PRIDE, JEALOUSY AND FEAR

I Sam. 18:6-9 But something happened when the victorious Israelite army was returning home after David had killed Goliath. Women cane out from all the towns along the way to celebrate and to cheer for King Saul, and they sang and danced for joy with tambourines and cymbals. This was their song, “Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands!”  This made Saul very angry. “What’s this?” he said. They credit David with ten thousands and me with only thousands. Next they will be making him king!”  So from that time on, Saul kept a jealous eye on David.

       King Saul had a lot of problems. He had an ego that was out of hand. He was king of Israel and he thought he should get the glory. He didn’t want to share with anyone the adoration of his people. He believed he should get the most credit for the successes of his army.

        Saul also had a problem with jealousy. He was not given the praise that David did and he wanted it. He took offense that someone else would be deemed more deserving of praise than him. He was not willing to let David get more praise than he did.

       Saul’s ego and jealousy led him to fear. He became afraid that David would become so popular with the people that he would become king instead of him. Saul became afraid of losing his popularity and position amongst the people.

       All kind of things happen to us when we put ourselves on a pedestal and think we deserve to be there. We are sinful by nature and we are easily persuaded that we are someone we are not. In order to keep our hearts and minds right before God, we need to always measure ourselves by His standards. We must always remember we are who we are and what we are by God’s grace and not our doings. We must never forget that we don’t deserve the adoration of others. We don’t deserve the blessings we have been given in life. We are merely vessels the Lord chooses to use for His glory. Some are given more visible roles to play in the Kingdom than others. But, with visibility comes greater responsibility. It is much harder to maintain integrity of heart before God when you are being watched by many. We must guard our hearts and not let pride, jealousy, or envy rob us of the joy of serving the Lord.

      It is a privilege to be used by the Lord to let His light shine in the world. Let us never squelch our light by letting our sinful nature deceive us into thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought.