The Little god of Self

 DEVOTION

1^ST SAMUEL

THE LITTLE GOD OF SELF

1 Samuel 20:18-34

18 Then Jonathan said to David: "Tomorrow is the New Moon festival. You will be missed, because your seat will be empty. 19 The day after tomorrow, toward evening, go to the place where you hid when this trouble began, and wait by the stone Ezel. 20 I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target. 21 Then I will send a boy and say, 'Go, find the arrows.' If I say to him, 'Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them here,' then come, because, as surely as the LORD lives, you are safe; there is no danger. 22 But if I say to the boy, 'Look, the arrows are beyond you,' then you must go, because the LORD has sent you away. 23 And about the matter you and I discussed — remember, the LORD is witness between you and me forever." 24 So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon festival came, the king sat down to eat. 25 He sat in his customary place by the wall, opposite Jonathan, and Abner sat next to Saul, but David's place was empty. 26 Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, "Something must have happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean — surely he is unclean." 27 But the next day, the second day of the month, David's place was empty again. Then Saul said to his son Jonathan, "Why hasn't the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?" 28 Jonathan answered, "David earnestly asked me for permission to go to Bethlehem. 29 He said, 'Let me go, because our family is observing a sacrifice in the town and my brother has ordered me to be there. If I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away to see my brothers.' That is why he has not come to the king's table." 30 Saul's anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, "You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don't I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you? 31 As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now send and bring him to me, for he must die!" 32 "Why should he be put to death? What has he done?" Jonathan asked his father. 33 But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill David. 34 Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger; on that second day of the month he did not eat, because he was grieved at his father's shameful treatment of David.

NIV

There is more to this story, but we have a lot here; however, one truth stands out: anger. This anger within Saul stemmed from the fact that the LORD was no longer upon him, leaving him to his own unchecked self-centeredness, which festered into extreme jealousy of David, to the point where murder was in Saul’s heart. Then he lashed out at his own son, as well as Jonathan’s mother, and threatened Jonathan that he would not inherit his throne or have his own kingdom as long as the son of  Jesse lived. When a father hurls a spear with the intent to kill his own son, we can see pure evil in the heart of Saul. There is another Son whom the Father sent to be killed on a cross, but that Father and Son were one, and had a plan to save their creation, mankind, who had turned toward other gods, even the god of self. We can imagine that was what was left in Saul’s heart, the god of self. His rage and fierce anger could only be forged by the god of self. We can learn from Saul, Jonathan, and David about relationships, yet the larger truth is about the relationship between the Father, the Son, and us. We notice that Jonathan’s love for David caused him to grieve because of his father’s shameful treatment of David. This reminds us of the truth that when one of us believers suffers, we all suffer, and when one of us is honored, we all are honored. Paul was talking about the body of Christ, that we are all parts that work together, that we are all given the one Spirit to drink. There should be no division, but unity in the Spirit. That did not exist between Saul and David, and it split apart the unity of Israel. Because we are all part of the body of Christ and we all have the same Spirit, we believe there should be complete unity among all members of the church. Yet, we have witnessed divisions so harsh that churches were torn apart. We have witnessed believers filled with so much unforgiveness; we must believe they have that little god of self that was hiding in their hearts. How is it possible that we, whom the Son came to die for, are not unified through the power of the Spirit? How could that be any conflict in the body of Christ, like we see between Saul and David, and now even with his own son, Jonathan? It seems whenever there is any kind of disharmony or division within the body of Christ, it is that small god of self that is surfacing. We are told to put off the old self, or old creation, and we have become a new creation in Christ. That should mean we have only one God, and that little god of self has been crucified with Christ. Let us not serve that little god of self.