King Saul's Descent: Fighting Against God's Plan

Chapter 18.

We are going to continue on in our study being pray for Pastor Josh as he and his family are having their.

We getting away for a little bit.

Pray that he will be rested up and restored and his family will not drive him crazy.

No.

Or vice versa.

That's right.

Pray they all get good rest tonight.

We're going to start here in chapter number 18, verse number nine.

Trying to pick up where we left off the very first week that we came to this chapter just for.

Since we've, we've been a couple weeks now.

So to set the scene here, as you know, in First Samuel, First Samuel, chapter 17 was Goliath the giant that fell by the hands of this small shepherd boy who did an impossible feat seemingly.

And then the great question that King Saul comes to is how in the world did you do this?

And then we, we talked.

We looked there at the very first verses of how the, the knitting of Jonathan and David's soul and how they too form this partnership, this bond between two men, both young and old, coming together in a one mind mindset because of their, their devotion to God, their path of life, their way of life.

Everything just lined up in these two men's lives.

And Jonathan admired that.

David admired that.

In Jonathan and these two men, their souls were knit.

And then we see just the responses is really what we looked at last week.

It was the response of three individuals to the working of God.

And we're going to kind of stick with that same theme this week as we try to finish this chapter.

God works.

How do we respond in life?

Okay, we had three different responses.

We had Jonathan's response, we had King Saul's response, and we had David's response.

David is the one getting caught up in all this.

But today what we're going to look at and we're going to focus on is King Saul and his response.

We talked a lot about the character of Jonathan.

Now we're going to talk about how Saul leaned into this resisting of God's will, this resisting of what God was doing.

Because what King Saul came to the conclusion of, especially at the end, I would say he did not necessarily come to a perfect conclusion, but he began to suspect what he had.

Fear.

The words that I get reminded of were kind of what Job said about his suffering and his day of calamity.

The day that I have fear, that I've always feared has come.

Now King Saul is experiencing that fear.

He was waiting for this day to come because this day had technically been foretold.

Samuel had already told him Saul, you've messed up.

God has forsaken.

God has taken away the kingdom.

And so as we come to this second part, we see Saul doing this.

And this is what the title of tonight's sermon is, Fighting what God is doing.

The spear in Saul's hand.

Now, I look for a spear around here and I didn't really find one.

I found a walking stick and I didn't bring it, but it probably wouldn't have done justice, you know, to a spear in my hand.

The intimidation of some weighted, you know, hand carved, metal worked spearhead.

I don't know what you're saying.

My wife's giving me a signal.

Does he have a spear?

He doesn't have it up here, sadly.

No spear.

I wanted to intimidate you, but that wasn't.

That's not going to happen with just a stick.

Okay, the spear though, in Saul's hand, that's what we're going to look at tonight.

So let's pray and we'll start.

Our heavenly Father, Lord, pray and ask that you would help us to understand your word tonight.

But Lord, what we want to know from this passage specifically is how we are to respond whenever you are doing something in our life, in our circumstances, or in the lives of others that we are coming in contact with or just in general, Lord, when you are doing something, what is our response to it?

Lord, I pray that we are not asking.

Saul was.

But Lord, that we are receptive and surrendered to your will.

And whatever that may be, Lord, pray and ask that you would help us to understand that tonight.

Jesus name we pray.

Amen.

The spear in Saul's hand, or as I learned just from a little bit of research, the spear in Sha' ul's hand.

That's the proper name in Hebrew of King Saul.

It's shall O.

It's an interesting word.

I don't expect you to remember that and call him that.

From here on out, it's King Sha'.

Ul.

You know, but it's very interesting that, you know, the way the, the English and the, or rather probably the Greek translation is, is translated and moves in names.

But tonight one of the things that we want to look at is this resistance that King Saul put up fighting what God is doing.

That's the question that I would ask us tonight.

Are we fighting what God is doing?

And subpoint of this is this.

God is in control.

God is in control.

And part of this probably leans a lot on just understanding what that means to us as Christians.

What does it mean whenever we say that God is in control.

What does it mean to say that God is sovereign, that he rules, that he reigns, that nothing is out of his power, out of his grasp, that.

That God is the one who does all things.

That's what we're going to focus on this.

We cannot defeat what God has determined to do.

The question is, are we surrendering to God's work or resisting it?

Now, many of us are going through life, and you have experienced the same thing that perhaps King Saul experienced or in any other circumstance where something did not go according to plan.

We all face disappointment, right?

We all come across disappointment in our daily lives.

And the question is, how did this happen?

Why did this happen?

That's some of the things that we want to ask.

You know, why did we hit every single red light on the way to work this morning?

Why was every single.

You know, you only call it a red light because it's.

It's red, right?

That's the reason why we call those.

You only see it whenever it's red because that's when you notice it.

Why did we have to do that?

Or maybe worse, you know, why we.

Did we get in an accident?

Why did this individual do this egregious sin to me?

Why did my boss respond?

Why did my boss promote this person and not me?

There are many questions that we go through.

Why did I get home and my water, Peter, explode, and now it's flooded my entire base?

Why did that have to happen?

That didn't happen.

But those are some good questions that you may have asked in your lifetime.

Why?

What is in God's control?

And then how are we reacting to it?

Saul begins his assault.

Look there in verse number nine is where we're going to start.

That's where we ended.

He says here in verse number nine.

And Saul eyed David from that day forward.

Now why was he eyeing David?

Well, David was getting praise.

The people were coming together.

They're welcoming the soldiers as they were ought to do in that day.

They were welcoming them home, lining up on the streets.

The women were dancing and singing with tambourine.

And they said, saul has killed his thousands, but David his 10,000.

And King Saul said, they've ascribed to me thousands, but David, ten thousands.

They've given more honor to him.

What more can he have but the kingdom?

And Saul I, David, from that day forward, verse 10.

And it came to pass on the morrow that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul.

And he prophesied in the midst of the house.

And David played with his hand, as at other times and there was a javelin in Saul's hand.

And Saul cast the javelin, for he said, I will smite David even to the wall with it.

And David avoided out of his presence twice.

So Saul, in his rage, in his mindset and his jealousy, Saul watches David through those jealous eyes.

Now, what Saul needed.

What we have to understand about Saul is that Saul's problem began before he ever picked up the javelin.

It began with how he looked at David.

The women's song singing.

David has killed his thousands and Saul has ten thousands.

That did not create the insecurity in Saul that exposed it.

From that moment, everything David did was interpreted suspiciously.

That's what we call having junk up here, clutter in your brain as you think about people.

You know, that can seriously affect how we interact with one another.

Someone does something to you or does something in general, and we immediately form that opinion of them.

And now we can't see them doing anything else outside of that one opinion.

That is called junk in the attic.

Okay?

It is clutter.

It's garbage in your mind.

It is your filter that has been clogged.

Well, this one little thing caused Saul in his insecurity that already existed, in his fear that God was going to judge him one day, in his pride, it caused that to bubble up and it exposed that to him.

What David did from that moment on, everything was interpreted in that light of what is this guy trying to do in my King, David's victories were no longer victories of Israel.

It wasn't, hey, look at this guy who has done this, these great defeats and accomplishments for Israel.

He's winning our battles.

That was what it was with Goliath, but no more.

In Saul's mind, these were real threats to him.

And so it brings us to that same question.

Someone else at work gets promoted or someone else gets.

Someone else gets blessed.

What is our reaction to that?

Can I celebrate when God uses someone else in whatever position?

Do I become suspicious when another person receives recognition?

Has comparison caused us to misjudge someone who has done perhaps no wrong to you personally?

That application of what is in our heart coming up to the surface, that is what you and I as Christians have to be wary of.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.

And the opposite of these things are something like self love, frustration instead of gentleness.

There's harshness.

These things, though, only come up to the surface whenever we as Christians are put in places of pressure to squeeze us.

That's whenever.

I mean, when are you, when are you ever supposed to experience peace?

When Good things are happening.

That's what we often would think.

Oh yeah, oh, there's some peace.

Is that real peace, though?

Is that a necessary peace?

Is that a real peace?

No, you only experience real peace, peace when circumstances in life are going horrible and you are able to remain peace, at peace and calm because God is taking care of you.

That's what real peace is.

You're only able to show love whenever there's a need.

You're only able to really show love whenever there is someone who needs that love.

That is a pressure point.

And it is in those moments that when we are squeezed, you have to ask that question.

What comes out?

Well, what came out of King Saul?

Well, his pride, his insecurity, his.

His fear and what was really raging on the inside, that's what came out of King Saul.

And then we come here to this spear in his hand, number one.

Saul's jealousy became fear and spiritual torment.

Whenever he is sitting here at the, the throne room with his spear in hand, he begins to be attacked, so to speak.

It says here in verse number 10 that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul and he prophesied in the midst of the house.

And David played with his hand, as at other times.

You will remember this from chapters before where David, they called for a person who was skilled with the harp to come in and play and soothe the song.

And that always worked before.

David had already done this before.

Music was the soothing note.

What is the prophesying that Saul did?

That's some of the questions that we get.

We get a few different questions here.

Says here that he prophesied.

It says that the evil spirit from God came upon him.

And then you also probably have to ask the question, why, why was there a javelin in his hand to begin with?

That, that would be probably another good question.

You know, you're supposed to appease the king, but be careful.

He's got a javelin in his hand.

I think all of us would look at that and take it with some regard.

We would probably go in very carefully.

You know, that's a lot of people, you know, they, they look at this, this passage and they say, well, why did King Saul recognize David from the other times that he played the harp in front of him?

And some people will say, well, maybe because, you know, he played behind a curtain, he wasn't allowed into the king's presence.

You know, it's the king.

You're not just allowed to go in there willy nilly.

So he's behind a curtain.

So maybe that's what was happening and he didn't recognize David.

But anyways, David comes in and he has that javelin in his hand and it says that King Saul prophesied and that an evil spirit from God came upon him.

Now, the way that we normally look at prophecy, we normally look at.

We see different examples of this with King Samuel prophesying.

We look at other prophets who would prophesy.

We looked at even at the beginning of King Saul's rule, whenever they asked, is King Saul among the prophets because he was prophesying.

And usually prophesying is in the sense of a good thing.

They are prophesying not in the sense of foretelling the future, you'll understand, but rather in the sense of proclaiming what God has said.

That can include like the prophets who as.

As the prophet Daniel prophesied of the future to come.

That can be foretelling what will come.

But it means that they were speaking the words of God.

But there's another definition of this word prophecy.

This word to prophesy doesn't necessarily mean in a good sense, in every single term.

It is simply meaning you're under the influence of spirit.

I will not say the spirit, I won't say a spirit, but you are under the influence of spirit.

It is spirit control.

That is what they did.

They sung praises, they pronounced a divine proclamation that God wanted them that would put me put in their mouths.

And in a sense, it was not necessarily a.

Was not necessarily this calm action.

This would have been a scene, okay, when someone proclaimed this was a serious thing, they were proclaiming what God was saying.

This was not something that was casual.

It was something that was serious to be taken underneath.

It was.

Inspiration happened.

It was a raving.

In some ways it was, we're going to sing the praises of God and we're going to also pronounce God's words.

So in some ways, there's a little bit of chaos in this.

This prophesying, though we read, comes not because God's spirit is resting on King Saul.

We already read that the past chapters that God's spirit was taken from Saul.

And we see here that an evil spirit came on Saul and it says that this evil spirit came from God.

So this is more questions.

Saul's rebellion against what God had told him to do made him forfeit the power of the spirit on his life.

That's what Samuel told.

Now you'll have to remember going back whenever Saul was first chosen.

What was Saul like whenever he was chosen?

He was courageous.

He stepped up front and center and Said I want to be king, right?

No, he was hiding in the stuff.

He had no leadership.

He lost his dad's donkeys.

I mean the guy wasn't put together.

And now he became king.

And all the people were like, okay, Saul's the king.

And then Saul started to step out of character and he started to lead these people.

Remember, he gathered them all up and everyone came together underneath his leadership to fight against the Philistine.

This was a man who exhibited extreme giftedness in leadership and in all areas of being a king.

What was the big deal?

The spirit of God was on him.

The spirit of God was empowering Saul.

It was molding, making him, enabling him to do all the things that God has called us to do.

Called him to do in the same thing would be with us.

We are called to do something.

We need the spirit's help.

We need to be empowered and enabled in order to do what God has called us to do.

For the past, I don't know, like three, three months there from April, February to April, I went out looking for business for my photography and video business.

And I went to every single place I could possibly canvass to try to sell.

I went to so many places and none of those people bought for me.

Why, why was I hindered?

Well, what had to happen?

That wasn't what God's plan was for my life.

I had better success and other days before this when it was perfectly within God's plan, plan and will for me to, to be working in.

But I got to thinking about this about a week ago.

Why in the world did no one buy from me?

Why, why did.

I went to so many people, I went to restaurants, I went, I, I mean I had great portfolio.

I had.

What happened?

I wasn't, didn't go in there with unconfident.

What happened?

Well, I'll tell you what happened.

God prevented that from actually happening.

I went and signed up for a job that I was supposed to get.

I matched all the criteria.

I matched the character of what they wanted.

I matched the lifestyle, the culture, everything perfect.

None of that went through, none of that was successful.

And I thought to myself, why God didn't want God did not desire for that to happen.

What do you do whenever God doesn't want you to do something?

And that point is a point in of itself.

But then to understand how reliant we are on God for everything was a bombshell to me.

I need to be asking God for his help in every single little thing.

Because he is my enabler.

He is the Strength.

He is what's going to give me any kind of confidence.

He is the one who is going to do.

And that's what Saul was getting.

Saul was getting enabled.

And he didn't know all of his strength and the source of his power, his success.

It was all in God enabling him to do that.

You know, you.

You can say, you know, you're in sales, so you know, you're relying on yourselves to get your income.

Well, no where you're relying on God, you can have a job for.

I mean, a good salary job, and it's all laid out.

You get paid this much, you have these duties, the paycheck's always going to be there.

And you think, well, I'm secure.

You're secure.

You're about as secure as God wants you to be secure.

What's stopping you from falling down and breaking your knees and literally being paralyzed and not being able to go to work the next day?

There's nothing but God himself who enables us to do everything that we have.

Everything that we have is because of the mercy and the blessing of God.

It comes because God is good.

It came on Saul because that God was good to him.

Now that's not there anymore.

Now Saul is not enabled to be courageous.

Now Saul is not enabled to have administration underneath his belt and be in the spirit of leadership.

Saul's rebellion left him spiritually tormented.

And what happened to Saul was the natural progression, the natural progress, consequence to what can happen to anyone.

Now, what I mean by that is life has consequence.

God, thankfully, does not allow us to experience all of the consequences of every single action that we.

Or else I tell you, I would not be there's mercy.

That doesn't mean that God has to you.

You understand that.

King Pharaoh hardened his heart continually.

He hardened his heart again.

He hardened his heart again.

This is what King Pharaoh wanted.

And so God said, okay, have it.

Harden your heart.

I will harden it for you.

It's done.

That's what God does in circumstances.

Some circumstances in over.

In Romans, chapter one, we read about this.

How God gives them over to what they have indulged him, that you are wanting this.

Okay, have it.

Take it.

Have the natural consequences.

You don't get my protection anymore.

That's what happened to Saul here.

What Saul had was a position without God's presence.

He had a position without God's empowerment.

And what that led to was someone who was susceptible to temptation, someone who was susceptible to evil, and someone who ultimately was going to receive the end of their consequences.

Saul still possessed the throne.

But he no longer enjoyed that in spiritual empowerment that once accompanied.

And so this evil spirit comes upon God.

Comes rather upon Saul from God.

But what does that mean?

Does that mean that God sends evil spirit?

Wouldn't that therefore make God evil?

Is that what is happening here?

Turn over in Your Bibles to First King, Chapter 22.

There's an interesting story, First kings, chapter 22.

And in this story the prophet Micaiah is prophesying the way he is supposed to.

And he tells Ahab that your doom is coming upon you.

And all these other prophets are saying, no dooms coming upon you, Ahab.

Don't worry about it.

And the prophet Micaiah says, yeah, they are.

And in fact I know firsthand exactly what is happening.

All these prophets are all saying the same thing is because there's a lying spirit in their mouth.

Look there in verse number 19 it says.

And he, he said, hear thou therefore the word of the Lord.

I saw the Lord sitting on the throne and all the hosts of handings of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.

And the Lord said, who shall persuade Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?

And one said on this manner and another on that manner.

And there came, for the spirit stood before the Lord and said, I will persuade him.

And the Lord said unto him wherewith?

And he said, I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.

And he said, thou shalt persuade him and prevail also.

Go forth.

Do so.

Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets.

And the Lord has spoken evil concerning thee.

So this lying spirit goes forth and puts this lying word in all of these prophets.

Now who was this lying spirit?

Well, Number one, we understand that God in him no evil dwell.

That would be our first basis whenever we reach these hard passages of scripture.

We have to interpret scripture by what we already know God to be.

And true.

So who is this lying spirit?

This lion spirit could have been Satan.

We understand that spirits would frequently come forward before the throne of God.

And when asked, God, can I do this?

You're familiar with the passage of Job.

The sons of God came and presented themselves before God.

And he asked them, what have you been doing?

Give an account for what you've been doing.

And then the permission that Satan receives to go and tempt Job.

So there is the permission that that is granted by God by someone who is evil to do something.

And we have to ask the question, well, why would God allow that?

The definition of peace is the fruit of the spirit could be summed up in this free from harm in body, soul and spirit.

What we often view as harmful to us in our life.

Did you know that God doesn't do it?

It's hard, the breaking of our outer man to reveal the image of Christ.

That's never a comfortable thing.

That's never something that is easy.

It hurts, it's miserable at times.

We pray for things to pass.

We pray for hardship to go away.

We pray that God would provide and rescue us out of this need.

And we view it as harmful.

Does God view as harmful as he sees the inner man, as he sees Christ breaking forth?

No.

Did God view what Satan was doing to Job as harmful?

He did.

Satan thought it was Satan was giddy over what he was going to get to do to one of God's precious servants.

And yet God said, no, this is okay.

This is okay, Job.

This is for your good.

And that's what it means to be conformed to the image of Christ that all things work together for.

And so whenever we come to some of these passages, we have to understand what God allows into our life.

Doesn't necessarily mean that God is automatically evil because he allowed it, or every bad thing.

We would say, well, God's evil for this, God's evil for that.

It says in verse number five of Isaiah, chapter 45, I am the Lord God and there is none else.

There is no God beside me.

I girded the though thou has not known me.

Speaking of King Cyrus, he says that they may know from the rising of the sun from these that there is none beside me.

I am the Lord and there is none else.

Trying to drive home this point of there are no other Gods.

There is no good God, There is no bad God.

Satan is not the opposite of God.

He is himself and only the one on earth.

And then he says, I form the light and create darkness.

I make peace and create evil.

I, the Lord, do all these things.

What Isaiah is trying to reign in and home in on is this one point.

There is no dualistic God.

It is God is in control.

It is not two forces working in a sense of yin and yang, good and bad.

No, there is one God who allows and controls all things.

That is the trust that you and I must then therefore hate you And I have to trust in who God is.

The book of James says that in him is no darkness whatsoever, that there is no shadow of turning, no variableness.

There's no changing.

He is the good and gracious God from eternity past who does not change.

The evil is calamity that comes in our life, the evil that comes in Saul's life.

At this moment, Saul is besieged by some evil spirit who was allowed to influence his life.

He was besieged by some evil influence that wanted to hurt God's servant.

And that's what happens in the life of Saul.

Here he is given over to the natural consequences of his sin.

He's given over to the natural consequence of the direction of his life.

Saul is given over to this evil spirit.

And then of course, because of that influence depressing him, pushing him down, not necessarily making him put and pick up the spear and throwing it.

But King Saul goes in an, in a way, acts on his anger, acts on all the things that are bubbling up to his mind about this David playing for him now.

Who does he think he is?

Who is this David that is trying to take over the kingdom?

And he's just, it's, it's literally just fuming in his mind.

And then of course, the, the specter is thrown, the javelin is thrown.

At this very moment, Saul begins that assault which he did, goes until just about the end of his life.

At this very moment that Saul launches this assault.

What is David doing?

He's found doing what he's been called to do.

He's faithful in his servant, performing the duties that the king had commandment commanded.

David had chosen to submit to the king.

You have to think about where David is at this point in his life.

He's killed Goliath, he's leading armies.

Saul is causing him to come out and go wherever he tells him to.

He's got a nice position now, and now he's back in the throne room playing on the har.

Instead of maybe perhaps being filled with pride over his new positions, he's submitting to the king instead of being filled with pride over that new position.

And what we get from this is another glimpse into the character of who David is.

And then maybe perhaps into our own character and question that we would ask ourselves, is whatever happens in our life, where did we receive that goodness from?

Or where did we get blessed from that?

With whom?

Who was the one who blessed us with that goodness?

And the question is, do we maintain our own integrity?

Do we still retain our sense of humility?

Or are we rather, in Saul's case, given over to pride?

We remain accountable for our character regardless of how we're treated now in some of our situations.

If you were in this throne room Playing for song.

And this javelin was thrown at you.

Put yourself in David's shoes.

What would you have done?

Some of us, we might have.

I mean, you think about.

David's a seasoned warrior, right?

Some of us may have thought, well, David should have just picked the spear up and threw it back.

You want to kill me?

I mean, we could see David doing that.

We could see perhaps him saying, you know, king Saul, you just threw that at me.

You know, I stood up to Goliath and I was not afraid.

And God slew Goliath by my hands.

What would stop me from slaying you?

Who would try to kill me now?

Yeah, that's not what David does.

It says here that he escaped out of that circumstance twice.

So get this.

He gets the spear thrown at him, and he says, I didn't play hard enough.

I guess I got to play a little bit different.

And so he switches notes and tries to play some more.

Says he gets thrown twice.

Yeah.

What would you do in that situation?

Saul feared verse number 12.

That's what happens with Saul.

He fears because he sees someone who isn't reacting the way that he would have reacted.

He sees someone who the Lord is upon.

And look there in verse number 12, it says, Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him and was departed from Saul.

He was afraid of this person who he could not provoke.

Saul had the position without God's presence, and David had God's presence without the position.

David was the one who was now being filled with the spirit.

David was the one who God was working from.

Saul's tear did not stem from David's prowess in battle or his fame among the people.

Rather, he was unsettled because David possessed the very thing that God had, the favor of God.

David stood as a visible.

A visible picture of what he was supposed to have and what he was.

It showed Saul's own spiritual failure and his disobedience.

We can imagine the thought process, process behind Saul's madness.

The question, this didn't used to happen.

I didn't used to feel like this.

I used to be a capable individual.

I used to be able to lead.

Why has the Lord's protection departed from me?

Why am I abandoned to the affliction of this evil spirit?

Does the Almighty not shield the one he is anointed as king?

The Lord preserved David from every violent assault.

Jehovah is no longer standing with me.

Instead he's standing with David.

The favor of God remains upon David.

The bombshell to Saul is that the Lord has rejected my house and established rather the son of Jesse.

And then the alt.

I must eliminate this.

This person who would try to usurp my.

You just see the madness raging inside of Saul.

I must eliminate this threat.

He's going to take my position as king.

He's going to take my son's position as future king and wretch.

Pull it out of my family's house.

I have to eliminate and face with this conviction.

Saul then still even at this point, has two paths.

He could humble himself in repentance and yield to the Lord's sovereignty.

And the second, he could strive to destroy the one who enjoyed the blessing that he had lost.

And tragically, Saul chooses this second path.

And that's the kind of path that you and I face.

Do we accept God in his sovereignty for what he has done or what he is doing or will do, or do we reject it?

I believe it's by a guy named by the name of Dr. Don Sisk.

He has a book that says, bitter or better.

You know, when life circumstances come, that is your option.

Rough times, you're going to become bitter or are you going to become better?

Saul becomes bitter.

Saul tries to then lay out traps.

But David is blessed.

Why?

Well, because David prospered because the Lord was with him.

It says there in verse number 13.

Therefore Saul removed him from him and made him his captain over a thousand.

He went out and came in before the people.

And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him.

Wherefore when Saul saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he was afraid of him again.

It's amazing how many times that fear comes up in this passage of Saul's afraid.

Saul eyes.

Saul is even more afraid here in verse number 15.

The fact that he says he was afraid of him.

This was that awe, striking fear.

It was that, that wow.

I. I'm so afraid of this individual.

But it's in a sense of amazement.

It is a striking fear.

But verse number 7:16 says, but all Israel and Judah loved David because he went out and came in before them.

And Saul said to David, behold my elder daughter Mara.

Her I will give thee to wife only be thou valiant for me, and fight the Lord's battles, for I will give thee to wife.

For Saul said, let not my hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him.

Saul's terror intensified as David prosper.

The hearts of the people, they're knit with David.

And Saul is increasingly fearing him more and more.

And there in comes the deadly traps.

Saul begins to devise these lethal snares.

And you see how he devises.

He puts it in so many ways, of, this is for the good of Israel.

You've done this once, David.

You've went up against Goliath.

Now will you not continue to fight the Lord's battles?

But what was Saul's motivation?

Let not my hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him.

And this is an interesting point.

Saul disguised murder as ministry.

Saul disguised murder as ministry.

Saul used the language of serving God to hide a private murderous agenda.

Now, keep with me, because we're gonna.

We're gonna hit this a little bit more with a different perspective.

He said that you will be serving God in doing this.

But privately he wanted this individual to be killed in the service.

That is what we obviously would call spiritual manipulation.

The public message was, fight the Lord's battles.

The private motive was, I hope the Philistines kill it while he's out there.

Religious language cannot make a selfish agenda righteous.

This reminds us, or at least it reminds me all too well, of another spiritual manipulation that happens in the next book whenever we see David using spiritual manipulation.

Go out and fight for me, Uriah.

Go out and fight God's battle.

It's interesting that the same thing that Saul tried to do when he was in sin and running from God, David.

When David was in sin and running from God, trying to cover his tracks, he commits the same heinous crime.

Here's my older daughter Miriam.

Saul had promised to give his daughter to the man who killed Goliath.

And in this, Saul decides to make good on that promise, offering the older daughter Marib to David.

It was smart in the flesh.

Said, this is going to be a snare to him if he goes out and fights against these Philistines.

He may fall by these Philistines.

But what do we see David do?

Well, we see David and his.

His response is a profound humility.

David had already been anointed as Israel's future king, but he did not treat God's promise as an excuse for entitlement.

He said, is it a little thing that I should be that my father and my family in Israel, that I should be son in law to the king?

There in verse 18, is that a little thing?

Now, this was, in a way, in effect, small snare to David because this would be requiring of him to be able to afford a dowry.

This could bankrupt David's family.

So David didn't have a lot of wealth.

He didn't have a lot of resources.

This could literally bankrupt.

He says, this isn't something necessarily that I am able to do.

And then we see the, the.

The gift taken back, if you will, there in verse number 19.

But it came to pass at the time when Mirab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, that she was given unto Adriel the meholathite, to wife.

So we see further the deceit and the disgrace that Saul tries to use against David.

We see again another attack on David.

In all of this I can't help but see Saul goading David, trying to get a reaction out of him.

It's not don't let my hand be upon him, but rather let the Philistines hand be upon him.

Well, maybe I can throw my spear at him and maybe he'll retaliate.

He's a man of war.

He is a man who is accomplished.

He could defeat me very easily.

Maybe he'll commit treason.

Let me offer my daughter to him and then let me just take it back.

All of this to go.

Trying to go David into committing some heinous response.

And that's what we see here, that David was wrong, but he refused to become wrong in response.

How do we respond whenever circumstances in our life are like this, when people are goading us on?

We can learn a lot from the way that David responded to Saul.

He had been attacked physically, humiliated publicly, but still Saul could not provoke him into rebellious conduct.

Then we see Michael, lastly, David's marriage to Michael.

Again, another weaponization, if you will.

Saul weaponized Michael's love and made her a snare to David.

Again he says in verse number 20, Michael, Saul's daughter loved David.

And they told Saul the thing pleased him.

And Saul said, I will give him her, that she may be a snare to him, that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.

Wherefore Saul said to David, thou shalt be this day my son in law, the one in the twain.

And then again David's honor comes up and his humility I can't do this.

Is it a light thing?

And Saul's underhanded secretiveness comes out.

Go servants and talk to David and get him and convince him to be my son so that this again would be a snare.

And then David's honor I can't do this.

I can't afford the dowry.

And then the underhanded secret.

The king, he doesn't require any doubt.

Just, just go out and kill 100 philistines, skin them in an unconventional manner.

And you do this, that'll be enough proof that you can be the son of King Saul.

No dowry.

And so David does.

And so through all of this, we see Saul trying to manipulate his his way into control.

Everyone literally became a pawn.

And Saul's struggle to maintain control, he David used, or Saul used, David's loyalty, Mar's marriage, Michael's love, his own servants, the Philistine army, constantly trying to manipulate David into doing something that would cause him to react against him and so that he could get that control again, so that he could be number one.

So that's what his motive and what we have to understand as Christians is what are our modes look like?

You know, tonight we've painted Saul a pretty horrible viewpoint.

A lot of the things that he did was built off of manipulation, trying to maintain control.

And really what we see is someone resisting the hand of God in everything that God was doing at that.

And what it looks like whenever we resist what God?

You remember that's what they said about the apostles.

You can't fight against them.

If this is of God, you'll be fighting against God.

If it's of man, this will disperse.

There will be no movement.

This Jesus thing will go away.

But if this is of God, beware, lest you be found fighting against God.

God overruled every trap and caused David to rise.

He was victorious over every snare.

And the final outcome is resistance that Saul has.

Resistance hardens Saul, but again, it cannot stop God's purpose.

Look there.

Verse number 28 says, Saul knew, he saw and knew that the Lord was with David.

Saul did not lack evidence.

He saw David's deliverance from his own hand, his wisdom under pressure, his military victories, his popularity among the people, his marriage into Saul's own family, his success in every single area, his continued divine preservation.

Saul knew that the Lord was with David.

He knew it.

But knowledge did not produce surrender.

Imagine how much we know about God that people in the Old Testament didn't know.

You know so much more as a Christian today than you did when you first got saved.

How's that affected our surrender?

How are we not surrender to God greatly because of all the stuff that we know?

But Saul's a good picture here of knowledge does not necessarily mean surrender to God.

Just because you know more about God or how God acts doesn't necessarily mean that you are surrendered to that.

How will you respond?

Jonathan surrendered, David Steward.

Saul resisted.

Are we resisting what God is doing?

How did that work out for Saul?

Saul's fear deepened.

It says, and Saul was yet the more afraid of David.

Saul was yet more afraid of David.

The repeated ideas through this is constantly the Lord is with David.

Saul becomes increasingly afraid of David.

David continues behaving wisely.

Every trap that Saul devises, it fails.

We cannot defeat what God has determined to do.

Resisting God destroys us.

Trusting God enables us to remain faithful while he accomplished his purpose.

Familiar with that last passage in or that one parable of Jesus?

The stone, the rock.

That is what Jesus said.

We must fall.

And he says, whoever falls on this rock will be broken.

But if this rock falls on them, it will be ground to pout.

That resisting God, that's the powder.

The person who surrenders to God and what God wants, that's the broken.

And we as Christians, we have to determine where we are in that.

That.

That.

That field.

Are we those that would resist God and have the stone fall on us and be ground to powder?

Or are we those who would fling ourselves onto the rock and be broken?

All of it that happens in our life.

That is God's will for us.

Do we resist?

Do we desire God's will rather?

Do we surrender to God's will rather?

Or are we in the position of Saul hating God for what he is doing and desiring God basically to just go away?

Where are you at in your Christian walk?

I think we can learn a lot of different things here from the life of Saul and the life of David and these men.