T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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The issue was not between David and Goliath, it was be tween God and Goliath. “The battle is the Lord’s.” “Thus did David prevail with a sling and stone.” His doings be gan, continued and ended in God. At a later time in a moment of doubt, he inquires of God. When his followers doubt, he inquires again. When he discovers Saul’s secret purpose and plot, he says to the priest, “Bring hither the ephod.” When the people spoke of stoning him, he en couraged himself in the Lord his God. It was a time of darkness and apostasy in Israel. God looked in vain among His chosen people to find those who believed His presence, trusted His love or thought upon His name. He found one man, a man full of faults to be sure, and with no good opinion of himself, but who ever had a good opinion of God. His constant testimony was that God is near and God is good and that God is the ade quate and all-sufficient supply of every need of Israel. This was pleasing in the eyes of God and he called David a man after his own heart. When David became king his rule was according to God and glorified God. Christ is King as well as Priest, to the glory of God the Father. David’s rule was not vicarial in the sense that Saul’s was, a displacing of God, but rather a witnessing for God and a testimony to God’s abiding presence. There are several different opinions and estimates of David discovered in the Scriptures. We may consider the estimate of Nabal by his .own words in 1 Sam. 25:10, “Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants nowadays that break away every one from his master.” Nabal was an Israelite of the house of Caleb and, as such, related to David. He was very rich but evil in his ways. The riches God had given him he regards as his own. Although David had guarded his possessions in the wilderness yet he rails against him as a servant broken loose from his master. Earthly riches have a tendency to blind the eye and cloud the judgment, keeping the owners apart from David and his position. Nabal judges David’s course as the fruit of self-will like Eliab, David’s elder brother (1 Sam. 17:28). The ways and words of faith are ever considered by the flesh as “naughtiness and pride of heart.” Jonathan’s estimate of David was the opposite of this. Though the son of Saul, he loves David faithfully and sees in him God’s chosen and anointed king. When David is hunted by Saul, Jonathan comforts him and “strengthens his hand in God.” He loved him as his own soul and made a covenant with him that included his posterity. He stops short, however, of casting in his lot with David, as if to abide with him would be too great a cross. It is good to have a will and an estimate according to God but it is of little avail if, overcome by the love of ease or the fear of persecution, we continue to abide among his enemies. There is again the estimate of the Adullamites. A few poor debtors, discontented and distressed ones, finding that the rule of Saul cannot meet their case, cast in their lot with David. They alone give David in their hearts and lives the place that God gives him. He became a captain over them and under him they become mighty men. They were God’s true remnant and were called by his name (Isa. 63:16). Some of the weakest and wickedest sometimes are the first to discover where the strength lies that can meet their need. There is a marked difference between the anointing of Saul and David. Saul was anointed with a vial (1 Sam. 10:1). David was anointed with a horn of oil (1 Sam. 16:13). In the former case, judging from Saul’s after life,
Lesson Story.—Howard, I am thinking of a man with some soldiers, each one carrying a pitcher and a light. Can you tell me the story? That was fine, and, Howard, per haps you will be a teacher and tell these wonderful Bible stories to hoys and girls when you grow up, or better still tell them to boys and girls now who do not go to Sunday School. We have been learning in these wonderful stories of God’s goodness to His people Israel, and how He watched over them and fought against their enemies, and yet they want to he like the other people, and have an earthly king rule over them. (Tell the story of the appointing of Saul as king over Israel, emphasizing Samuel’s part.) Do you know, boys and girls, people to-day so often get into trou ble and disobey God, by wanting to be like other people, and do the things they do instead of doing the things God has asked them to do in His word. There were some very wicked people living in the land who were enemies to God and his people, and God told King Saul to take soldiers and go in and destroy them and all their cattle. God was able to take care of his people, and so He did not want Saul or his army to save any of the things that belonged to the wicked people. After the bat tle was over the good prophet Samuel came to Saul. And Saul said to him, “I have done as the Lord commanded me.” But Samuel heard the bleating of the sheep, and the lowing of the oxen, which Saul had taken from the wicked people (The Amalekites), and he said, “What meaneth then, this bleating of the sheep, and the lowing of the oxen, which I hear?” Then Saul began to make excuse and say that the peo ple had saved them alive to offer as sacrifices to the Lord. Then Samuel told Saul God could not be pleased with such an offering, and that to obey was better than sacrifice, and that because Saul had disobeyed God’s commands, He (God) could not trust him to be a king over his people. Our memory verse teaches us that if we really love, we will obey the one we love. The little girl who loved most, obeyed her mother even though she was away from her. 'Saul if he had truly loved God, would have obeyed God’s word. Do we truly love the Lord? Are we coming^up to the test of love? dosing Prayer. MARCH 16, 1024 THE REIGN OF DAVID Golden Text: “I delight to do thy will, O my God.” Psa. 40:8. Lesson Text: 2 Sam. 7:18-26; 8:14-15; Read 1 Sam. 16; 2 Sam. 24. David was a man after God’s own heart and God’s own choice for a king. Saul and David first meet in the valley of Elah and the character of each stands out in bold relief by comparison and contrast each with the other. Saul had taken the field against the Philistines at LESSON the head of his army. As he looked upon EXPOSITION the shepherd hoy he could only say “Thou F. W. Farr art not able to go against this Philistine.” If David would go, however, he should have Saul’s own armor, helmet, sword and coat of mail. Saul could say indeed, “The Lord go with thee,” but it is one thing to preach grace and quite another thing to trust it. This is the way of Saul. He professes to trust in God and straightway denies his profession by a practical ap peal to other strength than God’s. It was just the other way with David. He lays aside the king’s armor and takes only a sling and five smooth stones. He saw a present God.
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