Tanak Foundations-Concepts in First Samuel-Part 14

1 Sam 18.1-30 begins to deal with Saul, Jonathan and David, especially the relationship that was beginning between Jonathan, the son of Saul, and David. After speaking with Saul in his “after killing Goliath” conversation (v 1), Jonathan saw that David was as brave as he was, and he felt drawn to David. They were similar in some ways, about the same age but Jonathan was slightly older, and both trusted the Lord and men who didn’t just talk a good game, but walked a good game. Jonathan was the crown prince of Israel and next in line to be king, and David was the youngest son of a farmer, but it was David who would be king, not Jonathan. So they made a covenant together because Jonathan loved David as himself. David had a heart for the Lord and Jonathan now knew it. So let’s talk about covenants because that is a very important concept in the Scriptures.

Jonathan took off his robe and gave it to David, with his armor, even his sword, bow and belt. Did Jonathan know that David was going to be the next king? At this point we are not even sure David knew. Remember, when Samuel anointed David nobody knew why, except for the Lord and Samuel. When two people make a blood covenant (Hebrew “brit”) they become members of each other’s family and heirship rights. This is significant because we have entered into a blood covenant with the Lord and we are in the household of God. David and Jonathan become “joint heirs” and when Jonathan dies, David inherited the throne. In the same way, we have a covenant with the son of the king, too. When he died, we are his joint heirs (Heb 1.2-4).

One of the concepts put forth in the Book of Hebrews is “Inheritance” (Heb 12.23). Yeshua is the first-born (Heb 1.6) and the promise God gave to Abraham came with an oath, with Abraham and his seed (Heb 6.13-14). Yeshua is a priest according to the word (“order”) of Melchizedek. This is because the order of Melchizedek preceded the Levitical priesthood and supersedes it. The Torah command about priests having to descend from Aaron only applies in the Olam Ha Zeh (this present age) and in the Atid Lavo (the Day of the Lord/Millenium). But Yeshua’s priesthood is in the Olam Haba (the World to Come) because he lives on forever. There is no need for descendants in the Olam Haba.

Yeshua’s blood seals the Brit Chadasha (New Covenant) in Heb 8-9 and it is a renewal of the covenant (Heb 7.22, 8.6-13). Because of this covenant relationship we have an inheritance (Heb 9.11-22). As a result, since Yeshua is the heir of all things (Heb 1.13, 2.59) we inherit with him (Heb 1.14, 2.10-18). This covenant has not been entered into like the Abrahamic covenant, but with its promise yet to be received (Heb 4.9-10, 6.13-20, 11.39-40).

Saul takes David and he never goes back to his father’s house again. David submitted to Saul and went out to fight militarily wherever Saul sent him, and he prospered. David acted wisely in the midst of all of this (1 Sam 18.14). When David would return from battle, the women came out singing to meet King Saul. They would sing with tambourines and musical instruments saying, “Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” Saul would get jealous of David and suspected he was after his kingship (v 8), so he looked at David with suspicion. Saul had a guilty conscience and was going to lose his throne, so he was going to hold on to it. These verses tells us about the first attempt of Saul to kill David (v 10-11). Saul was being troubled by an evil spirit from the Lord and David was playing music to calm him as usual. But there was a spear in Saul’s hand and he threw the spear at David, attempting to pin him against the wall, but David escaped.

Saul had the throne and the army, but David had the Lord, so Saul removed him from the court. He then puts David over some troops (v 13) and he didn’t do this because he liked David, but it pleased others and he was hoping that David would be killed. Like Messiah, David was prospering in all his ways (Isa 52.13). As Saul saw his wisdom, he dreaded him because he knew the Lord was with David and that he had departed from Saul. But David became more popular with Israel and Judah. David was not a victim, he knew his future was in God’s hands.

In 1 Sam 18.17-19 it says that Saul was going to give his oldest daughter Merab (“increase”) and he wanted David to “fight the Lord’s battles” but this was a trap. Saul had promised to give his daughter to the man who killed Goliath (1 Sam 17.25). But at the last minute, Saul gives Merab to another man named Adriel (“flock of God”) and this was to provoke David, but David shows no vengeance. She would eventually lose all her sons because this marriage was cursed from the start (2 Sam 21.8).

Now Michal (“who is like God”), Saul’s daughter, loved David. When they told Saul about that, it was agreeable to him because Saul thinks that Michal will be a snare to David because of the dowry, and because of her character. So the servants of Saul tell David, but David does not think this is such a small thing to be the king’s son-in-law and because he does not have a dowry. David is supposed to believe Saul is not angry with him and all is well. Not only that, Saul says that David does not have to pay a dowry for a king’s daughter, so he tells David to forget about that. The dowry Saul wanted was for David to get one hundred Philistine foreskins. He was not being kind to David here, he was going to use the Philistines to kill David. But Saul’s plan fails because David goes out and kills two hundred Philistines and brought their foreskins to Saul. Saul had no choice but to give Michal to David. And there is an eschatological picture. Messiah was rejected by the first born (Merab/Israel) but marries the younger “eschatological Kahal” or congregation who loves him pictured by Michal (“who is like God”).

Saul knows that the Lord is overruling his efforts to hurt David because the Lord is with David and he saw he couldn’t use Michal against him because she loved David. But this made Saul even more afraid of David. In the meantime, the Philistines go out to war because of what David did to them with Goliath and the two hundred Philistines, and this made Saul happy because maybe David would be killed in battle. But, David behaved more wisely than all the servants of Saul and his name was highly esteemed. This is the same in a greater sense with Yeshua, the son of David (Phil 2.5-9).

We will pick up here in Part 15.

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

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