Dear God, it’s time to tie together the five days of prayer journals to make a lesson for the men tomorrow night. Help me, Father, do good work here. I want to speak to these men with your voice. I want to spread seeds that will find good soil. I want to glorify you in their eyes. I want them to love you with all their hearts, souls, minds, and strength, and then love their neighbors as themselves. Help us, Father, to all get to that place.

When last we left off…

• David had spared Saul’s life for the second time, and they each went on their way.
• We talked about leadership and how one of the real traps for anyone is to give into feeling sorry for themselves or feel like they are not being respected as much as they think they deserve to be respected. This was Saul’s problem from the beginning, and we saw David give into it when he almost killed Nabal and his men for disrespecting him.
• Although David had left his wife Michal back home, he picked up two wives after Nabal dies of “natural causes.

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David and Achish

• There was no way David was going to trust Saul or even other Israelites again, but there was no way he would trust him or, more importantly, other Israelites like the Ziphites to not betray him to Saul. 1 Samuel 27:1 – 27 And David said in his heart, “Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me anymore in any part of Israel. So I shall escape out of his hand.”
• David takes his 600 men and heads to the land of the Philistines and goes to Gath, one of the Philistine’s major cities. Note: Goliath was from there (1 Samuel 17:4). King Maoch had a son named Achish who liked David and let him stay there.
  • It’s unclear why Achish trusted David.
• Saul hears David is in Gath and decides to give up looking for him anymore.
• David wants more room to maneuver so he manipulates Achish into giving him his own town. 1 Samuel 27:5-6 – ⁵ Then David said to Achish, “If I have now found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?” ⁶ So Achish gave him Ziklag that day. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. 
• David ended up living among the Philistines for 16 months.
• When you have an army you don’t turn them into farmers or shepherds. They aren’t carpenters. They are fighters. So they make their living raiding other towns, killing everyone, and plundering their stuff.
• He would go to the Girzites, Geshurites, and Amalekites and raid their towns. When he would bring back tributes to Achish he would lie and say he had been raiding Judah or other people the Philistines didn’t care about. This accomplished several things:
  • It protected Judah because the Philistines thought someone was already getting their plunder
  • It gave David something to live on and also things to give Achish as tribute
  • It made Achish think David was truly on his side and now an enemy of his own people. 1 Samuel 27:12 – ¹² So Achish believed David, saying, “He has made his people Israel utterly abhor him; therefore he will be my servant forever.”
• Now, the Philistines decide to move their army to Mt. Gilboa and attack the Israelites there. Achish puts David in an awkward position of making David and his men his bodyguards for the battle.
  • You can almost picture this as a movie and we cut to commercial when this scene ends.

Meanwhile…Saul and the Medium

• Saul sees the Philistines gathering for battle around Mt. Gilboa at Shunem so he moves his army to Giboa to defend it. Keep in mind we learned way back at the beginning that Saw was 30 when he became king and reigned for 42 years, so he is presumably 72.
• He has a bad feeling about this. 1 Samuel 28:5-6 – ⁵ When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. ⁶ And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by the prophets.
  • Keep in mind a couple years back Saul had killed all of the priest except one who got away (Abiathar), took the Ephod and ran to David. We will see that Ephod come up for David later.
  • Also, would things have been different if David were there to fight alongside him?
• Saul finds a medium, lies to her about who he is and gets her to work for him.
  • In Leviticus 19:31 and 20:6 (page 131), God had commanded Israelites to not consult with mediums. At some point in the past 42 years, probably when he was feeling closer to God, Saul had outlawed mediums. But he was desperate now because he wants to talk with someone who died.
• She summons Samuel for him and it works. Remember, Samuel had not seen Saul since before he anointed David—except for the time Saul came looking for David when he was hiding with Samuel and Saul started prophecying.
• Samuel does not have good news for Saul. 1 Samuel 28:15-19 – ¹⁵ Now Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?”

And Saul answered, “I am deeply distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God has departed from me and does not answer me anymore, neither by prophets nor by dreams. Therefore I have called you, that you may reveal to me what I should do.”

¹⁶ Then Samuel said: “So why do you ask me, seeing the Lord has departed from you and has become your enemy? ¹⁷ And the Lord has done for ^[b]Himself as He spoke by me. For the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. ¹⁸ Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord nor execute His fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day. ¹⁹ Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines. And tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The Lord will also deliver the army of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.”

• Saul is devastated and goes back to his army.

Meanwhile…David and the Philistines

• All of the Philistine armies gather at Aphek, including David and his men at the rear with Achish as his protectors. They did a military review/parade by the king and Achish’s brothers.
• The princes refused to allow David and his men to join them in the battle. 1 Samuel 29:4 – ⁴ But the princes of the Philistines were angry with him; so the princes of the Philistines said to him, “Make this fellow return, that he may go back to the place which you have appointed for him, and do not let him go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he become our adversary. For with what could he reconcile himself to his master, if not with the heads of these men? 
• Achish tells David he and his men have to go and David protests. 1 Samuel 29:8 – ⁸ So David said to Achish, “But what have I done? And to this day what have you found in your servant as long as I have been with you, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?”
• Achish affirms that he believes in David, but this is the way it has to be.
  • David and his men cannot see it in this moment, but God is looking out for them in several ways that we will discuss in a bit.
• 1 Samuel 29:11 – ¹¹ So David and his men rose early to depart in the morning, to return to the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

The first thing God did for David

• They take three days to get back from Ziklag and find everyone and everything is gone and what’s left got burned down. It was the Amelekites.
  • They saw opportunity with all of the Philistine warriors off to battle
  • David probably wondered if he should have left some warriors behind. We will see why I say this later.
• The author is careful to tell us no one was killed, but just taken captive
• His discontented men are on the edge. 1 Samuel 30:6 – ⁶ Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was ^[a]grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
  • Notice it said that David took this moment of despair to lean into God.
• Remember in chapter 28 when we talked about Saul killing the priests except Abiathar and he ran to David with the Ephod? Here’s where it comes back into play. 1 Samuel 30:7-8 – ⁷ Then David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, “Please bring the ephod here to me.” And Abiathar brought the ephod to David. ⁸ So David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?”

And He answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.”

• On their way 200 of the men are too tired to continue so they get left behind to guard provisions. 400 continue on.
• They find an Egyptian who says he was an Amalekite slave who was left behind because he was sick. The Egyptian tells them what they had been up to. 1 Samuel 20:14 – ¹⁴ We made an invasion of the southern area of the Cherethites, in the territory which belongs to Judah, and of the southern area of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.”
• They strike a deal with the Egyptian to help David and his men find the Amalekites.
• They find the Amalekites, kill them and take back their own stuff plus the stuff that was taken from the other areas.
  • David claims the things from the other areas as his own. We will see why in a bit.
• They head home and get back to the 200 left behind. The “wicked and worthless men” who got the stuff back said that the 200 should just get their wives and children and 1.) not get any of the stuff recovered and 2.) be sent away.
• David uses this as a teachable moment and leads in the face of conflict with these men. 1 Samuel 30:23-25 – ²³ But David said, “My brethren, you shall not do so with what the Lord has given us, who has preserved us and delivered into our hand the troop that came against us. ²⁴ For who will heed you in this matter? But as his part is who goes down to the battle, so shall his part be who stays by the supplies; they shall share alike.” ²⁵ So it was, from that day forward; he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day.
  • I think David wanted to emphasize to the men that God had provided for them. It’s so easy to seek God before something and then take credit for it after it’s happened.
  • I also think David wanted to set a precedent for leaving some men behind to guard things after seeing the devastation from not doing so.
    • Going back to his conflict with Nabal, he had left men behind to guard the provisions but hadn’t done it this time with the Philistines.
• David sent the spoils he claimed from the attack back to the cities in Judah that had been raided. This will become important as he sets himself up as their future king next week.

Meanwhile…Saul’s Final Battle

• We don’t get battle details, but it all goes poorly. The Philistines wipe them out, including Jonathan and two of his brothers.
  • At least one brother is not there and we will meet him next week.
• Saul’s final moments. 1 Samuel 31:3-6 – ³ The battle became fierce against Saul. The archers ^[a]hit him, and he was severely wounded by the archers.

⁴ Then Saul said to his armorbearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised men come and thrust me through and ^[b]abuse me.”

But his armorbearer would not, for he was greatly afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword and fell on it. ⁵ And when his armorbearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword, and died with him. ⁶ So Saul, his three sons, his armorbearer, and all his men died together that same day.

• Going back to David being spared from this battle, what might have happened if David had followed the Philistines into battle against the Israelites?
• When the Israelites saw their army had lost, they evacuated their cities in the area and the Philistines moved in to occupy them.
• The next day, the Philistines were looting the battlefield and found Saul’s and Jonathan’s bodies. The beheaded him (remember how David did this to Goliath?) and took the bodies and their armor back to their temple (remember how Goliath’s armor was at the temple when David went there needing a sword?).
• The valiant men repaid a great debt to Saul. 1 Samuel 31:11-13 – ¹¹ Now when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, ¹² all the valiant men arose and traveled all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan; and they came to Jabesh and burned them there. ¹³ Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

Wrap Up

• An implicit lesson from David’s experience – Don’t leave a flank of your life exposed. Christian singer said Satan tries to get into small areas of our lives while we focus on other areas.
• God used even the Philistine princes to:
  • Save David from an awkward situation in battle.
  • Possibly keep him from becoming king
  • Save his wives and the wives and children of the 600 men.
• My conundrum with Saul and living to serve God regardless of the cost.

Father, I give this preparation to you. I give these seeds to you. Holy Spirit, help them to find good soil. Prepare the hearts of the men for tomorrow night. I know they are going to be learning a lot about themselves through Joe’s DISC survey. I pray that this will all somehow work together for your glory in their lives and in mine.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen