Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

To read 1 Samuel 15, click the link HERE.

The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”
But Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.”
The Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate.”
Samuel did what the Lord said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, “Do you come in peace?”
Samuel replied, “Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.”
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “The Lord has not chosen this one either.” Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, “Nor has the Lord chosen this one.” Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, “The Lord has not chosen these.” So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”
“There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered. “He is tending the sheep.”
Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.”
So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features.
Then the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.”
So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David. Samuel then went to Ramah.
Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him.
Saul’s attendants said to him, “See, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. Let our lord command his servants here to search for someone who can play the lyre. He will play when the evil spirit from God comes on you, and you will feel better.”
So Saul said to his attendants, “Find someone who plays well and bring him to me.”
One of the servants answered, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the lyre. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the Lord is with him.”
Then Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me your son David, who is with the sheep.” So Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them with his son David to Saul.
David came to Saul and entered his service. Saul liked him very much, and David became one of his armor-bearers. Then Saul sent word to Jesse, saying, “Allow David to remain in my service, for I am pleased with him.”
Whenever the spirit from God came on Saul, David would take up his lyre and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.

• 1 Samuel 16:1-23

To read 1 Samuel 17, click the link HERE.

After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return home to his family. And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.
Whatever mission Saul sent him on, David was so successful that Saul gave him a high rank in the army. This pleased all the troops, and Saul’s officers as well.
When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with timbrels and lyres. As they danced, they sang:
“Saul has slain his thousands,
    and David his tens of thousands.”
Saul was very angry; this refrain displeased him greatly. “They have credited David with tens of thousands,” he thought, “but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?” And from that time on Saul kept a close eye on David.
The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully on Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the lyre, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand and he hurled it, saying to himself, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David eluded him twice.
Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with David but had departed from Saul. So he sent David away from him and gave him command over a thousand men, and David led the troops in their campaigns. In everything he did he had great success, because the Lord was with him. When Saul saw how successful he was, he was afraid of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he led them in their campaigns.
Saul said to David, “Here is my older daughter Merab. I will give her to you in marriage; only serve me bravely and fight the battles of the Lord.” For Saul said to himself, “I will not raise a hand against him. Let the Philistines do that!”
But David said to Saul, “Who am I, and what is my family or my clan in Israel, that I should become the king’s son-in-law?” So when the time came for Merab, Saul’s daughter, to be given to David, she was given in marriage to Adriel of Meholah.
Now Saul’s daughter Michal was in love with David, and when they told Saul about it, he was pleased. “I will give her to him,” he thought, “so that she may be a snare to him and so that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” So Saul said to David, “Now you have a second opportunity to become my son-in-law.”
Then Saul ordered his attendants: “Speak to David privately and say, ‘Look, the king likes you, and his attendants all love you; now become his son-in-law.’”
They repeated these words to David. But David said, “Do you think it is a small matter to become the king’s son-in-law? I’m only a poor man and little known.”
When Saul’s servants told him what David had said, Saul replied, “Say to David, ‘The king wants no other price for the bride than a hundred Philistine foreskins, to take revenge on his enemies.’” Saul’s plan was to have David fall by the hands of the Philistines.
When the attendants told David these things, he was pleased to become the king’s son-in-law. So before the allotted time elapsed, David took his men with him and went out and killed two hundred Philistines and brought back their foreskins. They counted out the full number to the king so that David might become the king’s son-in-law. Then Saul gave him his daughter Michal in marriage.
When Saul realized that the Lord was with David and that his daughter Michal loved David, Saul became still more afraid of him, and he remained his enemy the rest of his days.
The Philistine commanders continued to go out to battle, and as often as they did, David met with more success than the rest of Saul’s officers, and his name became well known.

• 1 Samuel 18:1-30

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

1 Samuel 15:1-3 ‘Divine Instruction against the Amalekites’: “Saul received explicit instructions from Samuel to offer no quarter to the Amalekites.  The Amalekites were Israel’s ancient enemies, dating back 400 years to the early days of the Exodus. After this initial confrontation, the Lord marked the entire Amalekite nation for complete and merciless extermination (Exodus 17:14-16). That’s because Amalek had fallen afoul of one of the stipulations of the unconditional Abrahamic Covenant: ‘The one who curses you I will curse’ (Genesis 12:3).
“Samuel’s orders were carried out by Saul, but imperfectly. Saul not only spared the life of Amalek’s king, Agag, but he also allowed the Israelites to cull from destruction all the Amalekites’ finest animals and possessions. This resulted in the Israelites’ destruction only of that which no one wanted to take for himself as spoil. Against God’s clear command, a remnant of the Amalekites survived this confrontation, and the nation would not be conclusively eradicated by Israel until the events described within 1 Chronicles 4:43.”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

1 Samuel 15:7-9 ‘One Last Chance, but Saul Failed’: ”This was Saul’s last chance, because if Saul obeyed this command, he would demonstrate that he was ready to allow the Spirit to do His work against the flesh. In New Testament terms, God was giving Saul a chance to allow God to crucify the flesh and put it to death. The Amalekites are a picture throughout Scripture of the principle of the flesh that opposes the things of God.
“They were a foreign tribe about whom Moses said to Israel, ‘The Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation’ (Ex. 17:16). God gave Saul this opportunity to carry out His will and obliterate the Amalekites, but what did Saul choose to do?
“Note that line: ‘everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.’ Despised and weak in whose eyes? I wonder if it wasn’t the donkeys that Saul wanted to save. After all, he appreciated farm animals. He probably reasoned, ‘Why should we destroy the e perfectly good animals?’ He presumed to find something good in what God had already condemned as useless. “

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

1 Samuel 15:12 ‘Carmel’: “This is not Mt. Carmel of Elijah fame (1 Kin. 18:20ff.), but a Carmel located 7 mi. S of Hebron. monument for himself. Saul, apparently taking credit for the victory, established a monument to himself (cf. Absalom in 2 Sam. 18:18). This foolish act of contemptible pride was Saul’s expression of self-worship rather than true worship of God and another evidence of his spiritual weakness. Gilgal. The site of Samuel’s first confrontation with Saul (13:7b–15) became the site of this pronouncement of judgment.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Samuel 15:19-23 ‘Defecting blame and being enslaved by the flesh’: ”Saul answered, ‘The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest’ (1 Sam. 15:15). That is a common excuse, isn’t it? We keep something for ourselves, and we pretend to dedicate it to God! The exchange between Samuel and Saul is very instructive for us today.
“No one can walk in authority and freedom as God intended while rejecting the authority of God’s Spirit. That is the lesson of the tragic story of Saul-the man of the flesh. “

• Ray C. Stedman, Adventuring Through the Bible

1 Samuel 15:22-35 ‘Saul Rejected as King’: “When Samuel heard the bleating of sheep and the lowing of oxen (15:14), he confronted Saul about his disobedience. Saul ineffectually attempted to justify his actions to the prophet (see 13:13-21). Samuel responded to Saul’s pitiful excuses with a message of severe and irrevocable divine rejection (15:22-26).
“Saul, though divinely rejected, would still remain king of Israel for at least another decade. However, from this point onward, the narrative relates the unavoidable decline of Saul and the inevitable rise of God’s chosen successor, the future King David (2 Samuel 5:1-4).”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

1 Samuel 15:22 ‘obedience, that one thing’: “Saul had been commanded to utterly slay all the Amalekites and their cattle. Instead of doing so, he spared the king and allowed his people to take the best of the oxen and of the sheep. When called to account for this, he declared that he did it with a view of offering sacrifice to God; but Samuel met him at once with the assurance that such sacrifices were no excuse for an act of direct rebellion, and in so doing he altered his sentence, which is worthy to be printed in letters of gold and to be hung up before the eyes of the present generation. Be it ever in our remembrance that to obey, to keep strictly in the path of our Savior’s command, is better than any outward form of religion, and to listen to his precepts with an attentive ear is better than to bring the fat of rams or anything else which we may wish to lay on his altar. God has given to the unconverted in the gospel dispensation a command. It is a command in the obeying of which there is eternal life, and the neglect of which will be and must be our everlasting ruin; that command is this: ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved’ (Ac 16:31). Yet most people, instead of obeying God, want to bring him sacrifices. They suppose their own way of salvation is much better than any that the Almighty can have devised, and therefore they offer their fat of rams. This takes different forms, but it is always the same principle. One person says, ‘I will give up all the things that my heart calls good, and will not that save me?’ No, it will not. When we have made all this sacrifice, all we will or can say of it is, ‘To obey is better than sacrifice.’ ‘Well, but suppose I begin to attend a place of worship? Suppose I go regularly, and as often as the doors are open? Suppose I go to early matins [morning prayers]. and to the evening song? Suppose I attend every day in the week where the bell is always going? Suppose I come to the sacrament and am baptized? Supposing I go through with the thing and give myself thoroughly up to all outward observances-will not all this save me? ‘No, nor will it even help us being saved. These things will no more save us than husks will fill our hungry bellies. It is not the husks we need; we need the grain. And so we do not need external ceremonies; we need the inward substance, and we will never get that except by trusting Jesus Christ.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

1 Samuel 15:22 ‘prayer is not substitute for obedience either’: “I believe our problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying; and it simply will not work.
“A church, for instance, follows its traditions without much thought about whether they are scriptural or not. Or it surrenders to pressure from public opinion and falls in with popular trends which carry it far from the New Testament pattern. Then the leaders notice a lack of spiritual power among the people and become concerned about it. What to do? How can they achieve that revitalization of spirit they need so badly? How can they bring down refreshing showers to quicken their fainting souls?
“The answer is all ready for them. The books tell them how-pray! The passing evangelist confirms what the books have said-pray! The word is echoed back and forth, growing in volume until it becomes a roar-pray! So the pastor calls his people to prayer. Days and nights are spent begging God to be merciful and send revival upon His people. The tide of feeling runs high and it looks for a while as if the revival might be on the way. But it fails to arrive and the zeal for prayer begins to flag. Soon the church is back where it was before, and a numb discouragement settles over everyone. What has gone wrong?
“Simply this: Neither the leaders nor the people have made any effort to obey the Word of God. They felt that their only weakness was failure to pray, when actually in a score of ways they were falling short in the vital matter of obedience. ‘To obey is better than sacrifice’ (1 Samuel 15:22). Prayer is never an acceptable substitute for obedience. The sovereign Lord accepts no offering from His creatures that is not accompanied by obedience. To pray for revival while ignoring or actually flouting the plain precept laid down in the Scriptures is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble.
“It has been quite overlooked in recent times that the faith of Christ is an absolute arbiter. It preempts the whole redeemed personality and seizes upon the individual to the exclusion of all other claims. Or more accurately, it makes every legitimate claim on the Christian’s life conditional, and without hesitation decides the place each claim shall have in the total scheme. The act of committal to Christ in salvation releases the believing man from the penalty of sin, but it does not release him from the obligation to obey the words of Christ. Rather it brings him under the joyous necessity to obey.”

• A. W. Tozer, Of God and Men

1 Samuel 15:28 ‘torn the kingdom’: “Saul’s judgment was a settled matter on the day of his disobedience with the Amalekites. Samuel used the illustration as it vividly portrayed how God would take the kingdom from Saul as he had just torn Samuel’s robe. a neighbor of yours. This was a reference to David (cf. 28:17).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Samuel 16:2 ‘Saul … will kill me’: ”Saul’s unbalanced emotional state was already known in Israel. It is ironic that Samuel’s initial reaction to the word of the Lord was fear of Saul instead of rejoicing at God’s provision to Israel (and ultimately to all the nations; e.g., 1 Kin. 8:41–43). The route from Ramah to Bethlehem would take Samuel through Gibeah of Saul (cf. 10:26; 11:14). I have come to sacrifice. The place of sacrifice could be in any town until the establishment of the house of God in Jerusalem (Deut. 12:11).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Samuel 16:7 ‘From the Inside Out’: ”Everybody in eighth grade had a pair of Chuck Taylor basketball shoes. Everybody. They were a canvas high-top, the Converse All Star, the company’s most popular shoe. With all the shoes out there today, the popularity of a canvas high-top may be hard to imagine. But at that time, those were the shoes to have-if you were somebody. And I wanted them.
“I had that opportunity when my father took me to Kmart. The Chuck Taylors were in stock, retailing for $7.99. Right next to them was the Kmart version of the same shoe for $3.99. My dad showed me that the shoes were made of the same material and were of the same quality, and he didn’t want to pay twice as much for the marketing hype. He told me that for playing basketball, the Kmart shoes would do just fine. I tried to explain how important it was to have the cool shoes-that my friends’ opinions mattered to me and I wanted to be part of the group. He didn’t tell me I couldn’t get the Chuck Taylors, but he did say he wasn’t going to spend the extra money for them. His job, as he saw it, was to provide what I needed. If l wanted more than that, I could pay the difference. It was quite a dilemma-my first lesson in style versus substance.
“That’s a hard lesson to learn, and as we go through life, the stakes get much higher than shoes. Ironically, Converse later had the slogan, ‘It’s what’s inside that counts,’ and they were right. Valuing style over substance can force us into a lot of unwise decisions, not only with minor purchases but also big ones, and not only with what we buy but with the goals we pursue and the people we choose to associate with. It can become a lifelong pattern that leaves us disappointed in the long run. “

• Tony Dungy, Uncommon Life – Daily Challenge (excerpt from devotion for 27 April)

1 Samuel 16:7 ‘The Reality of the Unseen’: “Indeed it may be truthfully said that everything of lasting value in the Christian life is unseen and eternal. Things seen are of little real significance in the light of God’s presence. He pays small attention to the beauty of a woman or the strength of a man. With Him the heart is all that matters. The rest of the life comes into notice only because it represents the dwelling place of the inner eternal being.
“The solution to life’s problems is spiritual because the essence of life is spiritual. It is astonishing how many difficulties clear up without any effort when the inner life gets straightened out. …
“Church difficulties are spiritual also and admit of a spiritual answer. Whatever may be wrong in the life of any church may be cleared up by recognizing the quality of the trouble and dealing with it at the root. Prayer, humility, and a generous application of the Spirit of Christ will cure just about any disease in the body of believers. Yet this is usually the last thing we think about when difficulties arise. We often attempt to cure spiritual ills with carnal medicines, and the results are more than disappointing.”

• A. W. Tozer, The Next Chapter after the Last

1 Samuel 16:12-23 ‘David Anointed King’: “Following God’s announcement of His rejection of Saul as king, Samuel was commissioned to discreetly meet and anoint Saul’s successor at the home of Jesse of Bethlehem (16:1-11). After Samuel viewed a parade of Jesse’s sons, the youngest, David, a teenager, was finally invited into the gathering and identified as the Lord’s choice (16:12). Even then, more than a decade would go by before David was publicly recognized as king, first over Judah (2 Samuel 2:4), and finally, over all Israel (2 Samuel 5:1-4).
“Concurrent with David’s rise and his being filled with the Spirit of the Lord was the departure of God’s Spirit from Saul and his being terrorized by a divinely authorized evil spirit (1 Samuel 16:14). A summons was issued for a skillful musician to play the lyre within the royal court in order to soothe the king. God providently arranged for the summons to be answered by David, who now would gain entry into Saul’s world. Becoming Saul’s personal attendant, David successfully forged a trusting relationship with the acutely troubled king, the man whom David was ordained to replace (16:15-23).”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

1 Samuel 16:12 ‘God was with Samuel in Bethlehem’: “Samuel was sent to Bethlehem to discover the object of God’s election. This would have been a difficult task if the God who sent him had not accompanied him and spoken with the sure voice of inspiration within him as soon as the chosen object stood before him. Our task is not to guess who are God’s elect, apart from marks and evidences. What was done in the councils of eternity before the world was made is hidden in the mind of God, and we must not curiously intrude where the door is closed by the hand of wisdom. Yet in the preaching of the Word, a discovery is made of God’s secret election. The gospel is a fan that, while it drives away the chaff, leaves the wheat on the floor. The gospel is like a refiner’s fire and like the fuller’s soap, removing all that is extraneous and worthless but revealing the precious and the pure. We ministers have no other way by which to discern the saints of God, and to separate the precious from the vile, but by faithfully preaching the truth of God as it is in Jesus, and observing its effects. As for ourselves, we may discover our own calling and election and make them sure. Paul said of the Thessalonians that he knew their election of God, and we may discover the election of the other people to a high degree of probability by their conduct and conversation and be certified of our own election, even to infallibility, by the witness of the Spirit within that we are born of God. If our heart is renewed by the Spirit, if we are made new creatures in Christ Jesus, if we are reconciled to God and redeemed from dead works, we may know that our names were written in the Lamb’s book of life from before the foundation of the world. We do not intend to discuss the reason of God’s election-let us not be misunderstood-of that we know nothing; we believe God chooses wisely, but he chooses from reasons not known to us, probably reasons which could not be understood by us. All we know is, ‘Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight.’ We are now speaking of the way by which God seals his elect and distinguishes his chosen ones after his grace has operated on them. They are distinguished by having a heart that differs from other people. May we be able thus to discover whether we are among them.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

1 Samuel 16:14 ‘The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul’: “When David’s ascent to the throne began, Saul’s slow and painful descent began also (cf. 18:12). Without God’s empowering Holy Spirit, Saul was effectively no longer king over Israel (15:28), although his physical removal from the throne, and his death, happened many years later. a distressing spirit. God, in His sovereignty, allowed an evil spirit to torment Saul (cf. Judg. 9:23; 1 Kin. 22:19–23; Job 1:6–12) for His purpose of establishing the throne of David. This spirit, a messenger from Satan, is to be distinguished from a troubled emotional state brought on by indwelling sin, or the harmful consequences of the sinful acts of others (e.g., spirit of jealousy, Num. 5:14). This demon spirit attacked Saul from without, for there is no evidence that the demon indwelt Saul. troubled him. Saul, whose inward constitution was already prone to questionable judgment and the fear of men, began to experience God’s judgment in the form of severe bouts of depression, anger, and delusion, initiated and aggravated by the evil spirit assigned to him. There are several NT occasions where God turned people over to demons or Satan for judgment (see Acts 5:1–3; 1 Cor. 5:1–7; 1 Tim. 1:18–20). He also used Satan or demons for the strengthening of the saints. See Job 1:1–2:6; Matt. 4:1ff.; Luke 22:31, 32; 2 Cor. 12:7–10.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Samuel 17:11 ‘Saul … dismayed and greatly afraid’: “Saul and Israel had proven themselves to be greatly concerned with outward appearances (10:23, 24; 15:30) and able to be influenced by the fear of men (12:12; 15:24). It is only natural that Goliath would be their worst nightmare come true.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Samuel 17:30 ’Intimidation, an old trick’: “Satan has been in this business of intimidating and silencing and oppressing the people of God for a long, long time.
“The armies of Israel experienced this kind of fright in the valley of Elah when Goliath and the Philistines were camped on the opposite mountain. King Saul was leading Israel, but he was sour, fearful, intimidated because of Goliath, that giant of a man who daily shouted his taunts, ‘I defy the armies of Israel this day!’ (1 Samuel 17:10). So the army towered in fear.
“But a little fellow by the name of David came along, and he was in right fellowship with the Lord. We are told that the spirit of the Lord came upon David, who said to the-Israelites, ‘Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine’ (1 Samuel 17:32). This was the first word of encouragement to come to these ranks of soldiers who had been able only to gaze in fascinated fear at that great giant who taunted them daily. David was confident and serene because he knew and trusted the Source of all strength! The recorded result was one of the great, miraculous ‘turn-arounds’ of history, David and his sling disposing of Goliath in a way that brought glory to the God of Israel as well as victory to the armies of Israel.”

• A. W. Tozer, I Talk Back to the Devil

1 Samuel 17:33 ‘You are not able’: ”David’s faith, like that of Joshua and Caleb, was met with disbelief on the part of Saul. By all outward appearances, Saul was absolutely correct in his assessment, but he failed to consider the Lord’s presence in David’s life.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Samuel 17:37 ‘Are we ready to stand up’: “David had lived with God. Throughout many solitary days he had kept his father’s flock among the lone hills of Judah and had worshiped the unseen but ever-present Lord. He had grown in.to an adoring familiarity with the Most High so that, to him, the name of the one and only living and true God was a deep and solemn joy. As we might have seen far up among the ramparts of the mountains a solitary lake, whose one office it is to mirror the face of heaven, so had David’s hallowed life become the reflection of the light and glory of the Lord of Armies. It had not occurred to him, in his meditations, that base men would dare to challenge the infinite majesty of God or that proud adversaries would come forward and defy the chosen people of the Most High; but now that he hears the defiance and beholds the challenge, all his blood is up. He is amazed. A holy rage is on him. Yes, it is true-he hears Jehovah blasphemed. How can it be? The youth’s holy soul is undergoing a new experience. He is bringing his whole life to bear on it. He reaches the conclusion that as bears and lions die when they meddle with sheep, so must Goliath fall, now that he dares to attack the Lord and his people. In Da­ vid’s case there is no flush of excitement, no fierce light of eyes lit up with a semi-mad­ ness. Evidently he is at home and has the entire business well in hand. He tells us why he is so brave and adventurous. It is well worth our while to see what made David so strong and confident, for if it has never occurred to us, up to now, it may yet occur that we will be called out to do some deed of daring for the Lord. I wish that young people would aspire to brave lives for the God of Israel. I would that for the truth of God, goodness, and the eternal glory; they would be ready to rise to the measure of their destined hour. Why should we all be ordinary people? Is there not room for a few downright devoted beings who will lift their hands to the Lord and never go back?  If self-sacrifice is needed, let us make it. If someone is needed for a heathen land, or to bear testimony for the truth of God in this almost apostate nation, let us cry, ‘Here am I! Send me!’”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

1 Samuel 17:45-47 ‘David’s Victory over Goliath’: “ In the renowned story of David’s confrontation with Goliath, David issued a confident prediction of victory to his oversized foe (1 Samuel 17:45-47). The subsequent passage describes how David’s prediction was immediately vindicated and how his actions fueled a major Israelite victory over the Philistines (17:48-54).”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

1 Samuel 17:47 ‘God’s love’: “It is God’s love for us that causes Him to bring us to an end of our own strength. He sees our need to trust Him, and His love is so great that He will not let us live another day without turning over our arms to Him, our fears, our worries, even our confusion, so that nothing becomes more significant to us than our Father.
“Never, ever forget it: the battle is the Lord’s!”

• Charles R. Swindoll, Bedside Blessing

1 Samuel 17:50 ‘Coming in the Name of the Armies’: “The son of Jesse rejected the weapons with which Saul sought to arm him-he put the helmet on his head, the mail about his body, and was about to take up the sword, but he said, “I can’t walk in these. I’m not used to them.’ Similarly; the son of David renounced all earthly armor. They would have taken our Lord by force and made him a king, but he said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world.’ Swords enough would have leaped from their scabbards at his bidding. Not only Peter, whose too-hasty sword struck the ear of Malchus, but many zealots would have been all too glad to have followed the star of Jesus of Nazareth as in former days. And yet more frequently, in later days, the Jews followed impostors who declared themselves to be commissioned by the Most High for their deliverance. But Jesus said, ‘Put your sword back in its place because all who take up the sword will perish by the sword’ (Mt 26:52). To this day the great fight of Jesus Christ with the powers of darkness is not with sword and helmet but with the smooth stones of the brook. The simple preaching of the gospel, with the shepherd’s crook of the great head of the church held in our midst-this is what lays low Goliath and will lay him low to the last day. It is vain for the church even to think that she will win the victory by wealth, or by rank, or by civil authority.  No government will assist her. To the power of God alone she must look. ‘Not by strength or by might, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD of Armies’ (Zch 4:6). Happy will it be for the church when she learns that lesson. ‘I come to you in the name of the LORD of Armies!’ These words might serve as a slogan for all those who are sent of Christ and represent him in the dread battle for precious souls. This was Christ’s watchword when, for our sakes and on our behalf, he came to wrestle with sin, to bear the wrath of God, and to vanquish death and hell. He came in the name of God.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

1 Samuel 17 ‘Challenge’: “The whole Bible and all past history unite to teach that battles are always won before the armies take the field. The critical moment for any army is not the day it engages the foe in actual combat; it is the day before or the month before or the year before.
“Preparation is vital. The rule is, prepare or fail. Luck and bluster will do for a while, but the law will catch up with us sooner or later, usually sooner. …
“It did not take Moses long to lead the children of Israel out through the Red Sea to deliverance and freedom; but his fittedness to lead them out was the result of years of hard discipline. It took David only a few minutes to dispose of Goliath; but he had beaten the giant long before in the person of the lion and bear. …
“Preparation is vital. Let this be noted by everyone. We can seek God today and get prepared to meet temptation tomorrow; but if we meet the enemy without first having met God, the outcome is not conjectural; the issue is already decided. We can only lose.”

• A. W. Tozer, The Next Chapter after the Last

1 Samuel 18:1 ‘Genuine Interest’: “Our son Jamie really exemplified a statement my parents always made: choose your friends for the sake of friendship. That seems obvious, but a lot of people choose friends because they are popular, good-looking, rich, or part of the “right” crowd. But Jamie was never concerned with someone’s status. He was drawn to people who looked like they needed a friend. Sometimes it seemed like the less status someone had, the more likely Jamie was to hang out with them. He chose his friends for no other reason than that he enjoyed being around them.
“Friendship is meant to have mutual benefits for both people, but we often evaluate others by how they might benefit us. We may criticize society for valuing star athletes more than nurses and teachers, but we often reflect the same distorted values in our personal relationships. We determine people’s worth based on what they can do for us, how well-connected they are, or what their job is. We think more often about the benefits we might receive than the benefits we might be able to give. Rarely do people develop friendships based on the opportunities they give to pour into someone else’s life.
“Friendship runs two ways. Dale Carnegie said you can make more friends in two weeks by genuinely showing interest in them than you can make in two years by trying to get them interested in you. And he was right. If you choose your friends simply for the sake of friendship-two-way, mutual benefit-you’ll not only have more of them, but the ones you have will mean more to you.”

• Tony Dungy, Uncommon Life – Daily Challenge (excerpt from devotion for 10 January)

1 Samuel 18:4 ‘robe … belt’: ”Jonathan willingly and subserviently relinquished the outer garments and instruments that signified his position as prince of Israel and heir to the throne. Jonathan, a godly worshiper of Yahweh, quickly discerned that David was God’s anointed and, without reservation, offered the robe of succession to the true king of Israel.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Samuel 18:12 ‘Saul was afraid of David’: “Saul, faced with the same conclusion reached by Jonathan in vv. 1–4, reacted with fear. Saul, a man who viewed life from a human perspective rather than a divine one, could view David only as a personal threat, rather than a blessing to Israel.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

1 Samuel 18:25 ‘dowry’: “Lit. ‘price.’ Saul resorted to the same treachery in his offer of betrothal to Merab, plotting to eliminate David by placing him in jeopardy with the Philistines. David, already having proved himself wise in many things (16:18), was aware, to some extent, of Saul’s intent and acted obediently, valiantly, and wisely.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

My Thoughts

Last week’s chapters, 1 Samuel 11-14, could be labeled the Rise and Fall of Saul, but God gives him one more chance.  He should have known not to do it.  God commanded the same thing of Joshua when they attacked Jericho.  Spoils would come later (and faith had to be applied to see that fact), but Jericho, other than Rahab and her family in her home, had to be totally destroyed.  The Israelites next attacked Ai and were defeated.  Joshua had to determine who had taken things from Jericho and that family had to be totally destroyed to make amends.

God gives the same command to Saul, and he spares the life of the king and the choice animals, but as it is noted in the scholarly comments, who decides what is a choice animal?  Saul even lies to Samuel about the sacrifices.  Even if it was not to be kept as sacrifices, God wants those sacrifices from our supply, not spoils of war.

Saul had one shot. And he missed it.

And we have become a bloodthirsty people who miss the point.  Israel wishes to rid themselves of a terror organization who brainwashes the people so that the cancer continues to grow unabated. The terrorists, not all the people.  But Israel is accused of genocide.  Yet, Palestine, and their followers (many brainwashed), chant “from the river to the seas Palestine will be free.”  Free of what?  They are calling for the genocide of the Jews and that is applauded around the world, by those do not think genocide is the proper thing to do.

We love seeing other people’s blood being shed, as long as it is not our own.  And those who say that genocide would be something that a loving God would not abide by…  They have not read and understood the Bible.  God called for the eradication of entire tribes, the Amalekites being one of many.  And in the end, regardless of whose family line we are in, the ones who believe, trust, and live with Christ within them, will enter Heaven and all others will go where there is gnashing of teeth and eternal pain – but they get what they want, an eternity away from the presence of God.  But those who go to Heaven will say nothing about that genocide, for it became necessary to rid the universe of sin, death, and pain.

In an interlude, Samuel secretly goes to the house of Jesse and anoints David the new king.  He did not anoint any of David’s older brothers, those that were skilled in battle, those that were bigger and stronger.  God led Samuel to David.

Why did God choose Saul and then choose David?  I have had people ask me whether God made a mistake with Saul.

This was not a mistake.  Saul was a bad choice as king, but I have heard the old expression said and lived out in my life. “Be careful what you wish for.  God may grant it to you.”

Saul was a head taller than anyone else.  Saul was the “Goliath” of the Israelites.  But Saul was dim-witted.  It was his servant that suggested they see Samuel for guidance in finding lost donkeys.  Saul only prophesied when the spirit of God entered into him.  He got the job of king because the people got what they asked for, someone that looked kingly.

David did not look kingly.  He acted kingly, and he was later described as being the man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22).

It would be through the line of David that the Savior would come, but the people needed an object lesson beforehand.  They needed a king that did not act like earthly kings.  Earthly kings were a law unto themselves.  They obeyed no one, for they were the law.  Once the power got to Saul’s head, it was all over.  I have felt that power and I repented.  It feels good, but there is no “life” in that kind of power.

I had a teacher in a Thursday night Bible study once say that he wanted an army of nothing but people who were of God’s elect, who had not yet come to the realization that they needed God.  Why?  God would never let His elect die without coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  Thus, they would be invincible in battle.  The problem was that we as humans cannot know who will accept Jesus and who will not.  God knows, but we cannot know.

With that in mind, we have this musician and shepherd who soothes the increasingly demented mind of Saul after God’s spirit left him.  And note what Jesus said about how evil spirits seem to congregate in an open space.  The evil spirits took over Saul.  But back to David.

David had been anointed king.  David had faith in God, and David was not yet the king.  Could David have been bold against Goliath without having been anointed as God’s chosen king and not yet being king?  I do not think David even thought of that.  After Saul died, David became king of Judah, and it took an envoy from the northern tribes to convince him to accept the entire kingdom.  But with 20:20 hindsight, we can see that at that moment David was invincible.  All David saw was his unfailing faith in God.

We need to tap into that faith.  We do not need assurance that we will come out of the fight with all our body parts still functioning.  We just need unfailing faith that God has this, God has us in His hand.

Chapter 18 is a jumbled bag of miscommunication and deep-founded communication.  Saul hears the songs that speak of how David’s victories are so much greater than his.  He is already off the edge of the cliff and sliding into oblivion.  He did not need jealousy.  He kept giving David greater and greater challenges.  Since David relies on God, David accomplishes each challenge, even the dowry price to obtain Michal, Saul’s daughter, as his wife.

The Scripture says that she loved David but think of the latest heartthrob singer or actor.  Women throw their under garments in his direction.  They are in “love,” but just until the next heartthrob supersedes the old one.

Yet, Jonathan, Michal’s brother, gives David the robe and belt intended to identify who the heir to the throne should be.  Did Jonathan know that David had been anointed already or was Jonathan seeing the more deserving candidate?  And note that David was anointed three times: by Samuel in secret, by the tribe of Judah, and then as king of all the tribes.

We will find the story of Michal to be a troubling one.  David had many wives but the only one that he threw out was Michal.  She rebuked him for not acting “kingly” when the Ark came to Jerusalem.  That gets us ahead of the present story, but it ties into where this grouping of four chapters begins.  Saul chose to disobey God and do what seemed “kingly.”  David broke that mold, and the heir of David’s throne would not go through Michal.  If Michal had been the mother to the heir of the throne, this would mean that God’s curse of Saul’s line would not be complete, again a type of genocide.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

1 Samuel 15 1. If you were only concerned with seeking God’s glory and not your own, how would your life be different (at home, work, school)?
“2. When were you caught hiding sinful motivations behind a spiritual front? Are you doing so now? Where?
“3. When were your ’feet of clay’ first exposed to adoring eyes who looked·up to you as a hero? How did their idealized image of you (perhaps built up by you) eventually lose its luster?
“4. Who plays ‘Samuel’ in your life today-instructing you in the ways of God, rebuking you when you fall short, crying out with God’s compassion for you?
“5. For whom can you be a gentle ‘Samuel’ (without naming names or gossip)?
“6. When does God’s grief move you to grieve? How can your mind begin to, reflect more and more on God’s mind?
1 Samuel 16:1-13 Samuel Anoints David 1. When have you been ashamed to be seen with a fellow Christian because of appearances (no names)? What difference would it make if you saw him as God does?
“2. What is God calling you to do despite others’ protests?
1 Samuel 16:14-23 David in Saul’s Service 1. When have you sinned and tried to find relief for your resulting problems in remedies other than repentance?
“2. When have people said of you: ‘The Lord is with him’?
1 Samuel 17 1. What giants are drawn up against you in battle? How are they taunting you? Is your attitude toward them more like Saul’s or David’s? How does that attitude need to change?
“2. What larger missionary purpose might be accomplished for God if you would turn that battle over to the Lord?
“3. What’s holding you back from tackling the bull by the horns (or the goliath by a sling­ shot)? What do you fear might happen if you turned and faced the enemy who taunts you and defies God? What’s the ‘worst case scenario’? Having imagined that, now re-write the end result with God on your side.
“4. What Goliaths are there in society, defying God and Christians? How can you, small and unarmed, work to bring them down? What can the group do?
1 Samuel 18 1. How do you respond to someone out to get you personally or professionally? When has your jealousy been aroused by someone dismissing your achievements in relation to a rival?
“2. What do such interpersonal relationships reveal about your relationship with God?
“3. In what area of your life are you vulnerable to ‘comparitivitis’?
“4. How can this Saul-David story help cure you of always comparing yourself to others? How can the group help you to more readily rejoice in the accomplishments of others?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

There are two sets of questions for 1 Samuel 16 as noted.  There is one set of questions for the other three chapters.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.