February 24, 2025 • 25 mins
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Welcome to the Westside church’s special Monday Morning Coffee podcast with Mark Roberts. Mark is a disciple, a husband, father and grand dad, as well as a certified coffee geek, fan of CS Lewis’ writings and he loves his big red Jeep. He’s also the preacher for Westside church.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches
special Monday Morning Coffeepodcast on this podcast, our
preacher Mark Roberts will helpyou get your week started
right. With look back atyesterday's sermon so that we
can think through it furtherand better work the
applications into our dailylives . Mark will then look
(00:28):
forward into this week's Biblereading so that we can know
what to expect and watch for.
And, he may have some extrabonus thoughts from time to
time. So grab a cup of coffeeas we start the week together
on Monday Morning Coffee withMark.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday
Morning Coffee podcast forMonday, February the 24th. I'm
holding a great cup of coffeein my Texas Rangers, Cory Seger
home run commemorative editionmug. This is the Homer he hit
in the bottom of the ninth ofgame one of the World series to
tie it and send the rangers ontheir way to their first world
(01:13):
championship. I am drinking outthat mug because baseball is
back and even more today's thefirst day in a long time you
can walk to the mailbox withoutbeing afraid. You'll be eaten
by a polar bear or trip over apenguin. Life is very good,
isn't it? And it's really goodwhen we do our daily Bible
reading and especially goodwhen we think a little bit more
(01:34):
about the sermon yesterday.
Let's just do all of that. Pourthat coffee, let's get ready,
let's get set, let's go. Soyesterday was a very difficult
sermon to preach. Verydifficult sermon I'm sure to
hear. Nobody wants to come tochurch and have the preacher
get onto him . And I can assureyou, the preacher doesn't want
to go to church with a sermonin his Bible ready to get on to
(01:56):
everybody. That's not fun,that's not enjoyable. But as I
began the sermon yesterday bynoting sometimes Jesus had to
confront people and say, youneed to think about this. You
need to give some considerationto where you are and what this
is all about. And the eldersasked me to take care of some
of those things yesterday inregards to our 9:00 AM service.
Our attendance in the 9:00 AMis just abysmal and that's
(02:18):
gotta get fixed. And the way toget fixed is for us to value
that more and to make somedecisions about our schedule so
that we can be there. And Ihope you are already doing that
and planning to be there thisSunday in the 9:00 AM Let me
tie all that together by justsaying this. It's important
that we understand thedifference in attending church
(02:38):
and being the church. We don'tgo to church. I mean , okay, I
use that expression. You usethat expression. I know what it
means, but we don't go tochurch. We are the church.
What's the church? The churchhas saved people. And this is
how saved people act. This iswhat saved people want to do.
They go and worship God becausetheir attitude is not, I'm a
(03:02):
consumer. Their attitude is I'ma partner. I'm a partner in
God's work here at West Side .
I share, I serve, I give, I do.
I help. I encourage and I showup because I am the church. And
when the church gathers, I willbe there. Hope that helps you
(03:22):
as we continue to think aboutthat 9:00 AM service. And I'm
looking forward to seeing afull house on Sunday as we get
our worship services started.
Now it's time to turn ourBibles back to First Samuel. We
spend some time in the Psalms.
That was wonderful. But thisweek we will read in Samuel,
find your Bible. Let's go toone Samuel. It is Monday and
(04:01):
our reading today is FirstSamuel chapter 23 verses one to
14, the reading from Monday,first Samuel chapter 23, verses
one to 14. It's important sincewe did spend last week in the
Psalms to get re geared againand get figured out exactly
where we are and where we areis David's being chased
terribly by Saul, justeverywhere he goes, Saul shows
(04:21):
up with the army and tries tokill him. Probably more
important than than justgetting ahold of the storyline.
And where we are in the storyis understanding what's
happening in terms of whySamuel is telling us this. Why
is this in the book of Samuel?
And the answer to that is it isa continual contrast between
Saul and David. That's what'shappening here. We need to see
(04:45):
that Saul cannot be the king ofGod's people. He is absolutely
the wrong man for the job. He'sgetting worse and worse by the
moment. Meanwhile, David isgetting better and better by
the moment in today's reading.
Certainly points that out.
There's a couple of places thatDavid just distinguishes
himself in our reading today.
(05:05):
So this begins with thePhilistines attacking Kela and
the Philistines. They're just,they're just a continual
problem. So David decides tohelp out with that. Kela is a
town about 18 miles southwestof Jerusalem and about three
miles southeast of a doula .
The Philistine territory isdown on the coast. That's that
area that is very much indispute today where , uh, the
(05:27):
various fighting factions andall the things that are going
on there in Gaza, that's thearea of the Philistine. So as
you see that on the news,that's, that's where we're
talking about. And so Davidverse two, inquires of God,
that's impressive. We're askingGod, what does God want us to
do? What should we be doinghere? And then the men are very
reluctant about that. Versethree. And so David inquires of
(05:48):
God again. Now it's veryunusual to ask God twice a
couple of places maybe inscripture that that occurs.
Gideon ask God twice. And Iwonder here if I should be
critical of David. Hey, whenGod says go, you just go or
does this honor the counsel ofhis men? Okay, you're not
comfortable with it. Let mejust make sure I got it right.
I will talk to God again. Youhave to think about that. Think
(06:09):
about where we are with this.
But he does have theopportunity to engage with God
and to ask God because AbbyAther verse six has the ephi in
his hand. That may mean the rumand Theum have arrived and that
he can consult God through UAMand theum . We don't know
exactly how the EOD worked, howthe UAM and Theum those special
(06:31):
stones worked. But the key isDavid inquires of God. He
depends on God. He leans onGod, God, what do you want me
to do? And then in kind of areally sad moment, the men of
Keah God, God says, yeah,they're gonna give you up
verses nine, 10 and 11. They ,they are going to surrender
(06:51):
you. And so David says, thisis, this is terrible. We gotta
get outta here. And it's veryeasy to be extremely critical
of the men of Kela . David hadjust saved them. What are you
guys thinking? But probablywhat they're thinking is about
what happened at Knob Saul. Putthat city to the sword. We
have, we have hidden Davidhere. We have given aid and
(07:13):
comfort to Saul's enemy.
Horrible things are going tohappen to us. In fact, look at
verse eight. Saul summoned allthe people to war. Wow. Saul is
really coming apart here. Hebrings an entire army to get
after David and and his band ofmen. Really Saul, you're just,
you're just nothing of what Godwants you to be. And and maybe
(07:34):
the highlight verse for thattheme here is verse seven where
Saul deludes himself intothinking that God is with him.
No, God is not with him. AndSaul knows better than that God
is with David. And what I wouldsay about all of this is while
it is tempting to make Davidthe hero of the story of the
deliverance of the city of Keah, and then he cares about that
city, he remembers whathappened when he implicated
(07:57):
knob in his escape from Saul.
And so he bails out of thereand and gets out of dodge so
that they won't have anyproblems there like knob had. I
just appreciate all of that onDavid's part. The real key is
God saves David, God answersDavid when he, when he inquires
of him. He answers him twice.
(08:18):
He answers him then in versenine and 10. And so God is
helping David. The point hereis David relies upon God. God
is the hero of our reading onMonday. Monday's reading for
Samuel 23 verses one to 14 . Itis Tuesday and our reading for
Tuesday is one Samuel chapter23 verses 15 to 29. We're
(08:40):
completing one Samuel 23, ourreading for Samuel 23, 15 to
29. Lots of good thingshappening here. Lots of good
things happening here. I'mreally looking forward to
talking about our readingtonight on Zoom. And I have
something very special on Zoomtonight. So West siders , we're
gonna wanna make sure thatwe're tuned in and ready to go
tonight at seven for Zoom. Ilove, I think the thing that I
(09:01):
love the most here is Jonathan, Jonathan , Saul son . Verse
16, Rosen went to David at Hoand strengthened his hand in
God. The expression inencouraged or strengthened his
hand. The ESV is translatingthat very literally. There is
used for encouraging thefearful and there's an
additional note there,strengthening his hand in God.
(09:25):
That is a unique kind ofexpression. And so what
Jonathan is doing here isasking David to consider the
power and purposes of God. Andhe does that by saying, let's
think about what God haspromised. That's verse 17.
Let's think about what Godpromised you. And he really
helps David here. He shows thatGod is at work. Jonathan has a
(09:46):
holy optimism about him. Heencourages David to stay the
fight, stay the course, keepgoing. This is a crucial moment
for David. Really a tough timein his life. And Jonathan is
there for him. Verse 18, thetwo of them make a covenant
before the Lord. Sadly, this isthe last time at least that's
(10:06):
recorded in scripture thatDavid and Jonathan ever see
each other. Really a sad thingthat Saul fouls up what is
truly one of the greatfriendships in all of history.
And more than just beingbuddies and laughing together
and having a great time andtalking sports. Jonathan and
David, they help each other dowhat's right. That then takes
(10:28):
us to the Zite Zite. Can I saythat? Verse 19. And they're
just a bunch of rats andweasels and there's no good
thing to be said about them.
Don't like them at all. They'reratting David out. I might , I
have some notes here where Isaid rats attract rats and
weasels attract weasels and andI think that's right about King
Saul. And I think that's rightabout these people. These zip
(10:49):
fights , they're terrible. Andso they are the kind of people
who would tell on David andwould seek the opportunity to
do that. 'cause that's the kindof crummy people they are. And
who would you tell? You wouldtell another crummy person? And
that's King Saul and Saul'sjust sure that he's not gonna
miss him this time. He sayshe's very cunning. Verse 22,
cunning is the same word thatdescribes the devil in Genesis
chapter three in verse one. AndDavid nearly gets caught here.
(11:12):
He nearly gets caught here.
Sadly, Saul has left Israelunguarded verse 27. And the
result of that is he has tobreak off chasing after David.
Verse 28. And David gets away.
But what's that about? Who'sthe hero of the story? Who's
the hero of the story? Yes. Godis the hero of the story in
(11:33):
God's providence. Verse 27happens which allows David to
escape in verse 28. And Davidthen goes for 29 and lives in
the stronghold of in Getty .
I've been very blessed Dean andI got to visit the oasis at in
Getty . And tonight in Zoom Iwill show you some pictures of
the Dead Sea desert in all thisarea and what this amazing
(11:56):
place the stronghold of inGetti looks like. Looking
forward to seeing you tonighton Zoom everybody. If you're
not a member of the West SideChurch, see you tomorrow on the
podcast. Our reading forTuesday for Samuel chapter 23
verses 15 to 29. It isWednesday. It is Wednesday.
We're reading all of one Samuelchapter 24. This is one of the
(12:17):
most amazing chapters in all ofthe Bible. It begins exactly
where chapter 23 left off andthat is in Eng Getti . And it
is a virtual mirror of chapter26 in between 24 and 26 is the
story of Neal . In all of thosestories, divine providence is
the major theme. God keepsDavid from shedding innocent
(12:39):
blood. God is watching over.
David keeps him from doinganything that would jeopardize
his kingdom. We want to keepour eyes on God. God is the
hero of the story. Now inchapter 24, there is a ton of
talking. Almost all of theaction is in the first three or
four verses. Then there's justa lot of talking about what
just happened and what justhappened. Verse three is that
(13:01):
Saul went into a cave to coverhis feet. That is the literal
Hebrew cover his feet. But thatis a euphemism for using the
restroom, going to thebathroom. And of course we have
a million euphemisms ourselves.
We understand about that. Gopotty, take care of your
business. On and on and on. Wehave all kinds of euphemisms.
(13:22):
Cover your feet. Saul is goingto go to the bathroom and the
ESV says he's going to relievehimself. I think the new king
James says attend to his needs.
I'm not sure why we aresqueamish about people in the
bathroom. People in in the OldTestament going to the
bathroom, people in the OldTestament, people in the New
Testament have to do whatpeople still have to do. And
(13:42):
that is attend to their needs,cover their feet, go to the
restroom. So Saul goes into thecave and you can imagine David
and his man , they're in theback of the cave, they're in
the darkness. Saul's eyes, allbright sun and so forth. He
can't see that well in thecave. They see him silhouetted
against the mouth of the cave.
They know what's going on. Saulcomes into the cave. He would
(14:05):
be by himself of course, need alittle privacy here and takes
off his royal robe and pitchesit aside. And now he's in a
really awkward position fromwhich he absolutely cannot ward
off any kind of attack. AndDavid's men say, this is it.
This is it. You need to killhim. God has given him into
your hands. Verse four. Maybethat's a good point to good
(14:27):
place to make the point thatjust because people say it's
God's will doesn't mean it'sGod's will. David says it's not
God's will. Verse six, I can'tdo this. God put him here and I
can't take him out. Now there'sa great deal of speculation
about the robe and Davidcutting a piece of the robe off
(14:47):
and it certainly does remind usof the torn cloak when Saul
grabs Samuel's cloak and ittore in his hand. But there's
no explicit connection madethere. And I'm not minded to
add anything to this and saythat symbolic of the kingdom
and he has the royal robe. No,I think, I think David just cut
a piece of the robe off becausein a minute he needs to prove I
(15:09):
could have killed you. And thatis exactly what happens next.
In fact, the Psalms of thistime help us see that David is
very concerned about verse ninelistening. Saul, why do you
listen to the words of the menwho say David seeks your harm?
I pointed that out last weekthat really bothers David being
slandered and falsely accused.
(15:30):
He's concerned about that. Andso David shows himself to be
completely loyal. He addressesSaul as my Lord. Verse eight,
my father, he bows verse eight,David is not a rebel. He's not
inciting some kind ofresurrection, some kind of
resurrection, some sort ofinsurrection. How about that?
And he is not trying tooverthrow the crown by force.
(15:53):
Could have done it here, doesnot do it here. And so Saul
seems to evidence realrepentance in verse 20.
Unfortunately, his repentancewill not last very long at all.
So Saul goes home. Verse 22,David and his men go back to
the stronghold. They don'ttrust Saul, do they? And with
(16:15):
good reason. And that takes usto First Samuel chapter 25,
which we'll begin readingtomorrow. Our reading for
Wednesday is First Samuelchapter 24. It is Thursday and
today's reading is First Samuelchapter 25 verses one to 22 .
In today's reading, we meet oneof the most remarkable women in
(16:35):
all of the Bible. Today'sreading introduces us to
Abigail. She is an incrediblewoman and God uses her in a
powerful way to help David. Andonce again, the spotlight will
be on God and what God is doingin his providence. But I think
especially we'll note somethings here about David's
character. David can listen andhe can even listen to a woman.
(16:58):
That story begins in verse onewhen we were told that Samuel
died. Oh , what a terribleplace. This leaves Israel in,
especially since the priest aredead, Samuel is the king maker.
He had established the kingdomand he had made prophecies
about it and help the people inso many ways. What this really
means is that Saul now has noone to help him. There isn't
(17:20):
anyone with Saul who is capableof consulting God or helping
Saul in a spiritual sort ofway. And I do think the key
here in verse one is that thatis why David Rosen went down to
the wilderness of Payan that isvery far south down on the
Sinai Peninsula. And I thinkthat shows David's fear. Now
(17:41):
that Samuel's gone, any kind ofrestraining influence is out of
the way. I need to get furtheraway from Saul. He will track
me down, nearly killed me, sayshe's repented, but but has he.
I'm outta here. I'm just outtahere. And while David is down
there, he ends up encounteringna ball , who is a very rich
(18:03):
rancher. And yes, na ball'sname means fool. He reminds us
of Psalm 14, one, the fool hassaid in his heart, there he is
no God. And he is exactly whathis name implies because David
with his mighty band, theysurround and are everywhere
where na ball's flocks are inhis keepers of the herds and
the flocks and they don't stealor raid or kill or anything.
(18:28):
And then David sends some youngmen to say, Hey, we've been
really kind. How about we havea little feast? You'd be nice
to us and so forth. And navalverse 10 says, who is David?
Who is the son of Jesse? Thereare many servants these days
who are breaking away fromtheir mes . I don't know
anything about you. You're somerogue. You're probably just a
runaway slave. There is uttercontempt here by pretending
(18:51):
he's never heard of David.
Remember people sing aboutDavid, everybody knows about
David. So naval is just stingyand he's mean. And he refuses
to be grateful to somebody whohas helped him. And the result
of that is that David is justbeside himself. Verse 13, every
(19:12):
man strap on his sword, Davidstrapped on his sword. 400 men
went up after David and 200remained with the baggage. He
has his own private army andthis is not going to go well
for naval. But what verse 13does not say is David inquired
of the Lord. This is nothingbut rash, anger. He is
tempting, he is being temptedhere to be a Saul act rashly.
(19:36):
And without thought, somebodycrosses me, I'll just kill him.
David crosses Saul, or at leastSaul thinks so I'll just kill
David. David is acting likeSaul. And in the middle of
that, Abigail finds out and shesays, something's got to change
here. Somebody has to dosomething. Verses 14 to 17 and
(19:58):
verse 18, Abigail says, it'sme. She made hasten took 200
loaves and two skins of wineand five sheep already prepared
and five seals of parts grainand a hundred clusters of
raisins. I love raisins. Theygo great on breakfast cereal,
200 cakes of figs, verse 18.
And she said, we're going tostop this. We're going to meet
David. And what's happeninghere is that this woman shows
(20:22):
wisdom and that wisdom acts. Ithink a lot of people, a lot of
men would've just panicked anddone nothing. She has a plan.
She executes the plan. And herspeech that she will give to
David is a masterpiece of justoutstanding reasoning and
careful appeals to emotion. Wedon't get to have that speech
(20:46):
today. We'll have to wait tillMonday for that because,
because our reading ends inverse 22. But we now turn to
the Psalms and we'll see aboutAbigail on Monday. Our reading
for Thursday, first Samuelchapter 25, verses one to 22.
It's Friday. It is Friday. Andwe've reached the end of the
(21:06):
week. And on Fridays we readfrom the Psalms. So now we're
reading today in Psalm seven,the reading for Friday is the
seventh Psalm. This is alament, it is a cry for justice
from God. However, as onescholar noted, the Psalm moves
from being an intenselypersonal plea of a man that's
being hounded and betrayed tothe conviction that God is the
(21:28):
judge of all the earth. Andthat wickedness is
self-defeating. It ends withconfidence and praise. So I
think there's some movement inthis psalm. I want to track
that as you think about how thepsalmist feels here, it begins
in the heading with a ian . Andthen there's a reference to the
words of kush. And you'rethinking, what's a Chaan and
(21:49):
who's the kush ? And the answerto both of those is we don't
know. We do not know MAs scale, Shaan . Sala . There's some
musical terms. That's probablywhat they are that we do not
know for certain what theymean. Kush, we don't know who
he is, but Saul has a bunch ofBenjamin Mites , mites,
Benjamin Mites. He is from thetribe of Benjamin and he
(22:11):
surrounds himself with somepeople from Benjamin. And later
in David's reign , during therebellion that Absalom brings
about and causes, there aresome benjamite who show up and
say, Hey David, you're ausurper. You don't even have
any right to the throne.
Anyway, so this is somebodywho's no friend to David. And
what the P song is about isthat David's conscience is
(22:31):
clear. Notice the three ifs inverses three and four, David
says, I've not done wrong. Andthen he asked God to deal with
the wrongdoers. Please noticeit is okay to ask God to deal
with our enemies personalrevenge, not okay saying to
God, this is terrible. Thesepeople are terrible. They're
(22:53):
opposed to you. They're hostileto your ways. Can you do
something about that? That'sall over the Psalms. And by the
way, it's in the New Testamentas well. I love verse nine. Oh
, let the evil of the wickedcome to an end. Lemme grab some
coffee here. Oh , let the evilof the wicked come to an end.
And may you establish therighteous you who test the
minds and hearts of righteousGod . What a great verse.
(23:14):
That's ingrained for me in myBible and it says, God, go get
'em. But then that little bitthere about testing the minds
and hearts just reminds us,reminds David, God knows what
I'm thinking. God knows whetherI'm an enemy. It's one thing to
say, get the bad guys overthere. It's another thing to
say, get the bad guys and testand see if I'm part of the bad
guys. What a powerful thing forhim to say here. So then in
(23:39):
verse 17, the Psalm ends, oh ,I should have said something
about verses 14, 15 and 16. Sinjust doesn't work. It just
doesn't work. And that's whereDavid is on this. I'm not
gonna, per not going that way.
I'm not gonna do those things.
That's a fail. That's a fail.
Instead, I will give thanks tothe Lord. The thanks due to his
righteousness for 17, singpraise to the name of the Lord
(24:03):
the most high. That's a veryunusual title for God outside
the Psalms, but it is used inGenesis 1417. Go look that up
and see who's talking about theLord most high in Genesis
chapter 14. Love this lamentpsalm that moves to a Psalm of
trust. Psalm seven is thereading for Friday. Thank you
(24:26):
so much for listening to thepodcast this week. I certainly
enjoy reading the Bible withyou, and I hope the podcast is
helping you. You're tellingother people about it. You're
leaving us a rating and areview. Some more people will
find the podcast until Monday.
Then when we'll open our Biblestogether. I'm Mark Roberts and
I wanna go to heaven and I wantyou to come too . See you
(24:48):
Monday with a cup of coffee.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of
Christ Podcast. Monday morningCoffee with Mark. For more
information about Westside, youcan connect with us through our
website, just christians.comand our Facebook page, our
music is from upbeat.io. That'supbeat with two P'S
(25:16):
U-P-P-B-E-A-T, where creatorscan get free music. Please
share our podcast with othersand we look forward to seeing
you again with a cup of coffee.
Of course, on next Monday.
Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches
special Monday Morning Coffeepodcast on this podcast, our
preacher Mark Roberts will helpyou get your week started
right. With look back atyesterday's sermon so that we
can think through it furtherand better work the
applications into our dailylives . Mark will then look
(00:28):
forward into this week's Biblereading so that we can know
what to expect and watch for.
And, he may have some extrabonus thoughts from time to
time. So grab a cup of coffeeas we start the week together
on Monday Morning Coffee withMark.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday
Morning Coffee podcast forMonday, February the 24th. I'm
holding a great cup of coffeein my Texas Rangers, Cory Seger
home run commemorative editionmug. This is the Homer he hit
in the bottom of the ninth ofgame one of the World series to
tie it and send the rangers ontheir way to their first world
(01:13):
championship. I am drinking outthat mug because baseball is
back and even more today's thefirst day in a long time you
can walk to the mailbox withoutbeing afraid. You'll be eaten
by a polar bear or trip over apenguin. Life is very good,
isn't it? And it's really goodwhen we do our daily Bible
reading and especially goodwhen we think a little bit more
(01:34):
about the sermon yesterday.
Let's just do all of that. Pourthat coffee, let's get ready,
let's get set, let's go. Soyesterday was a very difficult
sermon to preach. Verydifficult sermon I'm sure to
hear. Nobody wants to come tochurch and have the preacher
get onto him . And I can assureyou, the preacher doesn't want
to go to church with a sermonin his Bible ready to get on to
(01:56):
everybody. That's not fun,that's not enjoyable. But as I
began the sermon yesterday bynoting sometimes Jesus had to
confront people and say, youneed to think about this. You
need to give some considerationto where you are and what this
is all about. And the eldersasked me to take care of some
of those things yesterday inregards to our 9:00 AM service.
Our attendance in the 9:00 AMis just abysmal and that's
(02:18):
gotta get fixed. And the way toget fixed is for us to value
that more and to make somedecisions about our schedule so
that we can be there. And Ihope you are already doing that
and planning to be there thisSunday in the 9:00 AM Let me
tie all that together by justsaying this. It's important
that we understand thedifference in attending church
(02:38):
and being the church. We don'tgo to church. I mean , okay, I
use that expression. You usethat expression. I know what it
means, but we don't go tochurch. We are the church.
What's the church? The churchhas saved people. And this is
how saved people act. This iswhat saved people want to do.
They go and worship God becausetheir attitude is not, I'm a
(03:02):
consumer. Their attitude is I'ma partner. I'm a partner in
God's work here at West Side .
I share, I serve, I give, I do.
I help. I encourage and I showup because I am the church. And
when the church gathers, I willbe there. Hope that helps you
(03:22):
as we continue to think aboutthat 9:00 AM service. And I'm
looking forward to seeing afull house on Sunday as we get
our worship services started.
Now it's time to turn ourBibles back to First Samuel. We
spend some time in the Psalms.
That was wonderful. But thisweek we will read in Samuel,
find your Bible. Let's go toone Samuel. It is Monday and
(04:01):
our reading today is FirstSamuel chapter 23 verses one to
14, the reading from Monday,first Samuel chapter 23, verses
one to 14. It's important sincewe did spend last week in the
Psalms to get re geared againand get figured out exactly
where we are and where we areis David's being chased
terribly by Saul, justeverywhere he goes, Saul shows
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up with the army and tries tokill him. Probably more
important than than justgetting ahold of the storyline.
And where we are in the storyis understanding what's
happening in terms of whySamuel is telling us this. Why
is this in the book of Samuel?
And the answer to that is it isa continual contrast between
Saul and David. That's what'shappening here. We need to see
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that Saul cannot be the king ofGod's people. He is absolutely
the wrong man for the job. He'sgetting worse and worse by the
moment. Meanwhile, David isgetting better and better by
the moment in today's reading.
Certainly points that out.
There's a couple of places thatDavid just distinguishes
himself in our reading today.
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So this begins with thePhilistines attacking Kela and
the Philistines. They're just,they're just a continual
problem. So David decides tohelp out with that. Kela is a
town about 18 miles southwestof Jerusalem and about three
miles southeast of a doula .
The Philistine territory isdown on the coast. That's that
area that is very much indispute today where , uh, the
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various fighting factions andall the things that are going
on there in Gaza, that's thearea of the Philistine. So as
you see that on the news,that's, that's where we're
talking about. And so Davidverse two, inquires of God,
that's impressive. We're askingGod, what does God want us to
do? What should we be doinghere? And then the men are very
reluctant about that. Versethree. And so David inquires of
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God again. Now it's veryunusual to ask God twice a
couple of places maybe inscripture that that occurs.
Gideon ask God twice. And Iwonder here if I should be
critical of David. Hey, whenGod says go, you just go or
does this honor the counsel ofhis men? Okay, you're not
comfortable with it. Let mejust make sure I got it right.
I will talk to God again. Youhave to think about that. Think
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about where we are with this.
But he does have theopportunity to engage with God
and to ask God because AbbyAther verse six has the ephi in
his hand. That may mean the rumand Theum have arrived and that
he can consult God through UAMand theum . We don't know
exactly how the EOD worked, howthe UAM and Theum those special
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stones worked. But the key isDavid inquires of God. He
depends on God. He leans onGod, God, what do you want me
to do? And then in kind of areally sad moment, the men of
Keah God, God says, yeah,they're gonna give you up
verses nine, 10 and 11. They ,they are going to surrender
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you. And so David says, thisis, this is terrible. We gotta
get outta here. And it's veryeasy to be extremely critical
of the men of Kela . David hadjust saved them. What are you
guys thinking? But probablywhat they're thinking is about
what happened at Knob Saul. Putthat city to the sword. We
have, we have hidden Davidhere. We have given aid and
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comfort to Saul's enemy.
Horrible things are going tohappen to us. In fact, look at
verse eight. Saul summoned allthe people to war. Wow. Saul is
really coming apart here. Hebrings an entire army to get
after David and and his band ofmen. Really Saul, you're just,
you're just nothing of what Godwants you to be. And and maybe
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the highlight verse for thattheme here is verse seven where
Saul deludes himself intothinking that God is with him.
No, God is not with him. AndSaul knows better than that God
is with David. And what I wouldsay about all of this is while
it is tempting to make Davidthe hero of the story of the
deliverance of the city of Keah, and then he cares about that
city, he remembers whathappened when he implicated
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knob in his escape from Saul.
And so he bails out of thereand and gets out of dodge so
that they won't have anyproblems there like knob had. I
just appreciate all of that onDavid's part. The real key is
God saves David, God answersDavid when he, when he inquires
of him. He answers him twice.
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He answers him then in versenine and 10. And so God is
helping David. The point hereis David relies upon God. God
is the hero of our reading onMonday. Monday's reading for
Samuel 23 verses one to 14 . Itis Tuesday and our reading for
Tuesday is one Samuel chapter23 verses 15 to 29. We're
(08:40):
completing one Samuel 23, ourreading for Samuel 23, 15 to
29. Lots of good thingshappening here. Lots of good
things happening here. I'mreally looking forward to
talking about our readingtonight on Zoom. And I have
something very special on Zoomtonight. So West siders , we're
gonna wanna make sure thatwe're tuned in and ready to go
tonight at seven for Zoom. Ilove, I think the thing that I
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love the most here is Jonathan, Jonathan , Saul son . Verse
16, Rosen went to David at Hoand strengthened his hand in
God. The expression inencouraged or strengthened his
hand. The ESV is translatingthat very literally. There is
used for encouraging thefearful and there's an
additional note there,strengthening his hand in God.
(09:25):
That is a unique kind ofexpression. And so what
Jonathan is doing here isasking David to consider the
power and purposes of God. Andhe does that by saying, let's
think about what God haspromised. That's verse 17.
Let's think about what Godpromised you. And he really
helps David here. He shows thatGod is at work. Jonathan has a
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holy optimism about him. Heencourages David to stay the
fight, stay the course, keepgoing. This is a crucial moment
for David. Really a tough timein his life. And Jonathan is
there for him. Verse 18, thetwo of them make a covenant
before the Lord. Sadly, this isthe last time at least that's
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recorded in scripture thatDavid and Jonathan ever see
each other. Really a sad thingthat Saul fouls up what is
truly one of the greatfriendships in all of history.
And more than just beingbuddies and laughing together
and having a great time andtalking sports. Jonathan and
David, they help each other dowhat's right. That then takes
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us to the Zite Zite. Can I saythat? Verse 19. And they're
just a bunch of rats andweasels and there's no good
thing to be said about them.
Don't like them at all. They'reratting David out. I might , I
have some notes here where Isaid rats attract rats and
weasels attract weasels and andI think that's right about King
Saul. And I think that's rightabout these people. These zip
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fights , they're terrible. Andso they are the kind of people
who would tell on David andwould seek the opportunity to
do that. 'cause that's the kindof crummy people they are. And
who would you tell? You wouldtell another crummy person? And
that's King Saul and Saul'sjust sure that he's not gonna
miss him this time. He sayshe's very cunning. Verse 22,
cunning is the same word thatdescribes the devil in Genesis
chapter three in verse one. AndDavid nearly gets caught here.
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He nearly gets caught here.
Sadly, Saul has left Israelunguarded verse 27. And the
result of that is he has tobreak off chasing after David.
Verse 28. And David gets away.
But what's that about? Who'sthe hero of the story? Who's
the hero of the story? Yes. Godis the hero of the story in
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God's providence. Verse 27happens which allows David to
escape in verse 28. And Davidthen goes for 29 and lives in
the stronghold of in Getty .
I've been very blessed Dean andI got to visit the oasis at in
Getty . And tonight in Zoom Iwill show you some pictures of
the Dead Sea desert in all thisarea and what this amazing
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place the stronghold of inGetti looks like. Looking
forward to seeing you tonighton Zoom everybody. If you're
not a member of the West SideChurch, see you tomorrow on the
podcast. Our reading forTuesday for Samuel chapter 23
verses 15 to 29. It isWednesday. It is Wednesday.
We're reading all of one Samuelchapter 24. This is one of the
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most amazing chapters in all ofthe Bible. It begins exactly
where chapter 23 left off andthat is in Eng Getti . And it
is a virtual mirror of chapter26 in between 24 and 26 is the
story of Neal . In all of thosestories, divine providence is
the major theme. God keepsDavid from shedding innocent
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blood. God is watching over.
David keeps him from doinganything that would jeopardize
his kingdom. We want to keepour eyes on God. God is the
hero of the story. Now inchapter 24, there is a ton of
talking. Almost all of theaction is in the first three or
four verses. Then there's justa lot of talking about what
just happened and what justhappened. Verse three is that
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Saul went into a cave to coverhis feet. That is the literal
Hebrew cover his feet. But thatis a euphemism for using the
restroom, going to thebathroom. And of course we have
a million euphemisms ourselves.
We understand about that. Gopotty, take care of your
business. On and on and on. Wehave all kinds of euphemisms.
(13:22):
Cover your feet. Saul is goingto go to the bathroom and the
ESV says he's going to relievehimself. I think the new king
James says attend to his needs.
I'm not sure why we aresqueamish about people in the
bathroom. People in in the OldTestament going to the
bathroom, people in the OldTestament, people in the New
Testament have to do whatpeople still have to do. And
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that is attend to their needs,cover their feet, go to the
restroom. So Saul goes into thecave and you can imagine David
and his man , they're in theback of the cave, they're in
the darkness. Saul's eyes, allbright sun and so forth. He
can't see that well in thecave. They see him silhouetted
against the mouth of the cave.
They know what's going on. Saulcomes into the cave. He would
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be by himself of course, need alittle privacy here and takes
off his royal robe and pitchesit aside. And now he's in a
really awkward position fromwhich he absolutely cannot ward
off any kind of attack. AndDavid's men say, this is it.
This is it. You need to killhim. God has given him into
your hands. Verse four. Maybethat's a good point to good
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place to make the point thatjust because people say it's
God's will doesn't mean it'sGod's will. David says it's not
God's will. Verse six, I can'tdo this. God put him here and I
can't take him out. Now there'sa great deal of speculation
about the robe and Davidcutting a piece of the robe off
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and it certainly does remind usof the torn cloak when Saul
grabs Samuel's cloak and ittore in his hand. But there's
no explicit connection madethere. And I'm not minded to
add anything to this and saythat symbolic of the kingdom
and he has the royal robe. No,I think, I think David just cut
a piece of the robe off becausein a minute he needs to prove I
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could have killed you. And thatis exactly what happens next.
In fact, the Psalms of thistime help us see that David is
very concerned about verse ninelistening. Saul, why do you
listen to the words of the menwho say David seeks your harm?
I pointed that out last weekthat really bothers David being
slandered and falsely accused.
(15:30):
He's concerned about that. Andso David shows himself to be
completely loyal. He addressesSaul as my Lord. Verse eight,
my father, he bows verse eight,David is not a rebel. He's not
inciting some kind ofresurrection, some kind of
resurrection, some sort ofinsurrection. How about that?
And he is not trying tooverthrow the crown by force.
(15:53):
Could have done it here, doesnot do it here. And so Saul
seems to evidence realrepentance in verse 20.
Unfortunately, his repentancewill not last very long at all.
So Saul goes home. Verse 22,David and his men go back to
the stronghold. They don'ttrust Saul, do they? And with
(16:15):
good reason. And that takes usto First Samuel chapter 25,
which we'll begin readingtomorrow. Our reading for
Wednesday is First Samuelchapter 24. It is Thursday and
today's reading is First Samuelchapter 25 verses one to 22 .
In today's reading, we meet oneof the most remarkable women in
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all of the Bible. Today'sreading introduces us to
Abigail. She is an incrediblewoman and God uses her in a
powerful way to help David. Andonce again, the spotlight will
be on God and what God is doingin his providence. But I think
especially we'll note somethings here about David's
character. David can listen andhe can even listen to a woman.
(16:58):
That story begins in verse onewhen we were told that Samuel
died. Oh , what a terribleplace. This leaves Israel in,
especially since the priest aredead, Samuel is the king maker.
He had established the kingdomand he had made prophecies
about it and help the people inso many ways. What this really
means is that Saul now has noone to help him. There isn't
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anyone with Saul who is capableof consulting God or helping
Saul in a spiritual sort ofway. And I do think the key
here in verse one is that thatis why David Rosen went down to
the wilderness of Payan that isvery far south down on the
Sinai Peninsula. And I thinkthat shows David's fear. Now
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that Samuel's gone, any kind ofrestraining influence is out of
the way. I need to get furtheraway from Saul. He will track
me down, nearly killed me, sayshe's repented, but but has he.
I'm outta here. I'm just outtahere. And while David is down
there, he ends up encounteringna ball , who is a very rich
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rancher. And yes, na ball'sname means fool. He reminds us
of Psalm 14, one, the fool hassaid in his heart, there he is
no God. And he is exactly whathis name implies because David
with his mighty band, theysurround and are everywhere
where na ball's flocks are inhis keepers of the herds and
the flocks and they don't stealor raid or kill or anything.
(18:28):
And then David sends some youngmen to say, Hey, we've been
really kind. How about we havea little feast? You'd be nice
to us and so forth. And navalverse 10 says, who is David?
Who is the son of Jesse? Thereare many servants these days
who are breaking away fromtheir mes . I don't know
anything about you. You're somerogue. You're probably just a
runaway slave. There is uttercontempt here by pretending
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he's never heard of David.
Remember people sing aboutDavid, everybody knows about
David. So naval is just stingyand he's mean. And he refuses
to be grateful to somebody whohas helped him. And the result
of that is that David is justbeside himself. Verse 13, every
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man strap on his sword, Davidstrapped on his sword. 400 men
went up after David and 200remained with the baggage. He
has his own private army andthis is not going to go well
for naval. But what verse 13does not say is David inquired
of the Lord. This is nothingbut rash, anger. He is
tempting, he is being temptedhere to be a Saul act rashly.
(19:36):
And without thought, somebodycrosses me, I'll just kill him.
David crosses Saul, or at leastSaul thinks so I'll just kill
David. David is acting likeSaul. And in the middle of
that, Abigail finds out and shesays, something's got to change
here. Somebody has to dosomething. Verses 14 to 17 and
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verse 18, Abigail says, it'sme. She made hasten took 200
loaves and two skins of wineand five sheep already prepared
and five seals of parts grainand a hundred clusters of
raisins. I love raisins. Theygo great on breakfast cereal,
200 cakes of figs, verse 18.
And she said, we're going tostop this. We're going to meet
David. And what's happeninghere is that this woman shows
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wisdom and that wisdom acts. Ithink a lot of people, a lot of
men would've just panicked anddone nothing. She has a plan.
She executes the plan. And herspeech that she will give to
David is a masterpiece of justoutstanding reasoning and
careful appeals to emotion. Wedon't get to have that speech
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today. We'll have to wait tillMonday for that because,
because our reading ends inverse 22. But we now turn to
the Psalms and we'll see aboutAbigail on Monday. Our reading
for Thursday, first Samuelchapter 25, verses one to 22.
It's Friday. It is Friday. Andwe've reached the end of the
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week. And on Fridays we readfrom the Psalms. So now we're
reading today in Psalm seven,the reading for Friday is the
seventh Psalm. This is alament, it is a cry for justice
from God. However, as onescholar noted, the Psalm moves
from being an intenselypersonal plea of a man that's
being hounded and betrayed tothe conviction that God is the
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judge of all the earth. Andthat wickedness is
self-defeating. It ends withconfidence and praise. So I
think there's some movement inthis psalm. I want to track
that as you think about how thepsalmist feels here, it begins
in the heading with a ian . Andthen there's a reference to the
words of kush. And you'rethinking, what's a Chaan and
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who's the kush ? And the answerto both of those is we don't
know. We do not know MAs scale, Shaan . Sala . There's some
musical terms. That's probablywhat they are that we do not
know for certain what theymean. Kush, we don't know who
he is, but Saul has a bunch ofBenjamin Mites , mites,
Benjamin Mites. He is from thetribe of Benjamin and he
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surrounds himself with somepeople from Benjamin. And later
in David's reign , during therebellion that Absalom brings
about and causes, there aresome benjamite who show up and
say, Hey David, you're ausurper. You don't even have
any right to the throne.
Anyway, so this is somebodywho's no friend to David. And
what the P song is about isthat David's conscience is
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clear. Notice the three ifs inverses three and four, David
says, I've not done wrong. Andthen he asked God to deal with
the wrongdoers. Please noticeit is okay to ask God to deal
with our enemies personalrevenge, not okay saying to
God, this is terrible. Thesepeople are terrible. They're
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opposed to you. They're hostileto your ways. Can you do
something about that? That'sall over the Psalms. And by the
way, it's in the New Testamentas well. I love verse nine. Oh
, let the evil of the wickedcome to an end. Lemme grab some
coffee here. Oh , let the evilof the wicked come to an end.
And may you establish therighteous you who test the
minds and hearts of righteousGod . What a great verse.
(23:14):
That's ingrained for me in myBible and it says, God, go get
'em. But then that little bitthere about testing the minds
and hearts just reminds us,reminds David, God knows what
I'm thinking. God knows whetherI'm an enemy. It's one thing to
say, get the bad guys overthere. It's another thing to
say, get the bad guys and testand see if I'm part of the bad
guys. What a powerful thing forhim to say here. So then in
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verse 17, the Psalm ends, oh ,I should have said something
about verses 14, 15 and 16. Sinjust doesn't work. It just
doesn't work. And that's whereDavid is on this. I'm not
gonna, per not going that way.
I'm not gonna do those things.
That's a fail. That's a fail.
Instead, I will give thanks tothe Lord. The thanks due to his
righteousness for 17, singpraise to the name of the Lord
(24:03):
the most high. That's a veryunusual title for God outside
the Psalms, but it is used inGenesis 1417. Go look that up
and see who's talking about theLord most high in Genesis
chapter 14. Love this lamentpsalm that moves to a Psalm of
trust. Psalm seven is thereading for Friday. Thank you
(24:26):
so much for listening to thepodcast this week. I certainly
enjoy reading the Bible withyou, and I hope the podcast is
helping you. You're tellingother people about it. You're
leaving us a rating and areview. Some more people will
find the podcast until Monday.
Then when we'll open our Biblestogether. I'm Mark Roberts and
I wanna go to heaven and I wantyou to come too . See you
(24:48):
Monday with a cup of coffee.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of
Christ Podcast. Monday morningCoffee with Mark. For more
information about Westside, youcan connect with us through our
website, just christians.comand our Facebook page, our
music is from upbeat.io. That'supbeat with two P'S
(25:16):
U-P-P-B-E-A-T, where creatorscan get free music. Please
share our podcast with othersand we look forward to seeing
you again with a cup of coffee.
Of course, on next Monday.
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