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1 Samuel 16—2 Samuel 1
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Scripture Reading: 1 Sam. 28:3-25; 1 Sam. 29; 1 Sam. 30:1-31
From the tragic end of Saul we can learn many things concerning God's economy. The tragedy suffered by Saul was altogether due to his not being properly related to God's economy. God is carrying out His economy on earth, and He brought Saul into His economy. Instead of participating in God's economy and cooperating with it, Saul was selfish. God wanted to build up His kingdom among His chosen people, but Saul usurped God's kingdom to build up his own monarchy. With David the situation was entirely different. When David was anointed by Samuel, he had a clear understanding that he had been assigned by God to be the king, but he did not have any thought about kingship. After Saul was appointed to be the king, he was immediately filled with thoughts of the kingship, including how his son would succeed him (20:31). In this Saul was selfish and wrong to the uttermost. He sought to build his selfish monarchy rather than the kingdom of God.
Eventually, God gave Saul up and cut him off, tearing the kingdom away from him. In 15:28 Samuel said to Saul, "Jehovah has torn the kingdom of Israel away from you today and has given it to an associate of yours, who is better than you." Because Saul was given up by God, he was left alone, like an orphan, having no provision of help when trouble came. Even though David was the most skillful and experienced fighter, he was of no use to Saul because of Saul's selfishness and envy. Actually, because Saul wanted to do away with him, David was forced to go to a country that was Israel's biggest enemy (27:1-2).
David went to the Philistines, in particular to King Achish. When the Philistines gathered their camps to fight against Israel, David, who had become the bodyguard to King Achish, was in a dilemma of being one with the Philistines to fight against Israel. This dilemma was the result of Saul's selfishness. The people of Israel suffered defeat and were slaughtered also because of Saul's selfishness. But God in His sovereignty came in to deal with Saul and to rescue David from his dilemma.
We need to muse upon every aspect of this story, for it contains some lessons that we need to learn. First, from this story, this illustration, we should learn the lesson of crucifying our flesh. Next, we should learn to condemn our selfishness — our self-interest and self-seeking. Furthermore, Saul was full of self, and from his tragic end we must learn to deny our self. As the Lord Jesus said, if we would follow Him, we must deny the self and take up the cross (Matt. 16:24).
At this juncture let us consider some further matters concerning David's being persecuted and tried by Saul.
In 1 Samuel 28:3-25 we see that Saul's tragic end was pretold by Samuel.
First Samuel 28:3a tells us that Samuel was dead and that all Israel had mourned for him and had buried him in his own city, Ramah. The death of Samuel was a great loss to Saul.
By the time of chapter twenty-eight Saul had the mediums and the soothsayers put out of the land (v. 3b). Since mediums and soothsayers contact evil spirits, Saul did a good thing in having them removed from the country of Israel.
The Philistines gathered together against Israel, and Saul was greatly afraid of them (vv. 4-5). He was afraid because his courage and boldness had been taken away by God. God is our real encouragement and boldness. Without Him, we have nothing.
Saul inquired of Jehovah, but Jehovah did not answer him, not by dreams or by the Urim or by the prophets (v. 6).
Saul sought a medium and inquired of her (vv. 7-11). In chapter fifteen Samuel had warned Saul that his rebellion was like the sin of divination (v. 23). But here in chapter twenty-eight Saul practiced divination, which involves contact with evil spirits and is even worse than idol worship.
Without the medium doing anything, Samuel came and spoke to Saul (vv. 12-19). Samuel told Saul that Jehovah had turned away from him and had become his adversary (v. 16). Then Samuel told Saul that Jehovah had torn the kingdom out from his hand and had given it to David, an associate of his (v. 17). Finally, Samuel told Saul that Jehovah would also give Israel with Saul into the hand of the Philistines and that the next day he and his sons would be destroyed (v. 19).
Saul was threatened and fell to the ground, and then he went away from the medium (vv. 20-25).
In chapter twenty-nine David was sovereignly kept away by God from joining the Philistines' camp to fight against Israel. The lords of the Philistines refused to have David go with them into battle against Israel, and Achish therefore sent him away (vv. 6-11).
If David had fought against Israel, he would have had a bad name for the rest of his life. David, however, was not involved in the destruction of Saul, his sons (including Jonathan), and the men of Israel (31:1-6).
Under God's sovereignty David was kept from joining the camp of the Philistines so that David could rescue his two wives and the families of his men, who had been captured by the Amalekites (30:18-20).
Under God's sovereignty, David saved himself from the turmoil of his men in losing their families to the Amalekites (30:1-6a).
Finally, as a result of being sovereignly kept by God from joining the Philistines' camp to fight against Israel, David, after defeating the Amalekites, sent some of his spoil as presents to his friends and friends of his men in many cities (vv. 26-31).
Chapter thirty tells us that David conquered the Amalekites and captured their captives.
The Amalekites had conquered Ziklag and burned it and captured all the women, including the families of David's men and his two wives (vv. 1-6a).
The soul of all the people was bitter, and they spoke of stoning David, but he "strengthened himself in Jehovah his God" (v. 6b). Following this, he told Abiathar the priest to bring the ephod to him, and he inquired of Jehovah, saying, "Shall I pursue after this band? Will I overtake them?" Jehovah said to him, "Pursue, for you will certainly overtake them, and you will certainly deliver them" (v. 8). Then David and four hundred of his men pursued the Amalekites, with the assistance of a young man of Egypt who was a servant of an Amalekite. The provision of the help from this Egyptian indicates that the details of David's environment were under God's sovereignty. Eventually, David conquered the Amalekites and captured their captives, delivering all that the Amalekites had taken. "Nothing was missed by them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil nor anything that they had taken; David brought everything back. And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drove before the other cattle and of which they said, This is David's spoil" (vv. 19-20).
David shared the spoil with the two hundred men who had not been able to follow him in pursuing the Amalekites (vv. 21-25). Concerning this David said, "As his share is who goes down to the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage; they shall share alike" (v. 24). From that day forward David made this a statute and an ordinance for Israel (v. 25).
Finally, according to verses 26 through 31, David sent presents from his spoil to his friends and the friends of his men in many cities.
I wish to say once again that we need to relate everything in these chapters to God's economy. All the small things in this record show that God was working in a detailed way to carry out His economy. God exercised His sovereignty to rescue David from his dilemma. God did this not only for David's sake but also for the sake of His economy. God preserved David, keeping him in His hands, for the accomplishment of His economy. In Matthew 1:1 Jesus Christ is called the son of David. This indicates that David was very much related to God's becoming a man named Jesus and to fulfill what had been determined in eternity past. Without David there would not have been the genealogy through which Christ as God became a man to be one with mankind. If David had been destroyed, the genealogy of Christ would have been terminated, and God would not have had a way to carry out His economy.
At this point it would be helpful to compare the situations of David and Saul toward the end of 1 Samuel. By fighting the Amalekites David gained many rich spoils. While he was becoming rich, Saul was being defeated. David was flourishing, but Saul was diminishing, even to death. If Saul had had the proper view regarding the kingdom of God, he would have realized that David, a skilled and vigorous fighter, could have been of great help to him in defeating the Philistines for the building up of the kingdom of God. But due to his selfishness Saul lost this provision and even persecuted David and forced him to flee. However, under God's sovereignty this persecuted one became flourishing and was established in the good land to enjoy God's portion. David's situation became brighter and brighter, whereas Saul's situation became darker and darker until, with his sons, he died a tragic death.
Saul's tragic ending should warn us not to play with God. We should not try to build up any kind of monarchy. We are all here to build up the kingdom, the Body of Christ. In the Lord's recovery we do not have many pieces of work. No matter where we may be, we have only one work. We should not be today's Saul, considering only the work in our region and trying to build up a monarchy for ourselves.
We all, especially our co-workers, should realize that we are not involved in a small work. David probably never realized that his history was fully related to God's becoming a man to join Himself to mankind and to live on earth to accomplish His eternal will. Nevertheless, David was related to the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1, and what we are doing today is related to the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 and 22. Therefore, we must have the confidence that we are of God, that we are under His sovereignty, and that we are doing one unique work — the work in His recovery to carry out His economy, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem.
