Saul’s Jealousy

Overview

We’re looking at the life of David, and it’s interesting how this ancient text every week yields so much insight about very current problems (you could even say perennial problems), and this week we get a portrait, a simple portrait of something that is a lot bigger problem than most of us think of it as being. Saul’s life is being destroyed by envy.

Envy. Over the years, I’ve had plenty of people come to me to talk about issues like anger and despondency, but almost never does somebody come to me and say, “I have a problem with envy.” I’ve had lots of people say, “You need to preach on this issue,” or “You need to preach on that issue. These are important issues.” Never, I want you to know, has anyone ever asked me to preach on envy.

Yet, Aristotle … Not just the Bible but all of the ancients understood envy is one of the deadly sins, one of the things that destroys people’s lives, one of the things that’s making the world such a miserable place, so let’s look at what this passage tells us about envy: what it is, what it does, and how we can escape it.