How God works behind the scenes (1 Samuel 19)
1 Sam 19:1-24
In secondary school, I had a teacher who seemed a bit slow on the uptake. After a particular incident, I made a mocking comment about her in the break, which was overheard by another teacher. He gave me a dressing down and I found out that the teacher I criticised had been in a car accident some years before, which affected her mental faculties. I was mortified and spent the rest of the afternoon with my thoughts alternately condemning and exonerating me. Surely, I couldn’t have known this! But it was wrong of me to be so scornful. Should I apologise? But admitting I was wrong would be so humiliating! The next day, with heart thumping in my throat, I went to the teacher who overheard my words and apologised. Doing the right thing was hard, but oh what a relief it was afterwards!
Jonathan and Saul’s conscience
Saul is perhaps going through a similar torment as he struggles with God’s will and his own desires. He now openly contemplates murder (1 Sam 19:1), but is confronted by his son, Jonathan, who tries to make him see reason and save David in the process (1 Sam 19:4-5). Saul, volatile as ever, makes an oath not to kill David (1 Sam 19:6), but the patched-up relationship tears like worn fabric under strain. David’s military victories awake Saul’s anguish once again (1 Sam 19:8-9). While it sounds like God is responsible for Saul’s murderous action (the evil spirit sent by Him, v.9) translating the phrase as ‘a tormenting spirit’ (NLT) would be more appropriate (see ‘For Interest – an evil spirit’ in my post How God works out His plans). Does God work through Saul’s distress to help him realise that the Lord is with David and Saul’s kingship will not last? If so, then his torment is partly caused by God to awaken his conscience and bring him to repentance. Yet, Saul cannot submit to God’s will and attempts instead to eliminate his rival (1 Sam 19:10).
Michal and a symbolic act
No matter how hard he tries, Saul’s plans are thwarted by God. The Lord uses human instruments, Jonathan’s friendship and Michal’s love to protect David, so that Saul’s own family is working against him. Michal’s use of a household idol and her outright lie in deceiving her father is reminiscent of Rachel, Jacob’s wife (1 Sam 19:13-14, 17; Gen 31:34-35). While neither are condemned explicitly, there are some question marks around both.[1] Michal’s deception is understandable, though, since Saul may have hurt her if he thought that she would willingly help David. Ultimately, Saul’s attempts to capture David while the latter is staying with Samuel, end in ignominy. The sign of prophesying that has once affirmed his kingship (1 Sam 10:9-13), is now a pointer to its loss as he is symbolically divested of his clothes (1 Sam 19:24) that had marked him as king.[2] Chapman notes a further symbolism in Saul’s prophesying.
He [Saul] does possess a certain receptivity for spiritual things, as if his brain is hardwired to pick up prophetic “chatter,” but he exhibits the behavior of reception without comprehension of the message being communicated, the form without the substance. The irony of this turnaround is both rich and sad. Saul is too spiritual to succeed in killing David, but not spiritual enough to succeed as king.[3]
How God works His purposes
Saul’s ongoing story illustrates that God is working out His purposes even against human attempts to thwart Him and He is simultaneously working in the life of people who resist Him with opportunities to be confronted by their sin whether such challenge comes through other people close to them, a tormented conscience or through symbolic acts or events. There is immense pathos in Saul’s story and despite his terrible determination to destroy David, we cannot help but feel pity for him. Perhaps because we have all been there at some point desperately wanting something that the Lord had denied us and knowing the torment of not being able to let go. May we take to heart God’s intervention, hear His voice and seek His help. By His grace we can be enabled to submit to His good will.
[1] When Laban, Rachel’s father, confronts Jacob about the theft of the household idols, Jacob swears that the person who had stolen them shall not live (Gen 31:32). Later, Rachel dies prematurely in childbirth, and one wonders if this is not somehow connected to Jacob’s oath, though the narrator makes no explicit comment (Gen 35:16-19). Michal’s love for David will later turn to contempt and she will be described as ‘Saul’s daughter’ (2 Sam 6:16) while here she is ‘David’s wife’ and supports his interests (1 Sam 19:11). While we may feel sympathy for her given the way she is later shuttled back and forth between men (1 Sam 25:44; 2 Sam 3:14-16), the incident in our reading flags some dubious aspects to her character.
[2] David G. Firth, 1 & 2 Samuel (Nottingham: Apollos, 2009), 219. Firth also notes the contrast with Jonathan, who willingly removed his robes and gave them to David in recognition of the latter’s future status as king, whereas Saul’s divestment is involuntary.
[3] Stephen B. Chapman, 1 Samuel as Christian Scripture: A Theological Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016), 167.
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