1 Samuel 15-18 Recap | OT Ep 35

In this episode, Austin and Ashley explore the biblical narrative surrounding Saul and David, focusing on themes of divine command, judgment, disobedience, and the rise of David as a leader. They discuss the implications of Saul's failure to obey God's commands regarding the Amalekites.

We see the anointing of David, and the significance of worship as a weapon against spiritual enemies. The conversation culminates in the well-known story of David and Goliath, drawing parallels to the gospel and the nature of God's deliverance.

Reading Plan - Old Testament in One Year
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Transcript

Hey everyone,

My name is Austin. And my name is Ashley. Welcome to the Clean Slate Podcast. Where we're finding Jesus in the Old Testament.

Hey friends, welcome in to episode 35. Today we'll be covering 1 Samuel chapters 15 through 18.

In verse 2 of chapter 15, God remembers what the Amalekites did to Israel when they were coming out of Egypt. The text actually says, have noted.

If you guys will think back on it, we have discussed in previous episodes that in scripture, when God remembers something, that it wasn't that he had forgotten, but he was acting on something that had already been promised or discussed in earlier portions of

God is not prepared to strike the Amalekites. He gave Saul the order to devote to destruction all that they had.

You guys may also remember that I mentioned this moment all the way back in Exodus 17 when the conflict between Israel and the Malachites first took place.

Saul, and interestingly enough, the army of Israel to kill every single Amalekite down to the people's women and children. I learned this week reading some commentaries that the command to devote to destruction was actually plural, meaning it was implicit for the whole army to follow this command as well.

Guys, this never gets easier when we read it. It feels so alien from the gospel. But I want to point out, it really isn't in some ways.

God, declaring the end from the beginning, knows what the people Amalek will do in the future.

What God knows, since Saul not only fails to kill the Amalekites king, Agag, but also some of people of Amalek, is that there will be some notable Amalekites in scripture will do some terrible things.

One of those Amalekites would be the very man that kills King Saul at end of his life. Another of those Amalekites would be a man named Haman

who was very close to wiping out all of

if the Lord hadn't intervened through Esther. Another man, Herod, tried to kill all the Hebrew baby boys in an attempt to kill the newly born Messiah in the New Testament.

God not only knows the past of a people, and the past of the Amalekites is one of treachery, He also knows what people will do in the future.

Now that we are on the other side of Joshua, think about how all the nations God explicitly told the Israelites to either kill or push out of the land. They failed to do so and every one of those nations has caused serious problems, even murdering and enslaving the people of Israel, just like God said they would. When God pronounces judgment on the people, he has good reason for doing so.

Okay, so back into the text, you'll probably notice when you read through this chapter that Saul acts as if the only Amalekite he didn't was Agag, but that can't be true because like I just mentioned, we see other Amalekites later in scripture.

Saul and the people also kept a good deal of livestock alive and they were ordered to kill the livestock too. I will say it does seem when they give the excuse about sacrificing animals that they were actually going to do that since they had went down to but this isn't what the Lord told them to do.

God then tell Samuel of Saul failing to do what he commanded him to do.

In verse 11, God actually tells Samuel that he regretted making Saul king. This isn't the sort of regret that you or I have. regretting his decision in a way of saying that he had made a mistake. regret that Saul had turned out the way that he had.

Let me read verse 13 and 14 for us.

It says, And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, Blessed be you of the LORD, I have performed the commandment of the LORD. And Samuel said, What then is this bleeding of the sheep in my ears, and the loaning of oxen that I hear?

Over this next section, Saul does what Adam did. He blames everyone but himself, though he is the leader of Israel. God had appointed Saul the same way he had appointed Adam, by divine decree and that brings with it the weight of responsibility. It wasn't Saul's fault that people wanted to take the livestock,

but it was Saul's responsibility to either keep it from happening or rectify it as soon as he saw it.

In verse 15, Saul tries to offer an excuse, but in verse 16 Samuel tells him, Stop! I will tell you what the LORD has said to me this night.

Samuel lays it out for him, and even in verse 20, Saul is still making excuses, saying that all these livestock were saved to sacrifice to the Lord. what we talked about in the last episode. God doesn't need anything. The fact is, everything already belongs to Him. God didn't need the animals to be sacrificed to Him, and Samuel lets that be known with a

rebuke in verse 22 and 23, which I'm going to read for us.

says, Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.

have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.

Saul immediately admits guilt and begs for Samuel to go back with him so he can bow before the Lord.

Samuel refuses him and Saul reaches out to grab the hem of his robe in an effort to beg him to reconsider. When he does, the garment tears and Samuel tells Saul that the kingdom has been torn away from him.

Samuel does go back with Saul, but it was to finish Saul's job. Agag, the king of the Amalekites, thinks that the wrath of Israel must have abated and he will be spared, but he was not correct.

Samuel, a faithful prophet of God, tells Agag, as your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among all women. And Samuel hacked Agag to the Lord in Gilgal. Again, this feels out of place, right? But friends, when I mentioned before that this story isn't really that out of step with the gospel, this is what I mean.

God sent Samuel, a faithful prophet, to kill the enemy of his people when the man he had appointed to do so, Saul, failed.

in the same way God sent Jesus to put to death our enemy where Adam failed. Jesus is the greater King, the greater Prophet, and the greater Adam. Jesus is greater.

Moving into chapter 16, when it begins, God tells Samuel to quit mourning over Saul and his failure. I think this is important because it shows that Samuel is upset for probably several reasons. I would say that he is upset because the people have essentially lost their king. I would say he's probably also upset because he feels like he had a part to play in this whole thing. think he laments like God does thinking about how Saul turned out.

The thing here though is that God is telling Samuel, like enough, I have the fix in place. It's time for you to stop worrying about it and let me fix it.

I think we could all learn a little bit from that, don't you?

In verse 2, Samuel asks God, how can I go and anoint another king without Saul hearing of it and coming to kill me?

and it seems like God told Samuel to omit the truth by saying that he was going to sacrifice, which, like I said, would only have been part of the truth.

When I first read this, was trying to wrap my head around it. And I read a comment about this that was essentially saying that it was the Lord's business who he shared this sort of information with. And it had already been established that Saul wasn't faithful. So the Lord would have been under no compulsion to tell Saul what he was up to. This isn't a blanket rule for omitting details and can be a slippery slope, if not sinful. think great discernment is needed here.

The reality is Samuel wasn't sinning in what he was doing. and normally when we omit details of something

is to cover up something we shouldn't have done, right?

God tells Samuel to go to Bethlehem and offer sacrifice, and that the new king would be one of Jesse's sons. When Samuel arrives, the elders of the city were very nervous and asked if he came peaceably.

This is not a weird question when you consider how Samuel dealt with Agag and the harsh words he spoke to Saul at Gilgal. The elders of Bethlehem would want no part of being mixed up in any feud between Samuel and Saul.

Samuel assured them that he came

Samuel met with Jesse, he had Jesse's sons with him there. And when he saw Eliab, Jesse's oldest, he thought,

Surely the Lord's anointed is before him.

There's a really interesting thing that happens here because Samuel made the same mistake the people of Israel did when looking at Saul. He looked at Eliob's height, strength, and most likely his looks and thought, is the guy. God reminded Samuel that when he looks on someone, he looks at the inside. He sees the heart of a man. God tells him not to judge the way the world judges.

All of Jesse's boys passed on before Samuel, and the Lord said no to each one of them.

Samuel knew that God had said one of Jesse's sons would be king, so he was puzzled and asked if all of Jesse's sons were there. And Jesse said, well, the youngest is in the field with the them sin for the young boy. When the youngest, David, arrived, God confirmed that he would be the next king.

Samuel goes ahead and anoints David in front of Jesse and the brothers and maybe a few other people, but he doesn't say what it's for, or at least it's not recorded that he does. Obviously they would have known it was for something important, like maybe even being a servant of Samuel in some way, but it isn't stated that any of them knew what this was actually for.

In verse 13, after Samuel had anointed David, the Bible tells us that the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day

I want to say here that this has nothing to do with salvation. This verse and ones like it have been used to say that a man can lose his salvation because the very next verse we see the Spirit of the Lord leaves Saul. What these verses are referring to is the Spirit coming on these men to empower them for the office of King, not their regeneration as believers.

In verse 14, the Spirit departs from Saul, and we see that the Lord sent a harmful spirit on Saul, and he was tormented.

Again, this is one those things that's hard to grapple with, right? Thinking about God sending an evil spirit on someone. Let's consider a few things,

Number one, God is not the author of evil, and in a certain way, not the author of these evil spirits. But everything in the lie under His authority.

Number two, we have an enemy that does want to hurt us as we are image bearers to the one he hates.

Number three, this could simply be a case of God allowing this to happen and not necessarily causing it. what I mean here is we see a similar theme in Job where the devil had been trying to attack Job, but God hadn't permitted it. It is quite possible that the devil wanted to send the spirit to attack the king of Israel, but God hadn't allowed it until now.

And lastly, number four, we usually can't answer a lot of why God questions. Like, so why does this happen now? Because we don't have his perspective. But in this case, one reason would be

to get David into the court of King Saul.

After some time had passed by, David was brought in to play the help King Saul with his torment. And you know what? It worked. Friends, there are all sorts of things out there about spiritual warfare, and many of the books, sermons, and podcasts about this aren't helpful and push a little too deep into things we aren't told in scripture. But, please notice this.

Worship is a major weapon against an enemy you can't see or fight on your own accord.

Going back to a point I made earlier, God sent or allowed the Spirit to come on Saul, but even then, God also provided the remedy for Saul.

the next bit of David's life, David would serve as Saul's armor bearer. Saul even sends messages to Jesse asking for David to remain in his service for he had found favor in Saul's sight.

David would go on to be a great help to Saul in several ways in the days that he served him.

The story of Chapter 17 is probably the most well-known Bible story of all time, David and Goliath. This is one of the most vivid gospel glimpses we see outside the prophecies of the Messiah himself, so buckle up friends. I'm gonna set the scene for you just in case it's been a while or you only remember the David and Goliath part of the story.

So you have the Philistines that gathered their armies for battle in a land belonging to the tribe of Judah.

Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and drew up in line of battle against the Philistines. So rather than the entire army fight, the Philistines send out Goliath, their champion, clothed in the best armor and weapons a Philistine could obtain.

So he comes out between the two armies and says, why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine? And are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.

Now, it was the King's job to lead everyone into battle and to accept this challenge on behalf of Israel. But that is not what happens.

When Saul and all of Israel's army heard these words, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. This included David's three older brothers that were with the army also. the Bible tells us that for 40 days, the Philistine came forward morning and evening.

At this point, Jesse just so happens to tell David, who is back home feeding his father's sheep, take your brother some food and check on them. So David gets there and the armies are about ready to go toe to toe because nobody will face Goliath. But David hears Goliath say the same words that he said before. And again, all of Israel fled from him. But David said,

For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?

You know, I think they left all the smack talk out at vacation Bible school back in the day.

So Saul hears of this and sends for David to be brought to him. And David tells him, basically, nobody needs to fear this man, for I will go and fight with him. Saul tries to talk him out of it because he's just a young guy. And David says, the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine.

So here's the familiar part of the story. David chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his pouch and his sling was in his hand. As he approached the Philistine, Goliath was offended that they would send a handsome kid with a stick to fight the champion of Philistia. Then David said to Goliath, you come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin.

I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beast of the earth. And that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.

and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand.

So David slings his stone, hits him in the forehead, and prevails over Goliath. Then he took Goliath's own sword and cut off his head. And when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a and pursued the Philistines.

Now let's picture this story with a gospel lens on. Goliath is our sin, and we are the scared Israelites that are hopeless to defeat it. And David represents Jesus, the lion of Judah, who confidently defeated our sin and used its own weapon, death, to conquer it beyond any shadow of a doubt and solidify our salvation only through God himself.

Moving into chapter 18, it begins with a God-ordained friendship between Jonathan and David. It says that Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

And Saul, that very day, took David into his service. Now, not just to ease him by playing the lyre, but as a warrior.

And then Jonathan made a covenant with David, and stripped himself of the robe that was on his back, his armor, sword, bow, and belt, and gave it to David. Now this is interesting because David would have been more of a threat to Jonathan than to Saul. Jonathan would have been next in line as heir to the throne. No one seems to have viewed Jonathan's gifts to David as a sign of abdication, but Jonathan's actions, perhaps unknowingly at the time,

foreshadowed the eventual transfer of kingship to David.

So Saul set David as commander of the men of war, and they were successful everywhere they went, and it was good in the sight of all the people.

Now on their way home from all of their success, there's a parade of celebration of sorts, and the ladies are coming out with their tambourines and singing and dancing, and their song rubs King Saul the wrong way. And they said, Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands. He turns to King Salty at this point, y'all.

In verse 8, he is so angry, he says, what more can he have but the kingdom?

He did not know how right he was, but from the completely wrong perspective. And scripture tells us that Saul eyed David from that day on.

rest of the book is a description of Saul's attempts more and more openly to get rid of tried to have David killed in battle. Saul told David that instead of a bride price of money, Saul so kindly offered him an alternative with a bride price of a hundred Philistine foreskins. Well, David comes back with 200 Philistine foreskins.

and Saul gave him his daughter, Michal And when Saul saw that the Lord was with David and that Michal loved him, he was even more afraid of David. So Saul was David's enemy continually.

We see through all of this that Saul's primary concern was not the Lord's honor or the welfare of the people, but his primary concern was himself. And we'll see this threat come to a tipping point in the next episode. May His grace abound to you and to me as we study to find Jesus in the Old Testament.