God is reaching out to Saul still. He's still getting a chance. You know, how do you pray if you're David's father and you know this is going on? God, can you kill Saul? I mean, just kill him.
And God is saying, I'm giving him chances.
Well, you know he's not going to take it, so why not skip a step? God says it doesn't work that way. I could lay it all out to you, but you'd still object. Because God can't change Saul without Saul's consent. He's not going to force anybody to love him, to be under his care.
Uh This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of 1 Samuel. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. 1 Samuel 19 is where Pastor Rick will be teaching today on this edition of Cross-Reference Radio.
I find that there's a lot of questions God does not answer. The instructions stand. It's like that in the military. You can go up to a general and say, What were you thinking? The beaches of Normandy.
What was that about? You know how many men died there? I mean, you just don't do that. And these patterns and parallels exist and there's no way around them.
So you better find a way to work within them and make something happen to the glory of God. That's how I approach it.
Okay, I can't do anything about this, but I can do something about this. And so I'm going to focus on this one, and that one's going to just do what it's going to do. Unless Unless I'm called into action and I can help. And this is the power of praising God outside of a mood. I don't feel like praising God.
I just lost my job. Or, I just did this, this just happened, or whatever. I'm not in the mood to praise God.
Well, that's where the battlefield is. And we all have to face that. If you're going to serve the Lord, You're going to have to do that. Or you're going to not serve effectively, and in time it will take more from you than it will give to you. You'll miss opportunities, and then you'll learn those hard lessons.
So try to skip them. and just remain strong no matter what. This is the making of a man of God. That's what's going on here. He's not the only one to face such situations.
We read Romans 8: you know, God causing all things to work together for the good. We read that, but I just don't want it to be happening to me under negative circumstances. But that's largely out of my hands. Hebrews chapter five. Though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered.
Now, when we discussed Hebrews, I hope I made it clear that Jesus really didn't learn anything because he was divine. But He went through them. in front of us.
So we learn by how he endured these things. How he faced these things, how he subjected himself. Any hardship Jesus faced, he's really the only human being, well, God in human form, he's the only one that genuinely subjected himself. to maltreatment. The rest of us were born and we have to face these things.
He could have just left. You could have just said, you know what, I'm not going to have this happen today. He could walk up to a tree and say, No fruit on you?
Okay, I put fruit on you.
So when you think about it that way at least when I do I'm encouraged by it. Our sense of justice wants Saul punished. But our sense of faith wants what God wants. And we can't go around Lord, shall we call down fire on this village? Because after you smoke that village, you get to the next one, you know they didn't have milkshakes there.
Let's call fire on them with, it just gets out of hand.
So Our sense of grace wants what God wants. We want the solution. We want reconciliation. And if we can't find reconciliation, we want victory under the circumstances. This is the lesson from the life of Joseph.
It's the lesson from the life of Jeremiah. It's the lesson from Romans 5.8 is the lesson from Paul. I know how to abound, I know how to be a base, and all things I have learned. And that's where we are supposed to go. I have cried out to God in frustration.
Well, I'm not Paul. I don't have his courage. I don't have his faith. And then get up and go do what I'm supposed to do. Uh I find it works better that way than Staying angry, especially with God.
Who has hardened himself against God? and prospered. Job asked. No one. And Saul is a walking example of hardening one's heart against God.
Verse 11. Saul also sent messengers to David's house to watch him, and to kill him in the morning. And Michelle, David's wife, told him, saying, If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.
Okay, so here's the seventh attempt to kill David. And these are not messengers, these are assassins.
So, I mean, maybe they do messages on the side, but on this night they were going to kill David. And he sent messengers to watch the house.
So now he's off the rails. You know, okay, I did it Jonathan's way, and it didn't work. I still want to kill him. It's insane. He is obsessed.
with killing David. And now Jonathan is He knows this is done. Where it says, and Michelle David's wife told him, If you do not save your life tomorrow, you will be killed. She loved what she saw, the outside things of David. She loved that.
She loved his charm, you know, the way he cut onions up while she fried the meat, you know, things like that. They just. She liked them. But she did not care for David's heart being after God.
So again, we go forward to 2 Samuel.
Now, as the ark of Yahweh came into the city of David, Michelle Saul's daughter looked through the window and saw King David leaping and whirling before Yahweh, and she despised him in her heart. And then verse 20, then David returned to bless his household. And Michelle, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David and said, How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself. She couldn't wait. She came out around, and she just.
Venomous. She never had it in her heart. She's an idolater too. That's going to come out in a moment. Many a spouse is stuck with a spouse who refuses to be Christ-like in Christ's name.
You just keep looking for the solutions in Christ, because He is faithful. And Verse 12, so Michelle let David down through a window, and he went and fled and escaped. And so I brought this up to say: Michelle loves David outwardly. It's going to sour the timing of it. He's throwing himself into Yahweh, and she is blocking it.
He comes home to bless the house, and she blocks it. She's just, you know, like the The reaper of darkness, she becomes that. Here she's saying, she must have word got to her, they're going to kill David, and so she gives him a heads up. And in verse 12, where she lets him down and he flees because of the weasel king that created this mess and unrest for everybody. Of course, verse 12 reminds us of Rahab letting down the spies and Paul being led over the wall at Damascus.
Verse 13. And Michele took an image and laid it in the bed. put a cover of goat's hair of its head, and covered it with clothes.
Well, she hopes that these assassins are not too bright. And they'll look and oh, there he is. Let's go stab him. And evidently these carved images are sizable. I mean, to tuck under the bed with some blankets to make, well, not blankets, goat hairs.
They're sizable. This creates a problem. That means David knew these were in the house. There are features of the story that remind us of Rachel and Jacob and Laban, Saul. Michelle and David.
It takes too much time to go into, and you can do them on your own. But David knew about her idolatry, but he's a young man. I don't think he knows how to work through these things yet. He will. But, you know, sort of choose your battles, give it time.
But there's disdain for these things, they were always there. Psalm 26 is a Psalm of David. I have not sat with idolatrous mortals. Nor will I go in with hypocrites. As he's aging, he's learning to put his foot down on these things.
I think you know you get someone that says they're a Christian. And then they're checking the paper for the horoscopes. And you're on your honeymoon. Whoa, I thought you were a Christian, huh? Too late.
We said the vows. It doesn't work quite like that, but it it does. Psalm 101, verse 3, another Psalm of David, I will set nothing wicked before my eyes. I hate the work of those who fall away. That's idolaters, apostates.
It shall not cling to me.
So here she had these idols. Because that's what she was about. And David had to have known they were there. Why did he tolerate it?
Well, it's easy to sit back and guess 2,000 years later and say, well, you should have done this and you should have done this. You should have read her other book of Romans or something. Yeah.
So, verse 14.
So, when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, He is sick.
So, she lies because her father's created this situation. And David is sick with dread, she could say, if she wanted to sugarcoat the lie. But she is not a heroine. She's not a woman to, well, I'm going to be like Michelle and lie when I'm under pressure. This is a mismatched marriage.
But verse 15. Many are. Thus the vows. Verse 15: Then Saul sent the messengers back to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in bed that I may kill him.
Well Michelle knows Saul kill her. Because he was going to kill his firstborn son, which, whoa, who does that? Saul does that. And she knows, she's terrified. Saul brings nothing but terror.
So he sends messages back. Saying, bring David to me, attempt number eight. I've lost count. That might be nine. Either way, it's a lot.
The full-blown wickedness, who needs demon possession? When you've got somebody so into the flesh they do but they behave this way. And I think again, as largely Satan, well, you know, he would have to get permission from God anyway to totally take over Saul. But who would need to? Saul is.
Just doing Satan's work just this way. Let's not overdo it. Verse 16. And when the messengers had come in, there was the image in the bed with a cover of goat's hair for its head. Surprise!
Yeah.
I think it's a good idea. They didn't think it was funny. Verse seventeen Then Saul said to Michel, Now he's not standing there, and this is probably the next day. Why have you deceived me like this? and sent my enemy away, so that he has escaped.
And Michel answered Saul, He said to me, Let me go, why should I kill you? Oh great.
So Saul turns everything to him. You know, why have you let my enemy go? Why have you deceived?
Well, that's my husband. And a normal mind would breathe.
Well, my allegiance is to him. For this reason, a man shall leave his mother and father. Just my enemy. It's always about Saul. I think it's a great song for a young person to live to, Yesterday when I was young.
One of the lines goes this way And every conversation I can now recall concerned itself with me and nothing else at all. Whoever wrote the song had just had in mind a wasted life.
So much talent just wasted on fun. And then the years roll by. Whenever I hear the song, I think of Mickey Mantle. That was just a fine Oklahoman boy and It got with uh some of the bad chaps. whose names you wouldn't recognize.
But I'm going to tell you anyway, Billy Martin. But anyhow, let's just go back to this. Michel answered Saul, He said to me, let me go, why should I kill you?
So now David is made to be, you know. The killer. David never said anything like this. And she's covering herself. But she is vilifying David.
But Saul terrorizes his own house. Proverbs 11:29. He who troubles his own house will inherit the wind. And that is all, because he gets nothing in the end. C.S.
Lewis, I think, is the one that's, yeah, I'm pretty sure it was Lewis. Satan's objective is to give you nothing in the end. And that is the truth. Verse eighteen So David fled and escaped, and went to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him, and he and Samuel went and stayed in Nioth.
Well, the righteous man goes to the righteous man, to the prophet Samuel. Samuel doesn't know this is going on, evidently. And Saul has the advantages, he has the resources of a kingdom. But David has the man of God. And you say, well, a lot of good that did David as he's fleeing.
Well, a lot of good it did because in the end, David's the last man standing. He just had to wait. And what a lesson in life is that, that you can go through a long stretch of life, years. struggling. Here they're portrayed together.
The Holy Spirit is indicating that God and his prophet side with David. We look for these things in desperation when we're struggling. God, just tell me if I'm right or wrong. Is it me or is it them? I know it's them.
There's always them.
So Saul. Saul will have to get Anything out of Samuel again, Saul's gonna have to go to a witch. That's so messed up it is. Samuel hears this, his heart breaks again when he hears about Saul chasing David like this. You know The temptation.
in prolonged struggles. It is to feel that our prayers are useless, that they're bouncing off of heaven. Heaven's got this brass ceiling there, and our prayers just bounce off of it, and God is laughing at me. Job said that in his own words. and many other things.
He's so down in the dumps. But what would happen? If going through prolonged struggles you stopped praying, Saul is what would happen. That's what happened. Saul stopped praying.
We don't read about him seeking God. He's seeking to kill God's man. And so prayer. may not change. my circumstances, but it always affects change in me.
It always does. It can be invisible. My understanding is hair grows without us knowing it. Yeah.
So do we on the inside, in the spirit. Verse 19.
Now it was told Saul saying Take note, David is in Nioth in Ramah. See, it's always, the wicked always have their little tattletales. They're little pitch squeak assistants ready to help the evil Alone. They wouldn't help push righteousness down a hill, but they'll help push wickedness up a hill. It is the craziest thing.
It will get worse. We still have to meet Doag a few chapters later. Niath and Rama, Rama was Saul's home. Niath appears to have been. a district in Uh Rama where the school of the prophets and their dormitories were.
And so David goes to Rama, where Samuel's house is. And Samuel says, Well, come with me to the The seminary That's really not what I want to say. The school of the prophets, let's put it that way. Verse 20. Then Saul sent messengers to take David, and when they saw the group of prophets prophesying and Samuel standing as leader over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul and they also prophesied.
So here's an attempt number nine, or something like that. Where he's sending these assassins to Samuel's hometown to kill David. Think of the craziness of this. Psalm 76, verse 10: Surely the wrath of man shall praise you. And there it is.
You know, they've come to kill David. They show up and they see Samuel. Leading the prophets in song and praise, and probably scripture reading or reciting. It's not foretelling. They're not, you know, thus saith the Lord, this is going to, you know, a cat's going to come out the door.
And that's not what's going on. 1 Chronicles 25, the first few verses will give you an idea of the context of that word prophecy. It's not always in a predictive context. And Philip's daughters, when they prophesied in the book of Acts, they were singing songs and quoting scripture. That's under the umbrella of Prophecy.
There are different forms of prophecy. But it would be foolish to think that they all had something to say about the future. Anyway, the sight of Samuel. Ignited something, and they come up, and there's Samuel. Can you imagine this old man leading these men in worship?
John's Gospel, chapter 7. The officers answered: when they sent to arrest Jesus, they came back without him.
Well, where is he? The officers answered, No man ever spoke like this man. We couldn't arrest him. We were blown away. And that is what is happening here, the Spirit of God.
They're not again foretelling, they are forethought. telling. Singing the praises of the Lord. It is not unheard of to see unsaved people. sing alongside of the saved people.
and remain unsaved. They come to churches and they sing hymns right next to people who are saved, and they go out back to their car, and they're not any closer to being saved than they were before. And so to see these men come to arrest David and then be taken in the spirit. That's not out of the ordinary. Not that they weren't, they may have changed after this.
Too bad they didn't send these guys to Elijah. Because you know what happened. Verse 21. And when Saul was told, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise. Then Saul sent messengers again a third time, and they prophesied also.
So now we're up about ten or eleven times of him attempting to kill David. He's going to send more men to kill him. And they're just going there and they're catching the spirit. Their heritage is in Israel. They're probably hearing songs maybe they heard as children growing up.
And they were just, you know, humbled. All of this is going to give David a chance to get away. It's not wasted. Verse 22. Then he also went to Ramah and came to the great well, that is at Siku.
So he asked and said, Where are Samuel and David? And someone said, Indeed, they are in Naoth. In Rama.
So here's his twelfth attempt to kill David, him showing up, Sikhu, who was on the way to Ramah, who knows where exactly. You young men, you know, you have to learn life. You learn life by just sticking with God. Through these circumstances. David is.
Running for his life. He doesn't know what's going to happen. He knows the promises, the anointing, but still, somebody's going to kill him. He doesn't know what's going to happen. And some one said that's what we read here in verse twenty two Again, evil always has its tattlers, its assistants.
and helping him along, Saul, that is. Who is out for himself? Verse 23.
So he went. there to Naoth and Ramah, And the Spirit of God was upon him also. And he went on and prophesied until he came to Naoth in Ramah.
So God put a shield around David. The Spirit is just so active at this point. that no one can resist. Just the evil is not free. The evil is blocked.
It is shouted down. That's what we're seeing. Saul won't get around this shield on this day.
So we have the prophet, the king, and the hero all in one scene. And Spirit of God, sovereign over all of it. And if we were living as David in that time, We would be, you know, God, where are you? What's going on? And yet, looking back, we say, David, don't worry.
God's got all of this. That's helpful to remember when we go through things. I had a bloody nose today. It took forever to stop. And so I'm wondering, I'd be kind of a bummer to bleed to death in my office.
But, you know, you just silly. Things like that, everything gets to be intense after a while, and it's not going your way.
So I'm measuring. I'm saying, okay, I got how many pints? Anyway, verse 24. I don't want people come checking on me. Knocking on my door.
Hey, what are you doing in here? Huh? What? Huh? Sleeping.
What do you think? Verse 24, he also stripped off, this is Saul. He also stripped off his clothes and prophesied before Samuel in like manner and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore, they say, is Saul also among the prophets? Too much information.
I just, I was good with him just lying down.
Well The real thing that's happening here Is God reaching out to Saul still? He's still getting a chance. You know, how do you pray if you're David's father and you know this is going on? God, can you kill Saul? I mean, just kill him.
And God is saying, I'm giving him chances.
Well, you know he's not going to take it, so why not skip a step? God says, it doesn't work that way. I could lay it all out to you, but you'd still object. Because God can't change Saul without Saul's consent. He's not going to force anybody to love him, to be under his care.
This will be the last time. That we read about God's Spirit on Saul. But back to chapter 15. And Samuel went no more to see Saul until the day of his death.
Well, Saul came to see Samuel. And you cannot say that this was a friendly engagement, nor is there any evidence that they engaged each other. That the spirit sort of just took over. And Saul was humbled. He was subdued.
and by the Spirit of God, Just in looking back at all this. Here's David under the protection of Samuel. The prophet and the school of the prophets, which we cheer. Saul, he personally goes because his jealousy and his hatred and his fear of David is so deep in him. If his servants can't kill him, then I'll have to do it myself.
But he gets there, and the next thing you know, he is in the spirit. He's probably singing the songs along. He knows the folk songs of Israel, and of course, Yahweh is central to those songs. And so he loses control of himself, control of himself in the sense that his objective was to find David and kill him. Not to stop and just, you know, robe and lay there on the floor praising God, which is, you know.
You say, that doesn't sound real.
Well, if I know my Bible, it says, every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess. I have no problem with this. When God wants to turn it on, it turns on. And there's nothing anybody can do to stop that. And so he loses his self-consciousness.
He remains conscience. But His self-awareness of what he wants to do, the control that he has over his life. falling helplessly on the ground like this. Yet. At the end of this, He comes out more venomous.
He does not improve.
So really God is giving him a chance. He's slowing him down so David can get away. Why doesn't God just send a lightning bolt and just, you can ask those questions forever, you won't get an answer? Usually. And so death and terror will mark his association With anyone that he is afraid of from this time forward, really, it really begins to change.
And he will grow increasingly homicidal. and intolerant of anyone. that slips into his paranoia as David's ally. And may we never waste our lives like the man Saul wasted his. Mm-hmm.
Um Thanks for joining us for today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Rick is in the book of 1 Samuel. If you'd like to listen again to this or other messages or share it with someone you know, please visit Crossreference Radio.com. Here, you can also listen to interviews with Pastor Rick to learn more about his life and ministry.
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