Reaping What One Has Sown

I Samuel 31:1 - II Samuel 1:15

We return in our story from David to Saul.  Today we will read the final chapter in Saul’s reign.  In preparing, I came across a couple of graphs which explain the arc of Saul’s life.  Let’s look at them in turn.

Leading Wisely

I Samuel 30

Welcome! Today we continue our account of the story of David’s progression from shepherd to king. In this series we have seen that David has had both fine moments and not-so-wonderful moments. Certainly his faith in God demonstrated in his confrontation with Goliath was a high point. Although he has had other good days, days when he seeks God first and lives according to His precepts, over the past few weeks we have seen David seemingly forget about His need for God and instead operate by His own principles. By and large, this hasn’t gone so well.

Making Friends of Enemies

I Samuel 29:1-11 

Good morning!  We’re coming to the end of our series about David.  Including today, there are four more messages to go.  Where are we now and where will we be going today?

Two weeks ago, we studied through I Samuel 27.  That chapter opened with this unfortunate analysis …

But David thought to himself, “One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.” –I Samuel 27:1

Samuel and Saul Redux

1 Samuel 28

Last Sunday we left David and his men in the company of Achish the Philistine. David had decided to flee into Philistine territory to escape from Saul, and he had designed a ruse to make it look like he had turned against his own people. David led his men on raiding expeditions, and when he returned with the spoils he told Achish that he had raided the Israelites – when actually he was attacking the Amalekites and other longstanding enemies of Israel. So he gained the confidence of Achish, who wanted him to be his servant for life. There was something impressive about David, and Achish certainly wanted him as an ally rather than an enemy. However, it put David in rather a precarious position, since he was, in effect, living a lie. A potential crisis looms as we begin chapter 28 of 1 Samuel: