter 16, two chapters earlier, and there he was anointed by Samuel in a private ceremony and became the anointed king of Israel. The Spirit came upon him, the Spirit departed from Saul, and an evil spirit came upon Saul to replace that Spirit of God that had been on him before.

The presence of the evil spirit caused Saul to have his fits and spells where he did irrational and violent things, and where he became obviously very paranoid. And in order to manage that situation, a musician was sought, and by the strangest coincidence, the musician that was brought in was the guy who had been anointed to be his replacement. And you do begin to find in the Bible stories amazing coincidences.

I mean there's nothing like the story of Esther, for example, to illustrate how coincidental things seem to be, but obviously how providential they really are, that God is really governing events. Though they would seem like the most remarkable coincidences that here in the whole kingdom the only man who was brought in to play music for Saul was the guy who secretly had been anointed to be the next king. Then of course we have the story of David and Goliath and how David killed the giant and became a hero in Israel.

So we find that David and Saul should have been great partners. David should have been Saul's hero because Saul was the king and David was the loyal warrior who delivered the nation. But as we find out, Saul became jealous of David and this led to just the opposite kind of relationship between them as should have been.

In chapter 18 it says, it was so when he had finished speaking to Saul that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Now we usually picture Jonathan and David kind of as peers. Jonathan of course was the crown prince.

Only he and his father the king had swords. He was obviously the next in line for the throne and he had as much reason as Saul had to be jealous of David especially as David became more and more popular and it became clear that David might be a rival to the throne. Jonathan really had more to lose than Saul did because David had no intention of overthrowing Saul but when Saul died David might well get the throne instead of Jonathan who would be expected to have it.

But Jonathan was not like his father. For one thing he didn't have an evil spirit. Another thing is he was a better man and he actually did not see David as a threat.

He did see that David was no doubt going to be the next king and that is indicated by Jonathan's behavior toward him here in verse 2. Saul took him that day and would not let him go home to his father's house anymore. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul and Jonathan took off the robe that was on him and gave it to David and his armor even to his sword and his bow and his belt. So Jonathan disarmed himself from all the regal privileges and a society that didn't have any arms because the Philistines wouldn't let anyone have weapons.

Only Saul and Jonathan had weapons we're told and armor and Jonathan takes his armor off and his sword and he gives it over to David like you know you're you're next in command here to my father. And later on Jonathan said it in no uncertain terms I know that you will rule. He said to David I know you'll be the next ruler of Israel and I'll stand by you then.

Now Jonathan was quite a bit older than David a generation older and we know that because Jonathan was leading troops leading a thousand men very early in Saul's reign apparently and Saul reigned for 40 years and David was only 30 when Saul died after 40 years reign so at the time that Jonathan was you know conducting warfare and leading troops it could well have been before David was born because David would have been born ten years into Saul's reign and Jonathan was apparently already leading armies before that so Jonathan was probably 20 and and more years older than David and yet may have seen him you know as sort of a almost like a son you know when people see Jonathan and David as close friends it's a it's almost an intergenerational friendship of sorts and Saul was old enough to be David's grandfather because he was Jonathan's father Jonathan was old enough to be David's father. Anyway that's not how we usually picture it probably. Here's a Jonathan giving him all of his special apparel and trappings that were his privilege as the prince and turning them over to David.

Now Jonathan was a great warrior and had used his weapons to great effect had driven off Philistines and so forth but he apparently felt like David was a better warrior and those weapons would be better served by being in David's hands than in his so he's very humble in the presence of David obviously and David went out wherever Saul sent him and behaved wisely and Saul sent him over the men of war and he was accepted in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants so everyone loved David too much almost for Saul's tastes. Now it had happened as they were coming home when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistine apparently a reference to when he killed Goliath that the women had come out of all the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines with joy and with musical instruments so the women sang as they danced and said Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands well they really were intending to praise both Saul and David but it didn't sound like a favorable comparison to Saul to his ears and Saul was very angry and the saying displeased him and he said they've ascribed to David ten thousands and to me they've ascribed only thousands now what more can he have but the kingdom well he was gonna have the kingdom as a matter of fact but David wasn't striving to get it David never was anything other than loyal to Saul David might not have even understood that his anointing was as a king as I said when we read chapter 16 there had not been you know a well established precedent for anointing kings with oil only Saul the first king had been anointed and that privately before when no one was watching so when David was anointed he might not have associated with Oh kings get anointed you know that's priests did and it's possible that prophets did and since Samuel kind of oversaw these companies of prophets it seems to be more likely that David would have interpreted the act as being inducted into the into the class of prophets rather than of the king though there may have been said more on that occasion than is recorded and David may well have known that he was gonna be the king if so he did not have any ambitions of making that come about on his own as time went by it may become more clear to him that he was going to be the king although sometimes he probably wondered if he'd live long enough because he was hunted for much of that time and it says so Saul eyed David from that day forward obviously eyed is a verb that means something very negative he was suspicious of him he watched him with suspicion and dislike because he thought David might be perhaps going to get the kingdom from him which of course did happen but David was not the least bit interested in that at this point it would appear and it happened on the next day that the distressing or evil spirit from God came upon Saul and he prophesied inside the house when when this evil spirit came on he prophesied just as when the Holy Spirit came on people they prophesied but prophesying apparently is a more generic term than we normally think of it as speaking under the influence of a spirit is apparently prophesying so there are prophets of Baal who spoke under the influence of evil spirits too and they were called prophets and they prophesied even when they gave false prophecies they were prophesying because they're speaking under the influence of a spirit other than themselves and the true prophets also they spoke under the influence of the Holy Spirit so they prophesied apparently prophesying just in the scripture has the generic idea of people speaking under the influence of a spirit other than their own so that it's even the case in this instance where he's speaking with an evil spirit now what what the content of his speech may have been we cannot we can't say he might have been raving he might have been saying crazy things we don't know what he was saying but they didn't you know associate it with the Holy Spirit they could identify that as the working of an evil spirit you know sometimes I've been around people who probably have evil spirits and they are saying crazy things I think well they wouldn't say that out of their own mind I mean that almost sounds like the this evil spirit speaking through them and they sound crazy and maybe that's what prophesying through an evil spirit was just you know ranting saying you know crazy things just under the influence of another spirit than oneself it's hard to say because we are often told about people prophesying without telling the content there was also an instance that we shall see later on and there was one earlier and there will be another one when the Holy Spirit came on Saul and he prophesied but we're not told what he said but he prophesied all day long so I mean like what was he saying all day long we have no idea nor do we have any idea what he was saying when he's prophesying by the evil spirit here so David played music with his hand as at other times but there was a spear in Saul's hand and Saul cast the spear for he said I will pin David to the wall with it but David escaped his presence twice this happened now that must seem strange to David because to David he was just a military hero serving under Saul he was Israel's best asset why would the king want to kill him David didn't have any sense of rivalry towards Saul and so he probably didn't understand that Saul was jealous of him must have seemed very strange but he may have attributed simply to the evil spirit was just making him crazy and he was doing irrational things that evil spirit came upon him we saw the day after Saul began to I David with suspicion and as I think I mentioned in an earlier class Paul joins two things together in Ephesians chapter 4 where he says don't let the Sun go down on your wrath neither give place to the devil like Saul began to be angry at David he let the Sun go down his wrath the next day he had in fact given place to the devil or to an evil spirit that tormented him for the rest of his life off and on that statement by the way is Ephesians 4 verses 26 and 27 so Saul begins to act violently and crazy and paranoid and David escaped twice from these javelins coming his way now Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him but he had departed from Saul so I could tell that God was no longer on his side you know a man when he gets that point he should probably just retire you know when you're in a position of leading God's people you're in the ministry that was given to you by the Holy Spirit and now you realize the Holy Spirit's gone from me maybe they should just step down you know instead he wanted to hold his position I wonder sometimes if there are ministers like that you know they started their ministry when they were faithful to God and full of the Spirit and so forth but they've in their life they've drifted backslidden or whatever and the Spirit is no longer with them they're not anointed anymore that they're the God's not using them anymore and they might even know that but they you know they don't have anything else to do for a living they just keep their job as the leader of the church and the church goes you know into deadness along with them and Israel certainly didn't benefit from having a king who was demon-possessed rather than Holy Spirit anointed and Saul realized this was true but he didn't ever abdicate you'd think he'd abdicate so you know I'm no longer qualified to be leader of God's people therefore Saul removed him from his presence and made him his captain over a thousand that is Saul apparently didn't let David play the harp for him anymore for a while and made him go out and fight battles actually hoping that he'd get killed in battle and he went out and came in before the people and David behaved wisely in all his ways and the Lord was with him therefore when Saul saw that he behaved very wisely he was afraid of him it says he behaved wisely I'm not sure what that means it must mean that in going out and coming in which means going to battle and coming back again that this may have had the idea of when he behaved wisely that he had he was shrewd he avoided although you know attacking the enemy he avoided getting hurt by being wise and shrewd and careful and so forth and so that Saul was more afraid because it was not easy to get rid of David he sent David on dangerous missions hoping he'd die but he didn't and all Israel and Judah loved David because he went out and came in before them then Saul said to David here is my older daughter Mirab I will give her to you as a wife only be valiant for me and fight the Lord's battles for Saul thought let my hand not be against him but let the hand of the Philistines be against him and so David said to Saul who am I and what is my life for my father's family in Israel that I should be a son-in-law to the king now you might remember that this had been promised to whoever would kill Goliath that he'd be able to marry the king's daughter and David had killed Goliath and for some reason he had not been awarded that and so I guess David maybe is getting older now or maybe he's showing his maturity more and he's not made any claim he almost feels like he's not qualified to be you know married to royalty he says my family we're nothing but should I be a king's son-in-law I can't marry you know royalty marries royalty they don't they don't marry peasants and David saw himself unqualified and for maybe that's why he hadn't married Mirab earlier maybe when he'd killed Goliath and had the right to he just thought I'm not no way you know that's not that's not a position I'm entitled to I just killed Goliath for God's sake I'm not here to you know make something of myself like king's son-in-law and now Saul tries some other way to give him Mirab and says well I've got some idea for you to let you be you earn it it says it happened at that time when Mirab Saul's daughter should have been given to David that she was given to Adriel the Maholothite as a wife now Michael Saul's daughter loved David another daughter younger daughter and they told Saul and the thing pleased him so Saul said I will give her to him that she may be a snare to him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him therefore Saul said to David a second time you shall be my son-in-law today and Saul commanded his servants communicate with David secretly and say look the king has delight in you and all his servants love you now therefore become the king's son-in-law apparently David needed to be convinced of this because as he mentioned he was thinking you can't be serious about wanting me a peasant from a low family to marry your daughter and so Saul tells the servants go out and kind of put it in put a bug in David's ear and let him know that the king really loves you and really wants you to be a son-in-law and change his mind about it so Saul's servants spoke those words in the hearing of David and David said does it seem to you a light thing to be a king's son-in-law seen I'm a poor and lightly esteemed man well he was not lightly esteemed all of Israel loved him everyone praised him for his exploits but he was still small in his own eyes that's what Saul had been remember Samuel said to Saul when in chapter 15 you know when you were little in your own eyes God made you the king over Israel but now you've rejected the Word of the Lord God always apparently was looking for someone who was small in their own eyes even if they were qualified and David was certainly qualified and a man of war and well loved but he still saw himself as poor and lightly esteemed and the servants of Saul told him saying in this manner servants of Saul told Saul saying in this manner David spoke then Saul said thus you shall say to David the king does not desire any dowry but 100 foreskins of the Philistines to take vengeance on the king's enemies but Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of Philistines he thought if David goes out against 100 men well they'll take him out well it's like Samson you know Samson took on a thousand men by himself David managed a hundred so when his servants told David these words it pleased David well to become the king's son-in-law thought well I don't have any money but I can get some foreskins so I know where to find some of those there was that hill of the foreskins that Joshua had left behind maybe maybe he could just gone getting a hundred from there but it sounds like a cheap dowry just kill a hundred men and circumcise them it'd be harder for me to circumcise them than just kill him yeah I'll tell you the truth but anyway David didn't see that as too bad it's easier than paying a financial dowry and so it says the days had not expired apparently there was a deadline for this therefore David arose and went in and his men and killed 200 men of the Philistines and David brought their foreskins and they gave them in full count to the king that he might become the king's son-in-law then Saul gave him Michael his daughter as a wife grudgingly apparently now who these unfortunate Philistines were we don't know but I mean we might be we might have compassion on them if not for the fact that they were people that were supposed to be exterminated along with the Canaanites these were wicked people and people that were under God's judgment so killing 200 of them was not even doing the full job that was supposed to be done getting rid of them all together was the plan but he he took out 200 of them not a hundred kind of overdid it what a romantic just think to be able to tell your wife you know your your father only wanted a hundred foreskins I went out and got 200 foreskins to buy to buy you from him that would be heartwarming I'm sure thus Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David and that Michael Saul's daughter loved him and Saul was still more afraid of David so this keeps being repeated you know Saul keeps seeing God is with David and Saul keeps becoming more afraid of David why not just quit so Saul became David's enemy continually then the princes of the Philistines went out to war and so it was whenever they went out that David behaved more wisely than all the servants of Saul so that his name became highly esteemed now this behave more wisely is really obviously kind of a vague reference to David's whole demeanor and his whole activity on the battlefield I guess we're to understand it to mean that David continually did accomplish more on the battlefield than everybody else did so he became more and more highly esteemed so it says remember David said of himself I am poor and lightly esteemed and yet we find him becoming very highly esteemed in Israel and chapter 19 says now Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants that they should kill David but Jonathan's all son delighted much in David so Jonathan told David saying my father Saul seeks to kill you therefore please be on your guard until morning and stay in a secret place and hide and I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are and I will speak with my father about you then what I observe I will tell you now Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him let not the king sin against his servant against David because he has not sinned against you and because his works have been very good towards you for he took his life in his hands and killed the Philistine and the Lord brought about a great salvation in all Israel you saw it and rejoiced why then will you sin against innocent blood and kill David without a cause so Saul and he did the voice of Jonathan because I guess the demon wasn't around at that moment and Saul swore as the Lord lives he shall not be killed and probably Saul was sincere at that moment he was an unstable man and he had good intentions some of the time and not at other times it's likely that Saul meant it on this occasion then Jonathan called David and Jonathan told him all these things so Jonathan brought David to Saul and he was in his presence as in times past and there was war again and David went out and fought with the Philistines and struck them with a mighty blow and they fled from him now the distressing or the evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand and David was playing music with his hand then Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear but he slipped away from Saul's presence and he drove the spear into the wall so David fled and escaped that night so that's the third time this has happened there twice earlier and then after Saul swore by Yahweh that David would not be killed he again made an attempt on his life now it's amazing that a society could put up with this kind of behavior from a king I mean can you imagine any modern society other than a tyranny somewhere I mean maybe something might think of some Arab country with its tyrant Kings but I mean in a civilized country where the chief of state you know the head the head of state was you know shooting at his his staff you know and and he just you know he just got to stay in power you know he missed him so you know yes it's not that bad he tried to kill him but he couldn't I mean attempted murder is kind of an important severe crime you know and have a head of state doing this kind of thing to innocent you know members of his cabinet or members of his staff it's just outrageous and yet no one ever thought of taking Saul out of power because that's what a king is King sort of has a sovereign he gets away with what he wants to do pretty much that's why it might not be any better to have a king than to have everyone do what's right in his own eyes you know and judges there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes but at least there wasn't some tyrant that couldn't be removed and that's what they got when they got a king as Samuel Samuel had warned them it wouldn't be good but this was more crazy than what probably had even been anticipated anyway in verse 11 Saul also sent messengers to David's house to watch him and to kill him in the morning and Michael David's wife told him saying if you do not save your life tonight tomorrow you'll be killed so she was in on the plot and she was of course sympathetic David she loved him so Michael let David down through a window and he went and fled and escaped and Michael took an image and laid it in the bed put a cover of goats hair for its head and covered it with clothes so when Saul's messengers Saul sent messengers to take David she said he is sick then Saul sent the messengers back to see David saying bring him up to me in his bed that I may kill him and when the messengers had come in there was the image in the bed and the cover of goats hair for his head then Saul said to Michael why have you deceived me like this and sent my enemy away so that he has escaped and Michael answered Saul he said to me let me go why should I kill you now she apparently knew that her father would possibly even kill her for treason there came a time when he threw a spirit his son Jonathan you know no one was safe in his household and so she had sided with David and even helped him escape by this ruse she probably would have been would have been put to death by Saul for this as you know he put to death all the priests because he thought they were treasonous so she had to lie and say well David threatened me now this whole incident of Saul trying to capture David in his room in his home was an occasion where David wrote a psalm I don't know if he wrote it while he was on the run or if he wrote it afterwards and reflected upon it but in Psalm 59 you'll find that there's a psalm title not all the Psalms but many of them have titles nobody knows who wrote the titles but they are as ancient as the Psalms are apparently and so they are generally considered to be true descriptions of the occasions when these songs were written and the psalm title at Psalm 59 says to the chief musician set to do not destroy which is apparently a well-known tune that there's a sing this song to the tune of do not destroy a mishtem of David when Saul sent men and they watched the house in order to kill him so this psalm was written by David on that occasion and it's a good time for us to read that psalm because it tells us of obviously what was going through David's head we read in the first Samuel what was going on in his circumstances but in the Psalms we read what was going on in his head and so at this time when he knew Saul was coming to kill him he either wrote this before he ran out the window or in all like they let went out the window first and wrote this hiding somewhere the night you know that he after he got to safety and his psalm says deliver me from my enemies oh my god defend me from those who rise up against me deliver me from the workers of iniquity and save me from bloodthirsty men no doubt Saul is the bloodthirsty man in particular he has in mind for look they lie and wait for my life the mighty gather against me not for my transgression or for my sin O Lord they run and prepare themselves through no fault of mine awake to help me and behold you therefore O Lord God of hosts the God of Israel awake to punish all the nations do not be merciful to any wicked transgressors at evening they return they growl like a dog and go all around the city indeed they belch out with their mouths swords are in their lips for they say who hears apparently he's maybe he even overheard some of these soldiers you know talking in the streets as he he had escaped through the window and they were kind of watching his house thinking he wasn't thinking he was still in there he might have overheard some of their cruel and evil plotting among themselves says but you O Lord shall laugh at them you shall have all the nations in derision O you his strength I wait for you for God is my defense my merciful God shall come to meet me God shall let me see my desire on my enemies do not slay them lest my people forget scatter them by your power and bring them down O Lord our shield for the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride and for the cursing and lying which they speak consume them in wrath consume them that they may not be and let them know that God rules in Jacob to the ends of the earth say la by the way the word say la occurs frequently as a almost a punctuation term in some of the Psalms no one is a hundred percent sure what it means but most scholars believe that it's a musical notation because the Psalms were to be sung it's sort of like when in written music sometimes they'll put a rest or a pause somewhere in there for the musicians to recognize there's and most people think it's a musical rest that say la means and if so it would be you know with the intention that you stop a moment and consider this you know what's been said meditate on it now this business about them coming back at evening that they that he said in verses six and seven he says it again I guess it's like maybe the chorus of the song at verse 14 and at evening they return they growl like a dog and go all around the city they wander up and down for food and howl as if they are not satisfied but I will sing of your power yes I will sing aloud of your mercy in the morning for you have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble to you oh my strength I will sing praises for God is my defense the God of my mercy so you can see that at a time where he must have been very perplexed at why his king to whom he had been completely loyal and for whose sake he'd been a real hero and put his life in his hands this king had no reason whatsoever that he could see to persecute him and it's not it's bad enough when somebody that you think is a friend turns on you for no obvious reason and especially if it's someone who's really beholden to you somebody that's really indebted to you as Saul was to David you think I've done all these things for this person I don't know of anything I've done wrong to them I certainly have never sinned against them and yet they hate me without a cause that's hard enough when the person who hates you isn't the most powerful man in the country you know if it's just your neighbor it's hard to handle that if it's your king if it's the government if the whole national military is on the lookout for you for no reason and you know they're gonna kill you if they catch you but you can't figure out what you've done wrong it's all the harder and yet David is very buoyant obviously in verses 16 and 17 of this psalm make it very clear I will sing of your power yes I will sing aloud of your mercy in the morning for you have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble now this psalm is like many other psalms in that it begins with David complaining about his trials and ends with him rejoicing in God in a sense the fact that God inspired so many prayers like this gives us sort of a model of how to pray in hard times the idea is that it's okay to raise your complaint to God and say here's what's going on here so I'm suffering I don't know why but by the time he's prayed through he's confident in God and that's what prayer probably should do for us God often puts us in hard situations and pressure situations to turn us to him and sometimes the burden is so great that it's it's intended to bring you down to your knees you know the burden is so heavy you can't stand under you takes you to your knees and you pray until that burden rolls off you know you pray as the old preachers you pray through you know David obviously prayed through here he was perplexed he was alarmed he was afraid and he prayed until he got the victory at the end he says God is my refuge I'll be singing in the morning you know God is my strength he'll defend me and he came to the place of faith of course even turning to God at times like that requires faith but the point is he came to a place where he had victory over the circumstances he was still in danger unless he wrote this afterward but what he basically says in verse 14 at evening their return they're like dogs prowling the streets in the evening but in the morning I'll sing your power which means they won't find me tonight I'll still be here in the morning to sing and celebrate my survival through the night so he's confident even though he's really got an army against him now it was hard enough when the armies that were against him were the Philistines when he could fight back they were the enemy he was a soldier in Israel if the whole armies of the Philistines came against him he could at least say at least I can fight him off but when it's your own countrymen and your own Kings forces and you're loyal you're not going to fight your own King and his armies then it's just a matter of staying out of reach David had the power probably eventually he probably could have fought off the armies of Israel with the with the men who joined him he had some mighty men with him and they could they could wipe out whole Philistine and Canaanite cities as we say they probably could have handled themselves well against the forces of Saul if they've been willing to but they were loyal Israelites they weren't willing to fight they just had to run they just had to hide and so that's what David began at this point to do although he actually didn't permanently run at this point he didn't he didn't leave the country yet he didn't leave the city yet he just was hiding somewhere as they were looking at searching his house for verse 18 of 1st Samuel 19 so David fled and escaped and went to Samuel at Ramah now Ramah of course the Samuels hometown and there was a section in the town called Neoth which was apparently the where the prophetic community lived the word Neoth means dwellings and it was a section within the town of Ramah where apparently Samuel and other prophets lived like a Christian community in the town a prophetic fellowship so he went to Samuel that was a good idea I mean Samuel's the one who kind of got him into this trouble by anointing him as king he was minding his own business before that you know got into trouble with when Samuel came in and anointed him and also he would need counsel from the Lord and Samuel's a good place to get it from and he told Samuel all that Saul had done to him and he and Samuel went and stayed in Neoth now it was told to Saul saying take note David is at Neoth in Ramah now what army would defend them there well we'll see then Saul sent messengers to take David this was not a singing telegram these messengers were armed men probably very strong armed men in large numbers since David was a formidable fighter himself Saul would know that anyone who could kill a giant or 200 Philistines could not easily be taken by someone bringing him a singing telegram saying the king requests your appearance here they he must have sent a large number of armed messengers to pick up David and when they saw the group of prophets prophesying and Samuel standing as leader over them the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul and they also prophesied which means they were overwhelmed by the Spirit of God and were not able to fulfill their mission it's like when the Pharisees sent soldiers out to arrest Jesus or not the chief priest did and they came back empty-handed in John chapter 7 the chief priest says why haven't you captured him and they said no one ever spoke like this man you know we just were mesmerized we couldn't we couldn't fulfill our mission we were overwhelmed by awe in this case they were overwhelmed by the Spirit of God coming upon them and they prophesied and they just obviously God protected David from these armed assailants and it says in verse 21 and when Saul was told he sent other messengers and they prophesied likewise so there was an impenetrable barrier of the Holy Spirit guarding Neoph apparently from any armed attack which is probably the only explanation of why Samuel was not executed I mean if Saul would kill all the priests on the assumption that they were working with David Samuel was clearly working with David I mean Sam Samuel was unashamedly hiding David and Saul knew where he lived David had to run and hide but Samuel didn't Samuel was immune he lived in Neop you know there's this barrier of the presence of the Holy Spirit that this soldiers couldn't get through they always got overwhelmed so every time he sent it happened again it says in verse 1 the third time Saul sent messengers again the third time and they prophesied also so he also went personally to Ramah and he came to the great well that is in situ so he asked and said where are Samuel and David and someone said indeed they are in Neop in Ramah so he went there to Neop in Ramah then the Spirit of God was upon him also and he went on and prophesied until he came to Neop in Ramah so he kept traveling in and toward Neop but the Spirit came on him before he got there and he was prophesying all the way there it says and he also stripped off his clothes and prophesied before Samuel in like manner and laid down naked all day and all that night therefore they say is Saul also among the prophets and also is Saul also among the nudists now naked may not mean stark naked although it could I mean I don't know I mean they didn't have I mean he may have just taken off his royal robes and was you know nearly naked or something we don't know I mean he could have been completely naked if so that's a rather humiliating state for a king to to be found and he brought it on himself he should have learned he should have known that if his three mess and three sets of messengers couldn't get through the Holy Spirit then he couldn't either and the Holy Spirit seems to have hit Saul harder than the others unless they also were on you know stripped naked and laying down but he was slain in the Spirit we could say by the way when people talk about being slain in the Spirit they sometimes point to something like this and reasonably enough however Saul was not a good guy and in fact the people in the in the Bible who were slain in the Spirit were always people that were the enemies of God they weren't the people receiving a blessing from God being slain was not a blessing to them it was God resisting them and preventing them from doing their evil plans same thing when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane the soldiers came to arrest him and he said who are you seeking and they said Jesus of Nazareth he said I am and they went backward and fell down to the ground I guess they were slain in the Spirit too but they were not slain as a blessing then it was God standing up against them and resisting them in these cases and so Saul this you know he should learn his lesson you know here he gets publicly humiliated by God he strips off his clothes and lays naked on the ground prophesying all day this guy really had a colorful life you know I mean a colorful administration he's throwing spears at his cabinet and his staff and you know he lays naked on the ground prophesies all day long and you know this isn't scandalous I mean this is not the kind of thing that gets a guy removed from office nothing does he's immune and in chapter 20 then David fled from Naoth in Ramah and he went and said to Jonathan what have I done what is my iniquity and what is my sin before your father that he seeks my life so Jonathan said to him by no means you shall not die indeed my father will do nothing either great or small without first telling me after all the last Jonathan had heard Saul swore in the name of Yahweh that David would not die but you know the words are hardly out of his mouth before he's thrown a spear at David again and chasing him and sending people to kill him in bed but Jonathan had not heard about that obviously Saul was not letting Jonathan in on his plans knowing that Jonathan was sympathetic toward David's and would not approve and why should my father hide this thing from me it is not so then David took an oath again and said your father certainly knows that I have found favor in your eyes and he has said do not let Jonathan know this lest he be grieved but truly as the Lord lives and as your soul lives there is but a step between me and death so Jonathan said to David whatever you do yourself desire I will do it for you and David said to Jonathan indeed tomorrow is the new moon now this is the first day of every month was the new moon and it was celebrated by the Jews there's not much in the law about it but it is mentioned as a it was treated like a Sabbath day it was treated as a holy convocation and arrest and so forth at least the law said it should be what they were doing in the days of Saul we don't know but they did observe the new moon some way or another and so they'd have special a special feast at least on the new moon and he says indeed tomorrow is the new moon and I should not fail to sit with the king to eat but let me go that I may hide in the field until the third day at evening obviously David would never think it's safe to go and sit in the in the king's palace again I mean even if even if he can dodge spears he now knows that all the all the bodyguard of Saul and all the army are there to arrest him so for him to walk into that would be crazy and yet it's as the position he held in the military meant that he would naturally be expected to be at the king's table for this kind of a ceremony he says I'm not going to go I'll hide in the field until the third day at evening if your father misses me at all then say David earnestly asked permission of me that he might run over to Bethlehem his city for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family if he says thus it is well then your servant will be safe but if he is very angry then be sure that evil is determined by him therefore you shall deal kindly with your servant for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you nevertheless if there is iniquity in me kill me yourself for why should you bring me to your father and Jonathan said far be it from you for if I knew certainly that evil is determined by my father to come upon you then would I not tell you then David said to Jonathan who will tell me or what if your father answers you roughly and Jonathan said to David come and let us go out into the field so both of them went out into the field and Jonathan said to David the Lord God of Israel is witness when I have sounded out my father sometime tomorrow or the third day and indeed there is a there is good toward David and I do not send to you and tell you may the Lord do so and much more to Jonathan if it pleases my father to do you evil then I will report it to you and send you away that you may go in safety and the Lord be with you as he has been with my father and you shall not only show me kindness of the Lord while you still live that I may not die but you shall not cut off your kindness from my house forever no not when the Lord has cut off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth now what he means by that is you're gonna be the king next David and please make a vow that you won't cut off my family now that was the customary thing for people to do if there's an administration change in kingdoms the all the relatives of the former dynasty were basically purged they were too dangerous because there there might still be a certain segment of the population loyal to the former king in the former dynasty who would then take any surviving son of his and promote him to be a rival to the new king so it was always customary in ancient times when a new king came to power that he'd find all the relatives of the previous king and just kill him and this has actually seemed done in some of the cases of the later kings of Israel but Jonathan's saying you know David I you know I'm gonna support you in this you're gonna be the king but don't cut off my family and David of course swore that he would not so Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David saying let the Lord required at the hand of David's enemies and Jonathan again caused David to vow because he loved him for he loved him as his own soul then Jonathan said to David tomorrow is the new moon and you will be missed because your seat will be empty and when you have stayed three days go down quickly and come to the place where you hit on the day of the deed and remain by the stone of Azel then I will shoot three arrows to the side of it as though I shot at a target and there I will send a lad saying go find the arrows if I expressly say to the lad look the arrows are on this side of you get them and come then as the Lord lives there is safety for you and no harm but if I say this to the young man look the arrows are beyond you go your way for the Lord has sent you away as for the matter which you and I have spoken of indeed the Lord is between you and me forever so they had a covenant a mutual covenant of friendship that would apply to them and their their offspring forever and we find that David honors this although Jonathan is killed in battle with his own father in in the war that took Saul his three sons three of his sons were killed with him Ishbosheth was not but turns out Jonathan had a son Mephibosheth who David showed mercy to rather than purging him when he became king so David hid in the field verse 24 and when the new moon had come the king sat down to eat the feast now the king sat on his seat as at other times but on a seat by the wall and Jonathan arose and Abner sat by Saul's side but David's place was empty now Abner we haven't heard much about Abner is Saul's uncle and he's eventually under Ishbosheth Saul's son Abner became the head of the armies of Israel and apparently had a role similar to that here but Abner may have been jealous of David too because if Abner was technically you know the the main general over all the armies and David was the one outshining all the military by his deeds Abner may well have been interested in getting David out of the picture too he could have been jealous like Saul nevertheless Saul did not say anything that day for he thought something has happened to him he is unclean surely he's unclean that is if David had encountered one of the things that makes a person ceremonially unclean he couldn't have come to the feast and so that was pretty common it's pretty common to have something happen to make you unclean especially when you're in the military if you're near a person when they die even an enemy just the proximity with their dead body would make you unclean for a week and you know if you had a wet dream you'd be unclean until the next day so I mean there's all kinds of things could happen it could be his wife was on a period and he'd be unclean by having contact with her there's lots of things in Israel that could make a person unclean and they would have to miss their their celebrations for that and Saul when he says well surely he must be unclean that was the first thing he thought because that must have been extremely common for people to have to miss out on things like this because of some technicality of ceremonial uncleanness and it happened the next day the second day of the month that David's place was empty and Saul said to Jonathan his son why has the son of Jesse not come to eat either yesterday or today so Jonathan answered Saul David earnestly asked permission to of me to go to Bethlehem and he said please let me go for our family has a sacrifice in the city and my brother has commanded me to be there and now if I found favor in your eyes please let me get away to see my brothers therefore he has not come to the king's table then Saul's anger was roused 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 for as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth you shall not be established nor your kingdom now therefore send and bring him to me for he is he shall surely die and Jonathan answered Saul his father and said to him why should he be killed what has he done and Saul cast a spear at him to kill him by which Jonathan knew that it was determined by his father to kill David he got the message I guess quick learner so Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger and ate no food the second day of the month now this throwing of the spear at Jonathan the prince who had done no crime happened right in the front of in front of Abner and all the other chiefs of staff and everything and and here you know it's just an amazing world they lived in you know that a king could do those kind of crazy things and everyone just kind of looked the other way I didn't see anything did you see anything no that's no and here the prince's life has been there's been an attempt on the prince's life by his father in front of witnesses so Jonathan was obviously pretty angry about this Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger and ate no food the second day of the month for he was grieved for David because his father had treated him shamefully and so it was in the morning that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed by David and a little lad was with him to chase his arrows he's got for target practice then he said to the lad now run find the arrows which I shoot as the lad ran he shot an arrow beyond him when the lad had come to the place where the arrow was which Jonathan had shot Jonathan cried out after the lad and said is not the arrow beyond you and Jonathan cried out after the lad make haste hurry do not delay so Jonathan's lad gathered up the arrows and came back to his master but the lad did not know anything only Jonathan David knew of the matter then Jonathan gave his weapons to the lad and said to him go carry them to the city now as soon as the lad had gone David arose from a place toward the south fell on his face to the ground and bowed down three times and they kissed one another and they wept together but Dave but David more so I guess so David was one who's gonna have to run for his life he was a little sadder than Jonathan was but they were both sad both weeping then Jonathan said to David go in peace since we have both sworn in the name of the Lord saying may the Lord be between you and me and between your descendants and my descendants forever so he rose and departed and Jonathan went into the city now here we have of course David formally having to leave permanently and run the rest of his the rest of Saul's life from Saul and there were people who joined David eventually we read about them considerably later in chapter 22 there were 400 people initially who went with David and 600 eventually now what's interesting is that Jonathan didn't go with him Jonathan's life had been threatened and Jonathan was definitely favorable toward David and Jonathan definitely knew that David was the one who'd be the next king and was not resistant to it but he didn't go with David you'd think he would and we have no reason given why he did not I assume that Jonathan knew that would be an option if David has to run because I'm going with you you know you and me we were like buds where we love each other more than a man loves a woman as David put it when he was bemoaning Jonathan's death they were as close as men could be so close that of course perverted minds have tried to suggest some kind of homosexual relationship between them with the way our culture is now they try establish that between almost every two males in the Bible you know between Jesus and the disciples and David and Jonathan and you get any two males together and the perverted minds of our time want to suggest something as perverted in the story as is in their own minds people have to realize that to the to the pure all things are pure but to the perverse all things are twisted and there's nothing impure about this these men were you know devoted to each other more than a man is devoted to a woman but our modern culture doesn't understand being loving somebody without wanting to have sex with them you know obviously that's not that's not what love is but our culture has lost sight of that fact so they always want to make this out to be something weird that it isn't they're just loyal friends and I'm amazed that Jonathan didn't go with him and I can only imagine that the reason Jonathan didn't is that he probably thought I can do more good for you with my influence in the palace than by running with you I mean running with you may slow you down the two of us together can't fight off all the armies of Israel so I'm not going to be that much good to you you're gonna have to just hide easier to hide one man than two and also I'm a prince I can actually have influence favorable hopefully toward you know the king and in the palace so that's that's probably how Jonathan was reasoning otherwise I would think he would have just gone with David this thing is he in doing so he seemed to have made the wrong choice whereas the 400 men who actually did run and hide with David eventually reigned with him Jonathan was killed with his father in battle and never did reign with David as he actually dreamed that he would he wanted to help David and and be part of David's administration he knew David was going to come to power but he he didn't get that chance because he made apparently the wrong choice and that was to stay in Saul's house and those who fled actually survived and reigned with David later on that story will continue in chapter 21 after we've had a break

1 Samuel 18 - 20

1 Samuel 18 - 20

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1 Samuel 18 - 20 (Transcript) - 1 Samuel - Steve Gregg

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