The Story Chapter 11: From Shepard to King

Prayer

Open with a time of prayer for the church, those susceptible to the virus, and those fighting the virus, as well as for the students in an unknown time.

Recap

What happened last week?

Last week we started by meeting Hannah, a woman who was desparate for a child, and she came across Eli who was a prophet of the Lord at that time. She prayed to God and Eli, after mistaking her for a drunken woman, told her that God would answer her prayer! She then dedicated the child that the Lord gave her, Samuel, back to the Lord. Samuel studied and trained with Eli and eventually became a prophet himself.

However, Israel wasn’t too hot on prophets as Samuel got on in age, they feared being ruled by Samuel’s sinful sons after his death, so they demanded a king like the other nations have. We spent a lot of time last week talking about when we may desire for things opposite of what God has in store for us, when we decide that what the world says is right, like maybe having a strong, militaristic king, sounds a lot smarter than what God says is right, which is following the word of the Lord and His prophets and judges and having God rule over us as king.

So God tells Samuel to give Israel what they want and he anoints Saul as king of Israel. Saul is a STUD, this guy is super tall, super muscular, super strong, the kind of king that the Israelites thought they needed. Saul was good at first but soon he, like Israel, thought his plans were more important than God’s plans and began to rebel against God in small ways, which became big ways, and that brings us to our story today! Let’s dive into the intro video now.

Intro Video

Key Events

Saul is now in basically open rebellion to the Lord. He refuses to listen to Samuel and is going to lead Israel to ruin

The Lord comes to Samuel and says:

“How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”

The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), .

So God tells Samuel that of course Saul failed, there’s no need to mourn this, fill your horn with oil (for anointing) and let’s go do things my way this time

So Samuel goes to Jesse’s house as the Lord commanded, and Samuel takes one look at Jesse’s son Eliab and thought “Oh yeah, this is a kingly man right here, surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord”

But God tells Samuel not to consider appearance, because that’s why Israel chose Saul, but the Lord looks at the heart.

And so all of Jesse’s sons are paraded before Samuel and the Lord chooses none of them, and Samuel gets a little confused, and asks Jesse “Are these all the sons you have?” At which point Jesse calls David, the youngest, in from the fields.

The Lord tells Samuel that this is the one, so Samuel anoints him with oil, and the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him.

Now shortly after this an army of the Philistines gathers to face Israel, and Saul led his army out to meet them. Both armies were basically camped out waiting for someone to attack.

The Philistines had a GIGANTIC champion, named Goliath. I mean, this guy was so big that thousands of years later his name is still synonomous with “WOW THAT’S HUGE!”

Goliath was “six cubits and span” tall, now, a cubit is about 18 inches, and that’s 6.5 cubits. So this dude likely stood over 9 feet tall!

Goliath came before the army of Israel every day and dared them to send forward a champion to face him. Whoever won this battle to the death would win the whole war! But no one in Saul’s army was brave enough to face Goliath

Now, Jesse sent his son David to the Israelite camp with supplies for his brothers and to see how they were doing. David was shocked that no one would stand up to Goliath on behalf of the Lord, and said so.

This eventually led to him being brought before Saul, who told David that he, a young boy, couldn’t possibly defeat Goliath.

David told the king that he has protected his fathers flock for his whole life, fighting off bears and lions alike, surely the Lord who saw him through those fights would see him through a battle with Goliath.

So Saul gives David his blessing to fight.

So Goliath is insulted as David draws near that Israel would send such a puny boy to battle him, and goes to kill David. David launches a single stone with his slingshot, which strikes Goliath between the eyes and kills him. David then cuts off Goliath’s head with his own sword.

Saul is at first pleased with David, as any king would be with the man who single-handedly won him a war, but his pleasure soon turns to jealousy as David seems to have gotten more glory from the victory than Saul.

Saul then tries to kill David, he chases him and his small loyal militia. Saul’s own son Jonathan gives David information about his father’s plans to keep David safe.

When Saul chased David to the Desert of En Gedi, David found Saul alone in a cave, he Lord had delivered David’s enemy into his hands. Rather then strike down Saul, David cut a small corner off of his robe.

David later confronted Saul with the piece of his robe, telling Saul he had every opportunity to kill him, but didn’t because Saul is the Lord’s anointed, and asks Saul why he keeps treating him like an enemy.

Saul and David reach a peace agreement and return home, David praises God for protecting him.

But Saul soon again tried to kill David, who retreated to Philistine land.

Saul was soon after killed in a battle with the Philistines, along with his sons, including David’s friend Jonathan.

After Saul’s death, David becomes king of Judah and then all of Israel

David seeks to being the ark of the covenant to the newly reclaimed capital of Jerusalem

David tells the Lord that he would like to build a majestic home, a temple for the ark to reside in. God replies that the temple is not for David to build:

The New International Version Chapter 17

“ ‘I declare to you that the LORD will build a house for you: 11 When your days are over and you go to be with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. 12 He is the one who will build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. 13 I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will never take my love away from him, as I took it away from your predecessor. 14 I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever; his throne will be established forever.’ ”

David praises the Lord for the promises that He made, although David doesn’t fully understand them yet. The young king reigns well for a while, but in the end, is still just a man. David, son of Jesse, who is called a man after God’s own heart, will soon meet great challenges to his faith, his rule, and his loyalty to God.

Discussion

So, we obviously can’t have a nice group discussion today, but I would like to offer a few things to think about, maybe discuss with siblings or your parents, or you can text me!

Why did David feel that he could defeat Goliath? What gave him the courage? (God, he is God’s anointed, he received the spirit) And where do you look for courage when things get hard? Where are you looking for courage right now in the face of this pandemic that’s keeping us apart?

What caused Saul to be so rebellious, paranoid, and sinful? What made him consider David his enemy? (Often when someone knows they are wrong, they attack what is right, they feel like “I’m only wrong because he exists, without him who’s to say I’m not right?”) Does the world treat Christians like this? Do Christians treat other Christians this way when we’re stuck in sin? Have you ever treated someone this way?

Where is Jesus?

Well, to find Jesus in this story, we only need to ask who is the son that the Lord is referring to at the end of this chapter? David didn’t realize it at the time, but God was not promising him that Solomon would reign forever. It wasn’t David’s direct son that God was referring to, but his great-great-…-grandson, Jesus, who would build a house for Him. That dwelling place that Jesus would create is us, His church. The promise in to David is for the new covenant and kingdom that we are part of!

Announcements

Stay safe, wash your hands, being responsible about Covid-19 isn’t about you, it’s about your grandparents and other people in our church and our community who aren’t able to fight it off like we are.

Reach out to me today, shoot me a text or give me a call, you should all have my number by now and if not just ask your parents to find it for you in the church directory. I miss seeing you all today and would love to hear how your weeks went and what plans you have to beat the boredom of the coming weeks of social distancing.

Closing Prayer

Pray for the students that they may serve God in a new situation, pray for their unspoken needs, and that the family of the Lord will be able to gather together again soon and praise His name. Pray for God’s providence over His people at this time.