Taking Second Place
Text: I Samuel 18:6-9
Series: Restoration Sermons
Date:
Speaker: Ed Rangel
Location: Waupaca Church of Christ
Bible Version: NASB 1995
Sermon Type: Expository
Learning Objectives
By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:
- Retell the story of Saul's response to David after Goliath and explain specifically what triggered Saul's envy.
- State the principle that someone must always fill the second place, and explain why accepting that role is not a sign of inferiority.
- Identify at least three natural transitions in life where a person moves from first place to second place.
- Explain why resisting the natural transition from first to second place produces friction and failure rather than preservation of status.
- Articulate why second place may be God's specific calling for a person — and how filling it well is preparation for what God has next.
Thesis
Somebody must fill all second places. The refusal to do so — the insistence on first place when God, time, or circumstance has assigned the second — is one of the most consistent causes of failure in life. The man or woman who can take second place gracefully, who can serve faithfully in the supporting role, who can let another lead without envy or bitterness, has mastered one of life's genuinely difficult lessons.
Burden
The story of Saul and David is familiar at the level of Goliath; its sequel is not. The burden is to carry the hearer from the giant's defeat to the king's envy — to show that the person who could not take second place was destroyed by that failure, and to press home the practical, biblical answer to a problem that affects every life sooner or later.
Introduction
"It happened as they were coming, when David returned from killing the Philistine, that the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy and with musical instruments. The women sang as they played, and said, 'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.' Then Saul became very angry, for this saying displeased him; and he said, 'They have ascribed to David ten thousands, but to me they have ascribed thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom?' Saul looked at David with suspicion from that day on" (I Sam. 18:6-9). The arithmetic was publicly humiliating — ten thousands against thousands. And Saul could not bear it.
This is one of the serious problems of life. Its solution is important, because success in the deepest sense depends on it. Not everybody can be first in every stage of life. Everybody, sooner or later, must take second place.
I. Saul and David
The story of David and Goliath is one of the most familiar in the Bible. The sequel — what happened after the victory — is not nearly so well known, though it is at least as instructive.
Saul returned from the battle as the king of a great victory. But he was not the center of attraction. The songs were for David. The numbers favored David. The women danced for David. Saul came home from the same battle in which his army had won and found himself in second place in the public estimation — behind a young shepherd who had done what Saul had not been willing to do.
He became envious of David. Envy is the pain of seeing another person's good. Saul's response to David's success was not satisfaction that his kingdom had been served or gratitude that the Philistine threat had been removed; it was jealousy that the credit had gone elsewhere. "What more can he have but the kingdom?" The envy was already calculating: the man in second place begins to look like a threat to the man who thinks he owns first place.
Saul could not take second place. He threw spears. He maneuvered. He sent David on dangerous missions. He spent years trying to undo the verdict the women had sung in the streets. It consumed him. He died on Mount Gilboa, and David became king — which is to say, the thing Saul feared and refused to accept came to pass anyway, at a cost of years of wasted effort and a spirit corroded by bitterness.
Saul was not the last. He is the representative of a long list.
II. This One Cause of Failure
Saul is only one of a long list of failures whose story has the same shape: successful in first place, catastrophic in second.
Many people who thrive in one role cannot adjust when that role is given to someone else. The executive who cannot become a consultant. The parent who cannot become a grandparent. The lead preacher who cannot become the associate. The founder who cannot become the elder statesman. Success in first place is common; the adjustment to second place is the test.
The failure is never about ability. The person who cannot take second place is not usually incapable of the new role — they are unwilling to occupy it. The refusal is a decision, not a limitation.
When Saul could not adjust, he threw spears. When people in any era cannot adjust, they do the equivalent: they undermine, they gossip, they resist, they make the person who has taken first place into an enemy. The spear is the gesture of a man who cannot accept what God and circumstance have decided.
III. How to Solve This Problem
The solution has three components: understanding that the transition is normal, recognizing that second place is not inferior, and accepting that second place may be God's specific assignment.
Passing from first to second place is natural and normal. Every athlete eventually yields to younger competitors. Children take the place of parents — in the home, in the family business, in the congregation. Students surpass teachers. The person who taught a child to read will, if they live long enough, take instruction from that child in something. These are not failures; they are the normal pattern of life across generations. To resist them is to fight the tide.
Second place well filled prepares for first place. The person who learns to serve faithfully in the supporting role has been learning exactly the disciplines that first place requires. Joseph was a second-place man for years before he was made the first-place man in Egypt. The training was in the service, not despite it.
Second place does not mean inferiority. Many second places are as important as the first. The world's work is done by second-place men and women — the faithful associates, the loyal deacons, the tireless teachers, the supporting servants who make the visible leadership possible. The second chair in the orchestra is not less skilled than the first; the first simply leads the section. Both are essential to the music.
Second place may be God's place for us. This is the decisive consideration. The question is not whether I would prefer first place — most people would. The question is what God has assigned. If God has assigned the second, then the second place faithfully occupied is exactly what God requires. The person who insists on first place when God has assigned the second has confused their preference with God's will.
Application
The hearer who is currently in second place should examine whether they are occupying it gracefully or bitterly. Is there a David in your life — someone who has taken the role you thought was yours? The question is not whether the transition was fair by your estimation; the question is whether you are throwing spears.
The hearer who is currently in first place should note that the transition is coming. The athlete knows this; the preacher should too; the parent certainly does. The person who prepares for the transition — who practices generosity toward those rising behind them, who cultivates the spirit that can celebrate another's ascendancy — is preparing for the season that every first-place person will eventually enter.
Conclusion
There is only one valedictorian at any graduation. Every other member of the class is second place, or third, or somewhere down the list. This is not a commentary on their ability or their character — it is the arithmetic of a class with more than one student. The question is not how to avoid second place; the question is how to occupy it well. Saul's answer to that question — envy, spears, bitterness, years of wasted effort — is the answer whose consequences are written across the rest of his story. The better answer is available.
Invitation
The Christ who said "the first shall be last and the last shall be first" (Matt. 20:16) is himself the supreme example of one who took second place — emptying himself, taking the form of a servant, becoming obedient to death on a cross (Phil. 2:7-8). He did not grasp at equality with God but laid it aside for the work that needed to be done. The person who belongs to Christ has the pattern of second-place faithfulness in the one they follow.
To belong to Christ is to believe, repent, confess his name, and be baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38). The life that follows is the life of the servant — and the servant's reward is sure.
Word Study
| English Term | Greek Term | Basic Meaning | Usage in This Sermon | Sermon Significance | Key Texts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envy | phthonos | Pain at another's good — the emotion that resents another person's success or honor. | The emotion that destroyed Saul when David received greater public praise (I Sam. 18:9; the concept is NT Greek though the narrative is Hebrew). | Phthonos is explicitly included in the "works of the flesh" (Gal. 5:21) and in the catalog of sins from which repentance is required (I Pet. 2:1). Saul's envy is the narrative illustration of what the NT names and condemns as a spiritual failure. | Gal. 5:21; I Pet. 2:1 |
| Humility | tapeinophrosynē | Low-mindedness — the settled disposition of thinking of others as more significant than oneself. | The implicit corrective to Saul's posture: the person who has this quality can take second place without bitterness. | Paul's instruction in Phil. 2:3 — "with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves" — is the direct antidote to Saul's response. Tapeinophrosynē is not self-deprecation but the settled recognition that other people's value does not diminish one's own. | Phil. 2:3 |
| Self-emptying | kenōsis (from kenoō) | To empty, to pour out — used of Christ laying aside the prerogatives of divine equality. | Used in Phil. 2:7: Christ "emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant." | The supreme example of taking second place: the one who had every right to first place took the form of a servant. The Christian's ability to take second place is grounded in the model of the one they follow — whose second-place faithfulness was the means of the world's redemption. | Phil. 2:7-8 |
| Suspicion | blepō (used with implication of hostile watching) | To look, to watch — in the context of I Sam. 18:9, the watching is hostile surveillance. | Saul "looked at David with suspicion from that day on" — the beginning of a years-long campaign of fear and hostility. | The person who cannot accept second place does not rest there; they begin to watch the first-place person as a threat. The envy that starts with a song becomes surveillance, then spears, then a campaign that occupies the rest of Saul's reign. | I Sam. 18:9 |
Scripture Interlock Table
| Theme | Boles' Outline | Supporting Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| Saul and David after Goliath — the envy | I | I Sam. 18:6-9 |
| Envy as a work of the flesh | Application | Gal. 5:21 |
| Christ emptied himself — the supreme second-place example | III.5 | Phil. 2:7-8 |
| "Regard others as more important than yourselves" | III.5 | Phil. 2:3 |
| "The first shall be last and the last shall be first" | Invit. | Matt. 20:16 |
| Baptism for remission — entry into the servant life | Invit. | Acts 2:38 |
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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 175. Primary text: I Sam. 18:6-9 (stated by Boles). OCR corrections: "mccess clepends" → "success depends"; "them selves" → "themselves"; "lll." → "III." Doctrinal audit: envy developed from the narrative without importing psychological categories alien to the text; the Kenōsis passage (Phil. 2:7-8) used to ground the call to second-place service in the example of Christ — not as a complete Christology but as the practical model; second place affirmed as potentially God's direct assignment, not merely a consolation for those who did not achieve first; invitation retains full obedient response (Acts 2:38).
