Saul

Welcome to this edition of the Fuel for the Soul with John Giftah podcast.

All through this week, we're looking at various lessons we can take away from the life of Samuel, who is actually mourning S- King Saul in 1 Samuel, Chapter 16.

In line with which we wanna talk about how do you deal with the pain? How do you process the pain? I really challenge you to go back and listen to the previous two segments because I believe they help you in making the foundation right so that you can proceed well as well.

So when you look at the first verse, it says that God is asking, "How long are you going to mourn over Saul? For I have rejected him as king." God is saying, "You know what? Saul is history.

Stop looking at it." God is reminding you today, the person you're crying about is history.

The person who did you wrong did it, but I want you to forget about it or reject because I myself have rejected this person.

You lost a job because somebody else did something wrong, now today you're suffering financially.

Yes, I understand, it's real.

And when he was about 15 years old, there was a different king at the time of Israel, the first king of Israel, actually.

His name was Saul.

Saul's pride sadly took over, and he lost the favor on his life, and God said, "You will no longer be king.

I have chosen someone else to be king," and he chooses David.

David is only 15 years old when Samuel, the prophet at the time, comes to David's home and says, "God has chosen you to be the next king." And David, he is the most unlikely man to be king.

He has so many older brothers who are very strong.

They're actually a part of Saul's army, and David is the scrawny boy that looks after the sheep.

And so it comes as such a surprise, but that's what we love about God, is he chooses the unlikely, and he qualifies people.

Help me find that verse about Jonathan and David.

After he has killed Goliath, finished talking with Saul, the son of Jonathan was need to the soul of David.

Verse 3 said, Jonathan and David made a covenant.

Verse 1 said, and he came to pass when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul that the soul of Jonathan was neat with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

And verse 3 said, and Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul, and Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him and gave it to David.

and his garment, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle.

And David went out whithersoever Saul sent him, and behaved himself wisely.

In normal covenant, there is giving and receiving, there is exchange.

David's sin is being pointed out to him.

Thus says the Lord God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.

I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your keeping and gave you the house of Israel and Judah.

Here it is.

There's a description of David in 1 Samuel 16, 18.

Saul's demonized.

He's having an oppressive spirit.

The only thing that relieves him is music, which is a fascinating subject on worship and music right there.

I raise a

hallelujah.

When Saul asks for someone, he says something very specific.

Find for me a man.

There shouldn't have been kings in the south, but I've allowed it.

Saul should have done this the right way.

He didn't.

I mean, you talk about a prophetic blessing, Jacob's blessing upon Judah.

Rather than Benjamin.

Saul from the tribe of Benjamin.

Yeah.

And then I'm going to maintain my love for David's family, even though I'm going to stop the kingship.

And they may start to make their way through one of the valleys of the Shephelah up into the mountains, because what they wanna do is occupy the highland area right by Bethlehem and split the Kingdom of Israel in two.

And the Kingdom of Israel, which is headed by King Saul, obviously catches wind of this, and Saul brings his army down from the mountains and he confronts the Philistines in the Valley of Elah, one of the most beautiful of the valleys of the Shephelah.

And the Israelites dig in along the northern ridge, and the, uh, the Philistines dig in along the southern ridge, and the two armies just sit there for weeks and stare at each other because they're deadlocked.

Neither can attack the other because to attack the other side, you've gotta come down the mountain into the valley and then up the other side, and you're completely exposed.

And he's so terrifying that none of the Israelite soldiers wanna fight him.

It's a, it's a death wish, right? There's no way they think they can take him.

And finally, the only person who will come forward is this young shepherd boy, and he goes up to Saul and he says, "I'll fight him." And Saul says you...

Saul says, "You can't fight him.

There's a time to not respond.

Number two, First Samuel nineteen, eighteen: "So David fled, and escaped and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him.

And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth." When Saul, when Sa-- when, uh, Saul was attacking David, David went to where the prophet was and just lived with him.

Didn't do any king work, didn't start his own kingdom, didn't go to war.

Sometimes it's time to withdraw.

I feel, not in my flesh, I feel in my spirit to lay in s- to somebody sometimes or, or like I'm gonna go against this thing hard, like during COVID.

And there's other times where I f- specifically feel, leave it alone.

David did not immediately retaliate against Saul.

So we would say this, so the, the context, you know, she, there's not a king yet.

You know, that won't be until s- her son Samuel, of course, anoints Saul, you know-

Right

... as the first king, and then later on anoints David.