TOPIC:
SAUL IS JEALOUS
BIBLE TEXT:
1 Samuel 17:55-58; 18:5-30.
MEMORY VERSE:
Jealousy is cruel as the grave... (Song of Solomon 8:6, (KJV).
TARGET:
To help the child understand what jealousy means and why it is wrong.
OBJECTIVES:
During and after the lesson, each child will show that he or she understands the lesson by:
1. Saying why Saul was jealous of David.
2. Identifying attitudes and actions that amount to jealousy.
3. Praying specifically that God may help him or her guard against jealousy of any kind.
OUTLINE:
- Saul Becomes Jealous of David - 1 Sam 18:5-9
- Saul Plans to Kill David - 1 Sam 18:10-16
- Saul Changes His Plan - 1 Sam 18:17-30.
INTRODUCTION:
In our lesson last week, we heard about David and how he killed Goliath by faith in God. After David killed Goliath, the people of Israel were very happy with David. Saul did not allow David to return home again. He took David and made him an officer in his army. From that time on, David lived with Saul in the King’s Palace.
But things soon changed, King Saul became jealous of David. We shall see In this lesson how this jealousy destroyed Saul’s relationship with David and with God. We shall also see how God delivered David from the hands of Saul because David trusted and obeyed God.
LESSON COMMENTARY:
1. Saul Becomes Jealous of David -1 Sam. 18:5-9
As David was returning after killing Goliath and as the soldiers were coming home, women from every town in Israel came out to meet King Saul. They were singing joyful songs and dancing. As the women celebrated they sang, “Saul has killed thousands, but David tens of thousands.” This is how he became jealous of David. He feared that David may become king instead of him and his son, Jonathan.
2. Saul Plans to Kill David - 1 Sam 18:10-16
From the time that the women sang and praised David, Saul began to plan to kill David. One day, Saul was in a bad mood. He was like a mad man and nothing could help him. David then played his harp in order to calm him. Suddenly the King grabbed his spear and threw it at David with all his power. He wanted to pin David to the wall with his spear. But David dodged the spear just in time. Saul tried to kill David with his spear two times, but each time David escaped by the help of God.
3. Saul Changes His Plan - 1 Sam 18:17-30
When Saul saw that God was protecting David, He became afraid. He then started thinking of other ways to get rid of David. He demoted him from being commander of the army. Next he sent him away from the palace. But all this did not affect David for God was with him. Meanwhile, Saul had promised David to give him his older daughter, Merab in marriage if he could fight and defeat the Philistines, so David accepted the offer.
Saul then decided to send David to war, so that the Philistines might kill him in the war front, But David went out, fought and killed over one hundred Philistines, and the Lord was with David, so the Philistines could not kill him. However, Saul did not give his daughter to David, He gave her to another man.
Saul again offered another daughter of his to David if he would kill many more Philistines. He pushed David to go to war with the Philistines so he might be killed. But God kept David safe and the Philistines could not kill him. Saul realised that God was with David because the more he sent David, the more famous David was among the people. The people loved David very much.
The people talked about him everywhere in the kingdom. Even though Saul was the king, David was becoming more popular because of the victories he won. So since Saul could not help it, he gave his daughter Michal to David as his wife. Michal loved David very much. Still, Saul was afraid of David and continued to see him as his enemy.
But God was with David every time he went to battle. He was always successful than any other of Saul‘s soldiers.
Jealousy made Saul cruel to David. He wanted very much to kill David. In spite of this, David was happy but Saul was not. He was only hurting himself by being jealous. The Bible says that jealousy is as cruel as the grave.
APPLICATION:
The Bible says that jealousy Is cruel (wicked). Yes, jealousy hurts. Saul was Jealous of David and hurt himself In the process. In this story, we shall hear, about an eagle (a bird) that was jealous of another eagle, and In the process hurt himself. Our story is a fable. An eagle could fly so well that It out flew another eagle.
And this second eagle didn’t like It. So It became jealous of the first one. One day, a sportsman was shooting at birds and the jealous eagle told him to shoot down the first one. The sportsman said that “he would, if he only had some feathers to put into the arrow”. So the jealous eagle pulled out one of its feathers. The arrow was shot, but didn’t quite reach the rival bird because it was flying too high. The envious eagle pulled out more feathers, and kept pulling them out until he lost so many that he couldn’t’ fly. And then the sportsman turned around and killed it. Jealousy had killed the eagle.
QUESTIONS:
1. Give two reasons why Saul became jealous of David? Because
(A) David was richer than Saul
(B) the people loved David
(C) Saul was afraid David would take his throne
(D) A and B
(E) B and C.
(F) C and A
2. What lessons can we learn from David?
(A) Not to risk our life for people and our country
(B) To hate our enemies
(C) Not to revenge over the evils done to us by our enemies
(D) To have the assurance of God’s protection at all times.
(E) All of the above
(F) C and D.
3. God rewards every act of jealousy with blessings.
(True or False ).
DAILY BIBLE DOSE:
Mon: The Sin of Jealousy - Gen 4:1-8
Tues: Owe No Man Anything - Romans 13:8-10
Wed: Live by The Spirit - Gal 5:15 - 21
Thu: The Fruit of The Spirit - Gal. 5: 22 - 26
Fri: Put Off Old Nature - Eph 4:17-22
Sat: The Sin Of Murder - James 4:1-3
An exclusive publication of the General Council of Assemblies of God Nigeria.
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