Saul

LIFE LESSONS
SAUL
DR. JIM DIXON
1 SAMUEL 18:5-12
JULY 6, 2003

Saul was the son of Kish. He was of the Tribe of Benjamin. He was the first King of Israel. He was chosen by God. He was anointed by Samuel. He was tall. He was good looking. He was beloved of the people, and in the beginning, he was humble of heart. In all of history, there have been few people with greater potential than King Saul, but fewer still have come to a sadder end.

This morning we have three life lessons from Saul. The first life lesson concerns the sin of envy. Last month Barb and I were out of town for twelve days. For four days we were in the city of Detroit for the General Assembly for the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. And then for four days we were in the city of Boston just hanging out and having a good time. Then for four days, we were down in Providence, Rhode Island, where I performed a wedding ceremony for my nephew, Mark, my oldest brother’s youngest son, and his bride Deborah.

There’s not a lot to do in Providence, Rhode Island. There is some history surrounding Roger Williams and that’s kind of fun, but we spent some time hanging out with family, with friends, and it was fun getting to know Deborah and her family. We had some free time, so Barb and I decided to take the rental car and go to Newport, Rhode Island. I’m sure many of you have been to Newport, Rhode Island. It’s kind of a touristy place, and there are thousands of people walking the streets on the waterfront. There are three hundred colonial era buildings. There’s a lot of history in Providence.

It was a hot and humid day, about 94 degrees. Barb and I were walking around. We got some iced coffee at Starbucks, just kind of walking around. Then we went to Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and walked around some more. Of course, if you eat Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, you need to walk around a lot! It was hot and it was humid, and we just thought, “Let’s just get in the car and turn on the air conditioning.” And we took Ocean Drive.

As you take Ocean Drive in Newport, you come to one of the most famous streets in the United States of America. You come to Bellevue Avenue. Of course, on Bellevue Avenue, that’s where you find all of the famous mansions, the summer estates built by the rich and famous in the late 1800s. Along Bellevue Avenue, you see Beachwood Mansion, you see Belcourt Castle, you see Marble House, you see the Breakers just off of Bellevue Avenue. Of course, the Breakers is the most famous of all the mansions in Newport, built for Cornelius Vanderbilt II. You come to Rosecliff and the Elms, and there is just mansion after mansion after mansion. They were built for those people who made millions of dollars in banking or in the railroad industry in the latter portions of the 19th century.

There are mansions that belong to the rich and famous, from the Vanderbilts to the Astors. Historians tell us that it was a subculture there at Newport on Bellevue Avenue, a subculture for the rich and the famous. That subculture was pretty much summed up by envy—envy and jealousy. That’s sort of what it was all about. Everyone was trying to build a bigger and better summer mansion. You just wanted your mansion to make everyone else jealous. Of course, if the person next to you built a bigger mansion than you had, well you were jealous and you knew you needed to add on or maybe just build a whole new mansion or get out because it was hard to live with that feeling of envy. The people, the rich and the famous, would build their mansions and invite one another to parties, hoping that they would make each other jealous. It was just a crazy culture. It wasn’t just the mansions. It was the art brought from all over the world within those mansions. It was all part of a culture of envy and jealousy.

But this sin called envy is not exclusive to the rich. This sin knows no boundaries. Socioeconomically, everybody is capable of envy, no matter how poor you are, no matter how rich you are. Of course, in this room this morning, each and every one of us are very much capable of the sin of envy. Sometimes people are envious financially, and maybe you’ve experienced that where you’ve been envious of somebody because they have more money than you. They have a better house than you, or they’re richer than you. Maybe you’ve been envious of people not economically but relationally and socially because they’re more popular than you. Even amongst your group of friends, maybe there are others who have more popularity in the group than you. And you’re envious.

Maybe you’re envious physically because someone looks better than you or they are stronger than you or more athletic than you or have better clothes than you. Maybe you’re envious spiritually because someone’s been given gifts of the Holy Spirit you don’t have, or they have abilities or talents in the Lord that you don’t have. Maybe you’re even envious of their character. That’s the weird thing about this sin. It’s even capable of infiltrating the areas of deepest spirituality.

Of course, envy can destroy a marriage. I was reading recently about John and Charles Wesley. They’re really two of my favorite people from Christian history. John and Charles Wesley were brothers. John Wesley was the founder of the Wesleyan Movement. He’s regarded as the father or the founder of Methodism, the Methodist Church all over the world. He was a great evangelist. He had boundless energy. He traveled over one hundred thousand miles on horseback centuries ago, taking the gospel to those who had never heard it. His brother Charles is just as renowned. He’s regarded by many today as the greatest hymn writer in Christian history. My favorite hymn, “And Can It Be That I Should Gain” is a hymn written by Charles Wesley.

These two brothers, in 1738, made a vow to each other that neither of them would get married unless the other approved. That didn’t work out so well. John Wesley fell in love with a woman named Mary, and Charles would not approve. John went ahead and married her anyway. It was a disaster because she was just a jealous, envious person. She was even jealous of her husband. She was jealous of John, and it destroyed their marriage. She would actually get his correspondence and open it up, whether it was coming to him or being sent by him. She would open up his mail looking for some dirt, something she could hold against him and something she could send to the newspapers or even to government officials to get her husband in trouble. She did this because she was envious of his popularity. She was envious of his travels, although he always invited her to go with him. She was jealous. Eventually it ruined their marriage, and that’s what led to John Wesley’s famous quote where he said, “I did not desert her. I did not send her away. I will not call her back.” Envy.

Well, before we look at Saul’s envy, we need to understand that there are degrees of envy. We really see this in the Greek language where there are two words. There’s the word “zelos,” from which we get the word zealous or jealous. The word zelos normally refers to jealousy. But then there’s this other Greek word, “phthonos.” This word is normally rendered envy whereas zelos is normally rendered jealous or jealousy.

There’s a difference. Zelos refers to that desire you have to have something that belongs to someone else or something like it. You simply want something that someone else has attained or you want something like it. It doesn’t have to be the one they have but you wish you had it. Jealousy. But envy is worse. This word phthonos is worse. It means you don’t want the other person to have it. You resent their blessing. You wish it were taken away from them. Envy is that horrible feeling you get when you hear about somebody else’s success, somebody else’s blessing, somebody else’s popularity, somebody else’s accomplishment. That’s envy.

The Hebrew word “qana” really carries the meaning both of zelos and of phthonos, this full scope of meaning. This is what describes King Saul. He was a man who wanted what David had and didn’t want David to have it. It really wasn’t about David’s gifts or abilities or even David’s accomplishments. At first, Saul actually delighted in those things. It was about David’s popularity. As they were corning home from battle, the women came out of the cities of Israel singing, “Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands.” David had become more popular than King Saul. That’s what Saul couldn’t handle. David was more popular and perhaps even a threat to the throne with his popularity. “What more can he have but the kingdom?” Saul thought. So, it was about popularity and power. That’s what drove Saul’s jealousy. Is there anything that drives your jealousy? Is there anything that makes you envious? This first life lesson is a warning concerning the sin of envy.

We come to a second life lesson and it concerns anger. Saul was not only a jealous man; he was an angry man. Envy can prompt anger. We see this in a film clip that I want you to take a look at from the movie, “David.” The film clip begins with a brief conversation between Saul’s son Jonathan and his good friend David, and then it proceeds to Jonathan’s conversation with his father, Saul. Jonathan says to David, “If my father does mean to do you evil, you will know of it from my lips. I will send you away and you will go in peace. From this day on, there is a covenant between us. As long as I live, no harm will ever come to the House of Jonathan.” Later, Saul accuses Jonathan of choosing David over him, over the kingdom. Saul angrily tells Jonathan, “He is foul and rebellious. You choose David’s life over mine! Over your own kingdom!” Jonathan asks Saul, “Why do you hate one who has loved and served you faithfully?” But Saul replies, “He’s like a pebble scratching at my heart! As I am King, I swear he must die!”

You see and sense Saul’s anger. The Hebrew word in our Bible passage in 1 Samuel 18:8 is the Hebrew word “haron,” and that word literally means, “to burn.” Saul burned with envy and anger. Haron. It’s combined with an adverb in the Hebrew, “meod,” and this adverb means, “very” or “exceedingly.” So we are to understand that his anger was unusual. His burning was extreme. It was not normal.

I know many of you have heard of St. Thomas Aquinas and you’ve perhaps heard of his great masterpiece called Summa Theologica. In that work he lists the seven deadly sins, but St. Thomas Aquinas was not the first to list the seven deadly sins. They were listed in the 6th century by Gregory I. Gregory I—sometimes called St. Gregory, sometimes called Gregory the Great—ascended the papacy in the year 595 AD. He was really and truly one of the great Popes of history. It was Gregory I who took that wonderful title Servant of the Servants of Christ.

We get Gregorian chant from Gregory I. He codified and classified and wrote hymns that were used in cathedrals and monastic communities. He was a prolific writer. He wrote a commentary on the Book of Job and he called it “Moralia” because it dealt with morality. In there, he listed the seven deadly sins. He listed them as pride, greed, gluttony, sloth, envy, anger and lust. He called them deadly, not because he thought them beyond pardon, but rather because he viewed them as root sins that grow into other sins. Of course, we’ve already seen how envy can grow into anger. Anger, the Bible tells us, can grow into murder. Jesus really said as much in the Sermon on the Mount when He said, “You’ve heard it said of old, thou shalt not kill. Whoever kills shall be liable for judgement. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother or sister shall be liable for judgement.” So, anger is associated with killing and murder.”

Certainly, this is true with King Saul because King Saul sought to murder David. We should not think that anger is always a sin. We should not think that anger in and of itself is always a sin. This Hebrew word for anger in 1 Samuel 18, this word “haron,” is used of God 41 times in the Old Testament! God burns with anger. The words “orge” and “thumos,” the two Greek words for anger and wrath, are both applied to God in the Bible. If anger were always a sin, then God could not be angry, for God is holy. But, you see, God does get angry. Anger is not necessarily a sin. It is, biblically, a red light. It connotes danger, and it means something is wrong whenever you feel angry—whether you felt angry yesterday or last week (or maybe it was a year ago, if you’re particularly saintly). Whenever you feel angry, all it means is something is wrong.

Now, what’s wrong might be in you. This is never true of God. When God is angry, what’s wrong is never in Him because His anger is always righteous indignation. But when we’re angry, sometimes the problem is in us. That’s why the Bible says that when we’re angry we are to take counsel with our own thoughts while we lie in our bed. We’re to begin with an inward look, looking at our own thoughts. We need to ask ourselves, “Why am I so angry? Is it about envy? Is it about pride? Is it about greed? Is it about low self-esteem? Do I need to get some counseling? Do I need a little therapy?” Take an inward look. Sometimes anger is caused not by what is within but what is without. Sometimes anger is prompted by something being wrong in the world around us. What you have to decide is, can you do anything about it? If you can do something about it, then let your anger be a motivation and a prompting for something good.

Throughout social history, some of the greatest causes have been prompted by righteous indignation. In fact, our nation was born in righteous indignation. On this 4th of July weekend, we remember the anger that our forefathers had. That’s why they dumped the tea in the Boston Harbor. They were angry about excessive taxation, taxation without representation. They were angry about being at the whim of a monarch. Of course, they put their anger to work. They drafted a Declaration of Independence. They established freedoms, civil liberties. They drafted a constitution. They formed a democratic republic. It was all prompted by righteous indignation, and that’s how it’s been throughout history.

Righteous indignation can prompt change in society and even in the community of nations. And so, you have to ask yourself when you are angry and it’s prompted by something wrong in the world around you, “Can I be a catalyst for good? Is there something I can do to change it?” If you can’t, that’s when it’s hard because then you need to learn to cope. We don’t cope well when we blow up, and we don’t cope well when we bottle up. Blowing up and bottling up are bad forms of coping.

Have you ever had a time where you just felt like, in your anger, you kind of made a fool of yourself? Have you ever had a time where anger got you into trouble? Of course, when we blow up, that’s what happens. Anger gets us into trouble. But you don’t want to bottle it up either because if you just bottle it up, you repress it. It kind of comes out in weird ways and it can cause depression, clinical depression. Bottled up anger can produce passive-aggressive personalities. Of course, it can produce chronic irritability when we just have anger repressed. We need to learn to cope. I think God has blessed us with Christian counselors and Christian friends. We need to learn, I think, relaxation methods. I think that is good, learning relaxation methods. I think we need, sometimes, to develop a capacity for cognitive restructuring; restructuring the way we think and feel when we find ourselves in certain circumstances.

We need to learn to avoid certain circumstances that prompt anger. We need to cultivate humor. It really is a wonderful thing to actually intentionalize the cultivation of a sense of humor because to approach life with a certain sense of humor is really the only way to live in this crazy world is. Of course, we need always to pray and always to be in the Word of God because as we pray and we’re in the Word, the Spirit of God within us seeks to give us the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We need to learn to deal properly with anger so that we can be angry but sin not.

Finally, as we look at Saul, he was a man of fear. He was a man not only of envy and a man not only of anger, but he was a man of fear. There’s an old kind of dumb story about a guy driving his pickup truck in Wyoming. In the back of his pickup truck, he has his dog. Behind his pickup truck is his horse trailer with his horse. He’s going too fast and he tries to make a turn and he doesn’t make it. The pickup truck and the horse trailer just roll off the highway in a horrible accident. A police officer comes along and the cop immediately comes up to the horse trailer and sees the horse and the great injuries the horse has sustained. This police officer is an animal lover and cannot stand to see an animal in pain. He knows that this horse will not live long and is in great pain, so he takes out his gun and shoots the horse to put the horse out of its misery. Then the officer comes up to the dog, and it’s the same thing. The dog has horrible injuries and he can’t bear to see the dog in such pain. He shoots the dog to put the dog out of its pain. Then he finds the pickup driver who had been thrown from the truck and he’s out in the field. The officer comes up to him and says, “Hey! How are you doin’, man? How are ya?” The man has seen what has just happened. He has broken ribs and a broken leg but he smiles and looks up at the police officer and says, “It’s never been better!”

That’s a dumb story, but isn’t it true that oftentimes we kind of hide how we really feel? For a variety of reasons, we hide how we really feel. People come up to us and they say, “Hey! How’s it going? How ya feelin’?” We say, “Fine. Pretty good.” But we’re not doing very well at all. Inwardly there may be all kinds of problems and maybe one of those problems is anxiety and fear. Maybe you’re just afraid about your finances. Maybe you’re afraid about some relationship, losing someone you love. Maybe you have fear or anxiety regarding your children. Maybe they’re not doing so well. Maybe you’re afraid about your health. Maybe you’re even afraid of death. But you’re afraid.

God really doesn’t want His people to be afraid. Do you know what the most common commandment in the Bible is? You might think it’s “Love God.” You might think it’s “Love your neighbor.” But it’s not. The most common commandment in the pages of scripture is this. “Fear not. Be not afraid.” That’s the commandment. That’s the imperative that we find most on the pages of scripture. God doesn’t want His people to be afraid. There’s a kind of holy fear. The Greek word “phoberos” can mean “reverence and awe” and certainly the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but this word phoberos can also refer to anxiety and it can refer to fright. God doesn’t want His people to live lives of anxiety and fright. He wants us to cast all our anxieties upon Him because He cares about us. Jesus tells us not to be afraid because He’s with us always and He promises He’ll never fail us. He promises He’ll never forsake us.

David knew God was with him, and Saul knew God had abandoned him. It says this right in the pages of scripture. The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and the Spirit of the Lord was with David. It says Saul was afraid because the Spirit of the Lord was with David but had departed from him.

In this Christian age, in this church age, in this era, we are the most blessed of all people because in our time God has offered His eternal presence through the gospel. God promises that if you receive His Son through faith, if you have faith enough in the midst of your doubt to ask Jesus to be your Savior and to invite Him to come and be your Lord, if you have faith enough to make that commitment, God will send His Spirit to indwell you, to tabernacle within you. And He will never leave you. Even if you’re in the valley of the shadow of death, He will never leave you. You really need never be afraid again.

As we conclude this morning and we remember the life of King Saul, we remember the envy that consumed the second half of his life. We remember the rage and the anger that destroyed him. We remember the fear that he had because the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him. Know this: The Spirit of the Lord will never depart from you if you take Jesus truly as your Savior and Lord. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.