Toongabbie Baptist Church

1 Samuel 24:1-15 (1) After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the Desert of En Gedi.” (2) So Saul took three thousand able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats. (3) He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. (4) The men said, “This is the day the Lord spoke of when he said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’” Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. (5) Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. (6) He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.” (7) With these words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way. (8) Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. (9) He said to Saul, “Why do you listen when men say, ‘David is bent on harming you’? (10) This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lay my hand on my lord, because he is the Lord’s anointed.’ (11) See, my father, look at this piece of your robe in my hand! I cut off the corner of your robe but did not kill you. See that there is nothing in my hand to indicate that I am guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I have not wronged you, but you are hunting me down to take my life. (12) May the Lord judge between you and me. And may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you. (13) As the old saying goes, ‘From evildoers come evil deeds,’ so my hand will not touch you. (14) “Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Who are you pursuing? A dead dog? A flea? (15) May the Lord be our judge and decide between us. May he consider my cause and uphold it; may he vindicate me by delivering me from your hand.”

1 Samuel 21:10-15 (10) That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. (11) But the servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Isn’t he the one they sing about in their dances: “‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands’?” (12) David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. (13) So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard. (14) Achish said to his servants, “Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? (15) Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?”

1 Samuel 19:8-20:4 (8) Once more war broke out, and David went out and fought the Philistines. He struck them with such force that they fled before him. (9) But an evil spirit from the Lord came on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the lyre, (10) Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall. That night David made good his escape. (11) Saul sent men to David’s house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, warned him, “If you don’t run for your life tonight, tomorrow you’ll be killed.” (12) So Michal let David down through a window, and he fled and escaped. (13) Then Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goats’ hair at the head. (14) When Saul sent the men to capture David, Michal said, “He is ill.” (15) Then Saul sent the men back to see David and told them, “Bring him up to me in his bed so that I may kill him.” (16) But when the men entered, there was the idol in the bed, and at the head was some goats’ hair. (17) Saul said to Michal, “Why did you deceive me like this and send my enemy away so that he escaped?” Michal told him, “He said to me, ‘Let me get away. Why should I kill you?’” (18) When David had fled and made his escape, he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there. (19) Word came to Saul: “David is in Naioth at Ramah”; (20) so he sent men to capture him. But when they saw a group of prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came on Saul’s men, and they also prophesied. (21) Saul was told about it, and he sent more men, and they prophesied too. Saul sent men a third time, and they also prophesied. (22) Finally, he himself left for Ramah and went to the great cistern at Seku. And he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” “Over in Naioth at Ramah,” they said. (23) So Saul went to Naioth at Ramah. But the Spirit of God came even on him, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth. (24) He stripped off his garments, and he too prophesied in Samuel’s presence. He lay naked all that day and all that night. This is why people say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” (20:1) Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to kill me?” (2) “Never!” Jonathan replied. “You are not going to die! Look, my father doesn’t do anything, great or small, without letting me know. Why would he hide this from me? It isn’t so!” (3) But David took an oath and said, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said to himself, ‘Jonathan must not know this or he will be grieved.’ Yet as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death.” (4) Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do for you.”

1 Samuel 17:26-50 (26) David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (27) They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.” (28) When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.” (29) “Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?” (30) He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. (31) What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him. (32) David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” (33) Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” (34) But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, (35) I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. (36) Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. (37) The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.” (38) Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. (39) David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. “I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. (40) Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine. (41) Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. (42) He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. (43) He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. (44) “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!” (45) David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. (46) This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. (47) All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” (48) As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. (49) Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. (50) So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.

1 Samuel 15:10-29 (10) Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: (11) “I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the Lord all that night. (12) Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, “Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal.” (13) When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.” (14) But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?” (15) Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.” (16) “Enough!” Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” “Tell me,” Saul replied. (17) Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. (18) And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out.’ 19 Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?” (20) “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. (21) The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.” (22) But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. (23) For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.” (24) Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them. (25) Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord.” (26) But Samuel said to him, “I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel!” (27) As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. (28) Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors—to one better than you. (29) He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.”