When leaders lose power, and do anything to stay in power – 1st Samuel 18 & 19, Part 3

When you are a leader and your role, position, and power is taken from you, it can be very difficult to give up that power. A quick glance throughout history shows kings, presidents, CEOs, pastors, and many other leaders unwilling to give up power. In our story of the monarchy in ancient Israel, as told in 1st Samuel, we have been watching King Saul and his battle to stay in power. But in this post, we start with his rival, the man who has been anointed to be the next king, but is not yet king, David.

Things continue to go well for David.  Look at 1st Samuel chapter 18, verses 5-7,

“Whatever mission Saul sent him on, David was so successful that Saul gave him a high rank in the army. This pleased all the troops, and Saul’s officers as well. When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with timbrels and lyres. As they danced, they sang: ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.’”

God was with David. Remember when David was anointed king, the Spirit of God came upon David with power, and now basically anything David touches turns to gold.  In short order, he’s gone from no-name shepherd boy to a household name with military victories.  People were singing songs about him.  That’s good news for David, but also bad news.  The current king was still sitting on the throne, taking this all in.  Look at verses 8-9,

“Saul was very angry; this refrain displeased him greatly. ‘They have credited David with tens of thousands,’ he thought, ‘but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?’ And from that time on Saul kept a close eye on David.”

It’s often not a good thing when the government is keeping its eye on you.  And we’ve already heard stories of King Saul’s Big Brother complex.  Back in chapter 16 when God told Samuel to go to Bethlehem to anoint the new king, Samuel was afraid that Saul was watching him.  It is likely Saul had a network of spies.  In fact, we will meet some of them later this week. 

Saul was paranoid.  Hear his fear and jealousy in verse 8, “What more can David get but the kingdom?”  Remember that Samuel had already told Saul that God was taking the Kingdom from him.  Saul is like those who are in power and then lose it.  The get jealous and desperate and come up with all sorts of desperate attempts to hold on to power.  For now, he’s watching this new kid who seems to have a knack for doing everything right, and Saul is very concerned.

Soon enough, though, Saul’s passive watching turns into action.  Look at verses 10-11,

“The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully on Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the lyre, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand and he hurled it, saying to himself, ‘I’ll pin David to the wall.’ But David eluded him twice.”

Well, that escalated fast.  Something very dark is going on inside Saul.  We already learned in chapter 16 about the evil spirit that oppresses Saul, and how David was brought in as a kind of ancient musical therapist to soothe Saul.  But that was when David was a nobody. Now David is a somebody.  And his lyre-playing now has the opposite effect. 

Also, Saul is having a particularly bad oppressive episode.  When we read that he was prophesying, that means Saul was acting erratically, with ecstatic speech.  And Saul loses it, trying to kill David twice by throwing a spear at him.  Twice David ducks out of the way.  If I’m David, I’m freaked out at this point.  But notice verse 12.

It is Saul who is afraid of David!  Why?  Because David had the Lord with him.  Saul can see that what Saul once had, the Spirit of the Lord, now David has.  That’s got to be a foreboding sign for Saul.  David has the empowerment that only prophets and kings have in this era of the Old Testament.  Saul has lost that empowerment, just as God said that the kingdom would be taken from Saul.  It infuriates Saul.  So what does Saul do? 

In verses 13-16 he sends David away with the military, increasing David’s rank and responsibility.  Maybe Saul thinks he just can’t have David around.  Maybe he thinks David will die in battle.  We’re not sure what Saul has in mind here.  But it works to David’s advantage for sure, because the Lord is with David, and he is constantly victorious.  David’s name and reputation is growing.  And that makes Saul even more afraid.  Now what will Saul do?

Let me summarize verses 17-30.  Saul decides to arrange a marriage between David and one of his daughters.  David humbly turns him down, saying that he, David, is not royalty and thus isn’t worthy to marry Saul’s daughter.  But before we go any further, why would Saul want David to marry his daughter in the first place?

Saul has a devious plan here.  He doesn’t really want David to be his son-in-law.  It’s not some scenario of keep your friends close and your enemies closer.  No.  As we will see, Saul is trying to get rid of David. How so? Take a look at what Saul does next.

When David says No to Saul’s offer of his first daughter, Saul then offers David the hand of his other daughter, Michal, who loves David.  That brief phrase, “Michal loved David,” summarizes what would probably make for 3-4 episodes if this was turned into a TV show.  It very well could be that David loves her too, or is attracted to her. Michal could certainly be flirting with David long before this idea from Saul. But again, Saul is not interested in being a match maker. He wants to get rid of David. So Saul hatches what he believes is a genius plan.

Saul makes the bride price for marrying Michal a hundred dead Philistines (well, actually, Saul’s offer is a bit more graphic than that, but I’ll let you read about that on your own in the text).  Saul thinks that if David goes out to battle and is required to kill a hundred Philistines, David will likely die in battle.  Saul wants David dead.

But the Lord is with David, and David and his men kill 200 Philistines! David marries Michal, leading Saul to grow ever more afraid of David.  David’s success and reputation in the military continues to grow, but let’s focus on the fact that Saul is afraid of David. Saul is not done. His grand idea to get rid of David didn’t work, but he has more ideas. We’ll find out about Saul dark devious plans in the next post.

Photo by William Krause on Unsplash