Hope From the Word

Guest (Male): It's a good feeling when someone stands up for you, isn't it? Here's Pastor Bill Luebkemann.

Bill Luebkemann: Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul, his father. Jonathan told his father, "You're doing this to the wrong guy. This guy is on your side. This guy is your friend. Look at all he did for you."

You probably had a situation where you thought ill of somebody because of something they did, and maybe someone else, a friend, tried to talk some sense into your head and said, "Don't think that way about that person. They're really not so bad. Consider the good things that they did. Don't forget that." We can have a tendency as humans to hear one wrong thing about somebody and run with that and forget all the good things that went along with it. It seems like that's what Saul's doing here.

Guest (Male): How do you respond when you see something great happen to someone you know? Let's say you're passed over for a promotion at work and your coworker receives it instead. Envy so often invades our hearts.

Today on Hope From the Word, we'll notice Saul's envy, and it's not a pretty sight. It provoked him to want to kill David. We'll continue to take you through 1 Samuel in chapter 19. Pastor Bill Luebkemann observes both love and hate.

Bill Luebkemann: 1 Samuel chapter 19. What we had been seeing is that ever since David killed Goliath, Saul was becoming jealous of David. He was not jealous at all before. He almost didn't know who David was before. But now that David has killed Goliath, Saul's becoming jealous of him.

When the ladies in the town started singing, "Saul has killed his thousands and David his tens of thousands" in chapter 18, Saul started to get nervous and worried that this guy was going to overtake him. Saul was angry. It galled him. He said, "They're not giving me all the credit I'm due. This guy can only get better. The only other thing he can get from me is the kingdom."

We see that the Lord had removed the Holy Spirit from Saul and put the Holy Spirit on David. Saul was becoming increasingly alienated from God and also from David, even though David over and over again tried to be friendly with Saul and not to be enemies. We saw in chapter 18 that Saul tried to kill David.

In verses 10 and 11, he had a spear in his hand and he hurled it, saying to himself, "I'll pin David to the wall." Pinning someone to the wall is not a friendly thing. That means he was trying to kill him. Saul was afraid of him. David was a young man, probably younger than Saul's son. David was a kid compared to Saul. But instead of looking upon him as a kid, Saul looked at him with fear because he could see that God's hand of blessing was upon him.

It's odd that if God's hand was upon David and Saul could see that, you'd think he'd want to cooperate with the plan and so maybe redeem himself in some way in the end. But he didn't seem to be too interested in doing that either. Saul tried also to suck him in by giving him his daughter Merab to marry, who he thought would drag him down. Then he took Merab away from Saul.

First he gives him the daughter, then he takes the daughter away. He certainly is not treating him well. Then he gives him his younger daughter, who was in love with him, and hoping that that would be a snare to David. He says the only amount of dowry he's going to require is the foreskins of 100 Philistines, thinking for sure in the process of getting 100 foreskins they're not going to give them voluntarily. In the process of getting 100 foreskins from 100 Philistines, he's going to get killed doing that.

Now we come up to chapter 19 where Saul just continues different ways to plot and scheme to try to eliminate David. This is going to continue for a few chapters. Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan was very fond of David and warned him, "My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning. Go into hiding and stay there. I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I'll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out."

It's interesting that while these people liked David, it says if you look back in chapter 18 verse 5, whatever Saul sent him to do, David did it so successfully that Saul gave him a high rank in the army. This pleased all the people and Saul's officers as well. So we have a situation where all the people, including Saul's officers, are pleased with David. They like David. They're happy with him. They're friendly towards him.

But now we see Saul telling his attendants, which you have to think is some of the same people, "I want to kill this guy." It doesn't really say that any of them said no or that he was crazy, except for his son Jonathan. It seems like his attendants either don't like David now, or they like Saul better, or they just want to do what they're told. Maybe they believe they hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. Maybe they think murder would be okay if we do it because the king told us to do it.

Jonathan knows the difference, however. Saul telling the attendants and his son Jonathan to kill David outright, flat out, didn't beat around the bush. But Jonathan liked David a lot. Jonathan warned him, "Look, my dad's trying to kill you. Be on your guard. Look out. Be watching. Go into hiding and stay in hiding, and I'll go find out what's going on. I'm going to go talk to my dad. I'm going to try to get to the bottom of this. I'm going to try to mediate something. He's my dad, maybe he'll listen to me. I'll point out to him that you didn't do anything wrong. You don't deserve this."

"Let me see if I can work this out. Maybe it's a misunderstanding. Maybe something can come of it. I'm going to talk to him about you and I'm going to tell you what I find out." He's not going to tell his dad David's hiding, waiting for him to get back to him. He's going to give him a complete report on what they talk about. He's going to secretly go back and tell David what his father said.

Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul, his father, and said to him, "Let not the king do wrong to his servant David. He has not wronged you. And what he has done has benefited you greatly. He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The Lord won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?"

There you have it. Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father. Jonathan told his father, "You're doing this to the wrong guy. This guy is on your side. This guy is your friend. Look at all he did for you." You probably had a situation where you thought ill of somebody because of something they did, and maybe someone else, a friend, tried to talk some sense into your head and said, "Don't think that way about that person. They're really not so bad. Consider the good things that they did. Don't forget that."

We can have a tendency as humans to hear one wrong thing about somebody and run with that and forget all the good things that went along with it. It seems like that's what Saul's doing here. Of course, there's other things that are mixing around in his head as well, one of which is he knows he's not going to be long for the kingdom.

But Jonathan speaks well about David to his father the king and he says, "Don't do any wrong to this guy. He hasn't done anything wrong to you. And in fact, quite the opposite. It's not even that he's neutral. It's not that he hasn't done anything wrong to you, but in fact, quite the opposite. What he has done has benefited you greatly. He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine."

He was the guy who for 40 days, all the Jewish soldiers when Goliath came out there taunted them, they all ran away. And here was David, the little kid, some people say maybe only 15 years old or so, who could kill a lion and a bear as a shepherd. And here was the guy that ran towards Goliath and not away from him, arguably taking his life into his hands. He was trusting in God that he wasn't going to get killed, and he was right. From a human perspective, if you just add up in the human column the debits and the credits and see where this takes you, from the human perspective, he took his life in his hands.

The Lord won a great victory when he did that, and you were glad. He's reminding him, "Dad, you were glad when that happened. You saw that happen. You were there. You were glad. You were happy. You appreciated what this guy did. Why then would you want to do wrong to this innocent guy by killing him for no reason?"

My suspicion is maybe Saul was rationalizing in his mind, "This guy David just wants to get the kingdom. The only reason he came out was to show off. The only reason he tried to kill Goliath was because he was hoping to show off and topple and get the kingdom for himself. And it was all a plan all along." That's pretty preposterous, but sometimes when we start to think in our minds and put things together, we get carried away and it becomes pretty preposterous. I think there's a good chance Saul was trying to justify this in his own mind.

Saul listened to Jonathan and took this oath, "As surely as the Lord lives, David will not be put to death." This may be a prophetic utterance. This may be a prophecy. Saul was lying, of course, or if he wasn't lying, he was going to change his mind here because he in fact tried to kill David many more times. But in fact, this scripture came true. David was not put to death. On the one hand, it was an idle promise on the part of Saul, a promise that he did not keep, but on the other hand, it was a prophecy about what was really going to happen.

Jonathan called David and told him the whole conversation. He brought him to Saul, and David was with Saul as before. Things returned to the way they had been before. At least for a little bit, things got better again. They all lived together happily ever after, well, for a few weeks anyway, or maybe a few months or something. They were all together. David played his guitar for Saul. They ate at the same table. They were friendly. It was like it was before.

And once more, war broke out. David went out and fought the Philistines. He struck them with such force that they fled before him. Things were like they were before. David is back living with Saul. War breaks out again. Saul dispatches David, "Go take the army down there and whoop their fanny down there." He did that and he did it again very successfully. All that jealousy and that rivalry that was in Saul came bubbling back out to the surface. He had maybe put it aside, buried it, but he hadn't really forgotten about it. It all came back.

But an evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand while David was playing the harp. Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall. That night, David made good his escape. How can an evil spirit come from the Lord? I don't know if anybody has the real truthful bottom-line answer to this question, but it wasn't the Holy Spirit.

Was it an evil spirit that the Lord sent, or did the Lord just simply allow some evil spirit to come? I think it was probably something like Pharaoh's heart being hardened by God, but it was being hardened because he made a decision not to do what the Lord wanted him to do. Every time he decided it, he became more firm and more resolute in that, and the Lord just allowed his heart to get harder and harder and harder. Without the protection from the Lord, maybe the Lord simply allowed this evil spirit to come in. I'm not certain that he rang up Satan on the telephone and said, "Send one of your cronies over here to do something." He might have. It's possible.

However it happened, this evil spirit came upon Saul. He was sitting there with his spear in his hand. If you have a problem where you want to murder somebody, it'd be best not to be sitting around with a gun in your hand. If you have a problem drinking alcohol, it probably would be best if you didn't go try to witness to people in bars. If you have a problem with pornography, there's probably certain aisles in the supermarket or the bookstore that you shouldn't be going down. If there's certain things that cause you to sin, you probably should not be around them. Flee from them, the childhood lusts. Flee from them.

But here we have Saul sitting there with this spear in his hand. What's he doing? He doesn't even fight his own wars anymore. He sends David out. What's he even need a spear for? And why's he got to have the spear in his hand when David is there playing on the harp? Well, he tries to pin David to the wall again, playing darts again, see if he can get a bullseye.

David, to his credit here, David does not do what any normal person would do. If someone threw a spear at you, what's the first thing you'd think about doing? Take the spear out of the wall and throw it right back at them. Unless they had ten more, you'd go back at them with it. David said, "Lord, you made Saul king and I'm not going to kick him out. You're going to have to kick him out and I don't care how long it takes, if it ever happens, but I'm just not going to lay my hand on him."

David was able to elude him and was able to get out of the building and get out of town. That was the last time David was ever there in the palace until he became king officially some 20 years later. This began a period of time in David's life where he was almost like a refugee. He was almost like a fugitive. He was a fugitive. He was always on the run. He was always on the lam from Saul, living in one cave or one field or a village or whatever, and he had a band of guys with him and they hung out together, but they spent a long time living out in the fields and in the caves wherever they could eluding Saul, a very long time. The Lord worked through that.

Saul sent men to David's house. David eluded Saul and he made his escape. I guess he went home before he went out of town because Saul figured, "I'm going to get him over at his house." Verse 11, Saul sent men to David's house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, warned him, "If you don't run for your life tonight, tomorrow you'll be killed."

So Michal let David down through a window and he fled and escaped. Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goat's hair at the head. When Saul sent the men to capture David, Michal said, "He is ill." He sends these men to David's house. "Watch his house at nighttime and in the morning we're going to get him out of there and kill him." They don't know that his wife, who's the daughter of Saul, she's onto this plot here and she says, "If you don't get out of town, you're going to get killed."

She sneaks him out the window somehow on the side where no one's watching and maybe goes down a back alley. He gets out of there and she pretends that he's in bed sick by putting an idol in a bed. Now why does she have an idol in her house? This is David's wife. Obviously her relationship with the Lord's not quite the same as his because I doubt very much this is David's idol. They weren't supposed to have any kind of idols.

Some people say this was an idol they used to worship the real God. It was just a way to, well, that's just a bunch of baloney because it doesn't matter what god you're worshipping, you're not supposed to have an idol to worship the Lord God or any other god. It was handy though because she laid it in the bed. It must have been a big thing. She covered it up with the blankets and put some goat's hair at it and said, "David's sick here in bed, sorry." That was buying him some time.

You have to wonder why she didn't escape with him. There's another whole bunny path we could go down. She turns out to be a real snare. Her father marries her off to someone else, but then in 2 Samuel, David manages to get her back and her new husband is crying and they send him home and she's back with David. But then a few chapters later, we see she's despising David in her heart and because of that she's barren for her entire life. Growing up in Saul's household was not good for her.

At least one writer I read suggested she wanted to stick it to her old man and that's why she did this. Maybe she didn't really care if David lived or died but she thought she could really stick it to her father by letting him go. I just think it's interesting, why didn't they climb out of the window together and make off together and head out together, leave the idol in the bed with the goat's hair and take off? These men in the morning, they show up, ring the doorbell, "Hi, we're here to see David." "Well, he's ill right now."

The men must have left and gone back up to Saul. He's like, "Where is he? Did you kill him? Did you bring him? Why isn't he here?" "Well, he's sick in bed. We didn't want to bother him." Saul don't like that answer. Then Saul sent the men back to see David and told them, "Bring him up to me in his bed so that I may kill him." But when the men entered, there was the idol in the bed and at the head was some goat's hair.

Saul said to Michal, "Why did you deceive me like this and send my enemy away so that he escaped?" Michal told him, "He said to me, 'Let me get away, why should I kill you?'" Saul wanted to kill the guy so desperately he wasn't even up for a fair fight. "If he's sick in bed we'll just put the plunger through him and that'll be the end of him. Go bring him up here, carry up the whole bed if you need to, bring him up in his wheelchair, crutches, whatever, put him on a stretcher, lower him through the roof, just get him up here so I can kill him." I don't know why Saul so lazy, don't go down to his house and kill him there himself.

But the men go in there. "We're going to take him out of your house, lady, no matter what." They go up there and well, now he's had even more time to get out of town. He's had since the night before. He's long gone. Saul finds out what happened and says, "Why did you do this to me? Why did you deceive me? Why did you send my enemy away? Why did you let him escape?" And she lied. She didn't even stand up for her husband. She didn't even say, "Dad, he was innocent and he was my husband, why you're trying to kill him?" Maybe she was afraid, fearful of what would happen to her. Like I said, I think she could have run away with him if she really wanted to be with him or she could have at least told the truth here. Could have said, "You're wrong, he didn't do anything wrong." But instead, she took the easy way out and she accused her husband of threatening to kill his wife.

When you think about it, what she did here might have been worse than anything else that actually happened. Certainly David wouldn't kill Saul let alone kill his own wife. When David had fled and made his escape, he went to see Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there. He went to see the man of God. Always a good idea to seek God when you're having a problem. In this day and age, this is the way they did it. They went to see a man of God and he and Samuel went down to this town and they were having a worship service in this town.

Word came to Saul, "David is in Naioth at Ramah," so he sent men to capture him. But when they saw a group of prophets prophesying with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came upon Saul's men and they also prophesied. His men come down there, "We're here to get David." They see this worship service going on, Saul's there leading the worship and they're all prophesying. The Holy Spirit just comes on these guys and they all start prophesying themselves. They forgot why they were even there. They were speaking forth God's word somehow.

Saul was told about it. "You sent the guys down to get David and the Holy Spirit had other plans." Saul, put your thinking cap on. The Holy Spirit is not where you're at. So you ain't going to win the battle. Maybe you should stop kicking against the goad, as Jesus said to a different one named Saul. Saul was told about it and he sent more men and they prophesied too. Saul sent men a third time and they also prophesied. Every time he sent a contingent of guys, they just joined the worship service that was going on at this place.

They're just having a big old worship time. Probably had a bass guitar and some drums and whatever and they were prophesying and talking about the Lord. The Holy Spirit was there in a very powerful and a very real way and the Holy Spirit wasn't letting anything else happen there. It's kind of like a force field keeping everybody away. Nobody can get in here. This was like a force field that sucked them in and they had a worship God. They had to join the worship service even.

He sent three different groups of guys here and this guy is so stupid that even after three groups of guys he still doesn't get it. Finally, he himself left for Ramah and went to the great cistern at Seku and he asked, "Where are Samuel and David?" "Over in Naioth at Ramah," they said. So Saul went to Naioth at Ramah but the Spirit of God came even upon him and he walked about prophesying until he came to Naioth. He stripped off his robes and also prophesied in Samuel's presence. He lay that way all that day and night. This is why people say, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope From the Word. We're currently in a study of 1 Samuel. You can hear this message or more Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann by going to ccmarlton.org. Pastor Bill's messages can also be found by downloading the Hope FM app on your smartphone or tablet. Or if you prefer to listen via podcast, you can find Hope From the Word wherever you find your podcasts.

We'd love to have you join us at Calvary Chapel of Marlton either in person or online. Our Sunday service begins at 10:00 AM, and there's a Wednesday evening service at 7:00. To catch us online, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton or just go to our website for the link at ccmarlton.org.

And if you take a moment to write to Pastor Bill, it would be such a blessing to us. We're thankful each and every time we hear what God is doing in our listeners' lives and we want to pray for you too. Either email us through the website at ccmarlton.org or call 856-983-1662. We'll continue our study of 1 Samuel next time on Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann, a presentation of Calvary Chapel of Marlton.