1 Samuel 18:5-19:24, John 8:31-59, Psalms 112:1-10, Proverbs 15:12-14
Today is the 16th day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and it’s good to be here with you as we move toward the back half of the week or move into the back half of the week. And, like we’ve been saying, we’re kind of simultaneously moving through the back half of the book of first Samuel, which is full of drama and intrigue and incredible lessons for our own lives as we watch the intertwining of King Saul and this new kid that’s kind of come on the scene named David. And, so, we’ll pick up with the story where we left off yesterday. We’re reading from the Voice Translation this week. First Samuel chapter 18 verse 5 through 19 verse 24 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So, anytime you have like royalty or any kind of dignitaries coming through town, right, there’s usually going to be some sort of crowd. Usually there’d be some sort of speech too, but there’s gonna be some sort of crowd and that’s been going on throughout history. So, like, even today if royalty or a leader of a nation makes a visit then their arrivals gonna be covered on the news. Depending on how how connected they are to the people, there’ll be throngs of people, right? Like, if Britain’s royalty comes to the United States or something and they’ve got the kids, there’s gonna be all kinds of people. So, it was no different for King Saul when he returned victorious in battle. There was a celebration, there was pageantry, there were people, there was dancing, there were all kinds of people who wanted to get a glimpse of the king, but after David killed Goliath the song that the young women were singing at these…at this pageantry was that Saul had killed thousands but David had killed tens of thousands, which, of course, freaked Saul out. He already was fragile and very afraid of what people thought, right? We’ve watched that throughout the story of Saul and his coronation. So, he’s freaked out about this and he ends up saying like, “what’s left? what’s left for David, but just to take the kingdom?” And, so, this made Saul very insecure and jealousy was planted in that fertile soil and then rage, and Saul tried to kill David with a spear. Of course, David now…we’re kind of watching him come up on the other side of this story and he’s just trying to figure out what is going on because he’s gone from complete obscurity to like this national hero and he keeps getting assigned tasks by the king, and he has access to the king and it’s just like he’s a lowly person. So, he’s just trying to figure out what’s going on, but he has learned quickly how to protect himself, right, like how to stay alive. It’s not that he wasn’t learning this is a shepherd, but now he’s like, he has to become a warrior to survive. His life has changed dramatically, and Saul keeps hatching these plots to send David into battle, hoping that the someone else, and normally it’s the Philistines, will kill David and then it’s just over and they can have national morning but that’ll be the end of David. And he’s trying to marry David into the family, like he’s trying everything he can to control David without realizing that David’s loyal. Like David’s not trying to do anything but to support the king, but Saul’s paranoia and fear of man and jealousy and rage have absolutely got the best of him. And, so he keeps coming up with these plans to kill David. And, so he’s like, “okay, you can marry my daughter, Michael. I just need the foreskins of 100 Philistines.” Okay. That is the strangest bride price ever. And David goes out and gets 200 foreskins and it’s so weird because did they circumcise all these guys like after the killed them and bring their foreskins back or did they just have a basket full of manhood’s, which is probably more true to what happened but even still, like you come in before the king and you’ve got a basket full of manhood’s, 200 of them. How to you…I mean…I don’t know…how do you celebrate that victory? Is everybody in the palace dancing in circles around the basket? Like, who knows. It’s just a strange bride price but David pays it and the plan was that David would get killed trying to pay that bride price but instead he’s successful. And, so, Michal, who’s Saul’s daughter, who loves David is married to David and now David is the king’s son-in-law, but Saul still wants to kill him, and he is willing to kill him right in his own bed. So, we see just how intermeshed and entangled and messed up the relationship is between Saul and David. But we can find ourselves in both of these men’s lives. I mean, there are times that we truly do shine and then there are times that we are completely disconnected from ourselves and all of our relationships and both Saul and David knew who the God of Israel was, both of these guys, even though they’re acting completely different to the circumstances. Both of them worshiped God, but Saul’s insecurity and jealousy pulled him continually away from God while David fundamentally new that God was his only possible hope for survival. And we see those kinds of things coming out in the Psalms of David. So, the men’s lives at this point, they are irreversibly intertwined, like there’s no way to go back to how things used to be when the king didn’t even know who David was. So, their lives are intertwined, but they are on comp completely different and divergent paths with God and we should pay close attention to where those two paths lead because we can find ourselves in both of these people’s character. And, so, we can also take their story and find out where their paths go as we choose our path forward. All of our insecurities, right, all our comparison are only gonna continue to plague us and they’ll eventually cause chaos and destruction in our lives or we can realize as David is realizing, there is no way to survive, there is no hope outside of utter dependence on God. So, let’s think as we move through this day. Which path am I even on because it’s never too late to change course.
Prayer:
Father, we invite You into that. We can see the characteristics in these two people in our own lives. We can be both of these people with both of these kinds of characteristics on the same day. And, so, we recognize that, and we invite Your Holy Spirit to continue to illuminate through the story found in first Samuel of Saul and David which path we are on and to give us clarity on where these paths lead so that we understand where it is were going to end up if we stay on the path that we’re on. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
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