Saul's first order of business as Israel's new king is to defeat the Ammonites, who have threatened the people of Jabesh-gilead. And there was much rejoicing.
Samuel gives a farewell address to Israel, as he is growing quite old. He reminds them of their history and warns them that if they turn from God, they will suffer, but if they obey, all will be well. He anounces that God will send thunder & rain to further convey the seriousness of this message, and God does.
Saul begins mustering up troops to go against the Phillistines. All the people of Israel were very afraid. At one point, Saul is waiting for Samuel to arrive in order to offer some burnt sacrifices to the Lord before battle. Samuel doesn't arrive in the 7 days agreed upon, and so Saul, thinking he needs to speed things up somehow, offers the sacrifices alone. Samuel shows up and condemns the unlawful sacrifice, and tells Saul that God will put an end to his reign and seek a man who is after His heart.
Jonathan, Saul's son, and Jonathan's armor-bearer secretly decide to take a stab at attacking the Phillistines. They decide that based upon what the Phillistines say to them, they will know whether or not God has delivered them into their hands. This test proves that God is giving them into their hands, so the two of them kill 20 men on their own. The earth quakes, and the Phillistines go into a mad panic and begin to flee. Saul and his army follow them. Saul demands that nobody eats until he is avenged on his enemies, lest he be cursed. Jonathan, having not heard the order, takes some honey off the ground and eats it. His eyes then "become bright", because he is under his father's curse. (I assume that he gets better, because they don't mention his eyes again after this....)
So Saul continues to acheive military victory fighting against Israel's enemies. They kill, they plunder, they claim land.
We have already seen that Saul, though he is experiencing some sucess, happens to have some weakness in his personal character. Chapter 15 stood out to me as an unfortunate turning point for Saul. God orders Saul to exterminate the Amalekites. Kill/destroy everything and everyone- man, woman, child, animals. Saul musters his army and they capture King Agag, keep him alive, and keep the best of the cattle, and everything that was good, while destroying everything that was "worthless." In other words, they partially obeyed God's command.
God tells Samuel that He regrets making Saul king, as Saul has disobeyed His commandments. Samuel is deeply grieved over this, and harshly confronts Saul, telling him that rebellion is as the sin of divination (witchcraft), and God has rejected him. Saul admits to his sin and asks Samuel to come with him to worship the Lord, but Samuel refuses. Then.... Samuel orders king Agag to be brought before him, and Samuel "hacked Agag to pieces."
God sends Samuel to Jesse's house, telling him that He has chosen a new king for Israel from Jesse's sons. They all offer a sacrifice together. Samuel notices Jesse's son Eliab, and assumes this is the king - but God tells Samuel not to judge on looks/stature, because the Lord looks at the heart. Fact is, none of the sons present are the chosen son. Samuel asks if there's another, and Jesse sends for David, the youngest, who is tending the sheep. Samuel anoints David, and the Spirit of the Lord fills David.
Saul becomes filled with a harmful spirit. One of his servants suggests bringing in a musician who plays the lyre to help, and recalls a certain son of Jesse who can play. In short order, David arrives and is playing the lyre to soothe Saul. And at first, Saul loved David, and ordered Jesse to allow David to stay with him and so he did.
Israel prepares to fight the Phillistines again. This time, a great Phillistine warrior named Goliath challenges Israel to send it's best man to fight against him. He was very, very tall. There is evidently some argument about his exact height across different translations of the Bible, but he is evidently somewhere between 7 and 10 feet tall. At any rate, he suggests that if he wins the battle, Israel shall become servants of the Phillistines, but if Israel is victorious, the Phillistines will become their servants. Israel's army was frightened, and no one wanted to go up against him. Goliath waited forty days for an opponent. David was bringing some food to his brothers and caught wind of the situation. So great was his faith in God's protection, he had no fear of going against Goliath. His brothers scoff at him, and Saul has no faith in him, but David tells Saul that he fought off bears & lions who attacked his father's sheep, and God will protect him against Goliath. Saul puts his armor on David, but it's too heavy and David isn't used to moving around in it, so he takes it off. So he takes his staff and five smooth stones and his sling, and he's good to go. Goliath says, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?", obviously jesting over the fact that a seemingly helpless youth has come to fight him. David announced that he has come in the name of the God of Israel, and that he will defeat Goliath, and cut off his head, and the people will fear Israel's God. Goliath charges toward him. David puts a stone in the sling, slings it at Goliath. It goes straight into his forehead, and Goliath falls dead. David takes Goliath's sword and cuts his head off. The Phillistines flee, and Israel pursues them.
Saul, having obviously forgotten who David was (his servant had already told him, over the whole lyre situation), asks Abner, the army commander. Abner doesn't know, and brings David before Saul. David explains that he is Jesse's son.
And as soon as he finished speaking with Saul, "the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David." In teen speak, they are BFFs. Jonathan gives David his armor and his sword and bow and belt. Israel begins singing in the streets that Saul killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands, and this angers Saul. From then on, Saul feared and despised David, but Israel loved David.
Saul offers David his oldest daughter for marraige in exchange for promising to be valient in war. The oldest daughter somehow winds up being given to someone else. A younger daughter, Michal, loves David, and so Saul offers her to him in exchange for a hundred Phillistine foreskins. So David and his men went out and killed two hundred Phillistines, rather than one, and brought their foreskins to Saul. I guess he really went above and beyond..... So, he takes Michal in marraige. They're quite happy together, and it irritates Saul.
In my imagination, I can just see Saul stomping around, robes flapping in the breeze, "Sure, David is so great and such a fierce warrior. David this, David that.... "
So Saul tells his buddies (including his son, Jonathan) that they are going to kill David. Naturally, this doesn't sit well with Jonathan, and so he warns David. David hides, and Jonathan intercedes on David's behalf, and Saul swears not to kill David.
War commences again, and again David is victorious over the Phillistines. Later, David plays the lyre for Saul, and Saul attempts to kill him with a spear, but David evades him. David's wife helps him escape through a window, and stuffs the bed and puts hair at the top so that it looks like David is there, sleeping. David goes and reports what's happened to Samuel, and the two flee together to Naioth. Saul gets tipped off and sends messengers there, but they become filled with the Spirit and come back prophecying. He sends a second group, and the same thing happens. Then Saul himself goes, and the same thing happens to him. David flees again and comes to Jonathan and basically says, "What have I done wrong? Why does your father seek to kill me?" and Jonathan's all, " No, no, no, he would have told me if he was still going to try to kill you. Don't worry." But David insists it's true. So Jonathan and David devise a plot of protection. So later on, when David is missing from a feast, and Saul asks where's at, Jonathan tells him that David has gone to offer sacrifice. (in fact, David is hiding). The king becomes angry and accuses Jonathan of being....a little MORE than friends with David. Now Jonathan perceives that David is correct about his father. So he goes toward the stony area where David is hiding, and shoots arrows in a way that signals to David that he was correct and must flee for his safety.
David flees to Nob, and comes to the priest, Ahimelech, and asks him for bread. The only available bread is holy bread, so it is given to David. One of Saul's men, Doeg, is nearby and sees this. David asks for a sword, but the only available sword is Goliath's sword, and so David takes it. David flees again, this time to Gath, but is frightened there, and so pretends to be mentally insane to protect himself from harm. (it states that he made markings on doors and purposely drooled on himself). He flees again, to Mizpeh in Moab, and asks Moab to keep his parents and watch over them. A prophet tells him to flee again, and so he does, to the forest of Hereth.
Saul, sitting under a tamarisk tree in Gibeah, is confronting his men about David's whereabouts, and Doeg tips him off that he saw David in Nob with Ahimelech the priest. Saul confronts Ahimelech and has him killed. That wasn't enough to calm Saul's anger, however, and has Doeg kill 85 priests. Still, this wasn't enough, so Saul has the entire city of Nob innihalated, man, women, child, animals. But one son of the priest escapes, and goes and tells David what's happened.
In the midst of all this, the people of Keilah are being attacked by the Phillistines, so David goes and saves the day there. Saul tries to corner him in Keilah, but he flees just in time, and hides out in the wilderness of Ziph. Jonathan goes to him and encourages him. Unfortunately, the Ziphites betray David and tell Saul that David is hiding there. Saul closes in pretty close on David, but suddenly a messenger comes to Saul and tells him the Phillistines are attacking, so he gives up pursuit for the time being and David escapes once again. Later on, Saul is hunting around for David, and unknowingly enters the cave where David is hiding to relieve himself. David is encouraged to kill him, but changes his mind at the last moment because Saul was anointed king under the authority of God. He cuts stealthily cuts off a piece of Saul's robe, and as Saul is leaving the cave, David confronts him, and explains that he had the opportunity to kill him, "look, see, I cut off a piece of your robe, I was that close!", but spared his life. Saul thanks him for saving his life, and confesses that David has repaid him good, whereas he was repaying David evil. So for the moment, it seems they are reconciled.
Samuel dies.
David's men have been helping out the servants of a very rich goat & sheep-owner named Nabal. (Nabal has a wife named Abigail.) David tells his men to politely greet Nabal and ask for whatever food they can spare to them for feast day in exchange for the help they've been giving his servants. Nabal scoffs at them and sends them away. David tells his men to strap on their swords, it's time for an attack. So four hundred of them start heading to Nabal's house.
Abigail is told by the servants of what has happened. She very quickly puts together all kinds of bread and raisens and figs and other foods and straps it all on a donkey and starts heading towards David & his men, to reach them before they get to the house. She does all this without her husband's knowledge. She comes to David and falls on her face and begs and pleads forgiveness and offers him the food. David blesses her and thanks her for saving him from being guilty of selfish revenge. The next day, Abigail tells all of this to her husband, and judging from the description in the text, it sounds as though he has a stroke. Ten days later, the Lord strikes him dead. David takes Abigail as his wife. Oddly, David's wife Michal (Saul's daughter), has been given away to another husband.
Sauls seeks after David again to kill him. David and some men approach Saul, Abner, and their army while they are sleeping. (evidently no one is awake/keeping guard). Saul's spear is in the ground just by his head. David perceives he has the perfect chance, once again, to kill him, but does not. He takes Saul's spear and a jar of water nearby, and walks away, up onto a hill. Once again, David calls out to Saul and is like, "Look! I spared your life once again. What have I done and why do you want to kill me?" and Saul is like, "I'm so sorry. You're right. It won't happen again!". And they go their separate ways.
David, who seems to be quite a nomad I might observe, goes to live amongst the Phillistines. He continues his military career with one victory after another, so much so, that the leader Achish frequently asks him, "So....what place did you raid today?"
So the Phillistines and Israel are preparing to war again. Achish orders that David will be his bodyguard. And now we come to a really wierd part of the book that I can't make head nor tail of, to be honest......
Saul is very troubled about the war and goes to a medium. (psychic, necromancer, whatever you want to call them). It seems that since Samuel has died, there is no one Saul completely trusts to give him mysterious truths, so he figures a medium is his best shot. So he goes to this lady, and she......seriously, now.....summones Samuel's ghost! I'm telling you, at this point, I put my Bible down and just stared blankly at the wall for a few moments. Anyhow, so Saul and Samuel's ghost have a chat. The first thing Samuel says is, "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?" Saul explains why, and Samuel tells him that God is against him because he disobeyed the Lord concerning the Amalekites, and that God will give the kingdom into David's hand, and yes you will absolutely be defeated by the Phillistines.
David tries to go into battle with the Phillistines, but the Phillistines send him back to their leader. They're all like, "How do you expect him to fight his own people? He'll turn on us. Take him away!" So David leaves and goes back to the land of the Phillistines, while the Phillistines press on toward battle. When he gets there, he finds that the Amelekites have attacked and they killed no one, but took people captive, David's wives amongst them.
So David finds them and fights the Amelekites and rescues the captives, and gets his wives back safe & sound. He also takes some loot from the Amelekites, and sends it off to his Israeli friends in various parts of the land.
The Phillistines beat down Israel. Saul knows his death is at hand, and asks one of his own men to kill him, but is refused. Saul commits suicide by falling onto his own sword. Saul's sons and all his men died together that day. Many people of Israel took wind of this and fled, and the Phillistines came and settled in their land. The Phillistines cut off Saul's head. They put his armor in Ashtaroth's temple and his body on the wall of Beth-shan. The people of Jabesh-gilead recovered his body and his son's bodies and burned & buried them under a tamarisk tree in Jabesh, the same type Saul was sitting under when he once conspired against David's life.
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