I know I look a lot different today. That's because I got my first store-bought haircut in about three years. Marilyn usually cuts my hair. And the one thing about when she cuts your hair, your hair's cut, but it doesn't look like you had a haircut. Now it looks like I've got a haircut. I don't have any hair left. They cut it all off. I guess it's supposed to last a little bit longer. But because this medicine I'm taking, it makes my hair grow so much, it'll probably out looking normal again in about a week or so. Chapter 29. Chapter 29. Now the Philistines gather together all their armies to Uthek, while the Israelites were camping by the stream which is in Jezreel. And the lords of the Philistines were proceeding on by hundreds and thousands. These are the lords. These are basically ahead of each little sub-tribe. And David and his men were proceeding on in the rear with Ashish. Then the commanders of the Philistines said, what are these Hebrews doing here? And Ashes said to the commanders of the Philistines, is this not David, the servant of Saul, the king of Israel, who has been with me these days, or rather these years? And I have found no fault in him from the day he deserted to me to this day. He deserted Israel, that is. But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him. And the commanders of the Philistines said to him, make the man go back. We don't trust him. that he may return to his place where you have assigned him, and do not let him go down to battle with us, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us. And with what can this man make himself acceptable to his Lord? Would it not be with the heads of these men?" Is this not David? whom they sang, the dancers sang, Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands. Then Ashes called David and said to him, as the Lord lives, you have been upright, and you're going in and you're going out, and you're coming in with me and the army pleasing in my sight, for I have not found evil in you from the day of your coming to me to this day. Nevertheless, you are not pleasing in the sight of the lords of these what they were is kind of like chiefs among Indian tribes. Every Indian tribe had a chief. Every family of Indians had a chief. And every family of these Philistines had a chief. Now, therefore, return and go in peace, that you may not displead the lords of the Philistines. And David said to Ashes, but what have I done? What have I done? What have you found in your servant from the day that I came before you to this day that I may not go out and fight against the enemies of my Lord the King? And Ashes answered and said to David, I know that you're pleasing in my sight. Take, you're like an angel of God. Nevertheless, the commanders of the Philistines have said he must not go up with us in battle. And now, then, arise early in the morning with your servants of your Lord, who come with you, and as soon as you have arisen early in the morning, and have light, leave, depart, and go back home. So David rose up early in his men to depart in the morning and return to the land of the Philistines, and the Philistines went up to Jezreel. And when it happened, when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negev and Ziklag and had overthrown Ziklag and burned it with fire. And they took captive women, the women and all who were in it, both small and great, without killing anyone and carried them off and went their way. And David and his men came to the city, and behold, he was burned with fire. And their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive. And David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices, and they wept there, and there was no strength in them to weep. Now David had two wives that had been taken captive, Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess, and Abigail, the widow of Nabal, the Carmelite. Whomever David was greatly distressed because of the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. And David strengthened himself in the Lord his God, in Jehovah Elohim. And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Amalek, please bring me the ephod. So Abel brought the ephod to David, and David inquired of the Lord, saying, shall I pursue this band? Shall I overtake it? And he said to him, pursue, or you shall surely overtake it, and you shall surely rescue every one, each and every one. Each and every individual is what it says. So David went, he and 600 men who was with him, and came to the broke besor. where those left behind remained. And David pursued, he and his 400 men, for 200, who were too exhausted to cross the brook, Bazar remained behind. Now they found an Egyptian in a field and brought him to David and gave him bread and he ate, and they provided him water to drink. And they gave him a piece of a fig cake, and two clusters of raisins. And he ate, and then his spirit revived. His blood sugar came up, and he could think again, basically. That's a very sweet food. For he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights. And David said to him, to whom do you belong, and where are you from? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, a servant of the Amalekite, and my master left me behind when I fell sick three days ago. And he made a raid on the Negev and the Cherithias and all that which belongs to Judah and on the Negev of Caleb, and we burned Ziglag with fire. And David said to him, will you bring me down to this band? And he said, swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring you down to this band. I've got a little asthma today because of the cats I got the other day. I've been too close to them and they give me asthma. And we had brought him down. Behold, they were spread all over the land, eating and drinking and dancing. They caused the great spoil that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. And David slaughtered them from twilight until evening. of the next day, and not a man of them escaped except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled." So David recovered all the Amalekites and had taken and rescued his two wives. But nothing of theirs was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoiled or anything that they had taken for themselves, David brought it all back. And David had captured all the sheep and the cattle, which the people drove ahead of the other livestock, and they said, this is David's spoil. When David came to the 200 men, who were too exhausted to follow David, he had also been left at the brook Besor, and they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him, and David approached the people and greeted them. When David came to the 200 men, Then all the wicked and worthless men among whom went with David answered and said, because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil, for we have recovered every one, every man, his wife, and his children, and that they may lead them away and depart. Then David said, you must not do so. My brothers, with what the Lord has given us, who has kept us and delivered us, into our hand, the band that came out against us. Now, David is not taking the honors of the battle himself. He said the Lord gave these people into our hands. And these men that were too tired to go on, that were too exhausted, because God gave the battle into our hands, it wasn't you really that did it. It was God. And these men are my men, and they are worthy of a reward also. David said, You must not do so, my brothers. The Lord has given us, who has kept us and delivered into our hand the band that came up against us, and he who will listen to you in this manner For as his share is who goes down to the battle, so shall his share be who stays at the baggies. They shall share alike. And so it has been from that day forward that he made it a law, a statute, an ordinance for all Israel to this day. Now when David came to Ziglag, He sent some of the spoil to the elders of Judah, to his friends, saying, behold, a gift for you, whom the spoil of the enemies of the Lord. And to those who were in Bethel, and to those who were in Ramoth, and those of the Negev. Negev, by the way, just means the South Country. That means like Southern California. And those who were in Jeter, and those who were in Eror, and those who were in Sifmoth, and those who were in Es-Tol-Meol, and those who were in Rakol, and those who were in the cities of the Geramilites, and those who were in the cities of the Kenites. And to those who were in Hamoth, and those who were in Borashan, and those who were in Athok, and those who were in Hebron. What do you remember about Hebron now? What do you remember about Hebron? Hebron is the place where Abraham's tomb is. And Hebron is the place where the giants dwelled in the land. The giants, the Nephilim. And Caleb and Joshua said, give me that mountain. I will take it. And I'll take those giants also. and to all the places where David himself and his men had custom to go. Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from the Philistines and fell slain on the Mount of Goboa. And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, Malchishua, and all the sons of Saul. And the battle went heavily against Saul, and the archers hit him. Now we're talking about God's judgment. God's judgment. God's justice. And the archers hit him, and he was badly wounded by the archers. Then Saul said to his armor bearer, draw your sword and pierce me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and pierce me through and make sport of me. But his armor-bearer would not, for he was greatly afraid. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it. He killed himself. And his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, and he also fell on his sword and died with him. Saul died with his three sons, his armor-bearer, and all his men of that day altogether. And when the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley and those who were beyond the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled, that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled, and then the Philistines came and lived in them. And it came about on the next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Geboa. And they cut off his head. They cut off his head and stripped off all his weapons, and sent them throughout the land of the Philistines to carry the good news to the house of their idols and to the people, the house of their idols. And they put his weapons in the temple of Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan. And now when the inhabitants of Jebash-gilid heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, And all the valiant men rose and walked all night and took the body of Saul and the body of the sons From the wall of it best end and they came to get gibbous and burned them there and they took their bones and burned them under the tamarisk tree in gibberish and Fasted for seven days They fasted for seven days now God's judgment God's decision Remember David said Now Saul committed suicide and his sons were killed. Saul's armor bearer committed suicide also because they didn't want to fall alive into the hands of these people. Now when they took and they placed Saul's armor and everything on the wall in the pagan temple, It was anathema. Anathema. Ana means up, and thema means the place, the place up. Now, when you took a person's body, or whatever they did in these pagan temples, and they did some weird things in those temples, when they placed it upon the wall, it could never be redeemed. That's why you call the word anathemized, anathema. When the Catholic Church anathemized something, they can't be redeemed. They're lost forever. They took Saul's body and Jonathan's body and all of them, and they put them in these pagan temples so that their bodies could never be redeemed, so they would be damned, as far as they were concerned. They would be damned in the future. They could never be buried or anything like that. They would be damned, anathemized. And their gods would watch over their souls in torment. Now they took their bodies down and they cremated them. And they took them and they buried them under the thyme rice tree and Jebesh and fasted seven days. This is quite a story here. God's judgment. God took care of Saul. But Saul and many innocent people died too. Because of Saul's bad decisions he had made in the past, his children died. Jonathan, his son that was so much in love with David. He loved David. They watched over each other. And we're going to find out that David keeps his covenant with Jonathan after he dies. He said, I will save one of your children. And he does. And we'll see that in one of the future classes. God decided when Saul would be dead. Saul disguised himself. Now, in another place, it tells us that there was a soldier there. Saul had his armor on, and his armor was on, and he was dressed up just like a soldier. He wasn't dressed up like the king. So they didn't know who he was. They didn't know where he was. And this soldier just took an arrow, and he shot him in the air. And God guided that arrow, and it hit in the seam of his armor and went through into his body. and basically gave him a fatal wound. He wasn't going to live. He was going to die. He was still alive and still alive enough to say, kill me with your sword. I don't want to fall into the hands of these people that they will make sport of me. They'll put my eyes out. They'll cut my tongue out. They'll cut my ears off. They'll spit in my face. They will burn me. They will torture me. I would rather die of my own sword than to be killed by them. And the armor bearer said he wouldn't do it. Now, another place the armor bearer said he did. So there must have been more than one armor bearer. God's judgment was that Saul would die on that mountain that day. Sometimes the innocent die with the guilty. And that's what happened with Jonathan. And David mourns greatly over both of them. He mourns greatly. The one man was his enemy, but he looked upon him as his anointed king. because God had anointed him as king, and he would never raise his hand against him. He said, let God kill him. Let God cause his enemies to kill him. And God guided that missile, that guided missile that was shot into the air to where it dealt a deadly blow to Saul, even though he disguised himself and he wore as much armor as he could put on, it got between the joint of the armor. You can't ever hide from God, God's judgment. It's not gonna happen. Saul couldn't do it no matter what he did, even he consorted with witches, dealing with witches, which he wasn't supposed to do. But God brought it upon him and his sons. Our Father, help us learn from these lessons that you give us in the Old Testament. Please forgive us where we fail you, forgive me where I fail you. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.