Learning to Depend on God Alone | 1 Samuel 18-20

INTRODUCTION

1 Samuel 16
• David was anointed king of Israel at a very young age.
• David becomes King Saul’s armour bearer.

1 Samuel 17: David defeats Goliath, the Philistine. David becomes the champion.

1 Samuel 18: From 1 Samuel 18 onwards, David enters a season of his life where his life will depend on him finding a hiding place to escape arrest and death by King Saul.

David had already had hidden years as a child. His first set of hidden years were very calm and peaceful for the most part. During this time he was out in the field, and he was being trained by God, practicing the sling and playing his lyre.

Now, the Lord is about to have him embark on a second set of hidden years. These are going to be different. They’re going to be difficult. He will face injustices; he will face danger and trials. And not only will they be hidden years, but they will be literally years of hiding. He will be hiding from the king of Israel, and he will learn how to make the King of the universe his hiding place.

This is when David sings to the Lord:

Psalm 32:7

You are my hiding place;
you will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance.

Two things about seasons of difficulty that the Lord allows into our lives:
• God rarely tells us the expiration date. God rarely tells us how long it’s going to last. First of all, David had no idea that this was going to last 13, 15, 20 years.
• Second, sometimes God provides for us helpers or support, but then sometimes He weans us off of those helpers or support so that we can learn to depend on Him alone. David had two people has his help or support. Ironically, they were both from the king’s family. The king’s son, Jonathan, and then the king’s daughter, Michal. But eventually, they were both removed, and now David would have to go through the next season learning to depend on God alone.

Let’s start in 1 Samuel 18. The context: The victory over Goliath has just pat.

1 Samuel 18:1-3

1After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. 2From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return home to his family.
3And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. 4Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.

Friendship between David & Jonathan.

Jonathan was a man who loved ventures of faith; he had a simple faith. Remember, Jonathan was the one that said to his armour-bearer, “What can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few? (1 Sam. 14:6). And when he saw what David did out there slaying Goliath, he thought, “You’re like me; I can relate to you.”

Jonathan takes all the things that represent monarchy, and he hands them over to David. I think he had a sense that he was looking at the coming king, that he knew David’s place.

The Success of David:

1 Samuel 18:5

Whatever mission Saul sent him on, David was so successful that Saul gave him a high rank in the army. (This is the first of three times now in this chapter that we hear about David’s success—David’s success.) This pleased all the troops, and Saul’s officers as well.

Three times we’re told of David’s success:
• V5 “David went out and was successful.”
• V14 “David had success in all of his undertakings.”
• V30 “David had more success than all the servants of Saul.”

1 Samuel 18:13-16

13So he sent David away from him and gave him command over a thousand men, and David led the troops in their campaigns. 14In everything he did he had great success, because the LORD was with him. 15When Saul saw how successful he was, he was afraid of him. 16But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he led them in their campaigns.

Saul’s Jealousy towards David:

1 Samuel 18:5-6

6When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with timbrels and lyres. 7As they danced, they sang:
“Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his tens of thousands.”

Was that even true? I think it was hyperbole. David just killed one man, Goliath. Saul had fought many battles. They elevated David over Saul. Now, a preference like this is going to bug anybody. Saul had invested years and years doing battle against the Philistines, and now this upstart comes along, and everybody praises him to the high heavens.

• The question is, what does Saul do?
• What do we do with those emotions when someone else gets more attention than us?

Well, we find out what Saul did.

1 Samuel 18:8-9

8Saul was very angry; this refrain displeased him greatly. “They have credited David with tens of thousands,” he thought, “but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?” 9And from that time on Saul kept a close eye on David.

Saul Tries to Kill David or The Nine Lives of David:

Attempt 1: Saul Thaws a Sphere at David

1 Samuel 18:10-11

10The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully on Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the lyre, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand 11and he hurled it, saying to himself, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David eluded him twice.

And I wonder here if this harmful spirit was sort of stirred up because of the harmful emotions that Saul let go. On the inside, he had an intent to harm, and that doesn’t take very long for what’s on the inside of us to work its way to the outside. So there’s the spear on the outside; now he has an intent to kill.

We see in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said in Mt. 5 that if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment. Anger contains the seeds of murder. And, given the proper conditions, those seeds may germinate, and they may sprout, and they may grow a harvest. And this is exactly what we see with Saul. First, he was angry. It didn’t take long at all—it said the next day—it turned into this intent to kill.

1 Samuel 18:12

Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with David but had departed from Saul.

Saul was aware of his distance from the Lord, and the last thing he wanted was to be around someone who was close to the Lord.

Attempt 2: Merab: v17-19

So Saul offered his oldest daughter, Merab. Earlier he had offered Merab to the one who killed Goliath, but did not keep his word. Now he is again making an offer, “If David would just fight the Lord’s battles, I will give my daughter Merab.” “He hoped that the Philistines would kill him. But that didn’t happen. The Philistines didn’t kill him, but Saul still didn’t give him the daughter. He gave her to someone else.

Attempt 3: Michal v20-(We can see similarities between Rachel and Michal.)
Some time passed and Saul offered his second daughter, Michal. This time the situation was a little bit different from Merab, because the word tells us that Michal loved David. It’s the only time in the OT that we hear a woman loved a man. So Saul thought, “This is my chance.”

1 Samuel 18:21

“I will give her to him,” he thought, “so that she may be a snare to him and so that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” So Saul said to David, “Now you have a second opportunity to become my son-in-law.”

So he invited David once again to become his son-in-law, knowing that David wasn’t able to pay a bride price. We find David’s ambiguity here; cracks in his personality; 18:23. This shows that he desired to be the king’s son-in-law, close to the throne.

1 Samuel 18:25

25Saul replied, “Say to David, ‘The king wants no other price for the bride than a hundred Philistine foreskins, to take revenge on his enemies.’” Saul’s plan was to have David fall by the hands of the Philistines.

The Lord was with David and he killed 200 men and still was the last man standing. So Saul gave him his daughter Michal for a wife.

1 Samuel 18:28-30

28When Saul realized that the LORD was with David and that his daughter Michal loved David, 29Saul became still more afraid of him, and he remained his enemy the rest of his days.
30The Philistine commanders continued to go out to battle, and as often as they did, David met with more success than the rest of Saul’s officers, and his name became well known.

Attempt 4: Order Jonathan to Kill David – 19:1

1 Samuel 19:1-6

1Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan had taken a great liking to David 2and warned him, “My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding and stay there. 3I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I’ll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out.”
4Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, “Let not the king do wrong to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly. 5He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The LORD won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?”
6Saul listened to Jonathan and took this oath: “As surely as the LORD lives, David will not be put to death.”

What is going on? How is Saul so easily swayed? In five verses, we go through “I want everybody to kill David” to all of a sudden, like, “I swear, you know, as the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death.”

This is not a sturdy leader. Saul doesn’t have a strong mind. In fact, Saul is losing his mind.

Saul’s had spiritual health problems, which have led to his emotional health problems, which have contributed to mental health problems.

Now, not all mental health problems stem from spiritual or emotional problems, but some of them do. The writer wants us to understand here that Saul’s mental health problems are a result of the spiritual problems that we have looked at throughout these chapters.

Saul was having a complete mental health breakdown. This is what we see. He couldn’t be trusted. And yet God is allowing this in David’s life. A heart that is yielded to God will benefit from any situation, positive or negative. That doesn’t mean it’s not difficult. That means that in yielding our heart to the Lord, there can be a benefit even through difficult times—even a psychotic king who wants you dead.

So David decides to give Saul another chance. Jonathan is portrayed as someone who is trying to bring peace between two opposing individuals. 1 Samuel 19:7 So Jonathan called David and told him the whole conversation. He brought him to Saul, and David was with Saul as before.

We see Jonathan’s ministry of reconciliation, brining two people who are apart together. We invariably come across people who have been together but for some people have distanced themselves. We are supposed to be like Jonathan.

Proverbs 15:18

A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict,
But the one who is patient calms a quarrel.

Saul, David, and Jonathan are back in they’re in the house again.

Attempt 5: Saul Thaws a Sphere at David – 19:9-10

Saul’s sitting with his spear, and David’s playing his soothing music. Saul backtracks his oath not to kill David. Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he eluded Saul so that he struck the spear into the wall. And here we see now David fled and escaped that night.

Attempt 6: Orders Henchmen to Arrest & Kill David

1 Samuel 19:11-13

11Saul sent men to David’s house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, warned him, “If you don’t run for your life tonight, tomorrow you’ll be killed.” 12So Michal let David down through a window, and he fled and escaped. 13Then Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goats’ hair at the head.

And eventually Saul’s men came and figured out this whole thing that she had done and discovered it. And she basically lied. She said David forced her hand (19:17). (Rahab)

Interestingly, Michal has got an idol. She has got a ‘teraphim’ which is probably some kind of a household idol. It may be a figure that would represent an ancestor, an ancestor worship. She has got one of these household idols just like Laban did, Rachel had one of these. This idol is a human type figure and so she puts it in the bag, covered up. She makes the idol look like David. It is deception.

David goes to Samuel:

1 Samuel 19:18

When David had fled and made his escape, he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there.

Samuel anointed me; he started this whole ball rolling. I’m gonna go find him at Ramah.

Attempt 7: Saul Sends Soldiers to Arrest David

• Now Saul eventually heard about that David is with Samuel. So he sends a group of men to capture David; v19-20. There was a company of prophets there at Naoth. And this first group of men, they enter into the company of prophets, and the Spirit of the Lord comes on them, and they just start being one of them. They’re just having a worship service with them.

• Saul sends the second group of messengers; v21a. They do the same thing; they just joined the company of the prophets.

• Saul sends a third group of men who again joined the company of prophets; v21b

Attempt 8: Saul Himself Goes to Ramah to Kill David

Finally, goes himself; if you want to get a job done right, you got to do it yourself. And so before he even gets there, the Spirit of the Lord comes on him, and he starts joining the company of the prophets, even to the point where he takes off his kingly garments that identify him as a king. And now he’s just a man. Now he’s just a man laying there, it says, day and night.

As we come to 1 Samuel 20, David finally understands for certain that he can’t risk being in Saul’s presence ever now. David knows that Jonathan is trustworthy, and so he goes back to Gibeah to talk to Jonathan.

1 Samuel 20:1-3

1Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to kill me?”
2“Never!” Jonathan replied. “You are not going to die! Look, my father doesn’t do anything, great or small, without letting me know. Why would he hide this from me? It isn’t so!” (David tries to reason with Jonathan).
3But David took an oath and said, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said to himself, ‘Jonathan must not know this or he will be grieved.’ Yet as surely as the LORD lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death.”

Jonathan goes to Saul, his father to test if Saul is still intending to kill his friend David. There is a New Moon Festival and David’s absence makes Saul very angry.

1 Samuel 20:28-29

28Jonathan answered, “David earnestly asked me for permission to go to Bethlehem. 29He said, ‘Let me go, because our family is observing a sacrifice in the town and my brother has ordered me to be there. If I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away to see my brothers.’ That is why he has not come to the king’s table.”

And then here comes the reaction that they both suspected, but they didn’t want.

Attempt 9: Saul Asks Jonathan to Bring David to be Killed

1 Samuel 20:30-31

30Saul’s anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you? 31As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now send someone to bring him to me, for he must die!”

1 Samuel 20:32-34

32“Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” Jonathan asked his father. 33But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill David.
34Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger; on that second day of the feast he did not eat, because he was grieved at his father’s shameful treatment of David.

Now, this is a tragedy. This is true family dysfunction here, when someone that you love pins their emotional baggage on you. Some of you, and some of you listening, you grew up in a dysfunction like this. You grew up with this anger being lashed out upon you, and it might even trigger you—a story like this—and it’s just, like, too much. And in that situation, it would be very difficult for any human being to react positively. But Jonathan did. Jonathan reacted positively, courageously, in this situation, and help David escape Saul.

1 Samuel 20:35

In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for his meeting with David.

1 Samuel 20:41

After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together—but David wept the most.

It reminds me of Ruth and Naomi coming back from Moab, how they keep stopping and crying because they know that there’s a parting going on. And David and Jonathan knew that were going to part here. But they had a camaraderie together. They thought, “This is not how I wanted things to turn out. And yet, it does from time to time.” But Jonathan always knew what to say. I love this.

1 Samuel 20:42

42Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, (let your heart be at peace) for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘The LORD is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.’” Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town

David will only see Jonathan one more time alive before he’s killed.

David has become fully engaged in this second set of hidden years, in this hidden season. And all of the supports that God graciously allowed him at the very beginning of this are gone.
• The woman who loved him, and that presumably he loved, she’s out of the picture.
• Samuel, who was this wise person who David leaned on, he’s out of the picture.
• And Jonathan, his friend, is out of the picture.

And so, this time, when it says he arose and departed, he was alone.

But you know what? No One is Ever Alone. We might feel for an instant that we are alone, but David is heading into a lonely, alone season. But I want to show you really quickly what comes out of this season.

Look at what he writes. Look at what he pens during this.

Psalm 34:4: “I sought the Lord, and he answered me.”
Psalm 34:18: “The Lord is near to the broken-hearted, and he saves the crushed in spirit.”
Psalm 57:1 “In you, my soul takes refuge.”
And Psalm 86:8: “There is none like you among the gods.”

All passages birthed out of David’s hidden years, when all the supports were taken out, and all he had left was the realization of the bond that he had with Jehovah God. Sometimes we can’t come to that realization of how close we are with the Lord until some of those supports are taken out from our life.

How do We Apply These Lessons to Our Life?
So, what I want to do is look quickly at our main three characters again: Saul, David, and Jonathan, and see what we learn from them.

David: We find comfort, and we realize that God is with us in difficulty.

Three times we’re told how God was with David in 1 Samuel 18:
• V12, “The Lord was with him.”
• V14, “The Lord was with him.”
• V28 “The Lord was with him.”

When we are in a difficult season, we can know for sure the Lord is with us.

And some of you are in a difficult season right now, and you might look around, and you might say, like David could have said, like, “What did I do wrong? Which wrong turn did I make?” David made no wrong turns. This was just a season that God had allowed in his life to build his faith and to connect him with Jehovah God. David didn’t sign up for hiding, but yet, this is a season that was ordained in order to make him God’s king.

When Paul was talking in 1 Peter1:11, and he used that phrase: “suffering comes before glory.” He was teaching us that this is the sequence in a believer’s life: Suffering before glory. This was the sequence that we see in Jesus’s life, the great coming King: suffering first, and then glory. Doesn’t it make sense that we see this sequence in David’s life? Suffering comes before glory. We know that that’s the sequence in our lives: suffering before glory.

Maybe your support has disappeared; maybe you feel a little bit alone in your life. Then you need to hang on through these next chapters and see what God does for David and how David grows in his faith through this season.

Saul: In Saul, we find a warning that our emotional and mental health are at risk because we’re human beings. Now, every single one of us wants to think that we’re a David; we are the victim of the Saul, right? But what if I am the Saul in some way?
What if my rebellion with God affect my emotional health? What if my emotional reactions are harmful—my anger, my jealousy, my control, my manipulation? What if it affects my mental health? What if it affects others around me and I’m not really aware of it? We can look at Saul and make positive changes in our life.

The Apostle Paul wrote in many of his letters about this very thing. I’ll just show you one of them: Ephesians 4.22-24 22You were taught with your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Paul says, “Put off your old self.” This is what Saul looked like, right?

Renewal of our minds is always a possibility. We look at Saul, and we have to look at the mirror, we go, “I guess I see a little bit of Saul in there.” Our answer is the renewal of our mind, consciously putting off and saying, “Lord, you must renew my mind.”

Jonathan: In Jonathan, we find inspiration because of his humility, his friendship, and his support. Saul resisting God’s plan in David’s life. Jonathan assisting God’s plan in David’s life. This is something that married folks have to take note of: Inspiration, humility, friendship. This is something good friends can take note of. Jonathan saw the calling on David, and he said, “You have my allegiance; you have my support.” Recognizing a calling on someone’s life and offering your support to that ministry.

And in terms of friendships You know, in life we get one, two or three close friends that come along us in our lifetime. You know, we can have 50 or 100 friends; they’re not all close friends. But we get just a very small handful that look like Jonathan and David, and it’s very precious, maintain it. But yet we can apply the inspiration of that we see with loyalty and encouragement and support to any of our relationships—family or friends—we can apply that.

Look at your friends or friendships: What do you need in a friend? And then, what do you need to grow in to be a better friend? I find in Jonathan a lot of inspiration.

So, there we have it: these three men; a lot to learn from.

LIFE APPLICATION

God Is Capable Of Protecting His Chosen Servants From Those Who Seek To Destroy Them. Whether by divine providence or direction intervention God is capable of protecting his chosen servants from those who seek to destroy them. God uses Jonathan to protect David.

God Does Not Insulate His Chosen Servants From Trouble And Danger. He has chosen David to be king. David must be wondering, “Wow, Lord, you have chosen me and why do I face such a situation in life.” God does not insulate his chosen servants from danger but he does protect them ultimately.

Commitment To God’s Plan And To His Servant Necessitates Self-Denial And Sometimes Places One In Harm’s Way. We see that in Jonathan. Jonathan has committed himself to the chosen servant of the Lord David. There is some self-denial that comes into play here. He risks his own life. His father threw a sphere at him. He is a good model for us to be loyal to ‘the chosen Servant, the new David, the ideal David, the Lord Jesus Christ.

A Heart That is Yielded to God Will Benefit From Any Situation, Positive Or Negative.