The Life of David: 1 Samuel 31

In the past week or so people on Facebook have done the “Decade Challenge.” The idea is the see the differences in a person/family within the past ten years. If we were to do a personal decade challenge we would find many differences.

What changes have you noticed in the past decade?

What spiritual differences can you see in your life in the past ten years?

We do not know the future, but everyday we make decision that either positively or negatively affect our future. There will come a day when we look back and see how our choices worked to our benefit or our demise.

When we choose to live for the Lord on a daily basis, we set ourselves up for success. However, should we gamble our future on our instincts and supposed wisdom, defeat is inevitable.

Background

For some time Saul and David have parallel storylines. They show a contrast of one person ending up in inevitable failure and another working toward becoming a historic success. The difference between the two is their commitment to God.

How was David committed to God?

Regardless of David’s spiritual triumphs and mistakes, David continually went back to God for help and strength. However, he was not perfect.

For sixteen months David placed his confidence in King Achish of the Philistines. Instead of looking to God, he looked to people to control his future. His time outside of God’s will had negative effects.

Nevertheless, David returned to God and the Lord restored everything stolen by the enemy. Throughout each scenario, God worked in David, preparing him for his destiny.

How did God prepare David?

In what ways does He prepare us as we await Him to fulfill His plans and purposes in us?

Story

In order for David to become the next king, Saul had to die. Only one monarch can rule at a time. The transition from Saul to David was tragic.

Had Saul continued to walk in God’s plan, how could he have helped David transition as a king?

Instead of helping David, he tried to kill him over twenty times. Compare this with David who could have killed Saul twice, but he determined not to touch God’s anointed.

In their final conversation, Saul admitted he sinned. He promised not to harm him. Then he confessed, I have played the fool. Saul was anointed by God, he had an exceptional start in his leadership role. However, he made foolish choices that harmed him.

How did Saul play the fool?

J. Sidlow Baxter describes playing the fool.

A man plays the fool when he neglects his godly friends, as Saul neglected Samuel.

A man plays the fool when he goes on enterprises for God before God sent him, as Saul did.

A man plays the fool when he disobeys God even in seemingly small matters, as Saul at first did;; for such disobedience nearly always leads on to worse default.

A man plays the fool when when he tries to cover up disobedience to God by religious excuses, as Saul did.

A man plays the fool when he tries to persuade himself that he is doing the will of God, as Saul tried to persuade himself, when all the time, deep down in his heart, he knows otherwise.

A man plays the fool when when he allows some jealousy or hatred to master and enslave and deprave him, as Saul did, toward David.

A man plays the fool when when he turns from God, from the God he has grieved, and seeks an alternative in spiritism, in traffic with spirits in the beyond.

The end of all these ways of sin and folly is moral and spiritual suicide. We can only finish any such downgrade course with the pathetic groan of Saul, “I have played the fool.”

What was the root cause to Saul’s problems?

The sad part of Saul’s demise it is was a choice. God provided chance after chance, yet Saul ignored the promptings of the prophet and priest. Therefore, he foolishly made the decision ignore God and go his own way.

In the final battle with the Philistines, Saul watched his three sons killed. He then felt something in his stomach. An arrow struck him and he was wounded.

Do you think Saul called out to God in his final moments?

Instead of taking that time to repent of his foolish lifestyle, he was concerned about his image. He knew his death would be historic. He did not want it to get out that the Philistines killed him.

Therefore, he called his armorbearer and told him to kill him. The armorbearer refused. He would not go down in history as the man who killed Israel’s first king. Saul then took his sword, fell on it, and died a tragic and pitiful death.

Though Saul died when he fell on his sword, for years he was a dead man walking. When he chose to ignore God and go it alone, he cut off the source of his life. Saul’s death had negative effects on those he led.

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When those in the nearby cities heard of Saul’s death, they fled their homes, giving room the to Philistines. The next day, the Philistine army went to take what they could from the dead soldiers.

Imagine the surprise when they found Saul and his three sons. Jackpot! What great propaganda for their cause. They not only defeated the Israelite army, they had their king and his heirs.

They cut off their heads and stripped them of their armor. They then took their bodies and armor and hung them in the temple of their false gods.

Saul’s death and compromise had an adverse affect on his family and those he led.

Who does compromise eventually effect?

What a sad picture of Saul. If he did a “four decade challenge” it would show he did very little in his life. His body hung in the town of Bethshan, which is not far from where he was inaugurated a king forty years before.

Those in a nearby village heard what happened. In the night they took Saul and his son’s bodies and burned them. They then took their bones and gave them a proper burial.

The people of Jabesh Gilead heard of

Is there a bright side to Saul’s death?

Despite the tragedy of Saul’s death, it led to David’s ascent to the throne and Israel’s finest period in history.

Application

Saul’s death occured long before he fell on his sword. He died when he decided to treat God as a convenience and not a necessity.

Psalm 14:1 NKJV

1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.

By living without God’s help, Saul played the fool. However his death led to something good, David was now ready to lead Israel.

Death is not an exciting topic. We want to live, not die. People spend more time planning their lives and not their funerals. However, in the pursuit of living, many people are spiritually dead.

Therefore, we need to die, but our death must be spiritual. Just as Saul’s death led to David’s leadership, Jesus’s death provides an avenue for a life beyond amazing.

We have to have a spiritual death. However, because of what Jesus did, our spiritual death will lead to everlasting life.

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John 3:3–7 NKJV

3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

Luke 9:23–27 NKJV

23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? 26 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. 27 But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God.”

1 Corinthians 15:31 NKJV

31 I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

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Romans 6:1–2 NKJV

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Romans 6:6–9 NKJV

6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.

Romans

Romans 6:23 NKJV

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

Romans 6:

If we are not careful in our pursuit of living the good life, we will one day find out we are not alive at all. We have to spiritually die so that we can live in the blessings and favor of God.

How do we spiritually die?

What ways do we need to die to the flesh?

What does it mean to you to be born again?

How does Jesus’s death affect our lives on a daily basis?

We have a choice, Saul cut himself off from God by choosing to live as if he did not exist. He used God when it suited him. We cannot live that way, instead we must die to self and choose to live in the new life Jesus provides!

Challenge

Are there areas in our life that need to die?

Make the decision to die daily.

Look for ways to have the death of Jesus affect our lives on a daily basis.

Pray for the Lord to show us what needs to be removed from our lives, so we can live the life He has for us.

Read 2 Samuel 1-2