(Through the Bible) 1 Samuel 17-25 — Chuck Smith

David and Goliath: Israel’s Fear of the Philistine Champion

Shall we turn in our Bibles to the seventeenth chapter of 1st Samuel? In the seventeenth chapter of 1st Samuel, we read where the Philistines had gathered their armies together against the children of Israel, and of course, King Saul had gathered his armies together, and they were setting their battle lines, they were digging their foxholes, and setting up their battle array on either side of the Elah Valley.

Now, the Elah Valley is an area that is, oh, south and west of Jerusalem, maybe fifteen miles. A beautiful little valley, but of course, anything can be made ugly by war. And so, on the mountain on one side was the camp of the Philistines, on the mountain on the other side was the camp of Israel.

And in those days, they would take their time, you know, in getting started into a real battle. They'd come and they'd yell and they'd have their shouts and they'd try to psych each other out. And the children of Israel had been pretty well psyched out by this fellow Goliath who came out every day for forty days.

The champion from the Philistines, he was from the city of Gath, he was nine feet six inches tall. He had a brass helmet, a brass coat of mail that weighed five hundred or five thousand shekels, was it?

And he had these plates of brass on his legs. He had a brass chest protector. His spear was like a weaver's beam, huge spear. And man, he'd come out there and stand and he was an awesome sight in the eyes of the children of Israel.

And daily, he would challenge them. He would say, look, facing off here in battle, we can settle it easily. Send out a man to fight me, for I'm a Philistine, you're the Israelites. And if you've got a man in your army that's able to fight me, if he can defeat me, we'll be your servants.

If I defeat him, then you'll be our servants. And he was daily challenging them for forty days. Meanwhile, back in Bethlehem, Jesse called his youngest son David in and said, David, I want you to go out to the battlefield and check with your brothers and see how things are going.

Take these loaves of bread for them and this bushel of parched corn. And take these cheeses for their captains. And just find out how things are going and bring us news again of the condition of your brothers.

And so, David headed off on a chariot towards the battlefield in Elah Valley from Bethlehem, about twenty miles distance. And as he came near and he could see the camp of the Israelites and the Philistines, he got off the chariot and ran to meet his brothers.

And, of course, he started sharing with them and the parents' concern. How's everything going? Are you warm enough at night? And, you know, is everything okay? And as he was talking to them, this fellow Goliath came out and made his daily challenge.

And so the fellows, when they saw this man, they fled from him and they were very afraid. And the men of Israel said to David, have you seen this fellow that comes out every day to defy Israel? The king said, if any man can kill him, the king will make him very rich.

He'll allow his family to become tax-free in Israel and he'll give his daughter to the guy for a wife. David said, the king will do what? They said, well, he's going to give the guy a lot of riches and give him his daughter for a wife and his family will be tax-free.

And so David's brother, Eliab, saw David's interest in this thing and he said to David, who's watching over your sheep back there in the wilderness, kid? You better get on home in a hurry. You know, I know your heart, you're just...

Dad probably didn't send you down here, you're just down to see what a war looks like and you go home in a hurry. And his big brother is trying to sort of protect him and David said, hey, wait a minute, what have I done?

There's a cause here. This fellow is defying the armies of the living God. And if none of you fellows want to go out and fight him, I'll go out and fight him. And so a fellow ran and told Saul the fact that they had a volunteer who had volunteered to go out and fight David.

And so they brought David in to fight Goliath. They brought David in unto Saul and Saul said, oh, you can't fight him, son. That man is a man of war. You're just a youth and he's been a man of war from his youth.

You can't go out and fight him. And David said, wait a minute, don't reject me so fast. He said, one day when I was watching my father's sheep, a lion and a bear came out and grabbed the sheep and began to drag them off.

And I grabbed the sheep out of the lion's mouth so he turned on me. And I took him by the beard and I killed him. And I also killed the bear. And the God who delivered the lion and the bear into my hands will deliver also this uncircumcised Philistine.

So Saul said, well, give you a try here, you know, and take this helmet and this armor plate and so forth. And so they put this armor on David and the helmet. And he's probably just a little kid and, you know, the helmet probably came down over his ears.

And, you know, the armor plate so heavy, he said, oh, if you don't mind, I haven't tested this stuff. I don't think I better use this. I'll just go out as I am. And so David headed toward the giant. Now, one interesting thing about the Elah Valley, there is a dry stream bed in the bottom.

Of course, it's got water in it when it rains. But it's one of those typical Southern California type of rivers, you know, that only gets water when it rains. But interestingly enough, when God created the earth, I have in my office actually some, and I should have brought some out tonight.

But when God created the earth, knowing what was going to transpire in this particular valley, when God made this valley and this particular little stream bed, God just placed thousands of smooth, round stones in this particular stream bed.

I've never seen any stream bed with so many smooth, round stones. Beautiful stones for a sling. And I've got a bunch of them in my office. I like to pick them up out of that stream bed because they're so perfect for a sling.

And so David stopped by and he picked up five smooth, round stones. And there's just bundles of smooth, round stones in this stream bed. And he headed up the hill towards the giant, put them in his little shepherd's sack, headed up the hill.

Well, when Goliath saw David coming, he was outraged. He said, am I a dog that you'd send a child out to fight me? And he began to curse David by his gods and said, all right, kid, you're asking for it.

I'll chop you up and feed you to the birds. And David said to the giant, you come against me with a sword and a spear and a shield. But I come against you in the name of Jehovah of hosts. The God that you have defied.

And he is going to deliver you into my hand and I'm going to chop up your whole army and feed it to the birds. David was assured not only a victory over the giant, but over the whole host of the Philistines.

And so David took one of the stones out of his little pouch, put it in his sling. And let fly towards the giant and he sunk the stone right into the forehead of the giant. And the giant fell down and David went running up and because he didn't even have a sword, all he had was this thing, he didn't even have a sword.

He pulled the sword out of the sheath of the giant, his own sword, and David used it and hacked off his head. And then he grabbed it by the hair and held it up, probably began to swing it around, yelling.

And all of the Philistines, when they saw this, their champion destroyed by a child, panic gripped them and they began to flee. And of course, the men of Israel, when they saw this, their hearts were encouraged and they all came out of their tents and began charging after the Philistines.

And there was a great slaughter of the Philistines that day. And so the Lord delivered the Philistine there in the hands of David. Now when Saul saw David go out against this fellow, he said to his captain Abner, who is this young fellow, who is his dad?

And Abner said, I don't know, as my soul lives, I can't tell you. And so the king says, inquire and find out whose son he is. And so as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine still in his hand.

It was a trophy that David had. He wasn't going to let the thing go. He was going to carry it around for a few days. Must have been a big head too, you know, a guy nine foot six inches tall. And he said, whose son are you, David?

Jonathan and David: Covenant Friendship and Divine Deliverance

David said, I'm the son of thy servant Jesse, the Bethlehemite. Now when it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan, Saul's son, was just sort of knit with the soul of David.

Jonathan loved him as himself. Actually there came a bond between Saul's son Jonathan and David. They were really sort of two of a kind. They were both of them very adventuresome. They were both of them very daring.

Both of them with great confidence in God, great love for the Lord. It was Jonathan you remember last week. We were studying about him when they were facing the Philistines. He was the one that woke up his armor bearer and said, Hey, I've been thinking this morning.

It doesn't make any difference to God if we have a whole army or just ourselves. If God wants to deliver the Philistines in the hands of Israel today, he can do it to just two of us. He doesn't need the whole army.

Let's go over this morning and see if God wants to deliver the Philistines into the hands of Israel. And so he with his armor bearer took on the whole army of the Philistines. Just find out if God wants to deliver because God's big enough.

If he wants to deliver them, he doesn't need a whole army. He only needs two. And God delivered the Philistines into the hand of Jonathan and his armor bearer that day. And so Jonathan and David were really sort of two of a kind.

So they just immediately hit it off. They just, you know, that kind of a thing where a bond was formed, a deep bond was formed between these two fellows, Jonathan and David. Now, Saul sort of kept David.

I mean, he just, you know, also at this point had a very great admiration and liking for this brave, daring young kid. And so he wouldn't let him go home. He's going to keep him now there with the army.

And Jonathan and David made a covenant because they loved each other so deeply. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David in his garments and his sword and his bow and his girl.

And he just gave David, hey, you know, here, take my sword, my bow, my, you know, he just tried to show his expression of love towards David. And so David went with Saul wherever Saul would go and David behaved himself very wisely.

So Saul sent him over the men of war and he was accepted in the sight of the people. Now, though he was just a very young fellow, he was sent over a part of the army and these guys respected him so much from, of course, God's deliverance of the Philistine into his hand that they just accepted him.

But then trouble began to arise because as they would come into a village, after David had returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all of the cities of Israel, singing and dancing to meet King Saul with their tablets and with joy and with instruments of music.

And the women would sing back and forth one to another. And one group would sing, Saul has slain his thousands. Now, he was used to this. The women had started this when Saul would come back from victory.

They'd come out and they'd sing with their tambourines and they'd go through their dances singing, Saul has killed his thousands. Now, in this particular case, they started off and, of course, old Saul was just, you know, all right, you know, that's me, folks, you know, here I am.

And then a second company of women sort of answered, and David his tens of thousands. Well, to a fellow who was having a problem with pride, this was a little much. And Saul became extremely jealous of David and he says, what does he want more than this, the kingdom?

And, of course, he was not aware of the fact that God had already chosen David to be the king and that God had anointed David to be king over Israel. And so it is interesting that immediately he began to suspicion the fact that the kingdom was in jeopardy.

What does he want more than this, the kingdom? And Saul was very angry. And he said, look, they've ascribed to me thousands, but to David tens of thousands. And so from that day onward, Saul was watching David very carefully.

Now, it came to pass on the next day that an evil spirit came upon Saul, one of these bad, ill-tempered days for him. And he prophesied in the midst of the house and David played with his hands at other times.

And Saul had a javelin in his hand and he thought, I'll thrust that kid through and pin him to the wall. So he threw the javelin at David and David nimbly dodged the thing. But twice that day, he tried to ram the javelin through David and David dodged it both times, but David figured, it's time for me to get out of here.

And so he departed. And so Saul then made him a captain over the thousand and he went out into the field. But David behaved himself very wisely and the Lord was with him. So Saul began to get a little afraid of David when he saw how wisely he kept himself and how he did always the right things.

But Israel and Judah loved David because he was there among them and he would go in and out before them. So Saul said, Here David, you know, Mereb, my oldest daughter, and of course I promised my daughter to anyone who would kill the Philistine.

And so he said, She can be your wife, but be valiant for me and fight the Lord's battles. For Saul said, Let the Philistines kill him and I won't have to lay my hand on him. He figured if he sent him out against the Philistines, they'd kill him and he wouldn't have to kill him himself.

But David said to Saul, Hey, who am I? What is my life? What is my father's family in Israel? That I should be a son-in-law to the king. And they came to pass when the time was supposed to be that Mereb was supposed to be given to David as a wife.

Saul switcherooed and gave her to somebody else. Pulled a dirty one on David, gave her to someone else. Now, Saul had another daughter. And Michelle actually loved David very much. And when they told Saul, Hey, Michelle's really in love with David.

Saul said, Oh, that's all right. I will give him her. That she may be a snare to him. So I don't know what kind of a daughter she was. I don't know. But he figured she'd be a snare to David and give him problems, which she did in time.

That the hands of the Philistines may be against him. So Saul said to David, You're going to be my son-in-law today. And David said, Who am I? You know, I'm poor. I'm a poor man. My family, I don't have any dowry to give.

And so Saul's servants spake the words in the ears of David. And they said, You know, Saul wants you to be his son-in-law. He wants you to marry his daughter Michelle. And David said, Hey, you guys think it's just a light thing to be the king's son?

I'm a poor man. I'm lightly esteemed. And so they came back and they told Saul, Hey, he doesn't want to do it. He doesn't feel, you know, that he should. He doesn't have the dowry or anything else. So Saul said, Go back and tell him that I really don't want any dowry of money.

And he set up a dowry regarding the Philistines. And David went out and gave him double dowry. And so Saul then, of course, was sort of shocked and surprised. He figured David would get wiped out in going out against the Philistines.

But he gave then his daughter Michelle to David as a wife. Now in the 19th chapter, we find Saul's third attempt to kill David. David spoke to Jonathan, his son, to all of his servants, and he told them that they should kill David.

But Jonathan, because of his love for David, said to his father, or he said to David, David, my dad seeks to kill you. I pray, take heed to yourself until the morning and abide in a secret place. Hide.

And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are and I'll commune with my father of thee and I'll see what I see, I'll tell you. In other words, hide yourself until I can find out really what my dad is thinking.

So Jonathan spoke good of David to Saul, his father, and said, Let not the king sin against his servant and against David because he has not sinned against you and because his works have been very good toward you.

For he did put his life in his own hand and he slew the Philistine. And the Lord brought great salvation for all Israel. You saw it and you did rejoice. Why then will you sin against innocent blood and slay David without a cause?

And Saul hearkened to the voice of Jonathan and Saul swore as the Lord liveth, he shall not be slain. So there was an apparent change of attitude for a moment. Now, Saul does manifest almost a schizophrenia.

I would imagine that if a psychiatrist would read the case history on Saul here, he would probably be classified as a schizophrenic. He would have these periods of great depression. He would have periods of remorse and periods of change.

Oh, David, my son, you're like a son to me and speak great words of love. And then next day try to ram him through with a javelin again. So he was very vacillating. Now, Jonathan speaking these kind words to his dad about David, Saul responded.

He said, As the Lord liveth, he will not be slain. So Jonathan called David and Jonathan showed him all those things and Jonathan brought David to Saul and he was in Saul's presence as in times past. And there was war again and David went out and fought with the Philistines and slew them with a great slaughter and they fled from him.

And the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul as he sat in his house. His javelin was in his hand and David played with his hand on the harp and Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin.

But David slipped out of Saul's presence and the javelin went into the wall and David fled and escaped that night. So Saul sent out messengers to David's house to watch him and to slay him in the morning.

And Michelle, David's wife, told him saying, Now, if you don't save your life tonight, tomorrow you're going to be dead. So Michelle let David down through a window and he fled and escaped. And then she took the bed and put pillows and all under the blankets so it looked like someone was lying there.

And so in the morning when the messengers were going to kill David, they said, Oh, he's sick. They said, We want to bring him to Saul. They said, He's sick. He's in bed. So they went to Saul and they said, We can't bring him.

The guy's sick in bed. He said, Bring him with a bed and all so he can slay him. So they went back to get David and then they found out that it was just the pillows under the blankets and all. David was gone.

And so he got angry with his daughter Michelle. He said, What are you doing? Turning against your own father, your own flesh and blood to protect David and all. And so Michelle actually said to her dad, Well, she said, He told me, Let me go or I'm going to kill you.

So she lied her way out of it. So David fled and he came to Samuel there in Ramah and he told him all that Saul had done to him. And Samuel went and dwelt in Naoth. And it was told Saul saying, Behold, David is at Naoth in Ramah.

And so Saul sent messengers to take David. And when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul and they all prophesied.

So here's an interesting thing. Samuel was there at Naoth and David was there. And so they sent these guys out to take David in. And God's Spirit just came on him. And they just started prophesying. So he sent out another group of messengers to get David.

And as they came near where the Spirit of God was working, the Spirit of God came on them. They started prophesying. So he sent out a third company of messengers to get David. And when they came into the scene and all that was going on, they began to prophesy.

So Saul came down himself. And the Spirit came on Saul. And he took off his clothes. He lay there naked all night prophesying. And so they began to say, Is Saul among the prophets? Again, that proverb that came out early in Saul's career.

David and Jonathan’s Covenant in the Face of Saul’s Persecution

Now David fled from Naoth in Ramah. And he came to Jonathan and he said, What have I done? What is my iniquity? What is my sin that your father is seeking my life? And Jonathan said to him, God forbid, thou shalt not die.

Behold, my father will do nothing, either great or small, but he'll show it to me. And why should my father hide this thing from me? Is it not so? David said, Your father is trying to kill me. Jonathan said, Oh, he's not trying to kill you.

He wouldn't do anything unless he told me first. And he does not say anything about it. And David swore moreover and said, Your father certainly knows that you and I are good friends. And so he said, Don't let Jonathan know this, lest he is grieved.

But truly, as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death. David just said, Man, I'm living on a border of eternity. There's just a step between me and death. Your dad's after me and he's trying to kill me.

Then Jonathan said to David, Whatever you want, I'll do. And David said to Jonathan, Behold, tomorrow is the new moon. And I'm supposed to be sitting there at your father's feast. And I'm not going to show up.

And I want you to pick up on your dad's attitude when I don't show up. And if he says, Where's David? Just tell him, Well, his family is having an annual get-together in Bethlehem. And David pleaded with me that he might go and spend this annual family affair with his family.

And so he didn't come. And just notice what your dad's attitude is when I don't show up. Because he's really planning to kill me when I come and sit there at the table. So Jonathan was a little skeptical.

But he said, Okay, we'll let you know. But he said, What we'll do is you wait out here behind this rock. And I'll come out with my servant. When I really found out what my dad's feelings are, I'll come out with my servant.

And I will shoot my arrows and send him out after them. And if I call to him and I say, The arrows are this side of you. Then they've fallen short. Then you'll know that it's okay that my dad is in a good mood and he doesn't really have any intentions of killing you.

But if I say to the young fellow, The arrows have gone beyond you. Then you'll know it's time to flee because my dad is angry and is thinking about killing you. So Saul, the new moon, the feast of the king, and Abner, his captain, was there.

Jonathan's place was there, but David's place was empty. And Saul didn't say anything the first day. He figured, Well, he probably isn't ceremonially clean. Maybe he's killed someone today, has blood on his hands, and so he wants to go through the cleansing rite before he comes.

He'll be here tomorrow. So the next day when David's chair was empty too, he said to Jonathan, Where's David? And Jonathan said, Well, his family's having an annual get-together. It's a family gathering.

And David pleaded with me that he might go and spend this celebration with the family in Bethlehem. And Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan. And he said, Thou son of a perverse woman! Don't I know that you've chosen the son of Jesse to your own confusion and to the confusion of your mother's nakedness?

For as long as the son of Jesse is living, you're not going to become king after me. He's going to have the kingdom. Wherefore now send and fetch him unto me, for he shall surely die. So Saul, of course, gave forth now his true feelings.

Jonathan saw what was in his dad's heart. And Jonathan said, Why should he be slain? What evil has he done? And Saul cast his javelin at Jonathan. I mean, the guy was just, you know, enraged. And so just because his son dared to ask a question, Why should you kill him?

What has he done wrong? Well, Saul let fly with the javelin towards his son Jonathan. And so Jonathan knew that he had determined to kill David. So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger. He was really upset with his dad.

He did not eat meat on the second day of the month. And he was grieved for David because his father had done him this shame. So it came to pass in the morning that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David.

And the little fellow was with him, the little boy, to chase his arrows. And he said to the lad, Run out into the field and find the arrows which I shoot. And so as the lad ran, he shot the arrows beyond him.

And when the lad was come to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried after the lad and said, It is not the arrow beyond you? And so Jonathan said, Hurry and gather together all of the arrows.

And so the fellow gathered together all the arrows and they brought them back to Jonathan. So Jonathan gave him all of his artillery and said, Take it back to town. And after the little boy left, then David came out from behind the rock where he was hiding.

And he bowed himself. They kissed each other. They wept with one another until David acceded. And Jonathan said to David, Go in peace for as much as we have sworn, both of us, in the name of Jehovah, saying that Jehovah be between me and thee and between my seed and thy seed forever.

And he arose and departed and Jonathan went into the city. Now David and Jonathan had made a bond. Jonathan realized that somehow God was going to give the kingdom to David. And he said, I just want you to, you know, treat my family well when you come into the kingdom and all of my descendants that there be a bond between us.

David at Nob and Jesus’ Teaching About the Sabbath

And David made an oath to Jonathan that he would treat the house of Saul with respect and kindness and in love. So David now fled to Nob, to Ahimelech, who was the priest. And Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David and said to him, Why are you alone?

Why aren't there men with you? You know, David was the captain over a thousand men. Where are your troops? David said to Ahimelech, the priest, The king has commanded me on a business and said, Let no man know anything of the business whereabout I'm sending you.

And what I have commanded thee. And I've appointed my servants to such and such a place. So David's saying, Well, I'm a CIA agent. I'm on a special mission for the king. And nobody knows, you know, about this special mission.

It's just a secret mission I'm on for King Saul. And so my men are over here and I need some bread for them. Well, the priest said, I don't have any common bread. All I've got is this bread that I've baked for the showbread for the table of the Lord.

It was that bread that would have been sanctified to set out before God on the table of showbread. David said, Well, give it to me. Five loaves and for me and my men. And he said, Well, are the men clean?

He said, Have they not touched women? He said, We haven't been around women for at least three days since we've been on this trip. And so the fellow gave them the holy bread, which was not lawful for any man to eat but the priest.

And they took it and gave it to David and his men. Now, in the New Testament, Jesus makes reference to this particular incident. When the Pharisees are trying to nail him in some of the fine technical aspects of the law, Jesus said, Did not David take the showbread which was not lawful for a man to eat?

They were getting on him because they felt he had violated the law of the Sabbath. You know, one of the fine points of the law of the Sabbath. The disciples had gone through the field on the Sabbath day and they took some wheat, corn of wheat.

They called it the wheat, you know, the tassel of wheat. They call it the corn, actually. And they took it and they were rubbing it in their hands. Now, you can take the dry wheat from the stock and you can rub it in your hands.

And as you rub it in your hands, it has the effect of sort of threshing it. What you're doing is rubbing off the hard outside hull. And then you can hold it in your hands and blow on it and you can actually blow off the hulls.

And then you can eat the wheat raw. And it's actually very good. One of the trips over in Israel, we were there in the latter part of May when the wheat fields were about ready for harvest. And up in the area near Mount Gilboa where Saul and Jonathan were ultimately killed, which is up at one end of the Valley of Megiddo.

It's about eight miles, ten miles south of the Sea of Galilee, Mount Gilboa there. There in that valley, beautiful wheat fields. And so we were there and I went out and I took some of this wheat and I rubbed it in my hands and blew off the hulls and ate this wheat.

And of course, when we were kids, we discovered out of the chicken feed, if we took the wheat, picked the wheat out of the chicken feed when we were kids, it's soft enough that you can crunch it in your teeth and chew it.

And if you chew it long enough, it turns into a gum. And we used to always chew wheat gum when we were kids, you know. We didn't have enough money to buy regular chewing gum. So we'd pick all the wheat out of the chicken feed and then we'd chew it.

And after a while, it turns into gum and we'd have our gum with the wheat. And so it's very nutritional, very healthy. And so the disciples were with Jesus. They were hungry. It was a Sabbath day. They were going through the wheat fields, so they began to pick the corn of wheat and rub it in their hands and blow it off and began to eat it.

And so they said, Oh, look at your disciples. They're doing that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day. You're not supposed to do any work. And so that constituted work, rubbing the wheat in your hands.

And so Jesus said, Don't you remember what David did when he was hungry? How he went in and ate the show bread, which was not lawful for a man to eat. So Jesus makes an allusion to this thing of David, showing that human need rises above the law.

Human hunger. These guys are hungry. Forget this little work bit of rubbing the wheat in your hands. They're hungry. And the hunger supersedes the fine point of the law. Even as with David, the guys are hungry.

Yes, it's not lawful that they should eat this show bread. Yes, it's supposed to be only there for the priests to eat, but the guys are hungry. And so the human hunger supersedes the fine points of the law.

The point that Jesus was making. And, of course, using this particular instance with David as the illustration of the point, which, of course, everybody accepted that David had done. In other words, there was no wrongdoing here.

So the priest gave him the hallowed bread, verse 6, where there was no bread except the show bread that was taken from before the Lord and put hot bread in the day when it was taken away. So they ate the bread that had been sitting there all week before the Lord when it was replaced by this new hot bread.

David’s Flight, the Priests of Nob, and Deliverance from Saul

Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, and his name was Doeg, and he was an Edomite. Doeg, and you could very well pronounce it dog because he turned out to be a real dog. And he was the head over the herdsmen that belonged to Saul.

And David said to Ahimelech, Do you have here any spear or any sword? For I didn't bring any sword or weapons with me because the king's business required haste. And the priest said, Well, I have the sword of Goliath that you took from him when you killed him, and it's wrapped here in a cloth behind the ephod.

And so if you will take it, there's no other but that one here. So David said, Ah, there's no sword like that one. Give it to me. So David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul, and he went to Achish, the king of Gath.

So actually, he fled down to the camp of the Philistines, to the enemy, the city of Gath, and to King Achish. And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David, the king of the land? Did not they sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?

And David laid up these words in his heart, and he was afraid of Achish, the king of Gath. I mean, they said, Hey, this is that David, you know, wiped out the giant. This is David that was singing about killing his thousands, you know.

And so David thought, Oh man, I've had it down here. The king's going to do me in.

You have come to the end of side one. Please turn your cassette over at this point for part two of this message.