Show Notes
1 Samuel 19
Pastor Christopher Chelpka
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Let's pray and ask God to bless the reading and preaching of his word.
[00:00:10] Lord, we thank you for the forgiveness of our sins and that we can come confidently before the throne of grace.
[00:00:17] There is so much in this world that would shake our confidence in ourselves, and although we don't like it, in a way, we find ourselves thankful for that. We put our confidence way too much in the things of this world, in our own flesh, in our own ability, in the way that other things, things other than you, might be able to bring us stability or pleasure. Lord, help us to sacrifice all of these things for the sake of knowing you.
[00:00:47] Lord, you alone are God, you alone are worthy to be praised. Help us to bow our hearts before you, especially now as we hear your word read, preached. There are sins in us which cling very closely. Help us to throw them aside as we look to Jesus. We pray this in his name. Amen.
[00:01:09] Let's turn to 1st Samuel 19 and this morning I'm going to preach the first part of this.
[00:01:17] Preach on the first part of this chapter.
[00:01:24] Then next time we'll consider this interesting, these interesting verses in which Saul sends various people to try and stop David, and they keep prophesying and he ends up being one of them too. That's for next time.
[00:01:42] Today we hear about Saul's continued effort to kill the Messiah, to kill the anointed one. At this time, one prefiguring Christ, David, King David. We also hear about the way in which God protects his anointed one. So 1st Samuel, chapter 19 and Saul spoke to Jonathan, his son, and to all his servants that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted much in David. And Jonathan told David, saul, my father seeks to kill you. Therefore be on your guard in the morning, stay in a secret place and hide yourself. And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak to my father about you, and if I learn anything, I will tell you. And Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father, and and said to him, let not the king sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have brought good to you.
[00:02:50] For he took his life in his hand and struck down the Philistine. And the Lord worked a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced, why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause?
[00:03:07] And Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan. Saul swore, as the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death.
[00:03:16] And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan reported to him all these things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before.
[00:03:25] And there was war again. And David went out and fought with the Philistines and struck them with a great blow, so that they all fled before him.
[00:03:33] Then a harmful spirit from the Lord came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing the lyre. And Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he eluded Saul so that he struck the spear into the wall, and David fled and escaped. That night Saul sent messengers to David's house to watch him, that he might kill him in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, told him, if you do not escape with your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed. So Michal let David down through the windows, and he fled away and escaped. Michal took an image, laid it on the bed, and put a pillow of goat's hair at its head and covered it with clothes. And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, he is sick.
[00:04:21] Then Saul sent the messengers to see David. Bring him up to me in the bed that I may kill him. And when the messengers came in, behold, the image was in the bed with the pillow of goat's hair at its head. Saul said to Michal, why have you deceived me thus and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped? And Michal answered, saul, he said to me, let me go. Why should I kill you?
[00:04:47] Now David fled and escaped, and he came to Samuel Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and lived at Nioth. We'll end there for now. May God bless his word. You may be seated, Saul. Poor Saul. I see myself in Saul. Maybe you see yourself in Saul. Maybe it's sometimes more than others. Maybe there's some times where you're able to see yourself in Saul from a distance. That's how I used to be. Praise God.
[00:05:41] Maybe there's other ways in which you see Saul and you go, oh, no, this is me right now.
[00:05:49] Either way, we come to see in Saul the way that sin penetrates our hearts, grabs hold of it and pulls us down.
[00:05:59] The story of Saul and all that is happening with him is such an important reminder of the way that jealousy, discontentment, fighting against the Lord's anointed does nothing but bring danger and harm to our lives and to others. It does not bring us closer to the things we want, but it separates us farther from the Lord.
[00:06:27] In addition to the sin that we see Saul struggling with. We also see the ways in which God continues to protect and bless his anointed one, this David, whom he has anointed to be king.
[00:06:42] David is in many ways very passive in this chapter. He just keeps getting saved over and over and over. And we see you. Maybe you even missed it when he was sent out to the Philistines and he struck up a great blow and defeated them. It's almost as if this is just a regular thing that happens. This stunning, amazing warrior. We've heard it so many times now, we just have. Maybe even we've come to expect it so much that maybe we even miss it.
[00:07:11] David is totally blessed by God. He's being protected. He's being provided for. All these things are happening. But let's not know, let's not forget or fail to notice the ways in which he's also suffering.
[00:07:26] The stress. Can you imagine the stress of being hunted, of having to. That your boss is also trying to kill you, that your king is trying to kill you, and that every time you think things are going well? His own son said that things are well. Your own best friend said, I talked to him. Things are good. He swore an oath that before too long you're being thrown, spears are being thrown at you again.
[00:07:57] David is suffering. David is on the run. David is in a very difficult place.
[00:08:05] These are the things that we see in 1st Samuel 19.
[00:08:10] I want to continue, as we've reflected on in previous sermons, to think about this particular sin that Saul is struggling with. A sin of discontentment, a sin of jealousy.
[00:08:21] Jealousy of David wanting what he has.
[00:08:26] His praise the people the way people praise him, the way people love him, the respect and honor that his own children, Jonathan and McCall, give him.
[00:08:37] These kinds of things he wants desperately.
[00:08:41] He wants people to respect him. He wants people to love him. He's the king, after all.
[00:08:47] And yet even those things that he does have, the love of Jonathan, for example, that we see in these this way, the caring ways in which Jonathan tries to plead with his dad and talk to him and be both respectful and sensible with him.
[00:09:03] Saul throws it away over and over again, even though God has told him Saul will not remain on the throne. If you look carefully, you'll see all these ways in which God continues to bless Saul, continue to be gracious to him, continue to protect him. For example, giving him David, David to be victorious, David to protect the people, David to play the liar for him and calm him. All of these great things. But of course, instead of seeing David as the blessing that he is Saul takes it as a threat.
[00:09:40] Instead of hearing the praise of his own people for his own name, as a blessing and as an honor, he takes it as a threat.
[00:09:48] And the more he does that, the more he's discontent, the more he lets jealousy seep down to his heart, the more he separates himself from the Lord and his Anointed One, the worse things get for him and for everyone around him.
[00:10:05] This is what jealousy does. This is what discontentment does. A lot of times it starts small. We think it's not a big deal to be a little bit jealous. It's not a big deal to be a little bit discontent and want things that God hasn't given me to sort of blame him just a little bit for not being fair with me.
[00:10:29] But the story of Saul and many others in the Bible remind us that this is not how we should think about jealousy, discontentment, or any sin.
[00:10:39] Sin creeps in.
[00:10:41] And what starts maybe as a struggle with sin, if we ignore it, it becomes a surrender to sin.
[00:10:50] And if we let it go on, we become as slaves.
[00:10:58] Saul begins with envy, then he moves to plots, then finally open attempts on David's life.
[00:11:08] A quote from an English writer, Charles Colton. He says, of all the passions, jealousy is that which exacts the hardest service and, and pays the bitterest wages.
[00:11:18] Its service is to watch the success of our enemy, its wages, to be sure of it.
[00:11:27] Saul's descent from being the king, being in charge, being honored by God, to being one who ultimately dies on the battlefield by his own hand. Of all these passions, jealousy.
[00:11:47] I'm sorry. Of all these things, jealousy has got his heart.
[00:11:54] Listen to what James 4 says. This is James 4:1 3.
[00:11:59] What causes quarrels and causes fights among you, is it not this? That your passions are at war within you. You desire and you do not have, so you murder, you covet and cannot obtain. So you fight and quarrel.
[00:12:17] You do not have because you do not ask and you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.
[00:12:27] And we see that happening with Saul. One example of that is the liar, right? Just a little bit ago in this book, we read that when this harmful spirit would come upon Saul, David would play the lyre and Saul would feel better.
[00:12:43] Now, while David is playing the liar, Saul throws the spear at him.
[00:12:50] There are things, when we let sin take control of our lives, things that start as helpful and seem to become less and less helpful over time. The more and more we give ourselves over to our idols, our discontentment, and perhaps at the beginning, prayer and Fellowship and community and Bible reading and things like that are helpful in a way. But the more and more that we're resistant to sin, the more and more we lose a taste for these things. And some people even become embittered against them and find things like church or Christians or the Bible as irritating when they once loved them.
[00:13:31] This is what happens when sin takes a hold of our hearts and we surrender ourselves to it.
[00:13:40] Well, how do we fight against that kind of battle? How do we keep ourselves from surrendering in this way?
[00:13:48] The only way that we can find freedom from this slavery, the only way that we can find hope is in Christ, in the Messiah, in the anointed one.
[00:14:01] One of the things that we're seeing over and over and over again is that when God puts his hand on his chosen one, everyone who. Everyone who is loyal to that person, everyone who trusts that person, finds themselves in a really good place.
[00:14:17] God promised this, even the beginning to Abraham, when he established his covenant of grace. He says, those who bless you, I will bless. Those who curse you, I. I will curse.
[00:14:27] Belonging to God through the promised ones is how we find the kind of contentment and happiness that we need. Ultimately, this is fulfilled, of course, in Christ, who's not just another man, but God himself come into this world to save us. Which means when we reject Christ, we reject God, the one who can provide every single thing that we want and need.
[00:14:58] As proof of this, we look at David's life over and over and over again. David is delivered. Look at just the verses that we read today.
[00:15:08] First, we have this relationship between David and Saul.
[00:15:12] I'm sorry, David and Jonathan. Remember, this is Saul's son, the one who would have been king, right? The one who would have had this place. And instead of being jealous and discontent and frustrated at this usurper or something like that, he knits his heart to David. He gives himself to him. He says, you are my friend, and I will help you in every way I can. So Jonathan goes to David, verse 2, and he tells him the plan. Saul, my father, seeks to kill for kill you. Be on your guard. Then he goes and he talks to his father.
[00:15:51] All right, kids, you may have become aware by now that your parents make mistakes sometimes and even sin sometimes. It's true. You know it and I know it. And it can be a very difficult thing to talk to your parents in a way that is respectful and honorable. And yet, at the same time, lovingly correcting that is not an easy thing to do.
[00:16:21] Adults know that as well.
[00:16:24] Adults have many adults have parents as well that they need to speak to sometimes in ways that are not easy. This is a position we find ourselves in in various times. And here's Jonathan, the son of the king, being brave and calling and talking to his dad about the thing that is probably the most irritating, the most difficult, the most frustrating thing going on in Saul's life.
[00:16:56] He goes and he talks to him and notice how he puts it.
[00:17:01] Look at the respect.
[00:17:03] He talks to his father. Not only his father, but as the king. He says, let the king not sin against his servant David.
[00:17:12] He gives him a reason because he has not sinned against you, because his deeds have brought good to you.
[00:17:21] Jonathan wants his dad to take on God's perspective.
[00:17:27] And that's the way that we can bless anyone who's around us, our friends, our siblings, our parents, our children, our neighbors, by helping them to see things from God's perspective. And sometimes that might mean pointing out the friction and the tension and the rebellion that is happening between those whom we love and the Lord. That's what Jonathan does here. He doesn't beat around the bush, but he calls his father to avoid this sin. And he does it respectfully. And he gives good reasons. He has not sinned against you and these deeds have brought good to you. He gives more reasons. In verse 5, he took his life in his hand. David sacrificed himself and struck down the Philistine, right? David was willing to risk this and it was good for the people, it was good for Saul. He adds to this, the Lord worked great salvation for Israel, right? Jonathan sees things from a proper theological perspective of God centered perspective, in which he sees not only David sacrificing and acting and being brave, but also seeing that it's God who's working in that the Lord worked a great salvation for Israel. Don't reject that, don't fight against that, oh great king.
[00:18:56] He even reminds him of his own actions at that time. He says, you saw it and you rejoiced.
[00:19:04] Finally ends his speech. Why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause?
[00:19:12] Now it's possible this was a longer conversation that has been reduced and as the author tells the history, but it's also possible that this is what he said and the conciseness of it has a certain beauty to it as well.
[00:19:29] We don't see Jonathan piling up many, many words, but speaking honorably, gently, pointedly, theologically and lovingly to his father as he does so. It's effective, at least for a time. Remember right now, as Jonathan's saying, these Things David's hiding.
[00:19:53] David is hiding because Saul is trying to kill him. But in verse six, we read that Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan and. And even swears, as we heard earlier, as Yahweh lives, as the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death. And things go well for a while. Jonathan tells David, David is brought back into the presence of Saul until he's sent out again and David's victorious again. And then Saul is jealous again.
[00:20:23] And we see where it goes from there.
[00:20:28] We see in these things, this is all a proof to show you how the Lord is working to save David, even through Jonathan, even through Saul's son. He does it again by saving him from the Philistines, whom David destroys. He does it again by escaping him from the spear that gets thrown at David. And then he does it again when McCall, Michael, when she creates this ruse, Rahab style, you might remember her hiding the spies in Canaan, letting them down. Or it has happens to Paul later, let down through a window in a basket. These people who help God's servants to escape. She does this, and it creates this ploy in which Saul is delayed and gives David a head start on his escape first, right? She. She takes this image and lays it on a bed, puts this goat's hair on top, you know, kind of creates a fake David in the bed. And they go, what's going on in there? And, okay, he's sick, all right? Come back later and then notice Saul's heart. I don't care if he's sick. Bring him in his bed to me. Not so that I can talk to him, so that I can kill him. And it's personal now. Earlier in the chapter, he said he's been telling his servants to kill him. And now he's like, I'm just going to get this job done and do it myself.
[00:22:02] Anyway, as you know, this plot fails. There is something that is a little bit, you know, we think was McCall right to lie in this?
[00:22:15] I'll let you go to the sermon discussion time later and you can think about that. People have different opinions about this, and perhaps you do, too. One thing I'd want you to note, though, from the.
[00:22:28] From what we see in her is we see hints of things that are good but not great.
[00:22:37] She obviously lies. It's one of the things that happens. There's also this image, right? This image, like it's a good plan, right? She pretends she kind of creates this situation in which David, you know, looks sort of like David from, you know, the door or something like that, and he's able to escape. But what's an image doing in the house?
[00:22:56] Right. Why is there some sort. This is a word that's used for household gods, like Laban had and were stolen from him, these kind of things.
[00:23:08] Why are there images among the people of God? There's kind of these. There's a little bit of sprinkling here, of something's not quite right, not only in Michal's life, but also in the life of Saul's household and his children.
[00:23:29] Anyway, we'll think about that more later, but I mean, another time. But here we do see that she helps David. She brings him salvation. He escapes and he gets this head start, and David books it to Samuel. And that's where we'll pick up next time.
[00:23:48] In all of these ways, we see how the Lord is using various means. You know, the. The last second movement away as the spear flies by him, his wife, Saul's daughter, Jonathan. Victory on the battlefield over and over again. The Lord is preserving His Anointed One.
[00:24:09] Nothing is going to stop him as long as the Lord is on his side. And that's part of the point that we're supposed to remember here and part of the strength of this story as it reminds us of Jesus.
[00:24:23] Think about our Savior for a moment.
[00:24:27] Were people jealous of Jesus?
[00:24:30] Did people want to destroy Jesus? Did people want to take his life from the moment of his birth? Revelation reveals to us that Satan was like a great dragon standing in the birthing room, waiting to devour the child. If it were not for the fact that God allowed him, caused him, protected that child, to escape, it would have all been over. But of course, never was over. Satan was never going to win this battle because he's fighting against the Lord. And that's part of the point. No one fights against the Lord in His anointed and wins, period. Not you, not me, not Satan, not the great powers of this world. Herod, the Pharisees, the crowds. No one. No one fights against the Lord and his Messiah and wins. Even if you put him on the run, even if you pin him to a cross, even if you bury him in a tomb, guard the tomb with soldiers and cover it up with a large stone, it's not going to work.
[00:25:36] The Lord will rise victorious. He. He always does. And of course he did. That's why we put our trust in the Messiah. That's why we put our trust in the Lord and in His Anointed One.
[00:25:55] This is Saul's problem. It's not just a problem with jealousy and discontentment. It's a problem that's rooted in a rejection of the Messiah. And that's where all our problems are. And it's also where our salvation is the problem. Or, I'm sorry, the solution to the problem. The antidote to the disease of jealousy and discontentment is not fighting harder, it's believing deeper. It's trusting Jesus more, loving Jesus more, giving ourselves over to him more.
[00:26:37] John Knox writes, the notion that God delivers His chosen from their enemies is not written for David only, but for all those who shall suffer tribulation until the end of the world.
[00:26:54] I'm going to keep reading. This is a good quote for I, John Knox. He says, let this be said to the acclaim and praise of God alone, in anguish of mind and vehement tribulation and affliction called on the Lord when not only the ungodly, but even my faithful brothers, even my own self, that is my natural understanding, judged my case to be irredeemable. And yet in my greatest calamity and when my pains were most cruel, God's eternal wisdom willed that my hands should be a rider far contrary to the judgment of carnal reason which his mercy has proved true. Blessed be his holy name. And therefore I dare to be bold in the truth of God's promise that notwithstanding the vehemence of trouble and long continuance of it, the despair of all people and the fearfulness, danger, pain and anguish of our own hearts, yet if we call constantly to God, even beyond human expectation, he shall deliver.
[00:27:56] That's what he does.
[00:27:58] The Lord delivers, and he delivers not only His Anointed One, but all who trust in him. And that's why Psalm 2 says, Kiss the Son, Give your heart to the Son. Love the Son. Trust the Son. Believe the Son. Believe in the one God has established, and you will be saved against all calamity, against your own heart and your own sin, against the fearful terror of the devil.
[00:28:32] Because he is God. And that's what David does. Now David is just a shadow of Jesus.
[00:28:41] He's just a shadow of Jesus. We see him hunted, we see him rejected, we see him in the wilderness. And ultimately we see him victorious. But David died. David also sinned. David fell. David struggled.
[00:28:57] But these things were not true of Jesus. Ultimately, even though Jesus was buried, guarded, and of course before that, put to death, he did triumph. And he did that for you.
[00:29:13] So let me conclude by saying this.
[00:29:19] Saul didn't fall apart or lose his path in a single day.
[00:29:27] It was a series of actions, a Series of surrendering to his sin over and over again. A series of missed opportunities, of missed chances, of rejected opportunities, of rejected graces.
[00:29:41] Not only that, he continued to feed his sin over and over again, and we see it sadly consuming him. It's a warning, beloved.
[00:29:53] Don't let that happen to you.
[00:29:55] When you see and detect sin in your lives, don't forget about it, but notice it and put it to death through the death of Jesus Christ.
[00:30:07] That means putting your faith not in yourself or in your own struggles. That means put or in your own victory over your struggles. It means giving up and saying, lord, have mercy. It means looking to Jesus for everything that you need and believing that he will give you everything that you need.
[00:30:27] It means giving up on the world and the things of this world and the power of our own reason and our own flow and our earthly nature to save us. It means letting go and giving up on other people, not out of hatred or rejection of them, but not making them gods and letting only Jesus be our God.
[00:30:51] David points us forward to Jesus, the true anointed one. Let's put our faith in him. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that you make us aware of our sin. It hurts, it's painful, it brings us shame and guilt. But you take these things away for us, from us in Christ.
[00:31:15] In Christ, you give us glory and freedom. In Christ we have honor and salvation. In Christ we have victory. And even though we might suffer great things in this life, even death itself, you promise us that we will be saved. You promise us that we will rise from the dead. You promise us that we have been granted every spiritual blessing there could ever be in Jesus Christ. That is all the blessings of the Holy Spirit.
[00:31:46] Oh, Lord, thank you for wrapping us up into your anointing. Thank you for wrapping us up into your care. Thank you for giving us your spirit to dwell in our hearts and dwell so richly that we might no longer live for ourselves and our pride and our sin, but that we might live and truly live for you as we sense the sin in our lives. Lord, we ask that you would break it. We ask that you would make us zealous in fighting against it and help us to fight in the strength of God.
[00:32:23] Lord, we thank you for all the glorious things you are doing. We thank you for Jesus, our one and only Savior. Help us to put all our trust in him now and forever. It's in his name we pray. Amen.
