Relational Grace Podcast

Send a text

Following the exodus when Israel had come into the land of Canan the priests brought the Tabernacle to the town of Shiloh.  The Tabernacle would remain here for 200 years.  In time, there was a battle with the Philistines over a Hebrew highway. The high priests were in charge of the tabernacle and these high priests were the sons of Eli. When the Israelites were in this battle they wanted the Ark of the Covenant to give them the power to win.  So they sent messengers to go ask the high priests to see if they could have the ark of the covenant with them to have God’s power to win the battle.  As they brought the ark of the covenant out to the battle God did not go with it.  His presence was in the Holy of Holies when the Ark of the Covenant was there and when it was brought out to the battle, it was said that the presence of the Lord had departed from the Holy of Holies.

In this episode, Pastor Harris will teach on how the Ark of the Covenant departed.

Support the show

Send a text

Last teaching Pastor Harris discussed David returning after he had defeated the Amalekites. At the same time David was returning to Ziklag, Saul had met his end and been defeated by the Philistines.  Around that same time a different Amilkite arrives with a message that Saul had been slain along with a conflicting story.  Last episode we heard that Saul had fallen on his own sword and committed suicide. This Amilkite claimed that he had actually helped Saul commit suicide.  He believed that since Saul had tried to kill David so many times that he would be rewarded for helping Saul committ suicide and reporting the great news that Saul was dead.  Another odd thing was that he also had the crown of Saul and brought it to David.  The response of David was quite opposite to what he was expecting.  He was expecting honor and approval and maybe a position as David’s right hand man.  Instead David turned and killed the man on the spot!

The way David saw it was this.  God was going to bring God’s anointed David to be King in his own time.  No person could force that to happen outside of God’s timing. It appeared this Amilkite had taken matters into his own hands and had slain God’s anointed and it deserved death.

What was surprising is that upon David killing this Amilkite was David’s response.  He wrote a quite fantastic poem, and I’ll go ahead and read this to you.

Thy glory oh Israel is slain upon by high places.  How the mighty have fallen. Tell it not in Gath. Publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised exalt.  Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely, in life and in death they were not divided, they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. Ye daughters of Israel weep over Saul who clothed you daintily in scarlet, who put ornaments off gold on your apparel. How are the mighty fallen in the midst of battle. Jonathan lies slain upon the high places.  I am distressed for you my brother Jonathan. Very pleasant have you been to me, your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.  How are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished.

It’s very odd to hear such beautiful words from someone who was supposed to be Saul’s sworn enemy. But obviously David was a man after God’s own heart and he could see things in Saul others could not see.  He loved Saul.  However, now the crown of Saul is in David’s hands, Saul is slain, David is God’s appointed and is to be the new King of Israel.  This is the topic of this episode's message.

Support the show

Send a text

Last episode we talked about David and his big battle with the Amalekites in the Negev.  While that was going on with him, the exact opposite was going on with Saul. Saul was encountering Israel's old enemy the Philistines.  They had amassed a massive army and to this point the Isrealites had been successful in defeating them by fighting them off as they had always engaged them in mountainous terrain. But the Philistines had pushed and manipulated the battle so they could fight at the Valley of Jezreel which was flat land.  This was beneficial to the Philistines because they had iron chariots. Any military strategist would say that it looks as if the Isrealites would be slaughtered.  

The reason this battle was so crucial and that Saul had to fight it, was because they were at a place called Beth Shan and if the Philistines were to take this location they would cut Israel in half. This location was too crucial, and Saul was forced to take the Philistines on in open combat, in flat terrain, taking on their iron chariots. It seemed suicidal, God had abandoned Saul for David.  

So Saul turned to a medium.  Saul himself had outlawed the use of mediums. It was outlawed in the law of God, but Saul was driven to the very brink of his insanity by havinfg to hold things together by the giant adversity that faced him having to fight the Philistines.  When he saw this medium, he disguised himself because he knew if the medium recognized him as King Saul that the medium would not consult upon evil spirits.  We know today that spirits guided through mediums are not through the Holy Spirit but are evil spirits. To Saul’s dismay the medium conjures up the spirit of Samual the great profit.  Although Samual had been dead for many years he spoke truthfully  to the situation at hand.  He said that Saul would in fact fight this battle, and Saul, his sons and many of his army would suffer a very tragic defeat.  Saul’s dilemma was over, he looked into the future, the future was clear there was only disaster and death for him and his kingdom. 

Meanwhile David waited back at Ziklag unaware of what was going on.  This is the topic of Pastor Harris’s teaching in this episode.  The death of Saul and the ramifications of that day.

Support the show

Send a text

The events of first samuel chapter 26 and first samuel chapter 24 look very similar if not identical, but in fact they are remarkably different.  Where they are similar in both instances Saul, the King of Israel is pursuing David.  Saul fails, and God delivers him into the hands of David, who chooses to do nothing about it and to release him because he is his king, and he is God anointed. In fact, in the second instance, David’s men come alongside him and say, they have got to do something, they’ve been running from him, they felt they needed to kill him! David still stays committed to what he knows to be true.

The thing that is interesting and is pretty bad for Saul. Given these two instances, God had revealed that he had withdrawn his protection from Saul. He had been given over into the hands of David now twice, this could not make it more clear to Saul.  David realized that this cat and mouse game couldn’t last forever. It was wearing out his men and they wanted to kill Saul, and that was wearing David out. David previously had fled from Saul by going into the land of the philistines and now he had to face the terrible idea of doing that again, leaving the promise land. So he decides to go to the land of Gath and place his warriors at the disposal of the King of Achish. This King however did not like the idea of having someone so powerful in his midst so he placed David in a town called Ziklag.  And this will be our setting for Pastor Harris’s message today.

Support the show

Send a text

In our last teaching we saw David confront Saul at the Oasis of Ein Gedi, and there we saw a great part of David’s character revealed.  One thing we saw revealed was his boldness, his courage and that he really trusted in God.  He was able to stand up and confront Saul because he believed that God would defend him and that God would be in control. We also saw some of David’s crafiness, and his wisdom and the words that he used. He chose not to kill Saul, and instead he chose to cut a part of his robe off. It showed that he never had any intentions of killing Saul, he always saw him as king.  It showed his humility.  We saw his character revealed through his humility.  He said, “After whom do you pursue Saul?  After a dead dog after a flea”. David is stressing his insignificant and his unimportance in the face of a great king.  We saw Saul respond in a very interesting way.  He said, no not at all, you are not insignificant, you are going to be king someday. It is shocking but it reveals Saul’s insanity and that in times he had moments where he had it all together.  But David knew that Saul would continue to come after him. 

Meanwhile, both David and Saul received a shock because their spiritual mentor, Samuel the profit, had died. David received this news while in the wilderness of Maon, and there had a very interesting encounter with a very beautiful and wise and crafty woman herself named Abigail, and there we will find ourselves in the setting of this episode's topic. 

Support the show

Send a text

We continue to follow the life of David in our current series. In this episode we will touch on the topic of vengeance. The need for vengeance is as old as human nature. Vengeance can be overwhelming. Let’s listen to Pastor Harris as he walks us through how David handles vengeance against King Saul.  Finally Pastor Harris will provide us three things regarding  vengeance that will help us understand it and in turn deal with it. 

Support the show

Send a text

Have you ever experienced exceptional success in life like that of David? After what David accomplished by saving his entire nation from slavery and bondage by conquering the undefeatable foe. Who knows what it would be like to experience such success and fame like David did.  In the last episode Pastor Harris talks about five crutches that got knocked out from under him.  One was his job, the commander of Saul’s army.  The position of King and High Priest may be the only better jobs at that time.  Secondly, his wife was stripped away.  His pastor was taken away as well, Samuel was one of the top profits ever known and was taken away from David.  Then Jonathan was taken away, David’s best friend.  These are serious crutches that were taken away from David. It was like winning the lottery and finding out the next day you in fact did not win the lottery.  All he had left was his self respect and his self worth, we won't get to it in this episode but eventually he will lose that as well.

It’s hard to understand what all David was going through mentally, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. At this point his back is against the wall and Saul is coming after him.  At this time David runs to Nob where he takes the sword of Goliath.  He does not realize the trouble that will cause others, and it is at this point that we find David in the cave of Adullem.

Support the show

Send a text

As we continue on with our second episode of this new Saga of David series I continue to think about episode one and how Pastor Harris focused on Samuel and the strange circumstance he found himself in when it came to anointing the next king of Israel. It was an interesting approach to kicking off a teaching about the life of David.  Similarly, one of the obvious stories from the life of David would be that of his victory over the giant Goliath. However, Pastor Harris chooses to diverge from the standard teaching route and come at it from another unique aspect. Definitely not what I expected, but I was by no means surprised.

Support the show

Send a text

This new series is a large and in-depth study of Pastor Harris’s which covers the man after God’s own heart, King David.  As always, Pastor Harris’s approach to the life of David is very unique and we hope will touch the lives of our listeners, teaching after teaching.  This series is over 20 episodes in length and rightfully so, there is so much to learn from the story of David’s life, much more than his run-ins with the likes of Goliath and Bathsheba.  Matter of fact, it can more accurately be defined as a “saga” than simply be referred to as a life story. I’m sure dad knew that far too well, so well that he titled this series very simply, The Saga of David.

Support the show

Send a text

This episode wraps up our current series titled “Courage and Confrontation” which follows the life and times of Elijah.  This has been a truly amazing series and has come with God’s perfect timing.  I hope these teachings have encouraged everyone who listens. I have to tell you all, I love this specific episode, I think it really places things into context not only from a ministry standpoint, but as a way to approach various aspects of life. Dad talks about his early days in ministry well before I was born or dad had even made it to Ponca City where he met my mother Crystal.  As always, we would love to hear from you all any way you like, email, facebook, instagram, etc. We love hearing how these messages resonate with you, it encourages us and keeps and energizes us to keep pushing out new episodes and content.

So let’s get into the introduction of our final episode.  Prior to the Prophet Elijah's encounter with King Ahab over Naboth's vineyard, he had been walking through an agricultural area in Israel and he spotted a young man plowing his field. There were eleven teams of oxen plowing in front of this man and he was plowing with a twelfth team of oxen. 

The sensitive spirit of the prophet Elijah instantly saw something in this man so he walked over to the young man and threw his mantle around his shoulders. Elijah would later discover that the name of this man was Elisha, the son of Shaphat. This farmer turned from his team of oxen, and said to Elijah, "Please let me kiss my father and mother and then I will follow you." Elijah agreed.

What Elisha did at this point was fascinating. He kissed his father and mother, then demonstrated his commitment to following Elijah in that he slaughtered his team of oxen, his sole means of support. Then set fire to his plow and yoke, his secondary means of support. He proceeded to cook the meat of the oxen and shared it with the people of his village and his family so that they could all enjoy one final meal together. Then, he followed Elijah from that point onward, serving him in any way that he possibly could.

That is the last we hear of Elisha for several years. Then, he reappears with Elijah at a place called Gilgal, the place where Israel camped upon first entering the Promised Land. He had seen many things since he had begun to follow Elijah. 

For one thing, he had been with Elijah when King Ahaziah of Israel had sent a captain with fifty men to place Elijah under arrest. He watched as the prophet called down fire from heaven and those men were utterly consumed. He was also present when the king sent another group of fifty to arrest the prophet. Once again, he heard the prophet call down fire from heaven and saw those men consumed. Then, when another group of 50 came, Elisha heard the captain of the group appeal to the prophet to save his life. No doubt, the young prophet heard the voice of the angel of Yahweh, the pre existent Christ, tell to Elijah to save this captain and his men and to go back to Samaria with this captain and confront the King. This was a dangerous proposition, but Elijah did as he was told.

At this point, Elijah was aged. It is time for him to leave this earth, but he has a few things to do before that could occur. For one thing, he would take a quick ministry tour of the area, then, God would take him. This is the background for Pastor Harris’s teaching in this episode.

Support the show