Struck

4 And Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, “Let not the king sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have brought good to you.

This is one of the primary words for "sin" in the Old Testament. It means missing the mark. He goes to his father and says, "You know, if you do this, what you've decided to do, if you kill David, you're really missing it. You're doing the opposite of what you're supposed to do." Let not the king sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have brought good to you. That's the whole point that we looked at last week. Sometimes when you do everything right, you're not loved for it—you can be hated for it. David had done nothing wrong to Saul. He did everything right for Saul. He was an incredible blessing to Saul. And Saul still wanted to kill him. And so Jonathan just calls it out. He's like, "What are you doing? If you kill him, you'll be sinning against him who has never sinned against you. In fact, everything he has done has brought good to you."

5 For he took his life in his hand and he struck down the Philistine, and the Lord worked a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it, and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause?”

"Hey, Dad, remember the giant that you were supposed to fight and that you didn't? Do you remember the 40 days and 40 nights when the giant came out onto the field and taunted you and mocked God? And do you remember how nobody would go out and face him? But the first day that David heard it, he went out and he not only confronted the giant, he destroyed the giant. You remember that, Dad? You remember how he took his life in his hand and he struck down the Philistine, and Yahweh worked a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause?" What a straight shooter Jonathan is. He just calls his own father out on his sins.

And verse 6—and this is the story of Saul. We get this moment where it seems like, "Oh, okay, he's going to do the right thing," only to be really let down and disappointed. Verse 6:

6 And Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan. Saul swore, “As the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death.”

You're like, "Oh, Saul, why'd you have to do that? Why did you have to make a vow about it? Why did you have to bring God into it? All you had to do was say, 'Okay, Jonathan, I won't kill him.'" But see, Saul, man, he's all about image and he's all about this. "Oh, you know what? You're right, Jonathan. As God is my witness, as Yahweh lives, I will not put him to death."

So verse 7:

7 And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan reported to him all these things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before.

So it's like, "Ooh, tragedy averted. Jonathan did the right thing. Saul repented. He's brought David back into his presence. Maybe this is going to work out." In verse 8:

8 And there was war again. And David went out and fought with the Philistines and struck them with a great blow, so that they fled before him.

So again, David's doing all the right things. He goes out and he fights a battle on behalf of Israel. God is with him. There's an incredible victory. But this was the exact thing that made Saul so jealous and envious before. And so even though he's made this vow to God that he will not kill David, even though now David's back in his presence as before, and once again God is using David to bring great victory, it goes bad really, really quick.

9 Then a harmful spirit from the Lord came upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing the lyre.

These chapters are all about contrast. You've got to picture this. You've got to picture what this is describing. You've got to picture David, the warrior poet, this incredible musician who is playing this stringed instrument in the presence of his king to bring peace and calm to him, who's worshiping Yahweh as he does this. And then you've got to picture Saul. And the way Saul is described here is really important and significant. It says that he's sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. That's not normal. You don't sit in your house with an instrument of war.

What we see is that—and I think this is important because you can read this text, and the way that the text lays it out, you might be tempted to think that what Saul does here is God's fault. So God sent the spirit to torment Saul, and because that happened, then Saul is going to turn bad and try to kill David. But that's not what's happening here. This isn't God injecting evil into a neutral heart. Saul has been cultivating this since chapter 16, rejecting God's will over and over and over again, flat out disobeying and losing God's blessing and the Spirit's presence in his life. The evil spirit sent by God is judgment, it's actually God giving Saul what he wants. Saul's not sitting there in his house going, "God, I want to do the right thing. I want to keep the covenant. I want to love David. I want to love the people. I want to lead the people." He's sitting in his house twirling his spear. You get this image of a man that's descending deeper and deeper and deeper into his sin and his rebellion and his fear and his jealousy and his envy. And God says, "Well, as you wish. As you wish."

And I just want to point out, once again, that there's this supernatural reality behind and a part of the natural reality that's going on. There's always more going on than meets the eye. This is a supernatural story because we live in a supernatural reality. And the Bible's absolutely unequivocal and unashamed about pointing that out. So Saul is just stewing in his anger and resentment. And then this spiritual reality comes to bear.

10 And Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall. And David fled and escaped that night. 11 Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him, that he might kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, told him, “If you do not escape with your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.”

Now just remember, this is Saul's daughter who loved David, who chose David. He's married to her now. Now she has the wisdom. He comes home. Can you imagine that? "How was your day, honey?" "Oh, you know, your dad tried to kill me again." There's so much. It's so messy. It's so broken. It's so tragic and heartbreaking. So here's this wife who loves her husband, who's chosen him, who sees God's blessing on him, and her father is trying to kill him. So she just flat out says to him, "Listen, if you don't get out tonight, you've got to go or you're going to be dead."

12 So Michal let David down through the window, and he fled away and escaped.

It brings back the echoes of Jericho and all that sort of stuff. And here's the dude that killed the giant sneaking out in the middle of the night out the window like a teenager trying to get to a party. It's so strange and wrong and broken on every level, and that's what you're supposed to see. You're supposed to feel that. He fled away and escaped.

13 Michal took an image and laid it on the bed and put a pillow of goats’ hair at its head and covered it with the clothes.

This is an interesting verse. The word here for "image" is a Hebrew word, teraphim. It's a household ancestral idol. So this is an interesting inclusion in the mix of this. And the way that that worked is that the father was responsible for those idols. And so the text doesn't give us a lot of details, but the intimation is that she went and took her own father's household idol. And again, we've got a couple of stories in Genesis that this should remind us of. So she takes the ancestor idol that—oh, by the way—Israel is absolutely forbidden from having. So the fact that Saul has them tells us something significant. Once again, the contrast.

So she takes her father's ancestral idol and puts it in the bed and then puts a wig on it made out of goats' hair. I love a good goats' hair wig. And then covers it with clothes to hide him. It's like an episode of Tom and Jerry or something. It's so crazy to me.

14 And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.” 15 Then Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.”

One thing I'll give to Saul, at this point, he's not hiding anything. Now, he doesn't go to do it himself. He sends his assassins, his messengers: "Go, and if she tells you he's sick, well, just say, 'Take us up to the bed. We're going to kill him.'"

16 And when the messengers came in, behold, the image was in the bed, with the pillow of goats’ hair at its head.

And then Saul finds out about it and he says to his daughter,

17 Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me thus and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?” And Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go. Why should I kill you?’”

You see how messed up this is? So now she—because we know the story—she told him, "Hey, you better get out tonight or you're going to die." And now when she's confronted by her father, "How dare you do this?" she's like, "Well, he threatened to kill me if I didn't let him go." Like, this is not how families are supposed to work. It's like a really bad soap opera. You know, like it's so messy. She saves her husband by manipulating and lying to her father. Right? Because she probably fears her own life from her own father? Brokenness is what you're supposed to see in this text. What happens when we don't keep covenant? What happens when we don't walk in the ways that God has called us? What happens when we reject God as God and go our own way? This is what it does. It breaks. It fractures. It destroys. It corrupts. It brings death.

18 Now David fled and escaped, and he came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and lived at Naioth.

So David goes to the one place where Saul has so far been scared to go: Samuel. Samuel the kingmaker, Samuel the prophet, Samuel the one that actually anointed and installed Saul, and the one that actually called him out and told him of God's rejection. So Samuel is hanging out in Ramah. He's got a group of other prophets with him. And they're living at this place called Naioth. Naioth means dwellings or habitation. And so David goes and he's living now with Samuel.

19 And it was told Saul, “Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.” 20 Then Saul sent messengers to take David, and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as head over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.

This is when it starts getting fun. So he sends a group of assassins to kill David. They come to where David is at. David is hanging out with Samuel, the prophet, and his little group and school of prophets. And they are having a worship experience. A part of this is going to be challenging to understand because of how we think about prophecy. And we actually think about prophecy almost completely wrong.

So when we read that they were prophesying, we think that means they were predicting the future. So they're just bunching around and they're going, "Hey, you know, on January 7th, this is going to happen. And tomorrow you're going to eat that." No. So actually, biblically, prophecy is very rarely used predictively. It's actually mostly used, like 85 to 90% of it, descriptively. God sends a prophet to the king. God sends a prophet to the tribes. God sends a prophet to the people. "Thus says Yahweh, you all are messing up." That's how prophecy generally works. God invites the people into His presence and He tells them what's going on, and they bring a message that is descriptive of what's happening in real time. Now sometimes there's going to be some threats in there: "If you don't change this, then it's going to go this way." But even those statements aren't necessarily predictive. They're potentially predictive. If you repent, it's not going to go that way.

So when we read that they're prophesying, they're not predicting, but this is also one of the rare times where they're not just describing what's going on. It's not predictive. It's not descriptive. It's active. It's an act of worship, of being in the presence of God. It's a word in the Hebrew and in the ancient Near East that describes intense worship. Not hands-in-your-pockets worship. Not mumbling worship. It's active and vibrant. It's ecstatic. There is a sense, especially in the cultures outside of Israel in the ancient Near East, where it would be ecstatic, like uncontrollable worship. And that's actually what happens here.

So here come the assassins to kill David. They see Samuel and his group of prophets worshiping God, praising God in the presence of Yahweh, and uncontrollably, they start to prophesy too. They start to experience the presence of God, and they are unable to go and kill David. David doesn't have Jonathan to help him out this time. He doesn't have his wife to help him out this time. And Samuel doesn't even help him out this time, really. Yahweh helps him out. Here come the assassins, and God's like, "Oh, that's cute. Worship." And they're like, "I'm coming to kill. I'm coming to kill." And then the next thing you know, they're on the ground. Uncontrollable worship.

21 When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. And Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied.

Can you imagine what Samuel and David are thinking? They're like, "Here comes another one." And they're coming down. And then the next thing you know, they're on the ground. Because the presence and the power of God is there.

22 Then he himself went to Ramah and came to the great well that is in Secu. And he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” And one said, “Behold, they are at Naioth in Ramah.”

Remember, Saul had had the Spirit of God. In fact, Saul had prophesied when the Spirit of God first came upon him. Remember that? Saul had had the Spirit of God removed from him. But now the Spirit of God comes upon him. It's a little different this time.

23 And he went there to Naioth in Ramah. And the Spirit of God came upon him also, and as he went he prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah. 24 And he too stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel and lay naked all that day and all that night. Thus it is said, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”

which is a taunt, by the way, right?

Now, I know because our culture is so broken sexually and erotically, anytime we see the word "naked," we start to... This is not an erotically charged text. This is a humiliation-charged text. He's probably still had his underclothes on. But what's being described here, Saul is so out of control of himself because the Spirit of God has come upon him that he rips off his clothes and he's laying there on the ground, struck down by God himself. Be funny. It is funny. So tragic. So broken. The Spirit of God that had been on Saul to elevate him, to lead the people of Israel, has now come upon Saul and ground him into the dust. Because that's actually what Saul wanted. Saul arrives with murderous intent. Yahweh takes him out of the equation, protects him.

Let me just, because of the world that we live in, because of so much of the teaching in the American church about how the Holy Spirit comes upon people and ecstatic experiences and all that sort of stuff, let me just take a minute and say, you know, this text shows us one thing very, very clearly about the Spirit coming upon somebody and moving them and filling them with an ecstatic experience. And the thing that this text tells us is that that is not an indication of God's favor or that person's holiness in and of itself. It's just not. Ecstatic worship experiences can be faked. In fact, very often are faked. And ecstatic experiences can come from God as a sign of judgment, not as a sign of approval. And we are in a spiritually not neutral reality. We're in a cosmic conflict. And ecstatic experiences can be produced by the enemy.

When I was in Bible college, I spent a lot of time going to a lot of different churches just to experience and see what God was doing and what these churches were doing. I was in Edmonton, Alberta at this very large church—very large church—and they were having one of those services where they wanted everybody to speak in tongues and get slain in the Spirit and have all these ecstatic experiences. And I'm there to observe and watch, and I've been in these environments many, many times before. And there's all sorts of people around me speaking in tongues and doing stuff and whatever. But this guy comes and sits right in front of me. And he starts speaking in tongues and demonstrating and doing the same things that everybody else around him is doing. But, like, I just feel evil about it. I just sensed this. There's something wrong here.

Now, I'm 19 years old and not afraid to do pretty much anything at the time. So I literally reached over the pew in front of me and put my hand on this guy. And I said, "God, if this is not from You—which I was pretty sure it wasn't—shut him up." It seemed legit at the time. And I do this, and this guy's going off, this ecstatic, tongues, doing his whole thing. And I say, "God, shut him up." And he's going, and he goes—like that. He can't. And he turns around, and he hissed at me. Which is, like, not normal in a worship service, but it's okay with it. Like, he hissed at me and then ran out of the sanctuary. And so I know this is a rabbit trail from this text, but I couldn't deal with this text without saying this. This is why the Scripture says to test the spirits. And just because somebody does something in Jesus' name or just because there's an experience or ecstatic or it seems like, "Oh, that must be God," y'all, we've got to be way more discerning and have way more wisdom. We've got to test the spirits, because there is a Spirit that declares Jesus is Lord, and there are other spirits that do not.

All right. Back to the story, and let's get back to Jesus. How about that? Because this story, like all of them, points us to Jesus. I mean, so profoundly. You know, the chapter ends with Saul stripped and humbled, laid bare by the power of God, brought low, shamed, embarrassed. I don't think this in and of itself is a type or a shadow in and of itself. But as I was sitting and reflecting and pondering, the king of Israel laid down in the ground, stripped bare. I couldn't help but think of Jesus. I couldn't help but think of Jesus going to the cross, choosing to go to the cross, and the experience that He had there.

Listen to Matthew's account of Jesus and His crucifixion.

35 And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. 36 Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. 37 And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” 38 Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. 39 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” 41 So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, 42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” 44 And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.

You see that in your mind's eye? Jesus stripped bare, suffering, dying, humiliated, struck down, broken, mocked and ridiculed, shamed and taunted. Yet in God's unbelievable, mysterious wisdom, this was actually Jesus' moment of victory. See, I love what Paul says about this in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 8:

8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

See, one of my favorite things about the gospel is its beautiful, surprising, ironic twist. At the moment of Jesus' apparent defeat, He has absolute victory. At the moment of evil's apparent victory, evil is actually defeating itself. If they had a clue about what was going to happen, they never would have let Jesus anywhere near Jerusalem, and they wouldn't have put Him on a cross. Because what they did by letting Him defeat sin and death was destroy themselves. This is the power of God. This is the goodness of God. This is the surprise of the Gospels.

Paul declares in Colossians 2:

13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Do you see it? Do you see how God turns everything upside down? Do you see how they think they're striking down Jesus, but He's actually striking them down? Oh yeah, they bite Him on the ankle, and He crushes their head. (Genesis 3:15-16) This is the great, glorious, divine reversal. Their triumph becomes defeat, while His defeat becomes our victory. The God who fights for us. The God who does for us what we can't do for ourselves. The God who, while we were yet sinners, demonstrated His love for us in this: Christ died for us.

So church, look to Jesus. I mean, really look to Jesus. Look to Jesus with everything you've got, in every circumstance and situation, in the good times and especially in the bad times. Look to Jesus. This is what the author of Hebrews says:

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

What we read out of Matthew—the mocking, the ridicule, the pain, the humiliation, the brokenness, the shame that Jesus endured upon the cross—He chose it. He chose it for you and for me. He chose to take our shame upon Himself so that we might walk in victory with Him.

What a glorious gospel we have. What a good and glorious God we serve. What an incredible opportunity we have to look to Jesus and to walk with Him. So let me close this morning with a well-known verse from the opening of Romans. Paul says this:

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Oh, church, may that be true of us. May we choose to live our lives day in and day out with allegiance to Jesus, our King, with alignment to the values of Jesus, our King, and His kingdom. May we see our lives as a living sacrifice to be offered to the One who offered Himself as a sacrifice for us. Oh, church, may we walk by faith and not by sight. Amen.