Bible Studies

---

We ended last time talking about trusting in God no matter what. We are picking up on the same subject. David is still waiting to be king and Saul is still struggling without God in his heart. If you read I Samuel, you will note several times where it says that God sent an evil spirit to torment Saul. That bothered me once because I thought, "That's not fair, he can't help his actions". But I read something recently explaining that God did not SEND the spirit, but He DID ALLOW it. Let me explain: When we are walking with God, we are under His protection. That doesn't mean bad things won't happen, but when they do, we are better equipped to handle them. There's a BONUS: Our hearts, minds and souls are covered in the Blood of Jesus so we can have peace and know that everything will work out to the good of those of us who are called according to His purpose. When we turn from God, His protection is removed. Bad things will STILL happen but we will not have the same ability to handle them. WORSE, it opens the door for bad thoughts such as anger, jealousy and violence.

This portion of our study is going to cover the time David spent running from Saul while waiting to become king. I will be incorporating passages from the Psalms in order to show how David handled adversity and why he was a man after God's own heart.

David is now serving Saul full-time and has become best friends with Saul's son, Jonathan. Everything Saul sends him to do; he does successfully and without hesitation. This, of course, is how we should live our lives as Ambassadors of Christ. Shortly after David kills Goliath and the Philistine army is defeated, Saul becomes angry and jealous of David. The next day, Saul actually hurls a spear at David but David eludes him. It wasn't just an evil spirit that made Saul act like that. He already had evil thoughts, but without God's help, he couldn't fight them. He was jealous because David was getting more attention than him, and he was scared because he knew David was anointed of God and he himself was not.

Saul then began scheming to get rid of David. He tried to marry him off to his older daughter Merab, but David felt unworthy to be the King's son-in-law. Then Saul found out his younger daughter, Michal, was in love with David. Saul tried again to marry David off, thinking it would distract him and he would be killed in battle. Once again, David felt unworthy. He even said, "I am only a poor man and little known". (I Samuel 18:23). Saul then sent David to kill 100 Philistines as "payment" for the bride thinking again that David would be killed in battle. Of course, David killed 200 Philistines and was not killed. So David married Michal. This made Saul angrier because he knew God was with David.

This Part continues in Part III-B: The Faithful Friend (it had to be split due to the length).

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE