Ep. 86 - Saul Turns Against David

Last we left our story, David had just defeated the giant Goliath. Against all odds, a little shepherd boy had defeated the largest warrior Israel had ever seen…and David had defeated the giant with nothing but a stone and a sling. It was one of the biggest upsets in history. Of course, after Goliath had been defeated, the invading Philistine army turned tail and ran…with the Israelites chasing them all the way back to their home cities. But after the battle was over, and after everyone had a chance to take it all in, the questions became…what next? I mean, what was in store for David? Would life go back to normal for this kid? Would David go back to his father’s house be a shepherd again? Well, let’s find out.

If David had any inkling that things would go back to normal, he was sorely mistaken. Everything changed. Word of David’s victory spread throughout all Israel. Almost overnight, everyone knew who David was and what he’d done. And King Saul…well he decided that David was his new best friend! Right away Saul made David his war advisor and began sending David out to the Philistine battles. As the Bible says, “David went out wherever Saul sent him, and behaved wisely.” (1 Sam. 18:5) Even though David was super young, he seemed super wise. He just seemed to know what to do. David became someone that people could depend on. It was actually a breath of fresh air from the crazy rule of King Saul (who seemed to change his mind every 5 minutes). For Saul’s part, he was happy to have someone around who God was clearly with. Ever since the Amalekite thing, God had left Saul. And it had been a while since Saul had felt that God was on his side. So who knows, maybe Saul felt just a bit safer having the kid around. God wouldn’t let anything happen to someone like David, would He? And as time went on, and as David got older, stronger, and more experienced, Saul came to depend on David more and more. And eventually both the king’s court and the people came to know and accept David as a capable leader.

Now in part because David was super young and in part because David didn’t really look like a leader, it never even occurred to Saul to think about young David as a threat. But it didn’t take long for that to change. One day, as King Saul and David were returning home from yet another victory over the Philistines, Saul heard something that sent him into a rage. Back in ancient times, when a victorious army was returning home, they would often take the long way back…going through as many towns and cities as they could. It was a chance for the people to actually see the men who had been fighting for them. If you kidzos have ever been to a parade, it was probably a lot like that. The army would march through the middle of town while the people in the town celebrated. It was a time of joy, dancing, and singing. So with everyone so happy, what got Saul so mad? Well, as it turned out, it was the singing. As the Bible says, “…the women had come out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. So the women sang as they danced, and said: Saul had slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” (18:6-7)

What? What was that? Saul had killed thousands…but David had killed tens of thousands? Did…did the people somehow think that David was better than King Saul? Now probably when Saul had heard this in the first few towns, it might have just been annoying. But as the army continued through town after town and city after city…Saul killed thousands but David killed tens of thousands…over and over again…at some point a switch flipped in Saul’s mind. And Saul realized that young David was…a threat. And Saul began complaining about David, saying, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed only thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom?” (18:8) Of course, it was all a bit crazy because obviously young David had not killed tens of thousands of Philistines. It was just a silly song after all. But that didn’t matter to Saul. All that mattered was that the people thought that someone had done something better than Saul. Saul was nothing if not jealous for the spotlight. Saul loved being popular with the people. And so, the Bible says that “Saul eyed David from that day forward.” (18:9)

Now even though Saul was super angry with David, David didn’t seem to have any clue that anything was wrong. Because the very next day, Saul called the unsuspecting David into his room to play music for him…and innocent David just walked in there like everything was a-okay. Now, when David walked in, Saul was sitting there with a spear in his hand. This didn’t seem to set off any red flags for David, and so he sat down to do his usually playing. But then, in a fit of rage, Saul threw the spear at him! And either because Saul‘s aim was off, or because David somehow jumped out of the way at the last second, the spear missed him. Wow…that was close! Now at first, David might have wondered if this was just one of Saul’s crazy moments. I mean, when the king had this “torturing spirit” he could do all kinds of crazy things, right? Maybe Saul had just thrown the spear in a random direction and it just so happened to almost hit David. But if David had been thinking that, Saul quickly put that to rest. Because as David was running away, Saul yelled, “I will pin David to the wall!” (18:11) So…this wasn’t just some random crazy thing that Saul was doing…Saul was actually trying to kill David.

But after Saul had a chance to calm down, Saul realized that he was in a bit of a bind. Saul couldn’t just kill David. Ever since Goliath, Saul had made sure to send David to every battle and to every parade. So partly through Goliath’s defeat, and partly through Saul howling him off, David had become very popular. Not just within the king’s court, but most importantly with the army and the people. If Saul just went ahead and killed David, well the people wouldn’t like that very much. And as we already know, Saul loved being popular with the people. And not only that, but God was with David. And Saul was somewhat afraid of what God might do if he tried to kill David again. So what was Saul going to do? Well, he couldn’t keep David around the royal court. No, sir. Letting David make more friends among the most powerful people in Israel was not a good idea. Saul needed to send David away…somewhere. But where should he send him? And that’s when Saul had a bright idea. And the Bible says, “Therefore Saul removed him from his presence, and made him his captain over a thousand; and he went in and came out before the people.” (18:13) Saul sort of demoted David from being a war advisor for the whole army, to being just a captain over a thousand men. And then Saul sent David to the front lines to fight the Philistines. This way, David would still be winning battles for Saul, but he would hopefully be out of the spotlight. And that, Saul thought, was that.

But if Saul thought that he’d solved his David problem, well now he was sorely mistaken. Because of course God was still blessing David, and when David got sent to the front lines, all that happened was that the people got to see just how great David was fighting on the front lines. Now David wasn’t just someone holed up in the royal palace who didn’t know what life was like for the regular person. The people now knew that David was able to fight side-by-side with the everyday solider. This made David even more popular with the people. As the Bible says, “All Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them.” (18:16) So while Saul had wanted David to get less popular with the people, he had accidentally made David more popular with the people. What was Saul going to do?

Since sending David away hadn’t done the trick, Saul had to get more creative. So Saul came up with yet another one of his bright ideas. If you kidzos will remember, Saul had promised that whoever killed Goliath would get his daughter’s hand in marriage. Well, David had been a little young at the time to get married. But now David had come of age. And probably some people were wondering now if Saul was going to come through on this promise. And so one day Saul said to David, “Here is my older daughter Merab; I will give her to you as a wife. Only be valiant for me, and fight the Lord’s battles.” (18:17) Basically, Saul was saying, “Yah I’d love for you to marry my daughter. But first go out there and win a crazy battle. Then you can marry my daughter.” Of course, David had already won a crazy battle…his battle with Goliath. But that didn’t matter to Saul. All Saul wanted was for David to die…and that he died in a way that didn’t look like Saul had killed him. But David replied to Saul and said, “Who am I, and what is my life or the life of my father’s family in Israel, that I should be the son-in-law to the king?” (18:18) Even though David had been anointed to be the next king of Israel, even though he’d killed Goliath, even though he’d helped Saul win all kinds of battles…David still didn’t feel worthy to marry into the royal family. But as far as we can tell, David held up his part of the deal…and he was valiant for Saul and he did fight the Lord’s battles. But to Saul’s great frustration, David didn’t die. So after all that, what did Saul do? As the Bible says, “But it happened at the time when Merab, Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David, that she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as a wife.” (18:19) Yah…at the last minute, Saul married his daughter off to someone else. Terrible right?

But as time went on, Saul got another kick at the can. As it turned out, Michal, one of Saul’s other daughters, was head over heels in love with David. And when Saul found out about it, he got excited. Not because he was super happy for his daughter (yah know…like a normal father might be), but because it was another chance to try to get David killed without looking like he was trying to get David killed. And Saul said to himself, “I will give her to him, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” (18:21) And Saul called one of his servants to him, and said, “Communicate with David secretly, and say, ‘Look, the king has delight in you, and all his servants love you. Now therefore, become the king’s son-in-law.’” (18:22) And the servant did so.

Now, even after what happened with Merab, David was still excited to marry into the king’s family. But now there was a new problem – a dowry. Since this wasn’t the daughter that had been promised to David, he now technically owed Saul some land or animals or money as a dowry to Saul. But David was just from a poor shepherd family…and didn’t have anything valuable enough to give King Saul. And so, David answered the servant, and said, “Does it seem to you a light thing to be the king’s son-in-law, seeing that I am poor and lightly esteemed?” (18:23) And the servant told Saul what David had said. But of course, Saul wasn’t interested in money and he wasn’t interested in keeping family traditions…he was interested in getting David killed. And so, Saul responded and said, “Thus you shall say to David: ‘The king does not desire any dowry but one hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to take vengeance on the king’s enemies.’” (18:25) One hundred foreskins…what’s a foreskin? Well, I will let you kidzos ask your parents about that one. Let’s just say that it was a very gruesome way to prove that you had killed someone. Basically what Saul is saying is that instead of giving him land or animals or money, Saul wanted David to personally kill 100 Philistines. And that was a lot of Philistines! It was enough Philistines that most people would end up getting killed trying to do that…which was, of course, the point.

But David wasn’t most people…he was God’s anointed. And when David heard the king’s reply, and that he could pay the dowry by defeating Israel’s enemies, David was like…no problem! And the Bible says, “When his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to become the king’s son-in-law.” (18:26) Without delay, David got a small group of men (probably David’s elite group of soldiers…like his Delta Force or something like that) and immediately attacked the Philistines. And when it was all said and done, David hadn’t killed just one hundred Philistines, but two hundred Philistines! And as the Bible says, “David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full count to the king.” (18:27) This time, David made a big show in front of the king’s court that he’d fulfilled the king’s requirements for marrying his daughter. And of course, this was super upsetting for King Saul…because he’d taken a big gamble - if for some reason David didn’t end up dying trying to kill all those Philistines, the stories of David’s bravery would only make him more popular with the people…the very thing that Saul wanted to avoid. And this time, Saul couldn’t go back on his word and just marry Michal off to someone else. Because this time it was super public…everyone knew that Saul had given this crazy requirement to David…and now everyone knew that brave David had fulfilled his part of the bargain. Saul’s gamble had backfired big time, and now Saul had no choice but to let David marry his daughter. And of course, as King Saul had feared, the story of David’s bravery…killing two hundred Philistines with just a small group of men…quickly spread all throughout Israel. It just seemed like everything was working against poor king Saul.

And David’s popularity just kept growing. Because not too long after he married Michal, the Philistines went to war with Israel. Which meant that David went back to the front lines to fight more battles. And with God continually blessing David, he went on to win battle after battle after battle. And as the Bible says, “And so it was, whenever they went out, that David behaved more wisely that all the servants of Saul, so that his name become highly esteemed.” (18:30) And as David became more and more popular, Saul got more and more upset…and more and more jealous…and more and more angry. Everything that Saul had tried to do to get rid of David had backfired. Every time that Saul had tried to bring David down, he’d only managed to raise David up. What was Saul going to do?

Well we will find out all about it…next time.