1 Samuel 18: 17-30 Jealousy And The Making Of A King

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1 Samuel 1817. And we are considering the life of David. And what we've kind of noticed is this building of character. I mean, that's what God does. He doesn't just want to get things done. He wants to work in us, even before he works through us. And so really, um, we've been looking at the building of the man or woman that God wants to use, the building in this life of David. Um, it's about like building a house. It's not just about raising walls, it's the materials, it's the craftsmanship, uh, it's the foundation, right? Those things are all important. Characters, material uh of our life. Uh, Jesus compares it there in Matthew 7 uh to a wise man building his his life, his house on a rock. And that foundation matters. So uh God has a lot he wants to do with David, but first he's gonna do a lot in David, and he does the same with us. Um today we'll consider some methods and some motives in the lives of Saul and then of David, and ultimately um the character of Jesus, obviously. Well, let's read before we go any further, let's read verse 17 uh to the end of the chapter. Then Saul said to David, Here is my older daughter Merib. I will give her to you as a wife. Only be valiant for me and fight the Lord's battles. For Saul fought, let my hand not be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him. So David said to Saul, Who am I and who is and what is my life or my father's family in Israel that I should be son-in-law to the king? But it happened at the time when Merib Saul's daughter should have been given to David, and she was given to Adriel, the that guy, as a wife. Now, Michel, we'll call her that. It's not exactly Michael, it's Michel. Saul's daughter loved David, and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him. Um so why don't we just stop there? There's uh some marriage going on here, some relationship stuff going on here, and in it, and how uh Saul uses this, we really see Saul's character. It's going downhill, right? Uh David's is upgrading, Saul is downgrading. And here we see Saul's character. Uh for Saul, there's gonna be some lying and some manipulation today. Uh, but we know his motives, right? As this story has gone on, we see that Saul's got some serious jealousy, right? You can look back at verse seven, it's that lousy song, right? As they come back from battling the Philistines and David fights Goliath, there's that lousy song that the people sing. Saul has slain his thousands, David his tens of thousands, and Saul was very angry. This saying displeased him. So we see jealousy here in Saul's heart. Um, it's rooted in David's success, right? And the people's love for David and that lousy song. And and Saul is just burning up. Um, he's had problems before this, but we see at this he eyed David from that time on, uh, the evil eye, the eye of jealousy and envy. Um God was with David, and the spirit had departed from Saul. Now notice verse 12, kind of looking back, Saul was afraid of David. In verse 15, the same thing. Um, he was afraid of David. So so Saul was losing his power and his influence, and it made him scared. It made him jealous. And and we notice again how potent that little thing of jealousy, of envy can be. Powerful motives, right? Lead to resentment and regret. That's a good warning again for us as we look at this. Something small like jealousy can overtake our lives and our hearts. Uh, jealousy in American history, because I love American history, is what led um the assassin to shoot President Garfield. Do you can remember President Garfield? Maybe you should stand up on him a little bit, but it was jealousy and resentment that led that guy to shoot President Garfield. It was what led Cain to kill his brother Abel. And it was what specifically Pilate noticed in the religious leaders was motivating them to turn Jesus over. It was envy. So we need to be pretty aggressive and honest with jealousy and envy in our life, lest it destroy us. Uh powerful thing. Now, that's the motive, right? Jealousy, fear, envy. Um, but what about the methods? What does Saul do with it? Well, we've already seen spears flying, right? That's pretty significant. As David is playing his heart before Saul, calming his spirit. Um, Saul just grabs a spear and he tries to pin David to the wall. And David kind of puts up with it, right? He flees from Saul, but he lets it go on. Now that's a wonderful thing of humility in David's life. I mean, any of us, if our boss started throwing actual spears at us, probably say, you know what, it's good, I'm gone. But David sticks with it. He gives him maybe the benefit of the doubt of having a bad day. But notice there's some more manipulations today here as Saul uh uses his actual daughters to get to David. Uh, first in verse 17. He offers his firstborn, his older daughter, Mera. Now, for whatever reason, that falls through, but Saul here says, You want my daughter Mera, you go and only notice, only be valiant for me and fight the Lord's battles. So Saul is trying to manipulate David to go and fight the Philistines. Now, um, he uses flattery here. He he really does. He he uses flattery and says, You can do this. Go be valiant, you mighty man, you know? And and and flattery is a trap, isn't it? Uh Proverbs 29:5 says, A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet. Flattery. We don't really see that as a big danger, but we remember it from Leva to Beaver, right? Yeah, you all remember leave it to beaver. No, you don't. Eddie Haspell, right? Mrs. Cleaver, aren't you looking beautiful today? What do you want, Eddie? Flattery. We fear those things. Uh, but here, um Saul is really kind of buttering it up a little bit, and he says this in verse 17 be valiant, David. You're a valiant guy. Go be patriotic for me. Go fight this battle. He appeals to that uh patriotism. But notice he also says this uh, be valiant for me and fight the Lord's battles. So Saul gets rather spiritual for a guy who's not very spiritual most of the time. He says, Oh, David, go fight the Lord's battle. How do you say no to that, right? Oh, God has a battle he wants me to fight. Oh, yes, sir, I will go fight the Lord's battle. And it's putting spiritual clothes on his own wicked motive, right? Because we know as we look at this thing as a whole, the Saul's trying to put David in a spot where he's gonna be destroyed. And yet Saul says, Hey, here's a spiritual thing to do. Go and fight the Lord's battles. It's kind of funny how we can put spiritual clothes on something that's even our own bad intentions, right? Um, it's not gossiping, right? It's it's I just need to let you know how you can pray for them, right? Um, we make excuses, spiritual excuses for some pretty wicked things. And here Saul says, Oh, go fight the Lord's battle. Uh yet his motive was really that he wanted to see David die in this. Now, this also in this, Saul brings some innocent others into it. We see first Merib there, his oldest daughter. And for whatever reason, that falls through. But then there's this one with the unique name in verse 20. Now, uh Michel, I love to say that, Saul's daughter loved David. Um, for whatever reason, Saul's younger daughter has a thing for David. You know, maybe she saw uh, you know, just his toughness in battle like everyone else. Maybe there was some godly reasons why she looked at it and said, Oh, what a godly God. I really like him. Whatever reason, she had it for David. But notice um there. What verse are we in now? Uh verse 20, you're right. And the thing pleased him, pleased Saul. Now we can read that and go, that's nice. Saul looked at it and he said, Oh, what a wonderful map set would be for my daughter. It pleased him, but that's not the idea we get with Saul, is it? I see the grinch, the grinch in Saul at this point, where he sees his daughter, you know, has at least this love for David. He goes, you know, the smile comes up and it pleased him. It can't be good with Saul, right? Oh, she loves him, he'll he'll do this for me, and it'll be the end of David. Right? Evil love. And and notice verse 21, he says it pretty clearly. I will give him give her to him that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Therefore, Saul said to David a second time, you shall be my son-in-law today. So, so he really wants to destroy David through this. He really wants to put him in a place where the crosshairs of the Philistines are right on David. Um, now he gives them a rather gruesome challenge there in verse uh 25. And Saul said, Thus she shall say to David, the king does not desire any dowry, but 100 foreskins of the Philistines to take vengeance on the king's enemies. But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. So it's a dowry, right? That's something we see here, a dowry. Pretty archaic thought, but a dowry was really just uh storing up for the woman in a marriage. So if the man skipped town or died, then she would be taken care of. Well, Saul's dowry that he puts forth here a hundred Philistine foreskins. And the real essence here is David, you're a giant slayer. Prove yourself and win my daughter. And and in some ways, Saul is speaking David's love language here. He's saying, go out there and win this battle. If you're so amazingly valiant, go out there with flattery and and do it. But again, Saul's real motive in verse 25 is to make him fall, to kill him off by this impossible challenge. So look at the heart. It's jealousy, it's envy. Look at the method, it's flattery and manipulation here by Saul. It's not good. Um now we consider this, and we consider that David should be very standoffish by this. Why? Saul's offering him to be part of his royal family. Oh, I'll give you my daughter, you'll be my son-in-law, you'll be tied in. Um, but really, when you think about it, flashback to chapter 17, that great chapter where David faces off with Goliath. Remember how it went down? David came to the Valley of Elah there, and they were standing, uh, you know, trash talking each other. And it goes out from the men. What would happen if somebody went and faced off with Goliath and won? Well, it'd be great riches for their family. It would be no taxes. That's pretty good. No taxes in all of Israel for their family, and Saul will give his daughter in marriage to whoever wins. So the promise was already made back in chapter 17. Saul is not one to follow through, right? David already killed the giant, and Saul just kind of brushes it off and forgets about it. He's not honest in any kind of way, and we definitely see that. Now, that's the ugly part of today. Let's look at David and see his character. Um, certainly we see meekness here in David's life again. It's power under control. He could stand up and say, Hey, look, Saul, you already promised me your daughter in marriage. I already killed the giant. Give me what you promised. And he stands up for his rights. But he doesn't do that, he doesn't argue for his rights. Um, and and in that, though, he's he's also humble. I think it's genuine. Um, notice verse 18, skipping around a little bit here today, but look at verse 18. The offer of being part of Saul's family. And David said to Saul, Who am I? And what is my life or my father's family in Israel that I should be son-in-law of the king? Verse 23. He says it again. Does it seem to you a light thing to be the king's son-in-law, seeing I am a poor and lightly esteemed man? David looks at his life and he goes, Look, I'm not. I'm nobody. I'm I don't have any rights or power or anything like that. David is very humble here. Um we can be really good at demanding our rights, but to sit down and realize what we really do deserve, where we're really at, um, that's that's the beginning of getting help, really, right? I mean, that's the beginning of salvation. It's so important to understand that we are sinners, that we are lost. Most times we kind of go into it with the free get out of hell ticket, right? You know, that's salvation. Here it is, what Jesus did on the cross. And that's true, no strings attached. But to understand that we're lost and dead in our sins, it's so important because it puts us in our place. There's absolutely nothing we can offer in salvation, right? God's not getting anything out of it, you know. We're lost and on our own, we're we're totally destitute. And I think David has that spirit there. I'm not worthy to marry the king's daughter. Now, David, though, when given the challenge to bring Saul a hundred Philistine foreskins, David rises to the challenge there in verse 27. And what does he do? Therefore, David rose and went, he and his men, and killed 200 men of the Philistines. So the challenge was 100 men of the Philistines, Philistines. I can't say a Philistines, and he comes back with two. And in verse 27, he gives a full count to the king. And David turns a deadly trap into undeniable faith and courage. Um, he delivers it without complaint. And we would say he went the extra mile, right? Uh, as Jesus said there at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. If somebody asks you to go one mile, go too. If somebody slaps you on one cheek, turn and give them the other cheek. David goes the extra mile for sure to win uh his bride. And the crowd goes wild, no doubt. This backfires on Saul big time. As David comes back, another victory. It probably was that lousy song again. And look at verse 27. Therefore, uh, nope, not that. Um, well, uh, and David brought them before the king that he might become the king's son-in-law, and Saul gave him Michel, his daughter, as a wife. So he wins the day. And carry on to verse 28. Thus Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David, and that Michel, Saul's daughter, loved him. And Saul was still more afraid of David. So Saul became David's enemy continually. Didn't go well for Saul. This character of humility, but great valiance, right? As David steps up to the challenge, it shows us Jesus. Easy to get to. There's no stretching here. That same character represents Jesus. Nothing sums up the character of Christ better than those two words: humility and valiance, right? Um, humble, laying down his rights, coming in simple human flesh. We could look at Philippians 2 that he came as a bond servant, um, laying down his rights, laying down his life for us, a humble lamb. Yet he came so valiantly to fight. I love Jesus' toughness, right? John chapter 8, where he comes to the rescue of a woman caught in the act of adultery who was just about to get, you know, rocks thrown at her uh in front of everybody. He comes and he saves the day. John chapter 9. There's a blind guy who they threw out of the synagogue. And and because Jesus healed. Him because of this faith that he had. He threw him out. And Jesus comes to the blind man. And and and just such toughness that Jesus showed. And yet, on the cross, he showed it stronger than any other time. In laying down his life, he destroyed, he annihilated the power of sin and death in our life. He's both the lion and the lamb. Humble and totally valiant. Jesus went the extra mile for us, for sure. His bride. In purchasing a bride, he went the extra mile, not just saving us, but putting us in heavenly places. We're more than conquerors, Roman says in him. We don't just get by, it's onward and upward. And what the devil meant to destroy, just like Saul, Jesus used to save us. What a beautiful thing. That here we see just a little bit of that character worked out in David. That's what we're called to do. We're not going to be perfect. We'll perfectly represent Jesus. But in those simple things in life, to represent him to this world around us, that truth, that he loved us, that he laid his life down for us. And it's motivation as we look at that, it's motivation for us to live for him. So, Don. I wish we could just with good thoughts go out and uh represent you. But you already know the things that are gonna come into our life. And so many times in our flesh, we just absolutely can't. We're not humbled. We're so proud. We're not valiant. We oftentimes live in fear. And yet you want us to represent you to this world. God help us to live in your spirit this week and not in the flesh. God, you would give us the grace to lay down our rights and our own lives for others. God, that people wouldn't see us and what brave people we are. God, they would see you and the work that you're doing. God help this word to be true in our lives by your grace and by your mercy. God, um, we love you and we thank you in Jesus' name.