OVERVIEW: Saul’s disobedience costs him the kingdom; God chooses David to be king; David kills Goliath.
HIGHLIGHTS & INSIGHTS:
The three chapters in today’s reading are some of the most dramatic in all of scripture. In these chapters: God rejects a king and appoints another one out of total obscurity to replace him; God instantaneously promotes the new king-elect in the eyes of the entire nation of Israel. Each of these events have been preached on countless times through the centuries because of the very clear and practical messages God is communicating through them.
In Chapter 15, God gives King Saul a very clear command to totally annihilate the enemy, and by all outward appearances, it looks as if Saul is going to obey Him. He gathers the troops, confidently prepares them, and courageously leads them to battle, and yet, despite the victory, Saul actually finds a way to turn the victory into a defeat. After the hard part was accomplished (trusting God to grant the victory!), Saul allows his flesh to control his thinking, and as a result, he “reinterprets” God’s command to annihilate everything that had anything to do with enemy, and willfully chose to do something that better suited and satisfied his own carnal desires. He keeps some of the spoils of battle, rationalizing that he did it to be able to offer sacrifices to God, and in so doing, forever forfeits the hand of God upon his life. With Samuel’s words, “to obey is better than sacrifice” still ringing in Saul’s ears (15:22), we go on to read what Saul did not understand at the time. Chapter 15 and verse 35 tells us, “Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death.” Oh, may we learn from this tragic event in Saul’s life, to simply DO WHAT WE KNOW! Just DO IT, without COMPROMISING anything, without RATIONALIZING anything, and without JUSTIFYING anything! May we follow the simple counsel Mary gave to the servants at the wedding in Cana of Galilee in John 2:5: “Whatsoever he saith unto you, DO IT!”
As a result of the removal of God’s Holy Spirit upon Saul’s life, the oppression of an “evil spirit” quickly came to take His place. Ironically enough, the only cure for the oppression of the “evil spirit” was the beautiful playing of the harp by a young man by the name of David, who unbeknownst to Saul, was God’s choice to replace him as Israel’s king! Note that in the Old Testament, kings would be anointed for service with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but unlike born again, New Testament believers, they were not “sealed with the Holy Spirit” (Eph. 1:13) meaning they could lose the Spirit’s anointing. This is why after King David’s infamous sinful act with Bathsheba, in his confession in Psalm 51, he prays in verse 11, “take not thy Holy Spirit from me.”
As the emphasis in the scripture forever shifts from Saul to David, it is thrilling to note that what was at the very heart of that shift was the HEART! While Saul was a choice that was based on outward appearance, David was a choice that was made based on the fact that he was a man after God’s own heart! Chapter 16 and verse 7 says, “But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him (Saul): for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” It is of vital importance to recognize just how serious our is God about the state of our “inner man.” (Eph. 3:16) The word “heart” is found 765 times in the Bible and seldom does it refer to our physical blood-pumping muscle!
With this whole issue of the heart in mind, in chapter 17 we launch into the infamous story of “David and Goliath.” While this history is often recounted emphasizing the fact that David desired to defend the name of God against the big, bad, evil Goliath who defied the God of Israel, which was certainly his overriding motivation, it is also interesting to note David’s other motivations, when we examine the emphasis the scripture places on the discussions David had around the campfire, prior to taking on the giant. After David is told what would be done for the man who defeated Goliath, he wanted to make sure that he was understanding what he heard correctly asking them to repeat it another two times! (1 Sam. 17:25–30) To further emphasize the point, after David’s insistence on getting clarification about what would be done for the man who finally dealt with Israel’s oppressor, David’s eldest brother accuses him of having a bad heart, with ulterior motives. Clearly, God is strongly endorsing the fact that blessings often naturally accompany exercising faith in God, and by doing what is right by Him. We need not shy away from desiring to glorify God through His blessing upon our life.
CHRIST IS REVEALED:
Through DAVID’S NAME, which means “BELOVED” – 1 Samuel 16:13 (Matt. 3:17;17:5; Mark 1:11; 9:7; Luke 3:22; 9:35)