King Saul
READ 1 Samuel 9:2-13
What does it mean that there was not among Israel a
“goodlier person” than Saul?
He was taller, stronger and
better looking than the rest.
It doesn’t mean that he was
more righteous.
What sort of relationship do the people have with this
seer or prophet and what insights can you gain?
They revere him.
They pay him.
They will not worship God
unless he presides and administers God to them.
This is a spiritual strongman
model; it is not healthy for the people, and probably not healthy for the seer;
however, it doesn’t mean that the seer isn’t truly spiritually gifted.
READ 1 Samuel 9:14
How does the identity of who this spiritual strongman
is change your opinion of him and the relationship between him and Israel?
It shouldn’t change it at all.
Samuel has become a “spiritual
strongman”; whether he aspired to this or whether it was thrust upon him by the
people (more likely, given they want a king…) doesn’t matter; it is not condoned
by God either way. God wants to know
each of His people personally and having an intermediary will prevent that.
Samuel is a flawed human, as
all mortal prophets are; whether there was more he could have done to prevent
this relationship from occurring, we don’t know; but there is a lesson here for
all who have a direct relationship with God - do whatever is in your power to
teach true principles but to prevent reliance on you as an intermediary; refuse
to be the strongman, even if it means withdrawing from the people for a time or
making yourself unpopular by treating people rudely or by acting in ways they
find offensive to their sensibilities of what they expect a prophet to be (this
shouldn’t be too hard, as God’s ways are so different from ours – true prophets
continually preach repentance, albeit with love, but that message is offensive
to most, so that’s a start. Another
offensive message is that the prophet has actually seen God).
READ 1 Samuel 10:1-12
Why did Samuel anoint Saul with oil?
It is an ordinance or
invitation to accept the “real thing”.
Oil is symbolic of the Holy
Spirit; Saul is being invited to receive the birth of the spirit or mighty
change of heart.
However, the anointing (or in
our day, the confirmation) alone will do nothing unless the terms are met for
the covenant; Saul’s willingness to believe Samuel and act in accordance with
his prophesy show Saul’s willing and open heart to God.
What does it mean that Saul shall be “turned into
another man”?
He will be born of God and
experience the mighty change of heart; he will no longer be the same man he was.
The proof that God enacted
this mighty change or new heart upon Saul is the fact that he begins to
experience spiritual gifts that he never had before; these gifts follow those
that believe -they show God’s “finger prints” on the person and their change of
heart.
Why are those who know Saul surprised that he is “also
among the prophets”?
Because he had never shown an
aptitude towards spiritual gifts before.
Because “goodlier” means
“tall, dark and handsome” not “meek, loving and full of the Spirit”.
READ 1 Samuel 10:17-24 and 1
Samuel 11:12-15
Why does Saul not want to be king?
He knows that God has rejected
Israel when they rejected God by wanting a king.
He doesn’t want to be the
replacement for God, especially now that he has experienced the birth of the
spirit.
He does not feel capable of
being the king, despite his physical “kingly” attributes.
Why do the people want those who doubted that Saul
should be crowned king, put to death?
Because they are loving the
fact that Saul just won a great military victory over the Ammonites.
They see it as a vindication
of their choice for a mortal king.
They do not realize that the
Lord enabled the victory.
READ 1 Samuel 12:13-15, 20-25
What is the secret to the success and salvation of the
people and their king?
Worship and serve the Lord;
obey His commandments – it is the same as the promise to the inhabitants of
America in the Book of Mormon: worship the God of the Land and be free and safe
from all other nations.
Their success as a nation has
nothing to do with the king, at all.
God will keep them safe
through their king or despite their king, if they will love and serve Him.
Note: the question remains, if
the king doesn’t matter, why is the Lord against Israel having a king? Because a king can exert much more influence
than a common man, and if that influence is evil, it will constrain or curtail
the agency or at least the feasible options for righteousness that the people
will have; and even if the king is righteous, many fallen men and women have a
tendency to idolize the good king instead of worshipping the Lord and seeking a
relationship with Him.
King Saul Offends the Lord
READ 1 Samuel 13:5-14
Why did the Lord reject Saul’s family line as kings,
just because he offered his own sacrifices to God?
Unlike the kings of the
surrounding nations, the Lord made it very clear to Saul and the people that if
they were going to have a king, they had to remember that the Lord was still
their God and that their king was not to be considered divine himself or even
to enjoy the “divine right of kings” but was instead be a servant of God.
By not waiting for Samuel to
officiate in his priestly office when he was late but taking the priestly
duties upon himself, Saul was blurring the lines between king and priest; in
addition, he was disobeying God’s commandments with regards to who should
administer the priesthood rites.
Note, at this point, Saul
himself had not lost the kingship, but his son Jonathan had, because of Saul’s
actions.
READ 1 Samuel 15:1-3
Why would the Lord command King Saul to utterly destroy
the Amalekites, including women, children and animals?
Israel were acting as agents
of divine judgement.
They were to take nothing for
themselves but were to destroy the nation as if they had fallen victim to a
natural disaster or “act of God”.
Again, in a similar way to how
the fullness of iniquity works in America, the nations living in Palestine had
opportunities to embrace the God of the Land (Jehovah) but if they apostatized
and continued in their wickedness to the fullness, they would be swept off the
land.
READ 1 Samuel 15:8-9, 13-28
Why did Saul spare the king of the Amalakites and the
best of their flocks but kill everyone else?
Opposing kings were a prized
trophy of war; they showed how truly the victors now dominated the losing
nation, especially because most Middle-eastern kings were also supposed to be
divine; so it was kind of like saying “my God (-like King) can beat up your God
(-like king)”.
By conducting this raid as if
it were ordinary warfare that he was directing, Saul once again usurped divine
prerogative and misrepresented the character of divine judgement (no respecter
of persons) which doesn’t privilege the powerful but defeated king or his
material possessions.
He said he wanted to sacrifice
the best of the flocks to the Lord, but the whole idea of sacrifice is that you
offer something great that you own and is yours to give; in this case, the flocks
were not his to sacrifice as the Lord had commanded him to carry out His
judgement on this people – the “sacrifice” the Lord wanted in this instance was
the utter destruction of the Amalakites and all of their possessions.
How is obedience better than sacrifice if the Lord also
commanded His people to offer sacrifices?
Sacrifices are rituals of
worship, which the Lord commanded His people to perform up until the time of
His own great and last sacrifice (see 3 Nephi 9:19-20), to symbolize the
sacrifice of Himself in His atonement and death (see Alma 34:8-14).
However, a ritual or ceremony
or ordinance is just that – an act of worship through symbols; it is better to
actually obtain the will of the Lord through direct communication with Him –
which is what all of the symbols and rituals point to – knowing God while in
the flesh and becoming His trusted Son or Daughter – and then doing His will,
as He has revealed it to you in the flesh (see 2 Nephi 32:5-7) – which is the
definition of obedience.
Why did King Saul really allow the king and animals to
be spared?
He was afraid of public
opinion turning against him.
And he was no longer “little
in (his) own sight” but was now a prideful king.
The king and the people had
developed a symbiotic relationship: the king wanted to stay in power and enjoy
the accolades and flattery that come with his high position, and the people
wanted to do what they wanted to do, under the protection and authority of a
king they could influence.
Why does Saul ask Samuel to forgive His sin?
He thinks repentance is easy –
especially if he can get it from Samuel without going directly to the Lord.
He wants to pretend things
were the way they were before.
Since Israel is supposed to be
the Lord’s chosen people, Saul needs to continue the charade if the people are
to feel comfortable about his leadership of their nation.
He doesn’t want to go to the
Lord Himself – he is afraid of what the Lord might do (as He’s already stripped
Saul’s line of the kingship – maybe Saul himself would be stripped of the
kingdom).
David the Shepherd
READ 1 Samuel 16:1-7
What did Eliab look like, for Samuel the prophet to
assume that he was to be the new king of Israel?
Like a prince.
Handsome, tall, strong, noble
bearing – probably like Saul did.
Spiritual… in appearance, at
least; Samuel would not have been taken in by a “kingly” appearance alone,
Eliab must have looked and acted like he was the chosen of the Lord – spiritual
and religious.
Why does the heart not manifest itself in one’s outward
appearance?
While light manifests itself
in one’s countenance (see Alma 5:14; 3 Nephi 19:25; 2 Corinthians 3:7), the
observer has to be spiritually attuned to see it, as it is the spirit affecting
the flesh of the body, so it is mainly (although not entirely) perceived spiritually,
not directly or obviously seen.
Ultimately,
in those who have obtained a great deal of light during a mortal probation, the
light of the spirit changes the tabernacle (via an infusion of the Holy
Spirit), in that the individual is translated and the physical body is changed
to mirror more closely the light of the body; when this is the case, even the
most fallen and carnal person can see the change in outward appearance, if the
individual chose to reveal themselves in terrestrial glory (which they don’t
have to do – and would rarely do, as it would scare the whatsit out of the
unprepared, fallen individual).
What does it mean that the Lord looks upon the heart?
The heart is thought of as the
place where one’s desires reside.
The heart is also the organ
from where one’s love is thought to flow.
In the energy body tradition,
the heart is both the connecting place in the spirit body between the grounding
energies and the higher energies, it is also the place where we are all
connected to each other.
The Lord looks into the soul
and plainly sees your deepest desires and the amount of love you have within
you; clearly this criterion is much more important to the Lord than we think it
is.
What
the Lord sees is the culmination of eternities worth of light gaining (or not)
on the part of the soul – not just what has been gained here but what was also
brought here.
READ 1 Samuel 16:11-13
What was David anointed for?
To be the future king of
Israel.
To receive the birth of the
spirit.
He was anointed to the Lord,
being a “king” in His house (being adopted into His family as a Son and heir) which
requires sharing the same mind as God or being one with God – which is to be
filled with the Holy Spirit.
Note: being anointed to
receive the birth of the spirit and actually receiving that gift are not the
same thing; no one has the authority to command God or to violate the covenant
terms required for any of God’s covenants; the anointing is like the
confirmation in the modern Church – it is an admonition to go and receive what
is offered by abiding by the terms; in this case, David’s heart was such that
he already desired to live the terms, so he received the birth of the spirit from
God that day.
READ 1 Samuel 16:14-23 (JST)
Why did the Spirit depart from Saul?
God is no respecter of persons
- He desires all of His children to be saved, and the Holy Spirit is the light
which proceeds from God to fill the immensity of space and is infinite, so the
Spirit did not depart from Saul just so that David could have it – because God
wants all to have it and the Holy Spirit is not a personage, anyway – it is the
light of God (mind of God) which comes from Him and fills all of space – there
is enough of it to go around.
Either it was a coincidence
that David received the Spirit around the same time that Saul lost it, or
perhaps the reason that the Lord rejected Saul as king (or his line as a kingly
dynasty) was because he was grieving the Spirit through his behavior and
thoughts, and the Lord wanted a king with whom the Spirit could dwell.
What happens when the Spirit of the Lord departs from
someone?
As soon as the Spirit of the
Lord departs from a person, other spirits vie to fill the void.
Satan is more effective when
those spirits are subtle – so that the person who lost the Spirit of the Lord can’t
really tell that much has changed, at first.
In this case, the new spirit
“vexed” or bothered Saul; this could be because it was a more obviously evil
spirit or because Saul was more spiritually attuned.
What affect does music have on spirituality?
Music clearly effects the
emotions and can effect brain chemistry, energy and thinking.
To the degree that the spirits
you allow to influence you are affected by your mood and thinking, and you can
affect your mood and thinking through music, then listening to certain kinds of
music may help you attract the Spirit of the Lord and screen yourself from
other spirits – or do the opposite.
Is listening to David play the harp the best solution
for Saul’s problem with evil spirits?
No, a more direct approach
would be better: repent and seek the companionship of the Lord.
To the degree that meditation
or communion with God can be aided by listening to music (for some people it
can while for others it is very distracting), then David’s harp could help Saul
where it really counts, but that doesn’t seem to be what Saul is using the
music for, here.
Another
possible reason why listening to David’s harp helped Saul is that it wasn’t the
harp at all but proximity to David, himself; just as touching Christ’s and
Paul’s garments had the ability to heal wounds or cast out demons and Peter did
both just by his presence, proximity to light enables its transfer from one
person to another, and from beyond the veil, through the “carrier” and to the
person in need – this is the way that priesthood, which is an association with
Gods and angels, works (see Luke 8:43-48; Acts 19:11-12; Acts 5:15-16).
David vs. Goliath the
Philistine
READ 1 Samuel 17:1-11
While Goliath was a “giant” (probably 6’9” or taller),
Saul was a “head” taller than anyone else in Israel (probably 6’ tall), so why
is Saul so afraid to fight Goliath?
While on paper a 9” to 12”
difference in height doesn’t sound like too much, it’s still a big difference
and probably amounts to a significant difference in weight; if Saul was a thin
6’, he could weight 160 lbs., and if Goliath was a large 6’9”, he could weigh 300
lbs or more.
If Saul is 6 to 9 inches
taller than the rest of the Israelite warriors (weighing somewhere between
112-155 lbs., on average), then Goliath really would have looked like a giant.
READ 1 Samuel 17:23-26
What is the true heart of the problem that is Goliath?
Saul and the armies of Israel
are fighting their own battle; they have forgotten that they are the “armies of
the living God”, so as a result, they are NOT the armies of the living God. He sees Goliath as a purely physical problem,
not a spiritual one, or not one that can be influenced via the spiritual realm
because he is completely clueless regarding the direct cause and effect
connections between the spiritual realm and the physical world.
Saul does not see the offense
Goliath has given God; and he does not see himself as God’s assigned servant to
deal with the offense; Saul has not prepared himself to receive the required level
of insight and faith because he has not been sufficiently obedient to God’s
commandments and lacks the light and knowledge to see things as they really are;
he is not able to rend the veil and work as a tool in God’s hand on earth (see
1 Nephi 3:28-31; 1 Nephi 15:7-11) – in fact, the thought doesn’t enter his
mind, which is telling.
READ 1 Samuel 17:32-37
How does David see the fight between Goliath and the
armies of Israel?
David sees this as a battle
between a mortal man and the living God – which is what it is.
He does not see it as a battle
between two men.
The battle is the Lord’s to
fight; and in this case, He requires a volunteer to be His tool in the mortal
sphere – to be the one through which His power is manifested.
Why does David have such faith that he can defeat
Goliath?
The Lord has given him two
previous experiences with wild animals where he had to access the power of God
to perform a miracle in a life-or-death situation.
He has proved the Lord as
capable of intervening in mortality; and the Lord has proved David as being
able to exercise sufficient faith to act, which enabled Him to intervene on
earth without violating human agency.
READ 1 Samuel 17:38-40
Why did David take off Saul’s armor and only take with
him his staff, sling and five stones into battle?
He had not “proved” the armor;
he was not used to it, as he had never worn it before.
When he had fought the wild
animals, he had not worn armor and had not needed it; in fact, the lack of
armor and the agility he had without it may have been part of what the Lord
used to help him elude and then kill the animals.
We must “take into battle”
what we are comfortable using and have developed some skill with; the Lord will
not use “fairy dust” to make us magically proficient in something that we are
unskilled in, instead, he uses the skills we have already developed; while this
might constrain the Lord’s options with us to some degree, He will work within
the constraints we give Him through our past use of agency, to accomplish His
objectives through us – with the Lord, nothing is impossible.
However, if you want to be a
more capable tool in the hand of the Lord, you should practice the skills He
wants you to learn – and many of those skills have less to do with armor and
swords, and much more to do with an ability to reach through the veil and be a
living conduit of light between the heavens and the earth, to enable you to
command elements/energy and spirits to do the will of the Lord.
Prayer is a key “labor” or
“practice” or “skill” to perfect, in this regard, as the spiritual realm
dictates much of what happens in the physical realm, despite our blindness to
both what is happening beyond the veil on this earth (or in heaven) and to the
effect it has on our world. The ability
to influence the spiritual realm via a strong connection with God, will do much
more to affect the physical world than we realize.
READ 1 Samuel 17:41-51
Who is this fight really between?
It is between Goliath and
whoever comes to fight him.
In Saul’s case, it would have
been a fight between two warriors – one a giant and the other a king.
In Goliath’s case, it was a
fight between a trained, strong warrior and a boy without armor or experience
in battle.
In David’s case, it was a
fight between a mere mortal man and the living God.
It depends upon how the fight
is perceived by the participants – because God will honor our agency. If David didn’t see things as they really
were, his fight would not have been between a man and the living God, it would
have been between a giant warrior and a shepherd boy.
How does the way we perceive our challenges determine
how we meet them?
If we see God as the
overriding influence in our challenges, we can trust God to help us through
them.
If we realize that all of these
challenges are just here to give us experience and are actually for our good –
which requires faith in God’s love, omniscience, and power, for us to believe –
then we will exercise sufficient faith to allow God to intervene (or not)
because we trust that He loves us and whatever He allows to happen to us or
what He enables us to do or not do, is His will and will really be for our good
(see D&C 122).
God wants us to realize that
our challenges were given to us by Him for the express purpose of enabling us
to trust Him – that He will walk beside us to see we succeed; you must be
willing to see God as someone who has personal, direct and on-going involvement
in your life – someone who cares enough about you to intervene on your behalf;
no “Goliath” in your life will destroy you if you see things for what they
really are – they are only opportunities for you to exercise (and thus, grow)
your faith in God; you must push through the apparent imminent failure of faith
– you must choose to persist in your faith in God, in the face of almost
certain failure or maybe even actual failure; you must choose to love Him, to
believe in Him, to trust Him, to keep His commandments, to keep walking the
path back to His presence regardless of the “monster” that seems to stand in
your way.
When the challenges no longer
serve this purpose – when you see things as they really are, that all of your
problems are really the Lord’s problems and that He is up to the task of
overcoming them all – the challenges will fade away like the dreams of a night
vision.
It’s like Neo in the movie
“The Matrix” – when he finally embraces the truth of the fact that everything
he sees on his earth is a computer program, then he sees the truth - the actual
computer code which makes up the “hard” elements of his world, and is able to
bend it to his will instead of being determined by it; for us, it is the same,
and the “code” we see is the veil being lifted from our eyes and we see what is
really there on the other side of the veil and the way that it affects the
physical realm we live in; this probationary state is much more like The Matrix
than we realize – it is created from element that proceeds from God Himself and
that He supports from moment to moment as the “observer” in quantum physics.
Why did David take five stones from the river if the
Lord only needed one to kill Goliath?
David had enough faith to go
to battle – that the Lord would kill Goliath through his stones – but he still
had a tinge of doubt, either in the Lord (not that He couldn’t do it but would
He do it or was it David’s time to die) or in himself as an effective tool in
the Lord’s hand (which is both a true situation, as we constrain the Lord with
our lack of “skills” and our lack of faith in Him; and it is also a false one,
as the Lord can do all things regardless of the tools He has at His disposal;
could He have enabled David to slay Goliath with the sword? Yes.
But David’s lack of faith or comfort (really faith) was a legitimate
constraint… for David, as nothing is impossible for the Lord!)
David had to face down his
insecurities, so he took five stones, knowing that once he had crossed the
stream and entered the battle plain, there was no going back for more – and
also thinking that he probably had time for five shots at Goliath before the
giant would be able to reach him and kill him – despite everything we’ve
discussed, this was still a very real life battle for David. The stone(s) had to be slung!
