Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Imagine being told that you have been anointed the king of the land.

Would feel pretty good wouldn’t it?

David got that news in 1 Samuel 16.

It is not until 2 Samuel 2 and then fully in 2 Samuel 5 that he actually becomes king of the whole land.

That’s an awfully long time isn’t it.

It’s almost like coming to church on a Sunday - hearing news like we heard last week - that where ever the presence of the Lord is there is always victory - feeling pumped up with the knowledge that as a Christian you share in the victory of Jesus.

You walk out with words in our ears like ‘Death where is your sting’, confident that the Spirit is in you and you can take on the world and live for God.

And then Monday hits.

I don’t often feel victorious on a Monday.

It hard.

And then instead of enjoying the week, we endure it.

Work, travel, family, school - its all tough.

The pull to live sinfully, pursue lusts and ungodly desires tugs at us.

And we are not feeling victorious, we feel like we are at war.

And in this day in age, with the language directed at Christians, such as bigots, homophobe, and close minded and the pressure to conform, the feeling is not as victor, but as fugitive.

It’s like the king that we live for is illegal - and in some places in the world preaching the name of Jesus is illegal.

Where is God’s protection Monday-Saturday?

What does God’s protection look like?

David is familiar with such questions.

He was told he was the king in 1 Sam 16 but is then pursued and hunted by King Saul right up until Saul’s death in 1 Sam 31.

And even then it takes a couple more chapters into 2 Samuel for David to be pronounced king.

Last week in chapter 18, Saul tried to kill David, often through use of a third party like the Philistines.

This week things escalate a little.

This week we have four escape stories from chapter 19 and throughout the chapter we will see God’s protection over David and then we will conclude by considering what God’s protection might look for us, not just for today, but every day.

Let’s pray.

If we come to today’s Scripture like we did last week we would see that instead of 3 episodes in our weekly mini-series we have 4.

We wont have time to look at each in equal measure, but let’s see how we go.

Episode 1: What a friend David has in Jonathan

The question of God’s protection has to be on David’s mind. 1 Sam 18 was littered with all the different ways Saul tried to kill David without getting his hands dirty, but verse 1 of 1 Sam 19 suggests that Saul is tired of beating around the bush and shortly after the embarrassment of marrying David off to one of his daughters Michal, Saul wants to kill David.

And to complicate things, everyone in Saul’s family seem to love David and not Saul.

Jonathan is a dear friend to David and last week we saw Jonathan recognise that the presence of the God was truely with David and not his father.

Saul’s own family is getting tense as sides are drawn and Saul is being quickly isolated.

Jonathan’s love for David extends to hatching a plan to protect David.

Jonathan offers his father rational, moral and theological reasons not to kill David.

Rational: 1 Sam 19.4:

He has not wronged you and what has happened has benefited you greatly.

Moral:1 Samuel 19.5:

He risked his life for Israel when he fought Goliath.

And Theological: The Lord used him to win a great victory.

This threefold argument seems to settle the crazed and rage filled Saul down.

Saul listens to his Son and David ends this episode standing with Saul and some sort of tense peace.

As an aside: It is amazing what can be resolved over a conversation face to face - particularly in our day in age of phone call and keyboard ninja warriors.

Unfortunately the practical protection that Jonathan offers here does not last because our second episode has Saul trying to kill David again.

Episode 2: Attack of the Saul

Almost without a pause, verse 8 goes:

Once more there was war.

And David, goes out as he usually does, and struck them down and they fled.

It’s funny that, while the Philistines are this ever present threat to Israel in the narrative, this is their only mention.

David struck down the enemies of God’s people and they fled.

But then look what happens.

A repeat of 1 Sam 18 with Saul again raging around the house, being tormented by an evil spirit, just happens to have a spear in his hand.

We see the peace that Jonathan arranged in episode one vanish as Saul throws the spear at David and misses.

Other translations go for the more literal interpretation of describing the spear ‘striking’ the wall and David ‘fleeing’.

In the same way David is used for God’s good will in striking down the Philistines and them fleeing, what this episode describes is David being treated like an enemy of God.

In David being treated like the enemy and forced to run, episode two reminds us of just how far Saul has drifted from being suitable to lead God’s people.

He isn’t leading God’s people, but trying to kill the one who God has chosen to be the king - David.

And David, well, he is the fugitive.

How is it that we can see God protection here?

At the core of the sadness of Saul treating David like the enemy we simply note that the spear that Saul threw struck the wall and not the heart.

A guy by the name of Dale Ralph Davies notes that:

Sometimes the clearest evidence that God has not deserted you is not that you are successfully past your trial but that you are still on your feet in the middle of it.

David, conquerer of Philistines is treated like a Philistine, but God protects him - even if it means that he is only just kept in the fight.

Episode 3: Escape through the window - Ps 59

Things get interesting in episode three: the escape through the window.

Saul sends some goons over to David’s house to watch it and kill him in the morning.

Unlike the previous chapter, Saul continues to pursue David after throwing his spear.

But there was someone on the inside.

Once again, from Saul’s family, in fact his own daughter warns David and he escapes out the window.

Michal buys some time by telling the messengers rather innocently that David was ill.

So the scurry back to Saul.

Obviously they were not hiding as they watched.

This would be the worst stake out in history as Michal knew they were there and essentially sends them away.

Saul is sick of it.

For too long now David has been one step ahead of him.

For too long now his plans haven’t worked.

Time to take them into his own hand. 1 Samuel 19.15

He no longer swears not to lay a hand against David.

He doesn’t even say that the Philistines will do it for him.

He simply orders his body be brought forward so that he, Saul, could kill him.

Michal, however, has done the old switcheroo.

She grabs some stuff from the house and makes it look like David is sleeping in the bed, and it is unclear why there are idols in the house.

Equally as unclear is what we are to understand of when Michal lies to her father apart from that it’s clear here that Michal isn’t perfect and under the stress of a fugitive husband and a mad mad father, she lies to save some face.

So David escapes again and we reach the climax of the chapter.

Episode 4: Psalm 2 acted out

What is interesting about verse 18 is not that David escaped, but where he went.

In terms of supporters or some sort of power base, David would be expected to go to Bethlehem.

But David doesn’t go where he is militaristically strong, he flees to Ramah where Samuel, the prophet of the nation and the one who anointed David, is located.

Ramah was both a shorter distance to travel and it was where the spiritual leader of the nation was.

David’s move is spiritually tactical.

In what is an odd scene that follows, Saul sends three waves of men to go and get David, but all stop short and are prevented by the Spirit of God from reaching David.

We are not sure what this prophesying was.

Samuel is a prophet because he speaks the word of God, but Saul has seen to be prophesying when he was raging around the house in the previous chapter.

It seems to vary but always be some sort of speech under the influence of a power beyond that of the speaker, as one commentator remarks.

Finally, Saul gets off his bum and goes out to capture and kill David.

His journey is even delayed as he stops for directions in 1 Sam 19.22.

Unlike his servants, we get details of Saul’s journey.

Ever since 1 Samuel 9 we have known that Saul was not the sharpest guy geographically.

He wandered and wandered and wandered looking for donkeys before stumbling across Samuel.

After finding Samuel in 1 Sam 9, he is anointed as the leader of Israel and then, as he is walking on home he comes across a band of prophets and starts prophesying.