As a Man Thinketh — Part One

the following message by Alistair beg is made available by truth for life for more information visit us online at truth for I invite you to turn with me to first Samuel and chapter 18 and to follow along as I begin reading at verse 17 it's a real joy and delight to be together to welcome some who are our guests and to welcome many around the world who join us by way of our life stream and I know that those who are watching in Scotland will feel that revival has broken out where they're singing the Psalms unaccompanied and those in England are wondering really what's going on but anyway it's good it's good to be here think of all the places you might be if you weren't here right now and what a difference God's grace mates for Samuel 18 and verse 17 then Saul said to David here is my elder daughter Merritt I will give her to you for a wife only be valiant for me and fight the Lord's battles for so thought let not my hand be against him but let the hand of the Philistines be against him and David said to Saul Who am I and who are my relatives my father's clan in Israel that I should be son-in-law to the King but at the time when Mareb Saul's daughter should have been given to David she was given to Adriel the mahalo fight for a wife now seoul's daughter Michal loved David and they told Saul and the thing pleased him so thought let me give her to him that she may be a snare for him and at the hand of the Philistines may be against him therefore Saul said to David a second time he shall now be my son-in-law and so commanded his servants speak to David in private and say behold the King has delight in you and all his servants love you now then become the King's son-in-law and so servant spoke those words years of David and David says does it seem to you a little thing to become the King's son-in-law since I am a poor man and have no reputation and the servants of Saul told him thus and so did David speak then Saul said thus shall you say to David the King desires no bride-price except a hundred foreskins of the Philistines that he may be avenged of the Kings enemies now Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines and when his servants told David these words it please David well to be the Kings son-in-law before the time had expired David arose and went along with this man and killed two hundred of the Philistines and David brought their foreskins which were given in full number to the King that he might become the King's son-in-law and so gave him his daughter McHale for a wife but when so saw and knew that the Lord was with David and the McHale Saul's daughter loved him Saul was even more afraid of David so Saul was David's enemy continually then the commanders of the Philistines came out to battle and as often as they came out David had more success than all the servants of Saul so that his name was highly esteemed amen my gracious God we turn now to your word and to your voice we want to listen come by the Holy Spirit and open your word to us and open our lives to your truth for Jesus sake amen well when Monday comes around and I turn again to the Bible for the prospect of the following Sunday like you presumably at your work I pick up the next part of the challenge and say okay what what do we do now and as I read through the passage this week I found that almost immediately a phrase from the Old Testament which I remembered from a long time ago came to my mind and that phrase is as a man thinketh so is he as a man thinketh so is he now I wish I could tell you that I knew exactly where it came from but I didn't and so I had to spend time finding it and I tracked it down to the 23rd chapter of Proverbs and we're not going to delay on that context but it is there that you will find it and the context in which that statement is made is one of the expression of hospitality so a host is inviting people to eat at his table and the exhortation of Solomon is you are to be very very careful about being entertained by this individual eat not the bread of him who hath an evil eye now if you recall from last time the ninth verse of the 18th chapter tells us that from that point on Saul set his eye on David and the influence of course is that he was not looking at him with great affection and with benediction but rather as we saw he was looking at him with envy and with hostility and much of the same is included there in that section in Proverbs 23 and that the point is simple this man makes generous expressions of invitation but in actual fact he is pretending a generosity that he does not in essence he doesn't mean what he says now I think the reason that was in mind is because that is exactly what we find here in the second half of this eighteenth chapter there is an there is an obvious discrepancy between what Paul says and what Saul says and what Saul thinks now let me just point it out to you in case in the process we we miss this verse 17 a then Saul said to David 17 be for Saul thought okay that's all I want you to notice Saul said Saul thought and in going going down the page he then does it again in verse 20 or 21 Saul thought let me give her to him and then Saul said okay what he was thinking and what he was saying as a discrepancy you get to verse 25 then Saul said say this to David and 25 B now Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines I wonder have you wondered at what point along the way did Saul start telling lies started to tell lies to himself and inevitably he told lies to other people with that in mind I went back and reviewed all that we've gone through and it would be tedious to go back through it you can do it on your own but I can tell you where I began to wonder back in the tenth chapter in the context of the inquiry coming about where did you go and he replies I went to we went to see the donkeys and what did the man tell you The Enquirer asks and then at that point he tells him one of the things that was said but he doesn't tell him everything that is said in other words he tells the truth but he doesn't tell the whole truth when in chapter 13 Jonathan has led the people in a great victory the trumpet is sounded throughout the land and then it is reported that saul has won a great victory now whether he was the one who wanted that message put out or whether it simply was that he was so excited about it that he decided not to dissuade anybody of the fact there is at least a gap there and classically when we got to chapter 15 and the command of God for the destruction of the malachite was clear and unequivocal when Saul Samuel eventually confronts Seoul with that you will perhaps remember and you can find it down towards the end of 15 Saul says oh but I have obeyed the Lord I have obeyed the Lord and it wasn't me that did it it was the people that did it and by this point I think he is beginning to skirt on the fringes of integrity and you remember when we looked at that we reminded ourselves that partial obedience is still disobedience and Saul had a real problem with consistency some of you have a boss like this you never know where you are with a character you know whether it's his good day or it's his bad day and here in this or hers and in this case we saw in the opening of the chapter that in verse 2 Saul has invited David is invited into Saul's home in verse 13 he's thrown out of Saul's home in verse 10 he's playing the harp in verse 11 he's dodging the Spears the volatility of this individual and the inconsistency of his life is almost inevitably then borne out in his conduct and that's why verse 9 is so crucial Sall I David evilly from that day on he kept a jealous watch on him because he didn't share the admiration and affection that was swelling the whole community everybody loved David and song you why they loved him wasn't just because he was handsome wasn't just because he was good at bottle no because the Lord was with him and that said of course in juxtaposition soles on condition because remember the Spirit of the Lord had departed from soul and so from that point fear if you like becomes the hallmark of souls existence in David's case victory and popularity in Saul's case an ever-diminishing picture of a man once the big tall character who held such prospect for the people as he comes forward to fulfill the role of King and now look at him reduced to a shadow of himself and resolving to duplicity at the most basic level now it is with all of that in mind that you then come almost sort of out of the blue to the 17th verse then Saul said to David here is my elder daughter Mara I will give her to you for a wife now of course we need to read this in light of what we learned back in chapter 17 and remember we referred to it as the word on the street or the word on the Battlefront when David arrives there the people are saying to one another you know if anybody actually takes this Goliath on and defeats him the benefits R&R are marvelous you get to marry the king's daughter you get a big sum of money you get a cash payout and your family has sort of tax-free existence for the rest of their lives that was the thing that was being said whether they were reporting the actual promise of Saul we can't say but that was the inference and that was what was going on if Saul had actually made that promised then now here we come to verse 17 and he decides that he's going to fulfill it but you will notice that it is presented now not as a fulfillment of a promise but as a means to an end here is merit I wonder how he presented her did they really walk her in you know like down the staircase here is merit or was it was he did he have a hold of her hand and she was hidden somewhere behind the curtain and he was pulling her out he's saying here is merit because we have no indication of Meribah inclination doing this is an arranged marriage of the striking Heights but she's going to come if she comes with strings attached I will give her to you for a wife except I just have one thing only be valiant for me and fight the Lord's battles now in one hand this makes sense doesn't it I'm not gonna give my my daughter just to any Tom Dick or Harry and I want you to be show yourself for what you really are it's hard to imagine that though given a chapter xvii why would he have to do anything other than that he had taken down the great archenemy of the armies of Israel no you know what I think this is I think this is something that some of us are adept at too and here's what it is when we start to tell lies one of the ways that we try and gild the lily is by including sort of biblical and divine language we say things like this is gossip now so but we call it prayer now I'm very concerned that you will be prayerful about these things and then something that may not necessarily be true certainly isn't kind and definitely not necessary it's passed into the filtration system the community under the disguise of a concern for the kingdom now notice what he says here he says I want you to show yourself strong fight fight the Lord's battles remember the law you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who take his name in vain what he's suggesting here inferentially is that his mind and his heart are actually set on the defence and the advance of the kingdom of God and so under the disguise of piety he seeks to advance his own evil agenda rap the dirty business up in a concern that is ostensibly for the vastness and the greatness of God this is beyond crafty this is actually cruel because he is prepared to use his daughter actually his daughters as will see to fulfill his own selfish ends you say well how do you get that well you get it from reading your Bible this is what he said here's my daughter I'll give it to you as a wife you advance the kingdom of God and we'll take it from there but or for as the conjunction in the ESV for soul thought let not my hand be against him against David but let I handle the Philistines be against it in other words I'm not going to be involved in this thing no no no no I am classically the Philistines who are the archenemies of the people of God who have terrorized the people of God who have been vanquished by the anointed of God namely in David Saul now in his twisted mind is prepared to use the enemies of God in order to bring about the destruction of the anointed of God you see what happens when jealousy grips when jealousy takes old goodness you just need to read your newspaper every day and you'll see evidence of this again and again and it is it's it's easy to see our own sins in other people at least I find it so and so you see it here his words said were planning a celebration his heart was thinking in terms of elimination twist it I'll leave it up to my enemies to do the dirty work my hands are clean it'll be the Philistines that take him out but the plot feels the plot fails he was suggesting a wedding while hoping for a funeral and we discover here that David did not claim the prize verse 18 and 19 are quite difficult in this respect that it's hard to tell just what it was that loud soul to go ahead and give Mareb to a drill was it was it sufficient was David sufficiently able to in his honesty and in his humility convinced Saul and whoever else was involved in the process that he surely did not deserve to be put in that place makes you wonder again about the word on the street back in chapter 17 doesn't it was it simply his reluctance that that shut the thing down or was it that Saul reneged for some other reason or was it that merit had a say in the matter maybe merit had already hopes of life with Adriel huh and so her so her father says all right you're gonna marry David she said no I'm not dangerous but possible we don't know exactly all we know is this that his dirty little plan failed thus providing Seoul with an amazing opportunity the opportunity to repent of his cruelty to turn his back on his jealous heart to acknowledge that he needs the very presence of God that marks David in other words his life is like at the journey to Florida down that road that takes you through the Carolinas now he is hurtling down the way I'll get rid of him get rid of him get rid of him and his brakes go out and there is one of those ramps that go up the side of the road in the Carolinas with the opportunity to scoot your big truck raid up there and in that moment of failure to find safety and the opportunity to begin again you see many of us regard things that have come into our lives as failures as as some you know condemnation or something to be avoided don't miss the hand of God when your plots good or bad come to an end don't miss it in your marital relationships when in days of difficulty and sadness and disappointment and failure emerge you miss the chance to see that God is at work in the dark shadows as well as in the light it made me think this morning and I back in my mind again the the the the book by Walt Wang van Rijn the Lutheran you know it because I've caught it to you in the past the Ragman and other cries of that is the story of that's the title of the book but he has a number of short stories in there and one of his stories is of the husband and wife who regularly argue with one another they live in an apartment and and the routine of the man is when he gets annoyed with his wife and when an argument ensues he simply goes out of the apartment slams the door and goes and walks around the community for a while until he's reduced to the level of his annoyance and then he returns and as the story unfolds one of these arguments happens in the man grabs his coat because he's looked out the window is bucketing ray and he grabs his coat and he goes out the door and he slams the door and as he goes to believe he realized he slammed his coat in the door and so now he's got a real problem either he leaves his coat lying in the hallway and goes out and gets a thorough soaking or he has to ring the bell but if he rings the bell then she's gonna be opening the door he rings the bell she opens the door she's doubled over laughing and he says in the book he says and in that moment there was the opportunity for repentance for forgiveness for reconciliation but like a fool I grabbed my coat and slammed the door and walked out into the rain Saul here in his first dirty little plan has the opportunity to switch but he doubles down look what he does merab at the time when he should have been given to David she should have been given to David she was given to a drill okay the Mahalo site who are you I'm a drill them hollowfied mmm never heard of you thank you all right but now there's this now there's a sec actually the children of this of this couple and disastrously but that's in the second Samuel so you don't need to worry about it for at least a hundred for at least a hundred years this the second attempt comes now in verse 20 it so happened it so happened things happened only people fall in love it so happened you say it doesn't say that no but that's what happened it so happened now Saul's daughter me me Cal loved David see the Felix tell me the Bible is boring how could this possibly be boring this is fantastic stuff have you have you seen little woman the movie yet I got dragged there the other evening and and I had no clue what was going on because I've never read the book I hope you're encouraged by the fact that I have it but but I can't because I didn't know existed flashbacks in the movie in a 1 minute the lady had cut her hair and then next minute a hair was long again I said what the world how switch what's her hair doing what do they do be quiet we're watching the movie ok ok ok but anyway I got my feminine side came out dramatically before the thing was finished and so when I read this now I I find myself viewing this in kind of little woman terms because the sisters would talk samara presumably said to Macau I'll tell you what dad's got this thing about I'm supposed to marry David I don't want to marry David the cow says what I would like to marry him there's well you can go ahead Mary there because I don't want anyway that's the kind of thing that's happening and so here we have it the princess falls for the hero it's all across the news the princess has fallen for the victor in the Valley of Elah there's going to be a royal wedding some goes so quickly then Saul's daughter Michal loved David and they told Saul and the thing pleased him I I have a hard time with that I hope you do too when I really really like this and the thing pleased him right because it didn't please him like please them know it it's it's it's horrible I mean it is horrible you see getting pleased about the wrong thing it's not good actually David was pleased about this and Saul was pleased about this but they were both pleased for two very different reasons it's not just a question of are you pleased no because remember as a man thinketh so is he you've got to save yourself well why was he pleased about it what was he thinking now we know what after is now conjecture you're told in verse 21 so thought AHA let me give her to him that she may be a snare for him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him I can make this work for me he says because he's only concerned about his own damaged reputation all he cares about is he has to get rid somehow of this shepherd there's Bethlehem boy everywhere he goes in the community that pictures of them are everywhere he can't turn around but people are going have you heard about David you know about David so he says I'll I'll give her to him now I spend a fair amount of my life over the last 40 years asking the question that I have had and serve myself on two occasions that would be a good party question incidentally what is that question that Alistair has spent a long time asking and has only answered twice himself in his entire life the bright among you have already got it that reduces the number considerably incidentally but who gives this woman to be married to this man there's the question no father worth the salt is able with alacrity to simply say you know like I do now it comes out all kinds of ways I watch them sometimes it squeaks out you know come on try your best if you're not gonna be able to do it get your wife up here she'll take care of it well you get the point we don't need to we don't need to but there's not a man presumably who gave his daughter away with the thought that she may just simply be a snare to her husband what he's doing here is setting mchale up for a deep sadness he's got and he's got no thought of her happiness he's actually going to create this situation whereby her husband will be taken down in the plan that he has and so her love for him apparently doesn't really matter to Saul at all as a man thinks so is he this is a kind of reckless selfishness and yet you will notice that it continues to operate under an ever-diminishing and ever thinning veneer of civility so let me give her to him that she may be a snare for him and at the hand of the Philistines may be against him that's what he thought now this is what he said he said to David a second time you shall now be my son-in-law it's interesting in the first instance I will give her to you that didn't work he's a little more directive now guess what you're about to become my son-in-law but I can't imagine that creepy Saul I was just doing it in that way I imagine the conversation that goes something like this so they meet together in the in a cafe somewhere as per the plan and so Saul says David thank you very much for agreeing to get together today you're certainly a popular fella and it's hard to find anyone who's getting anything bad to say about you at all everybody seems to love you I know Jonathan does and actually I'm glad about that I'm glad that you and Jonathan have become good friends Jonathan needs a good friend and you clearly are a friend to him and it's nice that you've been spending time together he he regards you as virtually a kindred spirit and and of course now Macau yeah Macau she's she's head over heels for you and maribor's you know she's happily married she's off with Adriel now and so the pathway is clear you shall be my son-in-law now there is nothing to suggest in this you see that David is aware of any evil intention on the part of Saul I don't think I don't imagine David as sitting in that conversation and humming to himself you can't hide your evil eyes and your smile is a thin disguise I don't think so I didn't David as a sweet fellow well you see what wait a minute I mean do you not think he figured out that Saul didn't really like him when he's throwing spears at him when he's trying to do the musical therapy no I don't think so I perhaps you know you can debate it over coffee yeah I think David said you know everybody has a bad day everybody has a bad day I mean I played the heart for him many times and he was perfectly fine I don't know what happened to him it and further moral goodness graces he couldn't hit a barn door at 3 feet for that thing it wasn't even an issue to me it doesn't matter so he's gonna come and take this at face value you shall now be my son-in-law and then notice what he does this is really skillful stuff notice what he does and so commanded his servants incidentally you can debate this one as well do you believe the servants are complicit in this or they are not complicit in this I don't believe they're complicit in it it's not germane to the issue ultimately but it does affect the unfolding drama he spoke to the servants and he said them I want you to deliver a message to David go to David and tell him the king really delights in you all of the servants love you we love you and we're here to say to you it's now time for you to become the King's son-in-law and soso servant spoke those words in the ears of David now it's it's an interesting angle isn't it come back to this later because actually our time is gone but but isn't this another thing and like if you got a message you want to convey to somebody that you can't convey with sincerity then what you need to do is you need to make somebody your spokesperson see if if Saul were to say to Dave's now said David you become my son-in-law if he said because I really delight in you David you know and I had this and I that it would come out really bad because as a man thinks so is he now every 14-year old schoolboy knows this game don't lie straight to your mother's face have your friends do it let them do it convince them you don't have to tell them that you're lying you just tell them the story let them go and see it because if you try and say it your mother knows you inside out she'll uncover you she knows you that's what he's doing here he uses these fellows in order to do this and of course the rest of the story follows this is evil isn't it this is evil on his part and what is actually happening here if you take now the the camera away way back way bite from force a no include Genesis include Genesis chapter 3 include our little study in there what was happening what was the promise what would unfold the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent that the animosity that would then unfold would be an animosity that deepened as time went by so that it was the kingdom of God versus the kingdom of the world and what you actually have here whether Saul would ever have grasped the vastness of it no what you have here is essentially kingdoms in conflict and that is that Saul now is seeking to bring to an end the line of God's appointed plan whereby one day great David's greater son will sit upon his royal throne read the genealogy of the beginning of Matthew that's what's going on and yet as in the story of Joseph the things that Saul plans for evil God uses for good so much so that if we had occasion to be able to bring David back to us we say well tell us about that how did you make it through they said well you know I once wrote a song about it I wrote a song about how he took me from a miry pit and set my feet upon a rock and he guarded my way and he watched over me and they said to us but you've got a song like that you've got a song like that it's about you know you could you you could never hold on to him but he can hold on to you I said that's good David that's what we'll use as our closing song and we will and for those of you who come back tonight there will be the rest of the story let us pray together God our Father we thank you that you are the God who works all things according to the purpose of your will the cruel and evil intentions of soil in all of his envy and hostility actually served to set forward your plan and purpose so we pray that we might in reflecting on this study realize how desperately we need to trust in you and to rest in you to bring our failures to you perhaps some of us in a peculiar way today this rings in a way that I neither I nor anyone else could put the pieces of the puzzle together but that or that a whole idea of coming to a point but it seems as though it is collapse and yet received in the right way it leads us on as it were to glory to forgiveness to wholeness Lord fulfill your purposes we pray and that each of us might cast ourselves entirely upon you in the way that our children say I'm scared and we say don't worry I've got you Lord granddad that may be the testimony of all for your son's sake this message was brought to you from truth for life where the learning is for living to learn more about truth for life with Alistair beg visit us online at truthfortheworld.org

Channel: Alistair Begg

Views: 34,128

Rating: 4.8608694 out of 5

Keywords: Truth For Life, Alistair Begg, King David, Biblical Figures, Jealousy, Pride, Providence of God, Sovereignty of God

Id: 5kMEx6FhffM

Length: 39min 38sec (2378 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 14 2020