The Crown - David Has Killed His Tens Of Thousands Series

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.