David’s Enemy, Saul: a Cautionary Tale

Posted by Timothy

September 21, 2008

While this blog is intended to focus on the lives and insights of King David and King Solomon to help men understand how to live under God’s Kingship and, in turn, release their own “king within” who dwells within, I wanted to look at Saul, the contrast and antagonist in the story of David.

It’s a cautionary tale. And it’s one that I, in the moment, need to take heart.

I’ve been trying to get the third company off the ground and I am often distracted, unfocused, and disheartened by the greater successes and fortune of others. For other people, it seems that much easier for them, whether by sheer talent, luck, or circumstance.

It almost can become a wrestling within, and I have turned to writing this blog as a way to see direction, crystalize God’s will, and draw strength and wisdom from studying the lives of these two men.

David, in some ways, is defined in his early days as much by his own attributes as in opposition to Saul.

After David defeated the Goliath, the women sang:

“Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands!”

This made Saul very angry. “What’s this?” he said. “They credit David with ten thousands and me with only thousands. Next they’ll be making him their king!” So from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.

The very next day, in fact, a tormenting spirit from God overwhelmed Saul, and he began to rave like a madman.

1 Samuel 18:7-10

King Saul was, in many ways, already what David would become. Like David, Saul had been annointed king by the prophet Samuel, and defeated his enemies with ease with God behind him.

But now, what has happened?

His own success, because it has been eclipsed by David’s, lead him to be tormented.

When reading about Saul, it is so clear that part of his downfall comes from his jealousy of David. But it happens.

First, Saul did in fact break promises with God. This was a precursor to his downfall. It wasn’t what David did alone, but what Saul himself held in his heart and his attitude towards God.

So before I can fully take on the posture of grumbling disappointment, I need to spend time to see and repent and change the ways that disappoint God.

God tells Saul to go and completely destroy the Amalekite nation. Instead, Saul did something different:

“Saul and his men spared Agag’s (king of the Amalekites) life and kept the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs — everything, in fact, that appealed to them. They destroyed only what was worthless or of poor quality.”
1 Samuel 15: 9

In other words, they got to pick and choose which part of God’s command to follow. They kept for themselves — excluded from God’s specific instruction — “everything, in fact, that appealed to them.”

God’s commands aren’t easy for me to follow. Forgive those who have wronged me; bless those who have cursed me. Spend time ministering to the poor. Focus all thoughts on God and trusting him.

But I don’t. The butthead who pissed me off by his outburst based on misunderstanding instructions I gave still pisses me off. My worries about how and where I will ever achieve my dreams are not trusting God — either with the timing, outcome, or the actual dreams themselves. And how can I have time ministering to the poor when I hardly have time to find the resources to get the company going?

Jesus’ sacrifice saves us from needing to live in accordance to rules like sacrificing calves to God, but the principle of complete and total obedience isn’t that far off.

If I want to pattern my life more after David, I should make sure I’m not following the way of Saul.

And, frankly, in the sense that I, too, pick and choose, follow God in the ways and aspects that appeal to me — I guess I am.

And in that sense, for the “David’s” around me — whether they acknowledge God in their lives or not — to look upon them jealously without correcting these facets of my own self is to invite the same torment as Saul.

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