Strengthened For the Struggle: The Life of David: His early Years
[GOD'S WORK or] DAVID ESTABLISHES RELATIONSHIPS
1 SAMUEL 18: [1-16]
David had just accomplished an remarkable incredible victory. As a result he gained instant popularity. He became a national hero. People sang his praises. He became an overnight celebrity, but God was not going to allow success to go to the youth's [about 18] head. The sequel to giant killing that we begin here probably prefaced the toughest, longest, hardest period in David's entire life. This young man who had proven himself faithful among the sheep and then on the battlefield would go from the pinnacle of popularity to the depths of desperation.
Many think David just rose to power after his noble achievement. God though needed to do His work in order to make His man (CIT). In chapter 18 the life of David unfolds into four distinct relationships: David's Relationship with Jonathan; his Relationship of submission to the King; his Relationship of popularity with the people, & his misunderstanding with Saul.
I. David's Friendship with Jonathan, 1-4.
II. David's Submission to the King, 2 & 5.
III. David's Popularity with the People, 6-7.
IV. David's Misunderstanding with Saul, 8-16.
God's hand was on David. The Lord was going to make him into on of the greatest kings in human history, but in order to do that God had to mold him and hone him. The way God breaks and makes His great servants is through challenge and suffering. Young David though had little concept of the crucible God would use to remake him into the image of Christ. [Swindol, Charles. David. 1997: Thomas Nelson. Nashville, TN. p. 51-52.]
I. DAVID'S FRIENDSHIP WITH JONATHAN, 1-4.
The friendship between Jonathan and David is one of the most noble relationships in the Bible. Its beginnings are described here and it lasts their whole lives. "Now it came about when he had finished speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as himself."
Friendships are often more a "gift" than a development. This friendship [like most all friendships] was not the result of a great deal of thought or analysis. Yet it was little wonder that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, for they were kindred spirits. The skill and courage of Jonathan was legendary in Israel but there was more than a bond over admiration for their exploits. They bonded because there was a unifying faith in and love for Israel's God. Jonathan truly saw David as a man after God's own heart. In seeing David's love for God, Jonathan meet a man he could love [1 Sam 20:17; 2 Sam 1:26]. What depths of rapport the two young men must have discovered in one another; in what wonderful agreement of purpose they found.
[Friendships are not necessarily formed along formal lines of background, age, or social standing. In ways these two were alike and in ways they were different. Jonathan was the wealthy, raised the prince of Israel, heir to the throne, and David was the youngest son of Jesse, a poor keeper of sheep. Jonathan was mid to late 30s, David wasn't even 20. But both were full of courage, fight, and faith.]
A most delightful book for young readers is Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery. It tells the touching story of a bright, talkative young orphan girl who goes to live in the Prince Edward Island country side with an elderly woman and her shy brother.
As the story unfolds, Anne finds that she can be true friends only with people she calls, her "kindred spirits." To Anne, a kindred spirit is one who shares her endless imagination and her dig-in-your-heels stubbornness. Nothing could separate a kindred spirit from Anne's love and devotion, and she would do anything to help such a friend.
You can have such a friendship, especially if you are a Christian. Believers have a built- in camaraderie that flows out of a common love for Jesus and a shared desire to know God better. Beyond that, God brings people into our lives with whom we feel especially comfortable. Maybe they've struggled with problems similar to ours.
Ask God to bring a person into your life with whom you can be yourself. Ask the Lord to make you sensitive and open to their needs and hurts. Then reach out to them. Don't withdraw when they disappoint you. God can give you a kindred spirit, one whose heart beats as does your. [J.D.B. Our Daily Bread]
Jonathan, Saul's oldest son, instead seeing David as a rival made him a beloved friend, as we read in verse 3. "Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself."
Friendships cannot survive on mutual admiration, they require commitments. The Bible pictures David and Jonathan as making a conscious commitment to each other, a solemn compact, "a covenant." The term friendship needs to be rescued from its too casual use and for friend have rights and responsibilities to each other. It is only in the soil of commitment that friendships properly grow and develop. No matter the extreme difficulty of the circumstances or challenges, this covenant friendship lasts to the end of Jonathan's and David's lives.
Verse 4 demonstrates some initial costs of the covenant commitment. "Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with his armor, including his sword and his bow and his belt."
What a pure heart Jonathan must have had. Jonathan—the crown prince, the next in line to the throne—looks at this unlikely hero, stripped himself of the robe he was wearing and the weapons he was carrying, and gave them to David. Jonathan was a hero in his own right, with far greater exploits that David had at this time. He could have looked at David as competition. But he didn't. Instead, he gave up his power and prestige to ally himself with this one-time shepherd boy from Bethlehem. [Courson, Jon: Jon Courson's Application Commentary: Vol. 1: Genesis-Job. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2005, S. 867.]
Jonathan's gift was the seal of the covenant the two had made, and it had profound significance both in their relationship and as it pointed to David's future. In a way, the gift anticipates the time when Jonathan will give up his right to the throne to his friend. The gift prepared David for court and for battle. The friendship prepared him for a better life. Apart from God's love and forgiveness, Jonathan's friendship was the most precious gift David was ever given, because the gift was followed by faithfulness, unselfishness, and sacrifice. There is in each of us the need to have friends and the need to be a friend. And like most things that are valuable, these don't just happen. They are the outcome of great commitment. But when we do, our lives are enriched immeasurably. [Chafin, Kenneth. The Preacher's Commentary Series, Vol. 8: 1, 2 Samuel. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1989, S. 140]
May I make an observation here? Saul was determined to remain on the throne and in control. Jonathan does just the opposite. Saul goes down in infamy; Jonathan is exalted eternally. When you talk to people at work, on the campus, or in the neighborhood, the issue is always the same: Are you willing to get off the throne of your life? Are you willing to give control to the God who loves you so much that He became the Good Shepherd who gave His life for you?
This is a daily issue for those who know the Lord. Who will be on the throne of your life today? Will I yield my abilities and opportunities to follow the One who gave up the throne of heaven to die for me? [Courson, S. 867.]
II. DAVID'S SUBMISSION TO THE KING, 2 & 5.
Saul was impressed by the courage and faith of David also as verse 2 reveals. "Saul took him that day and did not let him return to his father's house."
After the defeat of Goliath Saul permanently attached David to his staff. Over the next few years Saul sent David out on missions against the Philistines as we see in verse 5. "So David went out wherever Saul sent him, and prospered [acted wisely]; and Saul set him over the men of war. And it was pleasing in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants."
David, the amazing giant slayer, went where ever the king sent him. He submitted to authority and God lifted him up above his contemporaries.
While serving in submission to the kingdom David distinguished himself as a brave and skilled soldier. So much so that in time Saul made David commander of a thousand men (18:13). Saul was delighted to have an aide who is able to lead others, to win battles, and to be a friend to his son.
David became popular with the army after the slaying of Goliath, and his approval increased as he joined them in battle after battle. David brought to the court the gifts of a born leader and a profound trust in the God who gave him the gifts. So David came to be loved by "Saul's servants," the people at court and the palace guard.
III. DAVID'S POPULARITY WITH THE PEOPLE, 6-7.
It was the almost unanimous love of the people for David that drove a wedge between him and Saul. In verse 6 we find the soldiers coming back from a victory over the Philistines and the women coming out to celebrate. "It happened as they were coming, when David returned from killing the Philistine, that the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy and with musical instruments."
For and in the name of His Lord David became so effective militarily that his exploits were celebrated in song which we find in verse 7. "The women sang as they played, and said, "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands."
The song was not designed to disparage Saul but to celebrate the victories of their king and his aide. But the words pierced Saul's heart like an poisoned arrow. Which bring us to a fourth relationship:
IV. DAVID'S MISUNDERSTANDING WITH SAUL, 8-16.
With David's rising popularity among the people came a deterioration of his relationship with Saul. We see in verse 8 that the king became insanely jealous of Israel's new hero. "Then Saul became very angry, for this saying displeased him; and he said, "They have ascribed to David ten thousands, but to me they have ascribed thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom?"
This lifting up of David over Saul "displeased him" [or had inner turmoil], literally, was evil in his eyes. [From that day onward Saul began to look on him as his rival for the kingdom.] With David's rising popularity among the people came a deterioration of his relationship with Saul, for the king became insanely jealous of Israel's new hero.
Verse 9, "Saul looked at David with suspicion from that day on."
For the first time, Saul begins to think of David, not as a faithful aide, but as a rival for the throne. David had done absolutely nothing to merit such suspicion, but Saul's paranoid imagination ran away with it.
If Saul had been a good man, he would have been horrified at the appearance of this evil passion in his heart. He should have said, "Get thee behind me, Satan." He should have striven to the utmost to strangle it in the womb. What untold mountains of guilt and pain this good fight would have saved Saul in the after life! If he would have developed a resistance to and stamping out of this evil passion when it betrayed its presence in his heart. But instead of stamping it out, Saul nourished it; instead of extinguishing the spark, he heaped fuel upon the flame. And his jealously having been allowed to conceive, was not long of bringing forth its thorns and thistles under a fit of rage even as David was ministering to him on his harp, Saul insanely launched a javelin at him, betraying a very beastly spirit. [Blaike, W.G. 1887. A.C Armstrong & Son: Edinburgh, Scotland. pp. 299.]
The next day Saul made his first attempt on David's life as verse 10 reveals. "Now it came about on the next day that an evil spirit from God came mightily upon Saul, and he raved in the midst of the house, while David was playing the harp with his hand, as usual; and a spear was in Saul's hand."
When we indulge in jealousy and anger we give opportunity for the Devil. So as David played for him, Saul decided to use the spear in his hand to strike David to the wall. Verse 11 discloses that Saul tried to kill David twice that way. "Saul hurled the spear for he thought, "I will pin [strike] David to the wall. But David escaped from his presence twice."
So enraged [charah] was Saul at the diminishing of his glory that he, inspired by the demonic spirit (16:14-16; 19:9), tried to spear David (19:9-10) twice. He will personally attempt to kill David four more times. But God delivered David each and every time.
Though an untrained boy at the time of his anointing, David would be eminently equipped to be king of Israel at his coronation some 15 years later. His education though was not pleasant and often extremely harsh. Saul's cruel and ghastly treatment of one who had befriended and trusted him and many other trials were the hard and bitter discipline which David had to undergo in the wilderness. Not only was David thus prepared for the great work of his future life, but as a type of the Messiah he foreshadowed the deep humiliation through which Jesus was to pass on His way to His throne. God gave a glimpse of the manner in which "it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to perfect the Author [Captain] of their salvation through sufferings" (Heb. 2:10).
[In David's hand was a harp—an instrument of worship. In Saul's hand was a javelin—an instrument of war. In Saul's hand was an instrument of hurting. In David's hand was an instrument of healing. What is in your hand—worship or war, healing or hurting? Saul and David are both leaders. Both have been anointed. But one is on his way down, while the other is on his way up. You can always tell if you're on the way up or on the way down by what instrument is in your hand. A person who is losing the anointing, who is diminishing in calling, will be throwing spears, cutting people down with harsh words. Have you thrown a spear today? Have you made your "point"? When Saul threw the spear at David, this one who slew a giant didn't throw it back. Courson, p. 867]
Verse 12 reveals the root of Saul's fear. "Now Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him [David], but had departed from Saul." Fear and worry intensified until Saul became paranoid. Saul, with a kind of devilishness, hates David all the more because "the Lord is with him, and is departed from Saul."
[13 "Therefore Saul removed him from his presence and appointed him as his commander of a thousand; and he went out and came in before the people." What Saul could not do directly, he decided to try indirectly. He promoted David to be captain over a thousand soldiers, hoping that the Philistines would help him get rid of his rival. [Later David used this method on Uriah the Hittite.]
Yet throwing him out of the palace and into the danger of battle merely increased David's popularity with the army and with the people as verse 14 indicates. "David was prospering [acting wisely] in all his ways for the Lord was with him." Prospered is sakal or acted wisely.
15 "When Saul saw that he was prospering greatly, he dreaded him."
16 "But all Israel and Judah loved David, and he went out and came in before them."
Once Saul's fear of David took control, almost all his dealings with David were designed to destroy him. There were no lengths to which Saul would not go. The next stage in his jealousy is to ally itself with cunning, under the pretense of great generosity The next section begins with the offer of his daughter Merab to be David's wife. The king desireth not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king's enemies. And Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines."]
IN CLOSING
After Saul's jealously and fear of David took control, almost all his dealings with David were designed to destroy him. There were no lengths to which Saul would not go to kill him. Let us take warning at disclosure of the terrible results which overcame Saul in this chapter. He hated and tried to kill the one who was doing him and the kingdom the most good because of an evil heart of rebellion that departs from the Living God. On the other side let us be encouraged by the effect of a true relation to God in purifying and guiding life which is seen in the case of David. God being with him in all that he does, he is not only kept from retaliating on Saul, not only kept from all devices for getting rid of one who was so unjust and hateful, but David he is remarkably obedient, remarkably faithful, and by God's grace remarkably successful as we are reminded four times in this chapter [vv. 5, 14; ] in the work given him to do.
It is indeed a remarkable period of David's life, perhaps the most faithful and virtuous of any. The object of unmerited hatred, the victim of atrocious plots, the bewildered object of a despot king's mad and ungoverned fury, yet cherishing no trace of bitter feeling, dreaming of no violent plan of relief, but going in and out with amazing loyalty, while striving to prove himself a industrious, faithful, and useful servant to the master who wanted him dead and gone.
