1 Samuel 30

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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Bert, will you open us up with a word of prayer, please? All right, 1 Samuel chapter 30.

00:44

Stephen, do you remember what you wanted to ask me or not ask me publicly or privately? I just had a question about how this lady was able to bring up a Christian spirit, you know, to bring up Samuel.

00:59

Okay, an Old Testament saint, that was not common.

01:03

So, we should understand that as something that God did for the purpose of condemning Saul.

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The only other time we see anything even kind of close to this would still be under the Old Covenant, and it would have been when Jesus went up on the Mount of Transfiguration and we see Moses and Elijah.

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That would be the only other time we see this.

01:24

So, her screaming out loud, my understanding, and this is an inference, meaning we're drawing a conclusion that's not explicit in the text.

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Why was she frightened? Because that's not what she was expecting.

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Was she a charlatan? Probably.

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I mean, do people in this day and age, and maybe even back then, did they have the ability to call up some type of spirit and conjure up? Sure, evil spirits can be conjured up, but that's not what took place here.

01:56

An actual heavenly being is how she understood it, which would have been the spirit of Samuel.

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Anybody else? And I did have another question of, also, where he tells Saul, today you will be with me.

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How you understand that, how you interpret that, is going to help you understand how you're going to interpret, as we move on into 2 Samuel, when David's son dies with Bathsheba.

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Because the phraseology is the same.

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He says, I can be with him, but he cannot come to me.

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Speaking of when the child dies, and he tells Saul, today you will be with me.

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So, how should we understand that? The grave.

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That's how it should be understood.

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Now, there's other questions that we could draw out from that, and certainly we could have that discussion today, or we can have it then, or however you all want to do that.

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But understand, if you interpret this as being, oh, he's going to be in heaven, and this one, he's going to be in hell, they're inconsistent with one another.

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But if you say the grave, we know that that's consistent.

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Eternal punishment, like in Saul's case, eternal punishment, and Burke studied the Bible a lot longer than me, so correct me if I need to be.

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Eternal punishment had not come into full view, as our understanding in the Old Testament.

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Did we have passages where it talks about punishment, and eternal punishment? Yes, certainly in Daniel.

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Some would be raised to everlasting contempt.

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But that idea of how we understand hell in light of when Christ came, we don't have that understanding from the Old Testament.

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Any other questions before we get started? Okay.

03:54

All right.

03:56

I'm going to read the whole chapter, and I will try to get through that today.

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1 Samuel chapter 30.

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Now, it came about when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day that the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negev, on Ziklag, and they had overthrown Ziklag and burned it with fire.

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They took captive the women and all who were in it, both the small and the great, without killing anyone.

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They carried them off.

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They went their way.

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Then David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive.

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Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices, and they wept till there was no strength in them to weep.

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Now David's two wives had been taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite.

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Moreover, David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters.

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But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

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Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, Please, bring me the ephod.

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So Abiathar brought the ephod to David, and David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue this band? Shall I overtake them? And he said, speaking to the Lord, Pursue, for you will overtake them, and you shall surely rescue all.

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So David went, he and six hundred men who were with him, and came to the brook of Bezor, where those left behind remained.

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But David pursued, he and the four hundred men, for the two hundred who were left behind were too exhausted to cross over the brook, so they remained behind.

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Now they found an Egyptian in the field, brought him to David, and they gave him bread, and he ate, and provided for him water to drink.

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They gave him a piece of a fig cake and two clusters of raisins, and he ate.

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And then his spirit was revived.

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He had not eaten bread or drinken water for three days or three nights.

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So David said to him, To whom do you belong, and where are you from? And he said, I am a young man of an Egyptian, a servant of an Amalekite, and my master left me behind when I fell sick three days ago.

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We made a raid on the Negev of the Cherethites, and on that which belongs to Judah, and on the Negev of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire.

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Then David said to him, Will you bring me down to this band? And he said, Swear to me by God that you will not kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring you down to this band.

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And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread over all the land.

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They were eating and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil that had been taken from the land of the Philistines or from the land of Judah.

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David slaughtered them from twilight until evening the next day.

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And not a man of them had escaped except the 400 men who were on camels that fled.

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So David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken.

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He rescued his two wives, but nothing of theirs was missing, whether great or small, the sons or daughters, the spoils or anything that had been taken for themselves.

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David brought all of it back.

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So David had captured all of the sheep, the cattle, and he drove them ahead of the other livestock.

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And they said, This is David's spoil.

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And when David came to the 200 men who were too exhausted to follow David who had been left at the brook of Bezor, they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him.

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And then David approached the men and greeted them.

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But then there was wicked and worthless men among those men who were with David.

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And they said, Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except to give every man his wife and his children that they may lead them away and depart.

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And David said, You must not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given to us.

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Who has kept us and delivered into our hands this band and came up against us? And who will listen to you in this matter? For as this share is for one who goes down to the battle, so it is as he who stays with the baggage, for they both share alike.

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So it was from that day forward that it was made a statute and an ordinance for all of Israel to this day.

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Now when David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the spoil to the elders of Judah, to his friends, saying, Behold, a gift is for you for the spoil of the enemies of the Lord and to those who are in Bethel, and to those who are in Ramoth of the Negev, and to those who are in Jetar, and those who are in Oror, and Sifmoth, and those who are in Eshdomoah, and those who are in Rakal, and those who are in the Jerahemelites, and to those who are in the cities of the Kenites, and to those who are in Hamorah, and to those who are in Borah Hashan, and those who are in Athak, and to those who are in Hebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men were accustomed to go.

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So as we look at chapter 30, we need to remember that 29 and 30 were happening simultaneously.

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So as David was planning to go out to fight, from Achish's understanding, they were going out to fight against the people of Israel.

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Remember? They were leading them in.

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They were heading up this way.

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They were heading up this way here and the Philistine armies told Achish what? What did they say? Do you remember? Last week? Yeah, what are these Jews doing here? And where were they at? They were in the back.

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So they basically would have been sandwiched between the armies of Israel and between David's men.

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And they said, hey, you need to send this guy on back.

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And they had reason to think that.

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If you remember, I think I said this last week, chapter 14, you had some traders that had gone to the Philistines back in chapter 14, but when Jonathan started making the great slaughter, they turned and began to fight against the Philistines as well.

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So they had precedent to say, hey, these Jews really don't need to be mixed among us.

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So Achish says, hey, the lords of the Philistines don't want you.

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You need to go back home.

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He said, go back to the land that I gave you.

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And he said his continual refrain, well, what have I done? And he was right.

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Had he done anything at that point for Achish to think he was a traitor to Achish? And the answer is no.

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So he says, take all your men and head back home.

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And I can imagine these men going, all right, we have been out and about making these raids, we know, for at least 16 months.

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They were probably ready to go home.

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They were probably ready to go see their children.

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They were probably ready to go play with their kids.

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They were certainly ready to enjoy the spoils of what had taken place, and I can assure you they were probably ready to go home and enjoy marital relations with their wives.

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I mean, these men had been 16 months going raiding all of those areas.

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Now, maybe you all have not saw this, maybe you have, I don't know, but this time frame has been anywhere between 10 and 15 years.

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You understand that David's not lost one man.

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Not one man.

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Remember the 400 came out to him when he came, he left Achish.

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The first time when he deceived early on and he went to the cave of Adullam, how many people came to him? 400 worthless men, basically.

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400 men, not worthless, but 400 ones that were indebted, they were disgruntled, they didn't like what was going on, and then from the time that he left Adullam, remember his family came out, they went around to Moab.

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By the time they got around to Moab, he had picked him up another 200.

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So 600 men have been with David.

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Depending on your time frame, I'm on the 15-year side, okay, some are on the 10 side.

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Regardless, he's had all these battles, he's been waging against all the enemies of God in southern Judah, against the Karathites, the Gerzites, all those people he's been fighting and not lost one man.

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And now here it is, they're ready to go home, and when I think of this battle or what's going on, one of my favorite movies is Gladiator.

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And I don't know if you remember, at the beginning of the movie, he's telling Maximus, hey, man, it's time for everybody to go home.

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There's no more land for us to conquer.

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We've conquered it all.

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All those men are washing the blood off of their bodies, and they're going, man, I can't wait to get home to play with my kids.

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I can't get home to go fishing.

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I can imagine that is kind of the camaraderie that's going on.

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Well, as they begin this trek back, it says, verse 1, that it happened that when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day.

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So we've got a three-day travel, three-day travel from here to here, in three days.

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As they get up, it says that the Malachites had made a raid on the Negev, meaning the desert or the plains of Ziklag, and they had overthrown Ziklag and burned it with fire, and they took captive all the women, and all who were in it, both small and great, without killing anyone.

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Absolutely astounding through the providence of God that these men, who we know who the Malachites were from way back in Exodus.

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What did they do? They picked off the weak and the women.

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In the back.

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So we know, obviously, they were looking for the easiest thing.

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When I'm reading through the narrative, you go, man, why didn't David leave some men back to protect the women and children? And we have no idea.

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Other than the providence of God, he's fixing to kill a bunch of them.

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Why didn't he leave some back to protect the city? But there was no men left.

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Maybe he was not expecting the Malachites.

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Maybe he thought because he was under the cover of Achish and the Philistines, he would have been okay, and for that we don't know.

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But he didn't leave anyone back.

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But it says they hauled them off, and they didn't kill anyone.

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We know they were probably abused.

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We know the women and children were probably abused.

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They were hauled off.

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They were probably being enslaved.

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And it says that when David and his men, in verse 3, they came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire.

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Why did they burn those cities with fire once they conquered them? It couldn't be used again.

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They usually burned them and salted the land.

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Obviously, you don't need to salt land if it's in the air.

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It's a place that doesn't grow in any way.

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But you salt the land so you can't ever grow anything on it.

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So they burned it with fire.

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Their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive.

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In verse 4, it says David and the people who were with them lifted up voices, and they wept until there was no strength in them to weep.

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Do you understand that grieving and weeping for the loss of people and friendships is a grace from God? Now, from their understanding, what do they believe has happened to their family? Yeah, they're dead.

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They're never going to see them again.

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They don't have any indication that God's going to intervene.

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So they begin to weep.

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And it says that they wept and lifted up their voices until they had no strength left in them to weep.

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I mean, these men were at this point grieving the loss of their wives, their daughters, their sons.

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They could probably care less about the stuff, the spoils.

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They just want their family back.

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From what we know about these men, they were very capable of finding more spoil.

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But getting the wives and their children back was going to be very difficult because they thought they were dead.

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It also says in verse 5 that David's two wives had been taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite.

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It's interesting that they put that in there.

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Why? Why that tidbit of information? No idea.

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Other than we know this, that David's wives, whom he has, remember Michael is back in Gibeah with Saul's family.

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So these are the only wives he's had for however long, five years, how long it took for him to gather them or to pick both of them up after Nabal died.

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And it says that they were taken captive as well.

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Moreover, David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him.

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That's a tidbit of information that is also inserted in there to go, Okay, what was the conversation that happened when they got there? Was it, Hey, you took us out here.

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We raided all this land.

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We've been making all this spoil.

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We've enriched ourselves with all of the spoils of the enemies of the Philistines.

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Now you bring us back home.

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Our house is burnt.

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Our families are gone.

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David, you deserve to die.

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They said they were going to stone him.

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So as they got there, imagine after they got finished weeping, they're looking for some big rocks and a cliff to throw him off of and make a monument of David for what he has led them into.

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And then it says that they were embittered, each one, because the sons of his daughters had been taken captive.

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But David did this.

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David strengthened himself in the Lord.

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What do we know that happened in chapter 27? Remember back up.

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What did David do in chapter 27 at the beginning? How did the chapter open? David basically had a conversation with himself.

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And what did he do? He put his cleverness above guidance from God, and he tricked Achish.

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Okay, he tricked Achish.

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Then we don't see anything.

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The only chapter in 1 and 2 Samuel that God's never mentioned is in that chapter.

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Then in chapter 29, the only time the word God is mentioned, it comes out of the mouth of a pagan king.

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So here it is.

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My understanding of it, for 16 months, was David trusting in his own cleverness or was he trusting in God? His own cleverness.

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His own cleverness is obvious.

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It's obvious.

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But look what God providentially saved him.

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I mean, keeping him from being killed.

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God providentially kept his anointed king to keep him alive, to bring him one day safely to the throne.

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But it's only at this point when he's at rock bottom.

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There's nothing.

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What does David have at this point? His wives have been.

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What's that? And a lot of people want to kill him.

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Yeah.

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So everything's against David.

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But all the cards are stacked against him.

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There's nothing on David's side at this point.

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And what did he do? He turned to the Lord.

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I can't help but think back, I think it was in chapter 23, that he learned from Jonathan.

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You remember what Jonathan did when he was running from Saul and he found out he was out in the wilderness? Do you remember what Jonathan came and did? It says that Jonathan came and strengthened him in the Lord.

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He came and encouraged him.

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And what did Jonathan encourage him with? But how? You're right.

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He did in the Lord.

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But how should you? What's that? You mean what did Jonathan say to him? Well, that's how he encouraged him.

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Yeah, with the truth of what God had already revealed.

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One day you're going to be king.

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He encouraged him with the truth of God's Word, things that had been revealed.

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Now, one thing he did say to David that did not come to pass was, I will be by your side.

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And we know that that's not going to take place.

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But he was encouraging him in the Lord.

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Now, in this case, what does David do? David has to encourage himself in the Lord instead of having a conversation with himself going, hey, I'm slick, I'm clever, I can fight, I can kill giants, I can do all these things, I'm a very good man of deceiving people to get away with what I want.

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Now, at this point, he goes, you know what? I have to encourage myself in the Lord because at this point I can't do anything for myself.

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And he should have been that way from the beginning.

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But look how patient God was with him.

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So we talk about people that go off into the far country, kind of do their own thing for a little while.

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People go their own way.

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If you just look at the time frames in which people that are followers of God, Old or New Testament, you don't see 10 or 15 years of that.

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What do we see here with David? 16 months.

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Even after he has his transgression with Bathsheba.

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How long did that last? Maybe a year.

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Correct, maybe a year before he is rebuked and he repents.

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So, David strengthens himself in the Lord by affirming what God had already affirmed to him that, hey, you're going to be safely to the throne.

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You're going to be God's man.

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But he also does something he hasn't done for quite some time as well.

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Look in verse 7.

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David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, bring me the ephod.

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What was the ephod? We've talked about this multiple times.

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What was the purpose of it? Inquire of the Lord.

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So now here it is.

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David is reflecting on encouraging himself in the revealed truth of what God had promised him.

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Now he's actually going to inquire of the Lord for new revelation.

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That's how they were able to do that.

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Interesting that Abiathar would have been with him for 16 months.

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Would he have not? If they came back from up here, the three-day trip, and they'd been doing all this for 16 months, we could draw the conclusion for 16 months he had not inquired of the Lord through the ephod.

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And who was with him the whole time? Abiathar.

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The only priest that was left.

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And why was he the only priest left? Because all the rest of them were dead, and the whole city was dead.

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He says, bring me the ephod.

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So Abiathar brought the ephod to David.

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David inquired of the Lord.

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And he says, shall I pursue this band and shall I overtake him? Hey, when you read this, you go, why did not David, before he hauled Skadaddle back to Achish, why didn't he ask this before he went 16 months off into the far country to do his own thing and try to be Mr.

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Clever? Because he consulted with himself.

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He consulted with himself.

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He was doing that which was right in his own eyes.

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Yep, he sure was.

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And how much was he, remember we said this last week, how much was David acting like Saul for that time? It was all about David.

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It was all about David.

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It was all about David for 16 months.

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And look, even when you get to, we got to Nabal, and we're seeing those instances where God has, quote, putting him, is testing him to put him to the test, basically, what about Nabal? He had the opportunity to be brutalized Nabal.

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But God sent Abigail to warn him, don't do such things.

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You're not that type of man.

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You don't want to go into your kingdom.

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Once again, what was she affirming? That he was going to be king.

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You're going to be the king one day.

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And when you're there, you don't want on your conscience that you killed all these people unnecessarily for your anger.

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Well, it's not until this point that David inquires of the Lord, shall I pursue this band, and shall I overtake them? And the Lord said to him, pursue them, and surely you will overtake them, and you will rescue all.

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Man, that had to be encouraging.

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Didn't say, hey, you're going to rescue some.

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You're going to rescue a little.

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You're going to get back some of it.

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You might kill all.

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You're going to kill a good bit of them.

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No, no, no.

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He says, you're going to rescue all of them.

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So imagine him getting his men together.

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Hey, check this out.

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I've just talked to the Lord for the first time in 16 months, and he has told me we've got a saddle up and we're going to head out.

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Well, where are we going? I have no idea, but he says head out.

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Are you raising your hand, Andy? Yeah, you know, it's really interesting, this really is a real change in David, because if anything, you would think that at this point when his wives and the hostages were, you would react by emotion, you know, just take off and go into the city, and yet he's so restrained and inquiring of the Lord, really a great step forward in David's own soul.

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Yeah, you're seeing brokenness.

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Yeah, and he really holds back his emotions and doesn't try to scheme.

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I think it's pretty outstanding.

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Yeah, like I say, he's at rock bottom because he's got nothing else to lean on.

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He has nothing else to look at his own self-sustaining in this.

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I mean, his men are against him, right? So even if he wanted to go do a raid at this point, he says, all right, guys, let's just go take out our anger and hostility and grieving.

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Let's go find some of God's enemies, and let's go pillage the place.

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He can't even now at this point harness his men together to do that.

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But by hearing and inquiring of the Lord, he says, look, I have spoken with the Lord, and the Lord says, you go, you will find them, and you will overtake them.

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And in verse 9, it says, so David went, he and his 600 men.

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I just wish I could have heard that conversation in between 8 and 9 to get his men.

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You know, here it is.

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They were just wanting to stone him to death.

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They were wanting to kill him.

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They've wept until there's no strength in them, and now he's encouraged them enough to say, okay, let's head out.

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And you understand they don't know where they're going.

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All they know is they've got to head probably some down this way because this is the land of Amalek.

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Now, we do need to back up and remember, why did this take place? Why did the Amalekites raid Ziklag? Because David wasn't home.

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That's true, but you back up further 15 plus years.

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What did Saul not do? He didn't kill them all.

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He went in there, and then my understanding is why he was picking out all the good sheep and separating all the stuff that he wanted to keep.

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Remember, he killed all the bad stuff, and in the middle of separating the good from the bad, who got away? Some Amalekites.

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Had Saul done what he was supposed to do, this little situation would have never come about.

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It would never have come about.

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So, verse 10, so David pursued.

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I'm sorry, back up.

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He said he came to the brook and left those behind.

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So there were 600 men.

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They get to the brook of Bezor, whether it's those men were so tired from making the hike or whether they were still very grieved and wore out from crying and weeping.

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Whatever the case may be, there was 200 of them that just couldn't make it.

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Hey, we can't cross here.

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So David said, all right, you're going to stay back and watch the stuff, the supplies.

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So David pursued.

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He and the 400 men were the 200 who were too exhausted.

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They could not cross.

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They stayed back and remained behind.

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And interesting, here it is.

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In the providence of God, they found an Egyptian in the field and they brought him to David.

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So think of all the things that God has done to this point to get David's men back to where they would trust him.

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Three days ago, we're going to see that this man, this Egyptian slave of the Amalekites, fell sick.

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Who caused that? The Lord did.

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He was so sick, he'd been out there in the desert for three days, no food, no drink, and he didn't die.

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So who sustained him so that David's men could stumble across him? God did.

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And now they come across him.

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David's just following around aimlessly heading towards the land to Amalek.

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And now they're going to find out where this band is because of this man.

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And they gave him bread and he ate.

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And they provided for him water to drink.

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And they gave him a piece of fig cake.

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And two clusters he ate and then his spirit was revised.

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I think it's funny that just the regular old bread and water didn't do it, man.

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They gave him some sugar and bing! The fig cakes and all.

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He's ready to ride now.

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And it says he was revived.

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For he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights.

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And David said to him, for whom do you belong and where are you from? Interesting that David's men do all of these things before this guy, before they were asking where he was from, who he was.

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They were very benevolent to this man.

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It would be very difficult for me, in my mind, to go, they didn't notice that this guy was some type of warrior or had been traveling with another group of bands.

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Obviously he was with the Amalekites.

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What would he have been doing with the Amalekites? Raiding.

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Yeah, he'd have been raiding.

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So it says here that David said to him, who do you belong? And he said, I am a man of Egypt, a servant of an Amalekite.

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And the master left me behind when I fell sick three days ago.

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In other words, hey, I got sick three days after we had done these raids we were doing, and my master loved me so much that when I got sick, he just threw me by the wayside and said, he's useless to us.

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Let's carry on.

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What does that say? They probably thought he was going to die.

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Yeah, probably thought he was going to die of starvation, dehydration.

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I guess probably at night they could freeze to death in the desert at times, so depending on what time of year it was.

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But he was no longer a benefit to the Amalekites.

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So what does he do? Just leave him be, leave him to die.

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And little did they know that leaving that man behind to die, they had just signed their execution document.

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And it says that we had made a rave in the Negev of the Cherethites, and that which belongs to Judah.

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And they did that in the Negev of Caleb.

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Caleb, in the desert of Caleb.

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In the desert of Caleb.

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And they burned Ziklag, and here it is when he heard Ziklag.

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And David said to him, will you bring me down to this band? And he said, let me think about it for a second.

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Let me ponder if this is in my best interest.

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No, what did he say? It was like probably he didn't even get out of his mouth.

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He probably said, hey, can you tell me? Yep, sure can.

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That worthless, no good man left me out here to die.

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I'll take you right to him.

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Just don't give me back to him, and promise me that you won't kill me because we've abused your women and children.

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And he says, promise me to God.

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And that word there is Elohim, not Yahweh.

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And he says, I will bring you down to this band.

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Verse 16, when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread out all over the land.

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They were eating and drinking and dancing, because all of the great spoil that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.

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So when they get to wherever this land was, where this band was, they get up from, obviously it looks like they can look down to where they're at.

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They're seeing all the partying.

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Why would they be partying? Yeah, man.

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They are rich.

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And they had gotten some revenge from their forefathers.

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That very well could be the case.

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Yeah, that could happen.

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Yeah, they could say, hey, look, we have done, we have basically got some get back on Saul.

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And in the land of Judah, we've hauled off these Hebrew women.

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They're going to be our slaves.

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And these kids, we're going to raise them up to be slaves.

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And they look out.

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These guys are dancing and partying, having a good time.

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And it says here, and David slaughtered them from twilight until the evening of the next day.

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Now, I don't understand the difference between twilight and evening, because there's basically the same time.

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Basically, he goes from sunset that night till sunset the following night.

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So you're talking about 24 hours of just laying waste to those men and getting their women and children back.

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It says, from that evening, I'm sorry, and not a man escaped except 400 young men who rode on camels.

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Okay, so this will tell you how great the slaughter was.

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If David started with six, 200 too weak, he's down to 400.

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It was a great slaughter, and 400 got away.

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So there was the same amount of men that David brought in to make this battle.

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That's how many got away.

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How much did they kill in retaliation for what they did to his people? Once again, he is the warrior king.

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He's going to protect his people.

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Was David not only upset? We know from the little tidbit that they had hauled off his two wives, but what always invigorated David? Attacking God's people.

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Remember when he was doing his own thing, bringing the cheese and the goat cheese and all that stuff, bringing it to his brothers, what did he hear back in chapter 17? What did he hear? Goliath insulting the people of God, threatening the people of God.

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He said, man, I will take out that uncircumcised Philistine.

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And then he heard about, hey, you get a fine wife.

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You might get two fine wives.

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And you get a bunch of money, and you'd be tax-free.

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He's like, all right, check this out.

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I'm going to take your head off, and then I'm going to feed your body and the rest of them to the Philistines.

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Then what invigorated David again that made him want to protect Abiathar and promised to do whatever he had to do to keep Abiathar.

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You remember? We talked about this a minute ago.

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When Saul slaughtered 85 priests in the city of Nod.

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Remember, he was running and hiding and fearful.

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As soon as he heard that somebody had hurt the people of God, what did he do? He's ready to fight.

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Here it is here.

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The women and children have been hauled off.

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God's people, God's covenant people have been hurt, and David's ready to ride.

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He's ready to fight.

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And David recovered, verse 18, David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, rescued his two wives, but nothing of theirs was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, the spoil or anything that had been taken from them.

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So not only, and we're going to see this in just a second, not only did they get everything that had been taken from them in Ziklag, they got everything back, but then it says they were driving the cattle down to verse 20.

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So David captured all the sheep and the cattle, which the people drove ahead of the other livestock, and they said, this is David's spoil.

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So remember, they had the spoil that the Amalekites had taken from the Philistines.

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So they got the spoil of the spoil.

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And it says that this was David's spoil.

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David corrects them here in just a second.

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In verse 21, it says, Now, we go, wait a minute, these guys were supposed to be faithful to David, and they were.

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But hey, inside every group, what's that? Inside every group of men, there's going to be some dirt bags.

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And these men should have been like, you know what? They've protected our stuff while we were away so that nobody came and took our bags and our ammunition and whatever little bit of spoil we left here, and what did they do? They said, no, no, no, no, man, these guys didn't cross that.

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They didn't go fight.

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They don't deserve anything.

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Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered except to give them their wife and his children and let them go about and depart.

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And David said, and look, David doesn't reprimand them with a rebuke.

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How do we know that? Because he addresses them as my brothers.

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He says, you must not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us.

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David said, look, they said, look at David's spoil.

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What does David say? He says, the Lord gave this to us.

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We didn't get this.

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We didn't do this on our own.

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I can imagine David going back, hey, you don't remember me inquiring of the Lord.

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We didn't know where we were going, what we were doing.

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We were wandering out in this desert until we found this Egyptian, and now you're saying we did this? No, no, no, God gave us this.

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Do you not know that he kept us and he delivered them into our hands, this band that came against us? And who will listen to you in this matter? Now that does sound like a rebuke.

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That sounds like who's going to listen to your mouth? This is unwise counsel.

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For as his share that goes down to the battle, so it shall be his share who stays with the baggage.

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They shall both share alike.

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David says, look, whether you go down and you make the raid or whether you sit back with the supplies, when we come back, buddy, it's split down the middle.

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It doesn't matter.

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If you went there and you raided and you had a bag of gold, when it comes back, it's split with the men that stayed back to watch the supplies.

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And it says here that it became from that day forward, it was made a statue and an ordinance for Israel from that day forward.

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We understand that to be David made this statement.

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He was not yet king, but when he became king, this is the rules from here on out.

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And it says even to this day, from the time of this writing, whoever the writer was, it was still established as law.

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So in verse 26, now when David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the spoil to the elders of Judah, to his friends.

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Now we need to look and see what David's done.

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We see the great slaughter that happened to the end of verse 20, but look from 20 to the end of verse 31.

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We see David giving everything that he had taken.

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He's giving it out.

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He's giving it out.

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What the Lord had given David, he's sending out gifts.

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He's sending it all over the land.

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Remember, he's sending it as far up here even to Ramah.

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He's sending it all over this.

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It's interesting.

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He doesn't even know yet that Saul's going to be killed, and he's sending stuff up into Saul's territory.

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Gifts of slaughter, of great things that he has done, by God delivering his enemies into his hands.

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And just list all the funny names.

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Y'all can read them again.

41:32

I butchered a few of them.

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And he sends it out, and it says that to all those in verse 31, and all those who were in Hebron, and to all those where David and himself were accustomed to going.

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So David had made some friends along the way, and who helped him, who probably kept him in cover.

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And David, what did he do? He remembered them.

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What is David doing here that Saul did not do? David's giving.

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What was it that said right at the beginning Saul was going to do? Take, take, take.

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And what is David doing? Give, give, give.

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Give, give, give.

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David's like, man, you know, God's given us this.

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God has protected us.

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God has delivered these people into our hands.

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Why would I keep this for me? This ain't mine.

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This has been a gift from the Lord for his obedience.

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Now, was he obedient to go in and chase down the band of men? Yes.

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Yes.

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And did God bless his obedience? Yes.

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Sure did, by giving him his wife.

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Hey, look, David didn't stay in Ziklag when it was burning, and think, okay, well, God's just going to lead him back here by the worthless men that took him away.

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He had to pursue with the knowledge that God had given him to go get it back.

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So we see here setting up the king that was ruthless, that cared about himself, didn't care about the people of God.

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He cared about protecting him and his own kingdom.

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To see now God's chosen king who cares about God's people, he protects God's people, and then when he is enriched by God, what does he do with the things that God has given him? He gives it to the people of God.

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And we've got about two minutes.

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That will set us up for next week to where the prophecy given from Samuel to Saul that him and his sons are going to be slain at Mount Gilboa.

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This is setting up a crisis.

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Remember, how many crises have arised in the book of Samuel from Chapter 1 that lead to a next level of leadership? I mean, think about, we go all the way back to Hannah's prayer.

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There was a crisis, was there not, in Chapter 1? What was it? Hannah couldn't have a baby.

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She couldn't have a baby.

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And she cried out.

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And she said, you give me a baby, I'll give him to the priesthood all the days of his life.

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And why did she need to give him to the priesthood? Because you had Dirt Bag 1 and Dirt Bag 2 with the dad that would not correct them.

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And we see that crisis that God provides.

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Then you see a failure in leadership.

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And when Samuel gives his boys, he could no longer in his age travel his circuit.

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He gave it to his boys.

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And what did they do? They did it unjustly.

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So what did they cry out to Samuel for? We've got to have a king, man.

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You ain't cutting it.

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You're old.

44:43

You're gray.

44:44

You ain't doing what you used to do.

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We love you, but you're not cutting it.

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We need a king.

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If we had a king, we wouldn't have these problems.

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So we had a crisis inside the Levites, which led to the rise of the king.

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And God said, No, no, no, no, no.

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You don't need Saul as king.

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You should have me as king.

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And they said, We don't want you.

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And God said, Okay.

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In my wrath, I'm going to give you what you want.

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And he gave them what they wanted.

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And what did he do? He take, take, take, take, take.

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Andy, you'll close us with a word of prayer.

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Be with us now, Lord.

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We worship you in spirit and truth.