1 Samuel 18

because he was too old, and they didn’t want his sons to succeed him because they accepted bribes and perverted justice (8:3). But King Saul was guilty of disobeying God’s clear commandments and also of lying about what he had done, and because of these sins, he had forfeited his throne. He was still in office and yet was unfit to lead the nation, and Samuel had broken fellowship with him (15:34–35). In his grief, Samuel must have felt like a dismal failure as a father, a spiritual leader, and a mentor to the new king. The word translated “mourn” means “to mourn for the dead” and reveals the depths of Samuel’s sorrow.

There is a time to mourn (Eccl. 3:4), but there is also a time to act (Josh. 7:10), and for Samuel, that time had arrived. In spite of how he felt about himself, Samuel’s work wasn’t over yet, for God wanted him to anoint the new king, David, the son of Jesse. If Saul was “the people’s king,” then David was God’s king, and the events recorded in these two chapters indicate clearly that God’s hand was unquestionably on David, the leader of His choice.

Jewish men had to be at least twenty years old before they could go to war (Num. 1:3), but David was probably only eighteen when he was made a high-ranking officer in the Jewish army (18:5). From the beginning of his new assignment, David found himself in a life-threatening conflict with King Saul. David didn’t create problems for Saul; he revealed the deep-seated problems that were already there. David was an honest man of faith, but Saul was a deceitful, scheming man of the world. With great humility David had accepted his appointment as Israel’s next king, while Saul was almost paranoid as he tried to protect his throne. God had abandoned Saul but had given His Spirit’s power to David, and David moved from victory to victory as he led Saul’s troops. We can trace some of the major stages in Saul’s growing opposition to David.

At one time, Saul loved David (16:21, “liked him very much,” niv), but the king’s attitude changed into jealousy and then hatred. The Lord was with David (18:12, 14, 28), however, and Saul was not permitted to harm him. During the ten years or so that David was a fugitive, the Lord not only thwarted Saul’s plans repeatedly, but He even used the king’s hostility to mature David and make him into a man of courage and faith. While Saul was guarding his throne, David was being prepared for his throne.

Love (vv. 1–4). Too many Bible readers still view David and Jonathan as two frolicsome teenagers who liked each other because they had many common interests, but this picture is shallow and inaccurate. Jonathan had to be at least twenty years old to be in his father’s army, and the fact that Jonathan was already commanding one-third of that army and had won two great victories (13:1–4; 14:1ff.) indicates that he was a seasoned soldier and not a callow adolescent. Some biblical chronologists calculate that there could have been an age difference of twenty-five to twenty-eight years between David and Jonathan.

Jonathan listened to his father and David converse, and after that interview, took David to his own heart with the kind of manly affection that comrades in arms understand. Jonathan was Saul’s eldest son, destined for the throne of Israel, and the Lord had already given it to David, so their friendship was certainly unique. When Jonathan gave his official garments and his armor to David, making him a friend and equal, Jonathan was acknowledging that David would one day take his place, so David must have told Jonathan about his anointing. The two friends covenanted that when David became king, Jonathan would be second in command (20:16–17, 42; 23:16–18), and David covenanted to protect Jonathan’s family from being slain.

Saul wasn’t pleased with his son’s friendship with David. For one thing, Jonathan was Saul’s best commander and was needed to make the king look good. Saul was also afraid that Jonathan would divulge court secrets to David, and when Saul discovered that David was already anointed to succeed him, this made matters worse. He saw David as an enemy, a threat to his own son’s future, although Jonathan didn’t view it that way. But when a leader nurtures himself on pride, jealousy, and fear, he suspects everybody.

Popularity (vv. 5–7). “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but a man is tested by the praise he receives” (Prov. 27: niv). Just as the crucible and furnace test the metal and prepare it for use, so praise tests and prepares people for what God has planned for them. How we respond to praise reveals what we’re made of and whether or not we’re ready to take on new responsibilities. If praise humbles us, then God can use us, but if praise puffs us up, we’re not yet ready for a promotion.

In his attitudes, conduct, and service, David was a complete success, and Saul’s servants and the Jewish people recognized this and praised him publicly. This popular acclaim started after David’s stunning defeat of Goliath, when the army of Israel chased the Philistines for ten miles, defeated them, and took their spoils (1 Sam. 17:52ff.). As Saul and his men returned to camp, the women met the victors and praised both Saul and David. In true Hebrew fashion, their praise was exaggerated, but in one sense it was true. David’s victory over Goliath made it possible for the whole army of Israel to conquer the Philistines, so each soldier’s achievement was really a triumph for David.

Envy and anger (vv. 8–11). “It is a dangerous crisis when a proud heart meets with flattering lips,” said John Flavel, seventeenth-century British Presbyterian clergyman and author. What the women sang didn’t seem to affect David, but their song enraged Saul. Saul had already forfeited the kingdom (15:28), but he still asked, “What can he have more but the kingdom?” Saul’s response to David’s success was exactly opposite that of John the Baptist when he was told of the great success of Jesus: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

Envy is a dangerous and insidious enemy, a cancer that slowly eats out our inner life and leads us to say and do terrible things. Proverbs 14: rightly calls it “the rottenness of the bones.” Envy is the pain we feel within when somebody achieves or receives what we think belongs to us. Envy is the sin of successful people who can’t stand to see others reach the heights they have reached and eventually replace them. By nature, we are proud and want to be recognized and applauded, and from childhood we have been taught to compete with others. Dr. Bob Cook often reminded us that everybody wears a sign that reads, “Please make me feel important.” Much modern advertising thrives on envy as it cleverly contrasts the “haves” and the “have-nots” and urges the “have-nots” to buy the latest products and keep up with the “haves.” Envious people max out their credit cards to buy things they don’t need just to impress people who really don’t care!

But envy easily leads to anger, and anger is often the first step toward murder (Matt. 5:21–26). This explains why Saul threw his spear at David while David was trying to soothe the king and help him overcome his depression. The Lord enabled David to escape, and when he returned to the king a second time, Saul only tried again to kill him. These two events probably occurred after the Goliath victory but before David was made an officer in the army, and yet David remained faithful to his king.

Fear (v. 12). The Lord protected His servant David from Saul’s murderous hand, a fact that frightened Saul even more (vv. 15, 29). Surely Saul knew he was fighting a losing battle, for the Lord was on David’s side but had departed from him. However, Saul kept up a brave front as he tried to impress his officers with his authority. Even if Saul missed his target, the people around him didn’t miss the message he was sending: “Saul is king and he wants David to be killed.”

“Faith is living without scheming,” but Saul was better at scheming than at trusting God. If Saul disobeyed God, he always had a ready excuse to get himself out of trouble, and if people challenged his leadership, he could figure out ways to eliminate them. Possessed by anger and envy, and determined to hold on to his crown, Saul decided that young David had to be killed.

Saul sends David into battle (vv. 13–16). Since David was an excellent soldier and a born leader, the logical thing was to give him assignments that would take him away from the camp where the enemy could kill him. Saul made David commander over 1,000 and sent him to fight the Philistines. If David was killed in battle, it was the enemy’s fault, and if he lost a battle but lived, his popularity would wane. But the plan didn’t work because David won all the battles! After all, the Lord was with him and the power of God was upon him. Instead of eliminating David or diminishing his popularity, Saul’s scheme only made him a greater hero to the people, and this increased Saul’s fear of David all the more.

Saul demands an impossible feat (vv. 17–27). Saul had promised to give one of his daughters in marriage to the man who killed Goliath (17:25), but this promise had not yet been fulfilled. The fact that David had killed Goliath wasn’t enough, for Saul now expected David to “fight the battles of the Lord” in order to gain his wife, Saul’s eldest daughter, Merab. Saul wasn’t beneath using his own daughter as a tool to get rid of David. The details aren’t given, but it seems that David had to fight a certain number of battles before the marriage could take place. Of course, the king was hoping that David would be slain during one of those battles, and then Saul would lose his enemy but still have his daughter. However, David humbly declined the offer, saying that his family wasn’t worthy to be related to the king, so Saul gave Merab to another suitor.

Then Saul happily discovered that his younger daughter Michal was in love with David! Saul spoke to David about it and said he would give him a second chance to claim his reward. Once again David demurred, but Saul persisted. This time he asked selected servants to lie to David and tell him that Saul liked him and wanted him to marry Michal, and that Saul’s attendants agreed with the proposal. But David put them off by telling the truth: he was from a lowly family and he didn’t have any money to pay the bride price (Gen. 34:12; Ex. 22:16).

When David’s reply was reported to Saul, the devious king saw in it a great opportunity to attack his enemies and get rid of David at the same time. Saul told his servants to tell David that all that the king required for a bride price was 100 foreskins from the “uncircumcised Philistines.” Saul was certain that at some point in this endeavor, David would meet his death. Once again, Saul was using one of his daughters to help destroy an innocent man, and in this instance, it was a man she truly loved.

Whether the phrase “the appointed days” (1 Sam. 18:26) refers to a new deadline or the original deadline determined by Saul for Merab is really unimportant, because David and his men accomplished even more than Saul had asked. David once more survived the battles and he brought the king 200 foreskins. Another of Saul’s schemes had failed and he had to give Michal to David as his wife.

Saul is even more afraid (vv. 28–30). We have seen this pattern before (vv. 12, 15), but now Saul’s twisted emotions so controlled him that he was obsessed with the desire to kill his son-in-law. David never considered Saul to be his enemy (Ps. 18 inscription), but Saul remained David’s enemy until the day he died on the battlefield. David continued to fight the Lord’s battles, and the Lord continued to give him great success and to magnify his name above the names of Saul’s best officers. David certainly paid close attention to what God was doing in him and for him, and no doubt the remembrance of these events encouraged him during the difficult days of his exile. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31).