Morning Repost: 1 Samuel 19 Jonathan is Faithful to His Covenant
1 Now Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants, that they should kill David; but Jonathan, Saul’s son, delighted greatly in David. 2 So Jonathan told David, saying, “My father Saul seeks to kill you. Therefore please be on your guard until morning, and stay in a secret place and hide. 3 And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak with my father about you. Then what I observe, I will tell you.” 4 Thus Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father, and said to him, “Let not the king sin against his servant, against David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his works have been very good toward you. 5 For he took his life in his hands and killed the Philistine, and the Lord brought about a great deliverance for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood, to kill David without a cause?” 6 So Saul heeded the voice of Jonathan, and Saul swore, “As Yahweh lives, he shall not be killed.”
Saul was void of the Spirit (1 Samuel 18:12). And: “The lost King goes goes from bad to worse. First he tried [perhaps only considered] to spear David; then he attempted to take his life through having him killed by the Philistines, and now he speaks openly to his own son and to all his servants that David must be killed.” (Arno Gaebelein)
“'And Saul spake to Jonathan his son' [— his heir—] 'and to all his servants; that they should kill David;' as if he was a traitor, and an usurper of his throne.” (John Gill) “Nothing less than the especial interposition of God could have saved David's life.” (Adam Clarke) “But Jonathan, Saul’s son, delighted greatly in David.” And they had covenanted together which produced this miracle— true friendship— “pure and noble, the same towards David in adversity as in prosperity.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)
“Jonathan told David, saying, ‘My father Saul seeks to kill you. Therefore please be on your guard until morning, and stay in a secret place and hide. And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak with my father about you. Then what I observe, I will tell you.” He would ”report to him the result of his conversation, without there being any necessity for his going far away from his father, so as to excite suspicion that he was in league with David." (Keil)
Thus Jonathan spoke well of David, “which he could not do without hazard to himself. Herein therefore he performed the duty of a true friend, and of a valiant man.” (Poole) “He told his father he was committing a great sin to plot against the life of a man who had rendered the most invaluable services to his country, and whose loyalty had been uniformly steady and devoted.“ (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown)
“Let not the king sin against his servant, against David; for he hath not sinned against thee, and his works are very good (useful) to thee. He hath risked his life (life = soul. Hebrew. nephesh) , and smitten the Philistines, and Jehovah hath wrought a great salvation of all Israel. Thou hast seen it, and rejoiced.” (Keil & Delitzsch) “Jonathan’s words echo Saul’s own statement when he had freed Jabesh-gilead earlier in his reign ( 1 Sam 11:12-15). Then Saul had generously refused to punish his detractors. Perhaps it was this memory that moved him to promise Jonathan that he would be merciful to David.” (Dr. Thomas B. Constable)—
“and wherefore wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?” (Keil & Delitzsch) This act would be considered murder. —
“Why should he design him to death, which had given life to all Israel? Ofttimes wicked men's judgments are forced to yield unto that truth against which their affections maintain a rebellion.“ (Bishop Hall)
“So Saul heeded the voice of Jonathan, and Saul swore, ‘As Yahweh lives,’”— going to the other extreme— “he shall not be killed.”
“His bare word should have been as the laws of the Medes and Persians: how much more when bound thus with [such] an oath?” (Trapp)
Some say: “God, inclined the heart of Saul to hearken to the voice of Jonathan." (Henry) But rather Saul representing the natural man is “fickle and selfish.” (The Pulpit Commentary) “This great change is not to be ascribed to any true repentance for his sin against David, or any better affection which he now had to him; but merely to his own worldly interest, because he was convinced by Jonathan’s discourse that he could not kill him without great inconvenience and shame to himself.” (Matthew Poole)
1 Samuel 19: David Forced to Flee the King’s Court
7 Then Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all these things. So Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as in times past.
“Jonathan is seen as a peacemaker.” (Arno Gaebelein) “How forcible are right words! Saul was, for a time, convinced of the unreasonableness of his enmity to David…” (Matthew Henry) Thus: “The old life went on as before, and David seemingly was received on terms of intimacy and affection by the king.” (C. J. Ellicott) And David was in Saul’s presence as in times past—
“Out of the black mid-tent’s silence, a space of three days,
Not a sound hath escaped to thy servants of prayer nor of
praise,
To betoken that Saul and the spirit have ended their strife,
And that, faint in his triumph, the monarch sinks back
upon life.” (BROWNING)
8 And there was war again; and David went out and fought with the Philistines, and struck them with a mighty blow, and they fled from him. 9 Now the distressing spirit from the Lord came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing music with his hand. 10 Then Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away from Saul’s presence; and he drove the spear into the wall. So David fled and escaped that night.
“But a new cause [David's new successes] was soon supplied which again lit up the slumbering fires of jealousy in the king’s heart.” (C. J. Ellicott)
“So incurable is the hatred of the seed of the serpent against that of the woman; so deceitful and desperately wicked is the heart of man without the grace of God, Jeremiah 17:9.” (Matthew Henry)
Then David returns to the king’s court to minister to his spiritual needs. “And David was playing music with his hand.” Here we consider his good deeds. But “the melodious strains of the harp had lost all their power to charm.” (Jamieson- Fausset-Brown) The king in his part, sat in his house with his javelin (his gun) in his hand, “as being ever in fear.” (John Trapp)—
“And the javelin flies once more, but only strikes the wall from where he [David] had slipped away…” (Arno Gaebelein) as by the Spirit of Yahweh.
“They who are ill paid for doing good, yet must not be weary of well doing, remembering how bountiful a benefactor God is, even to the evil and unthankful.” (John Wesley) “David’s days as a fugitive (living beyond the king’s reach), which began here, would continue until Saul died. David’s experience is typical of that of all people who choose to commit themselves to following God faithfully. Because God blesses them and makes them a blessing to others, many people appreciate them. However, others who want those blessings for themselves, but are not willing to do what is necessary to get them, despise them.” (Dr. Thomas B. Constable)
1 Samuel 19: Michal Helps David
11 Saul also sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and to kill him in the morning. And Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.” 12 So Michal let David down through a window. And he went and fled and escaped. 13 And Michal took an image and laid it in the bed, put a cover of goats’ hair for his head, and covered it with clothes. 14 So when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.”
15 Then Saul sent the messengers back to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.” 16 And when the messengers had come in, there was the image in the bed, with a cover of goats’ hair for his head. 17 Then Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me like this, and sent my enemy away, so that he has escaped?” And Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go! Why should I kill you?’”
“Saul also sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and to kill him in the morning.” “The danger assumed an alarming aspect. The king’s assassins had tracked David’s steps to Gibeah, and surrounded his house, and apparently guarded every way of escape.” (J. T. Woodhouse) Thus the significance of the title. Psalm 59 is titled in the Inspired pages: “A Michtam of David when Saul sent men, and they watched the house in order to kill him.” Michtam means “to stamp or grave, and hence it is regarded as denoting a composition so precious as to be worthy to be engraven on a durable tablet for preservation.” (Easton’s Bible Dictionary)
They waited til morning. “If a thief is caught breaking in at night and is struck a fatal blow, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed.” (Exod 22:2)They chose not to break into David’s house by night, and kill him. They laid in wait, as in Judges 16:2 when the Gazites lay in wait for Samson saying, "Let us wait until the morning light, then we will kill him." Perhaps it was not so much a regard for Torah, as being afraid of David.
First the king’s son had helped David; and now his daughter.
“And Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, ‘If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.’” “While Saul’s troops were watching the house on the outside, the psalmist was appealing to God as his strength, and hiding in Him as his strong tower.” (F.B. Meyer) “The danger in which David was at that time is described by him in Psalm 59, from which we may see how Saul was surrounded by a number of cowardly courtiers,who stirred up his hatred against David, and were busily engaged in getting the dreaded rival out of the way.” (Keil & Delitzsch)
David’s cry for deliverance is based on an acknowledgment of his own purity of heart. How many can use that defense? “Deliver me... The mighty gather against me, not for my transgression nor for my sin, O Yahweh... At evening they return, they growl like a dog... But You, O Yahweh,... I will wait for You,... ; my defense.... But I will sing of Your power; yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning.” (3; 9; 17)
“So Michal let David down through a window. And he went and fled and escaped. And she took an image”— an idol, likely a a teraphim— “a religious household image favoured by women and possibly associated with fertility or good luck.” (Peter Pett)— “which she kept secretly, as Rachel had done, David knowing nothing of it.” (Trapp) These were “so much use among the Chaldeans and other nations. These were forbidden by Jehovah and yet they were secretly used (1 Samul 17:5; 18:14).”(Arno Gaebelein) — and she laid the idol in the bed, “and put a cover of goats’ hair for his head, and covered it with clothes.” Which might make the messengers believe it was the hair of David’s head. This she did that she might gain more time for her fleeing husband.” (John Trapp)
It is unlikely that Michal acted by faith, as the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11. Her religion might have been the reason Saul thought to give Michal to David to make her a snare to him. But Yahweh used it for David’s good here. She worshipped idols yet: “She proved a protector. The devil is sometimes outshot with his own bow.” (J. T. Woodhouse)
“Although she had little religion in her, yet nature had taught her to prefer a husband to a father... Some have probably gathered that Michal, though a good wife, yet was no good woman: both because she had an image in the house, and afterward she mocked David for his devotion.” (Trapp)
“Both Jonathan and Michal’s words resulted in David’s safety temporarily, but Jonathan and Michal’s characters contrast in what they said to their father and king.” (Dr. Thomas B. Constable) Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father; see 1 Samuel 19:4-5. He spoke the truth. Yet his wife, also by covenant, lies to the messengers, as well as to her father— the king. Her lies likely did harm. Michal words could have incited the king’s hatred by making him think that he had threatened his daughter's life.
1 Samuel 19: Saul's Agents Invade the School of the Prophets
18 So David fled and escaped, and went to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and stayed in Naioth. 19 Now it was told Saul, saying, “Take note, David is at Naioth in Ramah!” 20 Then Saul sent messengers to take David. And when they saw the group of prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as leader over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied. 21 And when Saul was told, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise. Then Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they prophesied also.
“David fled and escaped, and went to Samuel," “who had long retired from the bustling scenes of government...” (Hawker's Poor Man's Comm.) He sought “counsel, comfort, and prayer.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)— at Ramah— “in Benjamin... where Deborah judged Israel (Jgs 4:5).... Home of Samuel's parents, Elkanah and Hannah; the birthplace of Samuel (1 Sm 1:19; 2:11); and later his home (7:17; 16:13). Samuel judged Israel from Ramah, Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah (7:17). Saul first met Samuel at this city (9:6-10).“ (Tyndale Bible Dictionary)
“Here is a model for us to carry our troubles to a throne of grace, and to seek the advice and succour of the church of God.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)
And David “told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and stayed in 'Naioth.'”— “Here Samuel supervised a group of prophets... The derivation of the term is enigmatic. The word occurs nowhere else in Scripture, and the Hebrew text seems intentionally obscure. The word perhaps stems from a Hebrew root meaning ‘pastoral abode’ or ‘dwelling place.’ In 2 Samuel 15:25 another derivative of the Hebrew root refers to the Lord's habitation, prompting some to suggest that Naioth is a proper noun referring to a sanctuary in Ramah (see 1 Sm 10:5, where prophets were also associated with a sanctuary).” (Tyndale)
“Now it was told Saul, saying, ‘Take note, David is at Naioth in Ramah!’ Then Saul sent messengers to take David.” He was not interested in Torah, nor the judgement of Samuel. “Thus Saul’s wickedness and fury increased; and he that at first used only secret practices against David, now breaks forth into open and impudent hostilities; plainly declaring that he neither feared God nor reverenced man.” (Matthew Poole) This should have been a place of safety. And abiding there with the prophets of Israel should have been likened to taking hold of the horn of the altar of old. He dwelled at “the house of doctrine, as the Targum calls it, or the school of the prophets, being pleasant and retired, and fit for study.” (John Gill)
And when the agents of Saul saw David in the assembly of prophets, “instead of seizing David, they were themselves seized.” (Matthew Henry) “The character of the place and the influence of the sacred exercises produced such an effect on them... (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown)— “the Spirit of Yahweh came upon them and they also prophesied.”— “They put off their military clothes, and acted the prophets in habit and gesture, forgetting the business they came about... See here the efficacy of good company: surely as the loadstone draweth iron, so spiritual exercises are able to affect the hearts and affections of others.” (John Trapp)
Yet Saul heeded not the warning, “but still insists on invading the sanctity of the prophetic schools to capture David.” (Whedon) “The same thing happened to a second and third company of messengers, whom Saul sent one after another when the thing was reported to him.” (Keil & Delitzsch) “All this was to be a hint, on the part of Divine Providence, that God was hindering the messengers from carrying out Saul's command; it was He who was protecting David against willful murder.” (Kretzmann)
1 Samuel 19: Samuel Himself Goes to Naioth in Ramah
22 Then he also went to Ramah, and came to the great well that is at Sechu. So he asked, and said, “Where are Samuel and David?” And someone said, “Indeed they are at Naioth in Ramah.” 23 So he went there to Naioth in Ramah. Then the Spirit of God was upon him also, and he went on and prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah. 24 And he also stripped off his clothes and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”
“Then he also,” that is Saul, “went to Ramah,” persisting on his endeavor of “invading the sanctity of the prophetic schools to capture David.” (Daniel Whedon)— “and came to the great well that is at Schu."— perhaps drawing on that Living Water.
So he asked, and said, ‘Where are Samuel and David?’”; “for his messengers not returning to him, he could not be sure where they now were, though he had heard they were at Naioth: ‘and one said, behold, they be at Naioth in Ramah’; at the house of doctrine.” (Gill)
Then Spirit “was upon him also, and he went on and prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah.” Perhaps he was convicted of the evils of his own deeds and the end thereof— destruction. “And he also stripped off his clothes”— his royal robes or perhaps “his upper garments, or arms, as his messengers had done before” (Trapp)—“and prophesied before Samuel in like manner,” as they had done, “and lay down naked all that day and all that night”— ceasing from his evil work, which he intended.— “‘Whilst that I withal escape,’ singeth David [Psalms 141:10].” (Trapp) “Thus God, in making the wrath of man to praise Him, preserved the lives of all the prophets, frustrated all the purposes of Saul, and preserved the life of His servant.” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown)
They say again, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” At first, it was a proverb with hopeful prospect. See 1 Samuel 10:12. “This was now spoken in a jeer.” (Trapp) Saul had a real religious experience—his second such experience. But the question is how it will affect the direction of his life.
“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love [charity], I am nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:2)
“Excitement wears itself out. Paroxysms and ecstasies pass away.”(Donald Fraser, D. D.) “Many are the gifts of God which are possessed by evil men. Evil men have often great talents, great skill, great wealth. . . . The gift of prophesy is a great gift, but it was possessed by Saul. Saul, an evil king, prophesied at the very time he was persecuting holy David. Let not, therefore, men boast if they have God’s gifts; those gifts will profit them nothing without charity (1 Corinthians 13:1-2). But let them think of the fearful account they must one day give to God, if they use not holy things holily.”—St. Augustine, in Psalms 103
He prophesied with the prophets of Israel. “But the change was transient and fitful; and after these twenty-four hours of agony Saul rose up, full perhaps of good intentions, but with a heart unchanged, and certain, therefore, very quickly to disappoint all hopes of real amendment, and to become a still more moody and relentless tyrant." (The Pulpit Commentary)