The First King of Israel (7)

The Final Chapter

Hello Imprint, so glad you’re all here tonight! For those of you who don’t know, this is something we do every week! We love playing games and running around and playing Mario kart and smash bros, don’t get me wrong, but more importantly we value this time here where we get to learn from the Bible, which is the spoken word of God Himself. That might sound kinda wild but it is totally and 100% true. We do not think that this time is so great because of Austin’s teaching, not at all. Rather it is simply because we are teaching from this book. When you do that properly, only good things come from it.

Okay, to make sure everyone is caught up, lets do our weekly recap.

In week 1 we learned God’s desire for His people was to be what?

Set apart, different.

They disobeyed that by doing what?

Demanding a king

The first three characters we introduced were?

Samuel, Saul, David

We learned God is bigger than our what?

Disobedience

True or False, God cares about the deed more than he does about the heart and intention?

False

We learned that David did what by the power of the God?

Took down Goliath

What were the two things that we are supposed to trust the Lord in from last week?

Authority in our lives, and His Timing

Great job everyone!

Okay this week is going to be a little different than the past few weeks. There is a lot more to the story of David. And I mean a lot, this is only the beginning. But I will wrap up the story of King Saul and then therefore the beginning of the reign of David as king.

We left off when David spares Saul’s life in the cave. And Saul momentarily repents for his sin. In the chapters after this it contains more stories of David and Saul going back and forth. There is actually another crazy instance when David is hiding from Saul, and then Saul camps up right near where David is hiding without knowing it, and then David proceeds to infiltrate Saul’s encampment.

Idk if many of you like video games but this encounter was exactly like one of those stealth missions in video games where you have to accomplish an objective without alerting any guards or enemies. This was exactly that. David and his man Abishai tiptoed and snuck through the camp not waking up Saul’s sleeping soldiers, making it all the way to the middle of the camp where Saul was sleeping and with full ability to finish off Saul right there, David again chooses not to. Instead, David takes Saul’s spear and his bedside jar of water and leaves. Once again, the Saul meets David the next day with his spear and water, and begs for forgiveness and promises never to do harm to David again.

Continuing on, at some point in this time period Samuel the prophet actually dies, probably of old age. And everyone mourned for him. But this means that Saul does not have his go-to, hold-my-hand guy for wisdom in trusting the Lord in times of battle. So one of the craziest and randomest things in the OT happens here in chapter 28 just right in time for Halloween… It says Saul had kicked out all of the Witches and people who practiced witchcraft from the kingdom, but apparently there was one left who worked undercover, knowing that she would probably be put to death if she was discovered.

Knowing Israel was on the brink of ruin because of his military state, Saul goes undercover to meet this lady, hoping she could bring up Samuel to talk to him from the dead. Literally like a force ghost from Star Wars. She actually seemingly does this successfully and Samuel is called up by this witch and actually talks to Saul, saying you’re dumb for going to a witch and using dark magic, you should not have done this. If the Lord has rejected you, there is nothing i’m going to do for you man (shrug).

Now we aren't totally 100% sure of what is going on here, but this lady is genuinely surprised that she see’s Samuel as she is performing this necromancy magic. The Bible doesn’t condemn this stuff in the bible because it is totally a hoax, but because it is evil in the sight of the Lord, and is a reliance on something other than God. Which we know does not end well. Regardless, we see that God uses this crazy thing to remind Saul of his position.

Saul is desperately trying everything he can to regain his position and power as king, but as you can see, he is still not seeking the Lord and trusting in Him! He is going to literal black magic witchcraft before he is trusting the Lord.

Fast forward down to the final chapter, chapter 31.

The Philistines were once again fighting against Israel and Saul went to battle with his men. Eventually being wounded badly by a Philistine archer. And Saul knew his time was ending. At this time he turns to his armour bearer. And says, “Draw your sword and thrust it through me, lest these philistines come and thrust me through, and mistreat me.”

But being terrified of being accused of murdering the king, the armour bearer would not do it. So Saul took his own sword, held it out in front of him, pointed it at his heart, and fell upon it. Following this, his armour bearer does the same. Knowing his fate would come too. And thus, we see the tragic end of the Chosen First King of Israel.

There has been an abundance of things we can learn from this juxtaposition, this contrast between these two men that is astounding to me. On one hand we see a man who has tremendous potential, but when He put his faith and trust in himself and things of this world, He failed. Because those things failed.

On the other we see a man who was gifted with the ability to comprehend the goodness and faithfulness of the all powerful, all knowing, ever present, and totally good God. And he succeeded, because God never fails.

David become king shortly after Saul’s death and ends up being an amazing king. Doing everything and more so much better than Saul did. But listen, David was not perfect by any means. If you want to read more about His life, look at the book of 2 Samuel. I strongly encourage you to continue reading through David’s life is full of really really bad sins. The worst of which including sleeping with one of his soldiers wives, and the covering it up by sending the soldier out to die. Now David responded differently in sin than Saul did, going immediately to genuine repentance every time, but he was not a man without blemish. Not even close.

No human is capable of going about life and living it perfectly. I’ve mentioned it before but it is such an important thing that we all really need to realize. No human is capable of doing life perfectly. Not even the Shepherd, giant slayer, man after God’s own heart, warrior king, David. We ALL sin and fall short of God’s glory.

And the bible says in Romans 3:23

English Standard Version Chapter 6

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You see David, Saul and everyone who lived before that knew of this coming saviour. God promised his people from the very beginning of time that there would be someone that would come to earth and take on this weight of sin and condemnation that they carried.

This is called the “Protoevangelium” Big word can y’all say “Protoevangelium”

This means the first Gospel. It acknowledges the curse of mankind through Adam’s sin and God’s provision of a saviour who would take the curse upon Himself.

This concept was passed down through Adam and Eve, through Abraham all the way to David and forever after David.

And God actually promises David that this saviour will come from his lineage! The Saviour will be one of his childrens children Generations down the line. The prophet Isaiah prophesies that a son named Emmanuel or -- God with us — will come from the virgin birth. And the government will be on his shoulders.

Later on in this story of Israel, after David passes away, Israel proceeds with a continuation of a pattern of failure and lack of trust in God. Followed by a deliverance from God. In face Israel spends a very large portion of the rest of their existence in captivity of a pagan nation. Babylon, Persia and Rome all take turns capturing Israel.

Meanwhile the Israelites are crying out. Where is this deliverer that is promised! Where is this new David that will come and deliver us from our captors!?

This is the state we are in before Christ too! We are broken and sick in our sin. There is no hope for us outside of the God Himself.

And there doesn’t seem to be any good reason that God would go through what He did for us! We do not have anything to offer God that is worthy of Him. So why would He do it ?

God sent His son Jesus to free the Israelites and to free us. Not in the way they thought, Jesus did not come in shining armour to wipe out the Romans. No he came as a helpless baby, then lived an entire perfect life, teaching us the true ways of the Lord, before giving Himself up to be brutally killed by the same people He came to save. The Israelites.

So did Jesus die for people that were already set in their position with God? Did Jesus die for the people that yknow sinned every once in a while but was already super tight with God? No!

Romans 5:8 says this, and please listen to this and take this in. If you don’t get anything else get this.

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

WOW! While we were still sinners! Not when we had everything figured out!

If you are sitting here today and you’re thinking, this story about David is alright and all, and I know Jesus died on the cross, but it cant be for me. I sin too much. I am too deep into drugs. I am too deep into Pornography… I gossip way too much… I do things I know I shouldn’t all too often. This is for you!!! Please listen to this truth

But God shoes His love for us in that while we were STILL sinners, Christ died for us. While we were STILL sinners.

Jesus knowingly laid down His life for you who is bogged down in sin. And for me who was bogged down in sin.

But we have not even talked about the coolest and best part.

You know Jesus did not stay dead? He showed his superiority over Sin, Shame and Death by disregarding it completely, rising out of the grave on the third day. This proves to us that our sin is disregarded and separated from us as far as the East is from the West when we accept the gift of Salvation.

All we need to offer Christ is our heart. All we need to do is accept the gift He is offering to you. What are you waiting for?

Saul did not trust the Lord. He did not listen to His promises, and we see clearly that he suffered because of it. Many people after him fell to the same fate.

David showed us an example of what trusting Him looks like, but you know what,

Jesus Himself is the perfect example of Trusting the Lord. He was the perfect example of being set apart from the other nations, Jesus was the perfect example of obedience, and understanding the line of having a heart committed to the Lord and actions that followed that commitment.

The perfect example of defeating the giant enemies of God’s people. He was the perfect example of understanding God’s authority and timing, And Jesus was and is the perfect redeemer and saviour of the World.

David plays a great role in the bible as being a pointer to Jesus.

Do not get me wrong, David is so freaking cool its insane. But he serves as a pointer to Jesus Christ.

Please come talk to one of the leaders here at Imprint if you have any questions at all about this. We would love to talk through any questions or thoughts you may have.

Lets pray and then we will discuss more in small groups.

Small Group Questions

Any comments on the lesson? Anything stand out?

Contrast David and Saul, what was different about them? (Think Saul’s ending)

In what ways does the story of David in the Old Testament point to Jesus as the ultimate saviour? (Deliverer, shepherd, warrior, )

What were some of the biggest ways you saw God working in the story of King Saul and David?

—Talk with your groups about Small Group Week —