David and Jonathan BC

Prince Jonathan was thunderstruck. While he and the brave soldiers he had been commanding were cowering in fear, a teenage shepherd with no experience in battle (aside from fighting lions and bears) had walked out confidently into the valley, faced a terrifying giant, and quickly beat him. This was someone Jonathan wanted to get to know. This was someone Jonathan could mentor and help to become an even greater warrior.

So after the stunning defeat of their enemy, two things happened. Up to then, David had been going back and forth between his pasture and the palace, but now Saul wanted him to stay at the palace. Secondly, Jonathan became best friends with him. The two of them became like brothers. In fact, they made an oath before God that they would be friends for life. Jonathan took off his princely robe and gave it to David. He also gave him his tunic, his sword, his bow and his belt. This was an amazing gift. Jonathan was the heir to the throne, but he knew that God had told Saul that their family would no longer rule. He also knew that David was God’s choice. He gave some of his greatest treasures to David and helped him as Saul sent David into battle. David did an incredible job in every battle that he fought, and Saul rewarded him by giving him a high rank in the army. All the soldiers loved him. In fact, pretty soon, the women came up with a song that they sang while dancing and playing instruments:

Saul has killed thousands of our enemies,

But David – wow! – he’s killed TENS of thousands!

Now imagine you’re Saul. Normally, you’d love to hear that you’ve solved thousands of problems. But then along comes a young whippersnapper with no experience in battle, and now they’re saying he’s solved ten times the number of problems? Saul was pretty jealous. He started thinking, “What’s next? I suppose he’ll want to be King!”

The next day, Saul was in a very bad mood, and as usual, David stood before him and played his lyre. But this time, the lyre wasn’t enough. Saul was so angry that he picked up his spear and threw it at David! He dodged it just in time, twice! When that didn’t work, he decided to send David away to lead a large army. God gave him success in battle, which didn’t help Saul’s attitude. He was hoping the Philistines would kill David!

Saul almost gave his daughter Merab to David to marry, but David turned him down. But then he noticed that his daughter Michal had fallen in love with David. It took some convincing, but David finally agreed to marry Michal. As a bride price, Saul wanted David to defeat 100 Philistines. (In that culture, the man had to pay the family of his bride before they could get married. It was also called a dowry. In this case, Saul was hoping the Philistines would kill him while he was making good on this odd dowry.) Instead of one hundred, David defeated two hundred Philistines! Not only had David outdone the mission Saul had hoped he would fail, but now he could tell that Michal was madly in love with him, and he was now his son-in-law!

So Saul tried another idea. He told Jonathan to kill him. Jonathan, of course, didn’t want to hurt his best friend, who was also now his brother-in-law. So he came up with a plan. As Jonathan suggested, David hid while Jonathan talked to his dad and reminded him how much David had helped strengthen Saul’s kingdom and defeat his enemies. So Saul listened to Jonathan promised not to kill David.

In the next battle, David was so terrifying to the enemy that the Philistines turned tail and ran!

Back at the palace, Saul tried again to kill David with a spear while he was playing his lyre, and again David dodged it. Saul sent men to try to kill David at his house, but Michal found out that her dad was about to kill her husband, and she warned David to run away. So he did.

David went to Samuel and told him what had happened. Pretty soon, Saul found out where David was, and he sent soldiers to kill him. But when they got there, they started prophesying instead! So Saul went himself, and he started prophesying!

So David ran away from there and found Jonathan. He embraced his friend and said, “What have I done? Why is your dad trying to kill me?”

Jonathan was surprised. “What?” he said. “Dad never said anything about this to me! He promised me he wouldn’t kill you! He would have told me if he were gonna do that. He always tells me what he’s doing. It can’t be true!”

But David said, “Your dad knows that you love me like a brother, and he thinks it would make you sad if he told you about this. So he decided not to tell you. Thanks to him, I’m so close to death!”

So Jonathan said, “What do you want me to do? Whatever it is, I’ll do it.”

David had a plan. “Tomorrow is a big feast, and your dad will expect me to be there. I’m gonna hide in the field, and when he misses me and asks you where I am, tell him that I wanted to go home to Bethlehem for a sacrifice. If he says, ‘Oh, no problem!’ you’ll know everything is OK. But if he loses his temper, he means to hurt me. But you, please be kind to me. Remember the promise we made to be friends. If you find I’ve lied, please kill me yourself! I don’t want to face your dad!”

“Never!” Jonathan said. “If I had any idea my dad wanted to kill you, I’d warn you.” So Jonathan agreed to look into it and let David know whatever he found out. If everything was OK, he would tell David. If what David said turned out to be true, he would make sure David made a clean getaway. That day they swore another oath before God. They would be kind to each other, and they would have each other’s backs. If either was in danger, the other would help him out. If either of them died, the other would take care of his family. (David later fulfilled this promise with Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth, but that’s a lesson for another week.)

Then Jonathan had something to add to David’s plan. “Go hide in the same place you hid before, and I’ll do what you suggest to find out whether my dad is really out to get you. The day after tomorrow, I’ll come to the field and bring a boy along with me. I’ll shoot some arrows like I’m doing target practice, and I’ll tell the boy to go fetch the arrows. If you’re safe, I’ll tell the boy, ‘The arrows are on this side of you. Go get them!’ But if Dad is out to get you, I’ll tell the boy, ‘The arrows went past you! Go get them!’ Then you’ll need to get out of here. Oh, and don’t forget the promise we made today.”

The first day of the feast, Saul noticed that David wasn’t there, and he thought that was odd. But he didn’t say anything. The second day, when David still wasn’t there, he asked Jonathan about it. So Jonathan told him, “David asked me if he could go to a sacrifice with his family. It’s important to his family, and his brother ordered him to be there. So I let him go.”

Saul lost it. “You imbecile!” He cried. “How dare you side with David?! As long as he’s alive, you will never be King! Go get someone to get him and bring him to me! He has got to die!”

Jonathan was stunned. “What has he done to deserve this?” he asked. But Saul got even madder, and he threw his spear at his own son, the heir to the throne! Jonathan dodged it and furiously left the table. He didn’t eat anything more that day because he was so shaken and sad.

The next morning, Jonathan took a boy with him to the field to help him with target practice. He shot an arrow past the boy and yelled, “The arrow went past you! Go get it! Hurry up!” When the boy returned the arrow to him, he sent the boy home with his arrow and weapons.

When the boy was gone, David came out of hiding, and they kissed each other. (In that culture, kissing was like hugging is to us. It just meant they were good friends.) Both of them cried bitterly. Jonathan said, “Go in peace. We have sworn friendship to each other, and that goes for our descendants too.” So David left, and Jonathan went home.

Thus began Saul’s chase that we’ll learn about next week.

Gideon

Sunday school lesson from this morning, from Judges 6-7...


God had brought the Israelites through a lot. General Sisera did horrible things to the Israelites, and God sent Barak to defeat him. When Barak got scared, Judge Deborah went with him into battle, and with God’s help, they defeated Sisera’s army. But because Barak didn’t trust God enough, Sisera himself was defeated by a woman named Jael.

After that, there was peace for 40 years.

But then, as Israelites did often, they forgot God again. They did evil things, and God allowed the Midianites to do bad things to them. As soon as the Israelites’ crops were ready to harvest, the Midianites and Amalekites swooped in and stole it all. They stole their crops, livestock, and anything they could find to eat. This kept happening for seven years! Finally, the Israelites were so poor and starving that they cried out to God for help. So God sent them a prophet to remind them that He had brought them out of Egypt and provided for them, but they had decided to worship other gods.

Because the Israelites needed to eat, they had to get creative about where they put their food, to hide it from the invaders. One day, God sent an angel to the farm of a guy named Joash. The Midianites would expect to find lots of wheat to eat on the threshing floor where they separated the good wheat from the chaff, the skin of the wheat that wasn’t good to eat. So Joash’s son Gideon was threshing wheat in their winepress. The angel sat under a nearby oak tree and said to him, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

Gideon was pretty surprised. He said, “But sir, if that’s true, what happened to all the miracles? I’ve heard all kinds of great things He did for our ancestors when He brought them out of Egypt, but He seems to have abandoned us lately.”

“Go, save Israel from Midian,” said the angel. “I am sending you.”

Gideon wasn’t satisfied. “But, but…how do I do that? My family is the weakest in the tribe of Menasseh, and I’m the weakest in my family! Why call a wimp?”

But the angel said, “Go. I will be with you, and you will defeat the Midianites.”

“OK,” said Gideon, “I need a sign. I’ll go get an offering. Be right back.” He went in and cooked a goat and made some bread, and then brought it out to the angel. He put it on a rock, and the angel touched it. Fire came out of the rock and burned it up! Then the angel disappeared. So Gideon knew it really was an angel that God had sent. He was scared.

Then God told him to do something really scary. God told him to tear down the idols of the false god Baal, then sacrifice his father’s bull on a proper altar, using the idols as wood to burn it.

Gideon obeyed, but he was too scared to do it during the day, so he took ten of his servants, and they did it at night when everyone was asleep. When the neighbors got up the next day, they discovered their idols had been destroyed, and they were furious. They marched over to Joash’s house and demanded to have Gideon so they could kill him! Joash replied, “If Baal is such a powerful god, don’t you think he can deal out his own wrath? He shouldn’t need help killing someone who destroyed his altars.” So they called Gideon Jerub-Baal, which means “Let Baal contend.”

The Midianites were coming! Gideon was learning, and with God’s help, he started building an army to fight them. But he was still scared. He asked God for a sign again. “If You really want me to do this, show me. I’m putting a wool fleece on the threshing floor, and if the fleece is wet with dew and the ground is dry in the morning, I’ll know.” So God did it! Then he said, “OK, don’t be angry, but I need to double check. This time, I’d like you to make the fleece dry and the ground wet with dew.” God did that. So Gideon had no doubt this was what God wanted him to do.

He set out leading his army, but God had another surprise for him. There were too many people for God to show them that this was His plan! So God had Gideon tell everyone who was too scared to go home. 22,000 soldiers left, leaving only 10,000. But that was still too many! So God gave them a really strange test. 10,000 soldiers went down to the river to get a drink. 300 men lapped the water with their hands to their mouths, while everyone else knelt down to drink. The people who knelt down ended up having to go home. So that meant the army only had 300 people left!

God told Gideon to sneak into the Midianite camp during the night. When he did, he overheard two Midianites talking. One of them had just had a dream that a barley loaf had fallen into the Midianite camp and hit the tent so hard that it collapsed! The second person said, “That means that God has given our camp into the hands of Gideon son of Joash!”

Worshiping God, Gideon snuck back up to his camp and laid out his plan. It was the middle of the night at this point. He split the small army into three groups and gave each of them trumpets and empty jars. The three groups surrounded the camp, and at a cue from Gideon, they blew 300 trumpets and smashed 300 clay jars! 300 voices shouted, “A SWORD FOR THE LORD AND FOR GIDEON!” The Midianite army awoke with a start and panicked. They were so scared that they grabbed their swords and started to fight…but in their fear and confusion, they forgot that they were killing each other! The survivors fled, and the Israelites chased them. Gideon called for more men in the area, and the men of the tribe of Ephraim answered. The Israelites defeated Midian that day, but there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that it was God who had won the battle.

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The following pictures are of a threshing floor and the process of threshing, or separating the grain from the stalks and chaff. I printed them to show the class. Click on them to see them larger.

Source: Fletcher, Elizabeth. "Bible Archaeology: The First Farmers: Food in the Ancient World." Bible Archaeology. Web. 17 Feb 2013. http://www.bible-archaeology.info/agriculture.htm

A stone threshing floor surrounded by a low stone wall to contain the grain

Threshing: woman with grain on a threshing floor, Israel, 19th century photograph

Deborah and Barak

Sunday school lesson from February 10, from Judges 4-5...

Israel had come a long way. God brought them out of Egypt, and He used Moses and Joshua to lead them to the Promised Land and then go through the long and difficult process of conquering it. They saw the Red Sea and the Jordan River part. God gave them manna and quail in the wilderness, and He made water come out of rock. He made the thick walls of Jericho fall with trumpet blasts! He even made the sun stand still so they could defeat six cities in one day. After that, God led them to defeat more enemies until they conquered the land. But after Joshua died, the Israelites started to forget everything they had seen. They worshiped statues instead of God, and He wasn’t very happy about that. In fact, He became so angry that He sent more enemies against them, and the Israelites became slaves to a new enemy. But then, they remembered God and prayed. So He heard them and raised up a judge named Othniel. He was Caleb’s little brother. Othniel led the Israelites to victory, and they defeated their enemy. After Othniel died, Israel forgot God again, so He sent them another enemy. Then they prayed, and God sent Ehud to be their judge and lead them to victory. After Ehud came Shamgar. But then, Israel forgot God AGAIN! You’d think they’d learn their lesson!

This time, God punished them again by sending a Canaanite King named Jabin to attack them. His army general was named Sisera, a nasty character. Sisera did terrible things with his chariots and army, and for twenty years, Israel was miserable under his cruelty. By this point, there was a new judge named Deborah. She was also a prophetess, and she got a message from God. She obeyed what He told her to do. She sent for a man named Barak of the tribe of Naphtali, and when he arrived she told him, “God commands you to go, lead the men of the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun to Mount Tabor. God will lure Sisera and his army to the Kishon River, and you will defeat them.”

But Barak was scared out of his mind. He responded, “I’ll go, but only if you come with me.”

Deborah said, “OK, I’ll go, but since you don’t trust God enough, a woman will defeat Sisera!”

So Deborah and Barak set out, leading the armies of the Israelite tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun, and they went to Mount Tabor. When Sisera got word that they had gone there, he led his army to the Kishon River, just as God had said would happen.

Deborah told Barak, “Go! This is the day God promised! He has given Sisera into your hands!” So Barak led his army of ten thousand soldiers down the mountain to meet their enemy. God sent an earthquake and a powerful rainstorm. Barak’s army defeated Sisera’s, and many of the enemy soldiers were swept away by the river! Israel chased the survivors of Sisera’s army, and not one of them survived.

But Sisera got away! He escaped to the tent of Heber, the man who had warned him that the Israelites were coming. Heber’s wife Jael welcomed him in. Sisera was all tired out from fighting and running, and he asked her to hide him and to give him a drink. She gave him some milk and let him get some sleep, covering him. Once he had fallen asleep, Jael took a tent peg, quietly snuck up to him, and…

Pretty soon, Barak and his army arrived in pursuit of General Sisera. Jael ran out of her tent and told Barak, “Come see! I have something to show you!” He stepped into her tent and found the evil Sisera, dead, with a tent peg in his head.

So, just as God promised, He helped Barak and Deborah to defeat Sisera’s army, but Sisera himself was defeated by a woman.

That day, Deborah and Barak sang a song of praise to God for saving them from their evil oppressor and leading them to victory.

The Sun Stands Still

This morning's Sunday school lesson, from Joshua 9-10...


Word was getting around. Egypt had been hit with ten nasty and deadly plagues. The Red Sea had parted for the people of Israel, and fire and cloud had led them forward. As they advanced in their slow 40-year journey across the wilderness, they had defeated everyone who attacked them. Heshbon, Bashan and Ashtaroth had fallen. Now Israel had crossed the Jordan River, which had also parted for them! Soon after, Jericho fell, literally. Israel suffered a defeat at Ai because Achan had stolen from Jericho, but once they got that straightened out, Ai was destroyed. Everyone in the surrounding cities was terrified, and they got together to try to put an end to General Joshua and his scary army of Israelites. Everyone but Gibeon. They were scared too, but they were clever and decided to try a more crafty way of not being killed.

The men of Gibeon came up with a plan. They found some dry and moldy bread, put on worn-out clothes, and they made sure everything they brought with them looked old, cracked and worn. They found Joshua and the Israelites nearby and told him their sad story. “We’re from a far-off country, and we’ve heard reports of everything your God has done, and how you’ve been victorious against everyone you’ve fought. We’ve come a long way to make peace with you. We don’t want to be any trouble to you, and we were wondering if you could sign a treaty with us. Look at this moldy bread. It was fresh and steaming when we left home! Look what the long journey has done to our clothes and sandals!”

The Israelites looked at the Gibeonites’ clothes, tasted their bread, and saw that it looked like they were telling the truth. They just forgot one thing…to ask God about it. So Joshua and the Israelites believed the lie and made a treaty with Gibeon. Three days later, the truth came out. These guys were neighbors! Israel wanted to punish those crafty Gibeonites for fooling them, but they had made a promise to protect them. So instead, the leaders of Israel made them cut wood and carry water for them.

King Adoni-Zedek of Jerusalem soon heard that Joshua had destroyed Ai and signed a treaty with Gibeon, an important city that was even bigger than Ai. Gibeon had a lot of good fighters. The combined forces of Israel and Gibeon were even scarier than just Israel. So Adoni-Zedek called four other kings from nearby cities, and together, they marched to attack Gibeon.

The Gibeonites sent word to Joshua: “Help! We’re your servants, and now five kings and their armies are attacking us! Come quick and save us!”

This time, Joshua learned from his earlier mistake. Last time, he hadn’t asked God about the treaty, and they had been tricked because of it. Now, Joshua prayed. God answered, “Don’t worry, I’ve got it. Go and defeat these five armies. Not one of them will be able to stand.”

So Joshua and the Israelites marched all night and took the attacking armies by surprise. God threw their enemies into confusion, and Israel defeated them and chased them away, defeating more and more as they chased them. As the enemies continued to flee, God sent a big hailstorm, and the huge chunks of ice killed more enemies than the Israelites did with their swords.

The day was getting on, and Joshua was worried that it would get dark and some of their enemies might get away. So once again, he prayed:

“O sun, stand still over Gibeon,
O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon!”

The sun was directly overhead, and there it stayed for almost a day. The sun, moon and earth stopped moving, and God gave Joshua and the Israelites extra time to defeat five united armies in one very long day. God had never done that before, and He hasn’t done it since then.

The five kings were so scared that they hid in a cave near the city of Makkedah. When Joshua found out about that, he told the Israelites to block the cave with rocks so the kings couldn’t get out, and then they defeated almost every single enemy soldier. Then he let the kings out, and they didn’t live to tell the tale. The Israelites then defeated Makkedah. So it was that in one very long day, God helped the Israelites to defeat six cities!