Devotionary

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Ep 603 – 1 Samuel 20:35-42 Aug 11, 2018

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Just when David thought it couldn't get any worse, it did. He was about to lose everything, including his wife, best friend, and job, not to mention his dignity. He was going to become a man on the run, with a bounty on his head and that nagging feeling that someone was always out to get him. Nowhere would be safe. And, as we will see, Saul was not someone who would give up easily. David could run, but Saul would continue to pursue him – stubbornly and relentlessly. But all of this was part of God's divine plan for David's life. God wasn't caught off guard. He didn't have to come up with a plan B. This had been his plan all along. Because God had some invaluable lessons He wanted to teach David that could only be learned in the fires of adversity. David was about to be thrown into God's furnace of purification. And the heat was about to get intense. God wasn't punishing David, He was perfecting him. He was turning the shepherd of sheep into the shepherd of Israel. He was transforming a man of faith into a man of God. David had been anointed the next king of Israel, but God was going to teach him the value of suffering before glorification.

Ep 602 – 1 Samuel 20:16-34 Aug 10, 2018

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By now, the stubbornness of Saul should be quite evident. Like a dog with a rag, he refuses to let go of his anger and resentment against David. Cooler heads have tried to prevail, but he remains determined to take the life of David and prolong his own reign. But his efforts will proof fruitless and futile. Whether he realizes it or not, he is foolishly attempting to fight the will of God Almighty. His efforts to kill David have failed time and time again, because God has a plan for David's life. It doesn't matter how many times Saul tries to stab David with a spear or how many bounties he places on his head, the will of God cannot and will not be thwarted. And Saul's growing frustration will spill over in rage against his own son, whom he will try to kill with a spear. This is the portrait of a man possessed, both figuratively and literally. No longer controlled by the Spirit of God, Saul is obviously under demonic possession, and operating out of uncontrollable rage. And one of the saddest realities of this man's rapidly spiraling life was his unwillingness to accept responsibility for the failure of his reign. He had blown it with God, having disobeyed His command, but never repenting for it.

Ep 601 – 1 Samuel 20:1-15 Aug 09, 2018

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David is forced to flee for his life. And you would think that this brings any chance of him becoming the next king of Israel to an abrupt and ignominious end. But, in reality, this is just the beginning of David's life story. And it is all part of God's divine plan for his life. When David runs, he does so, filled with confusion and self-incrimination. He can't figure out what he has done to make Saul so angry with him. He even begs Jonathan to help him determine how to make things right with his father. Jonathan is convinced that David is overreacting. He can't bring himself to believe that his father is serious about his threats to kill David. So, David concocts a plan to expose Saul's real agenda and to convince Jonathan that the threat on his life is real. But the most amazing part of this story is the way David handles himself throughout the entire ordeal. He's confused, but shows no signs of anger or resentment. He doesn't lash out at Saul or call on God to strike him down. If anything, he seems to be willing to take the blame for the conflict taking place between them. He exhibits the characteristics that led God to call Him a man after His own heart.

Ep 600 – 1 Samuel 19:11-24 Aug 08, 2018

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Saul was relentless. He was obsessed with the idea of killing David. In his tormented mind, he truly believed that if he filled David, he could continue to rule and reign as the king of Israel – in spite of God's pledge to remove and replace him with a man after God's own heart. And in 1 Samuel 19:11-24, Saul will have his sinister plans to kill David thwarted by his own daughter, Michal. She will get wind of her father's plot and assist her husband in escaping. And this story, full of deception, intrigue, lies and nail-biting, last-second escapes, is about far more than David's too-close-for-comfort getaway. It's about a cosmic struggle taking place in the invisible realms. In other words, it's about spiritual warfare – a battle between God and Satan. While Saul and David are the primary protagonists in the story, they are not the primary focus. What we have here is a earthly glimpse into the epic struggle taking place between righteousness and wickedness. Yes, Saul is out to kill David, but there is far more going on here than meets the eye. Under the influence of Satan himself, Saul's attempt to eliminate David is actually Satan's effort to prevent the coming of the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Ep 599 – 1 Samuel 19:1-10 Aug 07, 2018

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Saul had it out for David. His animosity, driven by his jealousy and fear of David, kept revealing itself in ever-more intense efforts to take David's life. He had tried to kill David with a spear – twice. Now he was going to issue an order that all of his servants do whatever they had to do to see that David was eliminated. Saul even ordered his own son, Jonathan, to take the life of his best friend, David. All of this reveals Saul's growing desperation and despondency. He had been rejected by God because of his disobedience. And he knew his days on the throne were numbered. Saul was seeking every opportunity to kill David, all in a futile effort to prolong his reign. And even when Jonathan convinced his father to rescind his order to kill David, it was little more than a delay. The calm before the storm. And 1 Samuel 19:1-10 ends with Saul trying, for a third time, to nail David to the wall with a spear. He missed, but David didn't take any chances and fled for his life. It was about time for David to give up his position in the palace. His days of learning how NOT to be a king were quickly coming to an end. God was going to separate David from Saul and begin the process of divine preparation that would equip him for his God-ordained role as the shepherd of Israel.

Ep 598 – 1 Samuel 18:17-30 Aug 06, 2018

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Saul had a love-hate relationship with David. At least, it started out that way. But it wasn't long before any love for David was replaced by a jealousy-fueled, fear induced hatred. He saw David as a threat and was determined to rid himself of this winner of the peoples' choice award. And it's amazing the lengths Saul went to in his efforts to eliminate any possibility of David becoming the next king of Israel. He had tried to kill him. He tried relocating him. And, as we will see in 1 Samuel 18:17-30, Saul will try to take advantage of David's unwavering allegiance, by deceiving him and exposing him to life-threatening situations. And yet, Saul would see all his efforts fail because God had plans for David. He was the Lord's anointed. But that doesn't mean all was going to go well for David or that his life would be trouble-free. A big part of what God was doing was preparing David for the day when he would assume the throne of Israel. These next months and years of his life were going to be difficult, but necessary. For him to be the kind of king God desired, David was going to have to endure God's intensive training program for kings.

Ep 597 – 1 Samuel 18:10-16 Aug 05, 2018

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How do you learn to be a king? Well, you can always do it by watching another king. And then there's on-the-job training, where you learn as you go. Both have their pros and cons, but it seems that God was going to allow David to take the first route, allowing him to watch King Saul from an up-close-and-personal vantage point right in the palace. But most of the lessons David would learn from Saul would be of the negative variety. Saul would provide David with more than enough examples of how NOT to reign. And it wasn't long before David found himself on the receiving end of Saul's uncontrollable anger, a byproduct of the king's growing jealousy. All of this was part of God's divine strategy to provide David with a graduate-level education on kingship. David had been anointed the next king of Israel, but he was not yet on the throne, because he was not yet ready. There were many life lessons David would have to learn before he was ready to wear the crown and assume the responsibility of leading the people of God. His anointing was going to be followed by a period of testing and teaching, and one of the greatest lessons he would learn in the years ahead was the need to rely on and rest in God.

Ep 596 – 1 Samuel 18:1-9 Aug 04, 2018

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Chapter 18 of 1 Samuel opens up with a description of the new and deepening friendship between David and Jonathan, the son of King Saul. This relationship will play a significant part in the unfolding story of David's life. David, the unlikely hero who had defeated the Philistine champion, Goliath, suddenly found himself a full-time employee of the king and a friend to the king's son. But it wouldn't take long before David discovered his best friend's father didn't share his son's affection for him. At least, not all the time. Saul would begin to exhibit wild mood swings and a meteoric relationship with his young shepherd turned warrior. David's seeming penchant for success and growing popularity among the people would end up making Saul jealous. And it didn't help that Saul could hear songs being sung in the streets of the city boasting of David's accomplishments. David had made a friend and a foe in the king's palace, and it was just a matter of time before Saul and his son found themselves in conflict over this young man who was a man after God's own heart and whose exploits had won the hearts of the people.

Ep 595 – 1 Samuel 17:50-58 Aug 03, 2018

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David had done the impossible. He had surprised any and all, especially the giant, Goliath, by scoring a not-to-be-expected victory over the Philistine champion. And King Saul had to have been beside himself with joy over the unlikely outcome of the confrontation between Goliath and the scrawny shepherd boy. But again, before we turn this story into an autobiographical record of the feats of David, we need to step back and take a look at the bigger story found in Scripture. What we have pictured here is a spiritual battle, between the evil forces of this world and God Almighty. And in the middle are the people of God, quaking in their boots and ill-equipped to do anything about the loud-mouthed, muscle-bound giant hurling curses at them. In many ways, the people of Israel, as portrayed in this story, were suffering from lousy leadership. They had chosen to turn their backs on God, rejecting Him as their true King, and choosing instead to have a king like all the other nations. Which is why God had given them Saul. But there was a new king to come. And that is the real story behind David's defeat of Goliath. David would be a foreshadowing of Jesus, the King of kings, who would also be born in the city of Bethlehem. Like David, He would bring victory over the enemy, but this time, it would be Satan

Ep 594 – 1 Samuel 17:41-49 Aug 02, 2018

Show notes

Everyone loves the story of David and Goliath, because almost everyone has a heart for the underdog. That's why all the Rocky movies have been so popular for so long. It's why we love to see the out-gunned and out-manned armies of the Alliance get the upper hand over the Imperial forces in every Star Wars movie. We like seeing the little guy win. We prefer to watch the neighborhood bully get his clock cleaned by the little kid with the thick glasses and a mean right hook. But we need to be careful that we don't turn the story of David and Goliath into some kind of moralistic story about victories over the bullies of life. Yes, David was way out of his league when he stepped onto the field of battle with Goliath, but the whole point of this story is that the battle was not up to David in the first place. It was about the enemies of God getting what they deserved from God. The battle was the Lord's and it had been all along. God had been willing to bring victory – if anyone would simply believe that He could. And David was the one who put his trust in God. It wasn't about David's sling and five smooth stones. It was about the power of God bringing victory over the enemies of God through a willing servant of God.

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