Introduction
As we saw in the previous chapter, Saul tried to kill David on several occasions and will go to any lengths to do so. It appears in this chapter that there’s only one thing on Saul’s mind right now, and that’s to kill David. I’m pretty sure that David is fully aware of what Saul is trying to do but now it becomes public knowledge.
SAUL TRIES TO KILL DAVID
‘Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan had taken a great liking to David and warned him, ‘My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding and stay there. I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I’ll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out.’ Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, ‘Let not the king do wrong to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly. He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The LORD won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?’ Saul listened to Jonathan and took this oath: ‘As surely as the LORD lives, David will not be put to death.’ So Jonathan called David and told him the whole conversation. He brought him to Saul, and David was with Saul as before.’ 1 Samuel 19:1-7
As the relationship between Jonathan and David grew stronger, the relationship between Johnathon and his father, Saul, was becoming more stressful because of his father’s plans to get rid of David once and for all. It appears that Saul has now had enough of David and tells Jonathon and his attendants to kill David, 1 Samuel 19:1. Jonathan had become fond of David and so he goes on to warn him, 1 Samuel 19:1-2.
He tells David that his father is looking for a chance to kill him and tells him to be on his guard tomorrow morning, go into hiding and stay there, 1 Samuel 19:2. He says that he will go out and stand with his father in the field where you are and he’ll speak to him about David and will tell David what he finds out, 1 Samuel 19:3. Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and tells him not to wrong David because David hasn’t wronged him but what David has done has benefited Saul greatly, 1 Samuel 19:4.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘It is evident that Jonathan was satisfied that David was an innocent man and that his father was most unjustly incensed against him.’
He reminds his father that David took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine, 1 Samuel 19:5 / 1 Samuel 17:50-53, and the LORD won a great victory for all Israel, and Saul saw it and was glad, 1 Samuel 19:5. Jonathon now asks his father the key question, why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason? 1 Samuel 19:5.
On this occasion, Johnathon managed to speak some common sense to his father, which appears to calm Saul down for the moment, 1 Samuel 19:6. David was in Saul’s presence again, 1 Samuel 19:7, but as we know this calmness won’t last long and the plot to kill David will continue.
‘Once more war broke out, and David went out and fought the Philistines. He struck them with such force that they fled before him. But an evil spirit from the LORD came on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the lyre, Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall. That night David made good his escape.’ 1 Samuel 19:8-10
It appears when David is in Saul’s company, Saul seems to be well for a short time but as soon as David goes to war and wins, 1 Samuel 19:8, his jealousy and hatred of David returns. The more David is successful, the more Saul wants him dead, it appears to be a popularity contest for Saul.
Saul, again, was driven by an evil spirit to kill David, 1 Samuel 19:19 / 1 Samuel 16:15 / 1 Samuel 18:10. We must understand that God didn’t send an evil spirit to Saul, but He allowed an evil spirit to enter him, this was the spirit of resentment and jealousy, which comes from the devil.
After another failed attempt to kill David, 1 Samuel 19:10, David escapes 1 Samuel 19:10 / Psalms 59:3, and this would the changing point in David’s life. He now knows that whenever he’s in Saul’s presence, Saul will try to kill him and from this point on, he would remain a fugitive from Saul until Saul and his son, Johnathon died when they later fought the Philistines, 1 Samuel 31:1-6.
‘Saul sent men to David’s house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, warned him, ‘If you don’t run for your life tonight, tomorrow you’ll be killed.’ So Michal let David down through a window, and he fled and escaped. Then Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goats’ hair at the head. When Saul sent the men to capture David, Michal said, ‘He is ill.’ Then Saul sent the men back to see David and told them, ‘Bring him up to me in his bed so that I may kill him.’ But when the men entered, there was the idol in the bed, and at the head was some goats’ hair. Saul said to Michal, ‘Why did you deceive me like this and send my enemy away so that he escaped?’ Michal told him, ‘He said to me, ‘Let me get away. Why should I kill you?’ 1 Samuel 19:11-17
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following concerning who Saul wanted to kill David in the morning, 1 Samuel 19:11.
‘When they might be able to distinguish between him and Michal his wife, for, had they attempted his life in the night season, there would have been some danger to Michal’s life. Besides, Saul wished to represent him as a traitor; and consequently an attack upon him was justifiable at any time, even in the fullest daylight.’
Saul continues to kill to try and kill David, but Saul’s daughter Michal heard what her father was up to and urged David to flee for his life, 1 Samuel 19:11. Because he fled down through a window, 1 Samuel 19:12, this suggests that David and Michal’s house was within the city walls, Joshua 2:15 / Acts 9:25. The idol which Michal, 1 Samuel 19:13, had was probably a household idol that some Israelites kept in their houses, Exodus 20:4-6.
Notice that Michal lied to her father, telling Saul’s men that David was ill, 1 Samuel 19:14 / Joshua 2:4-7, she obviously did this to protect David. Saul sent the men back to see David and told them to bring him up to him in his bed so that he may kill him, 1 Samuel 19:15. When the men entered, there was the idol in the bed, and at the head was some goats’ hair, 1 Samuel 19:16. Saul now asks Michal why she did what she did, she lied again and said, that David threatened her with her life, 1 Samuel 19:17 / Psalms 59:1-17.
‘When David had fled and made his escape, he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there. Word came to Saul: ‘David is in Naioth at Ramah’; so he sent men to capture him. But when they saw a group of prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came on Saul’s men, and they also prophesied. Saul was told about it, and he sent more men, and they prophesied too. Saul sent men a third time, and they also prophesied. Finally, he himself left for Ramah and went to the great cistern at Seku. And he asked, ‘Where are Samuel and David?’ ‘Over in Naioth at Ramah,’ they said. So Saul went to Naioth at Ramah. But the Spirit of God came even on him, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth. He stripped off his garments, and he too prophesied in Samuel’s presence. He lay naked all that day and all that night. This is why people say, ‘Is Saul also among the prophets?’ 1 Samuel 19:18-24
After fleeing from Saul, David met up with Samuel and explained what was going on, 1 Samuel 19:18. Saul continued to try and find David in order to have him killed 1 Samuel 19:19, but when his men met a group of prophets, everything began to change. The text says that not only were the three different companies of messengers stopped by this outburst of prophesying, 1 Samuel 19:19-21.
In other words, they were stopped in their tracks by God, John 18:6. The reason for the prophesying was to prove, once again, that God was with David and to demonstrate that God was protecting David from Saul’s murderous plans. Saul was so focused on killing David, that he totally forgot about his own relationship with God.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘By bringing both him and his men thus under a Divine influence, God prevented them from injuring the person of David, 1 Samuel 10:6’
Saul then asks where are Samuel and David? To which he is told over in Naioth at Ramah, 1 Samuel 19:24.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following concerning Naioth, 1 Samuel 19:24.
‘No such place as Naioth or Nevaioth is known, but the word means ‘dwellings.’ Hence, it is considered that Naioth was the name of the collegiate residence of the prophets, in, or just outside, Ramah, to which Samuel removed with David from his own house, for greater safety, owing to the sanctity of the place and company.’
Notice that even Saul himself couldn’t stop himself from prophesying, 1 Samuel 19:23-24 / 1 Samuel 18:10-12. He stripped off his garments, and he too prophesied in Samuel’s presence and he lay naked all that day and all that night, 1 Samuel 19:24.
When the people were asking, ‘is Saul also among the prophets?’ 1 Samuel 19:24, they were mocking him because they knew that Saul, as powerful as he was, became completely powerless because of the intervention of God. He was made to prophesy against his will, 1 Samuel 10:1-13.