When jealousy creeps in……….

All the while that David is enjoying this special friendship with Jonathan, he is experiencing a very different relationship with his father Saul.

At first Saul loves David. Of course he does. What’s not to love? David is the only one to stand up and face the mighty Goliath – and defeat him!

What a relief for Saul and his men.

It’s as if everything David touches, turns to gold. He’s one of those annoying people who are good at everything. More than good. Excellent.

The kind of people who shine at everything and leave you feeling inadequate. That’s how Saul felt when the people started singing –

“Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his tens of thousands.”  1 Samuel 18:7

So what emotions start creeping in?

Anger….annoyance…fear for his future…..suspicion……jealousy.

So much so that he wishes he were dead.

And he has the power to do something about it.

 Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with David but had departed from Saul. So he sent David away from him and gave him command over a thousand men, and David led the troops in their campaigns.  1 Samuel 18:12-13

He can send him away. He can hope and pray that he gets killed in battle.

The problem is he does not get killed. Quite the opposite. He keeps winning. And winning. And winning.

The people love him.

Saul offers his first daughter to David in marriage but David is not so sure. But when Saul’s second daughter Michal falls in love with him, they do get married (when David has paid two hundred Philistine foreskins for her!).

Now Saul has a hold over David and can expect him to keep engaging in battle (until he dies, hopefully).

Even Saul’s son is enamoured with David and makes his father promise not to harm him. That must be really annoying.

Saul can’t help himself. He is consumed by jealousy and rage. He throws his spear at David again.

Michal helps her husband escape and fools the men coming to capture him.

David runs to Samuel but every time men come to capture him, the spirit falls on them and they start to prophesy – even when Saul comes! He has no hope. In fighting David, he is fighting the living God.

Saul is now beyond pretending. Anyone (including his son) who is for David, is against him. David must die.

David is now in hiding and pretty desperate. He begs for food from the priest in Nob and eats the consecrated bread. He begs for weapons and is given the sword of Goliath.

When he goes to Gath, the people recognise him and he is scared, so he pretends to act like a mad man.

His family and friends gather round him in Adullah and he leaves his parents in Moab for protection.

Saul is hot on David’s heels. He promises the people more than David can offer. They spill the beans.

He kills anyone who helped David.

Meanwhile, David (in hiding overcome with fear) goes off and defeat a group of Philistines attacking the people at Keilah.

He and his men have to keep moving him. Finding him and killing him have become an obsession for Saul. He can think of nothing else.

We’ll leave it there for today, because tomorrow David does something wonderful (although you’ll have to wait until Saturday!) and I want to devote more time to that.

Today has been the stuff of a soap opera. A universal film script. The one where a leader starts training up a successor and then can’t handle the fact that they are going to be better than them.

Jealousy creeps in. Jealousy takes over. Jealousy destroys love and friendship.

Jealousy creeps into the workplace and family and friendship group and church all too easily.

We want to be the one to be noticed.

We want to be the one to be praised.

We may say that we don’t, but there is a part of us that wants to be appreciated for all that we do.

And often, it doesn’t seem fair.

Actually, often, it isn’t fair.

Often, notice and praise and affirmation and appreciation are not shared out equally, even when deserved.

People have favourites.

And it hurts when it is not us.

That’s when jealousy works its way into our hearts and minds.

We may not have Saul’s power to pursue the golden boy or girl or couple to the death, but we can hope that they will disappear and never come back. We can make life unpleasant for them so they leave and get another job, go to another church, find a new group of friends……We can be mean and highlight their faults and be secretly pleased when they put a foot wrong. We can find ways to shake the pedestal they are standing on.

It happens all the time. Without us even noticing what we are doing, most of the time.

We find it hard to celebrate the good in others, when we are battling with our own insecurities and resentments.

Saul is an extreme case, but his story highlights the destructive power of jealousy.

Hopefully it will have given you something to think about today.