Show Notes
1 Samuel 18:1-16
Pastor Christopher Chelpka
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Let's pray.
[00:00:08] Our Heavenly Father, we confess your sovereign power. We confess that we are subject to you as the highest good, as our chief end, as the supreme being who has made all things and to whom all things o their allegiance and obedience. We not only give to you this honor, but we thank you for the honor of giving you this honor. And we thank you for changing our hearts that we would no longer be rebellious against you and wicked and full of treason.
[00:00:44] And Lord, what a dangerous place that is for us. That was for us. But now to be in the kingdom of your beloved son, a kingdom of light, a kingdom of holiness.
[00:00:56] A kingdom that has been achieved not through our works, but through yours. We do indeed find ourselves rejoicing and confessing. Lord, we ask that you would press these truths deeper into our hearts this morning as we consider your word in 1st Samuel. We ask that you would unblind our eyes, un stop our wills and make us a people that are ready to serve you out of love for you and by the power, the supernatural power of your work in us. We pray for these things knowing that you are so generous to give. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:01:50] Let's turn to First Samuel, chapter 18.
[00:01:55] First Samuel 18.
[00:01:57] As we continue to hear God's word. And this is the passage I'll be preaching on this morning.
[00:02:18] I'm going to be focusing on verses 6 through 16, but let's start actually at the beginning of chapter 18.
[00:02:27] And I'll read through verse 16.
[00:02:31] Let's give our attention to God's word.
[00:02:34] As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David. And. And Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father's house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt. And David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him, so that Saul set him over the men of war. And this was good in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants as they were coming home. When David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines, with songs of joy and with musical instruments. And the women sang to one another as they celebrated. Saul has struck down his thousands and David his ten thousands.
[00:03:33] And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, they have ascribed to David 10 thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands. And what more can he have but the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that day. On the next day, a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul. And he raved within his house while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day.
[00:04:00] Saul had his spear in his hand, and Saul hurled the spear, for he thought, I will pin David to the wall. But David evaded him twice.
[00:04:11] Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul. So Saul removed him from his presence and made him commander of a thousand. And he went out and he came in before the people. And David had success in all his undertakings, for the Lord was with him. And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David, for he went out and came in before them.
[00:04:38] May God bless his word to us. You may be seated.
[00:05:04] I've had a really nice opportunity in my life to know and have be friends with a number of very smart and talented people. And as I think about those people and those relationships, I can see in myself sometimes when that has been a really nice thing and other times it's been really hard.
[00:05:29] There have been times where I have enjoyed those friendships and things. I enjoy those relationships. And then other times when jealousy creeps in.
[00:05:40] And these people, sometimes these same people are to me a source of pain and frustration. As I ask myself, why am I not more this or less that that? Why does he have it so easy? Why does she get such and such a thing?
[00:06:00] I think you probably have had similar experiences with jealousy.
[00:06:06] Whether it's somebody's health or their financial situation, maybe their education, maybe it's their upbringing, maybe it's their future, maybe it's their past.
[00:06:19] We can look at other people and there are ways in which we can celebrate the things that they're doing, the things that God has blessed, the ways that he blesses us through them. And then there's other ways in which we become very discontent. And we look at others and we let these sins creep into our hearts and we say, that's not fair. Why not me? How come I can't have?
[00:06:43] And when the sin of jealousy creeps into our lives, it can be very, very destructive.
[00:06:52] Like a lot of sins, there's things that we feel like, oh, we can kind of manage it on the edge, or it's not that bad, or I'm keeping It under control. But those are always very dangerous thoughts when it comes to sin.
[00:07:05] Sin is not something you want to manage or keep under control. It's something you want to get rid of, to kill, to eliminate, to push away, to eject from your life. Because it's really, really dangerous in all kinds of ways.
[00:07:25] The sin of jealousy in particular, if you put yourself and remember times where you have been jealous, maybe are jealous.
[00:07:37] Times when you, perhaps other people have been jealous of you and you didn't have anything to do with it. You're just being you. And now all of a sudden, there's all this weirdness and frustration.
[00:07:48] Think about all the difficult frustrations that come from that.
[00:07:52] The way that it poisons relationships, breaks people apart, creates all kinds of tension.
[00:08:00] The way it corrupts our joy. It takes genuinely good blessings and awesome things, either in ourselves and our relationships and other people, and it just makes them like we don't like them, we don't want them. Good things. It takes our joy from us. And then of course, it distances us from God.
[00:08:23] When we, instead of seeking our contentment in Jesus, in Christ, and we let our jealousy grow, seeking contentment in the things of this world or in the source of ourselves, we find ourselves further and further away from the Lord. Jealousy doesn't get us closer to God. I could put it that way. Jealousy and discontentment and frustration about our circumstances doesn't ever grow us closer to Him.
[00:08:52] We could even say it causes physical pain. Proverbs 14:30 says, A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rotten.
[00:09:04] Have you ever been sick to your stomach because of jealousy?
[00:09:10] Our emotions, of course, are. And our spiritual lives affect our physical lives and vice versa.
[00:09:17] There's a danger here of jealousy that we ought to pay attention to. And we see it here sadly, in the life of Saul.
[00:09:28] Saul's heart has been captured by a discontentment.
[00:09:35] He's been captured. His heart has been captured by seeing David and the way that God is blessing him. And it's leading to bad things.
[00:09:46] But God offers to us a solution for our jealousy and our struggles with jealousy. And that is contentment in Christ. And I want to think about that with you today.
[00:09:57] To do that, first we'll think about the problem of jealousy itself. Then we'll think about what contentment in Christ is and why it is a real solution to this problem.
[00:10:10] But first, let's think a little bit more about this sin, particularly through what happens here in this story with Saul.
[00:10:17] Poor Saul, poor me, poor you.
[00:10:21] We see how jealousy Creeps in. And it really, really, really messes with us in our lives.
[00:10:31] First note, what happens in verse six, Note that they are coming home. It's not just David, but it's Saul and David and the armies. They're coming back from striking down the Philistines, the women of Israel. The men are coming home, the women are coming out. You've seen these kind of parades before, after the. The. You know, the war has been won, the victory parade. Everyone's really excited. They all come out and notice what the scripture says to meet King Saul.
[00:11:06] He's the one that they're there for. They're not there for David.
[00:11:11] He's a part of it, but they're there for Saul. Saul is the one who's being celebrated here. Saul is the victorious one. Tambourines, songs of joy, musical instruments. And the women sing. Saul has struck down his thousands and David his ten thousands.
[00:11:28] Now, of course, Saul hears this in the worst possible way, which is often what jealousy does, right? He says, wait a second. They're attributing to David the ten thousands and to me the thousands. And he gets all upset about it, right?
[00:11:45] Could there be another way of thinking about this?
[00:11:50] I think so were the women and all of those who are celebrating and trying to separate Saul and David in some way. It doesn't seem to be. The narrator tells us they came out to meet King Saul.
[00:12:04] What probably was happening here is that they were celebrating Saul and his great.
[00:12:11] His great warrior, right? As one who is under Saul. This is all in some ways. I mean, if Saul had the right attitude about this, he could have thought, this is all attributed to me, right? David's my servant. These are my men. This is my army. These are the people that we defeated with I as their king, right? He's the leader. He gets the credit for these things. And he could have thought about it that way as it probably was intended. Instead, he gets all mixed up in his mind, and he can't even hear the praise that is being offered to him and to his. His warrior and to his army over the defeat that he made. He can't hear it. He can't hear the celebration of crowds being given to him.
[00:13:00] Instead, he mishears what they're saying, and he eyes David. Jealousy does this. It takes away joyful moments. It takes away blessings. It takes away these moments where we can celebrate and rejoice in the good things that God has done. And it distorts our vision. It makes us to see things in a strange way when we should be happy. We're sad because of the way that we are perceiving things.
[00:13:30] Notice.
[00:13:33] Well, here's another thing.
[00:13:35] Not only does it keep us from seeing things as they are, and it blinds us to the blessings, but it also distorts or destroys our relationships. Here's David, this man who's been nothing to him but loyal. David has not sought to step out of line. David has not tried to usurp the throne, despite the fact that David has been anointed by the prophet of the Lord to be the king of Israel. David hasn't said anything about that. David hasn't promoted himself.
[00:14:10] David has only and always been promoted by Saul himself. Doing what Saul has asked in battle, publicly and privately, in his house, playing the lyre for him.
[00:14:25] David is one of Saul's greatest assets as a leader. He's loyal, he's capable, he's got good character.
[00:14:36] What else do you want?
[00:14:38] And he's. And he's ready to serve Saul.
[00:14:42] Now, in the midst of all this, now Saul, in all of his jealousy and his mixed upness, now all of a sudden begins to see this person who's his greatest asset as his enemy. He's eyeing David. And even we read earlier in another chapter that when David would play the liar, it would help Saul. Now this helper, he's trying to pin him against the wall, maybe even kill him.
[00:15:07] David evades him twice.
[00:15:12] What would you do if you were in a job and someone was trying to throw a spear at you, pin you against the wall?
[00:15:20] My guess is you would probably try to find a way out of that job.
[00:15:25] David is still there.
[00:15:28] Saul makes him the commander of a thousand, and he continues to find success in all of his undertakings. Of course we know why it says the Lord was with him. And Saul, not only is he struggling with this jealousy now, but this jealousy is turning into fear instead of having confidence because he is connected with the future king, or at least in his mind, this very loyal servant who's honoring to the Lord. Instead of feeling confidence and assurity about what God is doing, the way God is preserving the people and him and all these sorts of things, he's becoming afraid. First we read that he eyes him in verse 12. Then it says he's afraid of David. And then by the time we get to verse 15, we read that Saul stood in fearful awe of him.
[00:16:24] It's breaking his relationships with David, of course, as he tries to murder him with the Lord, right as his sin just grabs hold of his heart and pulls him down more and more. And it doesn't say it explicitly here, but we know this is coming with Jonathan, his son, and later his daughter and other people in his household.
[00:16:50] Everyone else is seeing this rightly. Jonathan has given his life, his soul, his. His possessions. He's thrown to David.
[00:17:00] Michael, Saul's daughter, will become David's wife, his servants. We read back in verse five that, and this was good in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants, that Saul set David over the men of war.
[00:17:20] Right. So as Saul turns on David, he's also going to be breaking his relationships with everyone else, his family, his people and his God.
[00:17:35] Why?
[00:17:37] Jealousy creeping into his heart, distorting his vision, destroying his relationships.
[00:17:47] A tranquil heart. Proverbs 14:30 that I read earlier. A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.
[00:17:59] So if jealousy distorts our vision and destroys our relationship, what can heal?
[00:18:07] What can improve this? What's the antidote? The antidote is contentment in Christ.
[00:18:13] Now remember, Christ means anointed one, just like Messiah means anointed one. And Jesus the anointed one, the Messiah, the anointed one of God is prefigured here in our chapter by David. Who is the anointed one? The king over God's people. Anointed by God, whom God is with to serve and to bless his people.
[00:18:40] What do we see in David? We see that as God's anointed servant, God's blessing is on him and there's success.
[00:18:50] God is creating success for David and blessing for David and for all his people through him. What are some of the ways we can think of through war?
[00:19:01] Right. They're being victorious over their enemies through unity. Within Israel is another one. As all the people are coming together and rejoicing and seeing these good things of God, we also have David's wisdom, we have David's courage, we have David's skill in playing the liar. All these kinds of things. God's blessing is clearly on his Messiah, on his anointed one.
[00:19:24] Well, this is true in David in kind of a partial shadow kind of way, where the reality and the fulfillment in Christ is just dialed up to my infinity. I guess the blessings that come to Jesus, who's not just another man, but is the God man, God in the flesh to represent us and to rule over us. The blessings and success that come from him are beyond our wildest dreams.
[00:19:58] Ephesians 1:3 says that God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing.
[00:20:07] We are told that we are given Peace and joy and love and contentment and hope, self control and kindness. We're told that we are given a place as citizens in the kingdom of heaven.
[00:20:22] A kingdom that is not of this world, that will be revealed from above and will outlast every kingdom that has ever been and ever will be. A kingdom that is described as being perfect and holy and beautiful.
[00:20:39] So beautiful that when John sees pictures of this place in heaven, it's kind of hard to describe. Pictures filled with images of light and radiance, of powerful angels and shining jewels. A place of social peace and contentment and protection, honor and glory.
[00:21:08] All this to say this very simple thing, that the Lord has blessed God, the Father has blessed his chosen son, his Messiah, our king, the Christ.
[00:21:22] And so, just as Israel finds safety and protection and blessing and all these things by putting their trust in David, so we, and even more so, find all these things and more so in Christ.
[00:21:38] That's where we find what we're looking for. It's in him that we find the things that our hearts long for. Whether it's physical, physical safety and restoration, which we'll have in the resurrection, or spiritual safety and peace that we have even now beginning. And ultimately when we go to be with the Lord, anything that we could possibly ever want, we have in the Messiah, in the Christ.
[00:22:12] And you see examples of that in our chapter. Look at David.
[00:22:17] The focus is on Saul and his actions. But just try to come at it from a different angle and think about David for a moment. Here's David, who's been anointed by Saul to be the king, who sees craziness everywhere around him. Fear, disobedience, bad leadership, all kinds of things.
[00:22:39] But we don't see him getting angry, we don't see him embittered, we don't see him discontent. If anybody has a reason to be discontent here, it's David. Can you imagine how frustrated you might be in your sinfulness? And I'll talk about myself, I guess, in my. How I can imagine how frustrated I might be in my own fleshliness to think God said through the mouth of Samuel that I was supposed to be this person.
[00:23:10] And yet Saul remains. Saul makes bad decisions. Saul's trying to murder me. Saul is being fearful. He's leading Israel into bad places. Someone needs to do this job better. And I know who that someone is. Why isn't God letting me? Why is this happening? Why am I the one who's suffering?
[00:23:29] There's a lot of kind of legitimate reasons you could make a reasonable case for discontentment.
[00:23:37] So what's going on in David's heart? Or Jonathan? What's going on in Jonathan's heart? Why does he seem to be so happy?
[00:23:47] Right. Because when we put our content not in David, but in God, who has chosen certain things and decided certain things, when we put our contentment in him, in his promises, in his provisions, all that other stuff just falls away.
[00:24:08] Because God will do what he wants when he wants to do it. God will provide his grace as we need it. God will establish his people in the time that they need to be established. It's David's faith that's shielding him from bitterness. It's Jonathan's faith in the Lord that's shielding him from anger and bitterness. And it's allowing David because his faith, as it was with Goliath, same thing with this challenge with Saul. His faith is not in the power of men. His faith is in God.
[00:24:42] And so he can relax, he can stay focused.
[00:24:49] He is shielded from bitterness and discontentment.
[00:24:54] Well, how can we find that contentment? How can we find this antidote to jealousy?
[00:25:03] Well, it is, of course, to embrace Christ as the chosen one, as the blessed one, as the one through whom God has promised all of these things.
[00:25:13] Christ, as I said, is our anointed king, just as David was. And so, like Jonathan, as we attach ourselves to him, we find peace, we find joy, we can find contentment. Because all of a sudden, our value is not in the things of this world. It's not attached to our position or our place, our wealth, our health, nothing. The world says you find your identity in all these places. You find your value in all these places. And we as Christians say, no, I don't.
[00:25:44] My value, my worth, my safety, my protection, everything I need is found in Christ, who is without variation, without shadow, due to change. He doesn't change. He doesn't move. He perfectly faithful, perfectly true, steadfast in his love for me. I have nothing to worry about. My value, my worth, my identity. These things are not in question because I belong to him in some ways. Jealousy. The problem of jealousy is trying to find our contentment in the things of this world.
[00:26:24] When we're trying to get content in things that can never provide that, or we're trying to find the source for our strength in ourselves, we're going to be frustrated always.
[00:26:36] But when we begin to put our hopes in someone who is outside of this world and who can provide something that this world cannot provide, there is a settledness that can come, a peace that does come.
[00:26:53] And Jesus promises this to us. Among his many promises is not only our salvation in heaven, but are the beginning of the work of that heavenly life in us. Now he not only gives us heaven, but he gives us hearts that's able to receive it.
[00:27:12] Like I said, sin and jealousy takes good things and makes us almost incapable of enjoying them.
[00:27:21] The supernatural work of God is changing our hearts so that we can not only have blessings, but receive them. Not only be given them, but receive them as well.
[00:27:35] Now, often, and this is important to say often this happens the way that God does this in our lives, not always, but often, he strips away the jealousy and the discontentment and the striving and all of that.
[00:27:53] He strips it away and brings us to a place in clinging to him through a painful process.
[00:28:05] I think about the prodigal son as an example of this. The story of the prodigal son, one of the parables that Jesus tells of a son who goes to his father. Son has everything he needs in his father, everything right there. His life is good and he's discontent and he's unhappy. And he wants to have it separate from his family, separate from his father. And so he demands this inheritance early and he goes off on his own. And he seeks to find his contentment instead in the world. He spends it on all kinds of terrible things. He wastes it all away. And slowly his dependence, which started as happiness, his dependence on the things of this world, he starts to realize where that leads. And it ultimately leads to all kinds of loss and sorrow and self loathing as he comes to realize what it means to depend and not on his father.
[00:29:02] Well, the good thing about this story is that the prodigal son returns home after being stripped of his pride, after being stripped of his illusions of what the world can provide. He returns to his father and good news, his father runs to find him, runs to see him. The love of the father is so extraordinary.
[00:29:29] He goes to his son and then he gives him this big feast and all is really, really well. And the son learns this important lesson, that there's another son. Some ways we could call this the narrative, the parable of the prodigal sons.
[00:29:47] Because the one son that we usually think about with the product as the prodigal son, right, he left in this external way, internal too, but this external way, the other son stayed. But he had all that jealousy and bitterness too.
[00:30:04] In a different way, though, he was. When the son, when his brother came back, he was jealous and he was upset. But why, if you remember, he was jealous and upset because he was placing his hopes in his own righteousness, in his own abilities, in his own strength. And he was comparing that with this other person, with his brother. Instead of putting his hopes in his Father, in his Father's love, and in the joy and the goodness and the grace of his Father, both of these sons could only find happiness and fellowship in the company of their Father.
[00:30:46] As the story, in this particular story, and this is meant to teach us about God and his love. Ultimately, when we, either internally or externally or both, separate ourselves from God and say, I'm going to go find my happiness somewhere else, in myself or in the things of this world, we will find ourselves filled with anger and bitterness and struggle.
[00:31:11] But when we remember the promises and the goodness of our Father, when we see him in the ways that he's constantly running toward us, and when we turn away from our striving for contentment in this world and find that by turning away from jealousy and clinging to Jesus, we will find hope and happiness and rejoicing.
[00:31:40] So to conclude, we can say this jealousy, as we've seen in the life of Saul, in our own lives, it distorts things, it destroys things, it creeps in, it makes us kind of crazy and it can really ruin our lives.
[00:31:57] We ought to be on guard against it. We ought not to let it slip in. We ought not to let it fester or be there or present in any way. It makes us enemies of God. It makes us enemies of the very ones that we serve. But in Christ, who gives himself freely to us, we can have a contentment. We can find in him, our worth, our health, our life, everything that we need, every a spiritual blessing.
[00:32:26] Hebrews 13:5 says, Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have.
[00:32:36] Because he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
[00:32:44] Do you hear the logic in that?
[00:32:46] Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have.
[00:32:51] Not because, well, other people have it worse than you, or not because you don't know the struggles that other people are going through.
[00:33:00] Not because, well, watch out, money can kind of hurt you.
[00:33:03] Not because of all kinds of bad and semi good reasons we can come up with. But why? How do we keep ourselves free from the love of money? How do we find contentment?
[00:33:15] Because I will never leave you nor forsake you.
[00:33:21] And that is the gospel, the good news that we find in Jesus Christ.
[00:33:26] That's why when we embrace him, when we embrace our Father through the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we don't have to strive and cling to the things of this world.
[00:33:39] We can stop trying to find our happiness in ourselves or in the fleeting things of this world, but find them in Christ and His Word.
[00:33:48] Let's pray and ask that God would help us to return to him and to do just that.
[00:33:56] Lord, we thank you that you do not leave us in our sins and in our misery, particularly in the sin of jealousy.
[00:34:04] We thank you that you do not offer to us no hope, but instead you have given to us Jesus, a messiah king who is who has conquered all of your and our enemies and whom we do not need to run away from, but can run to.
[00:34:29] Lord, please help us to turn away from our discontentment and our jealousy of other people, of other circumstances.
[00:34:39] And instead, Lord, help us to turn help us to turn away from our jealousy and turn toward Jesus.
[00:34:48] You say in your word that you will never leave us nor forsake us.
[00:34:55] Why, O Lord, is it so hard for us to believe this when you have been nothing but faithful from generation to generation to generation?
[00:35:07] Lord, we confess the doubt in our hearts.
[00:35:10] We confess our lack of courage, our lack of faith.
[00:35:16] You tell us in your word. You say, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
[00:35:23] Why are we so needy then? Why do we feel like we need to be afraid?
[00:35:31] Lord, help these feelings to go away.
[00:35:36] Help our faith to build.
[00:35:39] Help us to know that you are our shepherd and to know what that means.
[00:35:43] Lord, give us opportunities throughout the week as we read your word, as we speak with other Christians, as we meditate on the things that you say and do in our lives. Give us opportunities through these things to come to a deeper and deeper understanding of what it means that you are our shepherd, that you never leave us or forsake us. Help us to understand more deeply and richly and particularly the aspects of your provision of your unchangeableness. Help us to understand and appreciate and live in light of your infinite love goodness.
[00:36:28] Help us to put our faith and our hope in your promises of protection and of life everlasting in all these things. Lord, we ask that you would keep us on your way and help us not to be distracted by the things of this world, but to give ourselves fully over to you.
[00:36:46] We thank you for the ways that you've already done this in our lives. We rejoice in the hope that we have the peace that we have and we ask for more boldly because you're such a good Father. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
