Bible Reflections From Scripture Union Volume OneSample

Jealousy in Action Read 1 Samuel 17:55–18:30 Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy? Proverbs 27:4 Jealousy is a powerful emotion. It can cause people to become irrational and even drive them to want to kill. Saul had become jealous of David and wanted to kill him (v 25b). Earlier, Saul had been very grateful to David for getting rid of Goliath and spearheading Israel’s victory over the Philistines. But, with time, he began to notice that Jonathan, his son and heir had not only become very close to David but was also treating David as his equal (vs 1-4). Then, his own people whom he had fiercely defended from all their enemies began to exalt David over him (v 7). He also discovered that his daughter Michal was in love with David (v 20). Even God’s Spirit had left Saul for David (v 12). Saul was too insecure to cope with all these. Jealousy’s constant companions are hatred and fear. Our negative emotions are like putty in Satan’s hands to do as he wishes with us. Whenever we feel we are being overtaken by such emotions, we must take time to search ourselves, surrender our feelings to God and ask Him to renew us. If not, we will go the way of Saul and be tormented. As much as Saul wanted to kill David, he did not want to be directly implicated in David’s murder for he knew how much the people loved David. So he cooked up plot after plot in the hope that the Philistines would do the job for him (vs 17, 20-21). While all Saul’s plots failed, David went from success to greater success (vs 28-30). Harbouring negative emotions will only lead to self-destruction. How will you counsel someone who feels threatened by the success of a colleague? Pray that Christians will feel so secure in Christ that they will rejoice and not be jealous when others do well.