1 Samuel 18:6-9 " At the approach of Saul and David, on David’s return after striking down the Philistine, women came out from all the cities of Israel to meet Saul the king, singing and dancing, with tambourines, joyful songs, and stringed instruments. The women played and sang: “Saul has slain his thousands, David his tens of thousands.” Saul was very angry and resentful of the song, for he thought: “They give David tens of thousands, but only thousands to me. All that remains for him is the kingship.” From that day on, Saul kept a jealous eye on David.” Today's episode talks about jealousy and how important it is not to dwell on it. In the episode, I give you a four-step process of how to deal with jealousy so you don't have to stay in it and continue to feel it. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Saul’s Jealousy
1 Samuel 18:6-9 " At the approach of Saul and David, on David’s return after striking down the Philistine, women came out from all the cities of Israel to meet Saul the king, singing and dancing, with tambourines, joyful songs, and stringed instruments. The women played and sang: “Saul has slain his thousands, David his tens of thousands.” Saul was very angry and resentful of the song, for he thought: “They give David tens of thousands, but only thousands to me. All that remains for him is the kingship.” From that day on, Saul kept a jealous eye on David.”
This verse takes place after David killed Goliath. David was not a soldier, he was a little brother to two of the soldiers, and his mom had asked him to bring his brothers some lunch. After he killed the Philistine, women from all around the city came out to meet Saul, who was the king. These women were singing a song that said Saul has slain thousands, David his tens of thousands.” When Saul heard this song, he became angry and resentful. He let this thought consume him. He thought, now that they are saying he killed more than me, they are going to make him king.
Several things are going on here in this passage. First, when Saul thinks the people will make David the King, he forgets who made him king. It was not the people it was the Lord our God. What God has put in place, man cannot undo. David does eventually become King, but not because the people chose him, but because God chose him. Saul starts down a path of not listening to the Lord and not obeying the commands He gives him. In 1 Samuel 15:10-11, it says, “Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: I regret having made Saul king, for he has turned from me and has not kept my command. At this, Samuel grew angry and cried out to the Lord all night.” If Saul had been more concerned with the Lord's thoughts instead of what the people were saying, he would have had nothing to worry about anything. He would have had the Lord protecting him.
Jealousy is a dangerous thing. David had just done a great thing for Saul. He killed the giant that no one else would kill. Every person in Saul’s army was cowering from this giant. David walks in to give his brothers lunch and ends up killing this giant. That is a wonderful thing. Saul is happy, and he is rejoicing. Then he hears these women singing a song that says David killed more people than him, and he becomes jealous. It’s just a song! This just goes to show how easy it is to be jealous. The interesting part is that the song isn’t even true.
They were singing this song after David killed Goliath. At this point, David was not a great commander of the army. David was a shepherd boy who had killed one giant. Saul was the king, so I doubt he killed thousands of men either. I bet his men probably did, but being king, I don’t think he was out there killing thousands of men.
When we hear something that makes us jealous, the first thing we should do is think about what was said and if it is true or not. If Saul had stopped for a minute to think about the words to this song, he would have realized that there was no truth to them. He would have realized that they didn’t mean anything. It was just a fun song to sing. However, he didn’t. He just heard the song and let it take root in his heart. He became overcome with jealousy, and it said, “From that moment on, Saul kept a jealous eye on David.” So many wasted years of jealousy, and for what? Because of one line of lyrics in a song?
We may look at Saul, and we think he is silly to get so upset over this song. Yet, how many silly things do we get jealous over? How many times have you been jealous of a family member or a friend for something that was not a big deal? Have you ever been jealous over something that wasn’t even true? Did you stop to check and see if it was true before you got upset?
Jealousy can be hard to deal with. It is difficult when you see others are getting things you want but can’t seem to have. Jealousy is something that is involuntary. You hear something, and then you get a feeling of jealousy. This is something that you can’t control. However, you can control whether you entertain the idea or not. We get many thoughts passing through our heads each hour of each day. We do not spend time with each one of them. We don’t give them all attention. We get to decide what thoughts we are going to give attention to and which ones we are going to let pass by and just ignore.
If you are finding yourself getting jealous and you are unable to ignore the thoughts, I learned last night in Encounter a few practical steps you can take to get rid of those jealous feelings. First, bring your jealousy to the Lord. Tell Him what you are feeling and why and He will help you deal with whatever is making you jealous. Second, renounce the spirit of jealousy. This is easy to do. It is one simple sentence. In the name of Jesus, I renounce the spirit of jealousy, and I command it to leave right now. Next, thank the Lord for that person. Thank him for bringing your friend into your life. Thank Him for all the good times you and your friend have had. If it is not a friend, thank him for whoever it is that you are jealous of and what they have contributed to your life or the life of others. The last thing to do is to bless that person. Ask the Lord to bless that person and their family. Ask the Lord to use the thing you are jealous of to bless that family.
If you can do this when you start to feel jealous, you will notice that the jealousy stops, and you start to feel good, warm feelings toward whoever/whatever made you jealous. Jealousy is not a good feeling. It is not something that you want to feel. However, when you do the steps above, you will stop the negative feelings, and you will replace them with good feelings of gratitude and blessings. Give it a try. What do you have to lose?
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today! Lord, we are so grateful for all you have given us, and we ask that you help us to be even more grateful. Lord, we are sorry we get jealous at times. Please help us to be happy for others instead of being jealous of others. Lord, help us to remember and follow the steps above so that we can overcome our jealousy and just be happy and joy-filled. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I apologize for not putting out a devotional yesterday morning. I was still at the retreat and was just enjoying being there with the 10 wonderful ladies who were able to make it. It was an awesome retreat where everyone had a great time, and everyone bonded pretty quickly. The food was amazing! If you are living in New England and are looking for a great retreat house, I would check out Holy Cross Retreat House in North Easton, MA. The retreat director, Nancy, is amazing, and they hired a new chef, Kerry, who is amazing too! Our experience there was great! I am already thinking of when my next retreat will be, and I hope you will all be able to join me next time. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day.