Day 11

God's spirit left Saul and He put a black mood on him. Saul's advisors suggested music played by David, a talented musician, to calm him down. Meanwhile, Goliath, a Philistine, taunted the Israelites for 40 days each morning and evening. He was 10 foot tall, wore 126 lbs of armor, and carried a 15 lb spear. David's father sent him to the battlefield with food for 3 of his brothers and he heard Goliath's challenge. Saul wrote David off when he volunteered to fight Goliath because he was young and experienced. David plead his case but refused to wear the armor provided to him. Instead, he took 5 smooth stones, a sling shot, and approached Goliath. He launched a single stone and hit Goliath in the forehead. He stumbled to the ground, landed face down, and David beheaded him with his own sword. Because of this, Saul put David in charge of military operations.

Unfortunately, this was short lived because Saul became very jealous, especially when women sang about how wonderful David was for killing 10,000 men and Saul only killing 1,ooo. God put a bad mood on Saul again and he tried to kill David with a spear. Saul became fearful of David so he made him an officer knowing he would be in battle often. If the Philistines killed him, Saul would be in the clear. David was offered Merab, Saul's eldest daughter, to be his wife but Saul changed his mind and gave her to Adriel the Meholathite instead. Apparently Saul lost his mind at this point. If he's jealous and fearful of David and wanted him killed in battle, why in the heck would he want him to be his son in law? Saul asked David to go out and kill 100 Philistines because he had nothing to bring to the marriage. He was successful and took Michael, another daughter of Saul, as his wife. Jonathon, Saul's son, was kindred spirits with David so he warned him about the plot his father had to kill him. Saul hurled a spear at David again while he was playing his harp for him. After this attempt, he sent men to kill him. Thankfully Michal put a wig on a dummy god, put it in David's bed, and told the men he was sick. David escaped to Ramah.