To Encourage You

1 Samuel 18:15 “And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him. “

We’ve all heard the old adage, “actions speak louder than words.”  However, over the years I’ve come to believe what I think is an even pithier statement: “reactions speak louder than actions.”  Don’t you believe this?  It’s one thing, out of the goodness of one’s heart, to do a good deed for someone.  The motives may be many, but it usually just makes you feel good when you do something like that. However, if that same person we do good for doesn’t appreciate it or even disregards our “good” deed, how do we react?  I would argue that it is that reaction, rather than the first action, that most reveals (even to us) what is hidden down deep in our heart. 

With that in mind, we come in 1 Samuel 18 and the relationship between Israel’s first king, Saul, and the nation’s anointed but not yet crowned new king, David.  Earlier, in 1 Samuel 16, we are told about how Saul came to meet David.  It was as a result of Saul’s demon-inspired fits of depression that his servants recommended David to him. They had heard that David could play beautiful music on the lyre, and they believed that David’s music could help to assuage Saul’s mental anguish. This it did, and thus we are told, “Saul loved him greatly” (1 Samuel 16:21).  As a result, Saul put David in his service as his armor bearer as well as his personal musician.  These were actions borne out of Saul’s fondness for this exceptional young man, but perhaps more, his fondness for what David could do for him.  He welcomed him into his court. 

But then we are told of David’s great success in his service to Saul.  It was evident to everyone in Israel, including the women throughout the land. As these women became enthralled by David’s courageous victories over the Philistines, they began to sing and celebrate with these words: “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands” (1 Samuel 18:7).  And then we have Saul’s reaction.  All of a sudden Saul’s “love” turned to anger, even rage, and jealousy, because, in truth, Saul’s love for David was a self-centered thing – for “even sinners love those who love them” (Luke 6:32).”  But when he saw David being blessed by God in all that he did, when he saw the greater acclaim the nation was giving David than they gave to him, his “love” evaporated.  Saul was selfish and self-centered at heart. His reactions to David’s success exposed this. 

As I think about this, I think about how marriages begin with the public confession of two peoples’ love for each other. The marriage vows are “actions,” if you will, which demonstrate the highest goodwill of one person toward another. Yet, I saw a statistic today that over 50% of these same marriages will end in divorce.  How can this be?  What’s going on here?  Likely, it’s rooted in the same problem that Saul had: selfishness and self-centeredness on the part of one or both partners.  It is in life, not in the momentary actions of a vow, that the true nature of love is revealed. As two people interact with one another, as they weather the storms of life, as they see the bad as well as the good in one another, it is the reaction to these challenges that exposes who those people really are. 

If there is deep seated selfishness, it will be exposed in both the actions, but more likely, the reactions of people interacting with one another. If there is self-sacrificial love on the other hand, it too will be exposed by these same things.

May God help us to act and react in a way that glorifies Him and demonstrates that we actually do love our neighbor as ourselves.  And if those actions or reactions expose something else, may we be wise enough to confess our sin, repent of it, and ask God for the strength to love one another as He has loved us. For, you see, it was while we were yet sinners that our glorious Savior reacted to that sin (all of which, incidentally, was directed against Him (Psalm 51:4)) with infinite love by dying for us on the cross.