The Danger of Being Blessed

There is a gospel that is being preached that sounds too good to be true. You might hear it on your radio, or see it on your TV, you will probably find it in your bookstore, but that doesn't make it true. It's a pretty popular gospel because it says things that most of us want to hear. I call it the "tickle the ears" Gospel. Some people call it the feel good gospel, or the prosperity Gospel and what it says is that, "If you just trust God, you will never have anymore troubles." Well, usually it says, "If you just trust God and send a tax deductible contribution, you will never have anymore trouble", but this Gospel is simply false. And I know that it’s false because the Bible clearly tells me it’s false.

Oh I would like it to be true. Wouldn't you like it to be true? Sure, who wouldn’t? For we realize that when we trust in Jesus we have to do a whole lot of life restructuring. We have to (with the help of the Holy Spirit) change so many of our selfish ways. We may have to stop watching the movies we've been watching, or reading the books we've been reading. We may have to stop hanging out with some of the people we've been hanging out with, or stop going to the places we've been going. And with all these changes there is an undeniable personal turmoil. So it would be great if we could say that once we have trusted in Jesus, all the problems disappear.

Sometimes, evangelists even use this gospel because they know that they will encounter people who are broken and in need of repair, people who need a respite. And although Jesus will provide respite and repair, it is not the same thing to say there will never be anymore trouble in your life. That is simply a false gospel. It is a lie. Not only does Scripture give example after example of Good Godly men and women facing trouble after trouble, Jesus himself declares that we would be hated, because he was hated. How much more proof do we need? Just in case we need another example, lets look at a story that proves this point. A story not just about someone who trusted in God, but someone who was set apart and anointed to be blessed by God. Someone who God used mightily and who was declared the man after God's own heart, David.

We pick up the story after David became famous. David, this little farm boy had killed Goliath the mighty warrior and Saul had been impressed. Jonathon, Saul's son and heir apparent had been so impressed that he gave David his armor, perhaps as a sign of his relinquishing his claim to the throne in favor of David. Of course, David had already been anointed as King by Samuel. He was God's chosen; he was Blessed by God, yet no-one outside Bethlehem was aware of this fact, and David surely wasn't going to tell Saul, the reigning monarch. So we pick up here in 1 Samuel 18:6.

As they were coming home, when David returned from killing the Philistine, the women came out of all the towns of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments. And the women sang to one another as they made merry,
"Saul has killed his thousands,
and David his ten thousands."

Of course then as now, when the king comes into town people flock to see him. They take the opportunity to say nice things about him. Especially in this case, since he was a war hero. They had the band playing; there was dancing; in every town people were singing this wonderful refrain to the King.
"Saul has killed his thousands,
and David his ten thousands."
How do you think that settled with the king? Do you think he was joining in the refrain?

[8] Saul was very angry, for this saying displeased him. He said, "They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands; what more can he have but the kingdom?" [9] So Saul eyed David from that day on.

Well, Saul wasn't too happy about it. Notice the reason. Did David do anything to Saul? No. Did he do anything for Saul? Yes. He helped Saul to win the battle. He took on the giant the Saul refused to take on. Was David leading the song? Did he write it? Was he glorying in this praise? Well we don't know, but it is doubtful, because David was not out for himself, he was out simply for the honor of God. Yet as God was with him and blessed him, people took notice. They started saying wonderful things about him, perhaps exaggerated, yet wonderful nonetheless. But it wasn't David that concerned Saul, it was the people's perception of David. David hadn't done anything wrong, perhaps that's what troubled Saul the most. Because David hadn't done anything wrong, and because it was clear that God was with him as he faced Goliath, and now the people were on his side too, Saul was crushed. He realized he was losing everything. The only thing he had left was his title of king, and he was sure the people would bestow that upon David soon enough! So Saul began despising this man who was Blessed of God.

[10] The next day an evil spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house, while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand; [11] and Saul threw the spear, for he thought, "I will pin David to the wall." But David eluded him twice.

This is the Danger of being blessed by God, the danger of being someone whom God uses. People who are not being used will get jealous. And they may attack. Now you might not get a spear thrown at you, twice, but people attack us in different ways. People may gossip about you. They may say hurtful things. They may shun you. They may even hate you because you are blessed and they may want to attack you, like some rogues did to the United States because they recognize that we are a nation blessed by God. Oh they may not say that, but why is it that they hate us? Because we have such an abundance. And where does that abundance come from? It has to come from God. There is danger in being blessed by God. There was for David.

Now I want you to notice that verse 10 says an evil spirit from God came upon Saul. This verse is difficult to swallow at face value, for how could God be the author of evil? The trouble in this verse stems from our translation of the word we render as “evil”. We have some immediate connotations of what this word means, but in the Hebrew it essentially means "something that has a not good effect." For example, a tornado, or a storm may be called evil, but there is nothing inherently immoral in a tornado or a storm, yet they have effects that are not good. In this way, the Spirit that God sent to Saul had effects that were not good as is evidenced by his reaction to it. It is unclear to me whether the reason this Spirit from God elicited this reaction from Saul was because of the nature of the spirit or because of Saul's relationship with God, because this reaction never happened until Saul's relationship with God was damaged. It never happened until Saul was disobedient and lost his anointing. Nonetheless, when God sent this spirit to Saul, Saul responded by going into a rage and trying to kill the very boy who was trying to calm him by playing his lyre. But why did Saul take his rage out on this boy?

[12] Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul.

Saul recognized that David was more powerful than him because the Lord was with David. And worse for Saul, he knew the Lord wasn't with him. But why be afraid of David? One reason he may have been afraid of David is because he was afraid of God. Perhaps he knew he wasn't on God's side anymore. Perhaps what makes it dangerous to be God's blessed is because others want that blessing but they aren't willing to go by God's term to get it. Remember Saul had God's blessing but he decided to do things his own way and lost it, but David was doing things God's way and being blessed.

Notice also that David is never mentioned as being afraid of Saul. Here Saul throws a spear at the boy twice, he raves like a lunatic and David remains unfazed. David wasn’t afraid of anyone or anything. Remember, he faced that giant. Why wasn’t he afraid? Because he had the spirit of God. God does not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, and love and a sound mind. David wasn’t afraid of this spear throwing madman, because he knew he had God and there was nothing to fear.
Although there may be danger in being God's Blessed and there is no promise of "no more sorrows", there are rewards.

[14] David had success in all his undertakings; for the Lord was with him.
To be Blessed is worth the danger, it is worth the risk. Being God's own may mean that people or even circumstance gives you a hard time, yet God will give you success. This is not a prosperity gospel that says you will be rich, but it says you will be successful. And how is it that David was successful? What was the measure of his success? The Lord was with Him. That is what being successful is, having the Lord with you. It is not being delivered from hard times, but it is having God with you in the hard times. It is not being delivered from the danger, it is having God with you through the danger. You can all be successful today and this week, by having the Lord with you. Are you ready?