Driving Himself Insane

After repeated defeats, the Philistines withdrew for a while to regroup.  During this interlude, David earned a great deal more respect from the people, aggravating Saul’s paranoia. Since he had been unable to trick David into getting killed by the Philistines, he ordered his servants to execute David, in I Samuel 18:30-19:1.  “Then the princes of the Philistines went forth: and it came to pass, after they went forth, that David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul; so that his name was much set by.  And Saul spake to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David.”

Because they had similar attitudes, Jonathan and David had formed a strong bond, with Jonathan treating David like a beloved younger brother.  Unwilling to destroy that relationship, and realizing the anger was all on Saul’s side, Jonathan tried to resolve the issues, in I Samuel 19:2-7.  “But Jonathan Saul's son delighted much in David: and Jonathan told David, saying, Saul my father seeketh to kill thee: now therefore, I pray thee, take heed to thyself until the morning, and abide in a secret place, and hide thyself: And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where thou art, and I will commune with my father of thee; and what I see, that I will tell thee.

And Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father, and said unto him, Let not the king sin against his servant, against David; because he hath not sinned against thee, and because his works have been to thee-ward very good: For he did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the LORD wrought a great salvation for all Israel: thou sawest it, and didst rejoice: wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?

And Saul hearkened unto the voice of Jonathan: and Saul sware, As the LORD liveth, he shall not be slain.  And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan showed him all those things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence, as in times past.”

Reminding  of what all David had done for him, and warning him that it was wrong to hold such a grudge against him Jonathan convinced Saul to drop the issues for a while, is underlying selfish attitude did not change.  He still begrudged the attention David had earned, and as soon as something drew attention to David his anger and hatred resurfaced, as I Samuel 19:8-10 describes.  “And there was war again: and David went out, and fought with the Philistines, and slew them with a great slaughter; and they fled from him.  And the evil spirit from the LORD was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand: and David played with his hand.  And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin; but he slipped away out of Saul's presence, and he smote the javelin into the wall: and David fled, and escaped that night.”

There is an old saying, “He who does you wrong will never forgive you.”  It seems like the more irrational und unjustifiable their anger is, the more unwilling people are to let it go.  I suspect that the problem is that when they are honest they feel guilty for their attitude, and instead of admitting they were wrong, they invent excuses to justify their anger.  Marriage counselors see this frequently, and it is very obvious among our political figures.   If the underlying attitude is not chanced, sooner or later it will resurface, and Satan uses this irrational hatred and anger to blind their minds so that they do not even consider the facts or the effects of what they are doing.  Because they have let their emotions override their intelligence, they are under Satanic control

When his attempt to murder David failed, Saul gave orders to have him murdered while he slept, in I Samuel 19:11-18.  “Saul also sent messengers unto David's house, to watch him, and to slay him in the morning: and Michal David's wife told him, saying, If thou save not thy life to night, to morrow thou shalt be slain.  So Michal let David down through a window: and he went, and fled, and escaped.  And Michal took an image, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth.  And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, He is sick.

And Saul sent the messengers again to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may slay him.  And when the messengers were come in, behold, there was an image in the bed, with a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster.  And Saul said unto Michal, Why hast thou deceived me so, and sent away mine enemy, that he is escaped? And Michal answered Saul, He said unto me, Let me go; why should I kill thee?  So David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth.”

Michal loved David, and helped him escape, even delaying pursuit to give him time to get away, but she knew that Saul had been determined to kill his son Jonathan for unknowingly disobeying him in I Samuel 14:44.  She had no doubt he would kill her if he knew she had deliberately helped David, so she lied, claiming David had forced her to help him.  Though he was still able to function normally, Saul had allowed his selfishness and hatred to effectively drive him insane.  The longer he clings to that anger and hatred the worse it will become.