GetWisdom PaperturnSampler FINAL SinglePages - Flipbook - Page 42
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In 1 Samuel 19:9, we see Saul attempt to pin David to the wall with his spear while playing the
harp. David barely escaped with his life (and this was not the first time Saul has attempted to kill
David!). The next morning Saul sent men to David’s house to try again to kill the young warrior.
Luckily, David had people on his side who believed in him and loved him dearly. Jonathan,
King Saul’s son, was David’s most cherished friend and simply couldn’t understand his father’s
treatment of David. Jonathan was stuck in the middle and yet never wavered in devotion to either
man, loving them both. He knew what his father was up to and warned his best friend that trouble
was coming. David’s wife Michal (also King Saul’s child), must have been observant enough to
see her father’s plans unfolding outside her front door and warned, “If you don’t run for your life
tonight, tomorrow you’ll be killed.” Letting David down through a window, the brave Michal
saved her husband, allowing him to escape. She had no idea, of course, but the moment she let
David down that window, she lost the man she loved dearly. Eventually her father would remarry
her to someone else. It wouldn’t be till years later (after David had several more wives), that he
would seek to reclaim her. Michal never had children with either husband.
Saul’s jealousy ruined a marriage. He forced a young man to run for his life. He turned his
greatest warrior into a fugitive who began living in caves.
There’s a little more to this story, though—and it has to do with trustworthiness and obedience
in our relationship with God.
My husband, Ben, and I were talking to one of our kids one night about trust. Our teenage son
wanted responsibility in something and yet was asking that we put boundaries on something else
that he knew he couldn’t be trusted with. We told him that responsibility and trust went hand in
hand: we could either treat him like the young adult that he is…or we could treat him as a child.
We wanted to teach him that he couldn’t pick and choose where he liked having freedom and
responsibility…and where he didn’t. It was a package deal.
We discover this same interplay between trust and responsibility in 1 Samuel 15. Go ahead and
read that chapter now.
Like our son, Saul thought he could pick and choose where he wanted to obey God. In verse one,
what reminder does Samuel give him?
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A few chapters back, Saul made some sacrifices to God on his own instead of waiting for Samuel
like he had been asked, so the priest no longer trusted him. Perhaps Samuel wanted to remind the
king that it was God who placed him in this position of leadership. The One True King in Heaven
was actually in charge.
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