All right, well, good morning and welcome to Red Village Church. I have not met you. I’m Aaron and I’m the preaching pastor here. And they’re glad that you’re with us. So today is actually Palm Sunday, and so we’re not having a passage on Palm Sunday today, but the kids downstairs are having a big play.
So I’m kind of excited to hear how that goes this morning. So if you have a Bible with you. We’re going to continue in our study of First Samuel. So today we’ll be finishing off chapter 18 of First Samuel.
So I’m going to read just one verse for us, just verse 17 of chapter 18. And then as we work through the sermon, we’re going to be working through all the way through the end of chapter 18, which is leads us to verse 30 was mentioned. I’m just going to read verse 17, and then I’m going to pray and then ask for the Lord’s help and his blessing on this time. And then we will get to work through this passage. So first Samuel, chapter 18, verse 17.
So please hear the word of the Lord. So the Bible says. Then Saul said to David, here’s my elder daughter Merab. I’ll give her to you for a wife only. Be valiant for me and fight the Lord’s battles.
For Saul thought, let not my hand be against him. Let the hand of the Philistines be against him. Okay, that’s God’s word for us this morning. Let’s pray.
Lord, it’s good to be here. It’s good for us as your people to be together.
And so, Lord, I pray that as we are together today, this morning, that you would bless this time, particularly this preaching of your word. Pray that God, you would use it through the power of your Holy Spirit to do a work in our hearts for the glory of Christ. Pray. It’s all in Jesus name. Amen.
So this morning, as we gather together and come to our next passage in our study of First Samuel, we come to our next passage, next study, where we see Saul the king flounder in sin, flounder in ways I continue to think serve as a warning for us. You know, this past week, as I was thinking about all the warnings that we have come to already in Saul, his negative example, his sinful example. It’s like if we were playing bingo and the bingo boxes were all labeled with, like, sinful character traits. In our study of 1st Samuel, King Saul, very quickly we’re moving to, like, blacking out our bingo card. With each spot filled, it was outside of a decent start that he had as king in the beginning.
After that, it feels like every passage that we’ve had with Saul, we read about a different one of his sinful character traits. Just for a little bit of review, since we first met Saul, let me remind us the different traits that we’ve already seen. Different traits we’ve already blacked out on the bingo card. So chapter nine we first met Saul before he was anointed as king. Yeshid seemed to show some real laziness.
Perhaps text has even pointed to us that Saul was like a spoiled brat. Remember how he’s like failing to find donkeys who escaped him? Chapter 10 as he was appointed king, saying he was afraid his responsibilities. So he’s hiding from the people behind the luggage. In chapter 13, famously Saul, or maybe better said infamously Saul performed the unlawful sacrifice, which was an act that was such an offense in the sight of God that God was grieved that he made Saul a king and God rejected Saul as being the king.
As you remember leading up to Saul making that unlawful sacrifice, there’s a lot of sinful character traits that Saul put on displayed. He was very impatient, unwilling for Samuel the priest, the one who actually could give the sacrifice. He was impatient, waiting for him to come. In chapter 13 he had like these control issues around the sacrifice, unwilling to trust in the Lord, which is an ongoing issue for Saul, which you’ll see again in our text today. He’s incredibly controlling.
In that same passage in chapter 13, 1st Samuel, he had some intense fear of man issues. Seemed like he was trying to please people who were leaving his side. But ultimately in that text, as Saul gave the unlawful sacrifice, he proved to have like just some arrogance and some real pride where Saul thought to himself that he could do something that God in his word forbade him to do. These are sinful character traits. Chapter 14 read.
Saul had some major issues, character issues when it came to running his mouth. Remember how he made like foolish decisions, a rash vow, confident assertions where throughout chapter 14, Saul kept running his mouth and putting himself and others in awful places. And with each time he ran his mouth, he proved himself to be more and more of a fool. Chapter 14 we also read that Saul was a terrible dad, which is something we’ll get to again in our text today. Remember chapter 14, Saul was like completely absent and aloof.
What was going on in the life of his son Jonathan? And even worse, maybe remember he’s even willing to see his son Jonathan die because of a rash vow that Saul made. He was willing to sacrifice his own flesh and blood in an attempt to save his own face. That’s pretty awful character. Chapter 15 we read Saul further reject a very clear command from God, which is a command concerning one of the enemies of God that Saul was commanded to wipe out.
But as you remember, Saul decided that he didn’t want to do that. Chapter 17 in the story of David and Goliath. I didn’t mention this when we went through the sermon because I wanted to focus just on David. But really, Saul should have been the one who entered into the valley to fight the giant man Goliath, the one who was blaspheming the Lord. But Saul was a coward.
He had this character flawless. And not only is it coward, remember how he’s even like trying to bribe others to do what he himself was not willing to do. Chapter 18 From a Text a couple weeks back which sets the context checks. Today we see that Saul was like raging with sinful jealousy, where he was so sinfully jealous, he even tried to kill his most trusted servant, David. Doing so multiple times, multiple ways.
In our study of First Samuel King Saul, he’s not a man of high character. Rather, time and time again in First Samuel, Saul checks box after box after box of sinful character traits. And today in our study, yet again, we’ll see another sinful character trait that Saul crosses off on the bingo card. This time the box of sinful manipulation. Now, before we start to work through our text, I do want to make a bit of distinction for us just for the sake of clarity, of communicating similar words.
But I want to have a little bit of distinction in these similar words and try to use it to communicate like different things. First word is just the word I just gave is manipulation. And with this word, I wanted to use it to describe like sinfully trying to like twist others and ways we’re trying to twist others to get like, what we want for ourselves, even if it’s like to the harm of others, which is what we see in our text today. In Saul, he’s simply trying to manipulate those around him so that he can keep control of his kingdom, which he did not want to lose. And the second word, what I wanted to contrast that with is the word influence, which is obviously similar to word manipulate.
But for the sake of clarity, how I want to define influence and not in terms like how we might use it in modern day, but it relates to like social media. You know, many are trying to be like influencers on social media and podcasts. I think most of them are actually probably more like sinful manipulators as they try to manipulate us to try to get clicks and subscriptions. But for us, I want to use the word influence or influencer in terms of trying to lead others in a certain way that’s actually positive. We’re trying to influence them for their benefit.
So not focus on ourselves, but on God and others. And I want to make this distinction because as Christians, we actually are called to be influential to the world around us, specifically those who God has already placed in our life. That’s a real part of us being faithful to faithfully influence those around there, around us. This is at the heart of discipleship, to influence people towards Christ, which is the greatest good we can do for anyone, to influence others in such a way that they’re trusting in Christ, trusting that Christ is good in all that he does, trusting that God will promise to be good to his people all of their days. So specifically for parents like you should be a positive influence in your kid’s life, where you’re seeking to influence and continue to influence your children towards Christ as you prepare them for adulthood.
But it’s not just parents or really all of us, right? We’re to be positive influence for the cause of Christ. Say it again. That’s what discipleship is. That’s our calling.
That’s our expectations if we are a Christian. So as we work through our text today, I don’t want you to be seen in such a way that you’re so worried about being like a sinful manipulator that you don’t, like, seek to influence others for the cause of Christ and their benefit. Okay, so just for the sake of clarity, Saul’s picture in the text, this is sinful manipulation where he is trying to benefit only himself. He’s doing so even as it brought others harm. In the text, as we work through it today, Saul is not on honoring the Lord.
He does not show love for others. Rather, he shows love simply for himself. Okay, so with all that being said, look back with me at the text. Starting verse 17, verse 17, we see a conversation between Saul and David, which maybe feels a little strange that these men are still talking after Saul has been trying to pin David to the wall with his spear, which was our text last time. But Saul’s still king here.
And so David probably didn’t have much choice when King Saul called. David had to respond. In this conversation today in our text, we see that Saul had something he wanted to tell David. Specifically in the passage, David here is My elder daughter Merab, and I want to give her to you as a wife. Which on surface level, perhaps this feels right.
Perhaps this maybe even feels like Saul is now trying to make good on the bribe that he promised in chapter 17, verse 25. So remember, remember that the bribe that was given, if anyone were to strike down the giant man Goliath, Saul promised that he would give to that man his daughter to be his bride. In chapter 17. That’s exactly what David did, right? He killed Goliath.
So in our text today, perhaps this here feels like Saul is now simply trying to fulfill his promise. He’s keeping his word. He is rewarding David for. For a job well done, right? Surface level kind of looks right, kind of feels right.
However, in truth, this is actually the start of Saul’s manipulation in the passage. Keep going. In the text, in the conversation, we see Saul also tell David that if he takes his daughter hands in marriage, the only thing he requires, that David be valiant for Saul and that he would fight the Lord’s battles. And once again, even this sounds good. This sounds right.
Seems like the spiritually right thing to say. This here is Saul, like presenting himself in a favorable light as a godly man. Let me point out here, this is Saul actually adding to what was first promised. Chapter 17, all that was said was kill Goliath and Saul’s daughter would be given to marriage. So here already there’s a little string attached here.
Saul’s not really keeping his promise. And we’re going to see. He certainly is not godly behind this promise. This is not for the glory of God. This is not for the good of David and his daughter Merab.
So even though Saul is trying to massively paint himself in a favorable light, our text tells us what actually is going on in his heart is far different. In the heart, there’s some pretty dark, devious thoughts that Saul is having. So now, as we see the end of verse 17, our text tells us what Saul was thinking to himself, which is a thought, say, hey, let not my hand be against him, meaning David, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him, meaning for Saul, as he thought about it, he’s thinking, you know, I’ve tried and I’ve tried to kill David. I tried more than once to run my spear through him. I tried to even send him off to war with the hopes that he would be killed.
But none of my attempts have accomplished what I wanted them to accomplish. So if I manipulate things correctly here through the use of Merib, hopefully I will get what I want. And if David is my son in law, it’ll be even more easy for me to continue to send David off to war. And if the Philistines know that David is my son in law, that’ll make him even more of a target for them to kill friends. Everything that Saul said in verse 17 about giving Merab to David charades.
He’s acting. This is a game. This is slick deception. This was a ruse. This is Saul seeking to manipulate David and his own daughter to get what he wanted, which was David gone.
That’s what this all was about. Saul wanted David dead to ensure that he could keep control over his kingly power. Verse 18 appears like the manipulation, at least in some levels, worked. Doesn’t appear that David had sensed any manipulation from Saul in this conversation. So in a sense it worked, but it didn’t work in terms of actually getting David to do what Saul wanted him to do.
So we see in the text David responds back to Saul saying, saul, who am I? Who are my relatives, my father’s clan in Israel, that I should be the son in law of the king. Which is David saying, I can’t marry Maab Marib. I’m not worthy of it. Now, let me mention here, perhaps David saying this, this is maybe his way of trying to get out of marrying Marib, you know, trying to let it down lightly.
Maybe this is almost like David’s own manipulation, giving some false humility to try to backpedal his way out of this marriage. Or at least to me. I think what David says here is it’s more out of genuine humility. Like he didn’t assume he didn’t feel entitled to the place in the king’s court. So as the king Saul tried to give David this honor of marrying his daughter, David, he just couldn’t believe it.
He’s thinking to myself, who am I to have this great honor? Keep going. Verse 19. We read that as time came for Saul to give his daughter Marib to David, we see that Saul changed course. And our text tells us that Merab was given away to a man named Adriel instead.
Hard to know why Saul did this. Maybe this is out of result of like turning down David, turning down the offer. So Saul could see, like, David’s not biting here, so he decided he’s like wasting his time with David and Merab, so he gave his daughter to a different man instead. I also wonder perhaps this week and as I study and thinking about this, that maybe Merib going off to this new pan or this new man was part of a different manipulation by Saul, maybe a different ruse. In my mind this week, I was kind of wondering if, like, maybe something was bubbling up with Idril or the area where Idril was residing in.
And as this was bubbling up, it became concerning to Saul. So his attempt to smooth things over with Adriel, with the region where he was from, Saul gave Merab to this man as an attempt to try to keep peace, to keep his power, to keep his favor, which seemed to be at the core of every decision Saul was making. You know, so maybe shipped the daughter off to another man just for that. Hard to know exactly why. But what we do know is that all this all plays out.
Whatever the motivation was, as Saul gave away Merab, he’s back to his original problem. He has to try to figure out how to manipulate David into being killed by the Philistines. Keep going. Verse 20. At least for a little bit.
Saul had to go back to the drawing board, and he’s starting to rack his brain. He’s trying to manipulate a new plan to kill David. So in the text, as Saul was at work at his drawing board, you see his younger daughter Michael, was present. And as she was present, it became clear that she actually was really into David. She had fallen head over heels for him.
Our text tells us that she was in love with him. Now, once again, my mind’s eye this week, I could just see Saul at the drawing board, maybe, like, muttering to himself about different potential plans to get David killed, with none of the plans fully coming together. So he’s, like, getting a little more frustrated. And then I see, like, in my mind, Michael walk into the room to ask Saul, what are you working on, dad? Only for Saul to try to shore off to the side so he can try to concentrate on his diabolical plan, only for Michael to keep talking and talking, and everything coming out of her mouth somehow relates to David, you know, how fun David is, how handsome he is, how kind he is, how successful David is.
I can just see her, like, talking, talking, talking about David over and over again. And eventually, Saul starts to pick up on things. I can just see in my mind’s eye, like, turning away from his drawing board with a huge grin on his face, he starts to, like, engage in the conversation with his young daughter. Oh, David, you say? Yes, David is such a great young man, really.
Any young girl would be lucky to marry David. And as Saul recognized that his young daughter Michal was in love with David, you can just see this new plan of manipulation start to form in his head. Verse 21 of the text, Saul further thought to himself, let me give Michael to David that she may be a snare or even translate a trap for him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Now we talked about this a little bit in the intro. One of Saul’s greatest flaws was just how awful of a dad he was.
Chapter 14 is mentioned. He was willing to see his son Jonathan die in order to save his own face. Now twice in our text today, he’s trying to use his own daughters as pawns in the game of manipulation. He’s even like preying on Michal and her emotions to try to get to David. I mean, what a sleaze.
May God protect the parents here for being like this. To even like try to use control our own children to be like pawns, to promote ourselves to get what we want. In the case of Saul, to keep what he had. And what a sleaze by let me mention in the weeks to come, Saul’s awful parenting does catch up to him. And that Jonathan and Michael like they had resentment towards their dad and all of his sinful manipulation over their life.
Then time they actually tried to like undermine Saul as he was trying to like hold on to things. I don’t see much of Marib outside of small passages in 2nd Samuel, but it seemed like her family was just a disaster then. Verse 21, with Saul’s new plan of manipulation in place, Saul said to David a second time, david, yes, yes, you shall be my son in law. Which I’m guessing probably had some type of damage control to cover up here. Sure, David, probably it wasn’t right for you to marry my oldest daughter.
But here, take Michael, my younger daughter. That’s probably more proper, that’s probably more in order. And then, yes, you will be my son in law. In fact, just in case David is starting to catch wind of this snare that saw has set for him. Or David is still like questioning things, which does seem like he still was.
As we get to in just a bit, we see in verse 22, Saul even sent his servants to David, in short, to like butter him up, to flatter David in ways where Saul hoped that it would distract David in the text, right? The servants would go to David in private and tell him, hey, David, we got something to tell you. Do you know how much the king delights in you? He really likes you a lot. He really wants you to be his son in law.
In fact, all of us, all of the servants of Saul, we just love you, David. See the manipulation here?
Saul was so good at this game. He’s so thorough. He’s working through all of the details. He’s getting everyone he needs to try to pull this off. He’s playing a masterful game of manipulation.
In the text, Saul was seemingly able to control everyone to do what he wanted them to do, except for David, at least not at first. We see in verse 23 that as David is being flattered by the servants, he’s still not fully convinced that he’s the one to marry the king’s daughter. Because he told the servants something similar to what he told Saul before when he was first approached with Merib. As he tells him. Does this not seem like a little thing to you to become the king’s son in law?
Because this just seems too much for me to have. I mean, after all, who am I? I’m just a poor man with no reputation, which I guess maybe this is maybe like a little bit of humble brag here, maybe that David’s working on. Maybe this is also another manipulation where maybe David’s trying to get the servants to give him more praise, that they further flatter him. But what we know of David, I think this is just more humility by him.
I mean, sure, David understood he was the one who killed Goliath. David could understand and see that he found success everywhere he turned, which their texts have told us multiple times in 1st Samuel. But David also understood that those things happen only because of the Lord. David knew he didn’t do any of those things on his own strength. This is all grace.
This is simply the Lord’s doing. So as David, as he looks into the mirror, all he could see was the youngest son of Jesse, a shepherd boy, a nobody who came from a family of nobodies with no reputations of being somebodies. So this text, as David shared his hesitation with the servants, verse 24, we see that the servants go back to Saul to give the king the report that David was not actually going to run to the marriage altar. He still was unsure how he could be the king’s son in law. My hunch is as David or Saul got this report, probably surprised.
Surprised that David didn’t jump at this offer, maybe surprised that this trap was not set yet. Which meant that Saul had a little more work to do at the drawing board, a little bit more manipulation to allure David into the trap. So read in verse 25 of the text, Saul sent his servants back to David with a little bit more of an Adjusted plan which actually further got away from the initial promise in chapter 17 of Killing Goliath. And this new plan, this new manipulation was one that Saul was sure would get David captured. Reading the text, this new plan, Saul was now recurring no bride price outside of a small price of 100 foreskins of dead Philistines which Saul said would be the means by which he could avenge his enemies.
And that way any suitor would prove their worth to mary Michael. And if 100 foreskins price sounds strange to you, don’t worry. This is also strange to the scriptures. So in the book of Exodus, the bride price was pieces of silver, not pieces of male anatomy. But that’s what Saul wanted here, he wanted 100 foreskins of dead Philistines.
Now to me it seems like Saul gave this new plan for a couple reasons. First, I think this is Saul like further playing off like David’s humility. You know, if David was not going to humbly receive the daughter as his wife, it seemed like he needed some type of opportunity like this to prove his worth. So it seems like Saul is just like playing off his humility. As mentioned, he’s a master at this game.
Also second, I would guess in Saul’s mind no way David could actually pull this off. No way he could actually kill a hundred Philistines. Sure, maybe he got lucky killing Goliath with a one in a million slingshot that landed right between the giants eyes. But for Saul, there’s no way David could be this lucky to kill 100 Philistines. As great as David was, no way he could succeed here.
So here, even before he gave Michael away to him, just this, this bride price for Saul, like hey, I can actually get David killed and then use Michael as a pawn for some other future manipulation. Verse 26. With this new adjusted plan in place, with this new wrinkle and how the trap will be set, we see the servants go back to David to share with him the thoughts from Saul and the text. As David hears these thoughts, the manipulation worked because the words please David. In fact David was so pleased by this new bride price that he was so excited to prove his worth.
We see in the text that before time had expired, meaning Saul set a deadline for David to accomplish the killing of the Philistines. Why wait for David to kill him? Let’s get the trap set right away with the deadline, before the time had expired, we see David got up in verse 27. He took a few trusted men with him to fill the bride price and prove his worth. And once again for me here you can just see Saul further grinning from ear to ear, patting himself on the back, giving self congratulations of a perfect plan that came together right now.
He could finally get rid of David once and for all. In the text, the smile of Saul eventually turned into a scowl because not only did David return alive, our text tells us he returns with 200 philistine foreskins, doubling that which is required in the bride price, which more than proved David’s worth. You know, for Saul. We can talk about this more in just a bit. This is just the latest backfire on him.
Every time he tried to manipulate things to keep his control, in the end, in time it would backfire on Saul, backfire in such way he’s actually losing more and more power and control. That was Saul tried to desperately hold on to is like sand slipping through the fingers that are tightly clutched together. So in the text, as David more than paid the price, Saul had to eat humble pie and he gave Michael over to David in marriage. Verses 28 through 29. As Saul watched the happy young couple grow more and more in love, it became more and more obvious to Saul that the Lord was with David and not with him.
Which our text tells us made Saul even more afraid of David. Which no doubt only added to Saul’s jealousy of David, also the paranoia that he’s struggling with in the previous passage. And as Saul became more and more afraid of David, Saul began to view David as his enemy continually. Which perhaps reverses a little bit of an up and down nature that Saul had in his thoughts towards David prior to this scene, where there’s some times that no doubt Saul hated David, but other times he loved David because of how well David served him. But from now, no more up and down thoughts for Saul concerning David.
The only thoughts he had were negative thoughts. David was his enemy, perhaps even his greatest enemy. Finally, our text this morning ends with even more of the same success for David, as we read that the commanders of the Philistines would lead their armies into battle. But as often as they did this, the battle would not go their way, as David would lead God’s people to victory in ways that were greater than all of the other servants of Saul. And doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see this ongoing success for David made him even more highly esteemed among the people.
Saul’s attempts at manipulation did not get what he wanted. Rather than the end, the one who was caught in the trap was Saul himself. There’s all of his diabolical plans in the end. Only things made things worse for Saul and his desire for control as David became more and more and more liked by the people. Now for the rest of the remainder of the sermon.
Here, a few thoughts for us when it comes to manipulation from this text. As we work through these thoughts, I do want to reiterate what I said earlier. I’m not trying to suggest, you know, that we shouldn’t be in the lives of others. We’re trying to influence them like we really should do, that we should provide influence for the glory of God and the good of others, we should do those things. But in the text, neither of those things were true of Saul.
He was the manipulator. So I wanted to finish off this sermon this morning. First, I do want to shine further, shine the spotlight in manipulation, just with the hopes that we might see it better for what it is, perhaps even better, see where maybe it’s lurking in our own hearts, which if true, if we see manipulation in our own hearts, hopefully it causes us to repent. This morning, let me also mention, as we go through this, maybe in small ways it can help us discern if we’re even being manipulated by others, which is something we should want to avoid. That’s the first thing we’re going to work through.
And then second, I just want to give some encouragements on how we can fight against manipulation and the pull of manipulation that is in our hearts. So first, let me just shine the spotlight a bit and give you a few thoughts when it comes to manipulation. So first, manipulation is a strategy to deceive. Simply, that’s what it is. It’s a form of lying.
Now, there’s many ways that you and I can implement this strategy to deceive. I’m going to give you just three common ones I wrote down this week. So first, we could use a strategy of anger to manipulate, where we use anger, the threat of anger, to try to get our way. And I think this is probably the first strategy that we learn as people. I’m thinking about young children.
What’s their strategy when they want to try to get something they want? They throw fits to try to get their parents to give them the thing that they desire. And for some, this strategy of just being angry has been so effective for them, they continue into adulthood. Which, by the way, a little side note to parents, this is why it’s so important to lovingly discipline your children when they’re trying to manipulate you, manipulate the situation through anger, like love them enough to not let them do that. Second, strategy that we use maybe on the opposite end of anger is where we can use the tactic of sadness, which I think is actually an increasing tactic in society we live today where we try to be like the victim on everything, where we try to use sadness or false sadness to try to get that which we want.
Maybe throw like pity parties to manipulate others to give us attention or something like that. You know, one of the earliest lessons I learned as an intern as a church was from a more experienced pastor who just simply told me, don’t be fooled by tears. Because many use tears, fake tears, to try to manipulate third tactic, the tactics we see in our text today, which is maybe a little bit more subtle, which is to manipulate through flattery, which is actually something the book of Proverbs warns us of. Be mindful of people who try to flatter as an attempt to set a net under our feet. I think this is probably one who’s probably most common for those of us who struggle with like people pleasing fear of man.
It’s probably an easy tactic for us to use. Now, obviously as Christians, we should say kind words to others. We should say in ways we’re hoping to encourage others, to build others up. But if we’re not careful, we can use these words in ways that are flattering to manipulate. That’s what Saul was doing in our text.
He was using flattery. He’s saying all of the right things. He’s getting his servants to say all the right things. Why? Not because he loved David, not because he’s trying to build David up.
He’s trying to manipulate David to get David to do what Saul wanted to do. Now, I’m sure there’s other tactics of manipulation, but I think those are common ones. That’s the first thing. Second, as we think about shining the spotlight, let’s just understand that manipulation, this is self idolatry. This is actually something similar we talked about a few weeks back and we like looked at Saul’s sinful jealousy.
So rather than being jealous for the glory of God, the one true and living God, who is Saul jealous for? He was jealous for his own glory. It was all about him. That’s idolatry. Saul worshipping self same or text.
This is more of Saul’s self idolatry. He’s continuing to worship himself in the text. He’s not worshiping God. He’s not loving others. Who did Saul love?
Himself. That is where he is focused. This is self idolatry. And he had such great views of his own self idolatry. Using willing to Manipulate things.
Such a way to offer up David as a sacrifice, even using his own flesh and blood, his daughters, as the bait to set the sacrificial trap. Friends, when you and I are simply manipulative, just understand self idolatry is at the core. That’s the driving force. It’s seeking to place our own self interest above others, including the Lord himself. Third, to shine the spotlight, let’s understand that manipulation often builds off itself.
That’s really what we see in the text. So solid, original manipulation placed with Merab, which had to change course, which led to a second manipulation with Michael to get her in place, which led to manipulation of the servants because Saul needed them involved with the hopes of getting David to agree, which led to additional manipulation for David, where Saul had to adjust plans to add to the bride price. In this story, this isn’t like one manipulation left in isolation, but this is one manipulation which required another manipulation which required another, and so on. It snowballs. It builds off itself.
That’s how the game of manipulation works. Manipulation is like all other forms of lying, where we need to keep telling lies in order to cover up previous lies. Fourth, as they shine the spotlight, let’s just understand, manipulation always backfires. It always backfires. So, sure, maybe for a time we might get to manipulation to maybe incense, get us what we want, or maybe for a time we can pat ourselves on the back where we can feel good about ourselves to get what we wanted.
But eventually, manipulation, like all their sins, will lead us into more and more miserable places. And inevitably, it will backfire on us. Inevitably, manipulation will blow up in our face again. The book of Proverbs are in this week, says whoever digs a pit will fall into it. A stone will come back on him who starts it rolling.
That’s part of the story of Saul in this text here. Despite a masterful plane of the game of manipulation, where he’s trying to keep control over his reign, his power, it backfired on him because in the end, David became more and more beloved. Listen, we know the scripture is clear that our sin will find itself out. And when it does sin, including manipulation, it will backfire in our face. This morning as we come to yet another flaw in the life of Saul.
Let’s let this shine a light in our own hearts and to expose whatever needs to be exposed, that we might not fall into the same snare that Saul fell into. Which leads to the second thing. How I want to close this time. This gives a few things on how we can fight against falling into this trap of manipulation, which is an easy trap for us to fall into. So I got a few things here.
So how do we fight against this? First, simply, we are to repent, which is true of any and all of our sinful character traits that we continue to fall into. We’re to repent, we’re to confess them as sin and then return from in ways that we’re seeking to forsake it. So this morning, if you’re feeling the spotlight shining on your heart, exposing manipulation, repent, confess your sin, turn from it. And if manipulation is such a struggle for you, you probably need someone to help provide accountability with the hopes that you won’t continue to fall into the same traps.
Listen, we all know it is humbling, even embarrassing, to have to confess our sins to others. But listen, it’s much better to be humbled where you might have others to help fight the good fight of faith with you, whatever your sin may be, than to simply live in it and be crushed by it. That’s far worse. That’s miserable. That’s the first thing, Repent.
Second, be content. So contentment is actually one of the great antidotes to manipulation. A strong reason why we want to manipulate is because we’re not content. Either we’re not content what we have, so we’re trying to manipulate people or situation to get something more. Or maybe we’re not content with the thought of losing what we have, which is certainly the case for Saul.
So we try to manipulate people or situation to keep that thing close to us. So if we’re going to fight against manipulation, we have to fight for contentment, to fight for it in such a way that we say whether the Lord gives, whether the Lord takes away, that in our hearts we can still sing out, blessed be the name of the Lord. And by the way, the end of Philippians 4, finding contentment in the Lord, whether whatever he gives you or doesn’t give you, Philippians 4 tells us that’s actually the great secret of life. Let me give you one more, which is actually required if we’re going to truly repent and truly find contentment, we just need to trust in the Lord. That’s it.
Just simply trust in the Lord. Trust that he’s good. Trust that he’s in control in ways that are good. Trust that the Lord has a good plan and trust that indeed he loves and he forgives sinners, including manipulators, all manipulators who by faith turn from their sin and turn to God by turning to the only Son The Lord Jesus Christ, they will find forgiveness. Because according to his great plan, God sent his only son, the Lord Jesus Christ, not as a means of manipulation, but he sent Jesus as the greatest act of love.
Because it is through Jesus, God puts his glory on display by pouring out his love and his mercy through for sinners, which is a love and emergency that led Jesus to a cross to die in our place, to take on the judgment of our sin, including the sin and manipulation, only to rise again on the third day. So by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, the black and bingo cart that is our heart, that is filled with so many sinful flaws, through faith in Jesus Christ, through his shed blood, it’s wiped clean through forgiveness. And not only are our hearts wiped clean through faith in Jesus, now we have a right standing before God where he sees us as his precious children. Friends, trust, that’s enough. Listen, we don’t have to manipulate to get more or to keep that which we’re desperately trying to hold onto.
Friends, when we have Jesus, when we are children of the living God. Friends, that’s enough.
May we not waste our lives, our thoughts, our words with manipulation. Rather, may God give us the grace and the faith to pour out our life in worship for the one who loves us. Let’s pray.
Lord, I do pray that you help us to repent and forsake sin, whatever the sin may be, whether it’s manipulation or some other sin.
And Lord, I do pray you’d help us to trust that you are good, that you have a good plan, they work all things together for the good of your people.
And dear Lord, I do pray that you’d help us to walk in light of the forgiveness found in Jesus Christ and that you give us the grace to be influential for the cause of Jesus to those around us, all the way to the ends of the earth.
Pray this all in Jesus name, Amen.