Amen. Let us turn to our scripture reading as we continue to work through 1st Samuel and we come now to 1st Samuel chapter 19. And we'll be reading and looking at this chapter, the 24 verses of 1 Samuel chapter 19, page 309 in most of the pew Bibles. David has just married Michael. We saw Saul's rising animosity in chapter 18, and we come now to chapter 19 of 1 Samuel. Let us hear the word of God. And Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and said to all his servants that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted much in David. And Jonathan told David, Saul, my father seeks to kill you. Therefore, be on your guard in the morning. Stay in a secret place and hide yourself. And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are. And I will speak to my father about you. And if I learn anything, I will tell you. And Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul, his father, and said to him, let not the king sin against his servant David. because he has not sinned against you and because his deeds have brought good to you. For he took his life in his hand and he struck down the Philistine. And the Lord worked a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without cause?" And Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan. Saul swore, as the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death. And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan reported to him all these things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before. And there was war again, and David went out and fought with the Philistines, and struck them with a great blow, so that they fled before him. Then a harmful spirit from the Lord came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing the liar, and Saul sought to pin David to the wall with a spear. But he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall, and David fled and escaped that night. Saul sent messengers to David's house to watch him, that he might kill him in the morning. But Michael, David's wife, told him, if you do not escape with your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed. So Michael let David down through the window, and he fled away and escaped. Michael took an image and laid it on the bed and put a pillow of goat's hair at its head and then covered it with the clothes. And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, he is sick. Then Saul sent the messengers to see David saying, bring him up to me in the bed that I may kill him. And when the messengers came in, behold, The image was in the bed with the pillow of goat's hair at its head. Saul said to Michael, why have you deceived me thus and let my enemy go so that he has escaped? And Michael answered Saul, he said to me, let me go. Why should I kill you? Now David fled and escaped and he came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and lived at Naath And it was told Saul, Behold, David is at Nahioth in Ramah. And then Saul sent messengers to take David. And when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying and Samuel standing as head over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied. Then it was told Saul, When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. And Saul sent messengers again, and the third time, and they also prophesied. Then he himself went to Ramah and came to the great well that is in Sikku. And he asked, where are Samuel and David? And one said, behold, they are at Naath in Ramah. And he went there to Naath in Ramah, and the Spirit of God came upon him also. And as he went, he prophesied until he came to Naath in Ramah. And he, too, stripped off his clothes. And he, too, prophesied before Samuel and lay naked all that day and all that night. Thus it is said, is Saul also among the prophets? So far the reading of the holy word of God. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, Michael, telling David to flee for his life. The men standing at the front of their house, indeed waiting to kill David in the morning. And so David agrees with Michael. He's dropped down out of the window during the night, escaping alone. And according to the inscriptions of the Psalms, at some point in that night, David prayed. That prayer is Psalm 59. And if you'll turn there with me, and we'll come back to Psalm 59 if you want to leave a little bookmark there. Here in this night, as David is fleeing for his life, as Saul has sent men to watch his house in order to kill him, here are some of the words of the prayer of David that night. I prayed it in a time of devotion and wrote it down later. I don't know exactly how that worked, but we're going to read 1 through 4 and 11, and then we'll come back to Psalm 59. Psalm 59.1. Deliver me from my enemies, O my God. Protect me from those who rise up against me. Deliver me from those who work evil and save me from bloodthirsty men. For behold, they lie in wait for my life. Fierce men stir up strife against me for no transgression or sin of mine, O Lord. For no fault of mine they run and make ready. Awake, come to meet me and see." And then verse 11, kill them not lest my people forget. Make them totter by your power and bring them down, O Lord. our shield. And so you see, people of God, some of the words of that psalm, that spirit-inspired prayer of David on the night as he's fleeing for his life, some of the words of that prayer inform our theme as we come back to the narrative of 1 Samuel 19. And our theme also then takes the form of a prayer. May God topple over the destructive plans of man. May God topple over the destructive plans of man. And we'll look first at attempted protection and then perceptive protection and then miraculous protection. Beginning with that attempted protection of Jonathan in verse one, Saul has asked Jonathan and his servants to kill David. Perhaps, we're not told the mind of Saul at this moment, but perhaps he's still thinking, you know, Jonathan, he's the crown prince. He's going to want to do his own thing just like me, right? He's going to want to kill David. But of course, Saul is not thinking in biblical terms. He's not thinking in terms of David and Jonathan are friends and like brothers rejoicing in the truth of the Lord, the covenant God of Israel. And so Jonathan is not going to go along with his father's plan. On the contrary, the first thing he does is he goes to warn David. He will not betray his friend. And then he comes back to his father and he speaks uh... with wisdom he makes an appeal to the faithful service of david how david even is the one who struck down the philistine remember that the father remember that king saul and and then he also he also makes scriptural appeal to his father and people of god it is the word of god that is sharper than any two-edged sword it is the word of god which can be used to soften a hard heart. And so Jonathan appeals using the language of Deuteronomy, such as Deuteronomy 19 verse 10, which uses that language of innocent blood and speaks about how the one who spills innocent blood will himself have the guilt of bloodshed upon him. He'll bring the guilt of bloodshed upon himself if he sheds innocent blood. And so here is a godly pattern, people of God, for dealing with sin. Here, in Saul's case, the gross sin of a desire to physically murder David. Jonathan first protects David, and then he pleads wisely and with scriptural appeal to his father. Those are the basic steps that we should take when we're confronting sin. And it doesn't have to be sin as extreme as this. But when we're confronting anger, we first protect and then we plead with the one who's angry, pointing them to the Word of God. And Saul, for a brief time, will listen. He'll even swear in the name of the Lord that David will not be put to death. After another war and another successful victory by David in verse 8, what does that do? Well, that's all it takes to stir up the jealousy of Saul again. You see, if there's not repentance, if there's not a true turning to God, then you're only gonna have temporary change. This is all that Saul has. Saul only has a temporary change. As soon as David is successful in battle again, that's it, it's over. My jealousy stirred up again. Forget what I swore in the name of the Lord God. I'm going to kill him now. And so as David is playing the liar, For the second time, Saul hurls the spear at him and David flees. Perhaps hoping that it was a mad spirit in the heart of Saul, David does not go far, but he leaves the court of Saul and he goes only so far as to be in his home with his new bride, Michael. Saul has gone against his vow, the very victory of David, the very faithful service of David being only the spark that makes him angrier. David is innocent in regards to the law of man. He has been a very faithful servant and a very successful general in Saul's army. At this point, people of God, It's helpful for us to remember that the narrative of 1 Samuel is not just a narrative of 1 Samuel about Saul and David and those around them. It is a picture of what will happen to the true David 1,000 years later. And even the enemies of David, God gives them over to their wickedness that they might be a picture of Jesus's enemies 1,000 years later. So we'll return to this theme as we work through 1 Samuel, but who is Saul here? As David is a picture of the true David to come, so Saul is a picture of the mad and murderous Pharisees who will be consumed with the desire to put Jesus to death. And just as the greater the faithfulness of David only makes Saul all the angrier and more determined to kill him, so the miraculous wonders and power and the healing and the miracles and the great teaching of Jesus and his confounding of their attempts to twist him will only what? Make the Pharisees more determined to kill Jesus. And so while David is the one who is innocent in the laws of the land, but yet Saul wants to put him to death. So the true David will come with perfectly innocent blood, no sin in any way, and yet the powers of the land will seek to put him to death. But this is God's plan of salvation, to use for good so that we are saved by the Messiah's innocent blood as we confess our sins and trust in Jesus Christ. Now, returning to the narrative, let's pause here for a moment in the narrative and notice something which is not said explicitly, but we see it here. Notice that David is not angry with Jonathan. He's not angry with Saul, for that matter. We'll see that as we continue on. And David continues to treat Saul as the Lord's anointed, but he's not angry with Jonathan. Now, we might imagine how he could be. Jonathan, you went to your father and you promised that he wouldn't try to kill me again, but he just threw a spear at my heart and I barely dodged it and it landed in the wall behind me. What are you telling me? Are you really my friend? You just had a spear come flying at you. You think you might have reactions like that possibly stirred up in your heart? Oh, certainly. Oh, certainly. You see, people of God, The way of our human hearts is that by nature we tend to respond to anger with anger. And sometimes so irrationally that we'll not only lash out at the one who's actually angry at us, let's say murderous in their heart, even if they're not hurling a literal spear at us, but we also get angry with people who are standing around us and have been attempting to help us But then we would just get angry at them too. But God in his grace spares David from angry and wrong accusations against Jonathan who has attempted to be a good friend and protect him. and from even, as we'll see, anger against Saul. There's a reason why in Galatians 6 verse 1, when the Apostle speaks about seeking to restore others in a spirit of gentleness, that that verse ends with these words, watching over ourselves lest we too be tempted. You see, the Apostle says that because by the Spirit, The apostle knows that our tendency is to respond to anger with anger. So, people of God, we can pray that God would topple over the destructive plans of man, that the spear that is hurled would not strike us, but we can add this, and we should add this to our prayer. God, keep us from responding to destructive anger with our own destructive anger. lashing out against our enemies and even lashing out against our friends thinking that they are our enemies. By God's grace David is spared for making false accusations against his friend and he's even spared from anger against Saul as well. Now let's come to our second point. There is perceptive protection in our text for after Jonathan's attempted protection in a godly way, Michael will now perceptively, but not altogether righteously, protect David. So Saul sends his messengers to their house in verse 11, and Michael, she knows what's going on. She knows her father is not just mad. She is perceptive. She says, David, these men are here to kill you. They're going to kill you in the morning. You must flee. And so she lets him down through a window, presumably in the back of the house. David can flee now in the darkness and escape, verse 12. Remember that at some point in here, perhaps after getting through the window, perhaps it's a meditation in the darkness of the night as he's walking along alone. Again, we don't know exactly when, but at some point in this night is when David has his prayer to God and then probably written down later, perhaps the first Psalm of David. And thinking upon that and thinking upon the language of Psalm 59, we can see that while David is running for his life with men standing at the front door of his house waiting to kill him, he's composed by faith. That's going to be a pretty difficult situation to be composed in. But by faith, David keeps his composure and keeps his eyes focused upon God, praying for protection, even as men are standing at the front door of his house seeking his life. People of God, do we see the value of prayer? right here. Do we see the value of coming into God's presence at all times for all circumstances? Michael then tries to buy David some time. She's not only perceptive, she's also crafty in helping David escape the hands of her father and her father's servants Indeed, her father will then prove willing to kill David with his own hands. When he hears that David is sick and weak, he's like, well, then I'll go myself and do it. Talk about cold-blooded murder. But then he discovers the ruse of Michael. It is not David sick in bed. It is an image or could be translated a household god. It is an idol, a person-sized idol with goat's hair on it disguised as David. Now, people of God, there's much to unpack here. Some of this we're gonna return to, Lord willing, in some time when we get to 1 Samuel 25. But let us simply point out, let's begin to unpack it because For Michael, here is proof that she is breaking the commandments of God on a daily basis. It doesn't matter why this idol is there. It doesn't matter if she uses the idol to worship the false gods of the Canaanites. It doesn't matter if she uses the idol falsely to say that she's using it to help her worship the one true God. The only difference it makes is that one of those things breaks the first commandment. The other thing breaks the second commandment. Every indication we have from the handful of times that we see Michael in the biblical narrative is that she is an unbeliever. The next time we see Michael will be 1 Samuel 25. She's marrying another man while David is away. The last time we see Michael is perhaps the event we might be most familiar with. It's when she rebukes David for his exuberant joy as the ark comes into Jerusalem. We're told that Michael loves David. We are never told that Michael loves the Lord. Now we can certainly hope that Michael demonstrated repentance, trust in God when she exits the biblical narrative, but there is no indication that she's a believer. There are many indications that Michael is an unbeliever in the narrative of scripture. You see, people of God, some unbelievers are like Saul. They are raging in madness. They are using all their authority, power, and influence to wage a direct frontal assault against the will of God and to build up their own will and power and their own kingdom as much as they can. Some unbelievers are like Michael. They're loving in a certain way to those around them. They're witty, perceptive, pretty, smart. But whether it's the raging Saul types or the nice Michael types, living in idolatry of any kind is rebellion against God. And without repentance, there will be no hope of salvation. Dear congregation, Do we have hidden or not so hidden idolatries in our life of which we must repent? Now let's look also at Saul and David here. Our second point's a little bit longer. For Saul, well his life is a total mess. That's what happens when you just allow sin to grab hold of you to the point where It's difficult to even detail how he should act differently and return to repentance here. Certainly, there should be repentance of the sin of seeking David's life in anger and restoration there. But beyond this, after repentance, after dealing with his own sins, You know, Saul should also be addressing the elephant in the room, which, in this case, is the life-size idol in the room. Saul doesn't say anything about that. You know, as parents, we must always be considering our own sins. We must be willing to confess our sins to our children. We are imperfect parents, so consider So maybe we're not storming out with a spear in our hand and that kind of murder in our hearts, but maybe we get angry and we storm into our child's room in a way that we should not do. And let's say upon doing that, we happen to find our child engaged in a form of idolatry. Say we storm into the room We find our child watching pornography or something like that. Well, what is the first thing that we should do? Take the log out of our own eye and sit back and confess the sin of storming into a room in anger. Okay, so that's number one. But when our sin is addressed, when we've confessed our own sin, we must address the other sins in the room. Saul doesn't say anything about the fact that his daughter has a life-size idol. That is part of his road down the complete path of sin and destruction. We must be willing to deal with and confess our own sins and we must seek to address all of the sins in the room. Now for David here, we'll just say this briefly, it's the first hint of his greatest weakness in sin. In the area of marriage, David is going to be a total failure. It does not matter that the king offered the hand of his daughter, the pretty princess, to David in marriage. God calls his people in both the Old Testament and the New Testament to be married in the Lord, and David should have obeyed God rather than man. David should have never married this woman. She has life-size idols hanging around her house. Now David is Well, we'll look at this more for Samuel 25. David is going to sin against Michael as well. It's going to be a total mess. And then it's going to just get worse as he adds the sin of polygamy and all other things to it. But for now, let us, let us see that this is the first hint of this greatest weakness in David's life. And it's going to bring all kinds of trouble in his life. Even so, We do see God's graciousness here in that God uses even David's unbelieving wife to save his life. Well, now let's come to our third point, miraculous protection. And this brings us to Rama. It's not that far away. We're only a couple miles from Saul's court in Gibeah. But perhaps David knows that Saul has been seeking to avoid Samuel ever since the prophecy of 1 Samuel 15. And so David's maybe thinking, it's only two miles away, but I know Saul doesn't dare go in Samuel's presence, so maybe this can be both protection and fellowship for me going to the true leader of Israel, the faithful prophet Samuel. Indeed, we can imagine that Samuel, now advanced in years, is both willing and happy to protect David, to fellowship with him. William Blakey once said it this way, quote, old Christians feel very tenderly for young believers who've had hard lines in serving God, end of quote. And let's just add to that, that when we're in times of trouble, we should seek out older, mature believers who have endured many trials, of life. This is a good place for young believers to go. But Saul is determined. Like a fly is attracted to manure, so Saul is attracted to violence that he thinks will serve his own will and advance his own kingdom. And so even though he's wanted to avoid Samuel, well this is it. This is it. I can go and I can get them both at the same time. And verse 22, hints to us that he wants to go and kill them both. Notice that he asks, where is David and Samuel? He asks about where they both are. But first, he is going to send his servants, because if David is alive and well, he wants someone else to do his dirty work. And so he's sending in his servants. In three waves, he sends them in. And all three times, God miraculously grabs hold of them and puts a spirit of prophecy upon them so that all they can do is say words of praise to God, whether they want to or not. And we can assume that they don't want to. They just accepted a bribe to go and kill an innocent man. But whether they want to or not, God is grabbing hold of them, making them to prophesy and making them physically helpless in terms of doing anything destructive. Now, is this unusual? Yes, it is. In fact, it's the only time we know of in Scripture where God uses the miraculous gift of prophecy in just this way. There are other times when unbelievers perform miracles. Judas, of course, performed miracles. But to use it in just this way, to grab hold of somebody by a spirit of prophecy so that they can't hurt anyone, it is a little unusual. It's the only place we read of it. But that's how God works here, miraculously. Gordon Ketty summarized what God is doing here in this way, quote, three times Saul sent men to seize David, and three times they were reduced to utter helplessness by a prophetic ecstasy induced by God's spirit, end of quote. You see, people of God, God can protect David through the appeal of his friend. Saul will eventually betray his oath. God can protect David by helping David dodge the spear that is flying at him. God can protect David through the perceptive and witty help of an unbelieving wife. And God can protect David by miraculously putting those who seek his life into a prophetic state where the only thing they can do is mouth praise to God. Surely, God can protect in any way that he so chooses. His servants thwarted three times, Saul at last says, I will go myself. But the same thing that happened to his servants will happen to him. Let us now, I told you we'd turn back to Psalm 59. Let's go back to Psalm 59. We'll reread verse 11. Kill them not, lest my people forget. Make them totter by your power, and bring them down, O Lord, our shield." Now, David was probably not thinking, since this is the only time we know of God using the gift of prophecy in quite this way, David is probably not thinking, oh, God is going to grab hold of them by his spirit and the spirit of prophecy so that they can't hurt me. But you see, we don't always know how God is going to answer prayer. And here is a more direct answer to prayer than any of us would have imagined. God totters, topples over, literally gave his enemies. Notice in the last verse, Saul is laying naked all day. He's laying down. Now perhaps the easiest way to think of what God is doing here is to just think about the difference between somebody coming with their royal robes and their sword in their hand and their armor on ready to do violence and somebody laying on the ground in humiliating nakedness, crawling through the dirt, able to only speak words of praise to God against their will. That's not what Saul wanted to do. What is going on here? God is laughing at his enemies. Here is one time in scripture where that phrase from Psalm 2, which is also in Psalm 59, Psalm 59 verse 8, But you, O LORD, laugh at them. You hold all the nations in derision. Saul has great power. He's an absolute monarch. And he's laying on the ground naked. His royal robes are gone. His sword and spear are gone. God can do whatever he wants to his enemies. And then you see God is not only laughing at his enemies. Here is one time when God invited his people to laugh at his enemies. You know that phrase is also among the prophets? We saw it earlier in the very beginning of Saul's introduction in the narrative. And at that point, it was something of respect. Who is this young king? Is he even among the prophets? Is he even prophesied with Samuel? What a great young king we have. But what is the phrase now? What does this proverbial phrase mean now? Our king tried to go against God's will. Is he also among the prophets? That didn't work out too well for him. He's laying on the streets of Ramah, naked, prophesying. God has exposed Saul in every way. You know, people of God, sometimes the image of nakedness and humility is used in scripture as a picture for our need to confess our sins. Of course, a proper response of Saul to this would have been, God, thank you for stripping me of my power and my weapons of anger and showing me who I really need to be before you. May God bring us in complete humility in the confession of our sins before him. There's one other time when the image of nakedness is extremely important. In fact, it's at the most important moment in the history of the world. It's when Jesus Christ humbled himself and hung naked on a cross to cover our nakedness by becoming sin for us. May we be humble. May we see that God can totter our plans of destruction and the destruction of man and the sinfulness of our hearts in whatever way he wants and may we say Lord God I am spiritually naked before you and I know you even at one time made your enemies literally naked. before your servant whom you protected and I know that you sent your son to die in all humility with his innocent blood to save me from my sins. This is the God whom we serve. This is his power and his humility for our sakes. Amen. Let us pray. Lord God Almighty, we do pray that you would bring to destruction the plotting ways of man.