The Politics of Envy and the Wisdom of Humility Text: 1 Samuel 18:17-19
Introduction: The Green-Eyed Monster in the Palace
We are in the middle of a great transition in the life of Israel. God has rejected Saul as king, not formally in the eyes of the people just yet, but decisively in the spiritual realm. The Spirit of the Lord has departed from Saul and has come mightily upon David. And as we have seen, the immediate result is that Saul's court becomes a snake pit of envy, suspicion, and murderous intent. Saul is a man hollowed out by his own rebellion, and into that vacuum rushes a tormenting spirit. But it is not a spirit in a vacuum. It is a spirit that feeds on the manifest grace of God upon David.
Every time David succeeds, every time the people praise him, every time his wisdom and valor are displayed, it is like a hot coal on Saul's soul. Envy is a peculiar sin. Wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous, the Proverb says, but who can stand before envy? Envy is not content to simply want what another has. Envy wants what another has, and it also wants the other person to not have it. It is a zero-sum game played with souls. When David goes up in the eyes of the people, Saul must come down in his own mind. This is the logic of the teeter-totter, and it is the logic of Hell.
So Saul, having already tried to pin David to the wall with a spear, now turns to a more subtle and cowardly form of attack. He turns to political manipulation. He will use the levers of state, the honor of his own house, and the lives of his soldiers to try to eliminate the man he now sees only as a rival. He wants David dead, but he wants to maintain plausible deniability. He wants the Philistines to do his dirty work for him. This is what envy does. It makes a man a coward and a plotter. It drains him of all honor and reduces him to a schemer. He cannot simply challenge David openly, because he knows David is in the right. So he must resort to traps and snares, baited with the highest honors of the kingdom.
In these three verses, we see a masterful collision of worldly craftiness and godly humility. We see Saul's wicked plot laid out, and we see David's simple, honest, and profoundly wise response. It is a lesson in how the godly are to navigate the treacherous waters of political power when it is wielded by the ungodly.
The Text
Then Saul said to David, "Here is my older daughter Merab; I will give her to you as a wife; only be a man of valor for me and fight Yahweh’s battles." For Saul thought, "My hand shall not be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him."
But David said to Saul, "Who am I, and what is my life or my father’s family in Israel, that I should be the king’s son-in-law?"
So it happened at the time when Merab, Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David, that she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as a wife.
(1 Samuel 18:17-19 LSB)
A Poisoned Chalice (v. 17)
We begin with Saul's treacherous offer:
"Then Saul said to David, 'Here is my older daughter Merab; I will give her to you as a wife; only be a man of valor for me and fight Yahweh’s battles.' For Saul thought, 'My hand shall not be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him.'" (1 Samuel 18:17)
On the surface, this is an offer of immense honor. To become the king's son-in-law was to be brought into the royal family, to be given status, power, and a direct line to the throne. This was the very reward that had been promised to the man who defeated Goliath (1 Samuel 17:25). Saul is finally making good on his promise, or so it seems. He frames the condition in the most pious and patriotic terms: "only be a man of valor for me and fight Yahweh's battles."
This is the language of manipulation. Ungodly rulers frequently cloak their selfish ambitions in the flag of patriotism and the robes of religion. "Fight for me," Saul says, but he quickly corrects it to "fight Yahweh's battles." He is trying to make his personal vendetta sound like a holy war. He is co-opting God's name for his own wicked ends. This is a form of blasphemy. He wants David to take on the most dangerous military assignments, to be constantly on the front lines, so that the odds of him being killed by the Philistines are maximized.
The text is explicit about his motive. The narrator pulls back the curtain and shows us the blackness of Saul's heart. "For Saul thought, 'My hand shall not be against him, but let the hand of the Philistines be against him.'" He wants David dead, but he doesn't want the political fallout of assassinating a popular war hero. He wants to wash his hands of the affair, like Pilate. He wants to use the enemy to destroy his rival, and then perhaps give a somber state funeral and praise David's courage. This is the depth of his cunning. He is weaponizing the Philistines. He is using a royal marriage as bait for a death trap.
This reveals a fundamental truth about the politics of envy. Envy cannot create; it can only scheme to destroy. It has no positive agenda. Its only goal is to pull down the object of its resentment. Saul is not thinking about the good of Israel. He is not thinking about defeating the Philistines for the glory of God. He is thinking only of how to use the Philistines to solve his "David problem." When a leader begins to see his own people as pawns in his personal power games, his ruin is not far off.
The Wisdom of True Humility (v. 18)
David's response to this magnificent, poisoned offer is a master class in humility and wisdom.
"But David said to Saul, 'Who am I, and what is my life or my father’s family in Israel, that I should be the king’s son-in-law?'" (1 Samuel 18:18 LSB)
Now, a modern, therapeutic mindset might read this as a sign of a poor self-image. Some might see this as false modesty. But it is nothing of the sort. This is genuine, clear-eyed, biblical humility. David is not saying he is worthless. He knows God has anointed him. He knows he defeated Goliath. But he also knows his station. He is the youngest son of a sheep farmer from Bethlehem. In the social and political hierarchy of Israel, his family is a non-entity. He is a nobody, politically speaking.
To marry into the royal family was a matter of social standing, of clan, of political weight. David is honestly assessing his position. "Who am I?" A shepherd. "What is my life?" A soldier in the king's army. "My father's family in Israel?" Respectable, but not noble. He is not being self-deprecating; he is being realistic. He is refusing to play the grasping, ambitious social-climber that Saul expects him to be. Saul dangles the ultimate prize of worldly ambition, and David essentially says, "That is out of my league. I am not that kind of man."
This response is profoundly wise because it sidesteps the trap. If David had eagerly said, "Yes! I'll do it!" he would have been playing Saul's game. He would have been revealing an ambition for the throne that Saul could then use against him. By expressing his own unworthiness for such an honor, David does two things. First, he honors the king's high office by acknowledging the immense privilege of marrying into his family. Second, he exposes no selfish ambition. His answer is unassailable. How can Saul fault him for being humble? David's humility is his shield. It deflects the political arrow aimed at his heart.
This is the way of the kingdom. "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted" (Matthew 23:12). David is not grasping. He is content to wait for God to exalt him in His time. He who was anointed in secret is content to remain a humble servant in public. He will not seize the crown, and he will not seize the crown princess either. He will wait on the Lord.
The Covenant Broken (v. 19)
The final verse reveals the character of Saul in a single, dishonorable act.
"So it happened at the time when Merab, Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David, that she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as a wife." (1 Samuel 18:19 LSB)
Saul breaks his word. He had made a public promise to the man who defeated Goliath, and he had just made a specific promise to David. But when the time comes, he reneges. He gives Merab to another man, Adriel the Meholathite. This is a public humiliation of David. It is a calculated insult designed to diminish him in the eyes of the people. Saul is demonstrating that he does not consider David worthy of the honor. He is a king who does not keep his covenant promises.
This is more than just a personal slight. In the ancient world, a king's word was his bond. His reliability was the basis of his rule. A king who breaks his promises is a king who cannot be trusted. He is demonstrating that his own whims and resentments are more important than his royal oath. This is a sign of deep political and spiritual decay. The man who breaks his word with men will not keep his word with God. Saul's faithlessness to David is a mirror of his faithlessness to Yahweh.
And who does he give her to? Adriel the Meholathite. This is not some random choice. Meholah was in the Jordan valley, near Philistine territory. Saul is likely forging another political alliance, securing his flank, rewarding someone he sees as more loyal or politically useful than David. His family is a tool of statecraft, to be used for his own advantage.
Notice David's response to this public slap in the face. There is no record of him complaining, or protesting, or stirring up dissent. He absorbs the insult in silence. This is the strength of the truly humble man. His honor is not bound up in the opinions of kings or the accolades of the crowd. His honor is in God. He is free from the need to vindicate himself, because he knows that his vindication will come from the Lord. He who called him from the sheepfold will bring him to the throne, and no amount of royal scheming can stop it.
Conclusion: The Two Paths
In this short episode, we see two men walking on two very different paths. Saul is on the path of envy, which leads to scheming, deceit, dishonor, and ultimately, self-destruction. He is a man consumed by the fear of losing what he has, and so he grasps it tighter and tighter, and in doing so, he strangles it. He tries to manipulate God's anointed, and in doing so, he only hastens his own demise. He is a cautionary tale for any leader, in the church or in the state, who begins to believe that his position is his own possession, to be protected at any cost.
David is on the path of humility, which leads to wisdom, honor, and exaltation. He is not grasping for power. He is not maneuvering for position. He is simply being faithful in the place God has put him. He fights God's battles, and he trusts God with the outcome. His response to both honor and insult is the same: a quiet confidence in the sovereignty of God. He knows who he is, and he knows who God is, and that is enough.
This is a picture of our Lord Jesus, the greater David. He was offered all the kingdoms of the world by the prince of this world, if He would only play the political game. He refused. He was publicly humiliated and dishonored by the rulers of His day. He answered not a word. He humbled Himself, even to the point of death on a cross. And therefore, God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name that is above every name. The path to the crown is the path of the cross. The way up is the way down.
We are all tempted, at times, to walk Saul's path. We are tempted to envy, to scheme, to manipulate circumstances to our own advantage, to protect our little kingdoms. But the call of the gospel is to walk David's path. It is the call to trust God, to embrace humility, to serve faithfully where we are, and to leave our vindication and our exaltation in His hands. For our King is not a faithless Saul, but a faithful David, a covenant-keeping God who will never break His promise to those who are His.