Saul’s Jealousy and Jonathan’s Love, I Samuel 18-23

Two shopkeepers were bitter rivals. Their stores were directly across the street from each other and they would spend each day keeping track of each other’s business. If one got a customer, he would smile in triumph at his rival. One night an angel appeared to one of the shopkeepers in a dream and said, “I will give you anything you ask, but whatever you receive, your competitor will receive twice as much. Would you be rich? You can be very rich, but he will be twice as wealthy. Do you wish to live a long and healthy life? You can, but his life will be longer and healthier. What is your desire?” The man frowned, thought for a moment, and then said, “Here is my request: Strike me blind in one eye!”

Jealousy is such an irrational and cruel thing, to be resentful at the good fortune, success, or advantages enjoyed by other people, to be afraid of someone becoming equal to us, or worse, better than us.

The irrationality of it may be best explained in the parable Jesus told about the landowner that went out early in the morning to hire laborers to work in his vineyard for the day. He found some guys looking for work and offered to pay them a denarius for a day’s work, which was fair, and they agreed. Then he went out later in the day and hired more laborers to work the remainder of the day. He didn’t settle on a price with them. He just said “I’ll pay you what’s right.” He even hired some guys at the end of the day to work just the last hour. Then that evening when it was time to pay the laborers, he called those hired last, first and generously paid them a whole denarius though they’d only worked an hour. So then the guys hired first who worked all day thought they might get paid more than just the denarius they agreed to work for, but when they came to receive their pay, they received just the denarius they agreed to work for. So then they were jealous of the guys who got the same pay for less work, and they were angry and grumbled and complained to the landowner about it. The landowner answered (Matthew 20), “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius?  Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Do you begrudge my generosity?” You see, jealousy is this negative attitude we may have even though we haven’t been wronged or cheated in any way. It’s being upset because the giver has been generous to other people. You know, had the giver decided not to be generous to those other workers, maybe even if he had cheated them, then they’d be fine with that. But because he decided to be extra kind and gracious to them they were bitter about it. It makes no sense and it’s clearly inconsistent with love for our neighbor.

Something I’ve realized about jealousy, maybe you have to, is that we tend to only be jealous of those with whom we closely identify; with our peers, or those in the same class or category as ourselves.

For example, if you don’t care at all about gardening, if you make very little effort to have a garden, you’re not going to be jealous of the guy down the street who has the most beautiful garden. But if you’re a gardener and your garden looks like its main produce is dandelions, then you may be jealous of the guy down the road with the beautiful garden.

Most of us, if we’re not in the medical profession, will probably never be jealous of a surgeon who gets some reward for being the greatest surgeon. Rather we would admire him for his good work. We’re not surgeons. We don’t identify with him in that aspect, so there’s no jealousy problem there.

Most of us probably don’t have a jealousy problem with the guy that won the gold medal in men’s figure skating in the Olympics. But if you were another figure skater in the Olympics you might.

For you, it may be the guy in the cubicle next to you who always seems to get more sales and more commission than you. It’s for me other preachers. If you’re a young wife with kids, it’s other young moms and wives who seem to be thriving a bit more than you that may incite you to jealousy.

It’s not a commonly confessed sin, but it is a very common sin. And the Bible has tons to say about it.  We’re just going to focus on two characters in I Samuel, two characters in the life of David.

If you were a big name in Israel, if you were a leader in Israel, I think David had a lot to be jealous of, especially after he killed the giant Goliath that all the other men of Israel were too afraid to go take on. And when he killed Goliath, the Philistines ran and Israel had this great victory over the Philistines. As you can imagine, David gained instant popularity, status, and prestige. He became the nation’s hero. His fame spread not only through Israel but through much of the ancient world. He was an overnight celebrity. Not only that, but he was good looking and smart. He could do everything; shepherd, warrior, skillful musician. Granted, he didn’t play something cool like a guitar. But at that time the harp was about the equivalent. He was a man’s man and a lady’s man. He even wrote poetry for Pete’s sake. How many manly men are writing poetry?  If we are, we aren’t telling anybody about it. David was excelling in every way, every place he went, because God was with him.

The first guy we’re going to look at is King Saul.

Saul’s Jealousy

I Samuel 18, this is after David has killed Goliath and he’s led Israel to a great victory over their enemies. Starting in verse 6, “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.” And Saul was very angry, for this saying displeased him. He said, ‘They have ascribed to David ten 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 women did not intend to offend Saul, they intended here actually to honor him, but with what just happened, David deserves a bit more credit for the victory. Saul chooses not to focus on how he’s been blessed, how the nation’s been delivered from their enemies and how he is being honored. He focuses instead on the fact that somebody’s being honored more than him. And if you know the story in I Samuel, I think something that made Saul prone to jealousy like this was that Saul was insecure in his relationship with God. Multiple times in the story he’s been disobedient to God and Samuel has talked to him about God’s displeasure. I think being insecure makes us susceptible to jealousy as well, it’s like other people are a threat to us and if they’re succeeding or they’re honored, it’s like they’re taking something from us. But if you know God loves you immensely and he’s with you and he’s going to work things out where you are highly honored and well taken care of, then you feel secure and other people aren’t so much a threat to you. We can all leave here this morning with that security, where we know God’s with us and He’s going to honor us and take good care of us. We can have that security that keeps us from jealousy; Jesus described God as the father of the prodigal son and even though the son was so ungrateful and rebellious, when he came back to the Father, acknowledging his sin, the Father embraced and accepted him. That’s our God and we can do that any time. We can own up to our sin, take responsibility and say, “Lord I want to serve you.” So we can feel secure.

As the story continues here, I see two things about jealousy. The first is that if jealousy is allowed to stay in our heart…

It will erode our character and sanity.

The craziness begins, I Samuel 18:10, pretty quick you see this happen with Saul. Of course I think this is also helped out by a demon because ever since he continued to be rebellious, the Spirit of God departed from him and an evil spirit moved in and began to terrorize and oppress him. And whenever Saul was depressed and angry, David’s part-time job was to come and play music for him. I guess it would drive the spirit away and he’d feel better. Well, verse 10 is one of those occasions, “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. 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.” It says “twice,” it had happened before… I think after the first time I would quit without giving my two weeks’ notice. But David hung around.

Throughout chapter 18 and the next chapters, Saul makes several attempts to kill David and the jealousy within him grows. Corruption, to the point where in chapter 20 he curses and hurls a spear at his own son because his son sides with David. Then in chapter 22 his character so erodes from jealousy that he is no longer devoted to his kingly responsibilities and building up the nation, he’s just devoted to capturing and killing David. He even murders the high priest and 85 other priests and their wives and children and friends, all in this little town, because he found out the high priest had assisted David and his men by giving them some provisions.

So jealousy really appears to be this cancer of the soul in Saul. This cancer is in whoever hangs on to jealousy, it’s a mind-altering drug. James 3:16 says, “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.” Jealousy just comes in and destroys someone’s character. I don’t read Shakespeare, but I know this quote from him, “Jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.” Jealousy turns us into those characters, those green-eyed monsters.

Reverse Returns of Jealousy

Another thing about jealousy that you see in this story with Saul is that it will get you reverse returns when you act on it. Everything Saul did to harm or destroy David ironically worked to David’s advantage and Saul’s disadvantage. The harder Saul worked at David’s downfall, the more he just assisted David’s rise in fame and status and the more despicable he made himself before God and the nation. The more he acted in jealousy, the more he propelled the opposite of what he wanted. And that’s not unique to Saul’s case. That’s a repeated story, a pattern, throughout the Bible.

For example, I Samuel 18:20ff, Saul used one of his daughters as a pawn to bring David down. He had promised to give one of his daughters in marriage to the man who killed Goliath. And it was customary for the groom to give the father of the bride a large gift in exchange for his daughter’s hand in marriage, called a dowry. So for the dowry, Saul asks that David go kill a hundred Philistines and bring back a particular something from each of them to prove it. It’s mixed company here so I won’t read it out loud. If you have a Bible you can read about it yourself, I Samuel 18:25. It’s kind of R-rated. Those of you who don’t have your Bibles are thinking, “Oh man, what’s it say? I wish I had my Bible.” Well, you should have your Bible. It’s full of stuff you don’t want to miss. Anyway, Saul’s intention is to get David killed by the Philistines. But David knows God’s with him and delivering Israel from the Philistines was part of God’s plan for his life, so he takes some soldiers and does double what Saul asked for. So then the people just loved David all the more. So it just propels the opposite of what Saul wants.

And it’s a repeated story all through the Bible. Remember Joseph. His brothers were so jealous of him because he was the favorite son of their father, he got the preferential treatment, and he got these amazing dreams from God. So they sold him as a slave to some traders on their way to Egypt. Which resulted in what? Well, down in Egypt eventually, Joseph became Pharaoh’s right hand man. In their jealousy they assisted Joseph’s rise to power.

Remember Daniel. The other government officials of Persia were so jealous of him because he was so successful in everything he did and the king loved him and the king was thinking about putting him in charge over the entire kingdom. So they came up with a suggestion to the king that he should issue this decree that for one month anyone caught praying to any god except the king will be thrown to the lions. They got Daniel thrown to the lions. Which resulted in what? In Daniel being saved by God and becoming even more famous and even more loved by the king and it got the jealous ones and their families in the jaws of the lions.

When the Jewish leaders, out of jealousy, put Jesus on a cross, that resulted in what? That enabled Him to rise from the dead, which showed the world who He is, His love and glory, and drew multitudes from every tribe, tongue, people and nation to be His servants.

You see there is a God who watches every human being on His earth, and He hates jealousy, and He’s in control of things more than we realize. It appears He sees to it that the jealous get the opposite of what they want when they act on their jealousy.

Now, let me tell you about the man who chose to love in this story; a man who had more reason than Saul to be jealous of David, Saul’s son Jonathan.

Jonathan chose love instead of jealousy

Before anybody knew about David, Jonathan was the hero. Before David ever led a great victory over the Philistines, King Saul, Jonathan, and a small army were preparing for battle with the Philistines. And the little army was trembling with fear because they were outnumbered big time and the only weapons they had were farming tools, because the Philistines earlier had removed all the weapons and blacksmiths out of Israel. The only ones with swords and spears were Saul and Jonathan. Israelites were hiding in caves and thickets and cliffs and cellars and pits. Well, without telling anybody, Jonathan took one young man with him, his armor barer, and he snuck over to a Philistine garrison. He said to the young man at his side, “Perhaps the Lord will work for us. The Lord doesn’t need a big army to deliver Israel. Let’s go out in the open where they can see us and if they tell us to wait while they come to us, then we’ll just wait. But if they invite us to come to them, then we’ll take that as a sign the Lord is with us and he’s delivered them into our hands.” So they showed themselves to the Philistines. The Philistines said, “Hey look, the Hebrews are coming out of their holes where they’ve hidden themselves. Hey, come on over here, we’ve got something to tell you.” Jonathan said, “That’s our sign. I think God is with us.” And he went with his armor barer and killed about twenty Philistines. When the Philistines discovered they had a bunch dead in their garrison, they trembled with fear or were puzzled at how they didn’t see the attack coming. Then came the earthquake which sent them into a panic and there was great confusion, and some of them even started to fight against each other. Saul and the men decided to take advantage of the Philistines’ confusion and they attacked them. Things were looking hopeful, Israelites starting coming out of the woodworks, out of their hiding places, and attacking Philistines. And it was Jonathan who was the hero and the deliverer of Israel before David.

Jonathan was also the crown prince of the kingdom of Israel. He was the heir to his father Saul’s throne. David was a rival to the throne and he rose in fame and status. But I Samuel 18:1 says, “the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as himself.” 18:3, “Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with his armor, including his sword and his bow and his belt.” He gave him all of this equipment and signs of his position and leadership as if to say you deserve all this more than me.

Then years later, the last time Jonathan and David saw each other (I Samuel 23:17-18), Jonathan said to him, “Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Saul my father also knows this.” And the two of them made a covenant before the Lord…”

It is fascinating to me how many parallels and similarities there are between David’s story and Jesus’ story. Do you remember who was in the spotlight and was the spiritual hero before Jesus. A guy with a very similar name to Jonathan; John. It says in the gospels that virtually all of Jerusalem and Judea and the district around the Jordan River were coming out to John, hearing him preach and being baptized by him in the Jordan River. John was a spiritual hero. About everybody, aside from Jewish leaders, respected him as a prophet of God. Some even asked him if He was the Messiah, the promised king. If anyone had reason to be jealous of Jesus, it is was John. In John 3 when Jesus started to become popular and Jesus and His disciples started baptizing people (John 3:26), John’s disciples came to him and said, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness- that is Jesus, look he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” In other words, “John, look they’re leaving our church and they’re going to that guy’s church and he’s getting more attention now.” John 3:27, “John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.”

There are three qualities that I see about Jonathan and John the baptizer that kept them from jealousy.

  • Number 1: They were secure in their relationship with God. They were both men of faith and courage and obedience to God. They knew God was with them and they knew God was going to honor them. So what other people got was not a threat to them.
  • Number 2: They recognized, that all the fortune and prosperity and success and gifts any receive in this world are from the good hand of the perfect God. John the Baptist said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.” So jealousy is, in a sense, displeasure with the government of God who is the one who gives and takes away. To be jealous is, in essence, to deny the goodness or wisdom or control of God. It is to say, “God, for some reason, you’re not managing things as you should. You should not allow that person to have that possession or position or success or achievement, rather than let me have that.” Jonathan and John were full of faith that God is good and God knows what’s best and God’s in control.

And even if maybe they have more than we do, though they’re less deserving, all of that is only temporary. I like how Psalm 37 begins, it says, “Do not fret about evildoers, do not be envious of wrongdoers! For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.” So all of this and their status over us, it’s all just temporary, but God’s in control and God will deal with us rightly and that frees us.

  • Number 3: I see thankfulness in both of them. John the Baptist explained “While I may not be the bridegroom, while I may not be the center of attention now, I get to be the friend of the bridegroom.” It’s still an honorable position to be the groomsmen in the wedding. That’s something to be thankful and happy about. Jonathan said, “David, I know you’re going to be king and I’m going to be next to you,” which actually never happened on earth. Though they’re probably next to each other now. But it shows that Jonathan was content and thankful for the position God gave him. Thankfulness and jealousy don’t occupy the same heart.

Conclusion

The next time we’re saying in our minds, things like, “But it’s not fair that she gets a wonderful husband like that and they have all this money and her kids do so well at everything and she’s got it so easy,” “It’s not fair that he got that promotion when I’ve worked harder,” “It’s not fair that his church has three times as many people and he’s a lousy preacher. It’s not fair.” Next time, let’s really think about how unfair life really seems to be for us. It’s not fair that you and I weren’t born in North Korea. It’s not fair that we didn’t die in a 4wheeler accident when we were teenagers, like our friend. And it’s not fair that we were not paralyzed in a high school football game like our teammate. It’s not fair that we live in multi-roomed homes with indoor plumbing and electricity. It is not fair that every one of us in this room is going to walk out of here to go eat as we want. It’s not fair that we have cars to get us there. It’s not fair that we live in one of the most beautiful, cleanest, peaceful, desirable places on earth. It is not fair that we can come together this morning to worship the Lord Jesus without fear what might happen to us and our families because of it. It really doesn’t seem fair. God seems so unfairly good and kind and gracious to us.

Let’s choose to be grateful, not jealous. Let’s choose to trust that God is good and He’s dealing with you and other people rightly. Let’s choose to be secure in our relationship with God through confession, repentance and trusting God’s promises. Let’s choose to love people and be glad when God is generous and kind to them.

-James Williams

 

 

 

 

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