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1 Samuel
Chapter Nineteen
1 Samuel 19
Chapter Contents
Jonathan reconciles his father to David, Saul again tries
to slay him. (1-10) David flees to Samuel. (11-24)
Commentary on 1 Samuel 19:1-10
(Read 1 Samuel 19:1-10)
How forcible are right words! Saul was, for a time,
convinced of the unreasonableness of his enmity to David; but he continued his
malice against David. 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.
Commentary on 1 Samuel 19:11-24
(Read 1 Samuel 19:11-24)
Michal's stratagem to gain time till David got to a distance
was allowable, but her falsehood had not even the plea of necessity to excuse
it, and manifests that she was not influenced by the same spirit of piety which
had dictated Jonathan's language to Saul. In flying to Samuel, David made God
his refuge. Samuel, as a prophet, was best able to advise him what to do in
this day of distress. He met with little rest or satisfaction in Saul's court,
therefore went to seek it in Samuel's church. What little pleasure is to be had
in this world, those have who live a life of communion with God; to that David
returned in the time of trouble. So impatient was Saul after David's blood, so
restless against him, that although baffled by one providence after another, he
could not see that David was under the special protection of God. And when God
will take this way to protect David, even Saul prophesies. Many have great
gifts, yet no grace; they may prophesy in Christ's name, yet are disowned by
him. Let us daily seek for renewing grace, which shall be in us as a well of water
springing up into everlasting life. Let us cleave to truth and holiness with
full purpose of heart. In every danger and trouble, let us seek protection,
comfort, and direction in God's ordinances.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 1 Samuel》
1 Samuel 19
Verse 4
[4] And Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father,
and said unto him, Let not the king sin against his servant, against David;
because he hath not sinned against thee, and because his works have been to
thee-ward very good:
Spake good — Which he could not do without
hazard to himself. Herein therefore he performed the duty of a true friend, and
of a valiant man.
Verse 6
[6] And Saul hearkened unto the voice of Jonathan: and Saul
sware, As the LORD liveth, he shall not be slain.
As the Lord, … — And without all doubt, he
intended what he said, feeling a real change in himself for the present.
"God," says Mr. Henry, "inclined the heart of Saul to hearken to
the voice of Jonathan."
Verse 8
[8] And there was war again: and David went out, and fought
with the Philistines, and slew them with a great slaughter; and they fled from
him.
And David, … — So David continues his good
service, tho' it was ill requited. 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.
Verse 9
[9] And the evil spirit from the LORD was upon Saul, as he
sat in his house with his javelin in his hand: and David played with his hand.
The evil spirit — David's successes against the
Philistines revived his envy, and the devil watched the opportunity, as he had
done before.
Verse 13
[13] And Michal took an image, and laid it in the bed, and
put a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth.
Goats hair — Or, put great goats hair upon his
bolster; upon the head and face of the image, which lay upon his bolster, that
it might have some kind of resemblance of David's head and hair, at least in a
sick man's bed, where there useth to be but a glimmering light.
Covered it — Upon pretence of his being sick,
and needing some such covering.
Verse 18
[18] So David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah,
and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in
Naioth.
To Samuel — Both for comfort and direction in
his distress; and for safety, supposing that Saul would be ashamed to execute
his bloody designs in the presence of so venerable a person as Samuel.
Verse 20
[20] And Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they
saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed
over them, the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also
prophesied.
Over them — To instruct and direct them in
those holy exercises. For though they prophesied by Divine inspiration, yet
they were both to prepare themselves for it before hand, and to make good
improvement of it afterwards, in both which they needed Samuel's counsel and
assistance. And whereas some might falsely pretend to those raptures; or the devil
might transform himself into an angel of light, Samuel's presence and judgment
was necessary to prevent and to detect such impostures. Besides, Samuel would
by his present conjunction with them in those holy exercises, encourage them,
and stir up others to the coveting of those gifts, and to the performance of
such religious duties.
Prophesied — Being inspired by God as Balaam
was; that being wrapt up into such an extasy, their minds might be wholly taken
off from their design of seizing David.
Verse 23
[23] And he went thither to Naioth in Ramah: and the Spirit
of God was upon him also, and he went on, and prophesied, until he came to
Naioth in Ramah.
The spirit — It came upon him in the way;
whereas it came not upon his messengers 'till they came to the place. Hereby
God would convince Saul of the vanity of his designs against David, and that in
them he fought against God himself.
Verse 24
[24] And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied
before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that
night. Wherefore they say, Is Saul also among the prophets?
Lay down — Heb. fell, down upon the earth; for his mind being in
an extasy, he had not the use of his senses. God so ordering it, that David
might have an opportunity to escape.
Naked — That is, stript of his upper garments, as the word
naked is often used; and it is here repeated to signify how long he lay in that
posture.
Day and night — So God kept him as it were in
chains, 'till David was got out of his reach.
Is Saul — The same proverb which was used before, is here
revived, as an evidence of God's wonderful care over David; he made Saul in
some sort a prophet, that he mightst make David a king.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 1 Samuel》
19 Chapter 19
Verses 1-24
And Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father.
The blessed Peacemaker
I need not tell you how fast weeds grow; your own gardens show you
every day: and if you have eyes to look within, your own hearts will show the
same sad truth. Saul’s evil eye had now grown into continual hatred--he cares
not even to conceal from man the murderous desires of his heart; and being
disappointed, both in his own skill and craft he now openly speaks to Jonathan
and all his servants that they should kill David. Well doth the Holy Ghost
testify, “Evil men and seducers wax worse and worse.” “And Jonathan spake good
of David unto Saul his father,” etc. “And Saul hearkened unto the voice of
Jonathan,” etc. “Blessed are the peacemakers!” why? “They shall be called the
children of God.” And is this the grand family likeness? how should we covet
ill? Ah! surely if there is one feature that shines more brightly than another
in our adorable elder brother, it is that of peacemaker. Do angels see their
God cradled in a manger? it is as Peacemaker, while flocking multitudes strike
up the new anthem which unites forever the choir below with the choir above,
“Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will towards men.” Do they
see their maker agonised? a stranger to peace? a man of sorrows? It is that He
might make peace forever by the blood of His cross, and proclaim peace to those
who were afar off. Does He now appear as a Lamb slain? forever making
intercession? For some David He is pleading, for some afflicted one He is
interceding. (Helen Plumptre.)
So Michal let David down through a window; and he went, and fled,
and escaped.
David a fugitive
In this passage there is a minute account of an appalling danger
to which David was exposed.
I. God’s servants
are frequently exposed to alarming dangers.
1. This danger came at an unexpected time. David was now the king’s
son-in-law, a great hero in the eyes of the nation, and beloved by all the
people, and yet Saul thirsted for his blood.
2. This danger proceeded from a powerful enemy. Saul was himself a
formidable antagonist, but he also had many servants, watching to do his
bidding.
3. The danger assumed an alarming aspect. The king’s assassins had
tracked David’s steps to Gibeah, and surrounded the palace, and apparently
guarded every way of escape. The dangers to which David was exposed are typical
of the dangers that beset God’s servants now. We are surrounded by dangers
ovary moment. Many dangers arise from natural onuses. Many dangers arise from
spiritual influences: personal habits, social engagements, and Satanic agency.
II. God’s servants
are frequently warned of approaching danger. Before God destroyed the old world
He warned Noah, and commanded him to prepare an ark for himself and family.
Before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah He revealed His purpose to Abraham, and
warned Lot of the impending danger. Before Herod sent forth to day all the
children that wars in Bethlehem God warned Joseph in a dream, not to return to
his own country. Before Saul had completed his plan far the murder of David,
“Michal, his wife, told him saying: If thou save not thy life tonight, tomorrow
thou shalt be slain.”
1. David’s warning came from different sources. Jonathan and Michal
warned David. Intimation of approaching danger comes in many ways. By dreams,
suggestions, and Divine impulses. God speaks clearly by His word, earnestly by
His son, and constantly by His Spirit.
2. David’s warning demanded immediate attention.
3. David’s warning led to decisive action. He listened to his wife
and saved his life. Our safety depends upon decisive action.
III. God’s servants
are frequently delivered from impending dangers. The context shows that God
delivers His servants in four ways.
1. By friendly mediation. Jonathan’s prudent and persuasive
intercession softened the king’s obduracy. God can touch the hearts of our
bitterest enemies.
2. By personal watchfulness. Saul had made the most solemn profession
of reconciliation; but David kept his eye upon Saul’s javelin, while his
fingers were upon his own harp. The enemy of our souls never slumbers; whether
we watch or not, he watches.
3. By conjugal fidelity. Saul gave David Michal “to be a snare to
him,” but she proved a protector. “The devil is sometimes outshot with his own
bow.”
4. By Divine interposition. The path marked out for David was dark
and dangerous, but God saw him, led him, and defended him. (J. T. Woodhouse.)
The Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also
prophesied.
The contagious influence of faithful prophesying
The prophet of former days was, in all substantial point,
identical with the preacher of these. The commission both of prophet and
preacher is to set forth the Divine Oracles; to speak to their fellow sinners
the word which proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. It is only an
accidental, not an essential difference between the two, that in the case of
the prophet this word is derived from immediate inspiration, while in that of
the preacher it is gathered by prayerful study out of the pages of a written
record. Nor, so long as the testimony borne by both is a testimony of God’s
Word, does it constitute an essential difference, that in the prophet’s case the
testimony should oftentimes be a warning of future and impending events, in the
preacher’s an admonition of present privileges and present duties.
I. A spiritual
influence exerted upon certain persons. Both the messengers of Saul and Saul
himself were constrained by a strange and irresistible impulse to prophesy
before Samuel. In this seizure and ecstasy of minds, previously bent on the
prosecution of a hostile purpose, there was, no doubt, something miraculous, or
rather, something that must not be confounded with the ordinary operations of
the Holy Spirit. But yet there were circumstances in the former which may
usefully remind us of the latter. Saul stripping off his royal apparel, and
lying down in the very dust before Samuel--what a picture does this present to
us of the sinner’s self-abasement, when the convicting and converting
influences of the Holy Spirit first pour in upon his heart! How does he
prostrate himself, in deepest humiliation of spirit, at the foot of that cross
which has now become his only hope? A blessed and happy influence this, which
has been exerted upon his spirit; and one, haply, no less marvellous than the
impression made upon Saul of old. Of the latter, men said, “Is Saul also among
the prophets?” The spiritual character sat strangely and unwontedly upon this
furious and worldly prince. So marvellous in men’s eyes was the transformation,
that “Saul among the prophets” passed into a proverb of marvellousness. And is
not the result of the Holy Spirit’s ordinary operations as much a marvel, in
the strict and true sense of that word, as His bestowal of extraordinary gifts?
II. The
instrumentality employed in making this impression upon Saul himself and his
messengers. In the case of the latter, we are distinctly informed that it was not
until they saw the company of the prophets prophesying and Samuel standing as
appointed over them, that they also prophesied. What sight is so infectious, if
we may be allowed to use the term, as that of a congregation of persons
solemnly assembled for Divine worship, and joining, as with one heart and one
tongue, in the sacred exercises of prayer and praise? Can such a sight
fail--even if it make no permanent impression upon the spectator--of absorbing
his mind for a season into the current of devotion? Over and above the
associations of the place (which of themselves lend wings to devotion) there is
a sympathy abroad--a sympathy recognised by the spiritual faculty within
us--which lifts up the soul, as by an instinct, into unison with the song of
praise and thanksgiving. When we see the company of the prophets prophesying,
and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the Spirit of God is upon us, and
we also prophesy. Such is, we believe, the experience of every devout mind;
such the Christian’s realisation of the blessing annexed by charter to Public
Worship, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in
the midst of them.” (E. M. Goulburn, D. D.)
And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before
Samuel.
Religious enthusiasm, true and false
This passage brings before us three very remarkable men--Samuel,
and Saul, and David. And this passage speaks to me of religious consolation and
religious excitement. Now I ask you to observe that in the case of David there
is no record of any agitation or excitement. It would have been little
wonderful if he, fleeing for his life, had been overcome with emotion when he
found himself with Samuel and with the servants of God, in safeguard. It was
the servants of Saul that became excited, and then it was Saul himself showed
religious frenzy. The son of Kish was one exceedingly sensitive to the
influences of music and song. When his fit of mania came upon him the voice and
harp of David wonderfully soothed and even melted him. We read at an earlier
period, before he came into possession of the kingdom, that he met a company of
prophets, and he too joined them. Years had passed, and now he was a worse man
that he was at that day. His character had sorely deteriorated, but through
that very disorder of his mind he was in some respects more susceptible than
ever to a sort of religious excitement. When he came to Naioth he was quite
beyond himself; the spiritual electricity of the place was too much for him,
and he fell into a sort of paroxysm of enthusiasm. But he was no prophet. You
may be among the prophets, and join your voices among them, and yet be no
prophet.
1. There is a religious excitation or excitement which may not have
any moral quality or influence whateverse It is not affected; it is real. It is
not insincere; it is sincere. I despise the man who would play a part and
pretend to be religiously excited when he is not. He is too base a creature.
But I mean a person who really is lifted up and carried along with a rush of
sacred enthusiasm. He cries for mercy, and he sings loudly of salvation. When
he was alone he could not pray at all. He was carried along with the prophets.
He had a wonderful fervour, his emotions were all aglow, and his brain was
excited with a sort of sacred ecstasy. Now, this happens all the more easily if
a man has a constitution accessible to such influences. I do not say that all
excitement is useless, but I say that there is an excitement that only amounts
to this. God forbid that we should for a moment deny that there are cases in
which people get real permanent good. But the excitement is only the
accompaniment; it is not the change. Excitement wears itself out. Paroxysms and
ecstasies pass away.
2. The second thing is this: the degree in which religious emotion
overpowers the body is generally proportioned to the ignorance of the mind, or
to its alienation or estrangement from God. David joined the company of these prophets
without any excitement or frenzy. I do not read a word about his lying naked
upon the ground for a day and a night. Why was that? Because David had more of
the matter in him than Saul. There was no resistance in David, therefore his
body was not overpowered. But Saul was in an evil mood. He had come down to
Naioth in a very evil mood. Envy and murder were in his heart, and when this
pure sacred impulse came upon him, it met with the strongest resistance. If
this is right, and surely this is right, this case should teach those persons
who have at various times made a great ado over prostrations and trances and
long lastings as signs of the work of grace, to be somewhat more cautious in
their utterances. These things occur almost always in the case of a morbid
hysterical temperament, in which case they are only a sign of disease, not of
health; or in the case of a very ignorant person who is overwhelmed with things
of which he has no intelligent conception; or in cases where there has been a
very awful estrangement from God, and the Word of His grace finds an
obstruction. There is a sympathy between the body and the spirit. They suffer
together, they rejoice together. The body is not overpowered because the spirit
of the man is open to the teachings of the Spirit of God. Mark you, it is Saul,
not David, that cast off his garments in his excitement, and that threw himself
in fanatical exhaustion upon the ground, if you reflect now and consider this,
that this Bible is a collection of Eastern books, and remember that the East
has always been the home of strange religious extravagance, do not you
recognise a new proof of the Divine wisdom that pervades this Bible, that it is
really inspired of the Holy Ghost in its well-balanced sobriety of mind? The
Lord Jesus, Whom the Bible sets forth as the Holy One, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners--Jesus Whom the Bible calls us to admire and love and
follow, is full of the grandest enthusiasm. God was with Him. If ever there was
a man full of Spirit it was the Man Christ Jesus. He was filled with the Holy
Ghost, and went everywhere led by the Spirit, and at the same time full of
sweet self-possession, full of meekness and wisdom, and so answered all
questions on the spur of the moment in the wisest possible manner, and set
forth perfectly the cause of righteousness. The Bible teaches us, and
especially to be calm and fervent, fervent and calm. (Donald Fraser, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》