Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Easiest Path to Fear | Historical Books | 1 Samuel 18:17-30

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

Where did Saul's fear come from? Who do you want to be better than? What's the cost of rivalry? In today's episode, Patrick shares how 1 Samuel 18:17-30 warns us against the dangerous path of envy. If you're listening on Spotify, comment below one takeaway from today's episode! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Samuel 18:17-30

Welcome to 10 minute Bible talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. Yesterday we learned how Saul and David's relationship began to fall apart. David went from being one of his most reliable warriors to Saul's greatest threat. And it wasn't because David was against Saul in any way. It was all in Saul's head. The first thing that happened that made Saul start feeling threatened was that David forged a close friendship with his son, Jonathan.

And again, that threatens Saul. And then Saul sent David on missions, and David never failed. And rather than rejoicing and being for David, Saul felt threatened. And then one day, Saul hears that people are singing that Saul has slain thousands, but David has slain tens of thousands. And of course, that threatens him. Saul may be tall in stature, but he's small in his own eyes. He could have seen David's successes as a boon to his kingdom.

He could have rejoiced that David befriended his son. Perhaps he might have thought that David would become Jonathan's most relied upon general. He could have rejoiced in David's success on military fronts. I mean, sure, David has slaying more people on the front lines than Saul, but he is Saul's warrior. And as Saul's warrior, it only adds to Saul's fame. You see, Saul could have been for David, just as David was for Saul. But that's not how things go. Envy took hold.

And envy is, you know, it's one of those sins that's not even enjoyable during the sinful act. It's not fun to envy other people. It's not enjoyable at all. And eventually envy always gives way to fear. Fear of the person that we envy. We start to feel threatened by them. And that fear eventually creates rivalry. And that rivalry, it ultimately leads Saul to a very dark place. He eventually decides that he wants to put David in danger so that David will be killed so that Saul can execute his rival without having to do it with his own hands. You see, Saul is not for David. He's now against David. But he doesn't want David or anybody else to know this. And so he's going to try to create this life or death danger by offering David his daughter's hand in marriage.

And his plan is that if David agrees, Saul will say that the bride price is the slaughter of 100 Philistines. And Saul is basically expecting that David will die trying to kill so many of their enemies. But Saul's plan, it goes sideways. David refuses Saul out of one. love and humility. David understood that in their world, a king needed to marry his daughter to someone from a high family in order to secure political loyalty and connections across tribes. And David says that he feels that if he married Saul's daughter, it would do nothing to benefit Saul's kingdom and Saul's reign. So David, even though it's an honor, he refuses. We read in verse 18. But David said to Saul, who am I? And what is my family or my clan in Israel that I should become the king's son-in-law?

So Saul marries his first daughter to someone else. But he doesn't want to give up on his plan. He wants to see David's life end. He wants the Philistines to do it. And so when he learns that his second daughter, Mikhail, loves David, well, he's both threatened by this, of course, but he's also excited. He thinks I'm going to give Mikhail away in marriage to David. And we picked this up in verse 22.

Then Saul ordered his attendance, speak to David privately and say, look the king likes you and his attendance all love you now become his son-in-law they repeated these words to david but david said do you think it's a small matter to become the king's son-in-law i'm only a poor man and little known when saul's servants told him what david had said saul replied say to david the king wants no other price for the bride than a hundred philistine foreskins to take revenge on his enemies Saul's plan was to have David fall by the hand of the Philistines. Now, when David ends up hearing this, he agrees, and by no small miracle, he actually succeeds in Operation Philistine foreskin. He gets 100. And so the author continues in verse 28.

When Saul realized that the Lord was with David and that his daughter, Michal, loved David, Saul became still more afraid of him, and he remained his enemy for the rest of his days. So there's the final step of envy, turning into fear, being threatened, turning into rivalry. Saul decides that everyone, including God, prefers David over him, and now, despite David being his son-in-law, and despite David serving him faithfully, Saul becomes David's ceaseless enemy. It's rivalry. It's a sin that we don't talk a lot about because it's a sin that's difficult to see. First of all, because it exists in the human heart like greed.

You can't see rivalry. Second, because it's really easy to hide. When you do something out of rivalry, it's really easy to justify. Third, it's because rivalry is embarrassing. We feel kind of petty and small and insecure when we admit that we feel a sense of rivalry with someone else. But rivalry is alive and well in every age. And likely in every human heart.

Why? Because pride and envy and anger are alive. in every human heart. Just ask yourself, who do you envy? Or let me put it differently, who do you want to be better than? Whose success makes you feel disappointed or even angry? Who do you want to see knocked down a notch? Those are the people that you envy. Those are the people that you feel rivalry with. Or who are the friends that you pretend that you're for in public, but in reality you're jealous. You're jealous when they move into a nicer house. when they buy a nicer car,

or who are the coworkers that you pretend that you're for? I'm for you. But in reality, you're incensed when they get a promotion or move ahead of you. For whatever reason, people in our culture, we hate admitting that we have enemies and rivals. We hate admitting that there are people that we are against.

But the heart wants what the heart wants, and I know there are people that you have a hard time being happy for, wanting to win, wanting to do well. And that's the real cost of rivalry. It poisons relationships slowly. Left untended, rivalrous relationships will die.

And the collateral damage can be enormous. Two business partners grow envious of each other. Maybe one's a better salesman and one's better with staff or one is more influence or one is better at vision casting. And that envy will eventually become fear. One starts feeling threatened by the other. Maybe both start feeling threatened by each other. Start thinking maybe he'll push me out.

Maybe he'll cord him me off. and then fear it becomes rivalry pride takes over and now they can't work on projects together now people in the business play them against each other now there's trash talk behind people's backs and this happens in friendship too between close friends they begin to envy one has more money one is more attractive one has more influence one has easier kids one is better respected and that envy becomes fear they start feeling threatened by each other they start to think that maybe you're not for me they start to Take joy when the other one fails. They start to gossip.

And that fear, it becomes rivalry. And then the entire friend group has to break apart into pieces because people feel like they have to pick sides, even if they want to refuse to pick sides. Almost 1,000 years after the time of David, Paul began to write his letters to the church. And do you know which sin he focused on is one of the greatest threats to the church

and to Christianity in general? To the church's mission of announcing Christ in the world? Descension, quarrel. in rivalry. He wrote to the church in Philippi, do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. James, the brother of Jesus, agreed. He wrote, but if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile practice. Our lives together cannot proclaim Christ when they are characterized by dissent and envy and rivalry.

Why? Because those character traits, those practices, they are literally the opposite of Jesus. He laid down his ambitions to serve us. Rather than envying us, he took what was most unenviable about us, and he took it upon himself on the cross. Rather than taking joy in our failures, he took those failures upon himself so that we could experience his joy. Jesus wasn't proud and said he became a humble servant to his very creation. There was no rivalry, no envy, no pride in his soul. Jesus is for you in the past, right now, and forever. Jesus was for you when you were his enemy and far from him.

How much more so should you be for your friends, for your coworkers, for your spouse? Only a church that is full of people who are for one another can proclaim the Savior who is for the whole world at the cost of his life.