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In Christ, Mark
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Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with David but had left Saul. So he sent David away from him and gave him command over a thousand men, and David led the troops in their campaigns. In everything he did, he had great success because the Lord was with him. When Saul saw how successful he was, he was afraid of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David because he led them in their campaigns.
Saul said to David, "Here is my older daughter Merab. I will give her to you in marriage; only serve me bravely and fight the battles of the Lord." For Saul said to himself, "I will not raise a hand against him. Let the Philistines do that!"
But David said to Saul, "Who am I, and what is my family or my father's clan in Israel, that I should become the king's son-in-law?" So when the time came for Merab, Saul's daughter, to be given to David, she was given in marriage to Adriel of Meholah.
Now Saul's daughter Michal was in love with David and when they told Saul about it, he was pleased. "I will give her to him," he thought, "so that she may be a snare to him and so that the hand of the Philistines may be against him." So Saul said to David, "Now you have a second opportunity to become my son-in-law."
Then Saul ordered his attendants: "Speak to David privately and say, 'Look, the king is pleased with you, and his attendants all like you; now become his son-in-law.'"
They repeated these words to David. But David said, "Do you think it is a small matter to become the king's son-in-law? I'm only a poor man and little known."
When Saul's servants told him what David had said, Saul replied, "Say to David, 'The king wants no other price for the bride than a hundred Philistine foreskins, to take revenge on his enemies.'"
Saul's plan was to have David fall by the hands of the Philistines.
When the attendants told David these things, he was pleased to become the king's son-in-law. So before the allotted time elapsed, David and his men went out and killed two hundred Philistines. He brought their foreskins and presented the full number to the king so that he might become the king's son-in-law. Then Saul gave him his daughter Michal in marriage.
When Saul realized that the Lord was with David and that his daughter Michal loved David, Saul became still more afraid of him and he remained his enemy the rest of his days.
The Philistine commanders continued to go out to battle, and as often as they did, David met with more success than the rest of Saul's officers and his name became well known.
1 Samuel 18:12-30
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He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts.
1 Corinthians 4:5
This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Have you ever planned to do something you knew was wrong and thought you had plotted so well that you wouldn’t possibly get caught?
I know I can remember doing this a few times when I was growing up and I also remember how things never worked out the way I thought they would.
Why?
Because it seemed that every time, my seemingly undetectable plot ended up exposed with my sinfulness laid bare as a result. Thinking back on those times, I can recall the words of my mother as clear as day for she would tell me that everything done in the dark would come to light sooner or later. And so given this, she would further teach me that it was a waste of time to try and get away with doing wrong. Indeed, my attempts at evil scheming always ended up fruitless, showing me as foolish.
Well, as I grew older, I came to discover that my mother’s words were not born of her own wisdom but the wisdom of God’s word. For in the scriptures, I read verses in the Bible that served to validate my mother’s words.
For example, Paul’s words to the church in Corinth become important words for all of us as he wrote this:
He (the Lord) will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. 1 Corinthians 4:5
God’s Word is clear here. For if we decide to plot wicked schemes…schemes that only are done in the dark domain of sin, then we can expect that the Lord will shine His light into what we try to conceal in the darkness, exposing the evil motives within our heart. The bottom line is that God hates sin and he hates it even more when we give our attention to it instead of Him. Given this, He will not allow sin to have victory over goodness…or darkness over light.
And so in sum, He (the Lord) reveals evil schemes and exposes their perpetrators…and in doing so, He brings the dark to light.
Friends, this should serve to be a comfort for us as we face the prospect of others trying to possibly plot against us. For while we could easily walk around, always looking over our shoulder in fear of getting attacked from behind or stabbed in the back, we need not worry because God has our backs. He is always watching the motives of every human heart, ready to take action against those who allow evil to control their actions. In doing so, He (God) protects those who seek to do good…those who strive for living lives that are righteous, holy, and glorifying in His sight.
Well, we have seen where God definitely had His hand upon David, helping him allude Saul’s attempts to murder but as we see in the rest of the scripture from 1st Samuel, chapter 18, Saul wasn’t ready to give up as he had a few more evil schemes to try and get rid of David…even though he knew the Lord was with the young leader of his army.
In regard to his military duties, we read where Saul “sent David away from him and gave him command over a thousand men” which “David led…in their campaigns”. In all he did, we see that David found success, not due to his own efforts but because “the Lord was with him”. This made Saul even more afraid of David who found increasing favor from “Israel and Judah” with every success.
Despite this, Saul wasn’t about to stop trying to get rid of David and we next read of a plan he devised to try and do just that.
It begins with Saul saying this to David:
“Here is my older daughter Merab. I will give her to you in marriage; only serve me bravely and fight the battles of the Lord."
It wasn’t that Saul really wanted David to marry his daughter. Rather, he only was using her as a ploy to try and get David back onto the battlefield against the Philistines so they might kill him and spare Saul having to do it himself. Further, we see where Saul was so desperate to get rid of David that he was willing to even use the Lord’s name in his scheme, trying to entice him (David) to accept his offer to go and fight the Lord’s battles. Within these efforts, Saul must have forgotten that the Lord was with David for we see where his plan hits a snag.
For the scriptures tell us that David said this to Saul:
“Who am I, and what is my family or my father's clan in Israel, that I should become the king's son-in-law?"
And so David passes on the Philistine battles and on marrying Saul’s oldest daughter who marries another instead but as we see, Saul wasn’t about to give up. For we read where he had another daughter Michal who “was in love with David”. This pleased Saul because he thought he could again use a daughter to get David killed. We know this because through Saul’s thoughts:
“I will give her to him…so that she may be a snare to him and so that the hand of the Philistines may be against him."
Given this, Saul gives his evil scheme a second try telling David:
“Now you have a second opportunity to become my son-in-law."
And this time, we even see him trying to use his attendants, giving them the following orders”
"Speak to David privately and say, 'Look, the king is pleased with you, and his attendants all like you; now become his son-in-law.'"
And so the servants did as Saul commanded but again, Saul was unsuccessful as David tells them:
“Do you think it is a small matter to become the king's son-in-law? I'm only a poor man and little known."
This ended up being strike two for Saul and so he went back to the drawing board as he wasn’t ready to give up yet. His actions show us that people who are so caught up in sin will be stubborn in their attempts to make evil triumph over good…darkness over light.
So Saul tries yet a third time to scheme against David, sending his servants back to David with yet another request. This time, the servants relayed this message:
“The king wants no other price for the bride than a hundred Philistine foreskins, to take revenge on his enemies."
Again, Saul’s sole goal here was getting David to go out and war against the Philistines with the hope that he would be killed in the fighting and out of his way forever. And this time, it seemed on the surface like his plan had worked for “when the attendants told David” what Saul had said, “he was pleased to become the king's son-in-law”, accepting the assignment to go out against the Philistines to kill them and deliver the one hundred foreskins as ordered.
All this had to have Saul jumping for joy, sure that the Philistines would do David in so he would finally be rid of him but again, Saul seemed to forget that the Lord was with David and this meant his plan had no chance for success.
We see this come to fruition as “David and his men went out and killed two hundred Philistines” …”before the allotted time elapsed”, bringing “their foreskins….to the king so that he might become the king's son-in-law”. Imagine the look on Saul’s face when David returned unscathed with the foreskins in hand. It had to be classic as Saul learned that his wicked plan had failed as he lost out to David again! And to make matters worse, now David would be his son-in-law because Saul gave David “his daughter Michal in marriage”.
Indeed, Saul’s plot had not succeeded and we read where he once again “realized that the Lord was with David”, a fact that made him “still more afraid of him”. Israel’s king, now David’s father-in-law, would remain his new son-in-law’s “enemy the rest of his days”. Meanwhile, David continued to find success as he battled the Philistines. In fact, he had “more success than the rest of Saul's officers” and “his name became well known”.
In other words, Saul’s attempts to eliminate David had only resulted in him growing more famous and powerful.
Friends, I think there are three important lessons for us in this passage:
1. Evil scheming is a fruitless, foolish endeavor.
There is no question that the Lord takes everything done in the dark and brings it to light. We know this because His word assures us of it and so none of us should think for a minute that we will find any success in plotting to do wrong against God or another. It’s simply never going to work out. We saw it with Saul and we will find it out ourselves if we choose to try it.
2. God protects against evil schemes.
The Lord will place His covering over those who place their hope, trust, and faith in Him…those committed fully to His service and carrying out His will. We saw where God was with David and kept him from falling prey to Saul’s evil schemes…and He will watch over us the same way as well.
3. Why would we ever think we would get away with anything in the first place?
Friends, God sees everything and looks deep into our hearts to a place where we can’t look when we see one another.
So what will He see when He looks in your heart?
Trust that if there are any evil motives, He will unearth and expose them.
Further, since God sees everything and will ultimately judge all of us when this life ends, how would we ever think that we might get away with doing anything?
He is going to see it…He is going to know about it…and He is going to judge it. We will be held accountable and so we might as well not even try it because as we see in today’s passage, it’s nothing short of foolish to think we can plan and get away with committing evil in the plain sight of the Lord.
So let’s not think we will get away with anything sinful in life. Instead, let’s direct our energy towards doing right and righteous things. We’ll always do this if we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us instead of the enemy.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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