Love Israel

Guest (Male): Shalom and welcome to V'ahavta Yisrael, a Hebrew phrase which means "you shall love Israel." We hope you'll stay with us for the next 30 minutes as our teacher Dr. Baruch shares his expository teaching from the Bible.

Dr. Baruch is the senior lecturer at the Zera Abraham Institute based in Israel. Although all courses are taught in Hebrew at the institute, Dr. Baruch is pleased to share this weekly address in English. To find out more about our work in Israel, please visit us on the web at loveisrael.org. That's one word: loveisrael.org. Now, here's Baruch with today's lesson.

Dr. Baruch Korman: We're going to see King David's faithfulness to God's plans and purposes. There's a very important term that we're going to come across, and normally it is translated "the Lord's anointed." Now, the Lord's anointed in the most simplest expression has to do with the king.

We know that at this time, even though in one sense he's illegitimate—and I'm talking about King Saul—we also know that David is someone who is always faithful. Is he perfect? No. Did he never sin? No, only Messiah is without sin. But David was indeed someone who took seriously God's word and wanted to apply it to his life.

So we're going to see how David had respect and honor for the king and also how David demonstrates the character of the Messiah. Again, not perfectly, but he did so in a very powerful manner. Well, with that said, take out your Bible and look with me to 1 Samuel. I want us to complete chapter 23. So look with me to the very last verse of 1 Samuel chapter 23.

In my Bible, it's actually the first verse of chapter 24. But so we're together and we read all of the scripture, I want us to go back to verse 29 of 1 Samuel chapter 23, where it says, "And David went up from there and he dwelt in the strongholds of En Gedi." Now, let's just pause for a moment. Why do we have this discrepancy? The last verse of verse 23 in your Bibles and the first verse of chapter 24 in the Hebrew text.

The answer is simple because when you look at this, you're going to find that what happens in chapter 24 all takes place at En Gedi for the most part. So we see that En Gedi becomes the transition. David is no longer where he was, but David has moved as he's being pursued by King Saul and his men. And he goes now to the strongholds of En Gedi.

Let's press on. Now let's go to chapter 24 and the first verse in your Bible. Notice what it says: "And it came about when Saul returned from after the Philistines, it was told to him saying..." and it's almost humorous because God knows all things. We see that Saul is obsessed. His primary purpose is to put David to death.

And what's happening? He's constantly getting this information given to him where David is, but he never is able to finish the job. Why? Because God is with David. David is committed to the purposes of God whereas King Saul is not. Keep reading what it says here. Verse two in your Bibles: "And Saul took 3,000 choice men from all of Israel and he went to seek David and his men by the rocks of the mountain goats."

The term here for a mountain goat is "Yael," here it's in the plural "Ya'alim." It speaks about these desert goats that are down by the Dead Sea area in the south of Israel in the desert. Where we find this scripture coming to life is this: today, you can go to En Gedi. When you go to En Gedi, you will see these same mountain goats who live there. It's simply a testimony of how even though 3,000 years have transpired, we see not much has changed in the land.

Let's press on to the next verse. Notice what it says: "And he came to the sheep gates..." and we're talking about here like a pen. These gates or fences, as it literally says, these kept the sheep within. So he came to these sheep pens by the way, meaning by the road that people were traveling. And there was there a cave. Notice Saul came and he came with a purpose. He was going to go into this cave in order to relieve himself.

The scripture says, "But David and his men were in" and we have a word which means in the fuller inclines of this cave, meaning his men with David were in the cave, the same cave, but further in than where Saul was. This is where David and his men were dwelling. Notice the response. Look now at verse four. "And the men of David said to him, 'Behold,'" remember that word behold, something significant is about to happen.

"Behold today, as the Lord God has said, 'Behold I am giving your enemy into your hand.'" Now, from a natural standpoint, what is taking place here? What do the men of David say? They're saying God has promised you that He is going to give your enemy into your hands and this is now what has happened. It would be very easy for David to do something, for David to take his sword and to kill Saul and to end all of his problems. That would be the easy way out.

But David is someone, and so should you and me be the same way, that we should trust in God. We should rely upon Him. We should make ourselves solely dependent upon God. What God does, He will deliver us from our enemies. In this passage, the men saw it one way, but we're going to learn that David saw it very differently. Look again at our verse, verse four, where it says: "And the men of David said to him, 'Behold, today, what the Lord God has said: Behold I am giving your enemy into your hand and you shall do to him just as it is good in your eyes.'"

There's a very important word located in that verse, and it is the word "good." So what God is saying is this: David, you should always seek my will. In other words, you should always do that which is good. Now David is going to demonstrate goodness for us. Understand that God's will is always good. If we want to do God's will, we need to be recipients of God's grace.

God's grace is going to work in our life to also cause us to be gracious individuals, not looking for justice and retribution, but rather to show the kindness, the mercy, the love, and the forgiveness of God. Well, notice what the scripture says once more: "And you will do to him just as it is good in your eyes." And David did what? Keep reading the same verse. "And David rose up and he cut the 'Kanaf.'"

This is an important word because Kanaf can mean the corner. That same word is many times translated as a wing. For example, this term Kanaf can be spoken of as a garment that has four corners. Some other times it talks about the wings, like a wing of a bird. On each corner or on the wing of a garment, there must be what's known as the "Tzitzit." Now, let me give you a verse of scripture: you look sometime at Numbers chapter 15 verses 37 through 41. You are going to learn how this Tzitzit, sometimes they're spoken of as tassels, how the Tzitzit represents the commandments of God.

What does the scripture say? That you'll look upon the corner of that garment, that word Kanaf. You'll see those tassels, that is the Tzitzit, and you will remember the commandments of God. When we talk about the Tzitzit, that word in and of itself has a numerical value. If you take the letters that spell Tzitzit, it has a numerical value of 600. On that Tzitzit, it has five knots and eight tassels. You put that together and you have 613, which are the number of commandments in the law of Moses.

So there's a relationship between the commandments of God and, as I've said before, the character of God. Who is God? God is merciful. He is loving. He is gracious. He is forgiving. What we find here is this: the scripture says, look at it again, middle of verse four where it says: "And David got up and he cut the Kanaf, that is that corner of the robe which was to Saul." And he did so secretly.

Now, what does this mean? Well, it simply means that he was able to cut off the corner of Saul's robe, which would have that Tzitzit, that Kanaf, that symbol of the commandments of God. Realize something: this is practiced today when a man dies. When a man dies, he is buried with what's known as a "Tallit." Now, that Tallit, also known as a prayer shawl, is a four-corner garment. It also has on each corner having a Tzitzit or that tassel.

What happens is this: when a man dies, they remove the Tzitzit. Why? Because when you're dead, you cannot do the commandments of God. The commandments of God are for the living. Therefore, it's traditional, for example, many men wear the Tzitzit out that you can see the Tzitzit. Why is that important? So that you can testify to the commandments of God.

But when you go to a funeral, you are at a cemetery, what do you do? You take this Tzitzit and you put it inside your pants in order to not mock the dead. That's their tradition. Why? Those who are dead cannot do the commandments of God. So when David did what he did and cut off the tassels from the corner of Saul's robe, what does that mean? What does it convey? It conveys something very powerful to you and me the reader, which is that David could have killed Saul.

Saul is going to recognize that in a moment. But David did so, cutting off that corner of Saul's robe, he did so, the scripture says, secretly. Now let's move to verse five. "And it come about afterwards that the heart of David struck him," meaning this: he didn't have peace for what he had just done. He was saying to Saul, "I could have killed you, but I didn't. I was merciful to you. I remembered the commandments of God and therefore I did not take your life."

But notice what the scripture says: the heart of David struck, meaning he did not have peace within himself on account that he cut off, and again, this word Kanaf, the corner which was to Saul. If you go through the scripture, you are going to see in this passage that the word Kanaf is spoken of several times. Why? When a word is repeated, it's for the purpose of emphasis. This is an important thing.

David did not feel good after the fact on what he had done to Saul. Notice, look now at verse six: "And he said to his men, 'God forbid me from the Lord if I have done this thing to...'" and notice what he says, "'...to the Lord's anointed one, to stretch forth my hand against him, for he is the anointed of the Lord.'" Notice what happens. Move on to the next verse, verse seven, where it says: "And David restrained his men with these words and he did not allow them to rise up against Saul."

Was David justified in putting Saul to death? Well, Saul wanted to put him to death. In the rabbinical writings, it says if someone is rising up against you to put you to death, what's wise? To rise up before he does anything and put him to death. Now, that's kind of an eye for an eye, but we need to realize that we're under a different covenant. We're under grace. What does grace do? Grace works in our life in a mighty way for what purpose? To bring us into God's will.

When we're in God's will, we should be demonstrating His character. His character is full of mercy and love and forgiveness and not seeking to make retribution against His people. This is the God that we're called to imitate, that we're called to be like. That's what it means when it says that we were created in the image of God. We don't look like God, but we are called to reflect His character.

Well, let's press on. Look if you would to the same verse, verse seven. It says: "And David restrained his men with these words and he did not allow them to rise up against Saul. And Saul rose up from the cave and he went on his way." So we see something. In one sense, this event between Saul and David is over, but David is not going to leave it alone. Why? Because he feels that he has done the wrong thing. We need to be individuals that are spiritually sensitive.

Just because in an earthly sense we may be justified in doing something, that doesn't mean biblically that God is always pleased with our acts of retribution. God wants us to be like Him. God does not take any joy in the death of humans. This is not what pleases him. But as the scripture says, what pleases God? That we would repent, turn from our evil ways, believe, receive Him and His only begotten Son and enter into this new covenant, this kingdom covenant with God.

Saul rose up from the cave and went on his way. Look now at verse eight: "And David rose up afterwards and he too went out from the cave. But notice what he did: he called after Saul saying, 'Adoni.'" This is a term of great respect. It is David acknowledging Saul's authority over him as king. So he says literally, "My master, the king." And Saul looked after him. What did David do? David—and we have two words. Many translations when I was going over this with my wife, her translation only reflected one of these words—but literally there's two.

We have the word "Vayikod." It's a word to bow. So we see that David bowed his face towards the ground. It also says "Vayishtachu," which means and he prostrated himself, meaning this: it is a word of worship. Notice, David could have killed Saul, but he didn't. He felt remorse on what he had done and in the end, we see that he worshipped God. He worshipped God not for God giving him into his hands, but he worshipped God in the sense of repenting that he had done such a thing against the Lord's anointed.

For me, what this passage speaks to me is that David was a great and humble man. He didn't seek his will, his plans, his purposes, didn't try to justify himself, but he was an individual that wanted to be submissive to the Lord in every situation. Let me ask you a question: does that describe you? It should. No matter what's going on in our life, no matter what we are experiencing, we should understand that if we want things to go well, we need to come before God always, always submissively, with a desire to do His will.

We want to be participants in the plans of God. When we do this, how is it going to change our life? It is going to bring us under the authority of the Holy Spirit. We will experience the anointing of the Holy Spirit in our life. We will have access to the provisions of God. We will know the presence and the power of God. We will see things from His perspective. Why is that so important? Well, there's something that the Bible speaks of that we need to really possess, and what is that?

I'm talking about discernment. It's only when we are committed to God's will and we're submitting to it and we're recognizing His absolute authority over our life, then and only then can we expect that God will give us discernment. In the scripture, it talks about the mind of Christ or the mind of Messiah. That's what we need. Many people look at a scripture and they don't translate it correctly.

I'm speaking about Romans chapter 12 and verse two, where it says to be ye transformed and most will say by the renewing of your mind. So people teach: well, we need our minds to be renewed. But that's not what it says. It says, be ye transformed by the renewed mind. Who has that renewed mind? Well, in the natural, not me. Who does? Messiah. And it's only when I have the mind of Messiah, then and only then am I going to be able to operate with discernment.

And watch through that discernment that my life is transformed. I no longer live as normal people live, but I live under the authority of God. This is what David is demonstrating. Why? Because David was a man after God's own heart. So let me ask you: does that describe you? Are you a man after God's own heart? Are you a woman after God's own heart?

If you are, you know what is going to reveal? That you are committed to God's truth. Not approaching life and approaching spirituality in a rational mind, through common sense, through a human intellect. All those things are going to lead to failure. It is only when you are given over to the truth of God. When I say this, we need to realize something. Many times people, they look at a commandment of God and they want to think of it in a rational way, what's logical, what makes sense to them.

They'll say such things as, "God has given this commandment because it is healthy." Meaning if we do this, we're going to experience greater health. Well, let me tell you that there's many times that people teach this and what do I do? I say, "Well, can you give me the verse of scripture that ties this commandment to health?" And there is none. What we find is, for example, when we look at the dietary laws, the kashrut, or what we call in English kosher laws, we find that they're given for a purpose.

They're given to teach us obedience, to realize that as we go about our business, most people, we have three meals a day. We need to understand that we need to daily demonstrate His authority over our life. Meaning this: it's not what we're hungry for, what we like to eat, what we think tastes good, what we enjoy eating, none of those things are relevant. Because God—and this is something that many people miss—if you read in the Hebrew text, what God does is that He teaches us what is food from His perspective and He has the best perspective. And what is not food.

The problem is today that many believers incorrectly understand God's word. They think that God's grace gives them freedom and liberty to do what they want. No. The liberty and the freedom that we have through the grace of God allows us to do what God wants, to be faithful to Him, to be committed to His plans, His purposes, His will. That's what the kashrut kosher laws teach us: that we have to set aside our desires and obey Him. This is why the kosher laws were given, not for any other reason whatsoever.

So we need to understand that and apply that to our life if we're going to be people that live with discernment. And it's only when—and this is controversial, most people will reject this, but it's true biblically—it is only when we agree with God and we acknowledge, "God, your standards are proper, your standards are righteous, your standards are rooted in truth." And it's only when a person submits to that, then and only then are they going to be recipients of that anointing of the Holy Spirit which allows them to do what?

Which allows them to have discernment, making wise decisions. Let me say it differently: making decisions that are well-pleasing to God. That's what we want to do. We want to be people that are pleasing to Him. So if you're committed to your will, you're not going to be pleasing Him. It's only when you are committed to His will, then and only then are you going to realize the blessings of God, the providence of God, the assistance of God, the provisions of God, the power of God.

You will have that perspective that gives you a godly discernment. That's what we should want. So let's conclude. Look at our last verse. And David said to Saul, "Why is it that you will listen to the words of men saying, 'Behold, David is seeking your evil'?" No, he's not seeking evil for Saul. He's seeking the Lord's best, and that is the will of God. Well, I'll close with that. Until next week, may God richly bless you and again, Shalom from Israel.

Guest (Male): Well, we hope you will benefit from today's message and share it with others. Please plan to join us each week at this time and on this channel for our broadcast of loveisrael.org. Again, to find out more about us, please visit our website, loveisrael.org. There you will find articles and numerous other lectures by Baruch. These teachings are in video form. You may download them or watch them in streaming video. Until next week, may the Lord bless you in our Messiah Yeshua, that is Jesus, as you walk with Him. Shalom from Israel.