1 SAMUEL 14-20 A NEW KING IS NAMED2012 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Samuel 14-20 A New King Is Named

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2012. 1 Samuel chapter 14, we'll be looking through chapters 20 this week as we continue our journey through the Bible in three years.

And as we look at the book of 1 Samuel, we don't know exactly who the author is. I'm sure that Samuel did write parts of it, but much also takes place after his death. It covers the time period from about 1075 to 1010 BC.

And what we see is the establishing of the monarchy. We saw the transition last week from the different tribes, you know, under the time of the judges, Samuel being the last judge, to now the monarchy. Now Saul is king and he has established his kingdom.

And so on the timeline here, that's what we see. The time of Judges has concluded. Now we're in the time of the kingdom, the kingdom of Israel. Beginning with Saul, then we'll move on to David, and then Solomon, and then we'll see what happens after that as we continue on in our journey.

Here's what it looks like on the map. On the left here, you have the different tribes. This was how it was divided from Joshua's days and during the time of the judges. But now it's been united together as a kingdom. And that's on the right-hand side there. That's Saul's kingdom, which is noticeably smaller than the borders that were given by Joshua because there were the many enemies that were around Israel. And then you have the different tribes.

And so they are fighting against them and we'll see the kingdom expanded over David and Solomon's reign. Well, we start now in chapter 14. We're looking at verse 6 as the key verse. It says, Then Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few.

So here in chapter 14, one of those hallmark chapters of the scripture, is a great chapter to study and consider. Here we see in verses 1 through 14 that Jonathan attacks the Philistines. Now last week as we ended in chapter 13, we saw Jonathan also attacking a garrison of the Philistines. And as a result, the Philistines moved into Israel and camped at Michmash.

This is now the continuation of that. The Philistine garrison is camped there. And remember, Saul is a little bit freaked out because the Philistines are there camped in Israel. And the people of Israel are freaked out and they're kind of running away. There's only a few hundred men left with Saul. And so he gets impatient. He can't wait for Samuel. So he offers the burnt offering himself.

Well, that's all happened. Now we're continuing that story. Now Jonathan attacks the garrison again. We see such great faith here in Jonathan as he says, nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few. The whole army of Israel is afraid of the Philistines.

But Jonathan looks at his armor bearer and he says, hey, if God wants to do it, just me and you, we can take him. We can handle this if that's what God wants to do. Again, we see such great faith here in Jonathan, a great example for us.

We also see him testing the waters, as we might call it. As he tells his armor bearer, all right, let's go over to this garrison. If they say, hey, stay there. We're going to come down and teach you something. Then we know, okay, we got to run because they're out to get us and God's not with us. But if they say, hey, come up here. We want to show you something. Then we know that God is with us and the victory is ours.

And so they go to the garrison. The Philistines see them and they say, hey, come up here. We want to show you something. And so he tells his armor bearer, all right, God's delivered him into our hands. Follow me. And he just charges up the hill. He scrambles up the hill and begins to accomplish the victory. It's a great, great example and a picture of a man of faith and this step of faith that he takes.

Now, it's interesting here as he tests the waters, as we often refer to it. This is interesting because it's not exactly like a fleece in the way that Gideon did, which is often referred to kind of in a negative sense because he was doubting God or testing God's word. But this was different because this was not direct instruction from God.

God didn't tell Jonathan, Jonathan, go attack the Philistines. He just had a thought, you know, well, what if God wanted to save all of Israel by just, you know, the two of us? What if we wanted to, you know, if he wanted to use us to accomplish that?

And so he's testing the waters. It's a great, great thing to do as God puts things upon your heart. So you have a thought, you know, like, hey, what if I were to invite my neighbor? Well, you know, hey, if the sun rises tomorrow, then I can invite my neighbor to harvest America. You know that you could test the waters that way. But you got to be careful because you don't want to be testing God on things that he's directly commanded you. But when you have a thought, when you have a, you know, what if God wanted to do this?

It's okay. Test the waters. You know, give God that opportunity to show you, yes, this is what I want you to do. David Guzik says it this way. He says, Jonathan is showing wisdom, not unbelief. To this point, he is not acting on a specific confirmed word of God. Instead, he's following the bold hope and impression of his heart.

He's humble enough to know his heart might be wrong on this day. So Jonathan asked God to guide him. And so you see this combination of faith and humility. It's a bold hope, he says. You know, it's like maybe God wants to do this. I could be wrong. I could be off base. So Lord, you show me. What would you want? What do you want me to do in this case? And we see that God does indeed want to use him and he uses them to accomplish a great victory.

Well, the army joins the battle in verses 15 through 23. The lookout guy says, hey, the armies are melting away. You know, they're quite a distance away and they just see this dispersion of the Philistines. And so the army now begins to join and all the people who went into hiding begin to join the battle and defeat the Philistines. Well, in the process of that in verses 24 through 46, you have there the description of Saul's foolish oaths.

where he says, you know, nobody's going to eat today. Cursed if you eat today until I take vengeance on my enemies. How many times have we seen foolish oaths thus far in the scriptures? Already we've seen it several times. These foolish vows that are made. Jephthah was the latest example we saw where he said, whatever comes out of my house, I'll offer to the Lord as a sacrifice.

And we've seen those foolish vows. Now, it's not necessarily wrong to make an oath or a vow, but we need to be careful because the majority of the vows that we see in the scriptures are foolish. And so we got to watch out. Well, then in verses 47 through 52, it kind of gives a big summary of Saul fighting enemies on every side, covering kind of a large span of time in his reign where he continued to battle enemies.

In all different directions. Here's the map of what it looked like. Whenever...

attacks the Philistines. They're at Gibeah. That's where Saul is and his army. And then Michmash, that's where the Philistine garrison was. And so Jonathan goes there and they begin the battle. The rest of the army notices something's going on and so then they join the battle from Gibeah and then they chase the Philistines over to Beth-Avon and they stop pursuing at that point. So that's the battle

map of what it looks like as they defeated the Philistines.

And then as it described the enemies on all sides, this is the location of those enemies. So up at the far north, you have the region of Zobah. And so Saul was fighting against the northern region. He was fighting against Ammon to the east. He was fighting against Moab to the southeast. Edom, which isn't on the map here, but that's down below the Dead Sea. And so that was to the south. And then Amalek and then the Philistines. And so...

As you can see, pretty much on all sides, Saul was fighting against all of these different groups throughout the remainder of his reign. Chapter 15, verse 28 is the key verse. It says, So Samuel said to him, The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you.

In verses 1 through 9, we see Saul defeating Amalek. Now this was in accordance with the command that God had given to Israel. You can check that out in Exodus chapter 17 or Deuteronomy chapter 25.

You might remember Amalek was the nation that came against Israel as they were leaving Egypt and they came up behind Israel and attacked the weak and those who were lagging behind, those who were unprotected. And so God said as a result of this that he would war against Amalek and that when they were established in the land that they were to go back and they were to destroy the Amalekites completely.

And so now this is the fulfillment of that command in Deuteronomy 25. Samuel tells Saul, go fulfill this command. Go do what God said and wipe out the Amalekites. And so Saul goes forth and he defeats them. But the problem, as we see in verses 10 through 31, ends up in Saul's rejection as king because he did not fully obey the command.

Instead, he kept some survivors. He kept some of the best of the flocks and herds and some of the goods that they were able to obtain by defeating the Amalekites. And so as a result of his disobedience, Saul is now rejected from being king by God.

Now, as we look at the book of 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, these are just incredible books, classic books that we could spend much time in. And there's really great leadership lessons that you can see as you go through 1 Samuel. We're not going to get into all of the details here, but I do want to throw out a couple of lessons that we can learn about leadership as we look at these chapters tonight. As we look at these things, of course, we have Saul, who is a

example of bad leadership and there's some important lessons we can learn from him. And then there's David who is really a good example of leadership and a lot of things that we can learn from him. Well, in this particular chapter, we have this leadership lesson and that is that obedience is better than sacrifice. This is really important. God challenges Saul through Samuel and says, look,

You disobeyed me and brought back things to sacrifice.

but I would have much preferred you to just obey me. Obedience is better than sacrifice. And you and I, we need to learn this lesson. And sometimes we think, well, I know this isn't what God wants, but I'm going to make up for it with, you know, extra giving or extra serving or extra Bible study. I'm going to sacrifice in some way to make up for my disobedience. But that doesn't work for God.

He says, obedience is better than sacrifice. And so make sure that you are obedient to God. Make sure that you're following his instruction and not doing what you want, hoping to make up for it later on.

And so Saul is rejected as king. It's amazing here, you can see the blindness of Saul. Disobedience brings blindness to our hearts. It brings blindness to our minds. Here in verse 15, Saul insists that he obeyed the Lord, even while he's explaining that he did not obey the Lord. He's explaining, I'm

Hey, I obeyed the Lord and I brought back these captives and all these goods. When the direct command from God was to wipe them out entirely. And so Saul is blind. He thinks, he believes, he obeyed even while he's testifying that he has not. And so Samuel challenges Saul and he says, well, how come I hear the sound of sheep? And so now Saul changes his story a little bit.

Still he insists that he obeyed there in verse 21, but now he blames the people. He says, yes, I obeyed the Lord, but the people brought back. They wanted to offer these sacrifices and so they brought them back. So now he's insisting that he obeyed, but he's blaming people for his disobedience. Again, you see clearly the blindness of Saul. And then in verse 24, he

You see Saul finally confessing his sin, but notice he's still blaming the people. And here you see the real failure of Saul. It was an issue of his heart that he was disobedient and he would not confess it. He would not repent of it. He's offering excuses. He's insisting that he's obeyed. He will not own it. He will not confess it before the Lord.

And so Saul is rejected from being king as a result of his disobedience. You and I, we need to remember that disobedience blinds us. And it's interesting to see, you know, it's real obvious to us as we see the actions and the testimony of Saul that he's disobedient while he's blind to it. And you know, that's the reality.

Many times when we're disobedient, we're blind to it and we insist, no, I'm being obedient. I'm right with God. I'm walking with God. While it's obvious to everybody else, you're not right with God. There is major problems, major issues in your life. You need to get right with God.

But because of our sin, we've been blinded. And so we need to watch out. It's why disobedience and sin is so deadly, because we become deceived by it.

Well, Samuel kills Agag in verse 32 and 33. He finishes the job that Saul failed to do in putting the king to death. And then Samuel goes home in verse 34 and 35 and he sees Saul no more. He doesn't go visit Saul anymore. He's not really part of Saul's life from there on out. We don't know exactly how long that was, but for the rest of Saul's life, Samuel is not part of it.

Well, here we have a map of what took place. So Gibeah is where Saul is from. He goes down to the south to Amalek. He defeats them. But we also see that he goes up to Mount Carmel, the northern area of Israel, and he sets up a monument to himself. Further evidence of his heart issues and the pride that is there. Samuel challenged him, at one time you were little in your own eyes.

but he's not little in his own eyes anymore. He's setting up monuments to himself because he's proud of himself for this great victory. And then he goes down to Gilgal and that's where Samuel meets him. And then Samuel goes home to Ramah and does not return to Saul again during Saul's life.

Chapter 16 now, verse 13 is the key verse. It says, Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and went to Ramah.

So now God is setting up the new king. He's replacing Saul with a man after God's own heart, a man by the name of David. Verses 1 through 5, you have Samuel inviting Jesse and Jesse's sons to a sacrifice, to a feast.

Remember that the sacrifices that were offered as fellowship offerings were partaken of. And so this was a feast that was associated with the sacrifice. And then the people invited to the feast would eat of the sacrificed animal. And it would be like a big barbecue fellowship together. And so Jesse and his sons are invited to this feast, this sacrifice that Samuel is hosting.

And God is going to be using this to indicate which is the man who will be the next king. In verses 6 through 13, we find that it's David. And Samuel anoints David with oil. It's a classic story though because you see there is Samuel sees Eliab, the firstborn. And he says, oh wow, this guy's tall. He's good looking. That must be the next king. That must be. Surely that's the one that God wants.

But verse 7 here of chapter 16 is so important for you and I to know. Because God tells 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. This is so important for us. We need to understand what God sees.

You and I, we can fool each other. You know, as we're here in worship, we can lift up our hands. We can make the facial expressions. We can bow down before the Lord. We can pray the prayers. And everybody around us thinks, wow, this person, you know, they're worshiping, they're praying, they know the Lord, they're walking with the Lord. But God can see right through all of the charade.

To see what's really going on in our hearts. Are you really worshipping? Or are you just pretending? Putting on a show for the people around you. Are you really praying? Or are you just putting on a show? Are you just going through the motions? What's going on in your heart? God says, look, I don't see as man sees. I look at the heart. But we look at the outward appearance. Which is, well, it's misleading.

Sometimes it's downright deceiving. The heart is so important. Now what this means is, what's really important, what you really need to focus on is your heart. Think about it this way. If you want to be the best parent that you can be, focus on your heart. Have a heart that's right with God. Have a heart that's near to God. Be pursuing after the heart of God.

You could focus on a bunch of outward things and read a bunch of magazines and, you know, take a bunch of classes or whatever. But if you really want to be the best parent that you can be, you need to focus on your heart. Because that's the most important thing. If you want to be the best spouse that you can be, you can go to the marriage ministry, you can take marriage classes, you can go to conferences and retreats. But if you're not dealing with your heart, it will really not be effective.

If you want to be the best that you can be, you need to have a heart that's right with God. And that includes every area of your life. It's not just, you know, religious areas. If you want to be the best employee that you can be, you need to get your heart right with God. You want to be the best boss that you can be, you need to get your heart right with God. Make sure, because that's what God sees, because that's what's most important.

We need to face the facts that the secret issues of the heart really do matter. They really do make a difference. And it impacts how we live. It impacts how we parent, what kind of spouse we are, how we lead, how we work. It impacts every area of our life. That's why the Proverbs say, guard your heart with all diligence because out of it, it's the source of all your life.

So guard your heart. Get your heart right with God. Well, God's looking at the heart. Samuel's looking on the outside, but he lets God indicate. Well, it's not this son. It's not this son. It's not this son. It's not this son. It's not this son. That's it. That's all the sons that are there. Samuel goes, well, something's wrong here. Do you have another son that's not here? What's going on? And Jesse says, oh yeah, yeah, it's just David, you know. It's interesting. David's left out.

He's left out. He's thought of as insignificant. Not even important enough to invite to this, you know, special feast that Samuel is hosting. But that's the one that God chose. And Samuel says, well, wait, bring him. And when he sees him, God says, that's the one. That's the man after God's own heart. And so now David is anointed by Samuel to be the king of Israel.

Here's another quick leadership lesson. Anointing is different than timing. Anointing is different than timing. He's anointed king right now. Here in chapter 16. But he doesn't become king for, we don't know exactly, but another 15 years or so. There's a lot of preparation that takes place. And so...

When you experience the anointing of God, the calling of God, He reveals to you perhaps, this is what I want to do with your life. We often assume, and so we try to do it right then, but many times there's a good season of preparation. He gives you an indication, this is what I want to do. Now I'm going to take some time to prepare you to fulfill what I've called you to do. Anointing is different than timing.

Well, in verses 14 through 18, we have Saul troubled by his spirit, a distressing spirit from the Lord, it says. The Holy Spirit is removed from Saul and the Holy Spirit is poured out upon David. Now, some people are troubled by this. How could a just distressing spirit come from the Lord? It seems contrary in our minds to the character and the nature of God that God could send a distressing spirit.

There's basically kind of two possibilities that you could consider. One is that the distressing spirit was from the Lord in the sense that

He removed the protection from Saul. And so the Holy Spirit was removed from him. And so when the Holy Spirit was removed, then this spirit came in and distressed Saul. The other thought, the other possibility is kind of a more just a stark look at the sovereignty of God and saying, God is God and he can use...

whatever means and methods he wants to use. He can use Satan. He can use demons. He can use whatever he wants to use to accomplish his own purposes. And so that's generally looked at as kind of the two possibilities of understanding this passage in the distressing spirit from the Lord. Now, here's what I would say.

Those two possibilities, I would actually suggest, they're actually the same thing. It's just a matter of perspective and how you look at it. Think about it this way. If I were to hitch a ride with you and we get out of the car after we reach our destination and I forget to lock your door. And then while we're having lunch or whatever, then someone comes and steals your stereo.

Well, it happened because I didn't lock the door, right? That wasn't intentional. It wasn't a plan. It just, you know, I forgot. I didn't lock the door and I didn't know that that was going to happen. God is not like that. God knows what's going to happen. So if God gets in the car with you and you take him to lunch and he gets out of the car and he leaves the car unlocked,

He knows what's going to happen. Now, it's not that God stole your stereo or even that God sent someone to steal your stereo. It's just that he removed the protection. He left it unlocked knowing what was going to happen. Now, you could say that, you know, he caused your stereo to be stolen or you could say that it was a distressing spirit from the Lord. When he removed the protection from Saul, he knew what was going to happen.

He knew the distressing spirit that would come. And so whether he's directly sending the distressing spirit or he's removing the protection knowing that the distressing spirit is going to come against Saul, it boils down to the same thing. And the last part I would add on to that is at no point is Saul refused the opportunity to repent. His free will is not being taken away.

And we saw throughout, as we studied the prophets and the prophecies of judgments for many years on Wednesday evenings, we saw how when these judgments are brought upon God's people, it's a call to repentance. It's an opportunity to repent.

And so a distressing spirit from the Lord, whether it be a direct sending or a moving of protection, it's basically the same thing. It's an opportunity for Saul to recognize where he's at and to repent. And so it's really not contrary to God's nature, even though it might appear so to our own hearts as we look at it.

Well, then in verses 19 through 23, we see David is brought in and his music refreshes Saul. And so this distressing spirit comes upon Saul. He's troubled and now they find a solution. David's able to play his harp, which basically was like an ancient guitar. It was a simple stringed instrument. Not like the big things, you know, they cart around on wheels and stuff. It was like a handheld stringed instrument that he would be able to play.

And it would soothe Saul's spirit in the midst of that. And so they summon David, who's from Benjamin. And, well, actually, let me back up a little bit. So this is Samuel anointing David. Samuel's from Ramah. He goes down to Bethlehem. He anoints David. And then later, David is brought from Bethlehem to Gibeah to minister to Saul with his music. Well, that brings us to chapter 17.

Another hallmark classic chapter of the Bible. 1 Samuel 17 50 is the key verse. It says, So here we're introduced to Goliath. In verses 1 through 11 we see Goliath defies the army of Israel.

And so the two armies are lined up, but they're not really going into battle. Instead, Goliath stands out in front and challenges them. He says, look, I'll represent the Philistines. You send me your best warrior. The two of us will fight. And whoever loses, well, their people will be the servants to the victor's people. And so Goliath there is...

challenging and intimidating the army of Israel. Now, it's very easy for him to intimidate because, well, it records here that he's six cubits and a span tall. That works out to about nine foot, nine inches tall. And to kind of give you a picture of that, I did my best Goliath impression right here on the projector.

That's about where his face would be. Actually a couple inches higher. That's Goliath's size. And maybe after service, you know, just walk up to it and say, hey, what you got? You know, or something. I don't know why I said that. That was weird. But anyways...

You can get a picture of what it was like to see Goliath as he was this huge warrior. And he's saying, fight me one-on-one. Fight me in place of the whole army. And it says in verse 11, when Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. And so Israel is freaked out at this point because this is a massive warrior.

Now David comes in verses 12 through 30 and he hears Goliath's taunts. And day after day he's going out and calling out to Israel, hey who's man enough to face me? Who's going to challenge me? Let's represent our armies and fight one-on-one. And as David hears this, he's offended. He's offended by Goliath. He says, how can they let him

Defy the armies of God. These are God's people he's talking to. How can they let this go on? He's offended by Goliath and he's offended by the inaction of the people there in the army. And so David's talking about that and word gets to Saul. And so now they bring David to Saul in verses 31 through 39. And Saul says, you're just a kid. You can't go out and fight this guy. David says, oh yeah, I can.

God's proven himself faithful in the past. And he recounts a victory with the lion and with a bear. God's delivered me. He's enabled me to have victory. And Saul says, well, if you're going to go out there, we at least got to give you some protection. So he puts his armor on David.

but it doesn't fit. He says, look, this doesn't work right. It doesn't fit right. I'm not used to this. This isn't going to work. And so he takes the armor off. Now, as you look at some spiritual application here, again, we see another leadership lesson, and that is be yourself. Be yourself. Don't try to fit in someone else's armor.

David Guzik says, often people try to fight with another person's armor. They see God do something wonderful through someone else and they try to copy it without really making it their own. This is never how God's work is most effectively done. You see, God wants you to hear from him and respond to him and be obedient to what he puts upon your heart. Not for you to just see what somebody else is doing and then copy it. You need to have your own relationship with the Lord.

And maybe God will call you to do the same thing, but the source has to be the Lord. You need to have that connection to the Lord. And Saul says, hey, be like me. Wear my armor. And David says, it doesn't fit. It doesn't work. I got to do what I'm used to doing. I got to use what God has given to me. And so now David goes out from here in verses 40 through 54, and he's victorious. He kills Goliath.

I love what David says as he charges towards Goliath. He says in verse 45, Again, David is offended at this Philistine who is defying God and his armies.

And he says, look, you have all these physical things and it's very intimidating. But I come to you in the name of the Lord. In the name of the Lord. What does he have? Just the simple things that he's been using. A sling and a stone. But he comes to him in the name of the Lord. He's defending God. He's doing it for God. He's seeking to honor God. This is something that you and I...

also need to learn. We have this great example here of David. Quick leadership lesson. Use what you have in the name of the Lord. A lot of times we look at the enemy and we say, wow, they've got such a great education. They've got such wealth. They've got such power. And I just have a couple pennies in the bank. Use what you have in the name of the Lord. Well, I don't have a lot of research and education.

But you have a testimony. Use what you have in the name of the Lord. Well, I just know this one verse. That's all I really know. I don't got much more than that. Use what you have in the name of the Lord. I don't even know a verse and I don't really have much of a testimony. But, I mean, I guess I could pray for somebody. Use what you have in the name of the Lord. Listen, God uses the simple, the weak. He uses you and me.

So that it's his work. We're a bunch of little Davids with really nothing to offer, with no understandable victory. It shouldn't make sense because, well, it's to glory and honor God. Paul says in Colossians chapter 3 verse 17, whatever you do in word or in deed, do it all in the name of the Lord. And David runs at Goliath in the name of the Lord. And I want to encourage you

Use what you have in the name of the Lord. Whatever you do, do it for God. Do it in His name. Do it to honor Him. And God can accomplish great victories through you. Well, as Saul watches this unfold, he sees David going out against the Philistine. He's marveling at the faith, at the boldness. I'm really surprised that

That Saul even let David go. But again, we see the weakness here of Saul. Because remember, the deal is, one person represents the army. So if David had lost, then Israel would have been the Philistine servants. But Saul says, okay, fine, you can represent us. There's no one willing to step up in the name of the Lord and

go forward into this battle. But David is willing, so he says, well, okay, go ahead. But he's marveling. He says, who is this guy? Who's his father? He inquires there about his father in verses 55 through 58. I see Saul at this point really beginning to take notice of David. As he sees this kid, formerly he knew David as just, you know, a servant around the palace who played music sometimes when he was distressed.

But now he's starting to recognize he's not just some faceless, nameless servant. There's something important about him. There's something to take note of about David. And so he goes out against Goliath. Well, to give you a little bit more perspective on the size of Goliath, here I put together this chart for you. So you have Goliath there at 9 foot 9 inches tall.

Next closest in our body, I think, is Javier, and that's about 6'3". I'm about 5'8", and then there's Richard at 4'2". Okay, there's the accurate one. We're about the same. So it would have been quite intimidating, but again, David's not focused on the size. He's not focused on the weapons. He's not focused on the armor.

He's focused on the Lord. And he says, I come at you in the name of the Lord. Well, all of this took place in Elah Valley.

There it was kind of just within the border of Saul's territory as he ruled over Israel. And so David defeats Goliath there in Elah Valley and then they pursue the Philistines to Ekron and to Gath. They kind of split up and so they pursue them there and they have the victory over the Philistines that day. All right, chapter 18 verse 12 is the key verse.

It says, now Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him, but had departed from Saul. In verses 1 through 4, you see Jonathan and David becoming friends. Describes them as being knit together. We saw Jonathan already take some steps of faith. He's trusting in God. He's the one who said to his armor bearer, hey, if God wants to save by a few, he can do that.

Just as easy as he could save by many. So let's go. Let's test the waters. Let's see if God wants to deliver. And so now Jonathan sees David go up against Goliath and he says, yeah, right on. All right. This is a man that I can relate to. We trust in the same God. We believe in the same God. He says, this is my kind of guy. And so Jonathan and David become friends now after this as they realize, wow, we...

We believe in God. We trust in Him. We know that He can deliver. Now, some have twisted this account.

and really made it perverted and try to ascribe some type of homosexual type relationship between Jonathan and David. But that is not the case. That is not what's being described here. It's describing a friendship and nothing more. But it's a strong friendship. It's a close friendship that we'll see develop over the next couple chapters.

Understand the Bible's not shy about addressing homosexuality. We've already seen it. You remember Sodom and Gomorrah? You remember, you know, the whole tribe of Benjamin and the issues that went on there and how God, you know, had to deal with the tribe. And it was great immorality that was going on. And the Bible's not shy about that. And so if it was an issue, then God would have dealt with it. But that's not at all what was happening.

Well, David returns with the army in verses 5 through 9. Saul begins to be upset because everybody's praising David. Saul has slain his thousands, but David his tens of thousands. There's this great praise, this exaggerated praise going on with David. Now, Saul's upset because he knows that God is raising up a new leader. Remember Samuel told him just a couple chapters back.

When he said, God's rejected you from being king and he's appointed your neighbor who's better than you. And he's going to be king. And so Saul now is seeing this unfold. And chapter 18 is full of this. As Saul is realizing, recognizing that leader that Samuel talked about, this is David. He's figuring out that it's David that God has appointed to rule over Israel.

Leadership lesson here that we learned from Saul. Let God raise up the leaders that he wants. Saul here in this chapter and for the next few chapters, he's going to be fighting against God as he tries to remove David, eliminate David as a threat. He's trying to prevent God's plan from unfolding as he recognizes David is the one who's called to be king. Saul says, uh-uh, not on my watch. I'm going to put a stop to this.

But it's God's plan. And David is God's anointed. And so he's fighting against God the whole time. Well, Saul is more and more upset. And so we see in verses 10 through 11 that now he casts a spear at David. He's upset. They're ascribing to him tens of thousands. They're ascribing to him great honor and glory. And that glory belongs to me. I'm the rightful king. Saul is going through in his mind.

And now he's distressed by the spirit once again. And there's David seeking to calm Saul by playing his music. But Saul has a javelin and he throws it. He misses. Either he's a bad aim or David dodges. We're not sure which. But he casts the spirit, David. And then in verses 12 through 16, it goes on to describe Saul being terribly afraid of David. Three times here in this chapter, over and over, it says that Saul is afraid of David.

He's fearful of David. He's terrified of David. Why? Because he's trying to hold on to his throne. He's fighting against God, trying to prevent God's plan. Well then verses 17 through 30 describes David as he marries Michelle, Saul's daughter. Originally he was promised to marry a different daughter and then Saul kind of took that away and

She got married to somebody else instead. Again, just trying to mess with David. And then he sees that Michelle likes David. In verse 21, Saul says, 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. So he tells David again, hey, be my son-in-law. You can marry my daughter Michelle. But Saul's plan is,

she's going to cause you to stumble and then you're going to fall before the Philistines. You're going to die. It's just a trap that Saul is trying to set up in order to get rid of David. Chapter 19 now, verse 1 is the key verse. It says, Now Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted greatly in David.

Here in verses 1 through 7, you have Jonathan interceding for David as Saul gives the command. All right, guys, we got to take David out, put him to death. But Jonathan's stepping in saying, no, we can't do this. David is not your enemy. You know, as we look at this whole situation between Saul and David and Jonathan's kind of here stuck in the middle.

But being stuck in the middle, I'm sure you are familiar with that. You know that where you're just, you're stuck in between two people and you're forced to be the middle man. It's not a comfortable thing. You don't want to be there. But we see such great balance here in Jonathan. Through this whole time, he remains loyal to his father. He remains loyal to Saul. At the same time, he remains loving to David.

But he's got balance to this. He's not so loyal as to do wrong. So he does disobey his dad when his dad commands him to do something that is wrong, that is sinful. And so he's maintaining his loyalty up to the point that he should, where he's not now disobeying God. He's loyal to God first. But at the same time, he's maintaining...

this love of David, this relationship with David, but he's not so loving to David that he becomes disloyal to his father. You could see him side with David and say, Dad, I'm with David. But he doesn't. He's loyal to his father. He fulfills his role. He honors his father, just as the scripture says. But at the same time, he's faithful to love David and to help him as best he can. It's a great balance that we see here.

And we can see a leadership lesson from Jonathan to be loyal and to be loving in the midst of those times. Well, verses 8 through 17, Saul now seeks to kill David. At first, Jonathan's able to persuade him. Oh, you're right, Jonathan. Good point. Thanks for reminding me. I guess we don't have to put David to death. But now, in verses 8 through 17, wait, never mind. I go back to what I originally thought. We got to kill him. We got to put him to death. You know, it's interesting that

Before Goliath, David's music helped Saul. In chapter 16, we see David's brought in. The music ministers to Saul. The distressing spirit is removed or soothed or whatever, and it ministers to him. But every time we see David playing music after this, we saw it in the previous chapter, and now in this chapter, it doesn't help. And Saul casts a spear at David. What happened? What happened?

Did David lose his musical ability? He forgot a couple chords? No. What happened is Saul, his heart is getting darker and darker. He's continuing to push against the plan of God, to rebel against God. And so he's getting worse and worse. And so he throws another spear at David. And now verses 18 through 24, we have David fleeing to Samuel.

And Saul tries to chase him. He sends men after him, but God intercedes and they begin to prophesy. And so Saul says, well, if you got to get a job done, you got to do it yourself. And so he goes, but then God comes upon him and he begins to prophesy as well. God is showing Saul without a shadow of a doubt, this is my man. You're fighting against me. But see, this is the problem of Saul. Even though God is showing him these things, he refuses to repent.

he will not turn back. Well, that brings us to our final chapter this evening, and that's chapter 20. Verse 30 is the key verse. It says, then Saul's anger was aroused against Jonathan. And he said to him, you are a son of a perverse, rebellious woman. I do not know, or 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.

Here we see Saul become incredibly upset with Jonathan. It begins in verses 1 through 23 where Jonathan makes a covenant with David. The covenant is, Jonathan says, look, I know God's called you to be king. When you're king, let's make a covenant. You'll show kindness to my family. Jonathan recognizes, just like his father does, David is called to be king. He's anointed to be king. He's the next king of Israel. Now,

The traditional mindset would be that Jonathan would be the next on the throne. Jonathan, in natural thinking, would be threatened by David because, hey, that's my throne, that's my position, why are you trying to take it from me? But Jonathan has the heart of God.

He says, look, you're called to be king. Here's what I ask. Just be kind to my family. Now, one of the traditions of the day was the king, the new king that would come in, if he was from a different line, he would wipe out the family of the previous king so that there would be no threat to take back the throne. And so Jonathan is saying, look, just be kind to my family. Don't wipe them out when you become king. We see Jonathan's faith here.

Then in verses 24 through 34, Jonathan learns of Saul's intentions toward David. They set up a test. Hey, there's a feast happening. I'm supposed to be there, David says. I'm going to be gone. And then you can find out. If he gets really angry and upset, then you know he's out to kill me. Because Jonathan doesn't believe it. He's like, what do you mean? I talked to my dad. He said, no, he's not going to kill you. David's like, no, he's trying to kill me. There's just a step between me and death.

In verse 31, Saul's intentions are revealed as he shouts at Jonathan. He says, for as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, you shall not be established nor your kingdom. Therefore, send and bring him to me for he shall surely die. Saul says, look, he's going to be the next king. That's why you got to kill him because otherwise you're not going to get on the throne. Saul is fighting against God, refusing.

To accept God's plan. And here Saul even casts a spear at Jonathan now in verse 33. You see the twistedness of his mind. Look, this is what disobedience does. He's fighting against God saying, I want to put my son on the throne. But at the same time, he's so angry, he casts a spear at his own son. He wouldn't even be able to fulfill his own plan if he was a better aim. He's distorted. He's twisted. He's confused.

because of disobedience. This is what happens with sin. Well, Jonathan now understands in verses 35 through 42, he sends David away. And for the rest of Jonathan's life, for the rest of Saul's life, David will be on the run. He will not return to the palace until he's king. There's going to be several years now of hardship as David is on the run, fleeing for his life from Saul. It's a good leadership lesson.

Preparation to lead often involves a time of testing, a season of difficulty. It's preparation for what God has planned next. Well, this evening as we finish up our time together, the worship team is going to come up and they're going to conclude us in a song. And as they conclude us in this song, I want to remind you of the things that I kind of touched on throughout our time together about the heart. The heart is so important.

Your heart, it needs to be right with God. You need to guard your heart. The secret things that go on within your heart, they really matter. They really are important. Because God sees your heart. And you might think, well, I'm struggling in this area of my life. I have these issues as a parent or these issues as a spouse or these issues as...

a teacher, a student, a boss, an employee. I have these issues, whatever they might be. And you and I, we tend to look on the external. How can we fix this? But as often has been said, the heart of the matter is a matter of the heart. Listen, God sees your heart. He's looking at it right now. And he's provided you this evening an opportunity to repent.

You and I, when our hearts are not right with God, we have a choice to make. We can be like Saul and continue to insist, no, I'm fine, I'm obedient, I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. We can blame others, we can blame all kinds of things, and that's why, you know, I'm obedient, but I'm not really obedient, I'm disobedient, but it's because of other people, it's because I was raised this way, it's because I was born into this, whatever. We can be like Saul and continue on and refuse to repent, or we can be like David and say,

Listen, don't be like Saul. Saul was even able to finally confess and say, okay, okay, you're right, you got me, I sinned. But he's still blaming the people and he's still not turning from sin. He's not crying out to God to change his heart. David was not a perfect man. He made mistakes. We'll see them as we continue on. But when David made perhaps his greatest mistake and he's called on it, just like Saul was called on his great mistake.

David writes Psalm chapter 51 where he's calling out to God, You're right. My heart's wrong. I need for you to change me. And in Psalm chapter 51 verse 10, he says, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Listen, this evening is an opportunity for you to call out to the Lord.

And it might be your last opportunity to call out to the Lord to change your heart. Don't be like Saul. Don't harbor those issues of sin and pride and just allow them to continue. But as they lead us in worship in this song, it's time for you to call out to the Lord. Create in me a clean heart. You're going to mess up. You're going to fall. But continue to take your heart back to the Lord. Repenting from sin. Not repenting.

persisting in it. And so let's ask God to create in us a clean heart. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.