1 Samuel 24:1-25:1, How Do You Do It?, Dr. John B. Carpenter

First Samuel chapter 24 verse 1 all the way to chapter 25 verse 1 hear the word of the

Lord When Saul returned from following the Philistines he was told behold

David is of the wilderness of in Gedi then Saul took 3 ,000 chosen men out of the all

Israel and went to seek David and all his men in front of the wild goats rocks and He came to the sheepfolds by the way where there was a cave and Saul went in to relieve himself

Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave and the men of David said to him

Here is the day of which the Lord said to you behold I will give your enemy into your hand and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you then

David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul's robe and Afterward David's heart struck him because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe

And he said to his men the Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord the Lord's Anointed To put out my hand against him saying he is the

Lord's Anointed so David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack

Saul and Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way Afterward David also arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul My lord the king and when

Saul looked behind him David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage and David said to Saul Why do you listen to the words of men who say behold

David seeks your harm? behold this day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hand in the cave and Some told me to kill you, but I spared you

I said I will not put out my hand against my Lord for he is the Lord's Anointed See my father

See the corner of your robe in my hand For by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you

You may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands I have not sinned against you though You hunt my life to take it may the

Lord judge between you me and you may the Lord avenge me against you But my hand shall not be against you as the proverb of the ancient says out of the wicked comes wickedness

But my hand shall not be against you After whom has the king of Israel come out after whom do you pursue after a dead dog after a flea?

may the Lord therefore be judge and give sentence between me and you and See to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand

As soon as David had finished speaking these words to Saul Saul said is this your voice?

My son David and Saul lifted up his voice and wept. He said to David you are more righteous than I For you have repaid me good

Whereas I have repaid you evil and you have declared this day how much you dealt well with me and that you did not kill

Me when the Lord put me into your hands for if a man finds his enemy Will he let him go away safe?

So may the Lord reward you with good For what you have done to me this day and now behold

I know that you shall surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand swear to me therefore by the

Lord that you shall not cut off my offspring after me and that you will not destroy my name out of my father's house and David swore this to Saul then

Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold Now Samuel died and all

Israel Assembled and mourned for him and they buried him in his house at Rama May the

Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Well, we're in a political season now the elections only four months away a little under that actually the politicians are busy trying to convince us that they have our best future for most

Americans that comes down to a simple equation of Who is going to tax me the least or who is going to give me the most benefits?

For Christians, there should be a greater principle than just that Who is for? Justice not just us who will protect what the

Lord Jesus called in Matthew 25 The least of these our neighbors who have the least rights the least protection

Who are the least of these in? America today in 1860 they would have been the slaves if we were voting in the 1860 election

There would be four major candidates. We'd have to choose from who's going to protect the least of these best

But first there was Stephen Douglas. He believed slavery was a dying institution. So it should just be left alone It's kind of die on the vine

Problem was slavery wasn't a dying institution and the decade before the Civil War in the 1850s The slave states grew it twice the rate

Economically grew it twice the rate of the rest of the country slave plantations were 36 % more profitable than regular farms

The South wanted to expand slavery to other areas and was already beginning to use slaves in factories

But Douglas believed that it would just wither away. And so I guess the least of these would eventually

Get their rights Someday, maybe I don't think he cared really about them.

He won 12 electoral votes John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party argued that the

Constitution preserved both Slavery and the Union he won 39 electoral votes in the border states including,

Virginia John Breckinridge was outright in favor of slavery and won all of the Deep South was 72 electoral votes

And so the pro -slavery vote Was split three ways allowing the only

Moderately anti -slavery candidate Abraham Lincoln to win 180 electoral votes

That happened because that is at this time The only people who voted were men almost all white men

They they were willing to vote for a moderately anti -slavery candidate because for about two generations before that election

Christians had been denouncing slavery teaching. I know there were exceptions. Okay, there were some

Christians for slavery, but That's not news So what was news and what was new in history was that Christians are now becoming out against slavery

Teaching churches that you cannot own a slave You cannot support slavery and be following in Jesus who said love your neighbor as yourself

You don't want to be a slave so you can't love your neighbor and enslave him the slave was your neighbor

And so was the least of these the least of these today, I believe Are the unborn or pre -born

They are human beings Regardless of what anyone might say. I mean, it's just a scientific objective biological fact

They are human beings and they're objectively alive And so they're human beings just like the slaves before the

Civil War because in that day They would say also that they're not real full human beings. That's the reason we can violate the rights

That was wrong then it's wrong today for the pre -born and just like then today the pre -born have no legal protections

Christians now can disagree with lots of issues about how to best provide for people Whether it's best for the government to do it

Or for people to be left on their own to make the decisions they feel best or some kind of something in between But there should be no debate on whether we should protect the least of these the question is is how?

in the kingdom of god There will be no slavery right that should be obvious and just as there will be no slavery

So also there will be no killing of the pre -born just for our convenience To have one less mouth to feed or as kind of an ex post facto form of birth control

And now I know there are some other reasons for some abortions, but they make up only about they make up a very very small percentage only about 2 % when it's really like a medical emergency or something and so We made this country

Free of legal slavery and so it's more like in that regard more like the kingdom of God.

The question is How do we do it again? How do we make the world now at least our little corner of the world in this country more like that kingdom?

Well, it's election season and all sides are saying that they will bring in the glorious new future if they win

They don't use the biblical term But what they're claiming is that they will bring in paradise the kingdom of God The question is how do you do that?

How do you bring in? God's kingdom we see that here in 1st. Samuel chapter 24 in four parts first the question then the declaration third the confession and finally the transition

Well first, there's the question How do you bring in God's kingdom? That's what

David has been want to know David is the king right? He's already been anointed and Israel is

God's kingdom. So how do you get to the situation where the proper King is David is

Reigning over God's kingdom. How do you get him on the throne now? Normally as we saw last week rebels undermine the government in power, you know, they buy their time

They wait for an opportunity to strike so that then they can take over Then when that happens their kingdom has come but we've already seen that David isn't doing that Kyla was under siege and David brought his men to rescue it, which is really weird.

It's just odd. He's actually actively defending what is technically

Saul's kingdom he is in effect Defending Saul now still

David and his men have got to be wondering how long are they gonna have to to wait to put up With us put up with being chased over the countryside, especially when in verse 1

Saul comes back Immediately after having to respond to a Philistine attack He's back to pursuing

David in verse 2 picks 3 ,000 of his crack troops And he takes them on this expedition to catch and kill

David He brings his army to wild goats rock. It's called on the shore of the

Dead Sea This just sounds just the name of it kind of gives you a picture of what it's like there sounds very rugged

Doesn't it wild goats rock? Well, it's like it has lots of mountains and canyons and caves and they're energetically scouring the area looking for David and then

Saul has to Relieve himself and so he ducks into a cave to do his business. And now what are the chances that he happens to choose the cave?

The lurking place he called it in the last chapter that David was Was hiding in with some of his men hiding further and deeper in the cave.

I 1940s they found these We call them now the Dead Sea Scrolls in Some caves that have been abandoned there for 2 ,000 years so many caves and so many places hide in there

You could hide something in a cave and it not be found for 2 ,000 years Okay That's just how rugged it is there and David Choses one cave to hide in it happens to be the cave that Saul goes into what are the chances of that happening?

Well, David has been hiding in that cave and where he wrote Psalm 142, which we just sang of David When he was in the cave a prayer

Deliver me from my persecutors For they are too strong for me And it looks like God has answered his prayer, right?

What good luck for David. Of course, there's no such thing as luck There's providence. There's God's hand at work and just here the temptation is to think the hand of God led

Saul there to that Pacific cave out of all the many caves in that area to deliver the kingdom into David's hand

Now it's true that God's hand led Saul there But the question is why

David's men think they know and so they declare probably whispering in verse 4 Here is the day of which the

Lord said to you Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand There's that theme again hand and you shall do to him as you shall seem good to you

Now first we have no record of God ever saying that to David did they just make that up Did they guess that surely?

What God means by anointing? David King and by God God's hand

Guiding Saul into that one specific cave What's to deliver

Saul to David's hand so that he would kill him David as a promise of God that he will be the king

God brought Saul here. They believe that God directs all things with his hand. He's directed Saul here.

No guards around He's an easy target. God simply must be giving him to you

David All you have to do is take advantage of the opportunity and they think they can then make up words

Describe them to God and that's that's okay. After all, there's no such thing as luck There's preparation meeting opportunity.

David is prepared with the right weapons very sharp knife and he has the opportunity Bring in God's kingdom by force

That's what his men say But it's a temptation What they know is that God brought

Saul there the question is Why? How do you bring in God's kingdom

You know, the politicians are basically saying you vote for me. I'll do it. This is how it's gonna be Well, the temptation is that we can bring it in with force with with laws

We'll just make people do what God tells them to do. We'll pass a law And that'll do it get the police to enforce it pass a law to protect the pre -born.

Okay, that's good Then how far are you willing to go? To make people obey

God Are you willing to bring back they used to call the blue laws, you know the blue laws Which means businesses had to close on Sundays By law everyone had to close now

I might support that for practical reasons because small businesses like some of yours Can't afford usually to hire

People to stay open all the time. And so if everyone has to close on the same day

Well, they get their day off small businesses get their day off and they don't lose business to the big change

Which can't afford, you know, they hire just new employees to stay open. But what about establishing churches? Yeah, that's making

I just made a practical argument for this law. It's not just force people to church. What if you say well, okay

We're gonna make people do what God says. God says go to church. Don't forsake the assembling yourselves together like in the church covenant Why don't we pass a law to make people go to church?

Not that that's gonna happen anytime soon, but let's be real it's not anywhere close to happening Well, you know what if you're gonna do this gonna pass laws to force people to obey

God. Why not do that? After all if in the kingdom of God Everyone goes to church and you want to make this world what now like the kingdom of God just make people do it

Do we make people say Jesus is Lord now? Do we just force them to? You know after all

God's gonna do it in the end but Can we do it now? That's a question

We want to bring in God's kingdom. The question is how? Well back to the big issue the one we all hopefully agree on May have some differences in the fine print, but hopefully the big issue

That it comes from the second table of the Ten Commandments the commandment against murder How do you protect the least of these the pre -born now pro -life people usually?

Abolitionists, that's another group and Christian nationalists say simply well by laws Make laws that protect the right to life of the pre -born

Now some people just answer back But even some people who say they're pro -life and we'll say well imposing laws and banning things

Only serves to make whatever you're banning more popular. Look at prohibition They say typical argument look at prohibition the government banned alcohol and it spread

There's just more drinking than ever before they say that's actually not true

Prohibition started in 1920 and lasted until 1933 Now while there were some kind of high -profile gangsters like Al Capone who made a lot of money off of illegal liquor

The fact is that just the 14 years of prohibition Lowered the rate of alcohol consumption per person in the

USA for the next two generations The rate of alcohol consumption in the

USA did not go back up to pre -prohibition levels until the mid 1990s That's because the law

Even human laws the law teaches by enforcing immorality by saying this is illegal

It trains people in what is moral. It says this most people assume if it's illegal that it is immoral. So I shouldn't do it

Maybe they'd still do it, but they still know this is kind of wrong. I shouldn't be doing of course when it comes to slavery and abortion

There's predominantly just the rights of the victim. You don't need to make a practical argument, but It's just the rights of the victim the slaves rights to freedom is greater than the slave owners right to To get free labor, which is not a right at all

The pre -born person's right to life is the essential right if you have no right to life You have no right to anything and another other rights matter if you could be killed just because you're inconvenient to somebody

But how do you get people to see that that's the question? The law teaches them we need laws to teach people especially people who don't come church and listen to sermons

And it teaches people that the law says you can't have slaves. Sorry. I know you want to have one

It's not convenient to have people do work for you for free, but you can't You can't kill people who are convenient to you

So we can now have laws that protect the least of these that reflect in part the kingdom of God But you can't get the king that way

You can't establish the king over the kingdom of God by those kind of laws and without the king

It'll always be imperfect and disappointing so like here

First Samuel 24, how do you bring in God's kingdom? That's the question

David's been say well, it's simple. You have the opportunity strike kill

Force do as it shall seem good to you It's like the advice follow your heart follow your heart

David Which many people take to mean to do whatever is convenient take the easy route do whatever you feel like doing

And so David slinks over to Saul says stealthily very quietly like a ninja

Says the verse 4 and he cuts a corner of Saul's robe It's not just proof that he was that close to Saul because he'll do this later

So do something else to prove he's close to Saul and there he didn't feel anything wrong with it here I think it's something about the robe that makes him feel like there's something wrong

Because he's tearing at Saul's royal robe It's like brings back from when

Samuel had told Saul when Saul grabbed at him accidentally Samuel's robe in 1st

Samuel chapter 15 verse 27 that the kingdom has been torn from Saul something symbolic about that and perhaps here

This is this is Saul's royal robe and David thought that he could portray that the first thought he should portray that they do

That he was symbolically showing. Hey Saul. Look the kingdom has been cut off from you

By the way, his knife is so sharp He's able to slice off a piece of the robe without making any tearing sounds keeps his weapons nice and ready

Well, he slinks back to his men in the verse 5 says his heart Struck him

He felt a pang of conscience This is something he knew he shouldn't do

And his men wanted him to seize the moment in and kill Saul strike him use that knife on Saul not just on his robe

But he's so conscious stricken just for cutting off a piece of the royal robe

Billy Graham said conscience is the detective that watches the direction of our steps and decries every conscious

Transgression David feels he's transgressed the king by consciously Tearing his robe and so he tells his men in verse 6

The Lord notice all capitals. This means Yahweh the I am God Forbid that I should do this thing to my

Lord small case meaning Adonai is his master He is

Saul is the Lord's anointed Samuel anointed Saul as the king the

Holy Spirit came on him now Sure, the spirits departed from him and now he's tormented by an evil spirit from the

Lord, but that's God's doing David believed he does not have the right to act like Saul is no longer the king as he says to put out my hand

Against him seeing he is the Lord's anointed. He does not have that right

God only God does Then how does the kingdom come? Right.

I mean all this David is as these men and they all think he's the king and he's acting like the king if David Is not gonna take advantage of this this perfect Opportunity he served right up to you

David Take this opportunity to take out Saul and then take the throne

How will this new anointed? proper king How will he ever rule how it'll ever happen?

Well, David doesn't know He doesn't need to know He just knows that it's not his job

He's not supposed to do the work himself However, God brings in the kingdom of God Puts him on the throne puts

David on the throne. It'll be without him doing it himself Now sure, he believes

David believes that God works through means after all he put his parents in Moab to protect them He's finding protection in the cave.

He'll be active. He'll do everything he can he'll be prepared. But it when it comes to this

When it comes to establishing the kingdom of God who is the king of God's kingdom?

That is something only God can do So it must be left up to God and this is part of the answer to our question.

How does the kingdom of God come? Yes, we can use laws to protect the least of these to bring justice, but we can't use laws

To establish the kingdom of God to make people believe in Christ Just you know to force people you must say

Jesus is Lord and think we brought in the kingdom of God that way It just won't work Now maybe for the sake of small business we can bring back blue laws, but we can't make

Christ the Lord in people's hearts By just something written by the legislature

Signed by a governor or president and enforced by the police Have the deputies out there on Sunday morning going around house to house

They make sure you're in church. And if you're not they haul you off to jail That won't work You know, at least not for the kingdom of God Even if we could force people into church

Imagine a bunch of people hundreds of people in here because they're forced to make it's by the law They have to come here. The result of that would be that we would destroy the church

We'd have unregenerate unsaved unbelieving people populating the church and after a while They'd take it over the kingdom of God would not come that way.

And so David says I cannot put out my hand against the Lord's anointed I Can't by my force

Take down the king of the kingdom of God put myself up in that place Only the hand of the Lord can do that.

And so with those words he persuaded that knows first He persuaded his men not to kill Saul and then he didn't allow them

To do it to kill him and Saul left not knowing how close he had come

To being assassinated How do you do it, how do you bring in the kingdom of God well second by declaration starting in verse 8

David lets Saul get far enough away And then he comes out of the cave Probably there's some

Canyon there Where his voice carries and his echoes he calls out to Saul My lord the king

Saul Looks back behind him Sees the the mouth of that cave same cave.

He had just come out of a couple minutes earlier David there's David some of his men

David bows himself prostrate on the ground and in an extravagant gesture of respect for Saul For a display that he believes

Saul is the king He just calls him the king my lord my master the king David is supposed to be the rebel remember lying in wait

Saul said to depose him But there's David declaring

Saul is his Lord his king and he's properly paying objescence to Saul and Then David makes his declaration for verses 9 to 15.

I have a long speech from David here about this Why do you listen to the man who say to you begin us all behold

David seeks your harm Now this is giving Saul the benefit of the doubt that all this

This thought that David is out to assassinate and depose him Was was something that men around Saul had told

Saul and turned his his mind his opinion against David And this is the kind of respect we should have for those in authorities not assuming the worst of them

Ascribing to leaders dark conspiracy theories, but here of course David's wrong Right.

He's just wrong. It's not that Saul has been misled by people. Saul is the one who in his paranoia

Manufactured the idea that David must be out to get him and and he complained remember Saul Saul complained

But those around him weren't going along with him But David begins with respect and that's right

Then in verse 10 behold. I was look at this This is important Saul David speaking this day really just now your eyes have seen

Like me and my men coming out of the cave how the Lord gave you into my hand now notice again

Everything is in the hand of God the Lord has you Saul in his hand like he is everyone and Just now he gave you into my hand so I could do anything.

I want to do you the question was why and David declares some

Told me to kill you That's the temptation But I spared you

To the question is how the kingdom of God comes David didn't believe it came in by the knife.

I Said I will not put out my hand against My Lord in small l my master speaking respectfully of the one who has been pursuing him

For he is the Lord's Anointed the anointed means Hebrew the Messiah and Greek the

Christ is the one who brings in God's kingdom you cannot remove him or Impose him by force only

God can Now some pastors especially of cults or very unhealthy churches use that phrase to say they shouldn't be criticized or resisted

That they are the anointed but but no They're not the anointed and even if they're charismatic and they're powerful.

No, it's not for you. Sorry is this is not about pastors Here we're not talking about the about why you shouldn't criticize pastors.

It's not have anything to do with that touch Not the Lord's anointed that's totally misuse and anyone who uses it that way

You better be suspicious of here. We're talking about the one who brings in God's kingdom. He's the anointed one the king of the kingdom of God How do you put him on the throne?

Like the throne of people's lives How do you do that? Some of you have people in your own life your own family

Maybe your children you want him you want Christ the anointed one to be on the throne of their life

How are you going to do that? Just order them to order them to say Jesus is Lord get baptized

You think that'll do it? It won't You can't do it by force

David declares in verse 11 see my father speaking now affectionately of Saul my father called

Saul Implying but he also implying something here about himself You know,

I if Saul if you're my father, I'm your heir and So I'd no more want to remove you by assassination

Then a good prince good son of the king like Jonathan would think to assassinate his own father just to get the throne

No Now he's saying I am next king after you, but I'm like your son.

I'm not gonna I'm not gonna kill you to get it The evidence then for that is he holds up that piece of robe.

He cut off see The corner of your robe in my hand

Waving it maybe For by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you you may know and see that there is

No wrong or treason in my hands. There's the robe in his hands. No wrong or treason So I'll probably look at him.

Yeah, he's right. He cut off my robe didn't notice till there's now Then he that proves that David got close enough to cut the robe

He was close enough to stab him and Then David declares his innocence.

I have not sinned against you Though you hunt my life to take it

He's not gonna be Saul's judge jury and executioner may the Lord This is the main point of this really of this whole chapter.

May the Lord judge between me and you may the Lord avenge me

Against you I could have just now but I didn't made the Lord do it but but my hand

Shall not be against you The kingdom comes by the Lord's doing and then he quotes an old proverb out of the wicked comes wickedness

Select what Jesus said out of the heart comes Comes uncleanness because the clean

The hearts unclean here David says something similar if you're wicked you do wicked things Meaning it would be wicked to kill the anointed the

Christ here Saul and David's not going to do it again My hand shall not be against you shall not this time future tense.

You can tempt me you can chase me I'm not gonna kill you oppose you then verse 14

He humbles himself after whom has the king of Israel come After whom do you pursue?

After a dead dog David here comparing himself to a dead dog or after a flea In other words, I should be small potatoes to you

Saul. You're the king of Israel You should have big things to be concerned about the Philistines are making there's other kingdoms making war you've got things to do

Enforcing God's laws in this kingdom. You should be doing that Not chasing me over the hills here

And then in this declaration he calls on the on the Lord made the Lord therefore therefore because I'm not conspiring against you because I will not strike you as I just proved with the rope and You should have more important things to do

May God be judge May God give sentence like they're in a court.

God's the judge Saul there's David give your verdict Lord Between this is a complaint between me and you give your sentence

And may God see to it see that I'm right. May God plead my cause and may the Lord deliver me from your hand

My hand it's not against you But your hand is against me and so may the

Lord's hand Keep me safe from your hand That's the declaration an appeal

To the Lord So, how do we do it? How do we bring in the kingdom of God?

Well third the confession starting at verse 16 as soon as David had finished the declaration

Saul cries out. Is this your voice? My son David showing they're kind of far apart because he can hear the voice better than he can see him

But he addresses him affectionately my son First David would be thinking that's the way you treat your son.

I don't want to be part of your family But you know, whatever then he saw wept David was right

Saul had been wrong Saul realizes that so he confesses in verse 17. You are more righteous than I You're right

You're in conformity with God's law. I'm not For you have repaid me good by sparing my life.

Whereas I have repaid you evil Then in verses 18 and 19

Saul sums up what just happened you have declared This day what you just now said

That you have dealt well with me and that you did not kill me when the Lord This is

Saul's confession What just happened the Lord put me into your hand

Again, the Lord always has Saul in his hand in the cave. The Lord put Saul into David's head

The question was what did that mean? Did it mean strike out take the kingdom of God by force

David's men thought so but David knew better Saul's amazed for if a man Finds his enemy.

Will he let him go away safe something like that happens normally what in the world? Well, of course not

He'll interpret that as the Lord giving the enemy into his hand the Lord allowing him to take his revenge

Or if he's a modern person, he'll say well I got lucky God just happened to be in come into the cave where I was hiding and I took him out either way

Saul would expect to be killed But he was it because David believes only God can bring in the kingdom of God So Saul's just amazed by this blesses

David in verse 19. So may the Lord reward you David to call him the

Lord to judge is that they're on trial and Saul saying David's right

Lord the judge find in favor of David David said give sentence and Saul says

You judge Lord Reward David Reward him with good for what you have done to me this day

So now Saul confesses in verse 20 behold, but this is important. I know

That you shall surely be king That's the key confession

David is The next king he's actually already the king So I won't recognize it, but he's he is the king of the kingdom of God The question is how will

David's kingship be established? How will he get to the throne? Well not by assassination

Saul confesses that he knows that the kingdom of God shall be Established in your hand think of that phrase notice the passive sentence

The implied subjects what a passive sentence is the subject is implied not stated. That's the one doing the action

Here who is establishing the kingdom in David's hand? Well, it's a divine passive.

I mean he's referring to God. God will establish it Saul confesses it and now of course some people confess because they trust in Christ that is they confess

Well, he's the anointed one and they're joyful that he is their king that confession makes them happy and joyful and others confess

Because they're convinced by the evidence They've heard the sermons they've heard the arguments they've been intellectually persuaded they can't deny it

But they don't love that truth They don't get joy from it They don't get joy from Receiving their

King they acknowledge him But they don't trust him

The kingdom of God starts in people's hearts who trust Christ To rule their lives

Who love him who love Christ and who respond to the confession?

with joy Saul here he's convinced. You know, the evidence is undeniable.

David has waved the piece of robe that he cut off But does he trust in David the small see

Christ and so the son of David the capital

C Christ He's been convinced that God will establish his kingdom in David's hand

But does he love that truth Does it give him joy?

Convinced he makes the same plea that his son Jonathan had before when Jonathan trusted Jonathan trusted and Loved that Christ would rule the kingdom of God Jonathan received his king with joy and He asked

David to promise that you'll not be like the other nations that purge Our family when you take over For Saul ever 21 that's swear to me therefore

Because the Lord will establish you as the king swear to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my offspring

In other words, don't kill all my children and that you will not destroy my name out of my father's house

And David swore just as he had already to Jonathan His kingdom will not depend on the sword

Then Saul goes home notice that Saul goes home David it says goes

David is men they go To the stronghold. So then it was they know Saul's confession

Was just an intellectual acceptance. It's not trust in love with joy

It's like the abusive Partner Who confesses that his sin his wrong that he was abusive.

He says he feels sorry for it, but later on he's gonna do it again So David hunkers down in the stronghold the fort

Suspecting that sure. It's what he said now. He'll be back Finally in chapter 25 verse 1 is the transition

Samuel dies all angel they assemble they mourn together Samuel is apparently buried is literally in says in his home in his house

Maybe under the floor or in a courtyard Likely to keep people from turning his grave into a shrine that eventually gets turned into an idol

Samuel was a great man He was the greatest and the last of the judges and the first of a new series of prophets

He oversaw the institution of the monarchy the first king. He was the transition

Between the old age of the tribal Confederacy with judges who arose when needed and now a permanent king and now the king is disappointing

This hadn't turned out to this to this glorious kingdom that the people were expecting when they asked

Samuel for a king The transition has been from one disappointment to another

The politicians are now telling us of how great a future we're gonna have if They are elected.

We'll have lots of winning. There's more winning than we can stand or our democracy will be saved

Whatever they're promising but no matter who wins It'll be disappointing

No politician will transition us into the kingdom of God even the best politicians end

Like Samuel dead and leaving us with disappointment

That doesn't mean don't be involved or don't vote or that some options aren't much worse or much better than others disaster can come

Paradise won't It means understand that even if the best candidate wins and the wisest policies are pursued

And the best laws are passed and imposed and the finest reforms are implemented still the kingdom of God Will not come that way the kingdom of God Will not come until the

Lord is come and then we joyfully receive our

King So, how do we do it how do we bring in the kingdom of God We can't

We're like the farmer Jesus talked about in Mark 4 we we plant the seed and the seed grows

We know not how We do not grow or extend or impose the kingdom of God We can only hold up the evidence

Declare the truth like David at the mouth of the cave. Here's the proof The clear the word

Whether others really trust and love the Lord is not something that we can make happen

No law can do it. No politician or election can solve our problem all will leave us disappointed

That's why we don't focus on politics Here we have something more permanent more joyful.

We have the declaration Joy to the world the