David the Outlaw
ul's Storuy
The David Saga: Lessons 26-39
The Outcast (1 Samuel 21)
David flees from Saul for his life, making some questionable choices along the way.
The Outlaw King (1 Samuel 22)
David desperately seeks refuge; hundreds of desperate people seek out David; and Saul, in a paranoid rage, commits an unspeakable atrocity.
The Blessing that Was a Curse (1 Samuel 23)
David barely eludes a wrathful Saul, but there ae twists in the story. And Saul utters what is possibly the most bitterly ironic blessing in all the Bible.
David Spares Saul's Life (1 Samuel 24)
How David responded when God's providence put Saul into his hands says much about him and why God considered him a man after His own heart. And Saul's response to what David did also reveals much.
David Reacts to Samuel's Death (1 Samuel 25:1-13)
The great, beloved prophet Samuel died. Directly afterward David comes close to committing an atrocity over an insult. Were these two events connected?
Abigail the Wise Woman (1 Samuel 25:14-44)
Nabal's wife's bold, decisive action kept David from committing a monumental atrocity. But some say she went about it all wrong.
David's Mighty Men (1 Samuel 22, 2 Samuel 23, 1 Chronicles 11)
The strength of David's leadership is shown by the strength and worthiness of the men who followed him.
The Last Straw for David (1 Samuel 26)
Perceiving that Saul cannot give up his obsession with him, David makes a fateful decision.
Forced by the king into exile, David spends the next several years as an outlaw to his own nation. During these years, he hones his skills as a warrior, strategist, and leader of men. He also begins a family with new marriages and children.
These are years marked by desperate hardship, peril, narrow escapes and miraculous deliverances. The psalms David writes in this period reveal how the desperation actually serves to deepen his faith in God.
One of the most remarkable features of this period is how loyal David remains to Saul even as Saul pursues David's life. Though Saul may have been forsaken by the LORD, David sees that the LORD's anointing on him is the same as Saul's. Therefore, he will not take by force what Saul will not give up until the LORD Himself gives it to him.
Defector or Double Agent? (1 Samuel 27)
David's sojourn in the town of Ziklag in Philistine controlled territory and his use of it as a base of military operations raises ethical and spiritual questions.
David's Greatest Crisis (1 Samuel 28, 29)
David has survived many perils, but how will he survive a mutiny?
God's Plan and the Tragic End of King Saul (1 Samuel 31)
Understanding King Saul's tragic end helps us to see truths about who God is and how He works, and who we are and what we need to do in response to God.
The Hand of God in the Early Life and Career of David (1 Samuel 16-31)
God worked through directly, but mostly through events and people in order to shape David into the kind of man who could fulfill the destiny appointed for him. From his life we can derive important truths for how God works to fulfill His purpose in our own lives as believers.