“Why were you not afraid to kill the LORD’s anointed one?” David asked.
And with that, David ordered that the lying Amalekite be slain at once.
They burned their bodies (1 Samuel 31)
“They brought them to Jabesh, where they burned the bodies. Then they took their bones and buried them beneath the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and they fasted for seven days.”
The Philistines had hung the headless body of Saul on a wall in Beth-shan, along with the bodies of his sons. The Israelites came by night and pulled them down.
They burned their bodies and then buried their bones. For the Israelites to burn the bodies seems strange indeed. Perhaps it was done because the bodies had already been mutilated.
Actions and reactions (1 Samuel 30)
Then he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring me the ephod!” So Abiathar brought it.
David was heart-broken to discover that his family and his livestock had been captured by raiding Amalekites, and that his hometown had been burned to the ground. I’m quite sure that his sadness turned to anger, and a strong desire for vengenance —a natural response. Yet David calls for the ephod in order to get direction from the Lord.
Although the ephod is not available to us today, the Lord wants to guide and direct our actions and reactions, if we but ask him.
Fully trustworthy (1 Samuel 29)
So Achish finally summoned David and said to him, “I swear by the LORD that you have been a trustworthy ally. I think you should go with me into battle, for I’ve never found a single flaw in you from the day you arrived until today. But the other Philistine rulers won’t hear of it.”
David was fully trustworthy as far as King Achish was concerned, but the Philistine commanders were very suspicious. They persuaded the king to send him away from the battlefield and back to his Philstine home.
Would David really have gone into battle against his own people?
It’s not make-believe (1 Samuel 28)
Finally, the woman said, “Well, whose spirit do you want me to call up?”
“Call up Samuel,” Saul replied.
For the King of Israel to consult a medium was a grievous sin indeed. Saul himself had banned mediums from his kingdom, and yet, when the Lord refused to answer the king’s requests for direction either through the prophets or by sacred lots, he sought out one in the village of Endor.
This is a difficult chapter to understand but one thing is certain — the dark world of witchcraft is real; it’s not make-believe.
A very complicated man (1 Samuel 27)
“David did not leave one person alive in the villages he attacked. He took the sheep, goats, cattle, donkeys, camels, and clothing before returning home to see King Achish.”
David lived for sixteen months in the land of the Philistines, and found favor with King Achish because of his military exploits. And yet he lied to the king about which villages he attacked, apparently so the king would not suspect any divided loyalty.
David was as shrewd as he was fierce, yet his heart was tender toward the LORD God of Israel. A very complicated man indeed.
That’s his business (1 Samuel 26)
“No!” David said. “Don’t kill him. For who can remain innocent after attacking the LORD’s anointed one? Surely the LORD will strike Saul down someday, or he will die of old age or in battle.
It is the LORD, and only the LORD, who is the ultimate judge. And whether He chooses to judge Saul now in this life, or then in the next —that’s His business.
Abigail intervened (1 Samuel 25)
David replied to Abigail, “Praise the LORD, the God of Israel, who has sent you to meet me today! Thank God for your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and from carrying out vengeance with my own hands.”
Abigail intervened on behalf of her husband, for whom she had no respect, and kept David from committing murder.
Circumstances (1 Samuel 24)
“Now’s your opportunity!” David’s men whispered to him. “Today the LORD is telling you, ‘I will certainly put your enemy into your power, to do with as you wish.’”
It certainly seemed to David’s men that the message the Lord was sending through this circumstance was clear enough —‘Kill your enemy now while you can!’.
And yet this was not the Lord’s message at all. The Lord’s will is really not discerned through circumstances, which may be favorable or unfavorable, and are usually beyond our ability to correctly interpret anyway. Rather, the Lord’s will is discerned through prayerfully applying His principles to whatever the present circumstances happen to be.
The way it should be (Psalm 63)
“O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water.”
To David, his life experiences served as metaphors for the journey his soul was taking in its pursuit of God. That must be how he was able to meditate on God’s instruction, as he called it, day and night. And that’s the way it should be.
