THE SAFEST PLACE TO BE (1 SAMUEL 19:1-24)
One of the most educated, talented and charismatic person pastors I know taught me all I care to know about power and ambition. He is gifted in languages, preaching and teaching. His alma mater is one of the finest seminaries in the world, his mentor was a widely recognized leader and his church was one of most established churches in the city. The church grew from one worship service to multiple services, from medium size church to mega-church and from one ethic group to multi-ethnic groups under His leadership. His staff was fiercely loyal, his board members were cronies and his leadership model was praised.
However, the leader’s huge success came at the expense of others. Every three years a showdown erupted, an upheaval ensued and a group exited. No one was safe from his short temper, his long memory and his bully pulpit.
Several years of unparalleled success made him less and less aware and conscious of his faults, weaknesses, limits, but the payback was fierce. When staff members tried to intervene in an overblown conflict, he asked the board to fire all the staff, or else he would quit. When the board refused to fire them, he had nowhere to hang his head and hide his face, so he resigned and left. He had since drifted from church to church, moved from region to region and jumped from ministry to ministry.
The twin towers of power and ambition can be found in any group, institution or corporation. However, it’s been said, “The safest place is to be at the center of God’s will.”
One of the earliest lessons in David’s life was that power is overstated and expensive. David lived in the king’s house, married the king’s daughter and became the king’s son-in-law, but he saw first-hand the corruption of power and he was not willing to fight tooth and nail for it or pour heart and soul into it. Obviously, Saul was not himself, things were not pretty and the stakes were ridiculous. God’s blessings were not in the palace or the politics of Saul but in the person and presence of David.
Power can change lives and affect people. Power in the right hands can nurture a Churchill, but in the wrong hands will nurture a Hitler. How do we decide? Why is it harder to get out than to get in? What is the downside to power? Reject accept
Power is Meaningless When There’s More Harm Than Help
4 Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, “Let not the king do wrong to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly. 5 He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The LORD won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?” 6 Saul listened to Jonathan and took this oath: “As surely as the LORD lives, David will not be put to death.” 7 So Jonathan called David and told him the whole conversation. He brought him to Saul, and David was with Saul as before. 8 Once more war broke out, and David went out and fought the Philistines. He struck them with such force that they fled before him. 9 But an evil spirit from the LORD came upon Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the harp, 10 Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall. That night David made good his escape. (1 Sam 19:4-10)
A man who had a malicious brute and a big bully for a neighbor decided to sell his house and relocate from the area and the meanie, to the surprise of his other neighbors.
The neighbors persuaded him to stay, saying: “His sins will soon come to a head and he will pay in full for his misdeeds. Why not tarry a little longer and see what would happen next?”
The man replied, “That’s exactly why I am moving. I am afraid that his sins will come to a head - through me!”
Saul declared open hunting season on David and placed a “wanted” tag on his head. The Philistines were no longer Saul’s choice of weapons. He dispatched his son Jonathan and all the servants (v 1) – not some, but all - to do the job and finish David off. However, Jonathan was not cut from his father’s cloth or a chip off the old block. He looked out for his friend and his sister who was married to David, but Saul looked down on his own son (1 Sam 20:30) and questioned the loyalty of her daughter (v 17).
David did all he could to gain Saul’s trust, but when that failed, he fled and escaped. Tried as he did, David could not slow or stop the king’s madness. He did not blame Jonathan for having such a father, the soldiers for serving such a boss and even Saul for issuing such an order. Saul was mad, but David was not. Staying would make him a bigger nut and a basket case. The third attempt on his life was the bottom line. He believed in the goodness of the heart, but he also believed in the ravages of sin, the depravity of man and the corruption of power. The madness of King Saul was in full swing. One minute he listened to his son, the next minute he listened to no one. One minute he thought David was an asset, another a liability. One minute he believed that David did no wrong to the king, the ensuing David had his eye on the throne. The king couldn’t decide if David was innocent or impeachable, if he wanted David fixed by his side or stuck to the wall. Poor David was afraid to turn his head, rest his back or close his eyes.
The good news of David’s conquest and the good side of David’s character again produced another bout of jealousy, madness and violence. David’s works were not just good (v 4), but “very good” in Hebrew, which NIV translated as “benefited you greatly.” David was as trustworthy, impeccable and faultless as could be. The king wanted him dead as much as the Philistines did. The Chinese say, “Spears in the open are easy to avoid, arrows in the dark are hard to defend.” David was Robin to Saul’s Batman, Watson to Holmes, Tonto to Long Ranger, what else could Saul ask for?
When David’s very best was not enough, it was time to leave and relocate – and not a minute too soon. When Jonathan’s stirring speech wore off his father (vv 4-6), Saul’s raving jealousy broke out immediately. The two sides of Saul were well chronicled. When Jonathan was present, Saul was an angel, but when his son was absent, he was fiend. The army needed David for fighting, but Saul hated him for winning. David was in a lose-lose or no-win situation; he lost when he won (v 8). His winning struck a chord with Saul, but it was not music to his ears. Later, David’s music was not good therapy anymore, but bitter medicine to Saul.
Power is Meaningless When There’s More Hurt Than Healing
11 Saul sent men to David’s house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, warned him, “If you don’t run for your life tonight, tomorrow you’ll be killed.” 12 So Michal let David down through a window, and he fled and escaped. 13 Then Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goats’ hair at the head. 14 When Saul sent the men to capture David, Michal said, “He is ill.” 15 Then Saul sent the men back to see David and told them, “Bring him up to me in his bed so that I may kill him.” 16 But when the men entered, there was the idol in the bed, and at the head was some goats’ hair. 17 Saul said to Michal, “Why did you deceive me like this and send my enemy away so that he escaped?” Michal told him, “He said to me, ‘Let me get away. Why should I kill you?’” (1 Sam 19:11-17)
A big city lawyer went duck hunting in the countryside. He shot and dropped a bird, but it fell into a farmer’s field on the other side of a fence. As the lawyer climbed over the fence, an elderly farmer drove up on his tractor and asked him what he was doing.
The litigator responded, “I shot a duck and it fell in this field, and now I’m going to retrieve it.” The old farmer replied, “This is my property, and you are not coming over here.”
The indignant lawyer said, “I am one of the best trial attorneys in the country and if you don’t let me get that duck, I’ll sue you and take everything you own.” The old farmer smiled and said, “Apparently, you don’t know how we settle disputes here. We settle small disagreements like this with the ‘Three Kick Rule.’”
The lawyer asked, “What is the ‘Three Kick Rule?’” The farmer replied, “Well, because the dispute occurs on my land, first I kick you three times and then you kick me three times and so on back and forth until someone gives up.”
The attorney quickly thought about the proposed contest and decided that he could easily take the old codger. He agreed to abide by the local custom. The old farmer slowly climbed down from the tractor and walked up to the attorney. His first kick planted the toe of his heavy steel toed work boot into the lawyer’s groin and dropped him to his knees. His second kick to the midriff sent the lawyer’s last meal gushing from his mouth. The lawyer was on all fours when the farmer’s third kick to his rear end sent him face-first into a fresh cow pie.
The lawyer summoned every bit of his will and managed to get onto feet. Wiping his face with the arm of his jacket, he said, “Okay, you old coot. Now it’s my turn.” The old farmer smiled and said, “Naw, I give up. You can have the duck.
An English proverb says, “When elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers.”
The hardest thing for David to leave was not the glory and the honor, but the love and the friendship. David had to leave a sick king, his loving wife, his best friend and his fellow soldiers behind. Hurting them was never on his mind. David had won many fights but not this fight, because the hunter was once his mentor, the father of his best friend and the father of his own wife. It was a fight he could not win and must not win. Staying behind would hurt more than it would help. His best friend could not confront his father for long, nor could his wife fool her father more than once (v 14). Choosing father or husband, birth father or best friend were not healthy options. The father-son and father-daughter relationships were at breaking point. The father called her daughter’s husband his enemy to her face (v 17).
The Philistines used to be Saul’s traditional enemies (1 Sam 18:25), but now David was public enemy No. 1. For David, to win would make his friend and his wife fatherless and the nation powerless. Seeing people fight or die for him was not his style. The people would not accept a killer king either and all Israel and Judah that loved David (1 Sam 18:16), including the palace servants (1 Sam 18:22), would end up fearing him instead.
David did not want to stoop to the king’s level; he must soar to new heights. Defeating the weakened king, who had lost his head, his heart and health, would not make him a better man. He did not want to follow in Saul’s footsteps – to be mad, moody, melancholy, manipulative, malicious and murderous. If being king make one forget one’s family and friends, he wanted nothing to do with it. The father-child relationship in Saul’s family was so strained that someone might get seriously hurt. He did not want to risk innocent lives, destroy healthy families and divide the army. David, who had killed Goliath and two hundred Philistines (1 Sam 18:17), chose to leave rather than fight Saul’s men who were merely following orders.
Power is Meaningless When There’s More Hostility Than Harmony
18 When David had fled and made his escape, he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there. 19 Word came to Saul: “David is in Naioth at Ramah”; 20 so he sent men to capture him. But when they saw a group of prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came upon Saul’s men and they also prophesied. 21 Saul was told about it, and he sent more men, and they prophesied too. Saul sent men a third time, and they also prophesied. 22 Finally, he himself left for Ramah and went to the great cistern at Secu. And he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” “Over in Naioth at Ramah,” they said. 23 So Saul went to Naioth at Ramah. But the Spirit of God came even upon him, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth. 24 He stripped off his robes and also prophesied in Samuel’s presence. He lay that way all that day and night. This is why people say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” (1 Sam 19:18-24)
The Chinese have a saying, “When the crane and the clam fight, the fisherman gains.” The occasion for this story is the refusal of the crane to release the clam from its grip after the bird spotted the clam on land and pecked at its delicious flesh. The clam, in order to save its flesh, closed its shell instinctively and gripped the bird. The two did not back down, call it quits or give each other an inch but eyed each other tensely.
The crane dared the clam that was out of water, “You will be dead meat if it doesn’t rain soon.” The clam rebutted, “You cannot last a day without food, either.” The quarrel soon ended when a fisherman passing by nabbed the two defenseless creatures for food.
Saul couldn’t let go of his hatred and hostility for David. He would set trap after trap, send servant after servant and sway child after child to betray David. The word “kill” occurs eight times in the chapter (vv 1, 2, 5, 6, 11, 11, 15, 17). The bloodthirsty king even went ahead to do the job himself after three attempts by his men to find and kill David in Ramah failed. When the Spirit of God touched the men (v 20), they had no idea what they were doing, what they were uttering and why they were there in the first place.
The hostility of Saul was unabated. Saul wanted David dead in the city or outside the city, by his men’s hands or by his own hands and with or without God’s approval. He did not listen to his men, who stated that their human efforts were repelled and counterproductive. From this moment on, Saul would go after David by himself. Sending his men to hunt David again was out of the question. He couldn’t trust anyone but himself to do the job and wanted no one to have the satisfaction of killing David. His ruthlessness had reached the doors and the heights of heaven.
When he heard that David had taken refuge with Samuel the prophet, Saul did not back off or wait outside. He breathed murder even in front of Samuel. He did not care if Samuel, God or His Spirit was around. A seizure seized Saul and immobilized him (v 23), which deterred him from coming near to David as long as Samuel was around. The Spirit of God embarrassed Saul to no end. He stripped off his clothes, did the chicken dance, said the strangest things and sat naked all day, as naked as Adam and Eve in the garden before the fall (Gen 2:25). Fortunately for the king, no one had a camera, digital camera or cell phone camera then. It would have been quite a sight.
Conclusion: Lord Acton said, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Are you letting power, ambition and success get to your head? Are you using what God has given you humbly, modestly, and respectfully? Are you bowing oneself at the altar of power or selling yourself to the gods of ambition. The only promise of Christ’s power in the Bible is its availability to the weak. The Lord says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9-10). Is power a vacuum to fill, a taste worth acquiring and a way of life to you?
Victor Yap
Other sermons in the series and other sermon series:
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