The deadly effects of jealousy and how to cure it (1 Samuel 18)

My father came from a well-to-do family and before World War II, his parents entertained in the grand style and lacked no luxury. Dad told me once that he was so spoilt as a young boy that when he saw the piles and piles of presents intended for him at Christmas, he asked, ‘Is that all?’. After the war, of course, they lost most of what they had. During Communism, my grandfather could not find work, my Dad was barred from university for political reasons and had a job as a manual worker in a factory. As he was going home one evening, he passed some couples from the new political elite, the women wearing mink coats, heading to the opera. He could not help the pang of jealousy he suddenly felt for a life that was lost to him forever. Yet, as he told me later, he realised how destructive jealousy was and refused to indulge in self-pity. This was the life God has given him and he wanted to make the best of it.

Jonathan’s generosity

David’s rise to fame and popularity quickly arouses Saul’s jealousy, whose kingship has become precarious. First, his son, Jonathan strikes up a close friendship with David and makes a covenant with him (1 Sam 18:1, 3-4). While there is clearly an element of affection here,[1] the covenant making and Jonathan’s symbolic gesture of passing on his garments and weapons to David also suggests a political meaning. Clothes in the ancient world marked out a person’s status, so that the king’s son giving his royal robe to David hints at Jonathan’s recognition and acceptance of the latter’s future as king.[2] While Jonathan shows great generosity in being willing to let go of his future position, Saul clings to his with both hands. The more David rises in popularity (1 Sam 18:5, 7), the angrier and more jealous Saul becomes (1 Sam 18:8-9).

The effects of jealousy

The key to Saul’s behaviour is that he cannot accept God’s will and the loss of his position. Yet the more he holds on to kingship, the more he loses his grip. Tormented and raving, he fights God’s will by attempting to kill his rival (1 Sam 18:11). However, he cannot win against the Lord who is with David, so to his anguish is added fear and dread (1 Sam 18:12, 15, 28). The more Saul tries to sideline or eliminate David, the more the latter rises (1 Sam 18:16). Saul’s obsession reaches such proportions that he uses his daughters without any scruples to put David into his debt through marriage and embroil him in more fighting against the Philistines in the hope of getting him killed (1 Sam 18:17, 20-21). As he does so, the gap between his outward attitude of graciousness to David and his inward murderous intentions widen – contrast his internal monologue with his public words (1 Sam 18:21-22). In the end, every effort Saul makes to get rid of his enemy moves David closer to the throne. He becomes the king’s son-in-law, highly esteemed by all and loved by members of the king’s own family (Jonathan and Michal). Saul is fighting God and His will and cannot win.

The root of jealousy and its cure

Saul’s attitude and deterioration shows how deadly jealousy is. It leads to inner torment, anger, fear that the prize will elude one, hypocrisy, and destructive behaviour. At its root, however, jealousy is always about a resistance to God’s will, a refusal to accept what the Lord has given or withheld from us. The quiet example of Jonathan is a counterpoint to Saul’s frenzy and shows that it is possible to let go of what we think life or God owes us, even to rejoice in the success of others and to submit to the Lord’s will. Learning to be thankful in what we have been granted is the best medicine against jealousy. May we develop an attitude of gratitude and humbly accept what we cannot have.

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[1] It is sometimes suggested that the ‘love’ described is homoerotic in nature. This is highly unlikely, however, because the OT strongly disapproves of such relationships, so an association like that with Israel’s best king is unthinkable. It would certainly have been condemned by the writer and audience in ancient Israel and there is no hint of criticism here. Rather, in Israelite thinking such love language would have been closely associated with covenant. In political life, vassals who made a covenant with a suzerain were supposed to ‘love’ their overlord, which in practice meant obedience and submission. Deuteronomy, the book which describes God’s covenant with Israel, uses similar language and routinely couples loving God and obedience together (e.g. Deut 10:12-13).

[2] David G. Firth, 1 & 2 Samuel (Nottingham: Apollos, 2009) 208.

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