Act #3- Saul Exiled David Series

Series: Israel’s 1St King [#13]

ACT #3- SAUL EXILED DAVID

1 Samuel 23:14

Introduction:

Saul sent for David and brought him into his court. This was the beginning of a lot of drama between Saul and David. This type of drama still exists today- When you find someone who is being blessed by God and they come in contact with someone who has been abandoned by God, you find conflict.

This drama falls into 3 acts:

Act #1: Saul loved David (1 Samuel 16-17).

Act #2: Saul envied David (1 Samuel 18-20).

Act #3: Saul exiled David (1 Samuel 21-31).

In 1 Samuel 21-31, David was on the run. He was continually forced to flee from Saul. As we studied last week, Saul’s envy of David led him to anger, violence, fear, and scheming. The rest of Saul’s life was wasted on trying to destroy David.

1 Samuel 23:14

There are 3 stages in this 3rd act.

Stage #1- Saul…

1. Presumed Ahimelek was against him.

In 1 Samuel 21, “David went to Nob, to Ahimelek the priest.” Ahimelek gave David consecrated bread for his men; and gave David Goliath’s sword. In 1 Samuel 22, Saul found out about Ahimelek helping David. Saul had Ahimelek and his family brought in to him.

1 Samuel 22:14-16

Saul ordered his guards to kill Ahimelek; but they would not. Saul then ordered Doeg to kill Ahimelek and he killed 85 priests and everyone in the City of Nob. Saul presumed that Ahimelek was against him and had everyone killed.

Stage #2- Saul…

2. Praised David for not killing him.

In 1 Samuel 24, Saul went into a cave to go to the restroom not knowing that David and his men were in the back of the cave. David could have killed Saul; but he did not. David cut the edge of Saul’s robe off; and then he felt bad that he did that.

David asked Saul why he was trying to kill him and said that he would allow God to be the judge between them. David continued to treat Saul as God’s anointed king and therefore would not touch him.

1 Samuel 24:16-22

In Saul’s praise of David, he referred to him as his son. He wept because of his treatment of David and asked God to reward David for not killing him. Saul also acknowledged that David would be King of Israel. Just when Saul appeared to get it right, he started thinking about himself. He asked David to swear to him that he would not wipe out his family’s name. David gave his oath to Saul.

Stage #3- Saul…

3. Promised to not attempt to harm David anymore.

Once again, David had the opportunity to kill Saul and he did not. In 1 Samuel 26, Saul was asleep in his camp with his spear in the ground next to him. David went down and took Saul’s spear and water jug and then yelled out to Saul’s commander of the army, Abner; and asked him why he wasn’t protecting the king.

Saul recognized David’s voice and once again, David asked him why he was trying to kill him. Once again, David talked about being rewarded by God for being obedient to Him.

1 Samuel 26:21

This time Saul admitted that he had sinned, and he wanted David to come back to him. Saul promised to not try to harm David anymore; and he did keep this promise. Saul was humble and admitted his failings.

Conclusion:

Saul continued to fail; but he no longer spent his time chasing David to kill him. It was not much longer and Saul’s life came to an end.