DAVID AND SAUL: LESSONS IN TRUE CHRISTIANITY

January 23, 2011
MF Blume

1 Samuel 16:11-13 Complete Apostles' Bible (11) And Samuel said to Jesse, Have you no more sons? And Jesse said, There is yet a little one; behold, he tends the flock. And Samuel said to Jesse, Send and fetch him, for we may not sit down till he comes. (12) And he sent and fetched him. And he was ruddy, with beautiful eyes, and very good looking. And the Lord said to Samuel, Arise, and anoint David, for he is good. (13) And Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose, and departed to Ramah.

David was anointed to be king over Israel.

But little did David know that there would first be a period of breaking and working upon David by the hand of God to fit him as king over Israel.
A decade of breaking would begin in this boy’s life that day.
David’s brothers went to war against the Philistines, and David became an errand boy to them.
It was then that David met Goliath and killed the giant, awarding him to serve in the palace of King Saul, King of Israel.

1Sam 18:2 And Saul took him that day, and would let him go no more home to his father’s house.

But this king was insane.

Saul was mad.
And God would use those circumstances to teach David the things that would make him a great king, himself!
David had learned to play the harp and write songs in glory to God while in the fields keeping sheep.
And the songs he sung were like medicine to King Saul.
Saul was often troubled and had David sing and play the harp to him.
But David began to garner popularity with the people, and Saul became Jealous.

1Sam 18:5-9 And David went out whithersoever Saul sent him, [and] behaved himself wisely: and Saul set him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul’s servants. And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of musick. And the women answered [one another] as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands. And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed [but] thousands: and [what] can he have more but the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that day and forward.

Saul felt threatened that this young man would take his job and be king.

He began to wonder what might happen.
Would David rise up against him?
Would David take the throne and thrust Saul out on his face?
Would David rise to power fairly?
Saul did not know, and it began to drive him mad.
But somehow David grabbed hold of a wonderful truth that sets people free from the madness that others in the same situation contract.
David found out that God wants people who live in pain.
God takes vessels and allows them to break, and if the person remains true to God through it all, God has the rare person with whom He needs to truly work in this world.
So few will ever come to know this truth.
Every one of us can be that rare vessel whom God can use powerfully.
Saul was the type of king who looked at the kingdom as his own.
He did not understand that it is God’s will to determine the direction of the kingdom.
After all, its God’s kingdom.
And in his madness of feeling threatened, he began to attack David.

1Sam 18:10-12 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. And Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with him, and was departed from Saul.

What a sad thing for people to be in the place where God can use them, but they take upon themselves a personal vendetta, take things into their own hands rather than stand on the scripture, “Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord. I will repay.”

Saul could have been king much longer than he did.
God could have used him mightily.
But the ingredient that makes people great people of God, was missing in Saul.
Let us all ensure we have that ingredient.
Since Saul was king he had the power to push David around.
Was such a man as Saul the Lord’s anointed?
David was going through the school of brokenness.
Only those who graduate from this school can be used of God powerfully.
David was one of the few men who willingly enrolled in this school.
God was the one who allowed David to be put under the atmosphere of Saul, as jealous and mad king.
God was using Saul to work on David.
Saul was actually the chosen instrument of God to accomplish a work in David to make a great king for Israel.
Saul was God’s authority.
David learned that Saul was a tool in the hand of God to shape David, through breaking him to become the king Israel needed.
And David had to bite his lip and take a deep breath and continue going through this education.
He learned more and more about God’s ways.
He understood that he must receive hardships.
When Saul began to throw spears at David, notice how David reacted.

1 Samuel 18:10-11 KJV 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. (11) 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.

Are you supposed to pick the spear back up and throw it back?

Seems that that is the rule with most people.
It is courageous to do that.
You are standing for what is right.
You won’t be pushed around.
You let people know they are treating you unfairly.
And if you are able to stand up for yourself like that, then you are truly fit for kingship.
And maybe you really are fit for kingship.
But, unfortunately, although you will indeed become a king, you will only become another KING SAUL.
And if you keep up this throwing back of spears that are thrown at you, you will be perfect at throwing spears.
But you, like Saul became, will also be INSANE.

Those who are good at arguing have argued a lot.

Those who have a witty way of making a fool out of someone who tries to tear them down, are those who practiced at insulting and hurting and rewarding evil with evil.
But the Lord Jesus would have nothing to do with any sort of reaction like that.

David became a man who refused to learn how to throw spears well.

We should much rather be good at turning the other cheek rather than being able to cut people down the best!
David just learned how to dodge spears well.
If we can learn to not let what others do hurt us, then we are the type of vessels whom God will use powerfully.

In order to do that, David would act as though nothing happened after the spear was thrown at him.

David was able to duck when they came and get up and walk away.
When anger would urge you to grab it and throw it back, David learned to let it go!

People have spears thrown at them today.

But you can tell who the ones are that were hit.
They hurt and hurt and hurt over it.
You turn a deep shade of bitter.

David did not want to learn how to react back and throw spears back.

If he learned how to throw spears, he might throw one back one day.
He stayed away from those who threw spears.
Stay away from the people who may even call themselves Christians, but who are always reacting back at people who hurt them.
Don’t be around people whom you know God does not approve of.
And David also learned to keep his mouth quiet about it.
It is so easy to take that episode of being attacked and tell everyone you can see about how you were treated unfairly.
But that is only another form of throwing spears at the person.
You are going to hurt them in the eyes of everybody you know by telling everybody what that attacker did to YOU.

And if you can be like David, even when the spear hits you right in the heart it never touches you!

It is not your business if another person who even throws spears is one of God’s anointed.

God will not tell you because it is His will that you be under this treatment that people give to you.
If you run and hide somewhere else away from this, God will raise up another mad king Saul over there, because you need to have the broken work done upon your life if you want to be used.
Now, if you do not want to be used of God, and do His will, God will let you drop out of His school for kings.
And you’ll be useless to God in this world.
The person you are looking at is not the real problem.
Keep looking at him or her and you’ll miss what God is looking at.
God is looking at another problem.
He is looking at what is inside you.
It is inside of all of us.
And that is why all of us must go through this school or else forget about doing anything for God in this world.
Inside of you is a King Saul.
We all have it in us.
Saul is what your very flesh and blood are made up of.
All of us have it in us.

The reason God puts us all under a Saul in our lifetimes, is because there is a Saul in us.

God removes the Saul in us by applying us to the Sauls of this world.

Saul wanted David dead.

But it turned out that Saul was only a tool to make David a better king than Saul ever was.

David was almost destroyed through it all.

But that was the only way God could crush the Saul out of David.

Cancer is treated by taking the body as close to death without killing it in order to kill the cancer.

This is called chemotherapy.
Saul will survive in you unless God breaks you in this manner.
David accepted this work of God.
He did not retaliate against Saul because he knew the real Saul to be handled was in him.
Just by David’s refusal to fight back, the real enemy (Saul) was being defeated in him.
He did not brag about it to others either.
Nobody knew.
And when the hardship was over, you would not have been able to recognize David.
He was a king whom God could use mightily.
His personality was totally altered.

When David did leave it was because Saul forced him to leave.

And when he left he did not rally anybody with him, but rather left alone.
He did not talk about his troubles to get others angry with Saul.
When most would slander a person to others for having been hurt by them, nobody knew what Saul did to David, except David and God.
When Saul demanded David’s death, then David ran.

1Sam 19:9-12 And the evil spirit from the LORD was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand: and David played with [his] hand. And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin; but he slipped away out of Saul’s presence, and he smote the javelin into the wall: and David fled, and escaped that night. Saul also sent messengers unto David’s house, to watch him, and to slay him in the morning: and Michal David’s wife told him, saying, If thou save not thy life to night, to morrow thou shalt be slain. So Michal let David down through a window: and he went, and fled, and escaped.

If we cannot leave the situation without telling others in order to rally hatred against the Saul, then we will never be God’s anointed.

During the next few years David was chased like an animal by Saul’s hunters.

He sang and sang and sang.
He learned, during that time, to depend upon God so much, that it was in those days the majority of the Book of Psalms were written.
The music room where the Psalms were written was a cave and a cliffside, with dogs baying in the background, as he was hunted.
He became the greatest comforter of broken hearts of anyone ever known, aside from Jesus, Himself.

Imagine what the people of Jerusalem thought of him!

That would be enough to drive him back to prove he was right and to slay Saul.
But if he slew Saul, the Saul in him would live on and another Saul would rise up to the throne... useless in God’s kingdom.

David never knew those days were the days before he was king.

He felt it was over.

His suffering was giving birth to a king like Israel never had before or since.

Humility was growing powerfully in his heart.
He was becoming a man broken into God’s purpose to work mightily in this sinful world.

The ones who were thieves, liars, complainers and fault-finders, hating king Saul with everything in them, and driven from Jerusalem by Saul, ran across David in the desert.

They heard his songs.
His life changed them.
They never heard anyone sing songs like that.

David did not rally them together and shout aloud that he too was Saul’s enemy.

They simply started following him.
He never demanded them to do what he said, but they just started to do it.
He had no rules for them.
They just started changing and living right.
And this is how a true King began to rise up.

1 Samuel 24:2-4 MKJV And Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men on the front of the rocks of the wild goats. (3) And he came to the folds of the flock on the way, where there was a cave. And Saul went in to cover his feet. And David and his men remained in the sides of the cave. (4) And the men of David said to him, Behold, this is the day of which Jehovah said to you, Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand so that you may do to him as it shall seem good to you. And David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe secretly.

Notice these next few words:

1 Samuel 24:5-7 MKJV And it happened afterward David's heart struck him because he had cut off Saul's skirt. (6) And he said to his men, Far be it from me, by Jehovah, if I will do this thing to my lord, Jehovah's anointed, to stretch forth my hand against him, since he is the anointed of Jehovah. (7) And David held back his men with words, and did not allow them to rise against Saul. And Saul rose up out of the cave and went on his way.

David stayed his servants.

That means they were wild to kill Saul, but David said NO.
They could not understand why David did not kill the one who hunted him like an animal when he had the chance.
They could have been set free from running like animals!
But now they were animals again!
However, David knew that God made saul king when he was younger, when he was not insane.
And it was better for Saul to kill David than for David to become like Saul and do what Saul would do.
David would rather die than become like Saul.
At least he would not go to hell.

Why did Saul first attack David?

It was because Saul felt threatened.
And if David should attack Saul in return, it would be another Saul attacking because he felt threatened.
That turns people mad.
He would not let hatred grow in his heart.
He would not throw spears like he did.
He would never avenge himself, ever!

Hold on, David!

Keep it up and God will finally have a man he can use in this world!
Saul – we remember him today for his madness.
A king gone insane with jealousy.
He was anointed by God.
He led Israel in wars.
Yet we know him not for these things as much as for his madness.
What a sad epitaph.

Saul led Israel to victories.

He even prophesied!
He was used powerfully by God.
He united Israel under a kingdom.
The first of all Israel’s kings.
Like a person today used by the power of the Spirit.
But he was also mad with jealousy.
He could kill people.
He settled with knowing God left him.
He hated those whom God blessed.

1Sam 18:12 And Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with him, and was departed from Saul.

Saul should have been glad for David that God was with him.

But Saul was fearful.

This proves that not everyone used in power of God has a heart right with God.

But most of the ones who pray for power actually want to be famous themselves.
To have power on the outside of your life working for you is not as great as having God’s LIFE inside you having His way!
A heart that is right with God.
A heart that admits its error.
God more needs men and women who are broken within their lives that are transformed men and women.
People whose natures are like God.
People used powerfully of God, and could preach up masterpieces, also threw spears at others, hated others and even consulted witches, like Saul did.
The people you face and experience hurts from are the tools God uses to reveal what YOU are.
You will either be a David or a Saul.
Everyone of us will experience these things.
Everyone of us will turn out to be a David or a Saul.
You are either already one or the other, or are becoming one or the other.

True men and women of God do not force themselves on others and demand that others know what they are actually doing.

They do not care who misunderstands them.
People truly used of God never say they are.
People just KNOW they are.

The HEART of a person is so important.

How is your heart?
Heart trouble is the number cause of death today.
Same with the spiritual world.
People whose hearts are not sincere will never last but their spirituality will die.
Such who never truly repent when they begin their Christian walks, do not stay saved long.
They may come to church, and keep coming, but they are lifeless there.
They are not true christians.
They become devious and hide lusts and lies.
They are worried about reputation.
Being saved and right with God is better than reputation.
BE RIGHT!

1Sam 13:13-14 And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him [to be] captain over his people, because thou hast not kept [that] which the LORD commanded thee.