The story of Saul and David is world famous for the classic story of an insecure leader and a young gifted and anointed “perceived” rival. But I thought to myself… I wonder if anyone ever looked at this scenario from the perspective of Saul? I mean after all… he was the Lord’s anointed right?
So check it out… David and Saul were family friends… they went on vacations together, they hung out at family functions, Saul’s firstborn son was David’s best friend. In fact, David was Saul’s worship leader. That means they saw alot of each other. But Saul was suspicious of David… after all David was the young, agressive, maybe a little ambitious guy with the big mouth that took on Goliath. Not only that but Saul heard he may be after his job… after all the prophet Samuel went and paid David a visit. He’s probably secretly planning to over throw Saul.
One day David goes out to battle and it’s said that Saul killed his thousands and David his ten thousands. So Saul decides… that’s all the evidence he needs. It’s totally right… all the things he thought about David are true. He’s after the kingdom. He’s bright, young, the people think he’s a better warrior… he’s probably using all this attention to make his move… he probably fed their minds with a bunch of lies about the number of people he killed. I need to get rid of him before he gets too much power.
So Saul starts trying to figure out how to trap David. He starts putting him in situations where David can trip up… so first he tries to unsettle David by banishing him from His court. I’ll just kick him out of the good ole boys club. That should give him the message. He’ll disappear after that…. but it doesn’t work. Then he tries to get him killed… I’ll make him in charge of a small part ot he kingdom… he’ll make a mistake that gets himself killed… but David is too smart (so it seems)… I’ll bring him into the family… keep your friends close and your enemies closer right? But David doesn’t take it… he just leaves it all behind. I can’t believe all that I’ve done for David and he treats me like this!!! More confirmation. I’ll just keep a well documented log of everything so that I can make my case against this guy that’s undermining my kingdom.
But David does the unmentionable… he spills the beans to a priest… I knew the guy was building his case against me… says Saul. But I caught him and he’s now switched to the other side… he’s a traitor!!! A traitor of Israel. He’s loosing his mind… probably mentally ill. I’ve heard he’s acting like a crazy man. I knew it all along. There was always something wrong with that guy.
I could just imagine the memo that Saul sent out to the kingdom. David has problems. We’ve had to banish him from the Kingdom. It’s a matter of church discipline. He’s undermining my authority as king. I have emails of complaints against him. No one on staff wants to work with him. In fact, he’s left and we can’t seem to find him. It’s obvious he’s done something wrong. He’s in hiding. I need to deal with this situation in a radical way. Get rid of anyone associated with David. Let’s start with the priests. You can’t trust those guys anyhow.
Not only that… but we need to make sure David doesn’t succeed. We can’t have that on our heads… so let’s go on a smeer campaign against him. Use lies, slander, whatever it takes. Let’s talk to anyone and everyone we can. Find him, finish him. Whatever it takes. Besides, he’s working with the enemy…. and he can’t be trusted. He’s gaining momentum. Getting more people on his side. He’s a threat to the kingdom. He even has our enemies on his side. He’s a liar… he’s always been a liar… he has a reputation for being a liar… he’s not who he says he is. You need to watch out for him. He’s cunning. He seems to escape all the traps I set for him. He’s obviously got inside information. Who is speaking to him. Make sure you uncover his source of information and deal with it.
I need to talk to someone who can really help me… I need Samuel. But he’s dead… what will we do? I know it goes against everything we know and believe… it goes against our ethics and morals… but we’re talking about David. We need to be open to outside options. Sometimes we need our enemies to help. Sometimes we need to put our differences behind us for a common enemy. Let’s go to the witch at Endor. She can get us in touch with Samuel the prophet. He can tell us what to do… but of course that was a mistake. We didn’t get the information we needed…something about me loosing the kingdom. What a mistake. Should have known better.
I guess if you need a job done you just have to face it head on and do it yourself. I can’t seem to find anyone that can handle it…. that was the last thing I remember.
