Saul and David

Now I admit from the very start that I am stretching the point and that King Saul’s relationship with David cannot properly be described as a ‘mentoring’ relationship. The Lord had, after all, instructed the prophet Samuel to anoint David as the future king precisely because he was so displeased by King Saul and what he was doing.

However, we could nevertheless argue that, because David had been anointed by Samuel in an ideal situation, King Saul still should have prepared David for his future responsibility.

The point is that Saul’s abuse of his position and his repeated attempts to kill David are examples of extreme abuse. Saul threw his spear at David, trying to pin him to the wall, and twice he led a group of soldiers on a manhunt to kill David.

This relationship was toxic and seriously abusive!

It sometimes happens that church leaders set about silencing, sidelining and removing the very people the Lord is raising up to serve in the church. The leaders notice them growing as disciples and see their giftings developing, but they feel threatened and insecure and increasingly perceive them as a threat to their leadership. So they set about belittling them, criticising them, and then destroying their ministry and removing them from office.

Saul saw David winning victories and becoming popular with the people. He felt insecure and threatened, so he set out to kill David. David took his parents to Moab so that Saul could not take them and use them as hostages for negotiating against him, and then he fled with his men into the desert. And when even that wasn’t enough, he later went and lived among Israel’s enemies, the Philistines, until Saul was dead.

Scripture records all this in 1 Samuel 16-31, and we touch David’s heart response in the sub-collection of ten psalms; Psalms 51-59.

I cannot think of a worse example (of what should have been constructive mentoring) in all scripture.

To quote John Wimber: ‘Your brother is your brother is your brother’, and ‘Your brother and your sister are never your enemy’.