First Samuel chapter 18, we're
going to begin in verse 12 and hopefully get down through verse
29. I just entitled the lesson, David
Marries Michael, because that'll be the last part of the lesson. I think it's kind of broke into
three parts. We see verses 12 through 16, and then verses 17
through 19, and then verses 20 through 29. Let us go to the Lord in prayer.
Our Father, we thank you this morning for letting us be here,
for giving us the desire, for giving us the ability. Lord,
help us, Lord, to not depend upon our own strength or our
own wisdom. We depend upon the power of your Spirit. Lord, how
we need your help. Leave us not to ourselves, leave
us not alone. And Lord, those who you've gathered
here, I pray you'd open up their understandings, that they may
understand the scriptures, be pleased to speak to their hearts,
and set us all free, that we would look to the Lord Jesus
Christ for everything. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. In verse 12 it says, And Saul
was afraid of David. We saw last week how that Saul,
in his jealousy, he throws a javelin at David twice. Tries to kill
him. He said he meant to pin him to the wall. As he sits on
his throne, instead of carrying a scepter, he's carrying a javelin.
And he not only does it once, he does it twice. And you would
have thought this man would have understood something about this.
Now Saul, he was no slouch. Saul was a warrior. Saul, if
he meant to kill you, he would kill you. And when he meant to
throw the javelin, he meant to kill David. That's what his intention
was, and he didn't. He should have saw by that that
God had delivered David out of his hand, and he had. But we're
going to see that in the first part of David's life, and in
a lot of it, This man, this king, King Saul, who was rejected of
God, God rejected him, and I believe he's a picture of a person that's
a reprobate. They have no feelings, they have
no value for life, and all that he's consumed with is killing
David. That's all he thinks about, is
killing David, is plotting for his murder. His murder. In verse 12, and Saul was afraid
of David. Why was Saul afraid of David? He says this three
times in this passage. He says it in verse 12. He says
it in verse 16. I mean, let's see, verse 15. And he says it again in verse
29. Saul was afraid of David. And we see here, it tells us
why. Because the Lord was with David. And Saul knew it. And he also knew that God had
departed from Saul. God sent an evil spirit, remember,
and tormented Saul. And he knew, Saul knew, that
David was led of God, was anointed of God, and I believe he knew
that he would be the next king of Israel. Remember, God told
him through Samuel. He said, God had taken the kingdom
from you and given it to a man after his own heart. God chose
David. God set him apart. Now, I know
David is, in so many of these lessons, he's a picture of Christ.
But that's what you need to see first and foremost. But don't
forget, David was a man. He was a real man that God chose
and God set apart, and God raised him up. And eventually, God will
put him on the throne. But in between time, God is going
to use all these things to make David, to make him, to humble
him, and to make him king. Now, I don't understand this.
I just believe it. It says our Lord learned obedience. by the things he suffered. Would
you like to explain that to me? He learned obedience by the things
he suffered as a man, and he did. And I say this is what David's
doing. He's learning obedience. Whether
he was watching his father's sheep, he was obedient. When
he came out to check on his brothers, he was obedient. And when he
went down and killed Goliath, he was obedient. And when Saul
wouldn't let him go back home to his father Jesse, he was obedient
to everything Saul asked him to do, he was obedient. And even
when Saul was troubled by the evil spirit, you know what he
did? He played on his heart as at other times. He said, why would he do that
to that man? Is that not what our Lord did?
When he was reviled, he reviled not again. And Saul was afraid of David
because the Lord was with him and was departed from Solomon. And that's a sobering thought. When God departs from a man,
when he leaves him to himself and God leaves him alone, what's
the natural result? He turns them over to a reprobate
mind. They won't like to retain God
in their knowledge, and God just leaves people alone. God leaves
people alone. Leaves them alone. Leaves them
to their own way, their own ambition, and their own heart. Then it
said, Saul removed him from him and made him his captain over
a thousand. Saul said, I don't want him here
in the palace. I'm going to just put him over a thousand men.
And he went in and came in before the people. Whatever he asked
him to do, that's what he did. And David behaved himself wisely
in all of his ways. That means he acted prudently.
Whatever was asked of him, that's what he did. And he did it with
his whole heart. And the Lord was with him in
everything he did. Wherefore, Saul saw that he behaved
himself very wisely, and he was afraid of him. afraid of him. But all Israel loved him. But
all Israel and Judah loved David because he went out and came
in before them. As I thought about this where
it says Saul was afraid of David, in Matthew chapter 6 it talks
about, remember John the Baptist? And John had said unto Herod
the king, it is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife. Ye live in sin. Therefore Herodias
had a quarrel against John and would have killed John, but she
could not. Why? For Herod feared John. He feared John, knowing that
he was a just man and unholy, and observed him, and when he
heard him, he did many things, and he heard him gladly. He feared
him. Herodias wanted to kill him,
and eventually she did. She tricked Herod, but Herod
feared him. This world fears our God. Now, they don't respect him.
They don't reverence him in that fear. But they do fear him. Our God is a consuming fire.
And Saul feared David, not because David. He's just a man. They
feared God in David. Why, Christ was, he was God,
but he was man, and they feared him. He's God. He's God. David's presence exposed King
Saul. It was like a searchlight cast
upon him, and he could not stand before it. His guilty conscience
was gnawing at him, gnawing at him, gnawing. Your conscience
that speaks to you, your conscience that condemns you, gnawing, gnawing,
gnawing. Every time he saw David, he was
reminded of what he had done. He had rejected God, and God
had rejected him. And I believe he knew it. And
I believe he knew it. The depravity of Saul's heart
we see here before this displays us before we knew Christ. We
didn't want Christ. We hated him and despised him.
And we would have done anything we could have to have jerked
him off the throne. We will not have this man to
reign over us. Saul hated God's chosen and rightful
king. You know who you would rather
have sitting on the throne? You. You'd rather sit on the
throne. You'd rather rule everything.
Isn't that right? And you won't have this one to
reign over you. He said, we won't have it. We
won't have it. Saul thought by putting David
over a thousand men, he would put him in a position where he
would be killed. I won't have to kill him myself.
I'll put him over a thousand men and make him go out and fight
my battles, and the enemy will take care of him. But it didn't happen. It just
reversed. It backfired on him. When these
people saw David going out and fighting their battle, they loved
David. They loved him. You know what
he did? He won their hearts. He won the
hearts of the people. And Saul wanted it just the reverse. Our Lord won the heart of the
people. I know a lot of people followed him for the wrong reasons.
I know a lot of people followed him just because he fed the 5,000,
but they followed him. He won their hearts. Verse 17, we see David And Saul
again, and Saul said to David, now watch this. Behold my elder
daughter Mirab, her will I give thee to wife, only be thou valiant
for me. Now watch this and fight the
Lord's battles. That word Lord, you notice it's
in all italicized, which means why don't you fight Jehovah's
battles? Don't that sound good? For Saul said, Let not mine hand
be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him.
You go out and fight my battles, David." But what does he really
want? He doesn't want David to fight
his battles. He hopes David gets killed in the midst of battle.
And David said to Saul, who am I? And read verse seventeen
again, And Saul said to David, Behold my elder daughter Miriam,
her will I give thee to wife. Only be thou vagrant for me,
and fight the Lord's battle. For Saul said, Let not mine hand
be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him.
And David said to Saul, Who am I? You know what he's asking
him. He's asking him, he said, I'll
give you my eldest daughter. She's a princess. And who's David? He come from the house of Jesse.
He come from a family of nobodies, of nothings. And David said,
who am I that you would want me to be the king's son-in-law,
to marry your daughter, the king's daughter? What is my life and
my father's family in Israel that I should be son-in-law to
the king? Who are we to be called the sons
of God? Who are we? Do you not see this
in David? He's a picture of us. We were
nothing and nobody. We were the house of Jesse. The
least of the tribes of Bethlehem of Judah. We come from a place
of nobody's. The least in the family. The
rejected one. They wouldn't even call him when
Samuel came to the house. And he said, do you want me?
You want me to be your son-in-law? You would call me, and you, a
child of God, a son of God? Verse 19, but watch this. It came to pass at the time when
Mirab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, that
she was given to Adriel. the Maholothite, the wife. Now,
I just want to remind you of something. Remember when David
came up and they were getting ready to fight Goliath? And David
said, what shall be done to the man that kills this Goliath?
He will enrich him, he will set his family free, and he will
give him the king's daughter. Why hadn't he already given him
his daughter? I say that David never demanded it. The Lord, the world always promises
what it cannot give and does not want to give. But he gave
her to another man. How would you like for the king
to promise you his daughter? And then he turns around and
gives it to another man. That would make most of us so mad
we couldn't stand it. But not David. But not David. You know why?
This union of this woman and that man was cursed. Let me read
you this. And we'll get to this later.
There's more here than I can see right now. Later on in 2
Samuel chapter 7 verse 18. No, 2 Samuel 21 verse 7. I'm
sorry. But the king spared Mephibosheth,
the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because the Lord's oath
that was between them, David and Jonathan, the son of Saul,
But the king took the two sons of Ripheth, the daughter of Ahi,
whom she bare unto Saul, Aaronar, Arian, and Mephibosheth, and
the five sons of Michael, the daughter of Saul." Now, Michael
never had any children, but she raised these children because
this girl died, Saul's oldest daughter. Listen. And he delivered. them into the
hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill
before the Lord. And they fell all seven together,
and were put to death in the days of the harvest, and the
first days in the beginning of the barley harvest." That union
between that man and that woman, they had five children. And they
eventually all were hanged. You know why? They are of the
bloody household of Saul. Saul had sinned against them
Gibeonites, and they came to David. And they asked David,
and David said, What do you want? They said, We don't want any
man's life in Israel. We don't want anything Israel's
got, but we want them sons. And David gave them them sons.
Now, this will be a while before we get to that passage, so you
just think that over. But this union was cursed. This
union was cursed. Now, there's something here.
You think about it. Now we come to verse 20. So Saul
promises his oldest daughter and now he takes her back and
gives her to another man. Verse 20, and Michael, Saul's
daughter, loved David, his youngest daughter. It doesn't say that
Mirabbe, I didn't read there in those verses that she loved
David, but Michael loved David. She loved him. And Michael, Saul's daughter,
loved David, and they told Saul, and the thing pleased Saul. He
was glad she did love him. He said, here's my opportunity.
She loves him because he thought if he could make David his son-in-law,
he'd put a big bull's eye on his back. This is the king's
son-in-law. When he goes into battle, who
do you think is the first one they're going to try to kill?
It's going to be the king's son-in-law. And David knew, I mean, Saul
knew it. This is what he's plotting. Now
watch this. He's always scheming. He puts him over a thousand,
and that fails, and all Judah follows David and loves David.
He promises his oldest daughter, and then he takes her from him,
and that fails. Now he finds out his youngest daughter loves
David. Here's my opportunity. And Saul said, I will give her
that she may be a snare to him. and that the hand of the Philistines
may be against him. Wherefore, Saul said to David,
Thou shalt this day be my son-in-law in the womb of the twain. And
Saul commanded his servants, saying, Commune with David secretly. And say, behold, the king hath
delight in thee, and all of his servants love thee, and now therefore
be the king's son-in-law." See, he tells his servants to go,
his messengers to go talk to David and to flatter him. He
says, the king hath delight in thee. Oh, the king loves you.
No, he didn't. But he's making out that he did.
And all of his servants love you, David. Oh, you're so special. Does this not sound familiar? Now will you be the king's son-in-law? Now will you be my son-in-law?
And Saul's servants, verse 23, spake
these words in the ears of David. And David saith, Seemeth it to
you a light thing to be the king's son-in-law? He's still not changed. Who am I? It doesn't matter which
daughter it is. Who am I that I should be the
king's son-in-law? He said, is this just a light
thing to you? Do you just take this as a light
thing, some privileged thing? David didn't. He didn't take
the things of God lightly. They did. The world does. It's
just frivolous things. It's just lightly. No, this is
serious. And David took it as serious, seeing that I am a poor man. I'm a poor man and lightly esteemed. You know what he's saying? How
am I, being a poor man, going to pay a dowry for this girl?
Now, what a dowry is, we don't do it in this country. If a man
has a daughter, I have three. If a boy comes and wants to marry
one of my daughters before he can have her hand in marriage,
he must pay a dowry because he's taking away from my inheritance.
That's what this was. He had to purchase her. He had
to buy her. And that's what he said. I'm
a poor man. I don't have any way. I can't
be the king's son-in-law. I don't have any way to pay her
dowry. I don't have any. We're beggars.
We're beggars. And I'm lightly esteemed." That's how he saw himself in
his own eyes. Isn't it? I'm a poor man. I'm poor. You know what we are? We are poor, bankrupt sinners.
Poor, that means we're poor spiritually. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Lightly esteemed. And David said, you think this
is a light thing? And the servants of Saul went
back and told him what David said. And look what Saul said.
And Saul said, thus shall you say to David, the king doesn't
desire any dowry. He said, you don't have to pay
a dowry. There's only going to be one stipulation, but a hundred foreskins of the
Philistines. Those Philistines were uncircumcised. You remember when David come
up to fight Goliath? Let me see, I think it's back
in chapter 17. Verse 26, And David spake to
the men that stood by, saying, What shall be done to the man
that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach
from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised
Philistine? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine? And David knows, I mean, Saul
knows if he sends David out to kill and to bring back a hundred
foreskins from these uncircumcised Philistines, that meant his death. And that's what he's doing. That's
why he said, you don't have to pay any dowry. All you have to
do is go kill a hundred Philistines and bring back their foreskins
of proof that they were uncircumcised. This is proof. And you do that
and I'll give you my daughter. The king desirous, not dowry,
but a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of
the king's enemies. But here's the reason he said
that. But Saul sought to make David fall by the hand of the
Philistines. He said, I've got him right now.
If he goes out, and this will mean his death, he will not come
back. He won't be able to get out of
this trap. I've got him right now. My daughter
loves him, and if he yields to this, I've got him." And when
his servants told David these words, it pleased David well
to be the king's son's-in-law. Before, he wouldn't have done
it. Before, he said, who am I that I should be the king's son's-in-law?
But this right here pleased him. He fought for God's honor and
for God's glory. He said, who is this uncircumcised? Who does he think he is? They
were, these were not just Saul's enemies. These are God's enemies. Have you ever noticed all, how
many times through the scriptures it speaks of the Philistines?
Who, who burned out the eyes of Samson? The Philistines. Who
will eventually kill King Saul? The Philistines. Now, as I read
this and study this, I got to thinking, well, if David's done
killed their champion, why are they still fighting him? They're innumerable. And we face this enemy every
single day. That's right. every day. Why? They are God's enemies. David knew it. When our Lord
came, what was the main thing that motivated him in everything
he did? To honor his Father, to do his
will. And when Saul said this, David's
not going to do this to please Saul. He's doing this to please
God. He said it pleased him. It pleased
him. He set his face like a flint
to go to Jerusalem. It pleased him to do the Father.
Nothing pleased him more than doing his Father's will. Nothing
pleased him more. Wherefore, David arose and went,
and he and his men slew of the Philistines, not a hundred men,
two hundred men. twice what he asked. Two hundred
men. And David brought the four skins,
and they gave them in full tale to the king, that he might be
the king's son's-in-law. And Saul gave him Michael, his
daughter, to wife." I said David did this because
he sought the honor of God, the glory of God, but something else
the reason he did it. He did it to purchase and to
redeem Michael. That's what he did. And he did
it. He has the proof. He led captivity
captive and he gave gifts unto men. He hath redeemed a people. He loved her. Our Lord has fulfilled
all the demands of the law. Who told him to go do this? Saul
did. He said, before you can have
my daughter, this is what you must do. And he did it. And as I thought about this,
this is the only scripture that could come to my mind. Why did
he do twice as much? Why did he kill 200? Our Lord
said in the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter 5, verse 39,
But I say unto you that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall
smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other. And if
any man shall sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat,
give him thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee
to go a mile, go with him, too. Go with him, twain, double what
it ask." And that's what he did. And he bought, he redeemed Michael. Now watch this. Saul meant to
kill him. Saul meant that this would be
his demise. And when our Lord was here upon
this earth, you know who hated him the most? Publicans and sinners
loved him. Publicans and sinners loved him.
We're going to find later on that David's having to hide in
a cave. And the people that were discontinued and poor and didn't
have anything, those people went to David. But those religious
uppity-ups, those that thought they kept the law, that they
were holier than other, they hated him. They said, we're going
to catch him. We're going to try to catch him
and trick him in some way. And you know what? The only thing
they accused him of, and he acknowledged it with his own mouth, he's king. He never denied it, because he
was king. And they said, we're going to
kill him. We won't kill him of our own hands. You know what
we'll do? We'll take him to them uncircumcised Romans, and we'll
let them kill him. But they all had a hand in it.
And through that, through that death, he redeemed his people. He satisfied Saul's demands. And I can see David walking in. If he walks into King Saul's
palace and he has the four skins and he's, where's my wife? Where's she at? She's mine. He didn't give this
one to another man. You know why? You know why? David
owns her. Isn't that right? He bought her. And Christ bought you. He redeemed
you. He took upon the uncircumcised
Philistines. He bore the wrath and judgment
of God to redeem you. And he did it. They thought,
boy, we've got him now. The Scripture says that if they
had knew, the Pharisees and the scribes and all, if they had
knew what they were doing, they would not have crucified the
Lord of glory. You know what they did? They
put the final nail in their coffin. That's exactly right. That through
death, he might deliver them that had the power of death.
That is the devil. He's delivered us. We don't have
to be afraid. You know why? Our David's defeated
the enemy. And he did it. And you know what
he did? Everybody loves him. He's exalted. You remember what they said after
our Lord died? They said, you know, we remember
what that deceiver said. He said he would rise from the
dead the third day, and we're going to stop that. We're going
to take us a guard, and we're going to go out there, and he's
going to watch the tomb. We're going to seal it, and we're going
to make sure nobody comes. Because if he rises from the
dead, the last state's going to be worse than the beginning.
Can you imagine everybody going around saying, that Jesus we
killed, he rose from the grave? That's exactly what he did. And when he come out of that
grave, you know what he did? He came out victorious. You know
why he came out? You know why our Lord didn't
stay dead? He was delivered for our offenses. But he was raised
again for our justification. And you know what he did? You know what he did? After he
arose, he goes back and he sits down. You know where he sits
at? He sits on a throne. That same Jesus that you took
and you crucified and you slain, God hath made him Lord. That
same David that Saul wanted to just destroy him, humiliate him. He said, I won't be satisfied
till he's dead. God's raised him up. And God
has set him on a throne. And he rules and reigns over
all things. You know why? He is rightful. King. David will no longer just
be David. You know who he is? He's a prince. He won the hand of the princess. Now we know the world tries to
make this out to be fairytales. This is no fairytale. He purchased
him a bride. He was poor in the world's eyes. You know what? He never had a
house. He never had anything to ride
on. When he came in Jerusalem, he had to borrow a donkey. A
man came to him and said, ìLord, Iíll follow you wherever you
want, wherever you go.î He said, ìThe foxes have holes and the
birds of the air have nests, and the Son of Man hath not where
to lay his head.î Now thatís poor. You know why? He that was
rich became poor, that we may be rich. This is what our David
has done. Verse 28, And Saul saw, and he
knew, that the Lord was with David, that Michael and that
Michael, Saul's daughter, loved him. She loved him. Loved him. And Saul was yet the
more afraid of David. And what's this? And Saul became
David's enemy continually, even though he purchased his daughter.
And if you'll notice, the chapter begins with Jonathan, Saul's
own son, loving David. And it ends with Saul's own daughter
loving David. the very ones, and he thinks
that now that he's got Michael married to David, we're going
to see he actually wants Michael to deliver David into his hands,
and she won't. You know why? She loves him.
What I see here, that Saul becomes David's enemy continually, when
our Lord purchased his wife, purchased his church, and went
back to glory, that didn't stop the warfare. You read the book
of Acts. Persecution came. They became
David's enemy continually. And our Lord, this world hates
him. They hate him. You know why?
Why does the world hate? You would think that they would
love him. He's meek and lowly and gracious and merciful. And
we could go on and on and on, but why do they hate him? They
do not want him reigning over them. Now, they will accept some
little Jesus of their mind, of their imagination as a personal
Savior, but they don't want somebody telling them what to do. And
this is where the rub is. You or me, neither one, don't
want somebody else telling us what to do. Isn't that right? And they are his enemy continually. He said, if they've hated me,
They are going to hate you. And we are going to see all those
people that identified themselves with David, they had a bull's
eye on their mark, I mean on their back, because Saul hated
them continually. But see the providence of Almighty
God, God used Saul's hatred to bring Michael and David together.
The wrath of men will praise him, and the remainder of wrath
he'll restrain it. He says, I'm going to kill him.
You know what I think is amazing? Everything that Satan would do
and use to try to destroy God and jerk him off his throne and
destroy his people, God uses his own weapon to destroy him.
He used Goliath's sword to cut his own head off. He used this
against Saul. Haman plotted to kill Mordecai
and had a gallows built to have him hanged on. And you know who
hung on that gallows? Haman did. God turns their own weapon against
them and uses their own weapon to destroy them. Now David's
went and got those four skins. He is flat-stirred up a hornet's
nest. If them Philistines weren't mad
before, they're mad now. And we're going to see eventually
that the very thing Saul wanted to use against David, it turns
against himself. And he's destroyed by those same
Philistines. There's a lot in this. God enabled
us to learn these lessons. God opened up our eyes to these. I really struggled over this
this week. I mean, all week I'm going, Lord, there's something
there. There's something there about why did he have to get
204 skins. Before he didn't want to do it.
Now he wants to do it. And all this pictures our Lord. Everything in this book. In some
way, shape or form, pictures Christ's redemptive work for
his people. And if you missed that, you flat
missed it. And I pray as we go through this
study that God would teach us these truths. That every time
we open this book, this is the one thing we're looking for.
It's him. It's him. He's there in every,
every jaunt, every tittle. Line upon line, precept upon
precept, it's all about you.