1 Samuel 31: Saul’s Death
A big thanks to Guy McKenzie for preaching this week when Nick was away at the School of Theology. We appreciate it!
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2 Samuel 2:1-3:5: Establishing God’s Kingdom
Outline David seeks the kingdom Abner seeks the kingdom Introduction Saul is dead and you would expect that David who had been anointed King years earlier would suddenly ascend to the throne and rule Israel. This is not the case. Chapters 2-4 cover a 7 ½ year period, only at the end of which David will be the uncontested king. These chapters will be dominated by two men seeking to make themselves king in Israel, David and Abner. David seeks God’s will and God’s kingdom, Abner seeks his own. The overarching theme in the opening 5 chapters of 2...
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2 Samuel 1: David and the Amalekite
Outline The Amalekite David Introduction Two worlds colliding: that is what we are seeing when we see the Amalekite and David acting towards the same event, the death of Saul. The Amalekite is a picture for us of our opportunistic selves, and David portrays a man whose heart is gripped with a fervour for the glory of God. The book of 2 Samuel continues on the heels of 1 Samuel. The judgement of God has fallen upon Saul and Israel. The Philistine army has conquered and settled in Israel, Saul has committed suicide and Israel is without a king....
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1 Samuel 31: Suicide
Outline God’s plan Saul’s sin Introduction Today we are going to be looking at one of the more underappreciated gifts, the gift of encouragement/exhortation. Romans 12:8 reads, ‘the one who exhorts, in his exhortation.’ The Greek word here occurs 107 times in the NT and has been translated in various ways, beseech, comfort, desire, pray, entreat, console. The word for exhortation in this text is literally paraklese, this may sound familiar to you because when Jesus promises the Holy Spirit He promises the Parakletos. This means the one called alongside. The Latin translation of this is cum forte, the...
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1 Samuel 29-30: God’s Deliverance
Outline David and the Philistines David and his men David and the Amalekites Introduction In the last chapter we considered what it looks like when God turns His back on a man and makes him His enemy. In the next two chapters we have the opposite, the faithfulness of God, even when we are weak and unfaithful. The book of 1 Samuel is pushing towards a climax, the death of Saul, and the end of David’s exile in Philistia. These two chapters are an account of how David who has been backslidden for a while is restored to God...
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1 Samuel 28:3-25: Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft
Outline Saul’s sin The unforgivable sin Introduction One of the saddest characters in the bible is King Saul. He seemed so promising and started off well, but then revealed a heart that was not really concerned about God but himself. We are approaching the end of Saul’s life. The end of the book of Samuel is a little like a Quentin Tarrantino movie, it breaks off from one story to follow another, but the sequence of the stories are not chronological. For example, 1 Samuel 29 which records the account of David being rejected by the Philistine army, and...
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1 Samuel 27:1-28:2: Pragmatism
Outline David deceives himself David deceives Achish Introduction There are various types of disobedience to God. There is the outright disobedience that is unmistakable and any neighbour watching our lives will pick up on it immediately. But most of us are not so brave nor so brazen. Most of us are prone to the compromise, the negotiated sin, a little obedience and religion thrown in and a little sin. This is where David is at in the chapter before us. David has just had another brush with death and another Divine deliverance as he has had opportunity to kill...
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1 Samuel 26: David Spares Saul again
Outline David’s daring David’s restraint David’s complaint Introduction Knowing a truth and doing it are two different things. We can say that God answers prayer but not believe it if we are not committed to praying. We can say that God can do the impossible but will we trust Him for it? David has been learning some lessons about God in the last few chapters. A major lesson is one of trusting God. God has made a promise that David will be king, it is David’s part now to patiently wait and trust and be faithful and not sin...
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1 Samuel 25: A Wise Woman
Outline Nabal David Abigail Introduction Roger Ellsworth talks about three types of grace. Saving grace is when God takes a sinner out of their sin and brings them to saving faith in Christ. Restoring grace is when God takes a believer who has veered off the path into sin and returns them to obedience. And restraining grace, this is when God keeps a believer from heading into sin. In this chapter we see another example of God’s restraining grace, and how God uses a wise woman to shame proud men. God’s goodness to David comes in the form of...
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1 Samuel 24: David spares Saul
Outline A misread providence A true vengeance A false repentance Introduction A heading we can write over the next three chapters is, ‘The Restraining Grace of God.’ In the next three chapters David doesn’t kill three times, Saul, Nabal and then Saul again. We have seen David learning to trust God when the tide is turned against him, when his chips are down, when he is the underdog and the persecuted one. But in this chapter we see a different sort of temptation. How do you react when you can fight back, when you can get the upper hand,...
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1 Samuel 23: The Poor Man’s Provisions
Outline Prayer People Providence Introduction James gives the following advice to the people of God when they are undergoing trials, ‘Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation.’ James is trying to help the man who has nothing or has had everything taken from him realise the riches that he does in fact have. We know that David has lost much; he has even described himself as the poor man, Ps. 34:6. David is still in dire straits, experiencing harassment and losses. This chapter notes for us however, the many blessings that David receives despite his poverty and trials....
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1 Samuel 22: When the wicked prosper
Outline The provision of the cave The killing of the priests The praise of the persecuted Introduction Why do the wicked prosper? This is a question that has confounded the people of God since the devil overcame our first parents in the garden. If God is so caring why are His people that he claims to love so hard pressed? If God is so just why does He not suddenly come and judge the wicked? If God is so powerful why do His people have to continue in persecution? We can jump almost anywhere into the story line of...
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1 Samuel 21: Backsliding
Outline The paths of backsliding The lessons of faith Introduction The Christian faces two dangers, one of ease and one of difficulty. We face both trials and temptations. This being the case we face two different kinds of backsliding. We can backslide in the face of temptation or we can backslide in the face of trials. There is the backsliding when faced with a tempting situation we act sinfully and follow our tempted sinful desires. But then there is the backslide not in pursuing temptation but in responding to trial, it is not so much a case of pursuing...
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1 Samuel 20: David and Jonathan
Outline David’s anxiety Jonathan’s friendship Introduction ‘We can be surrounded by the evidences of God’s love towards us; we can be exhilarated in our hearts by a sense of His presence, His mercy, His forgiveness and His gracious promises for the future; and suddenly we falter, doubts arise, we are tempted to fear the future and we start to behave as if we had never known the Lord and had never been convinced of the reality of His grace towards us in the past.’1 Does this sound familiar to you? You can be going along well, rejoicing in God,...
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1 Samuel 18-19: The Rise and Fall of Israel’s Monarch
Outline David’s 9 lives Saul’s envy God’s protection Introduction The next two chapters read like an action sequence from a movie. We have the star and the villain, both are contending for the throne of Israel, one is rising one is falling. As we watch this unfolding drama, there is a ubiquitous and unseen character who is in every seen, God. He is sovereignly overruling, and providentially protecting the King whose line will one day birth the Messiah of the world. This little contest is a microcosm of the timeless battle between the seed of the serpent and the...
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1 Samuel 17: David and Goliath
Outline The fear of Israel The faith of David The fear of Saul The faith of David Introduction David and Goliath is one of the best known stories in the bible, but what is it really all about? Some think that it is merely a rags to riches story about David the Shepherd who becomes king, and so we should all reach for our dreams. Others have applied it facing the giants in the your life, or standing up to bullies. The five stones of David that he took into battle are one of the most abused portions of...
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