The Notes

This coming Wednesday night, August 13, 2025, is week 6 of our Bible study series called, "Journey with King David."  This week, we are looking at the story of David and Abigail and Nabal from 1 Samuel 25.  It again has lessons for life and shows us how God uses our wilderness journey to prepare us for the palace He has prepared in the next stage of our lives. Join us at 6:30 p.m. for some mid-week encouragement for the soul.  

This summer Bible study series looks at the places of David's life that shaped him and trained him; those places and events can teach us valuable lessons and give us spiritual insight.  Join us each Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m. for some mid-week encouragement for the soul.  You don't want to miss this series!   

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 This past Wednesday night, August 6, 2025, we continued our Bible study series "Walking with King David," and the places that shaped his life.  This week, we picked up with part 2 of David's wilderness experience and 3 important moments in David's life.  We began in 1 Samuel 23.   

David has been moving from place to place, fleeing from King Saul who has been determined to kill David.  He's already experienced betrayal from a village known as Keilah.  When the Philistines were stealing grain from the threshing floors there, David attacked the Philistines and saved Keilah.  But then the leaders of Keilah betrayed him and told Saul where he was.  So he left, and stayed in the hill country of Ziph.  But the people of Ziph also told Saul where he was.  David and his 600 men went even farther into the wilderness to a mountain in Maon.  It ends up that Saul and David were on opposite sides of the mountain. Just as Saul and his men began to close in on David and his men, Saul received an urgent message that the Philistines were raiding Israel again. So Saul quit chasing David and returned to fight the Philistines.  (1 Sam. 23:24-28).  In this place called Maon, David learns that God changes things.   It looked like it was over for David.  Saul as so close, just on the opposite sides of the mountain, but God once again saved David.  Once again, a change in circumstances that only God could orchestrate.  David - and us - learn that God knows how to protect us.  He saves us from unnecessary fights and battles.  David was safe without ever lifting his spear.  Most of the time, we just need to be still and let God do His  work.  The truth is - sometimes God changes hearts, at other times He changes people entirely, but He always situations.

God intervenes for His beloved.  We are His beloved.  He loves us, and we need Him.  So the first major lesson of this week is - learn to wait on God. 

Another lesson is that Saul’s jealousy  has continued and because of it, he keeps chasing David.  We cannot change someone's heart of jealousy.  That is an issue in someone's life that only God can change.  So so what you can to live righteously, and then give the rest to God.  This is one very obvious part of David's story - that he was not trying to usurp the throne from Saul, but Saul never could get over his jealousy.  It was unnecessary, except that God used it to work in David's life and prepare him for his destiny as King.

I Samuel 24 shows us that once again, Saul is back pursuing David.  Takes 3,000 of his best men to find David.  But an interesting thing happens, at one point, Saul went into a cave to relieve himself.  But as it happened, David and his men were hiding farther back in that very cave!  David's men urged David to kill Saul.  They said, “Now’s your opportunity!” And they whispered,  “Today the Lord is putting your enemy in your hands to do with as you wish.’”  But David refused to kill Saul.  Instead, David crept up to Saul and cut off a piece of the hem of Saul’s robe.  The Bible says that even doing just that small thing, David’s conscience began bothering him.  David said to his men, ‘The Lord forbid that I should do this to my lord the king. I shouldn’t attack the Lord’s anointed one, for the Lord himself has chosen him.’  So David restrained his men and did not let them kill Saul.” (verses 3-7).

We should take note of several points here.  1 - God speaks to us, directly to us.  So be careful if others try to tell you what God is saying.  Other people may give us advice, usually it benefits them.

God gives us wisdom and discernment, and when He speaks to us directly with truth and wisdom, it will benefit us and also glorify God.  2 – The conscience is really just the Holy Spirit talking to us, preventing us from making mistakes.  The Spirit speaks truth to us, so pay attention to it.  Don’t ignore it.  Listen for that still small voice which carries God’s word to our hearts.  That is one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit - to be the voice of truth.  3 – This is a moment of maturity for David.  He is faced with a choice - ironically the same choice we all face - do I listen to God or listen to people?  David's men urge him to kill Saul.  But God is telling him something else.  This is maturity in David's walk with God.  He chooses God.  He shows restraint.  And if he had followed the advice of others, David would have lived to regret it.  He would have lived with guilt.  But David recognizes that God ordained him years ago and will put him on the throne when the time is right.  David sees that when he wears the royal robe, it must come from the Lord’s hand and not his own.   We are usually too eager to get there, we take the bait.  But not David.  And the lesson we can learn from his story is that God’s promotions require Him to prepare us and make a way.  We don’t need to force it.

1 John 2:20 says that as believers, we “have an anointing from the Holy One” and we have the Holy Spirit that guides us with truth.  That means each of us has a destiny, a purpose.  Your palace awaits.  A place God is preparing where you can be lifted up and shine for Him.

As 1 Peter 5:6 says - "humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor."  At the right time means when we are ready, and when others are ready to accept us in that position.  The truth is for David - if he had killed Saul, he would be viewed as someone who murdered the king to take his place.  It would always feel like David usurped the throne.  But when God makes a way, and David doesn't take matters into his own hand, David will be accepted as King and will be loved by the people.

4 – There is a symbolism here, too, in David's cutting off a piece of Saul's robe.

This incident echoes 1 Samuel 15, where Saul tore Samuel’s robe and Samuel told Saul, "You have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you as king over Israel!”  As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors—to one better than you.”  (1 Sam. 15:26-28).  Saul’s robe represents his office - king.  David’s act is symbolic - cutting off the corner of Saul’s robe will remind Saul of the words from Samuel - that his kingdom is torn away from him and will be given to David.

Now in our story, Saul does his business and leaves the cave.  But David came out and shouted after him.  This is verses  8 - 15:

 “My lord the king!”  “Why do you listen to the people who say I am trying to harm you?  This very day you can see with your own eyes it isn’t true.  For the LORD placed you at my mercy back there in the cave.  Some of my men told me to kill you, but I spared you.  For I said, ‘I will never harm the king - he is the LORD’s anointed one.  Look, my father, at what I have in my hand. It is a piece of the hem of your robe! I cut it off, but I didn’t kill you. This proves that I am not trying to harm you and that I have not sinned against you, even though you have been hunting for me to kill me.  “May the LORD judge between us. Perhaps the LORD will punish you for what you are trying to do to me, but I will never harm you.  As that old proverb says, ‘From evil people come evil deeds.’ So you can be sure I will never harm you.  Who is the king of Israel trying to catch anyway?  Should he spend his time chasing one who is as worthless as a dead dog or a single flea?  May the LORD therefore judge which of us is right and punish the guilty one.  He is my advocate, and he will rescue me from your power!”

Notice that David is proclaiming his innocence, but he’s also proclaiming God.  He is reminding Saul that he was anointed by God, too.   Did he anoint you for this?  Clearly, no. 

David shows us his maturity here, too, by putting judgment in God’s hands.  Ub fact, he puts everything in God’s hands.  We usually take matters into our own hands.  So the lesson gets emphasized - wait on God because how we get there matters. 

After hearing David's words, Saul repents.  He began to cry and he makes a confession - he said to David, “You are a better man than I am, for you have repaid me good for evil."  Saul recognized what could have happened; David could have killed him, but he didn't.  Saul now knows that David will be king one day, so he asks David to promise that when that happens, David will not kill his family and destroy his line of descendants.  David promised that to Saul with an oath and Saul went home. 

One take away from this event is that Saul sees that David is “the better man.” He acknowledges that - and it is just as Samuel prophesied many years earlier.  What God says will happen will in fact come to be.  And for his part, David has assurance - he is reminded once again that he will be king.  His future is confirmed, it is sure to happen.  And that had to feel pretty good after all the time that David has been waiting, fleeing, living in the wilderness.  Truth is,  if we will pay attention, God will give us the same assurances, little “God winks” all along the way.  It's a moment where we can hear God say, you’re on the right track and I'm here with you!

We closed this week's message with a look at one more attempt by Saul to take David's life.  Yes, he tries again . . . Saul just can't help himself.  In Chapter 26,  David has more betrayal as the Ziphites once again tell Saul where David is staying.  Saul takes his 3,000 troops once again, but David finds Saul's camp.  This time, David goes at night while they are all asleep with a man named Abishai who says to David, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands."  And Abishai offers to pin Saul to the ground with one thrust of his spear.  Again, David won't allow it.  David said to Abishai, “Who can lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed and be guiltless?"  And then we see even more maturity from David.  He says, "As surely as the LORD lives, the LORD himself will strike him, or his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish.  But the LORD forbid that I should lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed."  So then David and Abishai take the spear and water jug that were near the head of Saul and they leave.  The Bible says, "No one saw or knew about it, nor did anyone wake up. They were all sleeping, because the LORD had put them into a deep sleep."

What we see is that David is given chance after chance to take Saul’s life, but he doesn't do it.  He passes the tests.  David refuses to promote himself.

In a world of backstabbing, David shows us God’s way - a ways that is guiltless.

Wait on God’s timing, and in the waiting, we will be prepared by God to take that next step in life.  When we are ready, there will be no more waiting.  

And notice, too, that every event in David’s story is the result of God’s sovereign hand.  His protection!  God kept everyone asleep, even 3,000 elite soldiers.  In the end, David again appeals to Saul and gives his spear back to him.  David says to Saul - and to us - "The LORD rewards everyone for their righteousness and faithfulness.  The Lord delivered you into my hands today, but I would not lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed.  As surely as I valued your life today, so may the LORD value my life and deliver me from all trouble.” 

Those are words of maturity, and they are words we need to hear.  God rewards our righteousness.  Doing it the right way matters.  The ends don’t justify the means, not in God's kingdom. 

David will one day be king, but that will be because God promotes him and not because David overthrows Saul. 

David’s words are wasted on Saul, but don't let them be wasted in our own lives.  Hear the truth from his words: God saves us and protects us.  Wait for God to lift you up.