Read Chapter 19 of First Samuel (verses 1 - 17)
In the last Day Share we saw that Jonathan had spoken to Saul, his father, on David's behalf to persuade him not to treat David as his enemy. It appears that Jonathan's intervention on behalf of his friend was successful and David was able to return to the king's court as he had done before. This shows some remarkable grace on the part of David. It could not have been easy to forget about Saul's attempts to kill him. He had every reason to distrust Saul - in fact, it was clear that Saul could not be trusted. He had repeatedly tried to throw a javelin at him. He had tried unsuccessfully to get David killed by the Philistines - even suggesting a ridiculous dowry to entice David to attack the uncircumcised Philistines. Saul had used his servants and even went as far as instructing his son, Jonathan to execute his newfound friend.
David was humble enough to go back to being a servant to a man who had no moral right to rule the nation of Israel. He trusted in God enough to put aside his own fears and trust in God to protect him as he made his way back to the palace where he had almost been killed by the king's jealous rage. Saul's change of heart did not last long. He was not able to continue to listen to the rational thought processes of his brain - rehearsing the arguments advanced by Jonathan. He found it hard to bury the envy that caused him to act on violent impulse. Saul is a picture of a man who is governed by the sinful nature which the Bible calls the flesh. I remember working as a student in the local parks department and one of my workmates had been a professional footballer. Sadly, he had developed an addiction to alcohol and this transformed a very likeable, jovial man into a monster. One day he confided with me that he had attacked his wife the night before while he was under the influence of drink. He was distraught and remorseful. He knew that he had almost killed her in his drunken rage. He told me that he was never going to touch drink again. That conversation would have taken place around 9 am and after lunchtime he returned to the squad with a distinct smell of alcohol on his breath. Sadly, he never was able to give up his addiction to alcohol and it ruined his life. Saul's addiction was to jealousy - not alcohol. It was just as deadly and powerful.
It all began to go wrong when war broke out again between the Israelites and the Philistines. David resumed his military activities and was very successful again. This is what Saul just cannot handle - he is so jealous of David that he hates when things go well for him. He has not learned anything from Jonathan's wise advice. Surely he can see that David is good news for Israel - he has been the scourge of the Philistines all beginning with his successful attack on Goliath. Here he is striking another blow against the Philistine menace. Let's pause a moment or two and reflect on the implications of this for us in our day. This is an imaginary situation but I suggest it is not too far-fetched. We have two Christians in the same church. Both are about the same age and were good friends at one time until A struck up a friendship with a girl from a neighbouring church. This was a blow to B who would have liked to start dating that same girl. B becomes very jealous of A and this jealousy affects their previous close relationship. Both A and B play an active part in the church youth work. Both of them are youth group leaders. However, one young lad, who is a member of A's group, is from a deprived background becomes very interested in the Gospel. He asks many questions and one evening A leads this young lad to the Lord. He becomes a Christian and is on fire for the Lord. Before long he is bringing many of his mates to church and they are showing an interest. B finds all of this hard to deal with. His jealousy prevents him from rejoicing along with the angels in heaven that this young man's life has been turned around. The young man asks for baptism and this is too much for B. His jealousy has affected his judgement and his spiritual life. He cannot bring himself to attend the baptismal ceremony - and makes a feeble excuse to skip church that evening…… And you can finish this story for yourself. It all began with jealousy. Before long, B's spiritual life was in ruins.
Back to 1,000 BC and the life of David. Saul is sitting eyeing David as he is playing the harp or the lyre. He used to love hearing that sound - the music of the harp helped to soothe his bad temper and to lift him out of the melancholy and depression. But not so this time. There is a javelin just near him…… and he uses it again. Once more Saul tries to pin David to the wall with his spear. David jumped out of the way and the spear missed its target. And so David flees to his home with Saul's daughter, Michal. I have already described in a previous Day Share how Saul tried to arrest and kill David and Michal deceived her father and helped David to escape from the servants of Saul who had been watching the house during the night.
In the early verses of chapter 19, Saul had made a promise or an oath before the Lord. He had promised that he would not take any steps to put David to death. I am not sure what gap there was in time between this promise made in verse 6 of chapter 19 and Saul's unsuccessful and clumsy attempt to pin David to the wall with his spear in verse 10. It is hard to be precise with dates and times but I suggest that it might have been only a few weeks or maybe a couple of months since Saul had stated that he would not attack David again. Saul was out of control - he was in the grip of a harmful spirit from the Lord and he could not control his temper.
I 1 to spend a considerable proportion of my week dealing with young people who had, in the psychological jargon, anger management issues. One boy threw a chair through a window in his classroom. Another girl attacked a teacher in a rage and the teacher was injured so badly that she was never able to work again. I could go on with memories of some of the young people I interviewed after serious incidents in school. Losing their temper was a common occurrence for many young people with dire consequences. Before leaving this incident in the life of David, I want to make some points for our benefit today. It is not just teenagers who have anger management issues! Sometimes adults lose control and act on a violent impulse. Sadly, some Christians have destroyed their reputation by such conduct. As I look within myself, I have to admit that the seeds are in my heart. I tend to be very placid but some things provoke me and I can become irritable and bad-tempered. Saul was unable to control his behaviour. His jealousy was ruining him. It is the Holy Spirit who provides the power to allow us to exercise self-control. Some years ago we looked at the subject of the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5 and the Day Share for 22nd March 2020 was entitled 'Fruit of the Spirit- Self-control'. Here is the prayer which ended that Day Share
Prayer
O Holy Spirit, I am aware of the weakness in my old nature and I need your strength to give me the power to live a holy life. I want to live a life that is like Jesus and is well-pleasing to God the Father. I need your power every day and every hour of the day. Without your strength I will give in to my old sinful nature. Please strengthen me today.
Amen
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