88 – David Earns a Wife
1 Samuel 18:1-30
After the death of Goliath, Saul’s son, Jonathan, became a close friend to David. The love between these two men was great. Jonathan gave David everything he needed to fight on the battlefield, and also what he needed for working in the king’s court.
David was successful as a commander in the army. All the people admired him, and his men became loyal to him. One day when Saul and his army came in from battle, the women from the various cities greeted them with dancing and singing. Their song was, “Saul has killed thousands. David has killed tens of thousands.”
This made Saul furious! He said, “Listen to them. They give him more credit than me. What will they do next? Give him the kingdom?” From that day on, Saul became more and more jealous of David.
The next day, God allowed an evil spirit to take control of Saul. He started to act crazy. It was still David’s job to go play his harp when the king was in one of these moods. As David played, Saul said to himself, “I’ll end this right now. I’ll pin him to the wall.” When the time was just right, he grabbed a spear and threw it at David. David dodged it just in time, and kept playing the harp. Saul waited, and once again when the time was just right, he grabbed another spear and threw it at David. Again David dodged it just in time.
With that, Saul realized that the Spirit of the Lord had left him and was now with David. The king’s anger turned to fear.
He put David in charge of 1,000 soldiers and sent him out to battle. David was successful in every campaign he led. This increased the love that the people had for him, but it made Saul even more afraid of him.
One of the king’s daughters, named Michal, loved David. When Saul found out about this, he got an idea. He thought of a plan where the Philistines would kill David. The king had his servants go to David and say, “The king likes you so much that he’s willing for you to become his son-in-law.”
When David heard this, he said, “I am not a rich man. I can’t offer the king anything for his daughter.”
“Oh, the king doesn’t want you to pay him money. All he wants is for you to get revenge on his enemies. He wants you to kill 100 Philistines, and bring back proof that they’re dead.”
David was pleased by these terms. So he and his men went out and killed 200 Philistines and took Saul proof that they were dead. Saul had no choice but to give his daughter Michal to David.
Even more now, Saul considered David to be his enemy. Still, the Lord gave David victory every time he went out to battle. He was more successful than all of the other military officers and his name became more and more famous.
