40 Minutes In The Old Testament - 1 Samuel 19:8-24 (Episode 245)

Episode Date: December 14, 2020

Saul returns to madness and makes multiple attempts on David's life. Michal helps David escape to Samuel. Saul is determined to track him down which results in a whole lot of prophesying. Chad and Daniel discuss all of this. 1517 Podcast Network HWSS Conferences 1517 YouTube Donate

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast, check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. And while you're over there, you can check out the events page because we've got events coming up. We're doing events again in 2021. Got the first of those in Bentonville, Arkansas. So come out to the Ozarks in the spring.

That is April 16th and 17th. Chad will be there. I'll be there. You want to be there. I mean, you haven't been doing anything all of 2020. You've been locked up. Well, 2021 is the year that you go back out and you start hanging out with people again. Hopefully that's what it is. so all the information is over on the events page it's 65 bucks for a two-day conference you don't

want to miss it you can drive there if you're around uh where arkansas is we're a little we're a little bit central we're the central time zone anyway so i think that means that a lot of people can drive here and if not you can fly in we got the airport just 15 minutes from the event no reason not to come and hang out and then of course also we have the general conference in october uh you want to register for that before the first of the year because we are doing the early bird special which ends january 1 so you want to go ahead and get your ticket for that as soon as you can chad we uh we left off with uh jonathan talking some temporary sense into his father he seems sane for a moment uh and uh of course war now is going to break out again yeah

instead of temporary insanity we're gonna have temporary sanity on the on the part of saul but But yeah, it will take very long. It seems like every time there's war and every time David does well, all of a sudden Saul just, the switch flips in his head. And he's a crazy spear-throwing guy again. Yeah, it seems like the way this sets up, because it's only a couple of verses. You have Jonathan talking sense into Saul, and then it just kind of gives you this sort of short little information

where it says there was war again, and David went out and fought with the Philistines, struck them with a great blow, and they fled before him. And you're like, okay, I guess that's nice to know. the reason i think that you're being told that is that this is the trigger that that sends saul back into this state of paranoia so every time david goes and does well saul is not congratulating himself for choosing the right man to command his armies but is instead like this guy uh i'm really getting sick and tired of his heroics yeah it's like this guy does such a great job for israel i think we should kill him that's good that's the that's kind of the irrationality behind uh

behind saul's thinking yeah that's what verse eight sets us up yeah this great battle david's victorious kills all these philistines verse nine they're back home and uh saul sitting there he's got his uh his loaded 357 in his lap he's holding his spear in other words david picks up his lyre or his harp he's strumming along trying to soothe Saul and the next thing you know we have spear throwing going on again Saul tried to pin David to the wall with a spear and David slips away he sneaks away from Saul's presence and the spear lands in the wall once more and so David flees and escapes I think I've mentioned before that you know Saul really should have been taking some spear throwing lessons because he he seems to be really bad at actually being able i mean

like did he ever actually kill somebody with his spear in battle because i mean i'm guessing they're in pretty close quarters here and he's missed david multiple times and as we'll hear in chapter 20 he also misses jonathan so not very good odds yeah yeah one thing that's interesting about this you know we see this line over and over again that um then a harmful spirit from the Lord came upon Saul. And I know we've mentioned that this is obviously different than the spirit of the Lord, but that God has allowed the spirit to come upon Saul. If you think about what is that spirit, and we're not told exactly what it is, but it seems that you can take this away from it. Suspicion, envy, jealousy, these are harmful things. These are

not things that are serving the life of Saul well yeah I think that's a great way to put it yeah I mean all of that combined you know he's got he's got obviously some some kind of mental stuff going on but he also has to struggle with jealousy and fear and envy and this uh kind of maniacal uh captivation with David I don't know how else to put it he's like he's fascinated with David but in an entirely unhealthy sort of way it's like he can't you know we always talk about a person living rent-free inside your head well that that's definitely what's going on here with David is living rent-free inside of Saul's head and he just can't seem to to get rid of him even though the strange thing is you know David is doing none of this on purpose right he sets out

with no sinister motive he doesn't want to stage a coup uh he's entirely faithful to Saul even to the point where he's putting himself in obvious danger and wanting to and he's doing so in order to help the king out um but all of that is is for nothing as well here in chapter 20 he's I mean he he's he's so frustrated because he's gonna tell Jonathan hey what have I done you know is there something that's that i'm missing here have i sinned in some way that that your dad wants to kill me so much so um yeah i mean you got kudos to david because i mean he is kind of an emblem of fidelity at this point in his life because he's he's putting his own uh life in danger in order to help the life of of his king yeah i mean i mean honestly the only thing that jonathan could

tell david is like you know we'll go a long way uh maybe just maybe go lose a battle could you stop being so successful yeah that would go a long way yeah so anyway that's the that's that episode it's pretty short just uh three verses now verse 11 and following 11 through 17 is is a different kind of situation this chapter just keeps getting more interesting as we get along because the last of it's just very bizarre but this uh this next section is 11 through 17 and there's some connections here with the book of psalms and with some earlier episodes that we've we've covered in the podcast uh having a day with rachel and with rahab and then we even have a kind of a flash forward you might say to a similar scenario

that happens to to paul way way later in the book of acts so no we'll get to all that basically here's what happens saul gives up on trying to pin david to the wall since that has been repeatedly unsuccessful and instead decides he's going to use messengers. So he sends this delegation, these spies, I guess we would call them, to David's house to watch him in order to put him to death in the morning. But his wife, Saul's daughter, Michal, she finds out and she says, if you don't save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be put to death. I suppose there was some you know whispering in uh in her father's house and somehow word gets back to her of what is going to go down in the morning so what does she do she let david down through a window

and he went out and fled and escaped so it's pretty interesting because this is not the only time well interesting couple different ways first of all this is not the only time that Michal is connected with a story that has to do with a window. So this particular time, this action of letting David out through the window is a token of her love for him. We've already been told that she loved David. In fact, I think I mentioned that that's the only time explicitly in the Old Testament that we're told a woman loved a man.

So she does love David, and she shows that love in action here by saving his life, by letting him down through the window. now if you move forward in the david narrative to second samuel chapter six david is dancing before the ark remember that whole story he's got the linen ephod on and you know he's uh he's happy uh and he's and he's expressing that happiness in this kind of dance and we're told in second samuel six that me call once more is connected with a window she looks down from her window. And she sees what David is doing. And she just thinks it's scandalous. And so the next time they're together, she lets David know just how upset she was by his actions. And it's a sad

chapter in their marriage, because evidently from that day forward, they were not really together. Of course, David had many other wives and women in his life. And so the implication is that from that time forward there was nothing really nothing else really between david and nicole but that's kind of a narrative thing that's interesting to point out that both episodes have to do with her and david both episodes have to do with a window one she expresses her love and the other she loses her love or at least loses this intimacy and marriage that they had up to that point the other direction this is interesting is because we have other kinds of narratives like this that happen through scriptures you know the one that the one that immediately comes to mind

is from joshua right right after the the spies arrive and they stay at rahab's place and she lets them down through a window in order that they can escape same thing happens here and then i can't think of where it's at it's it's i know it's in the book of acts uh but it's in the midst one of you know paul's talking about all these crazy scenarios that he finds himself in and he was in the city of damascus and he was let down through a window and escaped and that was the way he was able to to save his life so you know build practical device if you ever need to escape there's always a window yeah yeah it is you mentioned uh paul going down through a window it is and i sure as an old testament guy uh you you hear this as well but uh whenever i read the account you know

in acts and and you hear the son of david say to saul saul saul why do you persecute me yes i mean this takes you like right back to this entire narrative right oh yeah yeah absolutely yeah it's got to be intentional i mean i don't know any other way that you can that you can read that this son of david saying saul saul i mean the name itself is just perfect saul saul why do you persecute me you could write that over this whole section of david's life yeah it's all it's all foreshadowing what's going to happen so she lets him okay she lets him lets him out he gets away good good but uh she's now got to deal

with the men so she's going to get pretty sneaky here she's gonna she's gonna pick up on the uh the actions of earlier women um both of Rahab as well as Rachel so she uh it's not entirely clear what she did because you can translate the Hebrew a couple different ways but most of the English versions will say that she took the uh the household idol uh I believe is the way that my yeah it's the way new American standard I think in ESV has the image I believe anyway she takes that yeah the image This is a, in Hebrew, it's a teraphim. So if you think back to when Jacob and Rachel and Leah and all their kids, when they fled from Laban, they head back to the promised land, that Rachel stole

the teraphim that belonged to her father, and she hid them under her camel's saddle. Same word that's used here. So ordinarily, these things were pretty small. They were like little figurines. I'm not exactly sure if this was like a life-size household idol or image or if something else is going on here one commentator thought that the image was placed actually not on the bed but at the bed that is to say almost in an in an attempt to like keep it close to David as if he were sick in bed and so the the closeness the intimacy of the idol would somehow benefit him so as I say It's not entirely clear what's going on, but we do have this image, this tariff him that is connected with the bed. And then she, she does the old, you know, escape prisoner trick, like escape from Alcatraz, where she puts a sheet over and then she puts some hair.

It's goat hair in this case up there to make it look like he's laying there all covered up in bed. Then Saul's messengers get there to take David and she says, oh, he's, he's not, he's not feeling well. He's sick today. so i guess the messengers go back to see saul and uh saul finds out and so he sends these messengers saying well okay he's sick all right well bring him up to me on his bed so i mean saul is determined he's going to kill david even if he has to basically put him on a a cot or a stretcher and bring him up to his uh to his house well he's probably thinking you know I mean, he says, literally, bring him up in the bed that I may kill him.

So he's thinking, I have not done well with just throwing spears at this guy when he's in good health, but surely I can stab this guy while he's bedridden. Right. I know I'm not very accurate with my spear, but surely if he's just laying there in bed, I can get him. There's also something strange about this, that he doesn't just tell them, well, go back down there and kill him. Yeah, he wants to do it himself. Yeah, he wants to do it. yeah that is very true yeah this is a this is very personal for Saul it seems to become increasingly personal you know for a while he would have been content to let the Philistines

kill him but he's way beyond that point now he's uh he's wanting to make sure that he does the deed himself so they go into the house verse 16 and behold the image the household idol was on the bed with a quilt of goat's hair at its head. So they find out the ruse. Then, to make matters worse, Saul berates his daughter. He says to her, why have you deceived me like this and let my enemy go so that he has escaped? And then Michal, still very sly, says to her dad, because he told me to let him go. Otherwise, he would put me to death. So she joins the ranks of a whole list of women who got out of a bad situation by means of using their wits, or were able to get what they wanted by using their wits. We have example after example of that, everything from Rebecca

getting the blessing for her for her favorite son or Rachel deceiving her father Laban, Tamar deceiving Judah so in this case she deceives her own father it does seem like maybe this is

temporarily this gets you out of a bind of having your father I don't know what maybe she thinks her dad's crazy enough to put her to death too if she doesn't say listen I didn't have a choice here

but if that is not if that's not the case uh you did just temporarily outwit your your father but you also gave him more fuel because he said did this guy just threaten to kill my daughter uh this this isn't this seems like long term this might not this is just added fuel to the fire right yeah it's uh yeah the after effects of this will not be good it's just gonna make things worse between Saul and David. So, yeah, I think this particular scenario is connected with these earlier episodes. I mean, you've got all kinds of parallels here

between Rachel and Laban. They both deceive their father. They both have the terebinth. They're covered up by clothes. So I think narratives like this are easy to kind of fit into that mold that we see earlier with stories such as Rachel and her dad.

And of course, there's, you know, connections here with Joshua as well, with how Rahab was able to save the spies through deception, through letting them down through the window. So we got some, this intertextuality going on here with these earlier narratives. And I'll add this too, this is the first time that we've been able to do this. So we'll talk about it for a second. But if you go to the book of Psalms and you look at the titles or the introductions, you might call them, to many of the Psalms, beginning, I think, with Psalm 3, many of these that are written by David are connected with events in his life. so you'll have a psalm by David and then a description of something that was happening in his life that was reflected or reflected in the psalm or caused the was the occasion on which the psalm was was written and there's a whole list of these but I think this is the first one

of these that we have encountered so far so if you if you look at psalm 59 this is the introduction to the psalm. It says, it's a miktam, a kind of psalm of David, when Saul sent men and they watched the house in order to kill him. So I find this fascinating. What I like to do when I'm working through the psalms, anytime that there is a heading like that that points me back to a specific event in the life of Saul, it's interesting to read the psalm with that event in mind and to see how they compare and in some cases how they contrast or how the psalm might reflect that particular situation, but will actually take it in a totally different direction. So Psalm 59 does that. We're not going to spend much time looking at it, but it starts out,

for instance deliver me from my enemies oh my god set me securely on high away from those who rise up against me and then it gets pretty specific it talks about how his enemies at evening it says they howl like a dog and they go around the city so it's you know David is he's at home and Saul sends these messengers that David depicts as these dog-like characters they're they're going around the city you can kind of picture them like they're sniffing David out they it says they're they're howling like dogs as they go around the city. Okay, well, you can see how Psalm 59 would certainly kind of reflect what's happening here. And David even says earlier, he says that these fierce men are attacking him, not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord,

for no guilt of mine, they run and set themselves against me. That again, reflects what's happening here in 1 Samuel. But what David does in the Psalm, and it's the same thing he does in other Psalms as well, is he takes this specific experience in his life and he sort of universalizes it because he goes on to talk about all the nations in Psalm 59. So how all the nations are attacking God's people or they're antithetical to the ways of God. So David takes his own specific experience And then he amplifies that to where what's happening with him and his prayer to God during this particular time actually applies to all other kinds of situations. And so he basically will nationalize his individual experience, which I think is a pretty cool thing about the Psalms themselves. Of course, the Psalms, many of them are written by a specific person, maybe arising out of a specific situation.

but they're meant to be prayers of everyone. And so we can see ourselves in these same kind of situations or a prayer of the church where what's happening to the people of God is reflected in the psalm as well. We'll come across more of these as we go through the life of David. As I said, I think this is the very first one of these, Psalm 59. But you can check that on your own and compare what David says there with what's happening here with Saul's men circling his house

and waiting to take him out in the morning. Yeah, I mean, it's always good to remember that the Psalms, particularly of David, that you can match the vast majority of them up with events in David's life, right? So it really does sort of bring the Psalm out of black and white and into color. Okay, if you match this story up with this Psalm, now you can see exactly what he's talking about here. Otherwise, when you read him, it just sounds like some sort of like really obscure poetry, right? Yeah, right, right.

Another thing that is a lot of fun to do, I did this, the book I just finished, The Christ Key, one of my chapters is about Christ and the Psalms. And one of the things I did in that chapter is, so you'll take a Psalm. we'll uh we'll say psalm 41 or 42 or something like that so a psalm that is that is quoted in the new testament on the lips of jesus or in reference to jesus all right so you take that and then you go back to the psalm and you you realize okay so this psalm is not just about what's happening to David, but it's also what's happening to Jesus, right? So you line these up, okay, so what happens to David also happens to the son of David, or you might even say that what's going to happen to the son of David in some way influences what happens to David himself.

It's kind of a backward effect. But either way, you're reading David's life and you're reading the life of Christ side by side, then in the psalm itself. But then what you can do is take a further step, and then you go back to a narrative in David's life that the psalm is based off of, and you see how the narrative itself also is pointing forward to what's going to happen to Christ himself. In other words, it's instructive with regard to how we should interpret the scriptures, is what I'm saying. So you can see how the psalm is quoted in reference to jesus then you read jesus and david side by side in the psalm but then also you take it that one step back to the narrative itself and you say oh okay so what's happening to david here

is providing us with the blueprint for what's going to happen to the son of david and the psalms bring that all of that together into into a prayer so it all fits it all fits together yeah yeah you ever think about how david being the most explicit uh foreshadowing of christ uh i would i think that we've said that before that it's it's not i don't even know if it's close right so david i don't think they have i don't think anybody else even is even close yeah so uh so david being that uh this is a hard calling yeah right yeah how'd you like that job i mean because this this means that you are going to be a man of sorrows, that you are going to suffer, that you are going to be hated, that you're going to be mistreated. I mean, this is, as you read the life of David,

knowing that that's who he is, that ultimately what David is, is this foreshadowing of the son of David. This is a rough calling for God to give you. Yeah, yeah. You know that you're going to have a you can have a long good friday if you're if you're david which is really the the way that first samuel should be read this is uh you have the anointing you have uh this this uh secret anointing and then except for a very brief period uh when like the slaying of goliath when things go well after that uh pretty much it's a sol sol why do you persecute me kind of kind of situation Yeah, well, you're going to have with David, of course, the victory over God's enemies in a way that maybe nobody else has. I mean, this is why the people of Israel are so adamant that they want a second David, right?

I mean, the Messiah that they want is they want David 2.0, right? Because nobody has more victories against the enemies of God than David does. but also nobody suffers the way that david suffers and so this is very much uh how christ is that of course he is the ultimate champion over everything um that would enslave the people of god but he is the champion through much suffering and turmoil yeah yeah suffering not just good friday kind of suffering of course but suffering from the uh the lies you know the plots of people against him uh no doubt there's so much of course that's not recorded in the gospels but it seems that it seems as if he was the uh the ongoing attack

the ongoing target of verbal attacks on the part of his on the part of his adversaries uh for throughout his throughout his ministry and you see that reflected again in the psalms because david talks over and over about his enemies and you know they sharpen their tongue like a serpent, poison of a viper is on their lips. He'll talk about how their speech was smoother than butter, but their heart was war. So you can imagine all these people maybe saying one thing to David's face and saying something else behind his back. And we have that same thing reflected in the gospels. People will try and trap Jesus in his words. They'll ask him a question as if they're seeking information or they want to learn more, but really all they're doing is wanting

to try and get him to say something they'll be able to use against him. Yeah, this is especially rough for David because Jesus does have the advantage of being God. So he's not going to have his own sin to contend with. Instead, he contends with all of our sin, which is a monumental task, obviously. But David is out here as this sort of representative

of what Christ will be like, but he is also a sinner. so so this is this is very this is a very rough road very rough road yeah well we we've seen some of that already we'll we'll see uh we see now what happens next uh this next episode is is very weird uh it's it's another it's another samuel episode we don't hear a whole lot about samuel uh we haven't heard much about him the last uh few episodes but he's going to pop up here again because David's going to go running to him, probably for help and for advice. So David runs away, he escapes, and he goes to Ramah, where Samuel lives.

And he told him all that Saul had done to him. So I don't know how much Samuel was privy to all the events that have been transpiring, but I'm sure David gave him an earful about everything that Saul had been doing. So he and Samuel leave, and they go to a place called Nioth. We don't know for sure where that is, probably pretty close to Ramah. Maybe it was a little settlement right outside of Ramah. Evidently, there's a whole group of prophets that hang out with Samuel. So maybe this is a little, I don't know what we'd call it, prophetic village setting.

Whatever it is, it's close to Ramah called Nioth. So Saul finds out. He's evidently got ears to the ground all over the place because it seems like David can't do anything without Saul finding out about it. So he finds out where he's at. And so once more, he's going to send messengers to take David, just like he sent him to his house. So verse 20 says, Saul sent these messengers to take David,

but when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing and presiding over them, the Spirit of the Lord came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied. And we'll come back to that in a second. What happens next? Well, Saul finds out. And so what does he do?

He sends other messengers. And what happened to those messengers? Same thing. They also prophesied. So we have this predictable pattern. What do you do when something doesn't work twice? You try it three times. Third time's the charm.

Third time's the charm. So he sent messengers a third time. And guess what? They also prophesied. I think this is the sense of humor that God has coming through here, where Saul's like, go get him. And so you send these guys, they're ready to, you know, it seems like sort of like arrest David, essentially, right?

And nope, like we're all going to start prophesying. What? Right. You do this three times. You just have all these guys that are showing up to take you back to Saul. They're just all prophesying unwillingly. They're not there to do that. They just get overtaken by the spirit of God

And they're just all prophesying Probably, I wish we had these prophecies All recorded, probably prophesying About the greatness of David or something crazy Probably so, yeah Yeah It's like you send police officers To church to arrest a preacher

They get there, they all just start preaching Yeah Things do not go well Saul cannot get his way, have his way No matter what Well, again, according to the predictable pattern, if something happens three times and it doesn't work, well, the fourth time, you try something different. So, verse 22, Saul, probably disgusted at this point, was like, well, I guess I have to do it myself. So, he goes to Ramah.

He came as far as the large well that's in Seku, and he asked, where are Samuel and David? now we pause for a second uh because this ought to be this ought to sound familiar to us in fact it's it's specifically designed to sound familiar to us because we have a repeat here of what happened the very first chapter where we were introduced to to Saul remember that he was looking for his father's donkeys his friend says hey why don't we go check the prophet the prophet he's going to know. And so they go to where the prophet lives, to Ramah. And they ask, where's the prophet? Saul asked, where's the prophet? All of this is kind of bookending the life of Saul. So we're introduced to him and he is anointed king. And then Samuel says to him, you know, one of the

signs that you're going to have is you're going to meet a bunch of prophets. You're going to start prophesying, right? Remember all that from a few episodes ago. So kind of keep that in mind because what's about to happen now? Well, he goes to Ramah. He says, hey, where's Samuel and David? And somebody says, well, they're in Nioth in Ramah. So he heads out of town to this little prophetic village. He gets there, and what happens to him?

The Spirit of God came upon him also so that he went along prophesying continually until he came to Nioth in Ramah. And now things really get strange because it says that he stripped all his clothes off and he prophesied before Samuel and he laid down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore, they say this little proverb that we've heard before, is Saul also among the prophets? Now, I think what's happening here is that if we didn't already have it figured out that things are completely over for Saul, this ought to remove all doubt. Because even the actions themselves are indicative of what's happening. He's been clothed with the Spirit of God before.

He's become king, and now he's unclothed. He's stripped there. He's laying naked. he had opposed samuel now he's just on the ground he's literally lying on the ground naked prophesying and it seems to me that this is kind of the the lowest point the lowest point for saul he's he's he's he's had his kingship stripped away literally his clothes are stripped away he's had this and he's now subjecting himself before samuel laying there on the ground and he's prophesying, meaning that everything that he's doing is indicative of the fact that he is

no longer in control of himself. He's no longer able to serve as king. He's no longer able to fulfill his will. Instead, he's basically lost everything at this point. It seems like God is sending Saul a pretty clear message that he won't altogether receive accurately, that whatever it is that he's got planned for David is just simply not going to work, and that Saul has this very personal reminder that God is ultimately in control of all this, and if God does not want him to kill David, then he's simply not going to be able to. This is not a choice that you get to make. We talk about how bad is Saul at throwing a spear? Well, everyone's bad at throwing a spear when God doesn't want the spear to hit whatever you're throwing at. This is how this works.

You're not going to be able to kill this guy if God does not mean for this man to be killed by you. Yeah. I guess it's like a lot of situations looking at it from the outside. It should be obvious to anybody that everything that you've just said is true i mean it just there's no other there's no way uh to misunderstand that yeah i mean if you're saul if you're saul you you would think you have to leave this situation saying this i this is over right i have to end this this pursuit of of eliminating david yeah that's what i was going to say i mean to anybody else it would be obvious and you would think it'd be obvious to Saul but once more he he doesn't you know he doesn't he doesn't see it uh he's he's blinded by his own envy he's blinded by his own jealousy

blinded by all the things that we've that we've been talking about you know we I think probably all of us have encountered somewhat analogous situations you know well maybe it's a family remember maybe it's a friend uh there's somebody you know we know pretty well and maybe we're like talking to them and like you know you you can't go down that road you know you know you know what's going to happen we try and talk sense into them we try and present them with you know uh the kind of evidence that is just inescapable so it's obvious to us that this is not going to work and yet what do they do they end up doing the very thing that we have counseled them not to do And so that's why I say it's easy from the outside to see what's going on here.

But when you're stuck inside some sin or kind of a spiritual addiction of sorts, an addiction to some sort of evil, then it's easy to convince yourself against all evidence that you should continue walking down that bad road, which, of course, is exactly what Saul is going to do. Yeah, and it is sort of tragic because, of course, God is willing—well, not just willing. Of course, God desires that all repent, that all be saved, that all find forgiveness, all these things. And here, I mean, the window is not closed for Saul. This could be a very different story if Saul takes this obvious message from God that you are not going to achieve what it is that you are setting out to achieve and repented and asked God to— At no point do we read that Saul cries out to God to take away this tormenting spirit,

repent for his suspicion and hatred and evil thoughts regarding David. You can have a very different story here if you embrace the good work of repentance, but Saul is not going to do that. And this does seem like maybe one of the last opportunities for him to do that. Yeah, I mean, I guess maybe a couple times in the future, the door is slightly open. But I think really this is one of those last times. Yeah, he's there. The people are prophesying.

He's there in Samuel's hometown. This seems like a good spot to get everything straightened out. Yeah, and because of all that, I really do think this is intentionally framed in order to be kind of that last real chance that Saul has, because he's back with the very same guy that anointed him as king. He's back in the very same place where he was anointed as king. He's prophesying, again, just like happened to him immediately after he was anointed as king. So his life has come his life at least his adult life has come full full circle back to where where it all began when we when we met him so what we're going to see as as the story goes on is just kind of more

the unraveling of his of his life the next chapter is is also a significant chapter because it's the one where we kind of we kind of say goodbye to jonathan jonathan has has figured you know fairly prominently in the story so far he was a hero a war hero earlier on and he's a very good not just good friend of david but an ally of david but uh at the end of chapter 20 jonathan is is basically going to say goodbye to david and he's going to fade from the scene so i think just structurally in in first samuel what we see happening as these these uh at these these last two stories well the one we talked about now the one we're going to talk about next week is the storyteller is is narrowing the focus more and more to just david so saul's going to fade from the scene

pretty soon jonathan is is fading from the scene very soon and before we know it the entire focus is going to be just on just on david so that's the that's the direction that we're that we're going all right well that is it we will get into the next chapter next week uh guys make sure you go over to the events page sign up for all the events and uh chad i will see you next week all right see you then