1 Samuel 17:42-51

Well, good morning. Will you open us up with a word of prayer, Mr. Mike?

Dear Lord, we thank you for bringing us to your house today, and we pray that as we open your word that you would speak to our hearts, you would conform us to the image of Christ, and that you would use our brother to speak your words in truth, for to Christ we pray.

Amen.

David as the Shepherd King and Representative in 1 Samuel

Alright, back to 1 Samuel chapter 17. As we've gone through 1 Samuel, we have these threads have developed.

Prophet, priest, king.

This kind of would be a subset on these and these. But now we have seen something develop with David where we have a mediator, and in our king developed, we now have a shepherd king. Last week we also saw develop with David.

He became what's called, the word was champion, and it means one to stand in between, but he becomes a representative. Who did he represent? Most certainly, but specifically he represented the people when he went down into the valley of Eli to fight Goliath.

Remember, he was saying Goliath was running his yap, and he said send me out a man to fight. The word champion, benayim, means man in between, mediator. He says you send somebody down here to fight me, to represent you, we will submit if I lose, vice versa.

So David was a representative. So we have seen these develop just in the book of Samuel. Every one of those points to Christ. If you read David and Goliath, and you come away with how to slay giants in your life, how to teach your kids to be brave like David, or to have courage like David, you have missed it, because that's not the point of the story.

That's not the point of the historical development that delivered. Actually, even David himself says it. David tells Goliath, I'm going to come down there, and when I come down there, I'm going to cut off your head.

Why did he say he was going to do that? Anybody remember why David said he was going to do that? So that all the world will know that there is a God in heaven. That's why David did it. David didn't say, hey, I'm going to go down and do this so I can be a great example.

I'm not going to go down there and do it so that people can say what a great man of faith I am. Was David a good example? Certainly he was a good example. Was David a man of faith? Certainly. Hebrews 11 says that.

But was that the point of the narrative that's being put here? And no, it's not. The point is so that all the world will know that there's a God in heaven, and he has provided himself a man, and that man was David.

We are sick to see David shoot to the top. Basically, he overshadows everybody else. Certainly as a king, other than the Lord Jesus Christ, if he was a type for... David was the greatest king. Did David have failures?

Did he? Yeah, just name a couple. Yeah, those are the big ones. Hey, we're fixing to see just in the next couple of chapters, David becomes a very good liar. The narrative doesn't deal with those moral issues because it's just telling you what's unfolding.

But David begins to lie. We know that David was a man that was basically fearless. I mean, there's only two times in Scripture as it says that David was ever afraid. Even look through the Psalms. Now, you have him writing in the Psalms, and he may say, hey, when I was afraid, I did this.

But we only see twice where David says, hey, I'm scared. One is when he comes into... We'll get to this shortly, too. When he comes into King Achish of Gath, and he's needing somewhere to hide from Saul, and he acts like he's got rabies, and he deceives him because he's fearful.

He's fearful that I'm going to go in, and the king of Achish is going to kill me because I basically killed his champion. And he went and killed 200 Philistines for their foreskin. And then the other time was when he's bringing the ark back in 2 Samuel.

He's bringing the ark back, and Uzzah, it falls from the oxen where they were carrying it. And as it goes to fall, Uzzah goes to grab it, and it strikes as a dead. And it says that David was scared of God.

And he should have been. Remember, David's no coward. Even with his run from Absalom, when we get to 2 Samuel, even in his running from Absalom, when he flees the city, his advisors say, hey, we're leaving the city not because he's scared of Absalom.

It's because when Absalom was going to come into the city, he was actually going to slaughter the people because David was there. So he leaves because of his love and care for the people, which makes him what?

A good shepherd king. A good shepherd king. So, let's pick up in chapter 18, and we'll read through. I'll probably just read through the first five verses or so. Anybody, when we were doing the last two or three weeks going through chapter 17, did anybody ask the question, where was Jonathan?

I mean, Jonathan had some intestinal fortitude. That guy was not fearful. If you remember back in chapter 14, him and his armor bearer went down and fought a whole garrison, just the two of them, and he has the mindset of David.

What did he say to his armor bearer? Man, is God constrained to save by few or many? Let's go down there, and man, his armor bearer says, whatever your soul delights, I'm with you. And they went down there and they slayed a whole garrison.

Jonathan’s Covenant Love and the Transfer of Kingship

So here, Jonathan's going to come back onto the scene in this chapter. It says, now it came about that when he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as himself.

So Saul took him that day and did not let him return back to his father's house, and then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he had loved him as himself, and Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him, and he gave it to David, and he gave him his armor, including his sword and his bow and his belt.

So David went out wherever Saul sent him, and he prospered. And Saul sent him over all the event of war, and it was pleasing in his sight and all of the people, and also in the sight of Saul's servants.

So here it is. David, back in chapter 17, was sent to take some Hebrew hoagies to his brother, and the same hands that was carrying the hoagie rolls winds up handing the head of Goliath to Saul. And as he is standing there with Goliath's head in his hand, it says here that while he was speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David.

How many people in here have five close friends? How many people in here have three? Three? How many people in here have three? How many of you have two? Not including your wife. I have to exclude. You have to exclude that.

I can count on her. Well, I don't know. How many of you have one? How many of you have one person or two that you could call anytime, anywhere, and they're coming? Yeah. I have one that I know. One. Without a shadow of a doubt, it would not matter.

One. And it wouldn't matter. The other actually is an unconverted person, and he would most likely come. We are close. But he's unconverted, but he would come. It wouldn't matter. I'm on my way. This is how it is with David and Jonathan.

These two men become so joined together. One, what would make Jonathan like David? Was there something admirable about David at this point? I'd say yeah. I mean, this dude just went out and basically led the charge against the armies of the Philistines and was the representative that no other person would go down into the valley.

So that is an admirable thing. Something to go, hey, man, that guy right there, that's a bad dude. I want to surround myself with that guy. We know that Jonathan's a man of war, and he's a man of valor.

Why other would he want to attach himself or why their soul was knitted together?

I think it's certainly our kindred spirit. Sure. What else? He's unlike his dad. That's not so. A lot of the things he sees in his father or he sees that are good in David he doesn't see in his father or vice versa.

Yeah, and we're fixing to see come shortly what his actions show that one, David does love Saul. Okay? Remember, he had been being his heart exorcist at this point. So he knew that David cared about his dad.

He knew that David had love for his father. And at this point, he goes down and fights the battle that his dad would not go and do for whatever reason. You know, we could talk about that like we already have in the past for whatever reason.

One, we know he's no longer the anointed king. He's the rejected king. So now we have the anointed king standing there with the head of Goliath and Jonathan's soul is knitted to him and he loves him just as himself.

So Saul then took him that day and he did not let him go back to his house. What was David's job between playing the harp and being armor bearer? Shepherd. So he'd go back and forth just like it said in chapter 17 when he went back to his father's house when they went out to war for 40 days to battle Ray.

Well, he's not going back this time. It says, and then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. And Jonathan stripped himself again of his robe and gave it to David. What does the robe represent?

One just like, hey, he's cold. Let me take off my plaid shirt and give it to him. Yes. One, authority. The other, power and prestige. You can see it when the robe represented who the line he was from.

That represented he was of the kingly line. What was Jonathan? Was Jonathan not the crown prince? Right? Who was the heir to the throne? Jonathan. Forget the anointing by Samuel, but who was supposed to be the next in line?

Jonathan. He gives him his robe. Look, here it is. I'm giving you my robe. I'm giving you my bow. I'm giving you my sword and I'm giving you my belt. He gave him everything and his armor. He gave him everything that made him distinguished from all the other warriors in the land and he gave him that which showed his association to his father he gave to David.

That is astonishing. He basically relinquished his rights as crown prince and gave them to David. You say, well, how do we know that? Well, we know that moving forward when he is running from Saul in just a few chapters, he's running from Saul and he says, hey, man, why does your dad want to kill me?

He says, you ain't going to die because when it's all over, I'm going to be next to you because you're going to be the next king. He knows who the next king is. And Jonathan is showing it very clearly right here that he is going to submit to whatever David wants to do.

And it said that in verse 5, so David went out wherever Saul had sent him and he prospered. Imagine that. God's anointed king who is now the leader of the armies against the enemies of God is going to prosper.

Of course he's going to prosper. God's commissioned him for a purpose. And Saul sent him over the men of war and he did what was pleasing in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants.

Look, people fell in love with David. If you remember back in chapter 11 when Saul had delivered the people of Jabesh Gilead from the Ammonites, do you remember the fanfare that he got? I mean, it was like, dude, he was the most important person in all the kingdom.

He had now was fixing to unite the kingdom. Well, now we have a united monarchy and now David is the most important person and the most famous person in all the land. And verse 6 says, and it happened as they were coming, when David returned from killing the Philistine that the women came out of the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines and with joy and with musical instruments and the women sang as they played and said, Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands.

It says they were coming out to meet who? Saul. And what were they singing to Saul? Someone's better than you. It's not like they were going out to see David. They were going out to see Saul. And they're singing, hey, Saul, we know that you was a bad dude and you were a good warrior and you killed thousands.

But David, oh, man, he killed tens of thousands. And then verse 8 says that Saul became very angry for this was displeasing to him. And he said, they have ascribed David to ten thousands. But to me, they've ascribed only thousands.

Now, what more can he have but the kingdom? And Saul looked at David with suspicion from that day on. So, jealousy has now arised in the heart of Saul. There is now someone better than him. You remember the words that Samuel said to him when he said you are now, God has now rejected you as king?

He says, I'm going to give this kingdom to someone better than you, better, better. Not only would he be a better king, he was going to be a better warrior. He was going to be a better treater of the people.

That's why David is the representative and the type of shepherd king. Ultimately, Christ becomes that shepherd king that would lead God's people. But David is the first shepherd king. And, man, he does good for the people.

He loves the people. He doesn't go out and tax the mess out of them. He takes care of them. And if we fix to move forward in this, David doesn't take men for himself the way Saul did. People attached themselves to David because of the type of man that he was.

Yeah, did David have failures in his life? Certainly, of course he did. But was David, by and large, was his life a life of faith and a life of integrity? And most certainly. It said that what more can he have but the kingdom?

So he knows here that just by popularity, the next thing that could happen was for them to make him king. Do we know that if Saul knows anything about what happened back in Bethlehem? We don't know. We can't even assume because we have no idea.

We just know that this is the anointed king. This is how God's bringing about these things about. And it says that Saul looked at him with suspicion on that day forward. Imagine if looks could kill at this point.

You know, imagine somebody saying, hey man, I've got my eye on you. What are they trying to do? They're trying to find some error of your way so that they can point it out, but then begin to make either the decline of your character or the decline of your position.

It says in verse 10, now it came about on the next day that an evil spirit from God came mightily upon Saul. He raved in the midst of the house while David was playing the harp with his hand and as usual had a spear in his hand.

Saul hurled the spear for he thought I will pin David to the wall for David had escaped from his presence twice. So here it is. That spirit, the demonizing spirit that came from the Lord is now tormenting Saul.

That's interesting that he says that he's raving in the midst of the house. I mean, he is just shaking, spinning around, acting the fool and he is angry. David's doing what David was supposed to do, which was pluck the harp to try to bring some solemnity to hit to him so that this spirit would leave and it's not leaving.

And what does Saul do? He takes that spear and he tries to run it through David. Do y 'all don't think, man, what was David thinking at this point? Because if you, if we read through this, David always gives Saul the benefit of the doubt.

I'm thinking, all right, you're there doing whatever he's doing his harp, playing away. And oh, I guess Saul's just having a bad day. You know, it's just, it's amazing that David always gives Saul the benefit of the doubt.

Even when he has the opportunities to kill him, he gives him the benefit of the doubt. And he says, because he's the Lord's anointed and because he's the one that God put in his, in this place, I will not remove him.

God will. His friends tell him. Here's the time God has put him in your hand. Yeah, twice. Yeah, twice he did that. Yeah, twice they did that. Once, once in the cave when they went in there to relieve himself and the other, God caused a deep sleep.

And he says, who's going to go down there into the, into the camp with me? And it was Abishai. And they take his, the jug and his spear. Saying that he, he had, he had the opportunity to kill him and he didn't.

Yes, ma 'am. Well, well, prophesy means not, not as in, he was proclaiming the oracles of God like Samuel. Okay, prophesy can mean just saying what's true about God. We're going to see this come about in two weeks, I think in two chapters.

If you remember when I said that day, that Saul would, he would prophesy after the spirit left. This is one of the times, okay? The next time it is used, he will prophesy. And God basically degradates him the way that he did Balaam.

Y 'all remember when Balaam was supposed to go say it's an oracle bad against the people of Israel. And you remember what happened? He went and he said he couldn't do what he had planned to do. So God, he can only prophesy good.

Well, he is fixing it. When a couple of chapters later ahead, he's fixing to go try to kill David and Samuel. And as he's got, he sends men to do it first. As they get to them, those guys start praising the Lord and prophesying.

And he sends another group, they do the same thing. And Saul says, well, I'll do it myself. And as he goes, bam, he starts prophesying stripped down naked. So don't understand it as he is now, he's still in a right relationship with God.

God has departed from him. God has left, God's done with him. God's moving on. Saul even knows that as we go through this too. Saul even says, God no longer speaks with me. He has departed from me. And he is told, well, he departs from you because you are an enemy of God.

It's another reason why, why would we think that, you know, Saul was a converted man when the prophets tell him you're God's enemy. Is anybody in here think that God, you can be an enemy of God and end up in heaven?

No, God has to make you a friend of God before you enter the kingdom of heaven. Anybody else say something different other than rave or prophesying, it's prophesying.

But I'd say that word can mean to prophesy. It can mean to speak the truth.

Yeah, just babbling, but it was truthful. Yeah, it was truthful words. Where was I at? He said, I'll pin David to the wall, verse 11. So Saul hurled the spear at him. He's gonna pin David to the wall and David escaped his presence twice.

So here it is. This ain't the first time that happened. So twice he has thrown the spear at him and he's gotten away. Now Saul was afraid of David. Interesting that he would be afraid of David. And here's the reason why, because the Lord was with David.

Saul has every reason to be scared of David because the spirit of the Lord that empowered Saul to be a king that gave him the ability to do the things that he did has now been stripped from him. It's been given to David.

He knows that the spirit of the Lord is with David. So he better fear because the spirit, it says here, the spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul. Therefore Saul removed him from his presence and appointed him over commanders of a thousand.

That's like a demotion. He was put over all of the war, the warring men. Now he has removed him from his presence and he's put him over a thousand and he went and he came in and out before the people.

David was prospering in all of his ways for the Lord was with him. And when Saul saw, when Saul saw, when Saul saw that he was prospering greatly, he dreaded him, but all Israel and Judah loved David and he came and went in and out before them.

There's gonna be a constant reframe in this like it was in Judges. They did what was right in their own eyes. That constant reframe, you're gonna have this constant reframe with David. The Lord was with him and the Lord was with him and the Lord was with him and the Lord was with him.

Why did David prosper in the ways that he did? Because the Lord was with him. Why did David do these great defeats against his enemies? Because the Lord was with him, that's why. Why was Israel loving him?

Because God is now changing the hearts of the people from being that which was towards Saul to now towards David. The heart of the people is being bent towards David and it says here that he went in and out before them.

What did King Saul do before the people? He didn't go in and out. He didn't go in and out among the people. He removed himself and he found those people that were beneficial for him and he took them to himself.

David, man, he was just one of the common folk and he was just gonna go in and out before them and obviously this probably caused more dread and more anger for Saul as well. And then in verse 17 it says, and Saul said to David, here's my older daughter Miriam.

I will give her to you as a wife but only be a violent man and fight the Lord's battles. For Saul thought, my hand shall not be against him but let the hand of the Philistines be against him. This is the proverb, so as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

That proverb specifically in its context is talking about somebody setting you up to back, go ahead.

What's scary is David will remember that. He did the same thing. He sure will. You're right.

He takes a lesson from this and is what Saul's saying sound flattering to David? Take my daughter. But what's the reason why he's doing it? He's using her for an occasion so that he can go out and fight the enemies and goes, hey, you know what?

I ain't gonna kill him. I'll let somebody else do that. And that's actually the same thing you're talking about with Uriah the Hittite. But if Saul was a man of his word, okay, was not Merab supposed to already be his wife?

For killing Goliath. For killing Goliath. So now that he has killed Goliath, his family should be tax free, he should have got a bucket load of cash, rich, fine wife, he still don't have her. Now, Saul says, I won't put my hand against him, I'll let the Philistines do it.

But David said to Saul, who am I? And what is my life? Or my father's family in Israel that I should be the king's son-in-law? So it came about at the time when Merab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, he gave them to Adriel, the Mahoathite, for a wife.

Look at this dirt bag. That's a liar, man. He says, all right, you go out, you fight the battles for the Lord, you go out and you kill all the enemies of the Lord, i .e. the Philistines, and I'm gonna give you my daughter, and what did he wind up doing?

He gave them to somebody else. Now, if we go into this next part of the narrative, okay, maybe she didn't want to marry David. We don't know. Maybe she's like, hey, man, I was already in love with this Adriel cat.

I don't want to do it. We don't know, but it says this. Now, Michael, Saul's daughter, loved David. Maybe Michael came up and said, hey, you know what? If you don't want him, I'll take him. I think he's handsome, he's famous.

You know, I'll marry him. She liked that red hair. She might be, yeah, she liked the old red head. And she liked all the cash he had and all the prestige. And she said, oh, another thing, if there's only two times that I could find, and y 'all can do your own searches, in all of scripture, only two times you see where a woman says she loved another man.

Two. One is right here, and the other is in Song of Solomon. Only time that I could find, and I did a lot of searching. Says that Saul's daughter loved David, and when they told David, the thing was agreeable to him, so Saul thought, hmm, I'll give her to him, and she might be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.

What does that say when he thinks about his daughter? She's a snake. Oh, yeah. Like, oh, this skeezer here is gonna be a, is going to cause him some heartache. And she does, down the road, by the way.

Um, says that, so Saul said to David, for a second time you will be my son-in-law today. What, a second time? You never followed through with the first time. Then Saul commanded the servant, speak to David secretly, saying, behold, the king delights in you, and all his servants love you.

Now, therefore, become the king's son-in-law. So Saul's servant spoke these words to David. David said, hey, is it a trivial thing in your sight for me to become a king's son-in-law, since I'm a poor man and lightly esteemed?

Well, one, he's not poor anymore. Two, he's really, he's highly esteemed at this point, but he is thinking of himself in the way that, if back then, you would have a dowry, one, you'd have to buy at the broad price, and then the dowry would come.

So you probably would be making your choices based on not so much how that person looked, you're like, hey, man, that girl's got no eye, no teeth, but man, I'm gonna get 25-headed goat and some sheep.

She's the one. Well, in this case, he's going to get the dowry that's gonna come with her, which would be from the king, which is gonna be the best of everything, but his broad price is not gonna be money.

He says, so Saul's servant spoke this to David, and he said it was a true thing. Am I not a poor man, lightly esteemed? The servants of Saul, verse 24 says this. To him, according to say these words to David, Saul then said, thus shall you say to David, the king does not desire a dowry except a hundred foreskins of a Philistine's.

You go take vengeance on the king's enemies. Do you see now the switch? You go fight with Merab. You go fight the king's, the lord's battles. Now, he double-crossed him with Merab. Now he's saying, you go out and you fight whose enemies?

Saul's enemies, and you go out and you go get me a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, and you take vengeance on my enemies. Now, Saul planned to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines, and it should say again there, and when his servants told David these words, it pleased David to become the king's son-in-law, and before the date had expired, David had rose up, he went, he and his men, and he struck down 200 of the men among the Philistines.

All right, just think of the mechanics of this. All right, this isn't going out and making proselytes here. This is going out and killing a hundred Philistine men and reaching down and throwing it in a bag, all right?

Imagine the guy carrying the bag keeping count. He's like, we only got 74, David. Oh, we're heading to the next village, and then when they get finished, David says, you know what? I'm not gonna do a hundred.

I'm gonna up the ante because Michal is hot. She is a hot mama. I'm gonna give him 200. I'm gonna, yeah, so in two chapters, we got David carrying a bag of 200 foreskins and a head. I mean, he's a man of blood, so it says that David brought their foreskins and gave them in full number to the king that he might become the king's son-in-law, so Saul gave Michal to him for his wife, his daughter to him for a wife, and Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David.

Here it is. Once again, there's that constant refrain. The Lord was with David. The Lord was with David. The Lord was with David. Now, Saul knows that the Lord was with David. Saul's daughter loved him, and Saul was even more afraid of David.

Thus, Saul was David's enemy continually. Because of God's love for David, Saul's hatred grows more towards David. That is astounding thing. Has David not been a faithful man? Just what we know up to this point.

Has he not been a faithful man to Saul? Yeah, has he not been a man of integrity? Yeah, has he not gone out and done whatever he's asked him to do? All right, you go out and fight me enemies? He went out and fight me.

You go out and bring me 104 skins? He said, you know what? I love your daughter so much, I'm gonna bring back 200. So he's done everything that was requested of him or demanded of him, and Saul hates him all the more.

And he said he's continually his enemy, and this will be the, this sets the stage for the rest of the book. He hates David, and he hates David because David's a, one, he's a threat to his throne. He is, two, he's loved by the people, and dude, he's a man of integrity, that's it.

I mean, he knows that the people want this guy as the man. And there's even a time where he gets the opportunity to kill David, to kill, David gets the opportunity to kill Saul, and he could take the throne just like that, and he refuses not to.

He actually even says, we're not gonna do it that way. He's gonna go to battle, and he's gonna wind up dying, and then God will put me where I need to be. Verse 30, it says, and then the commanders of the Philistines went out and battled, and it happened as often as they went out that David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul, so his name was highly esteemed.

So here it was again, David saying, he didn't have no esteem. I'm a lowly man, but because of who David was and what he was doing, he had become to have a great reputation among the people. He did wise, he was more wisely acting than all the servants of Saul.

Well, why? Because the Lord was with him. Why does anything happen to David good? Because God was with him. Why did anything bad happen to David? Because David's fault. David's fault. Yeah, when we find out that David gets in trouble, was it God's fault?

No, it was David's fault, just like you and I. Anything good happens to you and I, where does it come from? Comes from the Lord. Any blessing comes from the Lord. Any consequences to bad choices, whose fault is that?

Ours. Consequences of your sin, whose fault is that? Ours. We got, what, five minutes, 10 minutes? We'll go ahead and start chapter 19. Now David saw, now Saul told Jonathan his son and all his servants he wanted to put David to death.

Jonathan Defends David Against Saul’s Murder Plot

But Jonathan, Saul's son, greatly delighted in David. Hey, now imagine, here it is, his best friend, and he knows their best friend. This is the guy that he's given his robe, his articles of distinguishment so that David is now distinguished as the man that's gonna be the next crown prince.

And Saul tells Jonathan, you go kill him. You go, and all the servants, you go put David to death. But Jonathan, Saul's son, greatly delighted in David. Well, one, why? Because he admired him for what he did.

Their souls had been knitted together, ultimately, by a kindred spirit, as Andy said, as a sovereign act of God to put these two men together. And actually, that would be an act of providence by which he would preserve Jonathan's line down his family, is because their covenant that they made back in chapter 18.

Saul, my father is seeking to put you to death. Now therefore, please be on your guard in the morning and stay in a secret place and hide yourself. I'm gonna go and stand out beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak with my father about you.