A MAN AFTER GOD’S OWN HEART
"GREEN-EYED MONSTERS"
1 Samuel 18,19
By Rev. John Hannem,
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I'm not sure why my children sometimes wanted their bedroom light on until after they go to sleep, but I remember why I did as a kid. It was the monster underneath my bed. I'm not sure what that monster looked like, because I never saw him. I suppose he was something like the Loch Ness Monster, or Herman
Well, today as we continue to look at some highlights from the life of David, we are going to explore 1 Samuel, Chapters 18 and 19. These chapters tell us of the jealousy and envy that King Saul had toward David. We will see how Saul's life was ruined by that jealousy, and my hope is that the Lord will help us realize that jealousy is a cancer of the soul which we need to get rid of and keep out of our lives.
Our text tells how Saul becomes jealous of David. Last week we looked at the account of David killing Goliath. After David had defeated this giant Philistine warrior in battle, King Saul thinks, "Hey, this is the man I have been looking for. This is the kind of fellow we need. I'm going to keep him around." Saul's attitude changes, however, when his victorious army arrives home after the battle. 1 Samuel 18:6-9 tells us “When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of
Saul's heart is infected with jealousy, the Green-Eyed Monster. Jealousy, or envy, is a sin. It is rooted in what the Ten Commandments refer to as covetousness. It makes us dislike those who have something we think we want. It especially hurts the person who is jealous. Jealousy shoots at others, but wounds itself. As we look at what happened to Saul, we see two ways in which jealousy can be destructive in our lives.
#1) Jealousy harms our relationship with God. That clearly happened to Saul. 1 Samuel 8:10a The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully upon Saul. This is not an easy verse. It is tempting to just skip over it in a sermon, but I think it is important. Back in 1 Samuel we read Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him. The Old Testament tells how the Holy Spirit would come upon people, while in the New Testament the Holy Spirit indwells those who are believers in Jesus Christ. These are similar, but different. When the Holy Spirit came upon people, it enabled them to love God and obey His commands, just like the Spirit does today. The big difference is that while the Spirit indwells Christians permanently, He came upon individuals in the Old Testament on a temporary basis. God's Spirit left Saul, and this opened him up to be tormented by an evil spirit. I, like the biblical writers, believe evil spirits, or demons, are real. If you have a hard time accepting that, I would love to talk with you later, because we don't have time to go into all the reasons why I believe that right now.
Now, many are troubled that it is an "evil spirit from the Lord" which torments Saul. Why would God, a loving and good God, send an evil spirit? This seems like a doctor giving a disease instead of healing.
A lesson for us today is that a person who is jealous cannot have a good relationship with the Lord. Jealousy is not a felony. We can't go to jail or even be fined for being envious of someone else. But that doesn't mean we can take it lightly. It is a serious sin. In Galatians 5, Paul tells us that jealousy and envy are acts of the sinful nature, they are a normal part of the life of someone who is not following Jesus Christ. This means that if I look in the mirror and see a jealous person, I need to ask myself some hard questions. Where am I in my relationship with God? Have I truly trusted in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior? Have I really been born-again? Am I a genuine Christian? If the answer is "Yes, I am a believer in Jesus, but I am still jealous," I then need to recognize that I have a serious problem that can do great harm to my soul. Whether I am jealous because someone at work has a position that I wanted; or if I am envious because one of my friends is more attractive than I am; or if I am jealous because other members of my family have more money than I do, it is a spiritual problem. As I think back over my Christian life, I know there are times when I have been jealous of others. I also know when those thoughts occur, they can often be very consuming.
Do you know what I have found? I have found that when I am jealous, I don't read the Bible very much. When I am struggling with envy, I tend to not spend a lot of time in prayer, except maybe praying like Erma Bombeck who said, "Lord, if You cannot make me thin, at least make my friends fat." Those are not good prayers. When I am jealous, my relationship with God suffers, and I have the feeling that the same thing happens to you. Jealousy harms our relationship with God.
#2) We see that jealousy harms our relationship with others. That happened to Saul. Most obviously it hurt his relationship with David. Verses 12 and 15 tell us that Saul was afraid of David. He's paranoid that David is going to try to take over the throne. Though David has indeed been anointed as the next king, he is not trying to speed up the process. He is very loyal to Saul. Later, when Saul is hunting David down and is clearly an enemy, David spares Saul's life even though he has an opportunity to kill him. Saul had no reason to fear David, yet he was very much afraid. Jealousy often has a way of turning friends into enemies. Saul's jealousy eventually becomes hatred and he tries to murder David. Twice he throws a spear at him and another time he sends him to the front line of the battlefield, hoping he will be killed there, but it doesn't happen. Jealousy destroyed Saul's relationship with David.
It continues to destroy friendships today. A rather plump teenage girl saw a friend walking up the driveway. She said, "Mom, here comes Linda. She is so much thinner than I, it makes me sick." Her mother suggested, "If it bothers you, why don't you do something about it?" "Good idea, Mom." As soon as Linda walked through the door, her friend said, "Hey, Linda, come in the kitchen and have some chocolate cake." Kind of like Erma Bombeck's prayer. Though this may be a very little thing, it shows that jealous people are willing to hurt those they envy, in small or even bigger ways. You don't have to read too many mystery novels or watch detective shows to know that jealousy can become a motive for murder. It is very hard to maintain a friendship when jealousy enters the relationship. Let's say a good friend suddenly inherits a lot of money and becomes wealthy, but you are still living from paycheck to paycheck. Will that friendship last? Well, sometimes the relationship ends because the person who is now rich becomes snobbish and stuck-up. But far more often the friendship is destroyed because the person who is not wealthy becomes jealous of the one who is. Now, we often try to keep this envy on the inside and not let our friends know it is there. Maybe we think of it as a private sin which won't hurt anyone else. But it doesn't work that way. Jealousy always seems to come out in one way or the other. This Green-Eyed Monster can be very destructive.
Saul's jealousy affects more than just his relationship with David. It also hurts his family. In Chapter 19 we read about Jonathan, Saul's son, who is also a good friend of David. In Verses 4 and 5, he attempts to persuade his father not to harm David. 1 Samuel 19:6 says, Saul listened to Jonathan and took this oath: "As surely as the Lord lives, David will not be put to death." Yet, just a while later, Saul makes another attempt on David's life. Verse 10 reads, Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall. That night David made good his escape. This, of course, destroys the trust and the relationship between Jonathan and his father. Saul's daughter Michal also becomes estranged from her father. David and Michal apparently were in love with each other, and Saul tried to use that relationship to trick David into going into battle and being killed. This is Chapter 18, Verse 20 and following. Again Saul's plot fails, but later when Saul's men are hunting David, she warns her husband, helps him escape, and then deceives Saul's men who come to the house. Listen to the story starting in Verse 13. 19:13-16 Then Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goats' hair at the head. When Saul sent the men to capture David, Michal said, "He is ill." Then Saul sent the men back to see David and told them, "Bring him up to me in his bed so that I may kill him." But when the men entered, there was the idol in the bed, and at the head was some goats' hair.
When forced to choose between her father and her husband, Michal chooses David.
Even though it is very destructive, jealousy can be a very subtle sin. It is subtle partly because it is so common and most people don't think of it as a big deal. Everyone gets jealous, right? Someone said, "Few men have the strength to honor a friend's success without being jealous." Yes, everybody seems to struggle with jealousy at times, but that doesn't mean it is not a serious sin. Another reason it is subtle is because it can creep into our lives so quickly. It can happen over the silliest things. I think of a story about Winston Churchill. Whenever Churchill returned to
Well, if jealousy is so dangerous, how should we deal with it? First, we need to trust God enough to be content. Contentment is a great antidote for jealousy. I think we see that in David's life. He was a man who trusted God. That is clear in Chapter 17 in the account of David's battle with Goliath. This confidence in the Lord is evident in Chapter 18 when he and his men again battle the Philistines. This faith in God also helped him be content. A number of years earlier, David had been anointed by Samuel to become the future king of
Friends, this is the key in fighting the Green-Eyed Monster. People who are content are seldom jealous. So often we become envious because we think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. But, as someone said, "The neighbor with greener grass also has a higher water bill." We often mistakenly think that another person is in a better situation than we are in. I have heard a pastor say he was jealous of those who served larger churches because those pastors got paid more. And I heard another pastor admit he was envious of those who served smaller churches because he thought they had more time to do other things.
Secondly, we need to trust God so we are not angry with those who envy us. What do we do when someone is jealous of us? How do we react toward that person? Often we dislike them. We maybe don't want to be around them. Or maybe we do our best to try to make them more jealous. But, David had a very different attitude. His trust in the Lord enabled him to not hate or try to seek revenge against Saul. Though Saul tries to murder him, David remains loyal. Because David trusts God, he never fears Saul. When we looked at the story of David and Goliath, we learned that trust leads to courage. What others think about us, what they might do to us, doesn't matter. What matters is what God, our Father, thinks about us. This is also why we have no reason to hate those who are envious of us.
Friends, we need to be ready to fight the Green-Eyed Monster. Maybe even during this past week you have had a jealous attitude toward someone at work/school, toward a friend, or toward a family member. It may have started as something very small, but it can grow very quickly.
If we are not struggling with jealousy right now, we need to thank the Lord for that. We also need to ask Him to help us be content. That is what will keep us from falling into the trap of being jealous of others. We live in a culture in which it is hard to be content. Advertisers are always telling us that we need more than we have, and that we need what other people have. Have you ever heard a commercial which says, "If the car you have now is working fine, please don't buy one from us. But if it breaks down and can't be fixed, we would appreciate your business." No, of course not. It is the advertiser's job to keep us from being content. That doesn't mean we should not try to improve our situation, it simply means that we need to appreciate and be grateful for what God has given us. And even if we don't have a lot of talent or material possessions, as Christians we can be thankful for the marvelously rich blessings we have in Jesus Christ. If you struggle with being content, beware, jealousy is nearby. Ask the Lord to help you resist it by finding true contentment in Him.
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