Day 23 ~ David and Saul play tug-of-war

I forgot to send out my email encouragements today. I thought about it several times, but I have no short-term memory.

• 21:7 An Edomite is a servant in Saul's kingdom.
• Chapter 22 - David jumped from the pan into the fire - from Saul to a foreign king of Gath; but that king recognized him and David fakes insanity
• Saul's stronghold is so great tht no one can protect David's family in Israel. So David sends them out of the kingdom. Reminds me of Jesus going to Egypt to escape Herod.
• 22:6 Tamarisk tree - I'm not going to go there!
• 23:6 - why is it important to comment that the one priests son who escaped the massacre had an ephod. Did the ephod contain urim & thummin or was that reserved only for the ephod of the high priest? Was this ephod an oracle for inquiring of God?
• Chapter 24 - When Saul went into the cave to "attend to his needs" (24:3) did he cover it up as instructed in Deuteronomy 23:13?
• Saul knows his fate is sealed when David does not kill him, and David agrees not to cut off Saul's descendants when he takes power.
• Chapter 25 - Samuel dies. No big fanfare.
• Abigail appeals to David not to kill the men in Nabal's household simply because of Nabal's ungrateful behavior. David spares them. Abigail returns to the house to tell Nabal what has occurred, but he is drunk. Note that she doesn't try to tell him something important until he sobers up. Ten days later Nabal was dead - the Lord took his revenge. David proposes to Abigail and she becomes his wife. And he takes on a spare, Ahinoam. Apparently his original wife Michal had been repossessed by her father and assigned to someone else.
• Chapter 26 - David's band of armed men has doubled in size. David had learned through Nabal's example that if he is patient, God will take care of his enemies. The Lord had caused a deep sleep to fall on Saul and those sleeping around him. This seems like a test for David to see if he would take advantage and kill Saul, or if he would be patient.
• Chapter 27 - David sees right through Saul's lies and knows that Saul will be hotter to kill him than ever. He goes back to the king of Gath and hides out from Saul. David would attack other foreign nations and kill all, then bring back he spoil and let the king of Gath believe he was attacking Israel.
• Chapter 28 - The king of Gath thinks that he basically has David cornered by the Israelites hatred and that he has no where to go but to remain and serve him.
• Now that Samuel is gone, Saul has no way to be in contact with God. He tries the Urim and it doesn't work. Saul had kicked out all the mediums when Samuel was still around, but now he wants one to a medium to conjur up Samuel so he can get the answer he seeks. See how removed he is from communicating with God? Surprisingly, the medium successfully contact Samuel who predicts the defeat of the Israelites to the Philistines (king of Gath) and Saul's death the next day.
• Chapter 30 - while David is preparing for battle with the Philistines against Saul and the Israelites, the lords of the troops are concerned that David will defect back to the Israelites, so the king of Gath sends he and his troops back to their Philistine city. When they return, their city has been attacked by the Amalekites, and David's wives have been taken captive. They probably recovered some of the stuff David had taken from them. Apparently you can communicate to God through the ephod, because that's what David does.
• This is like the third time in 1 Samuel that they talk about men at war not eating and getting too tired. David and the Amalekites play tug-o-war again and David, with God's blessing, wins. He sets a precedent of sharing the spoils evenly. I wonder if David got his wives back.
• Chapter 31 - Saul commits hari-kari when he is mortally wounded by the Philistines. Jonathan dies too. I'm sure David will be upset. The Philistines desecrate Saul's body, but it is recovered and they mourn him. Israel is without a king.

I Samuel complete. 9 books down, 57 to go. Man, this seems like a long reading tonight!

• II Samuel 1:10 - why would this guy lie about killing Saul? And was he an Israelite or an Amalekite? Doesn't matter, even in Saul's death, David is respectful of his position as anointed king, and he has the Amalekite killed.
• Hey, the Book of Jasher again. If it gets mentioned one more time, I'll go on off the path and track it down. (1:18)
• 2:2 - yes, he got his wives back.
• David is anointed king of Judah in Hebron. Was Saul only the king of Judah, or of all Israel?Apparently Abner (Saul's right hand man) appoints Saul's son king over the rest of Israel, and only Judah goes with David. The kingdom is split.
• David has picked up a few more wives in 3:2-5, and it seems he splits his time evenly between them. Ahinoam, Abigail, Maacah, Talmai, Haggith, Abital, Eglah. Each of them bore him a son.
• Why does power hungry Abner, who has Saul's son the king scared of him, want to make a pact with David, and transfer power. This smells fishy.
• David wants, and gets, his original wife Michal back.
• Joab sees through Abner's plot to spy on David. He kills Abner in revenge for his brothers death. David makes it clear that he is not responsible for this act - a good political act for one who will be taking over the kingdom that previously was run by Abner with Saul's son as the puppet king.