Esther’s Purim Part Four: Saul and David

Transcribed and prepared by Anna Beller: Now you have Shmuel but we have questions: Why does he say the sin of predicting the future is bitter, what’s he talking about netzach yisrael. What happened to Shaul? A few hours ago he couldn’t stand up to the Jewish people and now he’s ripping the coat off of a prophet of God?

What does Agag mean by the way? On Gods roof. Who’s the person who has perspective of what going on? God who stands above. Cynthia Ozick wrote a story that had something to do with going through a million roofs. And there was a person who was able to understand everything that was going on simply by being on top of the roof.

You all know that the person who is a better man than you. Who becomes his friend David, and he was better than he. Lets just talk about one story about David. That at the end of his life, God said do not fight until you hear the angels, and the plishtim are approaching ad the angels are not moving, and David will not move his sword, and the plishtim will not move his sword, the angels are not moving and David did not move. And it wasn’t until the swords were actually touching, that the angels move the trees, David heard the trees and he fought back. He would not move until he was supposed to.

See the difference between the two? It’s unbelievable. Shaul understands that its David, and what does he spend the rest of his life doing? He tries to kill him but he knows. He spends the rest of his life trying to kill David and he tries to prevent what the prophet would say would happen from happening. What does Shmuel say? God is not a man he doesn’t change his mind, he doesn’t lie. And yet what does Shaul try to do? Change the facts on the ground.

The day before Shaul dies, he knows the next day he’s going to fight against the plishtim. And he doesn’t know if he’s going to win or if he should fight the battle or not because the plishtim have the most incredible army. So he doesn’t know what to do. So he goes to a woman who contacts the dead and he practices and art called Kessem, trying to predict the future. And he calls up Samuel from the dead and Samuel says tomorrow you will go into battle and you will die and your sons will die and you will lose the battle. Here is a man who spent the last 17 years trying to control his future. And the next day he goes into battle, even though he knows he’s going to lose and die.

A heavenly voice comes out and says to the angels, see what a beautiful creation I have.

What was it that Shmuel said to him. The sin of trying to predict the future. What’s the connection between the two its like trying to be a navi. But look at what he’s trying to control. How did Shmuel know that one day he would try to contact, how did he know to stress the Netzach yisrael, or to stress the fact that God doesn’t change his mind, or adjust you cant change what happening. We know what God is saying and he didn’t say that.

The answer is very simple: when Shmuel said to him, you may want to be small but event though you want to be small God wants from you to be big, and circumstances are clear that God wanted to be big. But how did you see yourself? Small, God wanted you to be big and that the position that put you in and demanded from you to be assertive and aggressive but you didn’t do it because its not in your personality.

So if you have a choice between being whom you want to be or whom God wants you to be, which one are you going to choose? There’s only one way that it’ll work, because circumstances are going to keep on coming to you that will force you into situation and you will eventually destroy yourself.

There’s only one way to protect your own view of yourself and that is to control the future. The only way that you can be exactly the person you want to be is if you can control everything that happens to you. You know what you’re going to end up trying to contact the dead to see the future in order to know what to do.

Listen to the conversation between David and his wife Michal. David is dancing in honor of God and he returned the ark to Jerusalem. So Michal the daughter of Shaul, the only time it mentions this, goes out to greet David and says how much honor you received today, now that everyone saw your tushy when you were dancing and your skirt went up in the air, that’s a lot of honor! Come on that’s not the way for a king to dance or preserve his dignity.

And David said to Michal, in front of God, who chose me over your father’s house, and all over your father’s family, to make me the prince over the Jews, I would loose even more of my dignity, and I will be even lower, and I will be low in front of God. Why do I need honor from any one else? I just need to be low in front of God.

What’s this exactly the opposite of? Michal says preserve the dignity. David says I have the chance to bringing Gods arc and I’m going to be concerned with dignity? Instead of doing what right? Are you crazy. That’s what he said that’s what destroyed his father. He was concerned with you people perceived him, what they thought of him and that’s what destroyed him.