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 Achish, are going to attack the Israelites. And Achish 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, 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 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 asked 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 leaves us to assume that God has actually intervened here. And what does Saul get for all his trouble? The same old prophecy, 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 Achish, taking the Philistines to war with David and his men in tow. David gets a break here because the lords of the other Philistines 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 Achish 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 Achish. 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 leads me to wonder, which enemies? Which Lord? Which King? Scripture never tells us. But it's possible that God saved David 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 Zyklag, 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. Four hundred 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 Philistines statue to their God Dagon after they stole the Ark of the Covenant? According to first 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 tried 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 Godshot came from today. David makes a lot of claims about his righteousness here, but if we look closely, we see that he describes He treats 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 30:6 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.

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