OT 21 King Saul and the Rise of David

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Hi, this is Brent Scowcroft. I am excited to announce that we have discovered additional university lectures on the Old Testament by W.

[00:00:08]Cleon Skousen, which we feared were lost. These 21 rediscovered lectures, given in 1973, consist of Dr. Skousen's second semester class at the university and will be published on this podcast channel each week over the coming months. These lectures cover the period from King Saul and David through the remainder of the Old Testament. For those interested in the text Dr. Skousen and his students are using, it is published as the 4000 years written by W. Cleon Skousen. This textbook is readily available for sale.

[00:00:42]However, for those interested in listening to the book, a new audio version is now available at audible.com.

[00:00:49]For those following the Come Follow Me curriculum from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, these new lectures will no longer follow the same order as in the Come Follow Me manual.

[00:01:01]Today's lecture is chapter one in the text and covers 1 Samuel chapters 16 through 17. Now, sit back and join us once again in the classroom of W. Cleon Skousen. Enjoy.

[00:01:14]Now, one thing that nearly always appears on the examinations is the source of the material that we'll be studying here at beginning of the 4000 years.

[00:01:25]Now, the story of David is spread across several books and these are the books of the Kings and I emphasized in the text the fact that there these books used to have different names. So, among the Jews, what's the first book of Kings?

[00:01:43]What do we call it?

[00:01:46]First book of Samuel. What's their second book of Kings?

[00:01:50]Second book of Samuel. What's their third book of Kings?

[00:01:54]Our first Kings.

[00:01:55]What's their fourth book of Kings?

[00:01:58]Our second book of Kings. What's their fifth book of Kings?

[00:02:03]First Chronicles. What's their sixth book of Kings?

[00:02:06]Second Chronicles. Actually, Kings and Chronicles parallel each other. They deal with the same period and the same people, but they have some differences and occasional contradiction as you would expect. Now, the thing that I ask you in the exam frequently is to list the first six books of Kings and uh compare them, that is identify them with our present Bible.

[00:02:29]The Jewish books of Kings. And that's what we've just done.

[00:02:33]Then I will ask you who wrote these books, scribes or prophets?

[00:02:39]Then you have a task. Which was it?

[00:02:43]Scribes. Will you remember that?

[00:02:45]These historical books are all by scribes. These are not the writings of prophets.

[00:02:50]It's just like my book Hidden Treasures from the Book of Mormon. The whole Book of Mormon is in that book, but it's all been rephrased and uh and additional material, archaeological and other words do it.

[00:03:02]Very little of it is actual Book of Mormon text. That's all the writing of a scribe, you see?

[00:03:08]And while the references are all from the original text, uh this is the writing of a student and a reporter, not the original prophet.

[00:03:18]Now, this is the way it is with these books. These men would keep summarizing and tying it down and pushing it in, trying to get a lot of material in a short space of of writing, and that's what we have. This is also true of the Book of Judges.

[00:03:32]Everything after the Book of Moses is the work of scribes until you actually get into the writings of the prophets themselves.

[00:03:39]And then they're original.

[00:03:42]So, we don't we don't get it all excited or hung up about the fact that we get a contradiction between Chronicles and Kings because you had two scribes and one of them either didn't transcribe accurately or he thought that he had some better material and used it.

[00:03:58]Now the Lord tells us in the fifth chapter of the Book of Jacob in the Book of Mormon that this Bible was very carefully prepared and perpetuated and protected through the centuries.

[00:04:10]So that you'll find it's about 98% pure.

[00:04:14]But there is a little here and there that has been dabbled with and we point those problems out as we go. By and large By and large Isaiah for example that we just dug up with the Dead Sea Scrolls written about 200 BC almost identical with the Book of Mormon version of 600 BC which is a century after it was originally written.

[00:04:34]So they've been pretty careful. And the Book of Mormon says if there were changes it's usually by taking it out.

[00:04:39]As a scribe says man I think somebody from the tribe of Joseph put that in.

[00:04:44]Okay.

[00:04:46]So um that that really is the way the book has been changed by taking things out. They wouldn't dare think of changing something that they consider the scripture. But they they might say well that's not scripture and and and take it out. And that's what the Book of Mormon says the problem has been. Okay, it was written These books were written by scribes and there were six books of Kings.

[00:05:06]Now our our story today actually begins about 1100 BC. That's the century that belonged to what two great men?

[00:05:16]1100 BC.

[00:05:18]Samuel [snorts] and Saul. Now 1100 BC was a a period nearly 300 years of apostasy that transpired. They had been indulging in fertility worship which are various kinds of sex orgies in which they would have sacramental fornication.

[00:05:34]They actually would worship sex symbols.

[00:05:36]Uh they they burned their children in sacrifices. It'd been a terrible period.

[00:05:42]They'd have done everything the heathens had done. And they came up on the other side without revelation and with very little inspiration.

[00:05:50]And so this is 1100 BC you see after this period of apostasy.

[00:05:55]And the old high priest is at Shiloh.

[00:05:58]And you go to the Holy Land on tour with this.

[00:06:02]It'll all be familiar with you to you.

[00:06:04]It's the Red Sea, the Suez Gulf, the Aqaba Gulf, and uh the Dead Sea here, Jordan River, Sea of Galilee.

[00:06:13]Shiloh is about right here.

[00:06:15]>> [clears throat] >> Now there's a there's a range of mountains here.

[00:06:20]Those of you who've been with me before, how how high are they?

[00:06:25]How high?

[00:06:28]3,000 ft above sea level? And the Dead Sea is how far below sea level?

[00:06:34]1,300 ft below sea level. So from 3,000 above to 1,300 ft below, you go down there in 16 mi of travel.

[00:06:40]That's a real drop into the lowest point on the crust of the earth.

[00:06:45]It's above sea level.

[00:06:46]And Shiloh is Jerusalem being right there today, uh which was nothing these days. It was just a heathen village.

[00:06:54]But Shiloh is just up there about uh oh I'd say 20 minutes out of here.

[00:07:00]And that's where the old tabernacle was.

[00:07:03]That's now uh nearly 450 years old.

[00:07:07]And the priest in charge is Eli.

[00:07:10]And Eli's never had any revelations, but he's got his thing to do and he does it.

[00:07:14]He ain't very regular about it and he goes about his business and he's just a professional cleric, you know. He goes about his business and and he sees this woman and he knows her. She's the the wife of one of the local citizens and uh she's over here chattering to herself.

[00:07:32]And so he goes over to her and says, "You really shouldn't come to worship when you're drunk."

[00:07:37]And she says, "Well, I'm not drunk.

[00:07:40]I'm praying."

[00:07:42]Oh, he says, "May the Lord grant it."

[00:07:44]So, uh he got out of that one real quick. What he didn't know was that she was praying for something that would ultimately replace Eli and his house.

[00:07:55]She was praying for a son. She was a second wife. The other wife has children. She has no children.

[00:08:01]So, she's praying to the Lord, and she makes him a promise, "You'll give me a son, I'll give him back to you. I'll dedicate him to the service of the tabernacle here." And goodness knows Eli needed somebody.

[00:08:11]And so, in due time, she did conceive.

[00:08:13]She did have a son. She called him Samuel as or Samuel.

[00:08:18]And when he was about 12 to 14, right in there somewhere, that was usually the period of dedication, why she brought him to the tabernacle and turned him over to Eli to do the work of a deacon.

[00:08:29]And he cleaned up around the tabernacle, did all the errands for Eli.

[00:08:33]Now, Eli had two sons that were reprobates.

[00:08:36]>> [snorts] >> And the Lord was very unhappy with him because he didn't exercise his patriarchal authority and straighten them out.

[00:08:42]And they would seduce young girls who had come to worship at the tabernacle.

[00:08:48]And uh the men who came to worship were got so angry at these two characters.

[00:08:54]And uh they did a little chiseling on the side in business transactions.

[00:08:59]>> [clears throat] >> They They were They were bad. Well, that was the situation when one night little Samuel got a call. And he run into Eli, as you remember our our children's Bible stories. And he said to Eli, "What would you like?"

[00:09:15]And Eli said, "Don't wake me up this way. Go back to bed. I didn't call you."

[00:09:19]"Thought you called me." Went back to bed, and heard the voice second time, rushed into Eli, "What do you want now?"

[00:09:25]Eli said, "I did not call you.

[00:09:28]Go back to bed."

[00:09:29]And then he says, "Wait a minute. If that voice calls again, say, 'Here am I.'"

[00:09:35]The old high priest knew that He's He's serving under the ironic priesthood, high priest in the ironic priesthood.

[00:09:42]So, anyway, the voice came the third time and Samuel said here am I.

[00:09:47]And that's when the Lord told him that Eli and his two sons were going to be replaced.

[00:09:56]And that the two sons would die in a day and and that the Lord was very unhappy with Samuel and and the or for with for with Eli for allowing these two sons to become reprobates.

[00:10:08]So, the next morning >> [clears throat] >> old Eli gets up and he says, "Did the voice call again?"

[00:10:14]Yes.

[00:10:15]What did it say?

[00:10:20]He's afraid to tell him.

[00:10:23]And so, when he refuses to say to tell him old Eli says "If you don't tell me, may the same curse be on you."

[00:10:33]Oh, all right. All right. All right.

[00:10:34]I'll talk. I'll talk. I'll talk. So, he told him all about it. And it was kind of interesting. Eli was very humble about it when it was all over.

[00:10:41]So, I deserve it.

[00:10:42]So be it.

[00:10:45]So be it.

[00:10:47]So, as time went on, the word went out that Samuel was in communication with God. That went all through Israel.

[00:10:53]And the reputation of young Samuel began to be established among the people. And it wasn't long after that that the Philistines uh met at Aphek.

[00:11:02]And Aphek is up uh about here. This town on the plains used to be called the plains of Sharon. For many centuries after Christ, they turned to swamp because the Nile River brings down millions of tons of silt, pushes it in the Mediterranean, the tide carries it up on the shore, builds big sand dunes of red silt, and the water coming down from the mountains couldn't get into the ocean. So, it trapped it, made swamps out of it. But the Israelite government and people getting in there and clearing it out. And now that's one of the richest belts of citrus and banana groves and so forth you run across.

[00:11:41]So, Aphek is right in the heart of the valley. And in those days it was very prosperous and profitable. And so, they made their attack on Israel. They came straight up into the mountains of Ephraim, which are all these mountains in here.

[00:11:53]And this is Gilboa at this end where Saul is going to be killed. But, these are the mountains of Ephraim. And in the first battle they killed 4,000 Israelites.

[00:12:05]Terrible.

[00:12:06]Big slaughter.

[00:12:07]So, they came running down to Shiloh.

[00:12:09]And they said to Eli, "God would never permit the ark of the covenant to be taken.

[00:12:14]So, will you send the ark of the covenant and your two sons, and our men will fight more valiantly and God will defend us and we'll come out all right."

[00:12:22]And so, Eli in desperation let them take the ark of the covenant. His two sons went along with it.

[00:12:28]And when the Philistines came up again, it was a the worst massacre they'd had.

[00:12:33]How many were killed?

[00:12:35]Remember that?

[00:12:37]About 30,000.

[00:12:39]A terrible devastation. And poor poor Eli was sitting up there on a high place, probably a wall or something.

[00:12:47]Says a high place and he was waiting for the news. And a man comes with dirt all over his face and everything. And he says, "We have lost. We have lost.

[00:12:54]Blood, slaughter, and the ark of the covenant's gone."

[00:12:58]"And my two sons are dead."

[00:13:01]And the old man just toppled, fainted dead away, and toppled off and broke his neck.

[00:13:06]He and his two sons died the same day.

[00:13:09]Now, as soon as the heathens down along here, they had about seven main cities along here, belonging to the Philistines, they started passing the ark of the covenant around. They put it in their temples and actually with their heathen gods. But, the next morning their heathen gods would be all smashed and broken down.

[00:13:26]And that got so they could they had to decide it was not a coincidence anymore.

[00:13:30]This thing was jinxed.

[00:13:32]And what was worse, everybody [snorts] any city that had the Ark of the Covenant got a disease.

[00:13:37]And so they pass it around without telling the other city, would you like the little Ark of the Covenant for a little while? And uh pretty soon enough of them had had the same thing happened to them, they decided to have a little conference and this thing was really a curse, so they better get rid of it. So they said, well, if this is not a coincidence but the hand of God, we'll prove it by having two young heifers pull a cart. We'll put the Ark of the Covenant on the cart.

[00:14:03]And if God guides them up the hill, the last place they'd be likely to go, and goes up Sorek Valley, up into those mountains, we'll know that definitely this is God and he's very displeased with us and that he is that he did cause the disease and all these problems.

[00:14:19]So they put the Ark of the Covenant on and sure enough, those young heifers went right on up into the into the Sorek Valley and they all said, oh, that that shows us. They had put They had decided that God may maybe involved in this and therefore they had put symbols of the affliction and little gold mice, which was part of their worship service, all in the Ark of the Covenant.

[00:14:42]And send it off. Well, when it got up into the among the Israelites, they were unsophisticated individuals and well, what do you know, the Ark of the Covenant is back after all and they got inside of it and which they shouldn't have done, they should have called the priesthood. They got to stirring around in there and they found the two tablets on which God had inscribed with his own hand the basic law including the Ten Commandments.

[00:15:05]But there was no rod of Aaron and there was no golden bowl containing mana.

[00:15:11]But there were little gold mice and emeralds, gold emeralds.

[00:15:16]They they suffered an affliction for having stirred around in that sacred artifact.

[00:15:21]So it finally ended up in the house of an individual.

[00:15:26]For some reason, Samuel never arranged to have the Ark of the Covenant brought back to Shiloh.

[00:15:32]Uh and it stayed there until the days of David in this private home.

[00:15:36]Famous Ark of the Covenant.

[00:15:38]Meanwhile, Samuel has become very prominent and has taken over the government of the people both as a high priest and prophet and sort of a a governor, chief judge.

[00:15:49]And the Philistines come storming up again and they get the socks whipped off of them. They come up again and once again, under Samuel, Israel always wins.

[00:15:59]So, they have great security now for a long period of time until Samuel becomes an old man. Then he has two sons and they become judges and are being prepared for the priesthood service and they curdle, turn sour, and become reprobates, too.

[00:16:15]And that discredits priesthood government.

[00:16:17]So, the people come and say, "Well, we wanted a king anyway, like the heathen nations. We we want a king."

[00:16:25]So, Samuel was broken-hearted. He just gotten the priesthood government going where it was a real good thing. He goes to the Lord and he says, "They they don't want me to govern anymore. They want a king." The Lord says, "Well, they're not really rejecting you.

[00:16:37]They're rejecting me.

[00:16:39]So, I'll give them a king. I'll give them the best that's available and they'll find out what it's like to have a king.

[00:16:44]So, you go back and warn them what it's going to be like and meanwhile, I'll tell you who to appoint."

[00:16:50]So, he did. He went back and he warned them and said, "God will raise up a king." All that's fine. That's fine. We want a king.

[00:16:56]Now, Samuel went on a trip to offer sacrifices. They would take circuits.

[00:17:02]These prophets would take circuits circuits and offer sacrifices in various towns all around territories. Bethlehem is just a little south of Jerusalem. It's Jerusalem is about there in the tops of the mountains. Bethlehem is 7 mi south right here.

[00:17:17]Hebron is 16 miles south.

[00:17:20]Bethlehem is not in a valley.

[00:17:23]Bethlehem's up on a mountain just like Jerusalem. Jerusalem's on Mount Moriah and Mount Zion. And Bethlehem's up on a mountain. And when you see a Bethlehem, you know, down in a valley that so many artists have depicted at Christmas time, that's just the opposite. The shepherds are down in the shepherds' fields at the lower part, lower slopes of this mountain.

[00:17:44]And Bethlehem's up on top.

[00:17:46]High hill.

[00:17:47]I notice the more modern pictures have it accurately.

[00:17:50]So, he went down to Bethlehem and went a little bit below and was getting ready to offer sacrifices. And the spirit of the Lord says, "You will ordain a man of the tribe of Benjamin now to be king."

[00:18:01]And so, there's a great big fellow named Saul.

[00:18:05]And he's wandering around looking for an animal which in the Bible is called an ass.

[00:18:10]>> [snorts] >> And it actually is a an an animal that's almost as big as a mule, not quite, but a very fleet-footed, handsome, strong animal.

[00:18:20]Which was the most popular beast of burden in ancient times. They would use it almost exclusively. It was much more valuable than a horse. The horse came The value of the horse came later with the Arabians.

[00:18:31]And these have been lost. They represented a fortune. And so, Saul had covered 25 square miles and finally he heard that the prophet was at this town just below Bethlehem. And so, he said, "My, I'd like to ask the prophet to to guide me where the animals are. But I don't have a gift for him."

[00:18:47]And the servant says, "Well, I happen to have a little." "Oh, good." Saul says, "Can I borrow it?" So, he borrowed from his servant and went to look for the prophet of the Lord. Comes into the community, sees some women. Do they know where the prophet of the Lord is? And of course, just so happened that Samuel was on his way and and going to make a sacrifice.

[00:19:04]And when Saul [snorts] Saul walked up to him, the spirit of the Lord whispered to Samuel, "This is he.

[00:19:14]This is he.

[00:19:16]Now, Samuel had an eye for a good man.

[00:19:18]You can see this later when he goes to the house of Jesse to appoint David.

[00:19:21]He's looking for a man looks like a king. Now, there's a man. He looked like a king. He's head and shoulders above anybody.

[00:19:27]Lord really knows how to pick them.

[00:19:30]So, he says to the to Saul, "Why don't you come with me to the sacrifice and come back and we'll have dinner together and we'll talk over the whole thing." So, Saul did with his servant. They came back, spent the afternoon and evening together, and then they got up early the next morning to go look for their animals again.

[00:19:45]And Samuel walked down the street. It's early in the morning. There's nobody around.

[00:19:50]And when nobody's looking, Samuel [snorts] uncorks his bottle full of oil.

[00:19:59]And the first thing Saul knows, why, Samuel's reaching up pouring a little oil on his head.

[00:20:06]So, Saul is all about and so forth and uh Samuel says, "Is not all Israel after thee? Thou art a prince of Israel." That was to let Saul know he's being anointed the new leader.

[00:20:19]Oh, this is pretty exciting. He's 40 years old and and just tremendous, you know, from the smallest tribe in all Israel, etc. >> [clears throat] >> So, he's pretty pretty complimented, etc. Now, Samuel says, "On the way home, you'll meet some men. They'll tell you your father's animals are found. When you get to Bethlehem, there'll be some men to meet you with some food. You go a little bit further, you'll find several of the brethren from the school of the prophets and they'll have the spirit of God on them and it'll come on you, too, and you'll have the spirit of prophecy.

[00:20:46]So, you'll know that all that I've done is by the power of God. Now, you go back to your home in Gibeah and await the time when you're to be anointed publicly." Well, Gibeah is within sight of Jerusalem. You can stand on Temple Square and practically see Gibeah. Not quite, but almost. Gibeah is in Benjamin. The the the line of Benjamin comes right there. This is Judah.

[00:21:07]Comes down through here and all that semi semi up to semi.

[00:21:11]So, he goes home to take care of his animals and so forth. So, he's been anointed king and he'll have his coronation in due time.

[00:21:19]And so, Samuel had the people meet at Shechem.

[00:21:22]Now, Shechem is up in the mountains of Ephraim and later became the capital of Ephraim or or excuse me, had been capital of Ephraim.

[00:21:31]So, that's where they had the big meeting for the purpose of anointing the new king.

[00:21:36]And uh Samuel knew everybody was all excited and anxious. Would it be the tribe of Ephraim? Naturally, we thought it would be. Uh the Jews thought it would all be tribe of Judah and that's where it all went. To their amazement, Samuel announces that it's the tribe of Benjamin.

[00:21:50]That poor woebegotten little tribe of people down there.

[00:21:54]And then he announces that the man who's been selected by God is none other than Saul. They don't know who Saul is. So, everybody's anxious to see Saul. Who's this man God has selected?

[00:22:05]And they all look around and no Saul.

[00:22:10]Of course, Samuel thought that Saul would have sense enough to come to his own coronation.

[00:22:15]So, he hadn't made a big deal about it.

[00:22:16]He announced to all the tribes are going to be a coronation and that was it.

[00:22:20]And so, Samuel does an interesting thing. He goes out by himself and to the Lord and says in effect, "Where's your man?"

[00:22:31]Oh all all through this, Samuel takes no responsibility for it all. The Lord's running things and he's not governor anymore and so, where's your man?

[00:22:41]I'm ready to anoint him.

[00:22:42]Got the crowd.

[00:22:44]And the Lord says he's hiding in the baggage.

[00:22:52]So, Samuel said, "Well, so be it. So be it." So, he goes back and says to his messenger, "He's over in the baggage.

[00:22:57]Bring him out. Bring him out." So, this great big blunderbuss, he comes out walking down the aisle. Everybody quite impressed with him. He's embarrassed.

[00:23:04]You can just tell that this humble stage of Saul's experience he was neither he was kingly in size and appearance, but it took time to bring out the his qualities of leadership.

[00:23:15]After he's anointed king, he's sent back down to Gibeah.

[00:23:19]And he doesn't get a palace.

[00:23:21]Doesn't get anything. He just goes back to hoeing turnips and taking care of the flocks, etc. Until one day a messenger came rushing up from the river Jericho.

[00:23:34]The river and Jericho. Let me just tell you about how this is.

[00:23:37]The river >> [snorts] >> Jordan runs into the Dead Sea right here. And up about 5 mi above the Dead Sea there is a ford, which is quite easy to cross.

[00:23:50]The old city of Jericho used to be right there between Jericho and the river was called Gilgal.

[00:23:56]And there were some of the Israelites living here and some of them over here.

[00:24:03]But the ones that were living over on this side had just been attacked by some of their distant heathen relatives who had beaten them in an overnight battle practice.

[00:24:11]And they said to all of the men of these Israelite tribes on that side of the river Jordan, "We are not going to kill you all.

[00:24:18]Uh what we're going to do is just put you into bondage. And you pay us an annual tribute. We'll put out your right eye, cut off your right arm so that you can't fight anymore. That's that's all we require."

[00:24:29]Is it a deal?

[00:24:31]And the Israelites said, "Well, wait a minute. Let's Let us talk about this for just a little while."

[00:24:37]And so what they did was to rush a messenger up to the new king and say, "This is our the proposition they've made us, which is no proposition at all."

[00:24:47]So [snorts] now Saul did an interesting thing. He He took an ox, as you remember, and cut it into 12 big hunks of meat and sent one hunk to each tribe and said, "Be it known that any man who doesn't report for military duty will have this done to all his oxen."

[00:25:09]It was a new kind of recruiting.

[00:25:12]And did they respond? You remember how many showed up?

[00:25:15]300,000.

[00:25:17]I mean, they they don't want their oxen cut in big chunks.

[00:25:23]So, they're all ready for what Well, you know what happened. You send 300,000 men down out of those mountains across that river and they caught the enemy while they were still in bed and so, they really took them apart. It was just great. Who's number one hero in Israel now? Naturally, it's the king.

[00:25:39]And during that moment of triumph, I Samuel thought it was an appropriate time to anoint him again and remind everybody now he's king and he's risen to his kingly stature. Now, you've got yourself a real man. God selected him. All is well. And he said to Saul, "Now, if you ever need me and if you get yourself a war don't start it. Don't get involved actively until we've prayed to God, made a sacrifice, and I get a revelation on how to fight it.

[00:26:04]That's the way you'll win.

[00:26:05]And God will tell me whether or not you are going to win and how to win it."

[00:26:10]So, Saul said that was fine. But, the next attack actually came from the Philistines.

[00:26:16]And Samuel wasn't immediately available and Saul's men all began to run away and go AWOL and one thing and another till he was left with his his guard. That's about all he had left, a few hundred men.

[00:26:28]And he's waiting at Gilgal and Samuel doesn't come and Samuel said, "I always can get there within a certain number of days." But, it was almost up and Saul was afraid he wouldn't come. So, he said, "Well, we got to get the sacrifice and the blessings of the Lord and I got to get in on with this war. I can't wait any longer."

[00:26:43]So, he went ahead and put the priest robes on and offered the sacrifice.

[00:26:48]After all, he's king.

[00:26:50]Then Samuel came.

[00:26:53]Oh, he said, "What did you do, Saul?"

[00:26:55]"Well, I got tired waiting. I just had a little sacrifice waiting for you to come.

[00:26:59]>> [clears throat] >> I had news of victory for you.

[00:27:02]And now it's lost.

[00:27:05]Now it's lost.

[00:27:07]So, Saul went out to fight. In fact, he was warned that he was rejected of God and that one of his neighbors would be made the new king. And from now on we have Saul almost terrified that who who's going to be the new king. Always he's trying to guard his throne. And he never could whip the Philistines again.

[00:27:26]They would come up against him. They'd put some of the cities under tribute.

[00:27:29]They they'd have guerrilla warfare attacks. And it was just one constant harassment from here on.

[00:27:35]I like to say harassment, but you English majors know that the harassment.

[00:27:39]So, in any event um uh but harass sounds better, doesn't it?

[00:27:43]I think so. In any event, from here on, he didn't he wasn't not very successful.

[00:27:49]And then the Lord gave instructions that the Amalekite should be wiped out. Now, every once in a while God becomes so disgusted with a tribe of people who take their little children and turn them into in towards sexual perversion, burn some of them to their false gods, Moloch for example, was a an iron god. They they made him of iron. And then the belly portion, the thoracic cavity section of the monument would be left hollow. And they'd build a terrific fire in there. And the the arms were hollow.

[00:28:21]And all that heat would go This this statue would get cherry red.

[00:28:25]And then they'd take their little babies and put them in those iron arms. They'd just be roasted to death.

[00:28:30]That was supposed to be just a great contribution to God. And and he just became so sick and tired of it, sending his choice spirits down to those kind of parents, that he ordered Saul to take these people and put them all back in spirit world. Wipe out the whole culture. Start over again.

[00:28:51]So, as a Saul went out to do it, but he didn't carry out orders as usual, and he let his men keep all the fat stock, thinking that they would maybe sacrifice some of them, and he kept the fat king as his own personal little souvenir.

[00:29:05]And so, he came back, and Samuel came to get the report, and he said, "What's all this bleating of calves and cows and sheep and and goats?"

[00:29:15]Oh, Saul said, "That's nothing. Some of the men just kept some of the best for for sacrifice." And you remember what Samuel said?

[00:29:23]To obey is better than sacrifice. That's worth remembering. To obey is better than sacrifice. And then Samuel said, "Now, where's that king?

[00:29:33]Bring the king in." Oh, so the king came in and there will not be death today.

[00:29:38]But he took one look at Samuel, and he knew there would be death today. And Samuel did the executing and sent this man back to the spirit world, and he made a comment at the time that this king would go out and expecting mothers would be just cut to pieces. This is the kind of man he was.

[00:29:53]He said, "You've made uh women childless, and you've made them You've taken them parents from their children, etc." He said, "Now, I'll send you back where where you belong." So, he cut him down.

[00:30:09]And then he said to Saul, "Now, you really are rejected." And Saul pleaded with him, "Give me another chance." And ripped his robe in the process.

[00:30:19]Samuel said, "That's just what's going to happen to you. That's a good omen.

[00:30:22]You're going to be ripped apart from your kingdom. One of your neighbors is going to be ordained be king replace you." And it wasn't very long after that that the Lord gave Samuel a revelation. He was very unhappy with Samuel.

[00:30:34]What was Samuel doing?

[00:30:36]He was mourning whom?

[00:30:38]Saul. He was such a He was such a kingly fellow.

[00:30:42]He was ideal for a king. I liked him.

[00:30:45]And now he's rejected. That's too bad.

[00:30:48]That's really too bad. That's just terrible. So he's all talking to himself all this way and the Lord decided he'd talk to him, too.

[00:30:54]So he says, "Stop mourning about Saul. I rejected him. Forget it. And get you on down to Bethlehem and I want you to go to the house of Jesse and you anoint a new king. I'll tell you who to anoint.

[00:31:04]You go down there and anoint a new king." Oh, Samuel said, "If I did that, what would happen?

[00:31:10]Ooh, Saul will kill me. Saul's got his spies out. He's looking for somebody who's going to try and be king and Samuel has to anoint him. So he probably is right on Samuel all the time. Where's Samuel going? Who's he having contacts with?" I said, "Samuel, he Saul have me killed."

[00:31:25]Well, the Lord says, "You can go down offer sacrifice or something, can't you?" "Oh, yes, yes," he said, "I can do that." So he went down and offered a sacrifice at Bethlehem and then on the side said to to Jesse, "Get your family together. We'll have a little talk."

[00:31:38]So the family had no idea. Just family home evening, you know. Just everybody get together. Nice to have the prophet call.

[00:31:44]So they all sit down there in the home and Samuel had a had an eye to picked out a king. So he's looking over Jesse's son and the oldest son was a fine, big, handsome specimen.

[00:31:56]And Samuel is saying to himself, "Now there is a man.

[00:32:00]A nice kingly fellow.

[00:32:02]The Lord knows how to pick them."

[00:32:05]And the spirit says, "That isn't he."

[00:32:09]Oh, okay. Where's the number two? Look at him. He's a nice looking fellow. Oh, so that's the one. No, that's not the one, either. Oh, no. So he went right down the list of how many sons? Six.

[00:32:19]Went through six sons. We have a little contradiction there. It's I will point it out in the text, but those are all six. These are all the adult sons. And then he says, "Is that all?"

[00:32:29]"Yes," he said, "that's all the sons I have. That is that are men.

[00:32:32]Got a boy out there herding sheep."

[00:32:36]Well, Samuel says, "Bring him in."

[00:32:38]So, they bring in this vestigial remnant, you see.

[00:32:41]And all that's left And Samuel did notice that he was a ruddy complexion, a real healthy teenager.

[00:32:49]Not too well developed yet, but has pos- possibilities. And so, he walks in.

[00:32:55]Happy to see the prophet, of course.

[00:32:58]Visits the family, and sits down, and the spirit says, "There he is."

[00:33:02]Samuel All right. Out comes the bottle.

[00:33:05]Uncorks it.

[00:33:07]And he goes over into the amazement of the whole family, he pours oil on his head, and anoints him king of Israel.

[00:33:13]It's fantastic.

[00:33:15]Saul is king.

[00:33:17]Because he's rejected the Lord. This boy.

[00:33:21]See what that did to that family?

[00:33:23]So, Samuel, he didn't go tell Saul that he just anointed David. He just went back up to Ramah. Corked up the bottle, went home. Lord told him to anoint him, he's anointed him. He's gone home.

[00:33:34]Lord wants to make him king?

[00:33:37]Up to the Lord.

[00:33:39]Samuel said all he's going to do.

[00:33:41]Not that he wouldn't have done more, but the Lord didn't tell him to do anymore, so.

[00:33:44]What the Lord did tell him to do, he did.

[00:33:47]He's going home. And he He did go home, stayed home.

[00:33:50]So, meanwhile, David grew up.

[00:33:53]How many of you have ever been sheep herders?

[00:33:56]Any sheep herders? Good, some by girls.

[00:33:58]Great.

[00:33:59]Okay. You know how lonely it is if you get up in the high Uintas, or out on the Wyoming plains, and you get out away with just a little Well, they're not They're not so bad now compared to what they used to be.

[00:34:11]But in any event, uh herding sheep's a pretty lonely life. But he didn't waste his time. He gained three skills while he was out there herding sheep.

[00:34:20]First of all, he could practice on what?

[00:34:22]See, no no family to object, you see.

[00:34:24]You can just plunk on your harp all you want to learn chords, and run up and down, and fool around, and so forth.

[00:34:31]We raised eight children, all musicians.

[00:34:33]I want to tell you that parents deserve a special reward for having lived uh during that period of their preparation. Now, he had another skill that went with the harp. What was that?

[00:34:46]Poet. Now, a poet in those days didn't have to rhyme, but rhythm was the thing.

[00:34:51]And the prophet Isaiah wrote his whole book in rhythm or poetry, [clears throat] the whole book. He was so skillful with words. Any idea he had in his mind, he could arrange it fast in his mind and it'd just pour out in rhythm.

[00:35:03]Poetry.

[00:35:05]So, he got very good at that, so he could tell stories and give historical accounts in rhythm. And he had one other skill that was real sharp. What was that?

[00:35:13]That sling.

[00:35:15]And I've I've watched some of those people that use that sling. It is amazing.

[00:35:19]That thing that those rocks come like 60.

[00:35:22]It's like like they come out of a gun.

[00:35:24]And they can they're deadly in their accuracy. They know just precisely [snorts] when to let go that one string and release that little pocket that's holding the rock. So, he'd gotten very good at that and he had plenty of chances to practice, of course.

[00:35:38]And so, we have him growing up to manhood and becoming a soldier. Now, the two stories in the in the Bible, and I've warned you about one of them.

[00:35:45]One of them is not in the most ancient texts >> [snorts] >> that describes David as a little boy fighting the giant.

[00:35:53]It's very heroic, only it couldn't be true because right after that he marries the king's daughter.

[00:35:59]So, the other text, which is the one that's in the oldest available sources, says that he he had been to war, he had proven himself, he's a full-grown man, probably around 20, 21, right in there, when Saul becomes very, very depressed and his servants say, "What you need is music and the lightening of the spirit."

[00:36:19]And he says, "Yes, I suppose so." And one of them says, "There is a man in Bethlehem.

[00:36:24]You'd like him. He's a man of valor.

[00:36:26]He's a man of valor. And so forth. He's a proven soldier.

[00:36:30]But he's a great poet and he plays the harp. All right. All right. Bring him.

[00:36:34]So here comes this message. The king wants David to report.

[00:36:40]And you can imagine what that did to Jesse.

[00:36:44]So you remember what he did? He sent all kinds of presents along. Goodwill goodwill gifts to the king.

[00:36:49]You heard about my boy?

[00:36:51]Been ordered anointed to take your place.

[00:36:54]So you can see there has been a lot of concern in that father's heart. But he got the good news back. How was David received?

[00:37:01]Saul thought he was tremendous. He promoted him from harp player to his immediate aide-de-camp right away. Made him his armor bearer.

[00:37:11]And it was that situation when you had Goliath appear on the scene. I just have time to tell you this one thing about Goliath.

[00:37:18]Well, you get as I say when we go to the holy land and we go up into these mountains. Here's what you'll find.

[00:37:23]Mountains are like this and they have these um these hills like this.

[00:37:30]And between the hills it's about a 500 ft drop and sometimes even deeper.

[00:37:35]So what would happen in ancient times?

[00:37:37]An army would come up Sorek Valley or Elah Valley as this one turned out to be. They'd get up on one of these.

[00:37:44]The other army would come in here and confront them here so they kind of look at each other over these. They have big talks. It's only about a quarter of a block away and between 500 ft deep.

[00:37:52]Sometimes long or deeper.

[00:37:55]And so they have these big talks and Goliath would talk across and both armies would go down in the valley and say, "Come on down into me and we'll have the the duel of the heroes."

[00:38:04]And of course if Goliath won, what happened to the Israelites?

[00:38:07]They were conquered and they'd have been conquered so they just accepted they're being conquered and it was supposed to be the reverse the other way.

[00:38:14]And that's when David came.

[00:38:16]He'd heard Goliath boasting. Who did Goliath really want to fight?

[00:38:21]Saul.

[00:38:22]And Saul wasn't about to risk it. And so that's when David says, "You know something?

[00:38:27]When I was out with the sheep, a lion came and God gave me the power I I ripped him to pieces.

[00:38:34]And then a bear came, I killed him with my bare hands.

[00:38:37]All of a sudden I had the strength, God gave it to me. You know what? I think I could take him.

[00:38:42]With the help of God, I think I could."

[00:38:44]And Saul said, "I think you could, too."

[00:38:46]So, we'll continue from there next time.