The Bible Recap - Day 109 (1 Samuel 28-31, Psalm 18) - Year 6

Episode Date: April 18, 2024

SHOW NOTES: - Head to our Start Page for all you need to begin! - Join the RECAPtains - Check out the TBR Store - Show credits - Interview–The God Shot FROM TODAY’S RECAP: - 1 Samuel 14:37 - 1 Chronicles 10:13-14 - Matthew 20:1-16 - 1 Chronicles 10:10 - 1 Samuel 11 - Join our RECAPtain Facebook Discussion Group! BIBLE READING & LISTENING: Follow along on the Bible App, or to listen to the Bible, try Dwell! SOCIALS: The Bible Recap: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter/X | TikTok D-Group: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter/X TLC: Instagram | Facebook D-GROUP: D-Group is brought to you by the same team that brings you The Bible Recap. TBR is where we read the Bible, and D-Group is where we study the Bible. D-Group is an international network of Bible study groups that meet weekly in homes, churches, and online. Find or start one near you today! DISCLAIMER: The Bible Recap, Tara-Leigh Cobble, and affiliates are not a church, pastor, spiritual authority, or counseling service. Listeners and viewers consume this content on a voluntary basis and assume all responsibility for the resulting consequences and impact. 

Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Today we finished our 10th book of the Bible. Congratulations! And we opened with a bit of a cliffhanger. The Philistines, led by Akish, are going to attack the Israelites, and Akish is relying on his old buddy David to help him out. After all, David has been making raids on Israel for a while now, right?

No? Uh-oh, what will David do? Then the narrative breaks. Cut to Saul. Not long ago, he had his second encounter with David where David could have killed him. When you've had two near-death experiences and your life has been spared,

it might shake you up a bit. Not only that, but your country's prophet, who is one of your former mentors, recently died. You're being tormented by a demon, you're about to lose your job, and you're being attacked by one of your long-standing enemies. I'm not trying to excuse what Saul does here. On the contrary, I'm trying to paint a picture of what he's going through when he makes these poor decisions. He tries to inquire of God, but that falls through. And here's something interesting that we'll see as a pattern in Scripture.

When someone asks God for direction, but they aren't following the existing direction God has already given them, God often won't tell them anything new. We saw this earlier with Saul in 1437. And Saul is still walking in unrepentant sin, which is why God rejected him as king. It's all connected. So when Saul goes to God to ask what to do about the Philistines, God doesn't answer him.

And instead of repenting, Saul decides to double down on his sin. He disguises himself and goes to consult a medium, which God has strictly forbidden. Not to mention the fact that Saul was supposed to put all the mediums to death, not just banish them. Saul is seeking answers from the enemies of Yahweh. He asks the medium to help him communicate with the dead, specifically Samuel.

It seems that what happens here is not a normal occurrence for this medium, because when she calls up Samuel and he actually shows up, she is shocked. She actually screams. So we can probably assume that whatever measure of power she normally operates in, whether it's fake power or demonic power, this is a rare occurrence and one that is outside of her control. The narrator kind of leaves us to assume that God has actually intervened here. And what does Saul get for all his trouble? The same old prophecies, but with two extra bits of bad news.

Saul and his sons will die tomorrow, and the Philistines will defeat Israel. 1 Chronicles 10 tells us that Saul died for this breach of faith, and it references this instance of visiting the medium. It's startling, actually. Cut back to Akish, taking the Philistines to war, with David and his men in tow. David gets a break here because the lords of the other Philistine cities don't trust him. They reference that Grammy Award-winning song about David that apparently everyone in the Middle East knows, and they tell Akish to send David back.

David acts bummed about it, but it's hard to tell if that's because he's just keeping up the ruse or because he was planning to turn and attack the Philistines in battle, and now his plans have been thwarted. He's ambiguous in his response to Agish. He says, What have you found in your servant from the day I entered your service until now that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my Lord the King? Which leaves me to wonder, which enemies? Which Lord?

Which King? Scripture never tells us, but it's possible that God saved David from having divided loyalties that day, which could have possibly disqualified him from serving as Israel's King. When David and his men get back to their homes in Ziklag, they find that the Amalekites have attacked while the Philistines are away at war.

David's city has been burned, his family has been taken captive, and his people want to kill him. In the midst of such a tragic loss, David knows where to turn for hope and strength. Heartbroken, he inquires of God, and God answers him. God tells David that he should pursue the Amalekites and that he'll be victorious.

Along the way, David meets an Egyptian who helps him. David has fled his homeland to escape his enemy, and he made a home in the midst of his other enemies who were attacked by a third enemy. Then he got help from another enemy. Wow, it's truly shocking that David isn't paranoid like Saul is. 400 of David's men go ahead with him in the attack,

but 200 of them are too tired, so they stay behind. God gives David the opportunity to raid the Amalekites and he gets everything back. Then David shares the spoils, not just with the 400 warriors who fought, but even with the 200 who were too exhausted to fight. Some of the 400 were not happy about this, but David shuts them down.

This reminds me of the parable Jesus told in Matthew 20 about the workers who got hired at the end of the day, who were paid the same as those hired at the start of the day. David demonstrates God's generosity here, recognizing that all of this is a gift from God that he can freely share. He even sends some back to his friends in Judah as well. Then we cut back to Saul, fighting the Philistines. As God promised, the Israelites lose the battle and Saul and three of his sons die. The Israelites and the surrounding cities flee and the Philistines take over their towns and live in them. And do you want to hear something creepy? Remember

when God decapitated the Philistine statue to their god Dagon after they stole the Ark of the Covenant? According to 1 Chronicles 10.10, it seems like the Philistines took the head of Saul and affixed it to the headless body of Dagon in their temple. Yikes. But then the people of Jabesh-gilead, which is the city Saul rescued in 1 Samuel 11 when he first came to power, they try to give him a proper burial. Then we read Psalm 18.

It opens with a statement about how this was written on the day when God saved David from all of his enemies. As we mentioned earlier, he had so many enemies. This psalm is a testament to the goodness of God through all of David's trials, and it's where my God shot came from today. David makes a lot of claims about his righteousness here, but if we look closely, we see that he describes his righteousness as being a gift from God. In verse 32, he says it is God who makes his

way blameless. He continues to point to God as the source of all these good things. God is the one who equips him, delivers him, and protects him. David recognizes that this all starts with God. We even saw this in 1 Samuel chapter 30 verse 6 as well, which says, David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. David didn't strengthen himself in himself. He strengthened himself in the Lord his God. God is the source of all the good things we have to offer back to him.

And he's where the joy is. Do you occasionally have insights to share or questions to ask about the daily reading and the recap? Then I'm here to tell you, you will love being a ReCaptain! All our tiers for ReCaptains include memberships to our official Facebook discussion group for ReCaptains. For as little as $3 a month, you can join the best little corner of Facebook. While I don't love Facebook, I do love popping in on this page every day because we all work

so hard to keep it encouraging and informative. So to join, check out the Recaptans link at TheBibleRecap.com or click the link in the show notes. Then after you join the Recaptans, you can submit your request to join our official Facebook discussion group. See you there! In every section of Scripture we've recapped together, I've asked you one important question. What was your God shot today?

I can't express to you enough how learning who God is and what His character is can change your life. I want to invite you to dig deeper into this topic with me as I talk with Denise from KSBJ. To hear our conversation, just click the link in the show notes.