1 Samuel 18, What’s He Doing?, Dr. John B. Carpenter

Covenant Reformed Baptist Church

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1 Samuel 20, What Is a Covenant?, Dr. John B. Carpenter

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1 Samuel chapter 18, we read the entire chapter, hear the word of the Lord. And as soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

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And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father's house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as his own soul.

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And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David and his armor and even his sword and his bow and his belt.

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And David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him so that Saul set him over the men of war.

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And this was good in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants. As they were coming home, when

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David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing to meet

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King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy and with musical instruments.

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And the women sang to one another as they celebrated, Saul has struck down his thousands and David, his 10 ,000s.

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And Saul was very angry and the saying displeased him. He said, they have ascribed to David 10 ,000s and to me, they have ascribed thousands.

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And what more can he have but the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that day on.

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The next day, a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul and he raved within his house while David played the liar as he did day by day.

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Saul had his spear in his hand and Saul hurled the spear for he thought, I will pin David to the wall.

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But David evaded him twice. Saul was afraid of David because of the Lord, because the

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Lord was with him, but had departed from Saul. So Saul removed him from his presence and made him a commander of a thousand.

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And he went out and came in before the people and David had success in all his undertakings for the

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Lord was with him. And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him.

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But all Israel and Judah loved David for he went out and came in before them.

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Then Saul said to David, here is my elder daughter Merib.

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I will give her to you for a wife, only be valiant for me and fight the Lord's battles. For Saul thought, let not my hand be against him, but let the hand of the

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Philistines be against him. And David said to Saul, who am I? And who are my relatives?

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My father's clan in Israel, that I should be son -in -law to the king. But at the time when

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Merib, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, she was given to Adriel the Melithonite for a king.

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Now Saul's daughter, Mishal, loved David and they told Saul and the thing pleased him.

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Saul thought, let me give her to him that she may be a snare for him and that the hand of the

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Philistines may be against him. Therefore Saul said to David a second time, you shall now be my son -in -law.

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And Saul commanded his servants, speak to David in private and say, behold, the king has delight in you and all his servants love you.

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Now then, become the king's son -in -law. And Saul's servants spoke these words in the ears of David.

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And David said, does it seem to you a little thing to become the king's son -in -law since I am a poor man and have no reputation?

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And the servants of Saul told him, thus and so did David speak. Then Saul said, thus shall you say to David, the king desires no bride price except 104 skins of the

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Philistines that he may be avenged of the king's enemies. Now Saul thought to make

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David fall by the hand of the Philistines. And when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son -in -law.

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Before the time had expired, David arose and went along with his men and killed 200 of the

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Philistines. And David brought their four skins, which were given in full number to the king that he might become the king's son -in -law.

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And Saul gave him his daughter, Michal, for a wife. But when Saul saw and knew that the

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Lord was with David and that Michal, Saul's daughter, loved him, Saul was even more afraid of David.

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So Saul was David's enemy continually. Then the princes of the Philistines came out to battle.

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And as often as they came out, David had more success than all the servants of Saul so that his name was highly esteemed.

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May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word. Well, we had an incident here last

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Sunday evening. I was uneasy when I first picked up a couple of girls in the church van along with a bunch of others, a bunch of boys in Sunvale Apartments in Yanceyville.

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They had caused some problems before here last fall. When I kicked one of them out of Jim Jr.

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for being so troublesome, and then some other incidents too. But this was Jim, that is our older youth program.

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And all they have to do is hang out, stay out of trouble, and pay attention to me for about 10 minutes of halftime.

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I sat on the couch by the door there. And while the guys played, and Angie brought her hoop don't shoot kids from Danville.

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So far, it was just a normal Sunday afternoon. After a while, the guys I had brought had stopped playing.

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And I noticed that a lot of the kids were going outside. Angie went out there to see what was happening. I decided then it was a good time for halftime.

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So I went to the sound booth over there to arrange the slides. From there, I saw that all the kids apparently came back in through the front door and they were hanging around there by the door.

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And a fight broke out, actually two fights between two pairs of girls. Girl fights are the most vicious.

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By the time I got over there, Angie was engaging one particular guy very sternly with some vigorous use of techniques that public schools are no longer allowed to do, but which

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I fully approve of. She told someone to call the police. And then eventually she got her kids into her van and drove off a little bit down the road to Lillard's, which was a very smart thing to do.

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She was wise to do that. Just enough to separate them from the Anseville kids who were left here. And by the time the police got here, one of the girls that I had picked up, one of the ones that I was afraid of, like the one, this is the troublemaker.

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There she was, sitting on the steps outside, wounded, bloodied, a scraped knee, disheveled, panting, moaning in pain.

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And I looked at her, bleeding on our front steps. Didn't say a word to her, but I thought, what kind of life is that?

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How can you be so foolish to always be causing trouble? Always make people angry at you.

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Fights, getting expelled, what's in it for you? How is that fun?

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Or how does that achieve anything? How do you never learn? It's such a miserable, wasted life.

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I'm thinking, can't you see how foolish your life is? I think we all know not to waste our life.

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I mean, just to tell you, don't waste your life. We all go, okay, yeah, no one wants to waste their life. Everyone knows that. What we don't know is how not to waste our lives.

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Almost certainly, all of us here know better than that foolish girl always causing problems, getting yourself beat up.

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But we get fooled by other things that waste our life, that don't immediately leave us bloodied and in pain and miserable.

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We get fooled by things that maybe many years down the road leave us bloodied and pain and miserable. Now, sure, they look much better.

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They look more appealing. They don't get us yelled at or beaten up or fired or jailed or fined.

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There's a lot more bait on the hook of the things that we're tempted by.

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Maybe a lot more money, a lot more approval, a lot nicer houses and careers and all that kind of thing.

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Instead of pain, we might get a lot more temporary pleasure. But we can still be a miserable, have a miserable, wasted life and be just as foolish and as futile as that girl bleeding on our steps.

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What's a wasted, futile life? It's a life lived trying to oppose

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God. Oh, now, of course, you or I or hardly anyone thinks intentionally, well,

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I'm gonna resist God. You know, he's doing one thing. I'm going to oppose him. Hardly anyone thinks that way.

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Most of the time, what we do is not think of God at all. We don't even consider him in what we're gonna do.

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We don't factor him in in any way. We think this is what I want to do and whatever it is, for probably all of us here, it probably appears much smarter and more rewarding than getting into a fight in a church gym.

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I want to make a lot of money. I want to be rich. I want to be successful. And maybe that's not all just selfish.

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You wanna do it for your kids so they can inherit wealth and they can have a comfortable life. Now, that sounds noble and it can be noble and right and it is right to support your family.

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In fact, that is part of what God is doing. What's God doing? Part of what he is doing is trying to teach you that you should support your family in the end.

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But if your life is lived in resistance to God's plans, the only difference between you and that girl bleeding on our steps is how obviously futile your life is.

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You see, when it comes to God, resistance is futile and foolish.

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It's futile because you can never succeed. Every single life lived in opposition to God, no matter how wealthy and powerful and pleasure -filled it is.

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And some of them do have that in this life. Some of them end up being wealthy and powerful and pleasure -filled, but still, lived in opposition to God in the end is futile.

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And it's foolish because a life lived in resistance to God is like that girl on the steps. In the end, you look at it and you think, why would you even want to live like that?

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It's miserable. We see how futile and foolish it is to resist

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God here in 1 Samuel 18 in three parts. First, Jonathan's covenant.

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Second, Saul's fear. And finally, David's success. 1

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Samuel 18 continues immediately from the story before. David and Goliath. David went out without a sword, told the giant

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Philistine, the battle is the Lord's, ran at him, slung a stone, hit him right on the target in the forehead.

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He falls face down and David runs to him, takes out Goliath's sword and cuts off his head with it.

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And then he is summoned to the king who asked him what family he's from. After all, the bounty that Saul, the king, had promised included the reward of marrying one of the king's daughters.

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And so Saul wants to know, well, what family is my daughter now gonna marry into? And David tells him, still carrying the head of Saul in his hand, and then

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Jonathan there, Saul's son, the crown prince, heir to the throne, himself a hero who had led

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Israel to a victory over the Philistines in chapter 14. He sees David's triumph over the

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Philistine. He sees what it meant. And it says the soul, or in Hebrew, the word is nefesh, which literally could mean breath, could mean life, but soul is good.

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His soul was knit to the soul of David. They were bound together.

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Jonathan loved him as his own soul. So like his own breath.

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How much do you love your breath? I think we're all here pretty passionately in love with our breath.

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And so was Jonathan with David. They had that rarest of loves in the modern world, according to C .S.

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Lewis, friendship. Lewis said that ancient people thought that friendship, philia is the

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Greek word, was the greatest of loves. It's the commitment to some real friend, not the fake

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Facebook kind, which you hardly know, but it's a blessed tie that binds. When you have that, you naturally make a covenant.

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At least, maybe not expressly sometimes. Here, it's probably expressed. In other words, insert words. To make a commitment, I'm bound to you.

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But here, you make a covenant to be bound together. When you wanna be bound to someone, you make a covenant with them.

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That's what Jonathan does with David in verse three. Jonathan made a covenant with David. The covenant was the result of a philia, friendship, that he loved him as his own soul.

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This is what is so strange in our culture. And so many couples live together now without marriage, so without a covenant.

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And what they'll almost always say is, our love doesn't need the legality of paperwork.

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We don't need the government involved, this kind of thing. We don't need a covenant. And they say that they've risen up above that kind of formal thing.

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What they don't see is that their failure to form a covenant, which is what a marriage is, shows that something is lacking in their love.

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If their souls are really knit together, like here, why would they not make a covenant, like here?

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Now, some people say that there's homosexuality involved here, but there's no evidence of that. What that accusation shows is how people in our culture, people, modern people are reading that into it, how people in our culture have so little experience with friendship, with philia, probably none.

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They probably have no experience of it at all. They have so little experience, they cannot imagine it. And so they read the only thing they do know into it, which is sexuality.

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C .S. Lewis said, quote, "'Those who cannot conceive of friendship "'as a substantive,' or that is substantial, a real love.

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"'Those who cannot conceive of friendship "'as a substantive love, but only as a disguise "'or an elaboration of eros,' that's sexual or romantic love, "'betray the fact that they have never had a friend.'"

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It's foreign to them to imagine being friends, being bound to another person with no sex or money, something material like that involved, just friendship.

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Every relationship, they think, outside the family, in fact, even today, you say the relationship, you mean that romantic relationship, that's the only relationship anymore we can imagine, outside the family, anyway.

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It must always be sexual, erotic. We have a culture that's now soaked in eros, another

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Greek word, eroticism, like it's celebrating this month, it's all about that. And so it can't fathom friendship, can't fathom having a friend in Ethiopia who had a miscarriage and so paid for a trip back to Singapore, hosting her and comforting her and supporting her.

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There is friendship, that's the bond we share with those who are covenanted to something greater than us, not only covenanted to us, but something greater than us, like a band of brothers.

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C .S. Lewis said that it was the love that was the closest to heaven, but the one that modern people have lost because they see it as not productive.

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It doesn't cater to the consumer. You know, you don't just forget a friend because it's no longer convenient to you.

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That's not a real friend. People say, I've lost a friend. He's probably never really a friend in the first place. He would have lost him. Philia, friendship makes you stay loyal to people who aren't doing anything practical for you right now.

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It's the kind of love that we here call members to have for each other in our church covenant to walk together in Christian love.

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It's the friendship Jonathan and David had. And David would keep it even long after Jonathan was dead, bringing

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Jonathan's crippled son, Mephibosheth, into his house to be supported.

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He kept his covenant because of Philia, friendship. Then Jonathan does something even more remarkable in verse four.

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He takes his royal robe, maybe it was like a jacket, whatever, some kind of outer garment, the thing that signifies him as a crown prince, likely had some kind of royal insignia on it, or maybe the colors were a certain color that gave it away as royal, and he gave it to David along with his armor, his sword, his bow, and his belt, signifying that now

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David is the proper heir. David is the crown prince.

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Now Jonathan, who likely knew nothing about David being anointed by Samuel in chapter 16, recognized that now

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David was God's king. He had faith in King David, and he saw what

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God was doing. God was selecting a new king. Now maybe he thought David would formally become the active king after his father

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Saul dies, but that would mean in his, that is Jonathan's place.

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Now remember, Jonathan's the crown prince. He's the heir to the throne. He's the next in line to be king, and yet he's giving that over to David.

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He gives David his signs of being the crown prince, his princely regalia, and Jonathan, rather than futilely, foolishly clinging to what he might want for himself, the kingdom, the power, the glory, he sees that David is destined for the throne, that God gave

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David that incredible victory over the giant Philistine, and rather than resisting

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God's will, he accepts it. He sees that it is best for him.

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He will be the most blessed. He will be the happiest if he embraces God's plan rather than try to oppose it.

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After all, resistance is futile. It's also miserable and foolish.

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You see what God is doing. Even if it means your kind of worldly demotion, and go with it.

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Meanwhile, Saul sees what God is doing. He doesn't let David go back to Jesse in verse two. He sees

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David successful on whatever mission he sends him, out pushing back the Philistines and other enemies, and so he makes him a commander in the army.

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The people, even Saul's people, see what God is doing, and they approve of it by approving of David.

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What's he doing? Jonathan knows, and he believes in it, so he covenants.

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Saul fears it. Second, Saul's fear, starting in verse six.

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As they're coming back home from the rout of the Philistines, women came out to greet the conquering army, celebrating, they're singing, they're dancing, there's tambourines, there's instruments, and the song that they're singing is for the purpose of to meet

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King Saul, said there in verse six, but that's the purpose. Now, in other words, they're not intending on insulting

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Saul. They're not trying to put him down here, but they've already composed a new song, singing as they are celebrating the great victory and the new hero.

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Saul has struck down his thousands, and they mean that as praise for Saul, and David his 10 ,000s.

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Now, all Saul could hear was that he was a lesser. It was only thousands. He heard a comparison where he comes out second.

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Now, kings don't like to be second, so he envied. Envy is anger at someone else's good fortune.

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Their shop is doing well. Their business is doing great. They have a lot of money. Their family is doing great.

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Envy them, and then you try to undermine them. That's anger at someone else's good fortune. Here, he wasn't happy for David.

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He wasn't happy for Israel, which is his nation, that someone had defeated their enemy.

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He was only envious for himself. He complains in verse eight, "'They have ascribed to David 10 ,000s, "'and to me they have only ascribed thousands.'"

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He's not asking, what's God doing, and how can I go along with it?

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He's asking, what's better for me? What promotes my image?

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What keeps me in my position? About 20 years ago, when

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I was looking for a pastoral position, I wondered if Jesus' famous words, you know, the workers are few.

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Remember? I wonder if it was no longer true, because from my point of view, it seemed like there were a lot of men out there saying they're workers.

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There were a lot of other men applying for pastoral positions. I've heard that there are about 100 applicants for every open pastor position.

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A lot of men like being the center of attention, of talking to respectfully attentive groups like you.

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A lot want the position and the respect of being a pastor, but in this culture, so we have a lot of men wanting that, but in this culture, ministry, if you want ministry, if that's what you're after, if you're after bringing the gospel out, exalting

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Jesus, there's a ministry that's wide open, that's easy to do.

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The ministry is wide open to young, particularly black young people, especially men. If you have a gym, look around, they will come.

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They'll sit and they'll listen to you for a while. If you let them play, you give them a few hours of your time, you give them about three hours of your time, they'll give you about 10 or 15 minutes.

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And it's even better if you're a little more personable than I am, and you personally engage them and you pay them attention so they don't go out and get involved in fights, but that's the younger middle school age kids.

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But do you know how many people are willing to do that ministry? With no position, no respect.

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The workers are very few. So pray to the

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Lord of the harvest. What's God doing now? He's doing now among us the same thing he is doing here.

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He is giving the kingdom to the Davidic king, to the king from David.

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So what you should be asking is how can I go along with it?

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What is my part in making the king from David reign? How can

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I spread his kingdom? How can I not resist him so that my life isn't futile and foolish?

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Saul wants to keep his position. He likes being king. Samuel told him that the kingdom, that is the right to be king, is being taken from him and is being given to someone else, to a man,

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Samuel told him, who is better than you. Now, Saul could look at David's triumph over Goliath, and he could think, like his son

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Jonathan did, David is that better man. He's the rightful king.

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So I should step aside. That's what he would do if he had faith in God, if he trusted that God's plan was better for him and for Israel than in him trying to cling to power and cling to his position, if he was all about something other than his ego.

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Saul could see in his fear and ambition that David was a threat to that. He couldn't see because of his desperate unwillingness to let go of what he couldn't keep that God had taken the kingdom from him and given it to someone better than him, to David.

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He also couldn't see in his foolishness that there's no way he can keep it.

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It didn't matter what he did. It was impossible for him to resist what

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God had said is going to happen. Saul could not succeed. He literally could not succeed.

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Doesn't matter how many times he threw a spear at David, it would always miss. There is nothing he could ever have done to stop

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God's plan. If he wasn't consumed with himself, with what he wanted, his ego, he would then trust

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God's plan. He would trust that that is better. And so he would abdicate and give the kingdom over to David.

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Now, giving up power is extremely rare in history. What I just said

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Saul should have done, abdicate in favor of David, is the kind of thing kings hardly ever do.

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Once people get power, they rarely let go of it willingly. When King George III of England was told that George Washington was going to voluntarily step down and not run for a third term, he said, if he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.

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In the musical Hamilton, that's put as George Washington singing. I'm not gonna try to sing it, but he sang it.

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They say George Washington's yielding his power and stepping away.

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Is that true? I wasn't aware that was something a person could do. But that is what

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Jonathan signaled he was willing to do. It's what Saul would do if only he had faith instead of ambition.

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Saul suspects at the end of verse eight, what more can he as David have but the kingdom?

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Instead of embracing that like Jonathan did, he determines to stop it.

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So it says he eyed David from that day on. He looked suspiciously at him, giving him the evil eye, looking for any opportunity he can to do in David.

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Soon God sends that harmful, here in the ESV it's translated as harmful. It could simply be translated as evil, evil spirit back to him.

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Remember whether God was just allowing it or actively commissioned the evil spirit to torment

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Saul. I think that's just irrelevant. God is in charge of it either way. So Saul raved within his house while David is trying to calm him with his lyre playing in his rage, his resistance to God's plan.

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And then that's when he hurls a spear at David, apparently twice, thinking that he can impale him against the wall, killing him that way.

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Of course, that's futile. God will not allow his plan to be thwarted. David dodges twice.

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In verse 12, Saul was afraid of David. Not that he could reasonably suspect that David would try to assassinate him, but in his rage,

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Saul's rage, he probably projected his own murderous intent onto David. He was afraid of God's plan.

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He had already been told that it meant that he would no longer be king, but he couldn't accept that. Instead of believing

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God's plan and God's king was best for him. That's part of what it means to believe God.

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You believe his plan is best for you. Saul had heard, at least, that God's taken the kingdom away from you and giving it to someone better, but he could not believe that that was best for him.

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He couldn't accept it. Instead of believing that, he was afraid of it. And the

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Lord was with David, but he had left Saul. So it's like those doomed to damnation when they hear the gospel.

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It reminds them of their death, like in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 16, where Paul describes the

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Roman victory parades. They would parade through Rome and they would have incense filling the air.

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So it would be great aroma, smell, greeting the conquering armies and coming home.

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And they would be presenting their prisoners of war that they brought from the battle. They would make them march in the parade only to execute them at the end of the parade.

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And so this aroma of this incense that was to the victors smelled to them like life, smelled like victory.

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Of course, to the captives soon to be killed, it smelled like death. And so here, the good news that God has anointed a new king, that smelled good to those who believed, like Jonathan, and it smelled like death, the death of his selfish ambitions, of his pride to Saul.

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So Saul, in verse 13, removed David from his court, probably a way to try to demote him, to help him be obscure and go out there somewhere he can't see him.

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So he put him in charge of 1 ,000 soldiers, like a captain or a major in the army, something like that. That, he hoped, would rid him of this reminder that he had lost the

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Lord's favor and probably also he's out there in the wilderness fighting and no one's gonna see him again. That was probably what he's thinking. But that served only to advance

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David's rising star. Notice, everything Saul does backfires. It doesn't work. Again, like in verse five, verse 14 says,

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David had success in all his undertakings, for the Lord was with him. Success was how the anointed ones were always distinguished.

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How do you know who was the judge whom the Lord had sent his spirit on in the book of Judges? Well, they had success. They go out and fight the enemy and they succeed.

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What is God doing? If he is giving success and defeating the enemy, he's giving that success to someone.

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That means he's the anointed. The spirit of the God is with him. He's the leader.

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Success is the marker. It's the sign. So follow him. He has what the

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Chinese would call the mandate of heaven. So having expelled David from the court where he's been playing music, you know, thinking being in the royal court, that's a lofty place to be.

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You get a lot of attention. Now he's expelled. He's out there in the desert. But he ends up proving that the

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Lord is with him. He ends up showing to everybody as he goes out to battle and then he comes back home to Israel victorious.

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He proves in their sight that he's the anointed. So Saul's attempt to demote

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David ends up promoting David. Verse 16, all Israel loved

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David. What's God doing? He's not promoting Saul anymore. And Saul can't accept that.

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He futilely and foolishly resists God's plan. What's he doing?

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He's giving David success. Third, David's success.

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In verse five, he was successful. Whatever Saul sent him, whatever mission he was sent to do, in verse 14, he had success in all his undertakings.

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And now for verse 17, he's successful at evading Saul's plots.

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David was promised to marry one of Saul's daughters when he killed Goliath. Remember, that was part of the bounty.

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Remember, you marry into my family, marry one of my daughters, you get great wealth and you get tax -free. And so he's promised

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Saul's eldest daughter Mereb, but there's a stipulation, shouldn't be, but Saul adds a stipulation in verse 17, only be valiant for me and fight the

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Lord's battles. Saul's plan was that he would put David up to fight more Philistines and they would kill him eventually.

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Maybe he was thinking, you know, maybe that Goliath thing, that was just luck. He just got lucky, lucky sling, and it just happened, it fell his way.

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And eventually they'll catch up to him. Philistines will get him next time. That's probably what Saul was thinking.

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And David was modest, he's humble in verse 18. Who am I? And who are my relatives? Who's my father's clan in Israel, our family?

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That I should be son -in -law to the king? Now, David is not burning with selfish ambition, like Saul, who's desperately trying to keep what

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God has taken from him. Saul takes Mereb away from David and gives her to another man.

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Some man, probably given his name, probably means he's a big shot in Israel, who Saul's probably trying to court his favor with.

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What's he doing? What's Saul doing? Well, he's breaking his promises. Then Mishael, like almost everyone else, except Saul, loved

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David. When Saul finds out about it, he thinks of a more specific way to, he hoped, get

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David killed. Now, before it's just kind of ambiguous, go out there and fight, hoping he'll die. Now he's thinking of a very specific way.

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She will be a snare for him, Saul thinking. It's a trap to get him to go fight the

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Philistines again. This time they'll get him, he thinks. And so Saul says to David a second time, in verse 31, you shall be my son -in -law.

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Saul gets his service to egg him on, take up the offer, come on, take it up, come on. Don't you want to be part of the royal family? And he replies, does it seem to you like a little thing to become the king's son -in -law?

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Like, who am I that I could do that, since I'm a poor man and you and I have no reputation?

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In other words, you know, this is a big deal. Marrying into the royal family, it's a big deal. He's still humble and he says, he's poor.

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Now apparently Saul didn't keep his promise about giving great riches to whoever killed

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Goliath either. He broke that promise too, because David's still poor. David can't afford the bride price.

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That's what he's getting at here. Like, he can't afford an expensive wedding present or a ring.

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I was poor too when I got married. I was so poor I couldn't afford an engagement ring. Anyway, David thinks he's too poor to marry into the royal family and he's too gracious to remind them, you all owe me, you know, for killing

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Goliath. Remember what you said that you would do for the man who killed Goliath? No, he doesn't do that.

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He's too humble to demand it as a right. Saul knew he was like that, that David was like that.

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He wouldn't be demanding his rights. And he's trying to use David's graciousness and humility against him.

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Now, what Saul will ask for to give him, to give David what he's already earned by killing

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Goliath, he asks for 104 skins of the Philistines. It's proof that he's killed 100 of them in a limited time.

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And Saul appeals to his loyalty to that he may be avenged, picking himself on the third person,

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Saul is, that he may be avenged on the king's enemies. He tried to appeal to David's patriotism.

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Now, of course, the real purpose was that David might fall by the hand of the Philistines, says in verse 25.

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Now, David's still naive. He was a little naive here, isn't he? How many, he gets the spear thrown at him twice, and he still thinks

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Saul is on his side. So he's a little naive here. He's eager to marry into the royal family, and so he goes out and kills 200 of the

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Philistines. That's twice as many in the allotted time. Coming back alive, unhurt, with the proof, that's his bride price.

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He's successful, that's the point. He's successful. And so finally, Saul allows the marriage.

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Mishal is happy. David is happy for a while, until he learns more about Mishal. But Saul was afraid, even more afraid.

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Now, all this conniving, these plots, to put David in harm's way, it didn't work.

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Everything Saul has tried has backfired. David is successful, as it's as if God's plan can't be thwarted, as if resistance is futile.

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But still, Saul couldn't accept it. He was, at the end of verse 29, David's enemy continually.

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But even with the king doing everything he can to undermine, to trap, to endanger, or even directly kill

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David, David continues to succeed. Every time the

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Philistines launch another of their raids, David goes out to meet them and defeats them. David keeps killing his tens of thousands.

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He's more successful than any of the other of Saul's commanders. So, even though he had said, in verse 23, that he was a man of no reputation.

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Who am I? No one knows who I am. When he said that then, now, after success, after success, he is now highly esteemed.

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All of Saul's plotting has resulted in David becoming prominent now in Israel, esteemed and loved.

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As they said about Jesus, the son of David, in Mark chapter seven, verse 37, he has done all things well.

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Jesus went out against the enemy to the tomb and came back alive, victorious over death, proving that he is our king.

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What's he doing? God isn't just demoting Saul. Removing Saul really isn't even the main point here.

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God is promoting David, giving him the kingdom, making a covenant with him, like Jonathan did, that David will have an eternal line of kings come from him, that God's kingdom will be reestablished on earth through David, so that the king who comes from David will have all authority in heaven and on earth, and he will reign until he has put all his enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil, under his feet.

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That plan is unstoppable. Resistance is futile and foolish.

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Christians sometimes talk about God's plan, what God is doing, as if it hangs on a thread, that if you don't give enough, or we don't pray enough, or if we fail to give out tracts enough, or we don't evangelize enough, if we take a break from running

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Jim or Jim Jr. for the summer, or if we don't vote for the right candidate, or whatever, if we don't live on the knife's edge, like it all depends on us, if we don't do all that, then

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God is going to lose. His kingdom will fail, it will collapse, it'll be overcome, people will go to hell, whom

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God wanted to save, and that'll happen because we didn't do enough, that the success of God's plan depends on us.

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No, it doesn't, God cannot fail. He will not lose one of his sheep.

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His church will not be overcome by the gates of hell. Doesn't matter how long, how well they conspire, how many forces they gather together, his church will not be defeated.

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Not one person that God has covenanted to love for eternity will be lost, not one.

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No one will be lost because maybe some disorderly kids disrupted our gym program, or because we took a vacation, or because we didn't give enough money, or because maybe

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I wasn't good enough a speaker. God will fulfill his plan, and all his people will be saved.

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His victory is so sure, so certain, we can speak of his people as if they've already been glorified, as if they've already been resurrected.

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We can be so sure that we will certainly taunt death.

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Where is your sting now? In the last century, an

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Englishman of Oxford University embraced atheism, like many people of that age, thinking that science, modern culture, had made

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Christianity obsolete. He said, quote, superstition, that's what he mocked

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Christianity to be, of course, and every age has held the common people, you know, those ignorant common people, but he wrote, in every age, the educated and the thinking ones have stood outside it, and he thought he was one of the enlightened elite who didn't need the crutch of faith and believe all this silly stuff about Jesus rising from the dead.

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He thought resisting it wasn't futile or foolish, it was sophisticated, that's what the educated, thinking ones do, and he declared,

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I am not going back to the bondage of believing in any old and already decaying superstition.

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You might think he was an impenetrable unbeliever, but he kept reading

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Christians, kept talking to Christians, and his objections and his faith in atheism melted away until one day he was riding on a bus in Oxford in England, and he had the sense, he says, that he was holding something at bay, that he was fighting a futile battle against an irresistible force, and so finally, he surrendered to the overwhelming and gave up the foolishness of resisting

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God. He said he was, quote, dragged, kicking and screaming into the kingdom of God, and he declared himself to be, quote, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England, but he was soon, as in the title of one of his books, surprised by joy.

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He was C .S. Lewis. What's God doing?

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He's setting up his king, he's dragging or wooing or drawing all his sheep, even if they resist him at first, kicking and screaming, but resistance is futile, and he will surprise them all with joy.