Redeemer Church Of Waterford

The objective of the Book of 1 Samuel is to reveal the kind of leader for whom God is seeking to be the shepherd king of His people. The people had chosen Saul, who turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. God chose David, whom we have watched grow from a young shepherd boy into a mighty warrior. But God isn't looking for a mighty warrior. He's looking for a humble, principled servant. And as we observe how David responds to a devastating loss, we begin to see in David the kind of leader God is looking for.

"So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armourbearer, and all his men, that same day together" (1 Samuel 31:6).On the same day David is routing the Amalekites and recovering his family and goods, winning a decisive victory over God's enemies (1 Samuel 30), God is using His enemies (the Philistines) to bring final judgment on Saul and those associated with the reign of Saul (1 Samuel 31). God has literally "rent the kingdom from Saul and given it to a neighbor of Saul's who is better than him" (1 Samuel 15:28).

How can it cany any worse? All of us have asked this question when circumstances have overwhelmed us. Almost since our first meeting David in 1 Samuel 16, he has lived his life as a fugitive from Saul and the unrelenting object of Saul's wrath.And just when you think it can't get any worse, he loses everything.

When the Lord does not answer Saul's inquiry, Saul seeks out a woman with a familiar spirit to conjure Samuel from the dead. This episode in our Bibles raises some questions about the legitimacy of the occult, the ability of this woman to bring up Samuel from the dead, and whether it is actual Samuel who appears or a demonic apparition.

The running theme of 1 Samuel 28 is the silence of God.Saul is distressed to the point of a mental breakdown. The Lord is not responding to his inquiry about a coming battle with the Philistines. He has used every legitimate means in an attempt to get God's attention to no avail, so he turns to a woman who practices divination to conjure the prophet Samuel from the dead.

From the time David slew Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, have had a front row seat to the valor, courage, and integrity of David as he lived as a fugitive from Saul. We have come to love him, to respect him, to expect nothing but honorable behavior from him.And yet in our study today we come to a very disturbing story which reveals the depravity of David in murderous deceit. How did David fall to such a low place, and what can we learn about how we are to respond when our heroes fail?

The details recorded in 1 Samuel 26 are almost a mirror image of the event that took place in 1 Samuel 24. In both chapters, Saul is told where David is hiding, Saul is vulnerable to David's revenge, David spares Saul, and Saul seems to be repentant.But in between 1 Samuel 24 and 1 Samuel 26 is 1 Samuel 25; and the word of God to David through Abigail in 1 Samuel 25 is critical to understanding why 1 Samuel 26 appears to be a repeat of 1 Samuel 24.

In this sermon from 1 Samuel 25:29, Pastor Paul explores some "seed thoughts" from the Abigail's poetic phrase: "The soul of my Lord (David) is bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God."Abigail's expression here is covenant language, grounded in God's everlasting promise to His people to secure them for eternity.

When the story of David and Nabal begins, David is prepared to repay with the violence the insult of Nabal by taking matters into his own hands, an action of vengeance that would have been a blot on his character for the rest of his life. God intervenes with preventive providence through Abigail to save Nabal and his men from David's violent vengeance, but in doing so, Abigail was God's instrument to save David from himself. In the beginging David had only asked for the compensation which was rightly his for services rendered, In the end, God gives to David everything which belonged to Nabal.

1 Samuel 25 introduces us to "a woman of good understanding" as an example to all of us of how to see God's unseen hand in the circumstances of our lives.Dale Ralph Davis says that "Abigail is the Lord's stop sign, mercifully placed in David's path." The Lord's providential intervention through Abigail restrains His chosen king from his own impulsive folly and wrong.

Having considered in the previous message the details of Abigail's counsel to David in 1 Samuel 25:18-31, we come back to consider how it illustrates "answering a fool" in Proverbs 26:4-5.David responds to Abigail's counsel with three blessings and a surprise proposal.

David and his men have been providing protection for Nabal and his possessions. When David sends his men to Nabal to request payment for services rendered, Nabal insults David. David's response reveals a surprising flaw in David's character which to this point in our studies of 1 Samuel we have never seen.There are lessons to be learned here about the restraining providence of God which kept David from becoming a bigger fool than Nabal.

In a rather blunt and matter of fact way our narrator announces the death of Samuel.But God’s work in Israel did not end when Samuel died. God’s work never is dependent on only one man.In this sermon we reflect upon the life of the prophet Samuel.

David is the anointed king, but Saul is the reigning king. For years David has been waiting patiently for God to fulfill His promise to him while being unjustly pursued by Saul, fleeing for his life under continual distress.But now David is presented with an opportunity to seize the throne by force when Saul "happens" into a cave to relieve himself - the same cave where David and his 600 men are sheltered.He's urged by his men to seize the day! But he doesn't do it.What can we learn from David's actions in 1 Samuel 24 to reassure us in our own exasperation that God really will keep his promises to us?

In this continuation of our study in 1 Samuel 24, Saul responds to David's restraint in sparing his life.

The Ziphites have disclosed to Saul the hiding place of David which initiates one of the most intense scenes in all of the book of 1 Samuel that ends with David and his men surrounded, destined for certain death at the hands of Saul and his men.But there is an unseen providence at work which is protecting David and preventing Saul from accomplishing his wicked scheme.

Identifying with David is dangerous. It has already cost the priests at Nob their lives, and now the people of Keilah are threatened by Saul for harboring the fugitive he seeks.But our of the evil of Saul's actions at Nob, God has provided David with the gift of an intercessor in Abiathar.Christians also know that identifying with Christ is dangerous, but He himself is our mediator and intercessor against the threatenings of an evil world.

God is not the author evil. God, however, controls the effects of human evil so that they serve his ultimate purposes.There are four scenes in 1 Samuel 22 which serve to show us the ways in which God is sovereign over human evil.

In the character and behavior of Saul there are types and shadows of antichrist. In the character and behavior of David there are types and shadows of Christ.Nowhere is that more apparent than in the details of the events leading up to the escape of Abiathar and the safety he found in David.