David on the Run

The Philistines were bearing down on the town of Keilah, pillaging and hurting the people. David got word of it and came to their rescue. He and his men defeated the Philistines in Keilah, but pretty soon Saul found out. His jealousy at David’s success continued, and he was determined to kill him. When David found out Saul was on his way to Keilah to kill him, he fled with his men. David had 600 warriors with him, and they went from place to place. They never stayed too long because any time Saul found out where they were, he would go there.

David was at Horesh in the Desert of Ziph when he found out Saul was after him again. Jonathan found him and comforted him. Jonathan said, “Don’t worry. My dad won’t hurt you. You’ll be king someday, and I’ll be second to you. Dad knows it.” They made a promise to each other, and Jonathan went home. The Ziphites betrayed David to Saul, but David got word of it and fled. David and Saul’s forces very nearly met, but Saul suddenly got word that the Philistines were attacking, and he realized that was more urgent. So Saul gave up chasing David for the moment and instead went in pursuit of the Philistines. David, meanwhile, went to the Desert of En Gedi. After Saul was done dealing with the Philistines, his murderous rage came back, and he went off in search of David again.

David and his men were in the back of a huge cave when they heard someone come in. They recognized Saul’s shape! He hadn’t noticed them, and he just needed to go to the bathroom. David’s men whispered to him, “This is it! God has given you a chance to get rid of Saul!” So David went into stealth mode. He took a sharp knife and crept up behind the King. Very, very quietly, David took out his knife… and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe! He crept back to his men. But then he realized that was really dumb. What had he done? He didn’t have a right to damage the King’s robe! He whispered to his men, “What were we thinking? Saul may not be the nicest guy ever, but he is the one God chose to be King! How dare we even do this much?” His men wanted to kill Saul, but David said, “No way! Don’t even think of harming God’s choice of King!”

Saul finished doing his thing and left. David knew he owed the King an apology, so he ran out of the cave and called, “My lord the king!” Saul turned around, shocked. David went on. “Why do you listen to the idiots who claim that I want to harm you? You can tell that I could have killed you just now. My men even wanted me to! But I refused to even harm you, because God chose you to be King! Look at this piece of robe I’m holding, Dad! I got that close to you, but didn’t kill you! You can tell that I have no intention of rebelling or even laying a hand on you, so why are you out to kill me? The Lord can do what He wants with you, but I will not hurt you!”

Saul said, “David, my son-in-law, is that your voice? You’re a better man than I. May God reward you for what you’ve done today! You could have killed me, and you would have had the right to do so! I know that you’ll be king after me, so please promise me that when you do, you won’t kill off my family.” Often in those times when someone who wasn’t the heir became King, he would kill off the family of the former king so nobody could challenge his role as King. David gladly promised to do nothing of the sort. As you may remember from last week, David had already made a similar promise to Jonathan. So Saul went home.

At this time, Samuel died. He was an old man, and it was his time. The whole nation of Israel mourned for him.

A bit later, the pesky Ziphites sent word to Saul again about where David was. Saul had forgotten how David meant him no harm. By this time, Saul was so jealous of David that he had given his daughter Michal to another man, and David had remarried. So much for being the King’s son-in-law! Saul led 3000 Israelite soldiers to attack David and his 600 men. It may have been overkill, but Saul was a bit overdramatic at times. Saul and his men camped at the hill of Hakilah, near where David was hiding, and David found out.

David and his friend Abishai went into stealth mode again, and they crept into Saul’s camp in the middle of the night. They found King Saul and Commander Abner sleeping, and Saul’s spear was stuck into the ground right near his head! Abishai whispered to David, “Let me stab Saul with his own spear! I’ll only have to do it once!”

But David whispered, “Are you crazy? Have I taught you nothing? Saul is God’s choice for King! Let God deal with Saul! We will not be murdering anyone tonight! Just grab Saul’s spear and water jug, and let’s go!” So, with Saul’s spear and water jug, they tiptoed out and climbed the nearby hill. When they were a safe distance away, David yelled, “Hey, Abner!”

Abner awoke with a start and responded, “Who’s calling?”

David replied, “What were you thinking? You should be guarding the King, and what do you do? You’re sound asleep! What if someone had tiptoed in and done something horrible to Saul? You’ve failed him, Abner! Saul is God’s choice for King, and you should be taking care of him, not sleeping like a log! Now look around! Where are the King’s spear and water jug?”

Saul recognized that voice. “Is that you, David, my son?” he said.

“Yes, Dad! It’s me!” David cried. “Why are you still chasing me? What have I done? You’ve come after someone who is no threat to you! You might as well be hunting a flea! What am I, a partridge for you to hunt in the mountains?”

Saul replied, “I have sinned. David, my son, come back! Since you value my life so much, I won’t try to chase you again. I was stupid, and I am so sorry!”

David called back, “Here’s your spear and water! Have someone come get them! God rewards everyone for being faithful. He gave me another chance to get you, and your life was too important to harm you. As I have valued your life, may God value mine and deliver me from harm!”

Saul said, “David, my son, you will go far in life. May you be blessed!”

So after Saul got his spear and water back, he went home and David moved on. He couldn’t trust Saul’s word, so he decided to leave Israel. He went to Gath and made friends with their King Achish. David and his soldiers lived in Gath for a year and four months, and Achish was very impressed with his talent in battle.

שְׁמוּאֵל

The day Hannah had dreamed about all her life, and prayed for and wept for, finally arrived! For a long time, she had come to the tabernacle to ask God to give her a child. She had even promised that if God gave her a child, she would give him or her to God’s service. The priest Eli had thought Hannah was drunk, but when she explained why she was so upset, he had told her to go in peace. She had thanked him for his kindness and left.

Now, about nine months later, here she was holding a newborn baby in her arms! To thank God for hearing her prayer, she named the boy “God Has Heard”:

שְׁמוּאֵל

In Hebrew, “God has heard” is שְׁמוּאֵל (Shmuel), which sounds something like “Samuel.” He was a healthy baby boy, and Hannah was very thankful for this precious gift God had given her. She remembered her promise she had made to God, but she knew it wouldn’t be a good idea to take him to the tabernacle right away. It’s kinda hard for a priest to nurse a newborn baby. So when he was little, Hannah kept her new son at home and nursed him.

When Samuel was old enough, Hannah and her husband Elkanah took their son to the tabernacle. Hannah found Eli and said, “Remember a few years ago, when you saw me crying in the tabernacle, and you thought I was drunk? I told you I was very sad that God hadn’t given me any children, and I prayed for a son. Guess what! Here he is! I promised that when he was old enough, I would give him to God’s service, and now I’ve come to do what I promised I would do. For as long as he lives, he will be God’s servant.”

Then Hannah prayed. She told God, “You make me happy, and there is no God like you. You keep us safe, and You give things to people who are low and shame the people who brag. You bring down the strong, but you give strength to the weak. You give and take life. You make people rich or poor. You lift the homeless out of the dump and give them places of honor. You protect people who are loyal to You, but evil people will die in darkness. We can only win victories with Your help. Anyone who attacks You will be destroyed. You will judge the earth and give power to Your chosen king.”

After Hannah had prayed and they had said their goodbyes, Elkanah and Hannah went home, and they left Samuel to grow up in the tabernacle, under the able care of Eli. So Eli started to teach this young boy the way of God and had him do chores and lessons in the tabernacle. Eli was getting old, and he wasn’t in very good shape. In fact, he was a bit on the heavy side. So it was nice to have a young child around to help him out.

But Eli had a big problem. His sons Hophni and Phinehas were also priests, and they had a very bad habit. People would bring animals to the tabernacle to sacrifice to God, and they stole some of the meat for themselves! They sometimes didn’t even let people do the sacrifices right. God got very angry with Eli’s sons for the terrible and selfish thing they were doing.

As Samuel was growing up, his mother Hannah visited him regularly, and she would bring him clothes she had made for him. Every year, Eli would tell Hannah and Elkanah, “God gave you Samuel in answer to your prayers. I pray that God will give you more children to take his place.” God answered Eli’s prayer and gave Hannah three more sons and two daughters.

Eli was getting a lot of complaints about his sons’ behavior. Finally he had had enough with their shenanigans, and he went to them and said, “What are you thinking? Stop this horrible behavior! Hurting a person is one thing – you can always make up for it. But when you commit a crime against God, you’re playing with fire.” But they were so rebellious that they didn’t listen to their dad. And he let them keep stealing from God.

So God sent a prophet to Eli, who warned him that God had decided to put an end to Eli’s family. The prophet warned him that nobody in his family would live to an old age, and his family’s life would be sad. Someday soon his sons Hophni and Phinehas would both die on the same day, and God would raise up a new priest who would not be related to them, and who would help God’s chosen king.

By this time, Eli was nearly blind. God hardly ever spoke to people so they could actually hear Him. (That’s the same today. I’ve never heard God’s voice with my ears. I have to listen in other ways.)

One night, Samuel was sleeping on a mat in the tabernacle near the Ark of the Covenant, God's holy chest, when he heard a voice. "!שְׁמוּאֵל" (“Samuel!”)

He ran to Eli and said, “I’m here! What do you want?”

But Eli said, “I didn’t call you. Go back to bed.” So Samuel obeyed.

A little later, he heard it again. “Samuel!”

So he got up and went to Eli again. “Here I am! What do you want?”

Again, Eli said, “I didn’t call you. Go back to sleep.”

Now Samuel was starting to realize that he didn’t recognize this voice. It didn’t quite sound like Eli’s voice, but there was nobody else around that it could be. So when he heard his name again, he went to Eli and asked what he wanted.

Then Eli realized what was happening. So he told Samuel, “If you hear someone call your name again, stay in bed and say, ‘I’m listening, Lord. What do you want me to do?’”

So Samuel went back to bed. Pretty soon, he heard it again. “Samuel! Samuel!”

This time, he stayed in bed. “I’m listening,” he said. “What do You want me to do?”

So God said, “Samuel, something is about to happen that will shock everyone. Eli and his family will be punished for his sons’ behavior. Eli knew his sons were doing some terrible things, and he let them get away with it. I warned him about this, but he didn’t listen to how serious it was. His family has done too many disgusting things.”

Next morning, Samuel got up and opened the doors to the tabernacle. He was scared to tell Eli what he had heard. How would you feel if you had just heard that the people you love who raised you were in big trouble, and then they asked you about what you had heard?

The first thing Eli said in the morning when he saw Samuel was, “Samuel, my boy, come here!”

“Here I am,” Samuel said.

“What did God say to you?” Eli asked. “Tell me everything.”

So reluctantly, Samuel told Eli everything. Eli replied, “He is God. He will do what’s right.”

Samuel continued to grow up, and God blessed him. Everything Samuel said came true, and he earned a reputation for being God’s prophet.

As for Eli’s family, his sons Hophni and Phinehas were killed in battle by their enemies the Philistines. The Philistines also captured the Ark of the Covenant. When Eli found out that both his sons had been killed and the Ark was gone, the shock was too much for him. He fell backwards in his chair. He broke his neck in the fall and couldn’t get up. If he had lived a little longer, he could have met his new grandson. Phinehas’ wife was so upset about her husband’s death and the capture of the Ark that she named her son “No Glory”, or Ichabod.

What happened to the Ark? The Philistines put it in their temple to their god Dagon. Next morning, they discovered the statue of Dagon had fallen over! So they put it back. The following morning, they discovered the statue had not only fallen over, but had broken into several pieces! The Philistines could tell they had made Israel’s God very angry, and they sent the Ark back.

I wrote "Samuel" (Shmuel) on the whiteboard in Hebrew.

Samson

This week's Sunday school lesson, from Judges 13-16...

God used Gideon to end the Israelites’ worship of Baal, and then to defeat the Midianite army in a very strange way. How often do you hear of an army killing each other after hearing smashing pots, trumpets and shouting? After the victory, Gideon went on to judge Israel for forty years, and they had peace. After he died, his son Abimelech took his place. Then came Tola. Then Jair. Jephthah. Ibzan. Elon. Abdon. Throughout this time, the Israelites kept forgetting God and calling out to Him when they got in trouble. Whenever they called out, God sent them a deliverer. Jephthah in particular won an important victory with God’s help, but he learned too late that it isn’t a good idea to make promises to God without thinking about what might happen when you have to keep them. But that’s another story.

After Judge Abdon’s death, the Israelites turned away from God again, and so He let them be oppressed by the Philistines for 40 years!

During that time, there was a man named Manoah, who wanted a child, but his wife couldn’t have children. One day, an angel appeared to Manoah and his wife and gave them some great news. They were going to have a son! But there was a catch. The boy would be a Nazirite. That meant he would be set apart for God. He wouldn’t be allowed to have a haircut, touch a dead body, or drink alcohol.

So, true to the angel’s word, the couple had a baby boy, and they named him Samson. As he grew, his hair got very long, and God gave him amazing strength. This guy was a rough, tough, macho man, and he tore a lion apart with his bare hands! Later, he found the lion’s dead body and discovered a beehive in it. There was honey, and it looked delicious, so he took some…but in the process, he touched the lion’s body even though God had told him not to touch dead bodies.

Samson fell in love with a Philistine woman. He wanted to marry her, even though God had commanded the Israelites long ago not to marry Philistines or anyone else from the lands they had conquered. At the wedding, he came up with a riddle and offered a big reward for anyone who could answer it:

“Out of the eater, something to eat;

Out of the strong, something sweet.”

When the Philistines couldn’t figure out the answer, they convinced his bride to coax the answer out of him. So she betrayed him, and everyone was mad, and not everyone survived. In fact, her father was so mad at his son-in-law that he gave his daughter to someone else. When Samson found out that his father-in-law had taken away his wife, he got really steamed. So he rounded up 300 foxes and tied their tails together in pairs. He tied a burning torch to each pair of tails and let them run wild in the Philistines’ fields. (Think about it. Foxes are wild, and it’s tough to catch one, let alone 300!) The Philistines were very upset about Samson burning their crops, and they got really mad. The Israelites got scared and took Samson to the Philistines so they could take out their anger on him. But as he got close to the Philistines, God’s strength came on Samson. He took a donkey’s jawbone and used it to defeat 1000 strong men! So he became Israel’s judge and led them for 20 years.

Sometime later, Samson went to Gaza, where he ripped off the doors of the city gate and carried them to the top of a nearby hill. They were heavy! The Philistines could tell he was very strong. About this time, he fell in love with a woman named Delilah, and the Philistines asked her to find out Samson’s secret to being so strong. She tried several times, but he kept coming up with lies about it:

“Tie me up with seven bowstrings, and I’ll get weak.” But when they tried that, he easily snapped the bowstrings off.

After he suggested they tie him up with new ropes, he snapped them like twigs. Maybe if they weave his long hair into fabric? Nope. He broke the loom and pulled the hair fabric apart. Day after day, Delilah nagged and prodded Samson, and she started to wear him down. So he said, “OK, fine. I’ve never had a haircut. Try cutting my hair.” Nothing else had worked, and Samson didn’t think this would work either. But he didn’t know that this was the final straw for God. God had given Samson so many chances, and he had disobeyed so many times, that God had had enough. Samson had the surprise of his life in the morning when the Philistines came in and tied him up, and he wasn’t strong enough to fight back! They poked out his eyes and threw him in prison, where they made him grind grain.

But while he was in prison, his hair started to grow back. One day, the Philistines had a big celebration to honor their false god Dagon. They liked to humiliate prisoners at their parties, and Samson seemed like a really fun idea for entertainment. The blind strongman performed for the Philistines, and they loved it. But then, he asked the servant who was leading him around to place him between the two main pillars of the crowded Philistine temple. Samson knew that he had done some terrible things, but he also knew that God had sent him to deliver Israel from the evil Philistines. So he prayed that God would give him superhuman strength once more. He no longer cared for his own life. Samson stood between the two pillars and put a hand on each one. With all his might, he pushed outward, and he brought the house down. Literally. That day, more Philistines died from the building falling on them than he had killed in his lifetime. Samson himself didn’t live to tell the tale.