David and Saul

 Many of us have had the unfortunate experience of working for an employer, boss, or supervisor who was a poor leader. Sometimes they take credit for your work or try to sabotage your good efforts.  Often working in such an environment can be discouraging. 

Commonly, many respond in kind attempting to discredit the boss or ceasing to put much effort into their assignment, but God calls us to a higher standard than that of the common man. Here we glimpse interactions between David and Saul as we look at 1 Samuel 18:5-16.  In the relationship between Saul and David one demonstrates that we are to serve with excellence even when our work is not appreciated by others.

In one of the many conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians, or Philistenes as they are called in the Bible, a stalemate between Israel and the Philistine army finally ended with the Israelite army pursing the enemy and plundering their camps after David killed Goliath. Even though David had been playing the lyre and remained in service whenever king Saul needed him, Saul determined to find out more about Israel’s new warrior hero. He sent his commander to fetch David.  The king’s commander, Abner, found David, still toting Goliath’s head.  Saul, eager to add a skilled military man to his cabinet, determined that David would remain and not return to his father’s house.

Saul made David an executive officer in charge of his army, and we will see more of the relationship between Saul and David.

1 Samuel 18:5-7

5 David marched out with the army and was successful in everything Saul sent him to do. Saul put him in command of the fighting men, which pleased all the people and Saul’s servants as well. 6 As the troops were coming back, when David was returning from killing the Philistine, the women came out from all the cities of Israel to meet King Saul, singing and dancing with tambourines, with shouts of joy, and with three-stringed instruments. 7 As they danced, the women sang: Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands.

The Israelites, since the earliest reports of those that Moses sent to spy out the land, had feared the "giants of the land." Following the death of Goliath, a giant of Gath, descendant of the Rephaim.  Gath was one of the five principal cities of the Philistines located to the north and east of present Gaza.  Goliath is described as "a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, whose height was six cubits and a span" or approximately 9 feet tall.  Giants were first described in the Bible in Genesis 6.  Originally they may have been heroes, particularly to the non-Hebrew population, but after Noah's Flood their good reputation had waned in the eyes of the Hebrews.  Giants lived together as a number of separate races before and after the flood.  The Nephilim appear to be present before and after the flood.  The Emites, the Ammonites (or Anakites) and the Rephaim existed after the flood and appear to be separate entities.  

World’s tallest man
Compared to Andre the Giant

The Anakim seem to be derived from the Nephilim.  The Rephaim, though similar, appear to be distinct from them with respect to family lineage.  One of the most prominent Rephaim was Og, King of Bashan, who slept in a beadstead of iron nine cubits in length and four cubits wide; or some 12 to 13 FEET tall and some 6 feet wide...truly a "King sized bed."  If Goliath was the son of Rapha, he is likely to be descended from the Rephaim. But being brought up in Gath, an ancient stronghold of the Anakim, could suggest he may also have had some Anakim relatives, making his champion status even more significant in the ancient world – a "giant warrior" descended from giant warriors.  For a modern reference the deceased wrestler Andre the Giant was almost 7 and a half feet tall and weighed some 520 pounds.  Goliath would have had stood two heads taller than Andre! The worlds tallest living man is nearly 9 feet tall and look how he towers over Andre!

Because of Saul’s failure to lead Israel according to God’s standards, in chapter 15 God sent the prophet Samuel to Tell Saul that God was removing his spirit from him as king and that God would anoint the next king.  Then the Spirit of the Lord left Saul alone and a spirit of harm tormented Saul. When one of Saul’s servants suggested that someone who played the lyre come and play soothing music for the king to quell his tormenting spirit, David’s name surfaced. David served Saul in relative obscurity, until he killed Goliath. 

Then Saul elevated David and he became a permanent part of the king’s court. He gained practical knowledge while serving there that would equip him to become king of Israel some years later. Not only that, but at the same time that the Holy Spirit left Saul, he had joined powerfully with David. David's education included many unpleasant experiences, especially because of Saul’s extreme jealousy. David’s attitude, conduct, and work ethic demonstrated his success, and everyone in Saul’s court and throughout Israel recognized it and praised him for it. He submitted himself to Saul and sought to serve him wisely.  David refused to undercut Saul’s authority. 

Although he had little military experience, his abilities on the battlefield became evident to all. Saul rewarded him by appointing him commander in the standing army of professional military men, a remarkable promotion. David’s stunning defeat of Goliath led to the Israelite army chasing the Philistine army and eventually defeating them. Afterwards, David led a triumphant march through every town celebrating their victory over Israel’s archenemy. For a time, his victories restored Israel’s supremacy in Canaan.  The women danced to the sound of tambourines and three-stringed instruments and sang as they played.

The poetry they sang, only five words in Hebrew, actually linked Saul and David together for their military successes and was not intended as a slight towards Saul, but rather as an exclamation point for David's success. Saul received top billing in the song. The women probably sang the two lines antiphonally with the whole crowd joining them in the response. Eventually even the Philistines heard this song in Gath and Aphek.  Another way of understanding this chant is to conceptualize it as Saul won battles and killed thousands! David FINISHED the war when he killed Goliath and that resulted in killing a threatening ARMY! Or Saul won the battles and David won the War!

We next see that Saul took this song the wrong way, AND took it personally, which did not sooth his tormented spirt.

1 Samuel 18:8-11

8 Saul was furious and resented this song. “They credited tens of thousands to David,” he complained, “but they only credited me with thousands. What more can he have but the kingdom? ”9 So Saul watched David jealously from that day forward. 10 The next day an evil spirit sent from God came powerfully on Saul, and he began to rave inside the palace. David was playing the lyre as usual, but Saul was holding a spear, 11 and he threw it, thinking, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David got away from him twice.

David had unwittingly captured the imagination of the people and had received the people’s praise and affirmation that Saul craved for himself. Saul hated the idea of having David mentioned in the same breath as himself, thus placing the young boy who had killed the giant at the same rank as the king. This demonstrated a flaw in Saul’s character—he felt threatened by or begrudged the success of his subordinate. Saul overreacted to the song. 

He knew his kingdom would end, and now he had spliced together Samuel’s prediction from chapter 15:26-29: Samuel replied to Saul, “I will not return with you. Because you rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.” When Samuel turned to go, Saul grabbed the corner of his robe, and it tore. Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingship of Israel away from you today and has given it to your neighbor who is better than you.This dreaded expectation hung over him and eventually led to his demise. Saul apparently had concluded the young shepherd might be the one about whom Samuel had spoken.

As he was blinded to David’s excellent character, Saul chose to see him in an evil light for jealousy and suspicion had engulfed Saul’s thinking.  Everything he heard David say, he heard with suspicious ears. Everything David did, Saul watched with suspicious eyes. Saul’s thoughts became twisted with suspicion and he descended deeper into a pit of desperation. Ever since Samuel had pronounced God’s rejection of him, Saul had constantly scanned those around him looking for his possible supplanter.  Having allowed his jealousy to fester and take root in his heart, Saul wasted no time in attempting to eliminate his perceived rival.  

As a result of God withdrawing HIS presence from Saul, a supernatural assault of harmfulness filled the void that God once held. God did not make Saul do wrong by deliberately overpowering his will through sending an evil spirit. Saul had numerous opportunities to accept God’s leading through Samuel. However, Saul had chosen to disobey God and ignore His commands, and the results were not "pretty."  An analogy might be Saul is driving a car on an expressway and he is tooling along at over 100 miles per hour.  All is well because he can see where he is going and his car is working well.  But when God withdrew his spirit from him, Saul suddenly had the light withdrawn from him, effectively putting a blindfold on him in the middle of the Indianapolis 500.  He can't see where to go, he can't see what to do, when to turn, what cars to avoid, he can't see what is happening around him.  Saul was "in the dark" when God's Spirit left him to "do things his own way."  He experienced some really bad days because of this evil spirit that was guiding him in his darkness.

Another analogy might be Saul was visiting the natural caverns and looking at all the wonderful underground sights when the lights go out and a harmful prankster "guides" him into walls, rocks, puddles and the like just for fun.  Fun for the harmful spirit, NOT for Saul.  The evil spirit had observable effects on Saul as it rushed over him and dominated his personality. Saul permitted his jealousy of David to boil over and fill his heart and mind with bitter hatred. Saul did not, and he CHOSE NOT, to forgive David.  This amplified the influence of the harmful spirit as Saul chose to LIVE with The spirit of harm. 

Saul began to rave, a word in Hebrew frequently translated as prophesy.  Saul prophesying under the influence of a harmful spirit would identify Saul as a false prophet. Apparently Saul screamed uncontrollably and acted like a madman, spewing out ecstatic and hate-filled words with abnormal behavior. Like when the "bad guy" in a movie rants about how he will destroy the hero in supernatural and overkill types of ways: "I'm gonna skin you alive, boil you in your own blood and then rip off your head, and make you eat it....even though you won't have a head" (?!).🙂   

Performing one of his regular duties, David provided music for this previously tranquil scene as he strummed his lyre when Saul all at once erupted into a savage tantrum. Saul had his spear; maybe a sign of his kingship, kind of like a scepter rather than a full length weapon, but as Saul was a warrior king, it is easy to envision that his personal weapon would likely be near at hand for ready use.  Either way, Saul committed assault with a deadly weapon upon David.  However it occurred, Saul tried to kill David, not once, but TWICE in this passage.

While it would seem natural for David to be afraid of Saul, the opposite occurred. 

1 Samuel 18:12-16

12 Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with David but had left Saul. 13 Therefore, Saul sent David away from him and made him commander over a thousand men. David led the troops 14 and continued to be successful in all his activities because the Lord was with him. 15 When Saul observed that David was very successful, he dreaded him. 16 But all Israel and Judah loved David because he was leading their troops.

Rather than David being afraid of Saul the king who had the power to do away with the musician, it was Saul who feared David. Having hurled his spear twice and failed twice, Saul’s fear of David only increased. Saul had no faith, so he fell into fear. Without faith, Saul could not please God.  Saul had been disobedient to God. Saul said in 1 Samuel 15, that this was because he listened to the people in order to please them.  As a result God's Holy Spirit was withdrawn from Saul. Then the adoration of the people was withdrawn from Saul, AND no matter what he did, it seemed that Saul could not reclaim the adoration of either the people OR of the God which allowed him to be king. Saul became an example of a Godless leader.  Even though he sat on the throne as the king of Israel, Saul knew God was with David. That David did not leave Saul immediately after these two attempts on his life perhaps stemmed from his own sense that God had placed him in Saul’s court for a purpose. 

Saul’s fear arose from the consciousness of knowing the Spirit of God had left him. Such an awareness should have served to warn Saul. However, he had his mind set on protecting his position and destroying David, ignoring the voice of his conscience. Therefore, Saul’s downfall became inevitable. When he could not tolerate David’s success in the eyes of the people, Saul took his focus away from God. He saw that the Lord blessed David, but he could not stand the thought of David becoming king.  

Saul could not stand to have David in his house any longer. Fearing David posed a threat against his throne and the dynasty that he hoped to establish through his son, Jonathan, Saul removed David from his presence. By sending David away from his court, Saul hoped to curb the admiration of the people, especially that of his son.

Putting David into active duty, Saul did not promote him to commander in order to bless him but to set him up to fail. David would be out of his sight, but more likely, Saul hoped the inexperienced leader would fail miserably. Even one failure on the battlefield would erode David’s popularity with the people.  Or even better, that he would be killed in the fighting.  By increasing David’s time on the battlefield, Saul increased the possibility David would suffer defeat.  

But his plans backfired on Saul. David carried out his military enterprises with such wisdom that his army won all its battles. The battlefield afforded David with better opportunities to show that he possessed not only the qualities of a champion, but he also had the talents and prudence of a military general and the support of Israel's God. David’s success came because he behaved wisely in all his ways and acted with godly insight. 

David could have responded differently when Saul threw his spear at him or when Saul put him out of the palace and onto the battlefield. But David knew the secret to anyone’s success comes through living in a way that honors God. David never gave into a victim’s mentality. He had been the target of Saul’s evil plots, but he behaved wisely. Despite every attempt Saul made to abuse, ridicule, slander, assault, or destroy him, David never returned any of those evil actions against Saul. Because he lived in this way, David enjoyed God’s favor. In spite ofSaul’s evil plans to destroy him, David continued to walk in the ways of the Lord and prospered on the battlefield. God turned all Saul’s devices against the king and for David’s advantage. 

Previously the writer reported Saul “was afraid of David.” Here in these verses a different word is used. It’s root meaning is to dwell or remain. Saul’s fear no longer subsided. He couldn’t be soothed, but he remained or dwelt in constant dread because David’s successes confirmed that the Lord had blessed David and departed from himself.

David’s popularity increased more and more among the people because God was with him. God had His hand on David even though Saul had schemed against him. Saul tried all kinds of attacks and placed barriers in David’s path to thwart his success, but God would not allow Saul to have the victory.

Draw close to God and live by God's directives and the support of God will not depart from you.