15th November 2023

15th November 2023


Pray (ACts)


Read - 1 Samuel 18:5-16


Message Alan Burke 


One of the fatal errors as an assistant is to outshine your boss, to be fair that can be a fatal error in many professions but as an assistant minister it's very dangerous. I’ve even known ministers who when they are on holiday purposely try to find the worst preacher that they can find so they aren’t shown up. If you have ever outshined your boss then you know that it can lead quite quickly to a toxic environment where everything chances. From praise it moves to criticism, they dismiss your ideas, they exclude you from meetings and decision making and they do all that they can to set you up for failure. David was the new guy on the scene, who was too young and too little to fight and he had certainly outshone Saul who was the chosen king of the people, a head and shoulders taller than everyone else. What starts off with David being celebrated and brought into the service of Saul soon sees a toxic relationship follow all because David had outshone him. 


Look at what we are told, firstly v5 how David did all he was sent to do successfully, it pleased the people and Saul’s officers. This should be something to celebrate, Saul had someone to fight and help deliver the people but what comes in v6 reminds us just the type of man Saul was. With the victory celebrations as the men returned from battle Saul heard nothing more than a jingle that ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands’. The song is but an exaggeration, by those who are nobodies, this isn’t a statistic of battle that somehow David had personally killed tens of thousands of men and Saul only thousands, nonetheless it does convey the contribution that David made to the victory in killing Goliath the champion of the Philistines when for forty days king Saul and his men were struck with fear and powerless to act. 


Their song, Hebrew poetry, was anything but a dig at Saul their king, it wasn’t some kind of taunt about who is the greatest or fastest or best that children would do on the school playground, no their song, was a form of praise towards Saul, it wasn’t meant to be political, but Saul interpreted what they sang in the worst possibly way, he heard what he wanted to hear. Now he sees David as a threat, he has his eye on him, the suspicion and jealously went beyond David’s military achievements and he feared for the throne. David’s popularity and his own jealously was beginning to destroy him, and his relationship with one that brought him so much comfort, even though David had been a constant support and joy to Saul, now everything changes.


His anger and jealously grew, Saul became afraid of him, instead of seeing him as a means of grace. What I mean by a means of grace is that God had put David there to bring comfort to him, to help him in the midst of what he faced and Saul had become so detached from everything that he tries to kill him. Failing to kill him Saul sends him out from his court, as we are told in verse 13 and David is demoted, rather than continuing in his role over the men of war with his high rank he is instead made a commander. 


There is something here that I want to draw out, not the thrust of the passage but important because part of Saul’s downfall was his own pride, his sinful heart that was clouded by his own anger, resentment, fear. There can be emotions that in each one of us that are sinful and we allow ourselves to dwell on them, instead of helping us they cause us to fall further into sin and we must repent from them. Out of this I want to take you to Jesus who is David’s greater son, David’s Lord as we sang of from Psalm 110, Jesus is the Lord’s anointed, the true king who as come and how we respond to the Lord’s anointed maters, it matters whether it is love and affection or fear. Jesus put it simply, whoever is not with me is against me (Mt. 12:30). Are you for the Lord’s anointed or against him? David’s greater son the LORD’s anointed Jesus Christ has come, how we respond to the Lord’s anointed, Jesus Christ, matters for all eternity. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q97 What is required to the worthy receiving of the Lord’ s supper?
It is required of them that would worthily partake of the Lord’ s supper, that they examine themselves of their knowledge to discern the Lord’ s body, (1 Cor. 11:28–29) of their faith to feed upon him, (2 Cor. 13:5) of their repentance, (1 Cor. 11:31) love, (1 Cor. 10:16–17) and new obedience; (1 Cor. 5:7–8) lest, coming unworthily, they eat and drink judgment to themselves. (1 Cor. 11:28–29)
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