Today we will continue our series on the kings of Israel in 1 Samuel 18. The first king is Saul and he has not been doing well and this week we will see that things are just getting worse.
Before that, here’s a little story:
I was an average/mediocre athlete in high school. Good enough to make the teams but not quite good enough to be a starter. Before high school however, I was a rising star – especially in football. I was a quarterback in our town’s youth league and was a starter at QB, voted the team’s MVP, and I was drawing interest from the HS football coach. Going into sophomore year he approached me and was excited about the upcoming season and hinted that I could be a big part of it. We went off to preseason camp the summer before my sophomore year and I had high expectations. I remember even an article in our local paper that mentioned me as a potential starter at QB. I was ready to compete for the starting role. Things didn’t go very well. I wasn’t the only quarterback the coach had spoken to. I got injured a few days into camp. I remember calling my parents disappointed. The rest of my high school football career was for the most part riding the bench, some mop up duty in blowout games, some action on special teams.
Meanwhile, many of the kids I grew up playing football with starters. They had their names in paper every week. Their names were heard often from the PA system. That was hard on me. It’s sometimes hard when other people are having success and you are not, or at least not as much success as they are having.
That’s what we see in 1 Samuel 18. Although David is not king and Saul is, David is a shooting star in Israel. He is becoming a national hero.
He killed Goliath (1 Samuel 17)
He and Saul’s son, Jonathan, become best of friends. It even seems that Jonathan, who would be heir to the throne as oldest son, is more supportive of David than he is of his own father, Saul.
David as a military commander in Saul’s army has the best record of all the commanders.
David is highly respected among the troops.
Saul’s daughter Michal falls in love with him and they get married.
All of this is driving Saul mad, but what seems to push him over the edge is a chant that’s being heard around Israel and it’s the new dance craze:
1 Samuel 18:7 (NIV) — 7 As they danced, they sang: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.”
?
It’s obvious to everyone that the Lord is with David and Saul can’t handle it, so:
He sends David on all the dangerous mission hoping he will get killed.
On two occasions Saul will hurl a spear at David while David is playing his lyre to sooth the troubled king. (David is also a good musician!) David eludes it both times.
When David asks Saul what the bride price for Michal is (a custom in the ANE), Saul demands 100 Philistine foreskins. (I don’t write the story, I just tell it). Again, Saul hopes that David will get killed in the process. BTW, David brings back 200 Philistine foreskins.
This is what the relationship between Saul and David has come to:
1 Samuel 18:29 (NIV) — 29 Saul became still more afraid of him, and he remained his enemy the rest of his days.
Much of the rest of the story of Saul’s life is him chasing down David.
What has gotten into Saul? Scripture says that God had sent an evil spirit into Saul but in cases like this I think Saul had a lot to do with this. Saul had opened the door and the evil spirit walked right in. It came knocking and Saul opened the door.
Saul seems to really struggle with someone other than himself experiencing success. And I have that struggle too. And I would bet you might have that struggle as well.
In school, there’s someone who always seems to come out on top. Always the popular one. The smart one. The athletic one. The gifted one. The musical one. The one who wins all the awards. The one who has all the friends. The one all the teachers like. And it’s not that they are bad people. They’re good. You are working so hard, but everyone seems to be chanting their name and not yours.
At work, there’s that employee who would be named employee of the month if not for the fact that you can’t have the same person employee of the month every month. They are just gifted. They are smart. They are charismatic. They’re good looking. The executives love them. And they’re not cheating or putting on a show, they are just that good. And it drives you mad. You work just as hard, but you just don’t get the same results.
In church, there are people who seem to have all the spiritual gifts! They seem to get all the attention even though they are not asking for it or looking for it. That’s just the way it seems to work. And you work just as hard if not harder and no one seems to notice.
It’s called jealousy or envy and even though that word is never used in 1 Samuel, it seems to be what is troubling Saul. And it makes him do bad things.
Saul is driven by bitterness, that is, harbored hostility against God. He is in a state of perpetual tension, always ready to detect slights and threats to his position. He is constantly reaching harsh and unreasonable assessments of the conduct of those around him and is so obsessed with his personal position that he is willing to use his family and associates to achieve his purposes. His suppressed anger is a “root of bitterness” that has sprung up and caused trouble, leading to defilement of his character and conduct (Heb. 12:15).
Mackay, J. L. (2019). 1-2 Samuel. In I. M. Duguid, J. M. Hamilton Jr., & J. Sklar (Eds.), 1 Samuel–2 Chronicles: Vol. III (p. 201). Crossway.
Jealousy is a terrible emotion. Jealousy is the scab you keep picking only to have the wound fester. Jealousy is a hunger you simply cannot satisfy; the more you eat, the emptier you feel, and it forces you to feed it once again. Jealousy is a pain that will not abate; it persists and pounds us until we are pushed to the point of no return. Jealousy is a terrible and harsh master.
Greear, J. D., & Thomas, H. A. (2016). Exalting Jesus in 1 & 2 Samuel (p. 137). Holman Reference.
Jealousy and envy can have no place in our lives or in the lives of God’s people. It does terrible things to us!
James 3:16 (NIV) — 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
Jealousy does wicked things to Saul. And it can make you do bad things as well. It has me.
I remember on the bench almost hoping the team would not do well. I remember hoping sometimes that someone would get hurt so I could play. I remember loving football when I was young but now I really hated it. Did I like it just because I was good and getting attention or did I really love the game?
Do I love doing good because it gets me attention or do I love doing good because I love good and I love the good God?
So here are some practices I need to put in place to protect my heart from the bitterness that comes from jealousy – to close the door on the evil spirit that wants to enter my heart though the doorway of envy.
Rejoice with those who rejoice
Romans 12:15 (NIV) — 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
Romans 12:15 (The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language) — 15 Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down.
Celebrate with others and for others.
Hebrews 12:14–15 (NIV) — 14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
When I rejoice with others I am plucking out the weeds of bitterness in my life.
Especially in kingdom efforts, we need to be most concerned that God’s work is being done, not that I am getting the credit. An example of this is John the Baptist:
John 3:26–36 (NIV) — 26 They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.” 27 To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. 30 He must become greater; I must become less.”
We do what we have been given to do. Our goal is for shine the light on Jesus not ourselves. John wasn’t obsessed with personal recognition and was willing to let the light shine on Jesus because he loved truth more than he loved personal recognition.
Work for an audience of one
We may get recognition for the good things we do, but we may not. Others may thank us at work, school, or at church and that’s fine but other times we may not. When we feel feelings of jealousy, envy, or bitterness that we are not getting the attention that can really reveal our true love. Am I in love with recognition or am I in love with God. It reveals our motives. Am I doing good to be recognized by others or am I doing this to honor God?
Jesus gives considerable time to these ideas in SOM:
Matthew 6:1–8 (NIV) — 1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
We serve ultimately for an audience of one – our father in heaven.
Part of Saul’s downfall was a desire for personal recognition and jealousy of others’ success. And we must be aware that it can be your downfall as well.
One of my highlights from my senior year of football was my very last game. Thanksgiving was the big game of the year. I was on the kickoff team and our opponent had a star running back returning kicks. I raced down the field and made a solo, text-book tackle (I think they are still using it in instructional videos to this day!). As I jogged off the field I expected to hear my name called. But instead of my name another was called – someone who was a starting LB who had his name announced all the time. But I will always remember on f our coaches - guy who had coached me in those glory days of mine (Billy Blood) – come off the sideline, slap me on the side of the helmet and say, “Good tackle Catteau.” And that was all I needed. Hearing him recognize me meant so much more than however many people were there that day.
Colossians 3:23–24 (NIV) — 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
So many times we want to be crowned by others. That’s nice but we work to be crowned by God himself.
Maybe that’s what distinguished David from Saul. Maybe that’s why David was called a man after God’s own heart because David’s desire was to win the approval of God and God alone.
