Saul recognized his son’s friendship with David and accused him of disloyalty. In 1 Samuel 20:30, Saul explodes to Jonathan, “You son of a perverse, rebellious woman, do I not know you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame…as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established.”  Saul then urges his son to join him in a plot to kill David in order to secure his kingdom.

Lord Acton is often quoted; “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John and said, “I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature; and that power, whether vested in many or a few, is ever grasping, and like the grave, cries Give, give!” Edmund Burke said, “The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.” Henry Kissinger said, Power is the great aphrodisiac.”

Like many addictive substances, power achieved and maintained through violence, destroys lives rather than enhancing them. Colton said, “To know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasures, we must go to those who are seeking it: the pains of power are real, its pleasures imaginary.” Shelley, in his poem entitled, “Queen Mab,” writes, “Power, like a desolating pestilence, Pollutes whate’er it touches.” The power hungry may get what they want, but lose what they long for.

Herod the great was a madman who murdered the babies of Bethlehem to protect his crown from the new born king of the Jews. The legitimate heir to the throne that Herod occupied made it clear: “blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

Chuck
 “Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live.” Galatians 1:4