Scripture: 1 Samuel 19:1-24
Sermon Series: 1 Samuel: God of Reversals – Sermon 20
Do you have a favorite war movie? One of my favorite World War II movies is The Great Escape (picture) released in 1963. Probably my favorite scene is when Steve McQueen (picture), who became a superstar after the movie, escaped from the Germans by riding a motorcycle through a field. He jumped a fence on his motorcycle, but was soon captured by the Germans. Steve McQueen, who later became a Christian actually rode the motorcycle for most of that scene, though it was a stunt man who jumped the fence.
That movie was based on a true story of World War II POWs who escaped from a high security German prison camp that was built to be inescapable. After months of digging tunnels, 76 Allied POWs escaped. Unfortunately, only three were able to get out of Germany. Fifteen were captured and returned to the prison. Eight were sent to a concentration camp, though they ultimately survived the war. The remaining 50 were rounded up and shot on orders from Hitler himself, who was embarrassed and infuriated by the mass escape. Hoping to deter any further prison breaks, Hitler ordered the ashes of the 50 murdered men scattered at the prison camp by other prisoners.
1 Samuel 19 isn’t just an escape story, it’s an escapes, plural, story. It’s The Great Escapes. Four times David escapes the murderous plans of Saul. First, Saul orders his son, Jonathan to kill David. Then, Saul hurls a spear at David. He orders his henchman to arrest David at his home and bring him to the palace to be executed. Finally, God intervenes in an odd way, a miraculous way causing spiritual confusion to Saul and his soldiers so David can escape.
Yet it’s not because of David’s skill or ingenuity that he escapes. David escapes because of God’s providential protection. In his book on 1 Samuel, Robert B. Chisholm Jr. (picture) writes, “Whether by divine providence or direct intervention, God is capable of protecting His chosen servants.”
I doubt any of you are fugitives this morning from a crazy boss who’s taken out a contract on your life. Yet all of us struggle with fear of someone or something, real or imagined, that we feel we need protection from.
Because this world is a dangerous place, some people trust themselves for protection. It’s like being self-insured. If anything happens, you cover the cost yourself. There are many who only trust themselves for protection but it’s impossible, you can’t protect yourself from everything. Accidents happen, people get sick.
It’s a bit like being a turtle. Turtles (picture) carry their protection with them. But during mating season males are out scouring for mates and females are out looking for suitable nesting places…so they cross roads. But because they’re very slow, many end up as speed bumps.
Some people hire protection. Celebrities hire security. Beyonce and Jay-Z (picture) are two of the most famous musicians on the planet. Wherever they go fans recognize them. They’ve been attacked on multiple occasions by fans and haters, so they have a detail of 500 hired security personnel. They spent $4 million on bomb-proof cars and spend $8,000 a month on each of their bodyguards. But even the best security team can’t always protect you.
Yet, there’s a third option. It’s the best option and the only secure one. Yet, at first it seems foolish because it’s trusting in what you can’t see. Faith is needed. God’s people trust Him for protection.
That’s who David trusted. As you place your faith in God’s protection, a faith that you can’t see, your faith grows and your faith like David’s is proven out in experience. Many of you can testify that God’s protection defies logic. It far surpasses our own efforts and any hired protection. God amazingly has it all covered but we have to trust Him.
The same protection available for David is available to us. 1 Samuel 19 is more than The Great Escapes. It’s the protection of our great God that enabled the escapes and we all need it. If you’re taking notes…
1.God can protects us by a friend’s intervention, vss. 1-7. Are you a Tom Petty (picture) fan? Tom Petty of the Heartbreakers is remembered for more than the portfolio of music he left us. He’s also remembered for the battle he waged against the music industry. His victory changed how artists negotiate with recording companies. It was no surprise that a few years after that memorable battle, he wrote a song, “I Won’t Back Down”: “No, I won’t back down. You can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won’t back down.”
That’s like King Saul. He won’t quit. After foiled plot upon foiled plot, he won’t back down. As we move from chapter 18 into 19, his subtle murderous plots move into open hostility.
Saul would have made a good Michael Corleone (picture). While Saul probably doesn’t know that David has been anointed by Samuel to replace him, he recognizes that God’s hand is on David and that he has God’s favor.
Previously, he attempted to kill David in battle through the agency of the Philistines. Now it’s open season. He lets those around him know that his intent is to kill David no matter what.
If you live for Jesus, you’ll have enemies. And unless we get this, we’ll have difficulty connecting this historical record with where we are now in the 21st century. We need to ask: “How do these events, so far removed from us by time and geography, how do they have any bearing upon our lives now?”
They unveil what a true friend is. King Saul lets his son, Jonathan, in on the plot. Remember Jonathan is next in line for the throne. If anyone should have said, “How can I help kill him Dad?,” it should have been Jonathan. But Jonathan is a servant of God before he’s the son of Saul. He knows how wrong this is, so he warns David. He takes great risk protecting David and confronting his Dad.
This passage also shows how little Jonathan trusted Saul. He tells David to hide before Jonathan has this conversation with Saul. Jonathan didn’t want David killed by Saul in a moment of rage, so he kept David safe until he could see what would happen.
It’s likely that Jonathan by this time knew about David’s anointing. That makes it all the more remarkable that he’s willing to go to such lengths to protect David. If David was going to be king, it meant that Jonathan wasn’t going to be king. It means Jonathan had become content with the prospect of David’s kingship and his own subordination to David’s rule.
What kind of friend are you? Jonathan was loyal. Are you a loyal friend? When someone gossips or trash talks a friend, what do you do? If it’s another Christian, biblically we need to urge them to not talk to us according to Mathew 18:15- 20, but to go to the one that they have a problem with. It’s not easy to speak up but it’s the right thing to do…and Jonathan did it.
They unveil how to biblically problem solve. What Jonathan does here is masterful. He presents an elaborate defense and a very well stated one.
He stands up for what’s right. What do you do when someone in authority tells you to do something that’s clearly against God’s commands? The Bible’s answer is very clear. Though Scripture tells us we’re to obey those in authority over us, when those in authority command us to do something violating God’s Word, we’re to obey the higher authority of God Himself. We’re to obey God rather than man. Though Saul was king his plot was evil.
We have an example of this in the book of Acts. When the disciples began preaching in Jesus’ name, as Jesus had commanded them to do, the religious authorities arrested them and beat them. “Then they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, ‘Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God…We must obey God rather than men!’” (Acts 4:18-19, 5:29).
Henry David Thoreau (picture) wrote in his essay on Civil Disobedience: “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.” In other words when the laws of government are unjust, the right place for a just person is in jail. When someone in authority tells us to do something that violates God’s Word, we must obey God rather than man. Saul tells Jonathan to kill David and Jonathan rightly refuses. Instead of blindly following orders, Jonathan takes God’s side against evil and obeys God rather than even the king.
He turns the light on the good qualities. He points out that David’s victories brought good to Saul. Saul hates David. He doesn’t want to hear good things about David, but Jonathan points out the positive. It’s easy to focus on the negative. Do we look for opportunities to point out the positive?
He corrects false accusations. He points out that David hadn’t sinned against Saul. Jonathan isn’t in Saul’s face but instead he talks to him with graciousness. Proverbs 15:1 says, “A soft answer turns away wrath…” He points out David’s innocence.
He calls sin sin. While Jonathan is respectful, three times he calls Saul’s plot “sin.” That must have stung! Sin is not to be taken lightly. Saul was planning murder, violating the Ten Commandments by “sinning against innocent blood.” Under the covenant, this was serious and dealt with harshly under God’s law. Saul had no justification for what he was plotting.
So Saul repents, at least temporarily. He makes an oath, “As the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death” (vs. 6). Though he makes a lifelong oath in that God always lives, he doesn’t keep it. It’s false repentance.
It’s easy to say “I’m sorry.” True repentance must be followed by change. It’s like a guy who hits his wife promising to never do it again but the next time he’s mad, he pops her. Talk is cheap. While we must forgive someone who admits they’re wrong, there are to be fruits of repentance (Mt. 3:8).
At least temporarily Jonathan brought about restoration. Today, when there is conflict in the church and you step in to bring reconciliation between the two parties, that’s God at work. God loves restoration and unity.
Who saved David’s life from certain death? Jonathan or God? The immediate saving of David’s life came from Jonathan’s courage, but the ultimate protection of David’s life was from God. It was God’s invisible hand working behind the scenes through Jonathan that saved David’s life.
2. God protects us by leading us to run away, vss. 8-10. We don’t know how much time elapsed between verses 7 and 8. It could have been days, weeks or months.
Holding a spear in his hand indicates that Saul was having problems. Only a deeply troubled person sits armed for war in one of the safest houses in Israel. But Saul is under divine judgment. That explains why this harmful spirit is allowed to plague him.
There’s a sad irony here. David strikes down the Philistines and they flee; Saul tries to strike David down and he flees. They’re the same verbs. The narrator wants us to know that while David is the victor over his enemies, he’s being treated like an enemy. It underscores David’s legitimacy to the throne and Saul’s disqualification. Saul treats David like an enemy Philistine.
David has faithfully served God, won battles for the Lord. Now he serves Him by playing his harp for the king. Has he wronged Saul? No, David is doing Saul good rather than evil. He’s living righteously.
Living for Christ is the most exciting adventure in the world, but it’s hard. G. K. Chesterfield said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” It’s a lot easier to punch your enemy’s lights out, to return fire, to devise ways to fight back, to get even because all of that satisfies your sinful nature.
I think David was ready for this. His spidey senses were tingling. He’s a gifted warrior. He could easily have grabbed that spear and hurled it back, and he probably wouldn’t miss. Instead he fled, never to return. He lived as a fugitive until Saul’s death ten years later. This is a pivotal moment.
Why was Saul tormented by a harmful spirit from the Lord at this point? We don’t know. It seems that this harmful spirit shows up after he’s been fixated on his anger and envy for long periods of time. There’s a lesson for us here. The Bible warns us of the danger of long-term anger and jealousy.
This harmful spirit led Saul to attempt to murder David, his greatest warrior, for the third time. But God had given David athletic abilities, so he could slip away from the spear. It ended up in the wall instead of in his chest.
At first, it looks like David saved himself with his athletic abilities but there’s more to this story. Who gave David those abilities? Who prompted David to look up from his playing to see Saul lunging with the spear at just the right time? If David had looked up a fraction of a second later, he’d have been dead. God was protecting David again with His invisible hand. God is at work behind the scenes protecting David and us. We just don’t see Him.
3. God protects us through the loyalty of others, vss. 11-17. Did you ever put pillows under the covers to sneak out when your parents thought you were in bed?
David runs home, yet home was no refuge. Saul had posted henchman to watch the house and dispose of David in the morning. One can imagine an animated, whispered conversation between Michal and David in their little kitchen. Maybe Michal had seen Saul’s men in their positions. We know that from later in her life that she was very observant.
She loves David. She also knows her father and knows that if David doesn’t escape now, he’ll be dead in the morning. Perhaps their home was on the city wall like Rahab’s house in Jericho. But in some way Michal let David down through the window and he escaped.
She then set the stage to buy David a little time. In an act that revealed as much about her spiritual condition as it did about her commitment to her husband, she stuffs an idol under the covers with goats hair to look like his head. We have to wonder what she was doing with an idol. Apparently, she’s depending on idols to save her husband. Michal is daddy’s little girl with her quickness to choose deception. She’d learned deception from the master.
When Saul’s gang knocks, she meets them at the door with a thermometer in her hand and Vick’s vapor rub on her fingers. It was a masterful delay tactic, though it earned the wrath of her father. She deceived him with another deception that David had threatened her life, which would help Saul justify some of his hatred for David. Rather than honestly appeal and defend David as her brother did, her choices fuel Saul’s hatred and paranoia.
It’s ironic to find two of Saul’s children seeking to preserve the life of the man destined to take their father’s throne. While we love her loyalty, we disagree with her ethics. She may be Jonathan’s sister but she has little of his integrity. “It’s never right to do wrong to get a chance to do right.”
Once again, it all looks so ordinary, but God was behind it. Michal may not have been a believer. If she was a believer, she wasn’t godly.
Here’s the lesson. Just as God saved David’s life through Jonathan, a godly friend, God now saves David’s life through Michal, a far less godly woman. God’s invisible hand is at work not just in the lives of believers like Jonathan but also in far less godly people like Michal.
It reminds me of the story of a woman who locked the keys inside her car as she was trying to get home to her daughter who was sick. She didn’t know what to do, so she prayed and asked God to send help. Within five minutes a motorcycle roared up. A rough, dirty-looking biker got off and saw her situation. He asked her if he could help. The woman told him yes, as she needed to hurry and get home to her daughter. In less than a minute the car was opened. She hugged the man and through her tears said, “Thank you so much! You’re such a nice man.” The man replied; “No, I’m not, Lady. I just
got out of prison for car theft.” Then she hugged him again and with tears cried out to God, “You even sent me a professional!” God can always rescue us and sometimes he sends “professionals.”
4. God protects us through divine intervention, vss. 18-24. When you’re under attack, who do you turn to? Who do you trust? Where do you run? Where you run says a lot about you. David runs to Samuel the Prophet.
We haven’t heard from Samuel since David’s anointing in chapter 16. David’s reeling from murderous plot after plot. Later he’ll say there’s only a step between himself and death. He bares his soul to God’s man, Samuel.
When David went to Ramah, he didn’t have far to go. Ramah was only two miles from Saul’s town of Gibeah. If David hurried, he’d have been there in 30 minutes. David spills his guts to Samuel. I’m sure there were many tears from both Samuel and David. Finally, David and Samuel ended up staying at Naioth in Ramah.
It doesn’t take long for Saul to learn David’s new address. As expected, Saul sent his henchmen to take care of business. This should be easy. Samuel is an elderly prophet and couldn’t defend himself. David was without his men. It should be a piece of cake. Boy, were they in for a surprise.
There’s more Hebrew irony here. You may remember that it was in Ramah that Saul first met Samuel. It’s where his kingship began. But now it’s David, the newly anointed king who meets Samuel there. What could this old prophet do? Saul has informers everywhere. Nothing is sacred to Saul – he won’t grant David sanctuary even with the prophet. David’s back is to the wall. He out of options. But God intervenes with an unusual manifestation of power over- whelming Saul’s hit squad.
This is certainly peculiar. We seldom see people sent on an evil errand who are taken over by God in the middle of it. But that’s exactly what happens. People who are not prophets, in fact, who are thugs who probably had no use for prophets, fall subject to the Spirit of God and begin to say things that are characteristic of people in a trance, like those seeing a vision.
We think of prophecy as the foretelling of future events. The word can also mean to pray, sing or praise God which is probably the meaning here. God’s Spirit turns warriors into worshipers. He renders them powerless to capture David.
You can have a religious experience that has no eternal value. They’re not necessarily evidences of salvation. Matthew 7:23-24: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
Judas preached, did miracles and cast out demons but was still lost. Many believe that they’re saved based on some feeling or a mystical experience.
These thugs don’t become prophets. They merely lose their rational reasoning for a bit. Once David is safe, they go right back to being thugs. But it’s God’s direct intervention on David’s behalf that saves his life. Three different gangs are sent to find him. The next thing you know strange reports are drifting back to Gibeah about weird spiritual things happening in Ramah.
Saul finally decides to take matters into his own hands. Good thugs are hard to find these days. Saul is sure that whatever happened to them, he will not lose control of himself. He probably mumbled, “if you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself.” So he heads off to Ramah.
While his soldiers got to Naioth, but even before Saul gets to Naioth when he stopped to ask directions to Naioth at the well in Secu, the Holy Spirit overpowers him, and he begins to prophesy. The Holy Spirit overpowered Saul’s will and then began reeling him into Naioth like a fish on a hook.
God’s Spirit is no respecter of persons. What an embarrassing scene for Saul. The once great man is no longer great. He’s naked, shamed and rendered powerless. Naked doesn’t necessarily mean in the buff though it can. The idea is one of disgrace. Regardless of how it’s interpreted, the rejected king must disrobe from his royalty. His ecstatic state lasted an entire day giving David plenty of time to escape.
Is there any question about who’s really protecting David? Is there any question that Saul, even with his army, is totally helpless in the face of God’s power? The word escape appears five times in our text. God helps David escape using varied means. Protection and deliverance are God’s work.
David’s still on the run. He’ll be running for the next decade. He’s a fugitive – hiding, dodging, evading Saul. But God gave him an anchor of faith. He can look back and see God’s providential protection in saving him.
God protects David by a friend intervening for him; by a spear missing its mark; by a loyal wife helping him out a window and by God’s Spirit rendering his enemy helpless. God can protect His people anytime, anywhere from anything. He’s still protecting His people today. God can protect you!
Conclusion: On November 20, 1988, the Los Angeles Times reported: A screaming women trapped in a car dangling from a freeway overpass in East Los Angeles was rescued early that Saturday morning. The 19-year-old woman apparently fell asleep behind the wheel about midnight. The car, which plunged through a guardrail, was dangling by its left rear wheel. A half dozen passing motorists stopped, grabbed some ropes from one of their vehicles, tied the ropes to the back of the woman’s car, and hung on until rescue units arrived. A ladder was extended from below to help stabilize the car while firefighters tied the vehicle to tow trucks with cables and chains.
“Every time we would move the car,” said one of the rescuers, “she’d yell and scream. She was in pain.” It took almost two and a half hours for the passersby, Highway Patrol officers, tow truck drivers, and firefighters – about 25 people in all – to secure the car and pull the woman to safety.
“It was kinda funny,” L.A. County Fire Capt. Ross Marshall recalled later. “She kept saying, ‘I’ll do it myself.’”
Isn’t that us? We hate to need others to protect us but we do. We hate to need God to protect us but we do. We live in a culture of fear where people are worried about everything from epidemics to identity theft to nuclear bombs. 1 Samuel 19 shows that God saves His people and protects them.
Does this mean that believers will be immune from danger? No, but it does mean that regardless of the physical, emotional, or financial battles coming our way, God Himself is our refuge. So what can we learn? What are the Take Home Truths?
Believers are not insulated from danger. David, as God’s chosen servant, was not insulated from danger, but he was protected by God in the danger. We must not fall into a trap of thinking that God owes us an easy life. It wasn’t true for David. It wasn’t true for Jesus. It’s never been true for the people of God. But God sustained David in danger. He didn’t take away the suffering or danger. The same is true for us. Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
God’s protection is diverse and ironic. God used Jonathan and then a nail-biting escape out the window to protect David. He used Saul and his thugs “prophesying” to protect him. God doesn’t have one method or plan. He can use anything and everything to protect us.
God’s protection is thorough. Many of you sitting here are confident that God will protect you, you’re just not sure that He will protect your kids or your spouse. Saul could have become enraged and taken Jonathan, Michal and Samuel out…but he didn’t. God protected them too from this crazy man.
God’s protection is instructive. In chapter 19 we observed that God uses Jonathan and Michal to protect David but Samuel, the prophet can do nothing for him. It’s the Spirit of God that protects David, not Samuel.
Only God can truly protect and deliver us. “Salvation is from the Lord.” God may use human instruments but the means of deliverance must never eclipse the Source of our deliverance.
Too many miss that our greatest need for protection is from our own sin and guilt. Christ’s cross is God’s protection for sinners, like us. Romans 5:8 says, “God commends His love toward us in this, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Note that phrase, “while we were yet sinners” because God let His Son die on the cross for filthy sinners like you and me so we would be protected from God’s justice.
As Jesus said in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Aren’t you glad He didn’t say, “For God so loved the rich,” or “For God so loved the famous,” or “For God so loved the beautiful,” It doesn’t say that! Nor does it say, “For God so loved the sober, or successful, or young, or old, or Republicans, or Democrats.”
No, God’s love is wide enough for the whole world, which means you’re included in that love…and I am too! Aren’t you glad!? As Tim Keller (picture) says, “Here’s the gospel: you’re more sinful than you ever dared believe; you’re more loved than you ever dared hope.”
God wants to protect you from your greatest need, your sin. His protection instructs us that we need a Savior. David’s only hope was God’s protection. Our only hope is a Savior and the protection of the cross. Have you come to the cross? Are you trusting God to protect you and be your Savior?