Context No. 3212 of 4322 · 1 Samuel

1 Samuel 19:20-24: in context

20Saul sent messengers to seize David; and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as head over them, God’s Spirit came on Saul’s messengers, and they also prophesied. 21When Saul was told, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied. 22Then he also went to Ramah, and came to the great well that is in Secu: and he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” One said, “Behold, they are at Naioth in Ramah.” 23He went there to Naioth in Ramah. Then God’s Spirit came on him also, and he went on, and prophesied, until he came to Naioth in Ramah. 24He also stripped off his clothes. He also prophesied before Samuel and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”

Saul, set on capturing David, sends messengers to seize him. But when they come upon the company of prophets with Samuel at their head, the Spirit of God falls on Saul's men, and they begin to prophesy instead. A second and a third group of messengers do the same. Finally Saul goes himself, and the Spirit falls on him too, and he prophesies and lies stripped all that day and night.

It is a strange scene. Saul, bent on murder, sends men to capture David, and God's Spirit overtakes them so they prophesy instead, three times over, and at last Saul himself. God can interrupt and overrule even the plans of those set against his purposes. Saul's murderous errand is frustrated again and again as the Spirit falls even on his agents. It is both a mercy, David is protected, and a strange judgment, as Saul is stripped of his royal dignity and rendered unable to carry out his intent. God is able to divert the hostile, guarding his own by means the enemy cannot foresee.

Do I trust that God can overrule and divert even those set against his purposes, protecting his own in ways no enemy could anticipate?

Sources

1 Samuel 19:23: "God's Spirit came on him also, and he went on, and prophesied."
1 Samuel 19:20: "God's Spirit came on Saul's messengers, and they also prophesied."
Proverbs 21:1: "The king's heart is in the LORD's hand like the watercourses. He turns it wherever he desires."