1 Samuel chapter 18 is a surprising chapter I read again today. Followed by this verse later from Philippians 1:28 (ESV): "and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God."
1Sam18 reveals a jealousy that develops between Saul and David, but more than that for us it can bring an understanding of why people in our life may begin acting hateful and manipulatively toward us when we have done nothing wrong. I think most of us have been there at some point. If you haven't, well you probably will have a similar experience so put this post in you FRF (Future Reference File). D R A M A, pure drama, when all we were doing was minding our own business and doing what we were supposed to do.
I started highlighting in yellow (which for me is a color symbolic of caution or warning) at verse 9 where it says "So Saul eyed David from that day forward."
My next highlight was verse 12 where it says "Now Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with him, but had departed from Saul."
For those of you who like Twitter tweets more than Facebook or blogs you can check out now - that's the short substance of this post. Thanks for joining me..
For those of you still here - now that we got rid of the bird brains let's continue :-D
Saul hatches a conspiracy to make David hated more and hopefully get him killed by the Philistines, Israel and Saul's worst enemies at the time. Saul decides to take this successful, popular young man and marry him to one of his daughters - creating a public situation where the enemy will strike at Saul by killing his son-in-law. Except David doesn't readily accept the first daughter, and Saul toys with David up to the last minute giving the first daughter to another of his associates, snubbing and simultaneously relieving David.
Saul's second daughter however, had it bad for David - and let it be known to Saul's servants who told daddy for her. Saul revived his plan and describes the intricacy this way in v21 "So Saul said, 'I will give her to him, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.'" Saul hatches the drama and gets the servants to join the intrigue to make it just that much more juicy. [sidebar: tell me this isn't like the conniving alliances hatched on 'reality' TV]
David goes for it, except it all backfires on Saul and we read near the end of the chapter in verses 28-29 "Thus Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David, and that Michal, Saul's daughter, loved him; and Saul was still more afraid of David. So Saul became David's enemy continually."
Think about it. Without explanation a person hates you without cause [you're in Good company when this happens according to John 15:25 where Jesus quoted from Psalms 35:19 or 69:4], or sets their goal as taking you down a peg or two. Could it be you've begun moving in God's anointing and just doing the next right thing and He's making the success fall in place? Beloved, God is your rear guard - keep your eyes on Him and press on toward the mark of the high calling you have received. Make it your goal to be characterized by Colossians 3:23-24 while you leave verse 25 up to God.
And for you Twitterites who sullenly stayed on for the rest of my blog... the world wouldn't be as beautiful without birds.
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