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1 Samuel 23:19-20. "Then the Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, 'Does not David hide among us in the strongholds at Horesh ...? Now come down, O king, according to all your heart's desire to come down; and our part shall be to surrender him into the king's hand."

 

In his pursuit of David, Saul was a lot like Captain Ahab going after Moby Dick. He was obsessed. The Ziphites even alluded to this here saying "Come down, O king, according to all your heart's desire." Killing David was Saul's heart's desire. He could not shake his pursuit of it, even though he had much bigger duties to attend to as king. This, of course, led to his downfall.

 

We know that God was on David's side, so He was never going to allow Saul to kill David, but God did allow the pursuit, and He allowed David to feel the fear of it: "And David was afraid because Saul had come out to seek his life." (1 Samuel 23:15). This is another example of those sufferings that God allows in order to bring His plan to fruition and to make His people more holy. David's reliance on God throughout this episode taught him how God loved and cared for him and brought him to understand God's ways in a much more meaningful way. We can see that in many of David's Psalms.

 

While God was helping David because David was consulting with and following God, He was at the same time allowing Saul to destroy himself. God does not usually step in to destroy wicked people, He lets them do it to themselves, while always leaving the door open for repentance and redemption. Saul had given himself over to obsession. Killing David was all he could think about and all he wanted to pursue. If he could have stopped and done some self-reflection, perhaps he could have seen that his real duty was to God and country. If he had shifted his focus to what he was supposed to be doing, he could have avoided this obsession and all the suffering that came with it. He also probably would have remained King, possibly even being a very good one (God saw something in him when He chose him as Israel 's first king, after all!).

 

Obsession is something I have been seeing a lot of lately. There seems to be something about our times that really feeds it (one theory I have is that the internet and technology let us find people we never would have met before who share our worries, fears, or desires, and we then form closed groups, encouraging each other into obsession). I see obsession with politics, celebrities, health, sex, and many other things all around us. These lead people to only see the world through the lens of their obsession, and to go further and further into its domination, sacrificing family, friends, money, security, and all manner of other things in service to it.

 

When we find ourselves thinking too much about one thing, judging others on their fealty to the topic we have decided is most important, excluding people, even hoping for or cheering on the death of those who disagree with us, we can be pretty sure we are in the grips of obsession (which is also a form of idolatry, as our obsession becomes the most important thing in our lives). Saul's life and kingship are a cautionary tale, warning is to see and step back from that.

 

Obsession never ends well, but it is not hopeless, it can be broken by the one obsessed. In fact, obsession is one of the stages of diabolic influence that deliverance prayers and ministry can help us break. And once we decide to break our obsession, God will come immediately to our aid to help us, because all He wants is for us to be free and to come to Him, a lesson it would have helped Saul to learn.