In this episode, we delve into the dramatic downfall of King Saul and the rise of David, a young shepherd chosen by God to lead Israel. As Saul falters, David steps into prominence, showcasing his remarkable faith and courage. The episode paints a vivid picture of biblical events where loyalty, fear, and divine intervention intersect, leading to the epic battle against the Philistine giant, Goliath.
The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.
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One of the truly great ironies of the Bible followed on the heels of the failure of Israel’s first king, Saul the son of Kish. From the moment of Saul’s rejection by God, and the anointing of David as king in his place, the Spirit of God departed from Saul and went to David. The result for Saul was tragic, because in the beginning God gave him every chance. He had all the physical assets of a king. On top of that, God gave Saul his spirit and changed him into another man. In other words, he was converted. Then, When he disobeyed, he lost it all. Samuel told him flatly, he said, Does God have as great a 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 witchcraft, and stubbornness is iniquity and idolatry. And Samuel didn’t put it this way, but it’s especially true for a king because of the influence he has upon other people. And Samuel concluded, because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king. Later, Samuel was sent to find another king among the sons of a man named Jesse. And they brought all the sons in for Samuel to meet. And as he came by, Samuel saw the first boy, and he thought, oh, oh, this is obviously going to be the one. But God told him, no. Nope, he’s not. I don’t look at things like men look at them. I look upon the heart. And finally, after all the boys had gone by, Samuel said to Jesse, Are these all your boys? And he said, No, there’s another one, but he’s out keeping the sheep, the youngest. And Samuel said, Go get him. We’re not going to sit down until he comes here. And he sent and he brought him in. Now he was ruddy and with all of a beautiful countenance and goodly to look to. I gather he was small but redheaded. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him. This is the one. So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him right in the middle of all of his brethren. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, went home to Ramah. But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if this tragic case was on Peter’s mind when he wrote in one of his letters of the false teachers that were afflicting the early church. He said of them, and this is in 2 Peter 2, verse 17, They are wells without water, clouds carried with a tempest, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity… They allure through the lusts of the flesh and through much wantonness those who had clean escaped from them that live in error. In other words, he’s talking here about false teachers who, when they come to people in the church who had clean escaped from the error of their past ways, they make all these promises of liberty while they themselves are the servants of corruption. And then he says this in verse 20. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. It’s happened to them according to the true proverb. The dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. And, to be sure, the latter state of Saul was far worse than the first. He would have been better off to have been left wandering around the hillside looking for his father’s mules than to have been king of Israel. to have been converted, to have been given God’s Spirit. Because when it left him, he became a tragic figure, bitten by depression, fierce depression, as an evil spirit from God troubled him. And it’s out of this tragic state of affairs that one of the really great ironies of biblical history occurs. Because it turns out that the only man in all the world who could give Saul relief from the black dog of depression, was none other than the man anointed to replace him. Only when David played on a musical instrument in Saul’s presence did he find any relief at all from his depression. So David came to Saul and stood before him, and Saul loved him greatly. And David became his armor-bearer. And Saul sent to Jesse, he said, Let David stand before me, because he has found favor in my sight. And it came to pass that when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, and David took a harp and played, and Saul was refreshed and was well, and the evil spirit went away. At some point after this, I guess Saul was recovered to some level. David was still very young, so it was important that he go back home. And meanwhile, Saul’s wars went on. The time came, and 1 Samuel 17 is where you’ll find the story. The Philistines had gathered their armies to battle, and they were gathered together at Shoko, about 15 miles west of Bethlehem, where there was two hills with a valley in between them. The Philistines appeared to have pitched on the south hill. The Israelites were pitched on the north. Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and they pitched by the valley of Elah and set the battle in array against the Philistines. Well, here they are, one army on one mountain, another army on the other hill, and they were all lined out as the old armies did to get ready for fight. Well, the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side. Israel stood on a mountain on the other side with a valley in between. And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath. Is there anybody still left who hasn’t heard the story of David and Goliath? This guy was well over nine feet tall, approaching ten feet. He had a helmet of brass on his head. He was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of this coat of mail was 5,000 shekels of brass, which is something close to 125 pounds worth of armor this man carried around with him. He had greaves of brass upon his legs, a target of brass between his shoulders, and the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and the spear’s head weighed 600 shekels of iron.” And he had a man going before him carrying a shield. Now a weaver’s beam would weigh about 17 pounds. The spear point here about 15. This big fellow’s armor and weaponry alone exceeded 155 pounds. And for all we know, that could have been David’s weight soaking wet. So out he comes, big guy. And he wants to make the challenge. He says, why are you come out to set your battle in array? Am I not a Philistine’s and aren’t you servants of Saul? Choose a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we’ll be your servants. But if I win and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us. Seems like a reasonable deal. There’s no need for hundreds and thousands of men to die. We can just have one man die and settle the issue. So the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together. Well, when Saul and all Israel heard those words, they were dismayed and greatly afraid because there wasn’t anybody in the Israelite army who was of size or strength to fight with this man. The idea, by the way, of two men fighting to settle a dispute turns out to be very old. It didn’t originate with King Arthur and his knights of the round table. Now, David was the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem, Judah, whose name was Jesse. He had eight sons, and he was a very old man in the days of Saul. The term Ephrathite, by the way, means he hailed from a town near Bethlehem called Ephrathah. Now if that name sounds familiar, it’s heard in many of the pageants commemorating the birth of Jesus. The Messiah would come from this town. Micah prophesied it in chapter 5, verse 2. But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall he come forth that is to be ruler in Israel, whose going forth have been from old, from everlasting. So already in Micah’s day, this one to come from Bethlehem would not originate there. His origins are from old, even from everlasting. He goes back to eternity. The three eldest sons of Jesse went and followed Saul to the battle. The names of his three sons that went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, next to him, Abinadab, and the third, Shammah. Now, if you’re looking for a tough little biblical trivia question, take that one with you, and you should be able to stump nearly anybody. Verse 14, David was the youngest, and the three eldest followed Saul. But David went home and returned from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem. At some point in all this, the army came in. The fight was going to be beginning. There was no need to keep a boy playing on a harp in Saul’s court. The Philistine drew near every morning and presented himself for 40 days, no doubt accompanied by much riotous laughter. from the Philistines but it was not going to be funny for very much longer I’ll tell you that story right after this important message
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Join us online at borntowin.net. That’s borntowin.net. Read essays by Ronald Dart. Listen to Born to Win radio programs every day, past weekend Bible studies, plus recent sermons, as well as sermons from the CEM Vault. Drop us an email and visit our online store for CDs, DVDs, literature, and books. That’s borntowin.net.
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So Jesse says to David his son, Take now for your brethren a basket of this parched corn, these ten loaves, and run up to the camp to your brethren. Carry these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and look how your brethren fare, and take their promise that they are well. You know, it’s interesting that the practice of sending food from home to the boys in battle really goes a long way back. And it’s a morale factor for the fellows up there on the front line. to get a food package from home. Now Saul and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines. Don’t know how much fighting they were doing. Mostly they were hiding from Goliath of Gath. But David rose up early in the morning and left the sheep with the keeper. And he took and went as Jesse commanded him. And he came to the trench as the host was going forth to the fight and shouted for the battle. Again, I don’t know what they’re shouting about because nobody’s going to fight. For Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array, army opposite army. And David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper and ran into the army and came and saluted his brethren. And as he talked with them, here comes the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines. And he spoke according to the same words. And David heard them. And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man fled from him, they ran back. They were sore afraid. And they said, Have you seen this man? Surely to defy Israel as he come up. And it shall be that the man who kills him, the king will enrich him with great riches and will give him his daughter and will make his house free in Israel. It sort of sounds like a permanent tax abatement. If that one guy could get out there and kill Goliath. David hears this. He says, what? What shall be done to the man that kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? I don’t think David thought that any particular reward should be given to him. It was a duty to him. For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? And the people said, oh, yeah, it’s going to be done that way to the man that kills him. Well, Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men, and he was furious. He said, What did you come down here for? With whom have you left those few sheep out there in the desert? I know your pride and the naughtiness of your heart. You came down to see the battle, didn’t you? And David said, What have I done now? Isn’t there a cause? And he turned from him to another and spoke after the same manner, and everybody told him the same thing. Well, the words that David spoke, someone went and rehearsed them before Saul, and he sent for him. And David said to Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him. I will go fight this Philistine. And Saul said to David, You’re not able to fight this Philistine. You’re just a youth. He’s been a man of war from his youth. And David said to Saul, I guess in a way he said, don’t underestimate me. Your servant kept his father’s sheep. There came a lion on one occasion, a bear on another occasion, and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went after him and smote him and delivered it out of his mouth. And when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew him. Your servant slew both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God. Boy, this is one courageous man who actually would go out and fight directly a lion and a bear. If you’ve ever even wrestled with your own big dog, you know just how strong animals can be. And that was no mean feat that he pulled off in hand-to-hand combat. Now David, this man was not merely a Philistine. He was an uncircumcised Philistine. He was a man who deserved to die. David said, Moreover, the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Go, and the Lord be with you. So Saul armed David with his armor. He put a helmet of brass on his head and armed him with a coat of mail. David put all this stuff on him, and he tried to move around because the armor was unfamiliar. Now remember, Saul was head and shoulders above everybody. David was a relatively small man. None of that stuff fit him. And David said to Saul, I can’t go with these. I’m not used to them. And so he took them off. He took his staff in his hand. And he chose him five smooth stones out of the brook. He put them in a shepherd’s bag, which he had even in a pouch, and his sling was in his hand. He had a slingshot. No, no, no, not the kind of a thing we used to call a bean flip. This is one of those things on the end of a long twine with a pouch at the end of it that you can twirl around and get an enormous amount of speed from a missile that you let go from it. So he had that. The smooth, round stones were important because they will fly straighter like a bullet from a musket. And there’s also one thing to remember at this point, and it answers a lot about David. When Samuel anointed him to be king, the Spirit of God came upon him. Remember? It left Saul. It came upon David. And we’ve got a different man here from what we might otherwise have had. So the Philistines came on, and they drew near to David, and the man that bare the shield went ahead of him. And when the Philistine looked around and saw David, he sneered at him. He was just a youth. He was red-headed. He was of fair countenance. And the Philistine said, Am I a dog that you come out here with a stick? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. He said, Come to me. I will give your flesh to the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field. Then said David to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword and a spear, with a shield. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. No, it’s not the armies of Israel you defied. It’s the Lord of hosts you have defied. This day will the Lord deliver you into my hand. I will smite you. I will take your head from you. I will give the carcass of the host of the Philistines this day to the fowls of the air, you talked about, and to the wild beasts of the earth. Why? That all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear, For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands. Wow, what a man, what courage. But you know, he didn’t have this confidence in himself. His confidence was in God. It came to pass the Philistine got up and came and draw near to meet David. David hasted and ran toward the Philistine. He put his hand in his bag. He took out a bit of stone, whirled his sling, and threw it and smote the Philistine squarely in the forehead. So the stone sunk into his forehead, and he fell upon his face to the earth. David threw that stone hard and straight. There’s a lesson buried in here somewhere. He was confident, but he did take five stones with him. Turned out, he only needed one. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and he smote the Philistine and slew him. Now, unfortunately or fortunately, David didn’t have a sword. So he went and stood on top of the Philistine and took his sword, drew it out of the sheath, and killed him with it and cut his head off. And the Philistine saw their champion was dead. They fled. And the men of Israel and of Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines until you come to the valley and to the gates of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines fell down all the way to Gath and Ekron. And the children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they went back to the camp and spoiled all the tents of the Philistines. And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor, the Philistine’s armor, in his own tent. When Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the son of the host, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As your soul lives, O king, I don’t know. And the king said, Well, find out, would you? There’s a little puzzle here. Shouldn’t Saul have known David from before? The answer is not necessarily. David was just a boy. He was one of the court musicians for a short period of time. And a man like Saul could easily forget that he’d ever seen him before in his life, even though this was the one man who gave him relief from his black dog of depression. But time changes people, and Saul was not entirely sane. As David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. And Saul said to him, Whose son are you, young man? And David said, I am the son of your servant, Jesse the Bethlehemite. Well, what a day that must have been.
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There’s more to the story, and we’ll talk about that after this quick message. For a free copy of this radio program that you can share with friends and others, write or call this week only. And request the program titled, The Book of Samuel, Number 7. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE44. And tell us the call letters of this radio station.
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Saul had a son. We’ve met him before. His name was Jonathan. And he was standing there all the time that Saul was speaking to David and David was responding to Saul. He saw the whole thing. He saw the fight. And the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David. And Jonathan loved him as his own soul. This is one of those things that those very unusual friendships in the history of the world where two men really become bonded. You have to remember that Jonathan was a fine fighting man in his own right. This is what we today call male bonding. There’s this speech in the play Henry V by William Shakespeare that I always think of when I think of this. The Battle of Agincourt took place on St. Crispin’s Day, and the speech of Henry V to his men went something like this, “…and Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by from this day to the ending of the world, but we in it shall be remembered. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.” For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother, be he ne’er so vile. This day shall gentle his condition, and gentlemen in England now abed shall think themselves accursed that they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap, while any speaks that fought with us upon St. Crispin’s day. There is a special bond that develops between fighting men. And Saul took David that day and would let him no more go home to his father’s house. And Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him like his own life. Jonathan took off his robe that was upon him, which was royal, and gave it to David, and his garments all the way to his sword and his bow and his girdle. He just loaded him up with gifts. And David went wherever Saul sent him and behaved himself wisely. And Saul sent him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people. and also in the sight of all Saul’s servants. And if you understand palace politics, it was really something. David was loved, accepted by everybody, and there wasn’t a fighting man in the kingdom who wouldn’t have gone to battle right alongside of him. It came to pass that as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistines, the women came out of the cities of Israel, singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tabrets and joy and instruments of music. And they had a song that they sang back and forth in counterpoint. They said, Saul has slain his thousands, and David has slain his ten thousands. And Saul was furious. The saying angered him more than anyone could imagine. They have ascribed unto David, he said to himself, ten thousand. And to me they have ascribed but thousands. What more can he have but the kingdom? And I don’t know if he realized at this point that the kingdom already belonged to David. And Saul eyed David from that day forward. It came to pass on the morrow that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul again. And he prophesied in the midst of the house, and David played upon a harp as at other times. And there was a javelin in Saul’s hand. And finally he couldn’t stand it any longer, and he cast the javelin, and he said, I will smite David to the wall with it. And David avoided out of his presence not once, but twice. And Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him and has departed from Saul. You know, it’s an interesting thing to think about how much fear lies at the root of so much hatred. So Saul got rid of David. He sent him out to be captain over a thousand. And he went out and came in before the people. And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways. And the Lord was with him. And Saul, Saul, look at this guy. He will not put a foot wrong. And he was afraid of him. And all Israel and all Judah loved David because they saw him coming and going in their presence all the time. And everything he did worked. And Saul said to David, Behold my elder daughter Merab, I will give her to you to wife, but just be valiant for me and fight the Lord’s battle. For Saul said to himself, Don’t let my hand be upon him, let the Philistines kill him. And David said to Saul, Who am I? What is my life? What is my father’s family in Israel that I should be a son-in-law to the king? But it came to pass at the time when Merab, Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David. She was given to Adriel, another man, to wife. And Michael, Saul’s daughter, loved David. And they told Saul,
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And the thing pleased him. The Born to Win radio program with Ronald L. Dart is sponsored by Christian Educational Ministries and made possible by donations from listeners like you. If you can help, please send your donation to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. You may call us at 1-888-BIBLE44 and visit us online at borntowin.net.
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