FBC Daily Devotional – September 29, 2021

Well a good Wednesday morning to you here we are in the middle of the week and again,

I'm still recording this from down in, Mississippi and Enjoying this conference that Chris and I are attending

But missing the the church family and missing our home, but look forward to look forward to being back soon well today in our scripture reading we're reading in 1st

Samuel chapter 18 and 19 and starting to get introduced to the dark side of King Saul and We saw earlier in in the book of Samuel how he had you know he'd shown sin sin and rebellion against the

Lord, but now he's showing a side of him that is very destructive in terms of relationships and the thing that the thing that sets off this chain of events of just just destructiveness is the

The the praising of David for his slaughter of Goliath the women

Upon David's return from battle. They cry out, you know date Saul is killed as thousands, but David is tens of thousands and that that sends all over the edge and he develops this spirit of jealousy and that jealousy

Just takes off in him and it it it causes him to Create all kinds of destructiveness in relationships

I mean think about think about he even uses his own daughters to try to exact It's not really revenge but to try to get rid of the person against whom he's jealous

And and I thought about this as I read Saul's expressions of jealousy and all the different ways that he

Showed that jealousy and how it undermined these different relationships ruin these relationships it undermined that jealousy undermined his ability to make good decisions and Decisions that ended up causing harm to other people

He couldn't lead well Because he wasn't ruled by principle He was ruled by rage and a desire to destroy destroy

David it Created that spirit of jealousy and his being controlled by it

It created a an undue sense of fear and hostility in his own heart

He was afraid of a man Like he had no reason to fear and he was hostile toward a man who was no threat to him whatsoever

He enlisted in in his jealousy he enlisted others to side with him against a man that they had no reason to be against and Then he finds no resolution in this no resolution in his heart

He doesn't think he's gonna find any resolution until he utterly destroys the man

And of course as you if you know the end of the story, he never succeeds at destroying

David It's his own jealousy that destroys him What a powerful powerfully destructive

Emotion this jealousy can be and I don't know if you've ever been the victim of it

I don't know if you've ever been guilty of it but I trust you haven't had to endure the the pain of Someone who is jealous of you for whatever reason and they lash out at you they undermine relationships connected to you and just in short try to make your life miserable and I do hope

I do hope and trust that That you don't suffer from this sin of jealousy

Because if you do it'll eat you alive It'll hurt your relationships, it'll mess up your family and so much more so this is a

Sobering picture when we see just how destructive jealousy is in the life of Saul It helps us realize

Where it'll go where it can take us if we become jealous and then fuel that jealousy

Let's be oh, let's be on guard Against that sin father.

Thank you for this sober sober picture of The king the first king of Israel and his failure and Lord I pray that we would guard our hearts lest a spirit of jealousy infect us.

We pray in Jesus name Amen All right. Well, have a good rest of your middle of the weekday and hope you get over the hump.