The Hey Eddy! Podcast

In this episode, Cousin Michael gently walks kids through 1 Samuel 22, one of the Bible's darkest chapters. David hides in the cave of Adullam, where his family and four hundred distressed, indebted, and discontented men gather around him as their leader. He takes his aging parents to safety in Moab, thanks to his great-grandmother Ruth's Moabite roots, then obeys the prophet Gad's call to return to Judah. Meanwhile, a paranoid Saul accuses everyone of conspiring against him, and Doeg the Edomite reports that the priest Ahimelech helped David. Though Ahimelech is innocent, Saul orders the priests killed. His own soldiers refuse, but Doeg slaughters eighty-five priests and the entire town of Nob. One priest, Abiathar, escapes to David, who takes responsibility and promises, "You will be safe with me." Kids learn that evil is real but never wins, and God always preserves his people.

In this episode, Cousin Michael takes kids through 1 Samuel 21, where David, alone, hungry, and unarmed after saying goodbye to Jonathan, flees for his life. He goes to the priest Ahimelech at Nob and tells a half-truth about being on a secret mission for the king. Ahimelech gives him the holy bread of the Presence, a moment Jesus later pointed to when he taught that people matter more than rituals. But one of Saul’s men, Doeg the Edomite, sees everything. David then asks for a weapon and receives Goliath’s own sword, a powerful reminder of God’s faithfulness. Desperate, David runs to Gath, Goliath’s hometown, where the Philistines recognize him. Terrified, he pretends to be insane, scratching at doors and drooling into his beard until King Achish sends him away. Kids learn to turn toward God in desperate times, remember what he has already done, and be careful with the truth.

In this episode, Cousin Michael tells the story of David and Jonathan from 1 Samuel 20, the greatest friendship in the Bible. With Saul trying to kill David, the two friends devise a test: David will skip the New Moon feast, and Saul’s reaction will reveal his intentions. Jonathan, the crown prince, acknowledges that God has chosen David as the next king, and the two make a covenant before the Lord to protect each other’s families forever. When Saul explodes in rage, insults Jonathan’s mother, and even hurls a spear at his own son, Jonathan uses a prearranged arrow signal to warn David to flee. The friends then share a tearful goodbye.

In this episode, Cousin Michael takes kids through 1 Samuel 19, where David narrowly escapes Saul's murderous plans three times in one chapter. First, Jonathan convinces Saul to spare David and Saul swears an oath—but soon breaks it by hurling a spear at David while he plays the harp, and David dodges just in time. Second, Saul sends soldiers to surround David's house, but his wife Michal lowers him out a window and puts a household idol with goat hair in his bed to buy time. Third, David flees to Samuel at Naioth, and when Saul sends three groups of messengers to capture him, the Spirit of God falls on each group and they start prophesying instead. Finally Saul goes himself—and the same thing happens to him, leaving him stripped of his royal robes and prophesying helplessly all day and night.

In this episode, Cousin Michael explores 1 Samuel 18, where David’s victory over Goliath makes him a national hero. Jonathan, the crown prince, forms an instant friendship with David, sealing it with a covenant and giving him his royal robe and weapons. But when the women sing that Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands, Saul’s jealousy takes over. He hurls his spear at David twice, sends him into battle hoping the Philistines will kill him, and uses his daughters Merab and Michal as bait, demanding a hundred Philistine foreskins as a bride price. Every scheme backfires because the Lord is with David.

In this episode, Cousin Michael covers 1 Samuel 17:48–58, where the stone finally flies. David sheds Saul’s ill-fitting armor, grabs five smooth stones and his sling, and runs straight at the giant while everyone else has been running away for forty days. One stone sinks into Goliath’s forehead and the giant crashes facedown into the dirt. David then uses Goliath’s own sword to cut off his head, fulfilling his prophecy word for word. The Philistine army panics and flees, and Israel surges forward in pursuit. The episode emphasizes that this was never David’s battle—it was God’s. David came not with sword or spear but in the name of the Lord Almighty, and God used a shepherd’s weapon to topple a warrior in 125 pounds of armor. Kids learn that faith runs toward the problem, God doesn’t need impressive resources to win, and this story points forward to Jesus’s ultimate victory.

In this episode, Cousin Michael covers 1 Samuel 17:31–47, where David volunteers to fight the giant and reveals his shepherd’s secret. He tells Saul how God delivered him from a lion and a bear while protecting his father’s sheep, and declares that the same God will deliver him from Goliath. Saul dresses David in royal armor, but David can barely walk in it and takes it off—he won’t win by out-giganting the giant. Instead, he grabs his staff, a sling, and five smooth stones from the stream. When Goliath mocks and curses him, David delivers one of the Bible’s greatest speeches: “You come with sword and spear, but I come in the name of the LORD Almighty.” He declares that the whole world will know there is a God in Israel, because “the battle is the LORD’s.” Kids learn to be who God made them and trust that past deliverances build faith for future battles.

In this episode, Cousin Michael sets the scene from 1 Samuel 17:1–30. The Philistine and Israelite armies face off across the Valley of Elah, and every morning and evening for forty days, the nine-foot-tall giant Goliath marches out in full bronze armor to mock Israel and challenge them to send a champion. Every soldier, including King Saul, is terrified. Meanwhile, young David arrives at camp on a simple errand to deliver bread and cheese to his brothers. When he hears Goliath’s taunts, his reaction is completely different from everyone else’s: “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” While the soldiers focus on the giant’s size, David focuses on God’s honor. His oldest brother Eliab tries to shut him down with insults, but David keeps speaking up until word reaches King Saul. Kids learn that what you look at in a crisis changes everything.

In this episode, Cousin Michael guides kids through 1 Samuel 16, where God sends Samuel on a secret mission to anoint a new king from among Jesse's sons in Bethlehem. When the tall, impressive eldest son Eliab steps forward, Samuel thinks he's found the one—but God delivers the chapter's key lesson: "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." Seven sons pass before Samuel, and God rejects them all. Finally someone remembers the youngest boy, left out tending sheep—David. God says, "He is the one," and Samuel anoints him as the Spirit of the Lord comes upon David in power. Meanwhile, God's Spirit departs from Saul, and a tormenting spirit takes its place. Ironically, David is brought into Saul's palace as a harp player to soothe the troubled king. Kids learn that God chooses the overlooked, values the heart over appearances, and prepares His people through faithful service in small places.

In this episode, Cousin Michael takes kids through 1 Samuel 15, where God gives Saul a clear command to completely destroy the Amalekites and everything they own. Saul wins the battle but keeps the Amalekite king Agag alive and spares the best sheep and cattle, destroying only the worthless stuff. When Samuel arrives, Saul cheerfully claims he obeyed—until Samuel asks why he hears sheep bleating and cattle lowing. Saul blames the soldiers and insists the animals were saved for sacrifices to God, prompting Samuel's famous reply: "To obey is better than sacrifice." God rejects Saul as king, and when Saul grabs Samuel's robe and tears it, Samuel declares that God has torn the kingdom from Saul and will give it to someone better. Saul's confession rings hollow—he cares more about his reputation than his relationship with God. Kids learn that partial obedience is still disobedience and that God values a listening heart above all.