“Eyeing the 'Threat'" – FBC Morning Light (4/3/2024)

Well, a good Wednesday morning to you. Here we are in the middle of the week, the first full week of April, and Lord, His working and blessing

I trust in your life. Today we're reading 1 Samuel chapter 17 and 18, one of the exciting passages of the

Old Testament, chapter 17, David and Goliath, and David wanting to glorify

God by exercising faith in Him and seeing God do a great work through him.

But the passage I want to focus on is actually what follows in chapter 18. So imagine these scenarios.

Imagine a pastor of a church or a lead elder, depending on the structure of a church situation, and the church has grown to the point where they're ready to hire another assistant or helper, another pastor.

This other guy comes on the scene, probably younger than the current pastor, and he's given some opportunities to preach, and he's an effective preacher, a good preacher.

People are very happy with his preaching and the way the Lord uses him in the pulpit.

How does the first pastor, the senior pastor, how does he respond to that situation?

Or, let's consider another situation. You're a salesman, one of the top salesmen in your sales force in your company, and the company hires some new people, and this one guy comes on the scene, and man, he's knocking down doors.

He's breaking through the ceiling in terms of the sales accomplishments. They're finding great success as a salesman, and before you know it, he's become the top salesman in the company.

Well, if you're one that was the top salesman, and now you're not, how do you handle that?

Or suppose you're the lady at the church who's been known for her wonderful pies and her incredible desserts that she makes for the church potlucks, and one

Sunday, some new people have joined the church, and the new lady in the church brings a dessert for the potluck that just knocks your socks off good.

It is fantastic, and before you know it, her dessert is gone, and half of your dessert is still there.

How do you handle that? That may seem like a trite situation, but I suppose there are a lot of situations that are similar to that, that all echo what you see in 1

Samuel chapter 18. David has defeated Goliath, and the

Israelites then consequently defeated the Philistines, and now it's time for the victory parade, the celebration, and when everybody comes back to town, then the women sing as they danced, and they say,

Saul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands.

How is Saul going to respond to that? How would you respond to that?

How would I respond to that? Well, Saul was angry, and it displeased him.

He said, they've ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they've ascribed only thousands, and the result of that, when you continue in the passage, in verse 9 it says, so Saul eyed

David from that day forward. He looked at him with suspicion, with a jealous eye.

In fact, later on in verse 12, it says Saul was afraid of David, because the

Lord was with him, and in verse 15 it says, when Saul saw that he,

David, behaved very wisely, he was afraid. Saul was afraid of David.

And then down in verses 28 and 29, it says, thus Saul saw and knew that the

Lord was with David, and that Michael, Saul's daughter, loved him, and Saul was still more afraid of David, with the result that Saul became

David's enemy continually. This is a typical response to those hypothetical situations that I suggested earlier.

In fact, they're probably not all that hypothetical. You probably know of situations that are pretty similar to that indeed.

But here's the deal, here's the point. An insecure person sees another person's success as a threat, as a threat.

He sees his own growth in popularity diminish as the other person's growth in popularity rises, and he sees that as undermining his own security, his own position.

Therefore, he'll eye that person with jealous suspicion.

Well, I think the challenge here is for us not to be like that. It is instead to rejoice in another person's success.

Rejoice with those who rejoice. Rejoice in their success. Be glad that God has gifted them in a way that they can make such valuable contributions to the work.

Indeed, Father in heaven, deliver us from such jealous suspicion, we pray. We ask in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen.

All right, well listen, have a great rest of your Wednesday. May the Lord bless you in it, and good day.