Scripture Daily

Context No. 1193 of 4322 · 1 Samuel

Context · Reflection

1 Samuel 19:6-14: in context

6Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan; and Saul swore, “As the LORD lives, he shall not be put to death.” 7Jonathan called David, and Jonathan showed him all those things. Then Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as before. 8There was war again. David went out and fought with the Philistines, and killed them with a great slaughter; and they fled before him. 9An evil spirit from the LORD was on Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand; and David was playing music with his hand. 10Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away out of Saul’s presence; and he stuck the spear into the wall. David fled and escaped that night. 11Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and to kill him in the morning. Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, “If you don’t save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.” 12So Michal let David down through the window. He went away, fled, and escaped. 13Michal took the teraphim and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats’ hair at its head and covered it with clothes. 14When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.”

For a moment, peace seems restored: Jonathan persuades his father Saul to swear that David will not be killed, and David returns to court as before. But when David wins another great victory, the old jealousy flares. An evil spirit comes on Saul as David plays the harp, and Saul hurls his spear to pin David to the wall; David dodges and flees into the night. Saul sends men to watch David's house and kill him in the morning, but Michal, David's wife and Saul's daughter, lowers David out a window to escape, then puts a household idol in his bed with goat's hair for a head to buy him time.

What runs through this dangerous night is God's protection working through ordinary people and near-misses. Saul had sworn David would not die, and broke the oath the moment jealousy returned; a promise means nothing to a heart consumed by envy. But at every turn, David is preserved, the spear misses, the window offers escape, his own wife risks herself to save him and deceives her father to delay the pursuit. God is nowhere named as acting in these verses, and yet his hand is unmistakable in the escapes, protecting his anointed through the courage of a wife and the slip of a spear. It is a picture of how God often keeps his people, not usually by dramatic intervention but through the loyalty of those around them and the countless small deliverances of a dangerous day. And there is a warning in Saul, too, the danger of a jealousy so strong it breaks solemn oaths and turns a man against the one who serves him best. Saul swore and forswore in the same short span, ruled by an envy he would not master. David, hunted and betrayed, was nonetheless kept, because the God who had anointed him was quietly guarding him through the night.

Can I trust that God keeps his people through ordinary means and small deliverances even on dangerous nights, and do I guard my own heart against a jealousy that would break my word and turn me against those who serve me well?

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