Saul: How the Mighty Have Fallen - 1 Samuel 18-26

Series Description: This series explores the life of Israel’s first king, Saul—a man chosen by God, but troubled by pride, fear, and disobedience. From his rise to leadership to his downfall, we will see lessons of obedience, humility, and the importance of a heart fully surrendered to the Lord.

Previous Weeks:
• Israel has rejected God and desires to have a king ‘like other nations”, and God allows it. 1 Samuel 8:19-22

• God tells Samuel he has chosen Saul as king of Israel. Saul was anointed and celebrated by all of Israel.

• King Saul, under pressure due to a battle with Ammonites, makes a terrible choice and offers the priestly sacrifice instead of Samuel.
1 Samuel 13

• God was very displeased with Saul and announces He will choose someone else as king.

• Saul begins a “course correction” in his life by praying, offering sacrifices and acknowledging his need for God.

• Saul’s change of heart was offset by his disobedience again to God’s clear instructions concerning Israel’s battle with the Amalakites.

• Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has rejected you as king.” And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.

• Samuel anoints David as King of Israel and Saul becomes very jealous of him. And from that time on Saul kept a close eye on David. 1 Samuel 18:9

Saul was experiencing anger, jealousy, and fear.

• These emotions can become enemies of your heart if you allow them to take root into your spirit.

• Left unchecked, these emotions can spiral into patterns of obsessive thinking and extreme behavior.

One of the top 10 symptoms of unhealthy emotional spirituality: Ignoring anger and fear.
- Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Peter Scazzaro

What makes us angry?
• Hunger
• Kids
• Under appreciated
• Violated sense of right and wrong
• When things don’t go my away

Anger is a natural God given emotion to help us deal with displeasure.

Fear is an emotional response to a perceived threat, danger, or loss of control.

Saul’s Fear and Anger Reappear
The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully on Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the lyre, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand and he hurled it, saying to himself, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David eluded him twice.

Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with David but had departed from 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.
1 Samuel 18:10-16

• Anger rarely surfaces by itself but is usually accompanied by escalating words, harsh tone, aggressive speech and sometimes violence.

Signs of anger issues:
• Is it frequent?
• Is it too intense?
• Has it become a lifestyle?
• Does it lead to verbal or physical aggression ?
• Is it destructive to your relationships?

Resolving Conflict God’s Way: Dr. Bill Graybill

• Fear can make things seem worse than they really are.

• Fear effects us emotionally and physically.

Saul’s Anger and Fear Escalate

Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan had taken a great liking to David and warned him, “My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding and stay there. I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I’ll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out.”

Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, “Let not the king do wrong to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly. He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The Lord won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?”

Saul listened to Jonathan and took this oath: “As surely as the Lord lives, David will not be put to death.”

So Jonathan called David and told him the whole conversation. He brought him to Saul, and David was with Saul as before.

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, 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.
1 Samuel 19:1-9

• Prolonged anger can distort the details of what actually happened.

• Sometimes intense anger can be followed by sulking and seething.

• The result of fear? My circumstances usually remain unchanged.

• When fear is not dealt with it can lead into paranoid thinking.

Saul’s Anger, Fear and his Innocent Victims

Saul’s anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, “You son are from a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you?
1 Samuel 20:30

But the king said, “You will surely die, Ahimelek, you and your whole family.”

Then the king ordered the guards at his side: “Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because they too have sided with David. They knew he was fleeing, yet they did not tell me.”

But the king’s officials were unwilling to raise a hand to strike the priests of the Lord.

The king then ordered Doeg, “You turn and strike down the priests.” So Doeg the Edomite turned and struck them down. That day he killed eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod. He also put to the sword Nob, the town of the priests, with its men and women, its children and infants, and its cattle, donkeys and sheep.
1 Samuel 22:16-19

“Anger can lead to relationship problems. It can destroy any chance we have at intimacy in marriage. It can cause issues with our spouse our children and our job. It's called transference.”
-Kyle Idleman-Grace (New York Times)

• Transference happens when we take the anger, frustration, or hurt we feel from one situation or person and redirect it toward someone or something else.

Turn away from destructive reactions. “Refrain from anger and turn away from wrath,” Psalms 37:8

Accept ownership of your emotions and express them to God. Psalms 52

Resolving Conflict God’s Way: Dr. Bill Graybill

All bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ. Ephesians 4:31-32

David Spares Saul’s Life

After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the Desert of En Gedi.” 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.

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. 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.

When David finished saying this, Saul asked, “Is that your voice, David my son?” And he wept aloud. “You are more righteous than I,” he said. “You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly. You have just now told me about the good you did to me; the Lord delivered me into your hands, but you did not kill me. When a man finds his enemy, does he let him get away unharmed? May the Lord reward you well for the way you treated me today. I know that you will surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hands. Now swear to me by the Lord that you will not kill off my descendants or wipe out my name from my father’s family.”

So David gave his oath to Saul. Then Saul returned home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.
1 Samuel 24:1-4, 16-22

Then Saul said, “I have sinned. Come back, David my son. Because you considered my life precious today, I will not try to harm you again. Surely I have acted like a fool and have been terribly wrong.”

Then Saul said to David, “May you be blessed, David my son; you will do great things and surely triumph.”

So David went on his way, and Saul returned home.
1 Samuel 26:21-25

• Forgiveness is a choice to no longer hold a sin or transgression against the offender and to not seek any form of revenge or retribution.

• Forgiveness says, we are going to let God handle this and we are moving on.

• True forgiveness begins when you have the power to exact revenge and you don’t.

• Saul was touched by Davids mercy.

Saul’s missed opportunity with God.

• He walked in servanthood but not in sonship.

If You Will Do Three Things...
• Admit
• Believe
• Confess

Then God Will Do Three Things!!! He will give you…
• Forgiveness of Sins
• A New Life
• Eternal Life

Prayer
Father, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from you. I am truly sorry, and want to turn from my sinful past toward you. Please forgive me.

I believe that your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer.

I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

Event Tip: Like what you're hearing during the message? Use the share options to post on social media, send a text, or email a friend.