What I Noticed Today (1 Samuel 28-31; Psalm 18)
1 Samuel 28
Saul consults a medium.
In verses 1-2, the Philistines decide to attack Israel again. Achish, king of Gath, approached David about fighting with him against the Israelites.
In verses 3-25, Saul consults a medium:
- Samuel had died, and Saul had removed all the mediums and spiritists in the land.
- The Philistine army gathered at Shunem. Saul gathered the Israelite army at Gilboa.
Note: From Gilboa, Saul could watch the Philistines.
- Saul was terrified of the Philistines and inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him.
- Saul ordered his men to find him a woman who was a medium. Saul disguised himself and went to the woman and ordered her to bring up Samuel.
- Saul told Samuel about his trouble and asked what he should do.
- Samuel confronted Saul with his failure to obey the Lord as the reason why the Lord had taken his kingship away from him and given it to David.
- Samuel told Saul the next day he and his son Jonathan would be killed, and the Lord would hand the Israelite army over to the Philistines.
1 Samuel 29
In verses 1-7, meanwhile, the Philistines are getting ready to attack (1 Samuel 29:1-2 refers back to 1 Samuel 28:1-3). David has aligned himself and his men with Achish, the Philistine, and they marched off to do battle with Israel. Some of the Philistine leaders questioned David’s presence among them. Achish summoned David, told him of their concerns about him, and asked him to leave the battlefield.
In verses 8-11, David protested, saying he had not been disloyal to Achish. Achish admitted he thought David was as reliable as an Angel of God, but asked him to leave at daybreak the next day. So David left early the next morning and returned to the land of the Philistines while Achish and the Philistines army went to Jezreel.
Note: Jezreel was a valley where they would meet Saul in battle.
Note: I don’t understand this! Is David ready to do battle against his own people? Some of the Philistines don’t trust David, so they send him home. I don’t understand this either. David knows they are preparing for war against his people, and he goes home without warning the Israelites about the impending attack?
1 Samuel 30
David defeats the Amalekites
In verses 1-3, it took three days for David to march home to Ziklag. During that time, the Amalekites attacked, burned the city down, and captured all the people and animals.
Note: If Saul had killed all the Amalekites like he was supposed to, Ziklag would have been safe (1 Samuel 15:1-3)!
In verses 4-31, David arrived and found Ziklag burned down and all the people kidnapped, including his two wives Ahinoam and Abigail.
- David summoned Abiathar, the priest, and inquired of the Lord. The Lord told him to go save the people.
- David and his army pressed on, and eventually caught up to the Amalekites, defeated them, and saved all their people and took great plunder.
- David distributed some of the plunder to the men who went into battle as well as those who stayed behind with the supplies.
- David wisely took some of the spoils and sent it as gifts to the elders of Judah, saying it was from the enemies of the Lord.
1 Samuel 31
Saul and his sons die in battle.
Note: 1 Samuel 31 jumps back to Saul’s timeline to the day after Samuel gave him the bad news (1 Samuel 28:19).
The Philistines engaged in a battle with Saul’s army and defeated them. Saul and his sons, Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, were killed in the battle just as Samuel had prophesied.
- An archer’s arrow wounded saul. He told his armor-bearer to kill him, but the armor-bearer was terrified and refused. Saul fell on his own sword and died. Then the armor-bearer also fell on his sword and died.
- When the Israelites saw that Saul had been defeated, they abandoned the towns beyond the Jordan River, and the Philistines settled in them.
- When the Philistines were taking plunder from the battlefield, they found Saul’s body. They cut-off his head stripped off his armor, and spread the news of his death. They hung his armor in the temple of Ashtoreth and hung Saul’s body on the wall of Beth-shan.
- Some brave men from Jabesh-Gilead heard what had been done to Saul, so they traveled all night, retrieved Saul’s body and those of his sons. They returned to Jabesh, burned the bodies, buried the bones under a tamarisk tree, and fasted for seven days.
Note: David later learned of the bravery of the men of Jabesh and how they buried Saul (2 Samuel 2:4-7).
Some thoughts for further consideration:
- Saul’s disobedience to God caused many problems for his people, not just himself. The same is true of us today. Sometimes we neglect following God’s instructions completely, and it causes problems not just for us but for those around us as well!
Psalm 18
Psalm 18 is a lengthy psalm of praise by David after God had rescued him from the hands of his enemies and saved him from Saul. David recounts how God delivered him from certain death and destruction (vv. 4-19). The psalmist proclaims his faith in the Lord and states that God was rewarding him for his righteousness (vv. 20-29).
David rejoices in God’s perfect word, attributes his abilities and victories to God, and praises God for all the blessings in his life (vv. 30-50).
What did you notice in your study today? Feel free to visit the website and leave a question or a comment.
