Scripture: 1 Samuel 19:1-24 (NKJV)
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 workshave been very good toward you. 5 For he took
his life in his hands and killed the Philistine, and theLord 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 the Lord lives, he
shall not be killed.”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.
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.
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
itwith 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?’”
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. 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?”
Devotion
Jonathan wished to do as God had commanded, to honor his father and mother.
Normally doing such a thing would require obedience to father and mother, but
when Saul com-manded Jonathan to sin, the son would show true honor by obeying
God above man (Acts 5:29), regardless of the current failings of the man who
reared him. Standing firm in God’s Word, Jonathan implored his father to do the
right thing. And his argument prevailed!
However, Saul soon revealed the problem with his re-gency: he seems not so much
to lead Israel out of and away from its sin (as a good king and shepherd ought
to do), but to follow Israel in making a commitment that is soon broken. Just
as the nation had said at Sinai that they would do everything in accord with
the Law that the Lord handed down through Moses, but straightway departed
therefrom, so Saul did with his promise concerning David.
It is easy to commit to righteousness on a bright, sunny, peaceful day, when
God’s grace in the past is well seen and His provision for the future seems
reasonable. In the darkness of sin and its consequences, though (as when the
distressing spirit came upon Saul once again), falling away is easier. Yet, as
with Saul at Naioth, a day comes wherein God cannot be resisted, and all must
acknowledge Him, even to their shame.
Posted by The Reverend Jeffrey A. Ahonen on behalf of the Evangelical Lutheran
Diocese of North America
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