Today’s passage: 1 Samuel 31:1-13

Helpful thoughts:

• While David and his men were fighting the Amalekites, Saul and his men were being defeated by the Philistines.
• It was a terrible day for Israel (Verse 6).  The defeat was so thorough the king’s dead body was just left on the battle field.  The Philistines took land and cities all the way to the other side of the Jordan!
• Saul preferred suicide to what he knew the Philistines would do to him.  His act encouraged his armor-bearer to do the same.
  • Saul and his sons’ bodies were displayed within the newly acquired territory in a grotesque way.  The people of Jabesh-gilead would later be commended for their efforts to respect Saul and his sons (2 Samuel 2:5-7)

Questions to consider:

1. If David was about to become king of Israel, what kind of nation was he going to be leading (In the world’s eyes)?  What is the condition of the nation?  What crisis are they in?
2. What might have been running through Saul’s mind as all this transpired?  What had Samuel told him would happen? (1 Samuel 28:19)
3. What had been the final fruits of the king Israel asked for?  Why is this book able to end with such tragedy, while at the same time have an undercurrent of hope?  What is God about to do? (2 Samuel 7:12-16, Matthew 1:1)

Today’s passage: 1 Samuel 30:16-31

Helpful thoughts:

• God’s promises are true.  David’s army defeated the Amalekites and everyone was rescued.
• The spoil was to be shared among those who stayed with the supplies because (Verses 23-24):
  • God was the one who gave them the spoil in the first place.
  • The victory over the Amalekites and the preservation of their lives by God were greater gifts than the spoil.
  • Every aspect of the battle, including the care of what must be left behind, is important.
• David’s gift to the leaders in Judah would have served as an announcement.  The Israelites were used to people being used by God to save them from their enemies.  Those people would then judge Israel.
  • A transition in leadership was about to take place.

Questions to consider:

1. What promises has God given us through Christ?  Why can we be completely confident they will come to pass?
2. Why should someone who stays home with the kids so that their spouse can go serve be encouraged by this passage?  What are some different ways we work together to accomplish ministry?  What are some ways we still “stay with the baggage” today?
3. What was the greatest reward for David in this passage?  How would it compare to Paul’s reward in 1 Corinthians 9:18?  What is more important than the “spoil”?

Today’s passage: 1 Samuel 30:1-15

Helpful thoughts:

• When these warriors returned to their new hometown, all of their possessions, and more importantly all of their wives and children were gone.  They wept until they were too exhausted to to weep anymore.
• “David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.”
• The Amalekites left this Egyptian man for dead.  David obeyed the Lord during his own distress and blessed the man (Leviticus 19:34).
  • David’s kindness and obedience yielded fruit.

Questions to consider:

1. What had all these men just experienced?  As we read through this passage, be careful not to let the quickness of the movement in the narrative take away our understanding of the pain they were in.
2. What would you be thinking about as the leader of all these men, having just taken them all away for battle?  What was available for David to trust in at this time?  What might he have been tempted to rely upon to try to “fix” this?
3. Why would David trust the man who just helped to raid his city and people?  What did David know?  Whom did David trust?

Today’s passage: 1 Samuel 29:1-11

Helpful thoughts:

• Perhaps at the same time Saul was seeking a medium to hear from Samuel, King Achish was hearing from his Philistine commanders.
• The Philistine commanders were right to question David’s inclusion.  Their memory was not short (1 Samuel 14:21).  They had already been fooled once.
• David’s words to Achish are once again ambiguous.  When David referred to “my lord the king,” he could have meant Achish, Saul, or even the LORD!
  • David served Saul, and Saul rejected David.
  • David pretended to serve Achish, and Achish trusted David.
  • However, the lord whom David would ultimately be “reconciled to” and serve was neither of these kings. (Verse 4)

Questions to consider:

1. Considering what Samuel has just told Saul, what has David been kept from being involved in once this battle gets going?  How has God used the Philistine commanders to bring about His will?  Is anything too hard for the Lord?
2. This battle that is coming is critical to the life of David, and he is not able to fight it.  He must trust God to win this battle.  How does this pattern remind you of the Gospel message?  What victory has Christ won for you that you could not win on your own?
3. How does this pattern also apply to prayer?  When we pray, what are we asking God to do and what are we acknowledging we cannot do?

Today’s passage: 1 Samuel 28:1-25

Helpful thoughts:

• There are two play-on-words instances in verse 2.
  • What King Achish was about to see David do could have been against Israel or against the Philistines.
  • The phrase, “I will make you my bodyguard for life” in Hebrew is literally, “I will make you keeper of my head.”  David had already captured the head of one Philistine from Gath.
• Anyone in Israel who consulted a medium was to be “cut off” from Israel (Leviticus 20:6).  Saul clearly knew this as he had previously outlawed and removed all of the mediums.
  • Saul had disrespected and disobeyed God, Samuel, and killed the priests.  Now that he’s in distress, he wants God to speak to him…and when Saul gets what he wants, he’s certainly not happy about it.
  • In his promise to not allow harm on the medium, Saul truly used the Lord’s name in vain.
• It seems as though this deceiving medium realized she had been deceived when her divining appeared to actually work!  Certainly, she was not the one who successfully brought Samuel to Saul, the Lord allowed this.

Questions to consider:

1. What kind of situation is David in?  What kind of trouble have his double-meaning statements gotten him into?
2. How could Saul’s actions show us that being spiritual and religious does not automatically mean a person is following Jesus?  Why did Saul want to hear from the Lord and from Samuel?  What was he willing to do in order to get it?
3. How might people cut off God from their lives today and then expect Him to arrive to save the day when their consequences approach?  Is that cry to God an act of repentance?  What would repentance look like?  What has Christ provided for us in our repentance?

Today’s passage: 1 Samuel 27:1-12

Helpful thoughts:

• David doubted Saul’s promise to stop chasing him down.  He was right to doubt.  Saul only stopped hunting David when he went into Philistia.
• Ziklag was within the territory that God had given to the tribes of Simeon and Judah.  This was the beginning of David’s claiming more of the Promised Land during this year and four months.
  • The areas and people groups that David was conquering were all within God’s instruction to Israel prior to entering the Promised Land.
• David’s lying resulted in a somewhat misguided trust from King Achish.  Due to the mixture of the lying and the military successes of David in the Promised Land, this chapter is very complex.  There seem to be things to celebrate and things to avoid/rebuke.

Questions to consider:

1. In what way could we continue to contrast David and Saul from what we learn in this chapter?  In particular, how did both men respond to commands from the Lord in the conquest of the Promised Land?
2. How does a chapter like this help us to trust in the authenticity of God’s Word?  If the Bible was trying to hide anything from us to make people (Namely, David) look better than what they were, would we get to learn about these kinds of times?
3. Is it ever right to lie?  Do passages like this (Or, Exodus 1:15-21, Joshua 2:1-7) tell us it’s OK to lie or do they simply give an accurate report of what occurred?

Today’s passage: 1 Samuel 26:1-25

Helpful thoughts:

• The Ziphites were part of the tribe of Judah.  The conflict (Or lack thereof) between Saul and David was felt and wrestled with in and among the nation of Israel.
• David had learned to trust God’s timing and justice after the events surrounding the death of Nabal.
• This is now the second time Saul has promised David not to do any harm.

Questions to consider:

1. Saul had 3,000 troops and the support of a clan in Judah.  David was seeking to honor the Lord and preserve the life of the king.  Who had the advantage in this conflict?
2. David has also sadly learned not to trust Saul.  When Saul asked David to return, what did David do in response?  Does David believe Saul is being genuine in his repentance?
3. What does true repentance result in?  If I am sinning, and I realize my sin, by God’s grace how will I respond? (Ephesians 4:22-32)