Let's open our Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 16 and finish the rest of this book. Let's have a word of prayer. Our Father, we are so grateful because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us, a finished work, defeating our enemies single handedly. Because of that fact, we can bow our head and say, Father, our Father. Now we have a relationship with You that we could not have had any other way were it not for the work of Your only begotten Son. So we enjoy worship and we enjoy our life and fellowship with You because of that and now Lord from the bottom of our heart we tell You that we want to grow, we want to move from glory to glory and we want to know You and the power of Your resurrection and even the fellowship of Your suffering. We pray Lord that we would mature and grow and it would be visible and marked in our lives. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Over in the city of Florence in Italy is perhaps Michelangelo's most famous work of all, at least his most famous sculpture and that's the sculpture of David. There's a replica of it out in the town square but in one of the museums is the actual statue carved out of a single block of marble. Michelangelo's David is called the most recognizable piece of art in the world. It is said that Michelangelo had in his mind to create the look on David's face when he made the decision to fight Goliath. Now it is an interesting work on a number of levels but one of the most obvious and most interesting features of this statue called David by Michelangelo is that it's 17 feet tall from the bottom of the toe to the tip of the head. That's not life size; it's obviously larger than life. David was a small lad especially in comparison to a giant named Goliath. So even though the statue is larger than realty, I look at it this way: because David knew that the God he served was powerful and he comes to Goliath in the name of that God, it really is more life size than you think. The odds were stacked against Goliath. Okay, so David wasn't 17 feet tall and yes Goliath was about 9 feet tall but David had God on his side. So if you look at the odds you'd say, "That poor Goliath; he's about to get creamed." When David knew that he was going to fight Goliath he did so in the name of the Lord.
Now there is a difference between King Saul whom we have read about and will continue to read about and David. Saul sort of had the rock star mentality; he wanted people to think that he was impressive and he wanted to be served. David, on the other hand had a different mentality. Not that of a rock star but of a sheppard. He was a man after God's own heart. He had the same kind of mentality and God sees deep inside the heart of David; we see this in chapter 16 where we'll begin as David is selected as the next King of Israel.
First Samuel deals mainly with three personalities. We've mentioned four before, but Eli is out of the way now. Now we have Samuel, Saul, and David. A prophet, a politician and a poet; all three of them are very unique; all three of them started well; all three of them had flaws in their lives and in their characters to some degree; but all three of these men influenced the Nation of Israel and even influenced one another. Where we begin in chapter 16 there's a camera pan (if we were in the cinematography world) or a scene shift from King Saul and Samuel. Samuel chewed him out after the battle of the Amalekites and is now in Gilgal. The scene now shifts to Bethlehem which is the city that is later called the City of David. In Bethlehem, Samuel the prophet is looking for the next king so he goes to the house of Jessie, the Bethlehemite and he finds David. He pours oil on him essentially anointing him as the next king of Israel. This is a private ceremony; nobody else is invited and in fact nobody else outside the family even knows about it. What you may be interested to know is that there are actually three anointings of David as King. One is here in 1 Samuel chapter 16 which is a private anointing. The next one will be in 2 Samuel chapter 2, verse 4 as the men of Judah anoint him as King over the southern Kingdom of Judah and then in 1 Kings chapter 5 when the elders of Israel make him King over all the twelve tribes and for the first time there is a united monarchy.
Chapter 16, verse 1: "Now the Lord said to Samuel, 'How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons.'" Three things are happening in these verses. Samuel the prophet is dejected; Saul the King is rejected; and David, this little kid in Bethlehem, is selected. We know that the prophet Samuel was bummed out and dejected. In fact in the previous chapter it says, "He mourned all night about King Saul," because God said, "I've rejected him and I want nothing to do with this guy. He's been disobedient and I'm looking for a man after my own heart." So, naturally, Samuel the prophet, being a spiritual guy, mourns over what could have been with King Saul. God says, "Enough is enough. How long will you mourn? I've rejected Saul and I have selected somebody else." This tells me that God is never caught by surprise, He is never without a plan, and He never looks at a situation and thinks, "Oops!" It's not in His vocabulary; He never panics. I was over in Chip Lusko's office about an hour ago and he still has that classic plaque on his book case, "The Lord never panics." So yes, King Saul, this King that the people wanted is rejected but God has a plan and it includes a young boy by the name of David. It is important that you remember that God always has a plan. Whenever you see things around you that look like they are haphazard, whether it's a leader falling or a church failing or a movement fading, understand that God is in control. Whether you feel like it or not; God is in control. Whether there is evidence outright or not God is in control and He always has a plan. Notice He says, "I have provided myself a king." Why does God need a king? We know that God has always planned to get a king in Israel and work through a king; we already made reference to that last time. However, Saul was not the guy that God has in mind but David will be. Why is it that God keeps bringing up historically, through the law and now the need for a king? Here's the principle: God has reduced Himself or if You will, lowered Himself or condescended, limiting Himself to human instruments to get His work done. I know that's a frightening proposal and it certainly has a lot of risks involved but God has said, "I'm going to do a work on earth but I'm going to limit Myself and do My work through people that will say, 'Here I am Lord, send me;' and I'll use them." In fact, the Bible says, "God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise." Now as imperfect as we are, we're the ones that God is using to do the work, and there is nobody else except believers, the imperfection adds to the mystery. This is so that whenever a work of God is done and we marvel at it, we can't marvel at ourselves but we have to say, "Wow that has to be the Lord, because I know that guy or that gal or those people or that church, and it has to be the Lord." It adds to the mystery to use imperfect vessels. It would be sort of like a surgeon being confined to a rusty old Swiss army knife to do brain surgery deep in the jungle. Here he is without the finest of instruments: a surgical suite, a sterile environment, modern tools and equipment, and anesthesiologists. He just has this knife and he's going to perform some complex surgery. If he is successful, none of the glory will go to the knife; all the glory will go to the masterful surgeon. When God does His work and uses imperfect vessels we marvel more at Him. So God says, "I will provide, Myself, a king."
Verse 6: "So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab," (that's the oldest), "and said, 'Surely the Lord's anointed is before Him!'" It would seem that Samuel the prophet's standard for a king as revealed here in verse 6 was appearance. He looked at the oldest guy and he was tall and very handsome and he just looked royal, and he thought, "Yes, this is king material." He's very Schwarzenegger-esk. "He looks like a king and we could use a guy like that." His standard seems to be appearance because of what God says in reply. Verse 7: "But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.'" As a culture, race, and humans we are very appearance oriented and we judge by what we see; it's just how we are. We look at the outward appearance and we draw certain conclusions. Unfortunately, that transfers into important decisions like: who's going to be the leader of our country? Did you know that the whole presidential campaigning changed in 1960 when for the first time there was a televised debate between candidates? Here's how it went down. It was John Fitzgerald Kennedy against Richard Millhouse Nixon. Nixon had just gone through some physical illnesses and he was very pale and he refused to wear makeup. He wore a gray suit and he looked very pale against a gray background. Kennedy had been vacationing, he was very tan, he welcomed the makeup and he looked good on camera and he won the election. Many think, not in totality but to a large part that one of the factors that got him elected was because he looked good on camera. Since then, whenever there is campaigning, it's all about how you look. "He looks presidential," or "He doesn't look presidential"; or "She looks presidential," (and I won't get into that!) but I do know that we are very appearance oriented and we judge based on the outward and we can make mistakes with that.
Whereas Samuel's standard was appearance, it would seem that Jesse, the father of these boys had a standard as well, that was different from God's and different from the prophet Samuel's and that was age. He brings the eldest sons first thinking, Eliab, my oldest boy has the best shot at it because he is the oldest and it makes sense that we choose somebody with a little experience in life. But Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah were all rejected. So finally there are none left and Samuel asks, "Do you have any more kids? Because there is not a king among your boys." Dad says, "Well, yes, but he's the youngest; he's my son but he's a shepherd boy." So one standard was appearance and the other standard was age and God's standard was what's inside. US News and World Report had an interesting article some time ago about manufacturers putting the same boxes on the shelves that they had put out for years but with less product inside. For example, they cited a detergent company that used to have 61 ounces in their box and now had 55 ounces in their box; it was the same size box but with less product. It would seem that Samuel and Jesse were looking at the box: the color of the box; the shape of it; the size of it; and the glitziness of it and God was saying, "I don't care about the box, I can see the context and I know what's inside; I see the heart and this kid, David, is the man after God's own heart." David gets introduced into the court and in the next few verses we have a contrast between David and Saul. The Holy Spirit comes upon David after he is anointed by Samuel and then it says, "A distressing Spirit from the Lord falls upon King Saul." So we see this spiritual contrast. Verse 22: "Then Saul sent to Jesse, saying, 'Please let David stand before me, for he has found favor in my sight.'" What does that mean? Pretty soon he won't find favor in his sight but right now this kid is not only a sheppard but he's also a young musician, he plays the harp beautifully and Saul needed background music; something to sooth his weary spirit; sort of like his own personal iPod or we might call it an iHarp. What this does is introduce David into the court of King Saul. Verse 23: "And so it was, whenever the spirit from God was upon Saul, that David would take a harp and play it with his hand. Then Saul would become refreshed and well, and the distressing spirit would depart from him." So David is introduced to King Saul and he does not promote himself though he has just been anointed by the prophet as the next king. He never brings this up and says, "King Saul, can I just tell you, FYI, that I'm going to replace you one day as King, and I want you to know that I'm the new kid on the block." In fact, he just lays low and he waits. To most people who would see this, David was a nobody; just a kid with a harp; a teenager with a guitar; but to God, he was a somebody. He was the next king of Israel and in fact he would become the ancestor of the King of Kings, the greater Son of David, Jesus Christ. In fact, a thousand years from what we're reading, over the same skies in the same hills of Bethlehem would be angels' voices saying, "This day in the city of David is born to you a Savior who is Christ the King." This little musician was a somebody.
Chapter 17 opens in a war. The Philistines are the enemies that are on the southwestern border of the land and they plague them for a long time. During the entire 23 years that Saul has been the King over Israel there has been a war going on. These Philistines are just nagging all the time and the Children of Israel can't get rid of them. Verse 3: "The Philistines stood on a mountain on one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span." Wow, it's shocking to see and intimidating to hear this big brute of a guy. He's between eight and nine feet tall. Go back a little bit in your mind. Remember when Moses sent the twelve spies into Canaan and ten of them came back and they said that there were giants, Anakim, in the land? It would seem that most of them but not all were destroyed. In fact they are still around in Joshua chapter 11 and we read: "None of the Anakim were left in the land of the Children of Israel but they remained only in Gaza, in Gath and in Ashdod." Goliath is from Gath, where the Anakim settled, so it could be that he has some kind of relationship with this ancient race some of which were still in the land. When people read what we've just read they would say, "Oh, come on; you don't expect me to actually believe that there was a giant dude, eight to nine feet tall, do you?" I absolutely do expect you to believe that. "That's got to be a myth like the Greek myths of giants." No it doesn't. "You mean this could be a real guy who is that tall?" Absolutely. Back in our own history in 1918 there was a man named Robert Wadlo who was born in Alton Illinois. They called him the tallest man in the world. When he was born he was only eight pounds and five ounces which is not terribly unusual. When he was 13 years of age, he was 7'8". Full grown he was 8'11" or about 9 feet tall or roughly the height of Goliath. When he died his casket was 10'9" and it took 12 men to carry it. That's in recent history. If that can happen in our era, in modern history, our generation, it certainly could have happened back then when it was more common.
Let me tell you about the geography before we finish this story. There is a hill on each side with a valley about one mile in the middle; the Valley of Allah. An army is on top of each hill and they wait it out; nobody moves and you know why? Whoever attacks first has to fight uphill. It's literally an uphill battle. So nobody wants to leave their hill and go in the valley and walk up the other hill so they are just kind of waiting around for the other guy to get impatient and attack first. Goliath wants nothing to do with this and in fact he says, "Why are we bothering with a whole army? I tell you what, I'll just be the representative for my people and you select a representative and whoever wins, their country wins." Well, easy for you to say, nine footer. Can you imagine what his shoe size was like? I was in Florida a few weeks ago and I was in an Apple store in South Beach Miami and in walks Shaquille O'Neil, no lie. His feet were unbelievable - like the size of my arm! I'm 6'5 and this dude made me look like David compared to Goliath! What kind of a bed do you thing Goliath slept in? A king size bed! That makes sense! Verse 8: "Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel, and said to them, 'Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me.'" Verse 16: "And the Philistine drew near and presented himself forty days, morning, and evening." They had to see and hear that display of arrogance for almost one and one half months, twice a day, but nobody would go forward. Well, David gets sent from Bethlehem with some food for his brothers who were in the army. Notice the difference between the army's point of view and David's. In verse 25 the army says: "'Surely he has come up to defy Israel; and it shall be that the man who kills him the king will enrich with great riches, will give him his daughter, and give his father's house exemption from taxes in Israel.'" (That's a big deal.) "Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, '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?'" Now listen to the difference. One group, the army says, "He's come to defy Israel." David says, "He's come to defy the armies of the living God." Now that is perspective. David knew that if you mess with God's people, God takes it personally. If you mess with God's work, you have got God to contend with. Saul of Tarsus figured that out when he was going to destroy Christians in Damascus and he gets knocked off his high horse on the Damascus road and Jesus said, "'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?' 'Who are You?' 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.'" Saul is thinking, "I don't even believe that Jesus is alive and now He is talking to me. I'm not against Jesus; I'm against the people who follow Him." Jesus says, "No, actually you're against Me because if you mess with them you mess with Me." That's a principle in the Bible. The prophet Zachariah in chapter 2 says regarding Zion the people of Israel, "Whoever touches you touches the apple of God's eye." (The pupil) God will protect. So David has a beautiful prospective here and also notice what he says in verse 26: "The armies of the living God." I don't think those are just words or spiritual rhetoric. David knew that there's a huge difference between His God, the living God, and the false dead unreal gods of the Philistines. You know who the Philistines worshiped? They worshiped a god called Dagon who was half fish and half man. The upper part was man and the bottom part was a scaly fish with fins. They also worshiped a god by the name of Beelzebub, I'm sure you've heard the term; it means the lord of the flies. It was actually the dung beetle; the little bugs that crawl around excrement waste; picture worshiping that. David knew this and he was insulted. "You guys are worshiping bugs that crawl around on waste but we worship and serve the living God. How dare you defy the armies of the living God?" Again, a little man with great perspective. So what does he do? He goes back and tells Saul, "Don't worry about it, I'll fight this character." Saul says, "Well, here take my armor." He tries on Sauls' armor and it's too big. He's slow in it and it's cumbersome and it doesn't fit him so he says, "Forget it; I'm used to just being bare footed; just give me a few rocks." He goes out there to fight the giant.
Verse 43: "So the Philistine said to David, 'Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks?'" (That was the rod that he had in his hand). "And the Philistine cursed David by his gods." Verse 45: "Then David said to the Philistine, 'You come to me with a sword, 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.'" "Okay, big guy, let's compare weapons here. Let's see, you have a pretty big helmet on your head, a pretty big sword and that javelin, and the head of that spear weighs a lot. You have armor like nobody else and you know what, I feel sorry for you because you are outnumbered and outgunned. I'm coming to you with the weapon of weapons. I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts; the God whom you have defied." Verse 46: "'This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.'" So you come to me with all your stuff but I come to you in the name of the God Whom you have greatly bummed out and you're career is about over.
If you are ever going to kill giants, whatever the giant might be, figuratively speaking, you better have a healthy respect for the size of the living God that you serve. Do not walk into a situation with fear or with trepidation but know that if you are aligned with the purposes of the living God, what do you have to worry about? "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world." As Martin Luther well put it, "with God one is majority." So he enters into this battle with great faith. Verse 49: "Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth." In the front of your head is the frontal lobe of the brain which controls your actions. There's the motor cortex just in the posterior part of the frontal lobe and right in the middle between your eyebrows is a little protuberance that you can feel called the glabella which is the gateway to your frontal lobe. That's exactly where that stone ended. It sunk in his glabella, went into his frontal lobe and lights out! You say, "Well, this guy was a good hit; that was a lucky hit." No, this was a guided missile; a smart bomb; this was let go by David and then the Holy Spirit just took it and placed it right where it needed to go and good-bye, lights out, story over! Goliath is gone.
Chapter 18 to the very end of the book is Saul's hatred of David and his attack on David's life. What we notice is the contrast between how Saul relates with people and how David relates with people. Saul is very insecure and David is very secure. The Spirit of the Lord left Saul and the Spirit of the Lord comes upon David. David behaves himself wisely and Saul behaves himself very irrationally through the rest of the book. Saul is very threatened by David. Saul's the king, David is a young poet, musician, and sheppard but he's walking with God and those who walk with God can be a threat to those who do not. So Saul's only solution is to get rid of David. I see Saul as sort of the Grinch of the Old Testament. Dr. Seuss's character the Grinch couldn't stand to see people enjoying themselves and whenever he saw people having a good time he got so mad and he'd bite himself. Kind of weird isn't it? Saul is sort of like that. Whenever he sees the Lord's hand upon the people and especially upon David as that potential leader, he does certain things that really ruin his own life. He turns around and he bites himself. He deals with it improperly. There's a fleshly way of dealing with people and there's a spiritual way. Sometimes because of the way people treat you, you might just think, "Lord, please, give me just five minutes in the flesh; I'll do what I need to do, I'll repent and we'll move on." That's not the best thing to do because you'll regret it. The best way to do it is to live a spirit controlled life. Somebody once said, "Life is 20 percent what actually happens to you and 80 percent how you respond to what actually happens to you."
Chapter 18, verse 5: "So David went out wherever Saul sent him, and behaved wisely. And Saul set 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. Now it had happened as they were coming home, when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistine, 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,'" (Saul loved that; it's the second verse he didn't like,) "'And David his ten thousands.'" I'm sure you've heard of that little game, Pin the Tail on the Donkey growing up. You're about to see a new game that Saul invented: pin the spear on the worship leader. Saul sees this young guy and he wants to kill him while he's in his palace. Verse 11: "And Saul cast the spear, for he said, 'I will pin David to the wall!' But David escaped his presence twice." Here's the deal. The battle is over and a folk song has already been written about the battle and it already makes the top forty list. Because of the lyrics, David makes Saul's hit list; "The women are singing about David instead of me! They sang about me saying that I killed my thousands but they sang that he killed his tens of thousands." Actually, Saul didn't kill one. David did all the work. What did David do now that he is on Saul's hit list and now that Saul wants to kill him? He runs. I want to pause to see what lessons we can learn when people throw spears at you and say things about you that aren't true but they don't care if they're true and they slam you and they slur you and their sights are pointed at you. What do you do? Number one, duck and get out of the way. The spear was thrown at David and he ducked and got out of the way. This was a golden opportunity for David. If he wanted to retaliate now was the time when the spear has flown across the palace room over to David's wall and is sitting right by his head. Judging from how good of an aim David was with Goliath he could have thrown it right back and nailed King Saul. He didn't do that - he took no retaliation but instead he ducks and gets out of the way when the arrows are flying his way. Number two, keep doing well. David keeps going back into the battle, he keeps fighting the battle, he keeps behaving himself wisely and he's not going to let King Saul take away his joy or enthusiasm for the work that God has called him to do. He'll keep at the task. Number three, keep close friends. Those three things will help you when the arrows fly your way. Keep a good close friendship and accountability. Verse 1 says: "The soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David." And you'll notice these two walking through life's battles together until Jonathan loses his life.
On that note, we look at chapter 20, verse 42: "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 arose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city." I'm very impressed with Jonathan. I'm impressed with him because this wasn’t just Jonathan but this was Prince Jonathan heir to the throne of his father, King Saul. He would become, by all rights, the next king of Israel but Prince Jonathan wants what God wants more than what his father or he would even want. He doesn't see David as competition but he sees David as King David. "I may be Prince Jonathan but you are King David and you're going to be the next King of Israel," and he will tell him that throughout the story. He is not intimidated by him but he releases it to him.
In chapters 21 through 31 David is a fugitive. From chapter to chapter he runs from King Saul. Saul becomes more nuts and insane as the story goes on and David grows stronger and stronger. During these ten or eleven chapters while he is running from King Saul and he's a fugitive, some of the best poetry ever written is written by King David like, "Why are you so downcast oh my soul, trust in God, hope in Him;" or "Lord, why do you stand afar off, How come you don't listen to me? Why do You never answer my prayers?" In fact, Psalms 18, 34, 52, 54, 56, 57, 63, 124, 138 and 142 all have their background in 1 Samuel chapters 21 to 31. Now I don't know how else to say this but aren't you glad he was a fugitive for a long time? You are because you and I have been the recipients of God's comfort through many of those same Psalms. We've turned to them often and God has spoken to our hearts. Some of the best songs ever written were written during this time. In fact, some of the best songs in history were written during the worst periods of pain in people's lives. That's just a known fact. Charles Haden Spurgeon said, "The music of the sanctuary is in no small degree indebted to the trials of the saints. Affliction is the tuner of the harps of sanctified songsters."
In chapter 21, David flees to a town called Nob and meets with a group of priests. After Nob he goes to Gath, a Philistine city and acts like he's retarded. He's drooling and scratching at the gates so they think this guy is nuts and they leave him alone and just let him live there. In Chapter 22, he goes to the cave of Adullam. In Chapter 23 he goes to the town of Keilah and they tell Saul that he's there and Saul chases him. Then in chapter 24 he goes to En Gedi down by the Dead Sea.
Chapter 25 takes us to the death of Samuel. That's a big deal right? He's Samuel, the prophet, the last judge in the lineup of judges as the united monarchy is being shouldered. So this guy dies and yet there is only one single verse that is his obituary and that is Verse 1 of chapter 25: "Then Samuel died." Pretty impressive, isn't' it? "And the Israelites gathered together and lamented for him and buried him at his home in Ramah." (Just outside of Jerusalem). "And David arose and went down to the Wilderness of Paran."
The rest of chapter 25 is the story of the beauty and the beast and I'm not talking about Disney. The beauty is Abigail, the wife of a guy named Nabal who's name means fool and he is a foolish man. Abigail the beauty is married to a beast of a man called Nabal but in the same chapter she tames the beast in David. Nabal is hard headed; David is hot headed and here is what is going on in this chapter. Nabal has his sheppards watching his sheep out in the wilderness and David's men are around them for a period of time and protect them from harm from raiders, bandits, and murderers. When it's shearing time for the sheep David wants some payback. He'd like some food and to be treated kindly so he sends an emissary and says, "Look we'd like a little bit of payback; we protected your people." Typically in that time they would say, "Sure, absolutely." Nabal refuses and acts indignantly. David is hot headed and he overreacts. He says, "I'm going to kill every male that works for you." This is an overreaction. "You're not giving me a happy meal so I'm going to kill everybody on your team?" This is literally overkill! It's like sending an ICBM with a 100 mega ten warhead to deal with rats in a subway in New York. Were it not for Abigail who intervenes by bringing a present and dissuading David from doing his deed and regretting it later, it would have been done. Verse 32: "Then David said to Abigail: 'Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! And blessed is your advice and blessed are you, because you have kept me this day from coming to bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand. For indeed, as the Lord God of Israel lives, who has kept me back from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely by morning light no males would have been left to Nabal!'" Ten days later Nabal dies, David marries Abigail and she becomes his wife.
Chapter 26 is similar to chapter 24. It's a chase scene. Saul is chasing David and David is running from Saul and what's interesting is that David sneaks into the camp of Saul. Saul's pitched his tent and is asleep and all the men sworn to protect Saul are asleep. David walks in with a buddy and takes Saul's spear, (he could have killed him), takes a pot of water and walks outside the camp. He stands on a hill and says, "Saul, wake up. How come your men haven't protected you? I've got your spear! I could have killed you, but again, like before, I didn't do it. I've spared your life because I don't want you harmed and I love you." Saul starts weeping like a baby, "David, I love you; you're so good to me." It's just an emotional show and he'll turn once again very quickly but notice the confession that he makes. Chapter 26, verse 21: "Then Saul said, 'I have sinned.'" (finally we get a confession), "'Return, my son David. For I will harm you no more, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Indeed I have played the fool and erred exceedingly.'" You might think, "That sounds good; that's a confession. You have to believe a guy who says so plainly, 'I've sinned, I've played the fool, and I've erred exceedingly.'" However, he makes a confession, he gets very emotional, but there is no corresponding change afterwards. That's why in Corinthians Paul writes these words: "It's Godly sorrow that works repentance." He says to the Corinthians, "When I wrote that letter, I'm glad that you were sorry; I was harsh in that letter and it made you sorrowful and I'm glad that it did because then you changed your ways because Godly sorrow works repentance." So this was sorrow but it was not Godly sorrow and there was no repentance. In Chapter 27, David is on the run again and he goes to Gath again where he had acted like he was retarded and this time he's normal and he's kind of hanging out and he is living on the side of Israel's enemies right when the enemies, the Philistines, are about ready to launch a major, mega attack on the children of Israel. What he is doing is laying low to see what God is going to do with King Saul. He refuses to retaliate.
Chapters 28 through 31 is the final showdown of the Philistines against Israel and Saul will die in this battle. Here we see briefly that Saul takes his final step downward. We have said that he played the fool by: arrogance, indifference, and disobedience and now he takes this final step downward and he consults the demonic realm; a witch who lives up at En Dor. Verse 6: "And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams," (like He had with Joseph), "or by Urim," (like He had to the high priests), "or by the prophets." Samuel was dead and God wasn't speaking to this King. "Then Saul said to his servants, 'Find me a woman who is a medium,'" (not like a small, medium or large but the idea here is a clairvoyant), "'that I may go to her and inquire of her.' And his servants said to him, 'In fact, there is a woman who is a medium at En Dor.'" Deuteronomy chapter 18 expressly says, "These spiritists were not to be tolerated and they would defile the land," and in fact earlier in his career as King, King Saul put all of them out of the land. There is obviously one who is still there so when Saul means business, his servants say, "Well, we know of one and she lives right over there at En Dor." What's going on here? God is not speaking to this King and he is desperate and he wants to hear something from the supernatural even if it’s from the wrong source; he wants to hear some word of comfort. Why is God not speaking to him? Why would it be that God wouldn't speak to a guy who is saying, "I want to hear from God and I want to hear Your voice?" What has Saul done with everything that God has told him so far? He's disobeyed it. So why would God say anything further to a dude who wants nothing to do with the Word of God in his own life? God has nothing more to say to him; so God and heaven are silent. Saul disguises himself and conjures up the prophet Samuel. Samuel appears in this chapter and says, "Why did you bother me and disturb me? Can't you see I'm a dead guy? But for the record, tomorrow there is going to be a battle and you and your sons are going to die and you will be where I am and Israel will lose the battle."
Chapter 28, verse 20: "Immediately Saul fell full length on the ground, and was dreadfully afraid because of the words of Samuel. And there was no strength in him, for he had eaten no food all day or all night." He is already distressed because the Philistines are invading the land; now he is weak because he hasn't eaten any food; and now he sees Samuel who says, "You're going to be with me dead on this side tomorrow and you are all going to lose the battle." It was too much for him and he collapsed. It's a very sad story and a sad ending.
Chapter 31 is the battle on Mount Gilboa and the Philistines attack Israel. Verse 2: "Then the Philistines followed hard after Saul and his sons. And the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, Saul's sons." Whatever distress Saul has had up to this moment, know this, his heart is now deeply plunged to the depths; three of his sons have died in that battle. "The battle became fierce against Saul. The archers hit him, and he was severely wounded by the archers." Now notice this. "Then Saul said to his armorbearer, 'Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised men come and thrust me through and abuse me.' But his armorbearer would not, for he was greatly afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword and fell on it." He committed suicide. It's one of the seven instances in the Bible of suicide. Saul is killed in the battle; the Philistines cut his head off, (decapitate him); and they hang his body on the wall of their city, Beth Shan. The men from Jabesh Gilead, right across from the Jordan, come across the Jordan, they take the body of King Saul and they gave him a decent burial; but that's how his life ends.
Here's what I want you to notice. It's the end of Saul's life and he admitted, "I played the fool and I've erred exceedingly and I've sinned." At the end of his life he could have had some prayer, some words of contrition or repentance, or some plea for help, but there is none to be found. He's committed to carnality and what's interesting is that even in his death he is concerned about his image. "Hey, come over here. I'm dying; would you kill me? It's going to look bad if these guys kill me." But the armorbearer wouldn't do it so he kills himself.
There's a difference between a person's reputation and a person's character. A person's reputation is what others think you are; a person's character is what you are when nobody is looking. Somebody said, "The difference between reputation and character is like looking at a barrel full of apples. The reputation is the apples on top and the character are all the apples underneath that you don't see." Saul was more concerned about the top layers of apples in his life, what people thought about him, than about who he really was.
In closing and after we have seen Saul's end, I ask you this: How could King Saul have ended well? He begins well, he didn't run well and he ended poorly; but what could he have done? A few things. Number one, he could have taken sin seriously but he didn't. He took it very lightly and in fact he would make excuses for himself, he would blame others for it and he never dealt with it. He was rebuked by the prophet twice and twice he agrees that he's blown it and twice he never changed. Number two, he could have placed character over reputation but he got it backwards. He just cared about what people thought about him and not what God thought about him. Number three, he could have taken advantage of strategic friendships in his life. This is honestly the failure of many men. Think about the people available to him as friends. The prophet Samuel; that's a good guy to have on your team. I pray every week with a prophet Samuel and I have a Bible study and discipleship group with a prophet Samuel. Samuel calls to check up on me to see how I'm walking with the Lord. Saul had no record of that. He had his own son Jonathan who really loved God and wanted the best for the people of Israel and the Kingdom. He had David who wouldn't touch the Lord's anointed and respected Saul in that position. There were several people he could have taken advantage of but he did not.
It's dangerous to isolate yourself. It says in Proverbs chapter 18: "A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire and rages against all wise judgment." There is no more potent killer than isolation and yet many people decide to live there and not share deeply with anyone else who they really are and get help and grow. Are there any areas where you are stubborn; where you're digging in your heels; where God has been trying to work and bring conviction and growth and take you from this stage to another level and you are just digging in your heels? Stubbornness has lasting consequences; you'll settle for second best, or third or fourth or fifth.
There was a man who was convinced he was dead and he walked into a doctor's office and said, "Doctor, I'm dead." "No you're not. You're very much alive, you just walked into my office, and you are talking. Dead men don't walk and talk." "No sir, I know I'm dead." There was no convincing him. The doctor said, "I have a question for you. Do dead men bleed?" "Absolutely not, everybody knows that dead people don't bleed! They're dead." So the doctor quickly took out a syringe and poked him. The man started to bleed and the doctor said, "Okay, look, what does that tell you?" The guy said, "Wow, what do you know, dead men do bleed!" He was either really dumb or really stubborn. Is stubbornness keeping you from enjoying God's best and the life that God has for you? Let's pray.
Lord, those words keep ringing in our minds. The words of King Saul in maybe that unguarded moment when he was very honest and he said, "Indeed I have played the fool and erred exceedingly." As if to say, "I could have been and I could have become a powerful instrument in the hands of a mighty God but I played the fool and I really blew it and didn't become all that God wanted me to become. Lord, we understand from Your Word that the first step is an admission, a confession and then a willingness to turn and cooperate. Lord, I pray that we would be marked by a suppleness, an ease for you to control that when you find us you don't find us as hardened and resistant but open and in the flow and easy to turn and easy to speak to and quick to hear. Because Lord, we're going to have a very short period of time on this earth before we make it to the other side to eternity and we want to make these years count. We want to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant; you've been faithful in the small things now be the lord, controller or supervisor over many in the Kingdom Age. Lord, even as you are faithful, and we proclaim that, I pray that you find among us at least a heart willing to be faithful to you. In Jesus Name. Amen.