(Cue the cheesy announcer voice…)
Welcome back to As the Old Testament Turns. Like sands through the hourglass, so are the Days of their Lives. 🌍⏳
This chapter has major soap opera vibes. 🙄
So. Much. Drama. 🎭 😑
It starts with Saul wanting to murder David and ends with him undressed at a revival meeting. 👀😳
Ladies and Gentlemen, Please keep your hands, arms, elbows, legs and feet inside the vehicle at all times, and Enjoy the Ride! 🎢
OFF-AGAIN, ON-AGAIN MURDER PLOT
“Saul now urged his servants and his son Jonathan to assassinate David…”
1 Samuel 19:1 NLT
In the last chapter, Saul attempts to skewer David to the wall. Then he shifts to, “Let the Philistines do it.” Since that hasn’t worked, his new plan is to encourage someone in the palace to do the dastardly deed. 🗡️⚰️
Notice the progression of Saul’s murder plot:
- I’ll do it.
- Let the Philistines do it.
- Get a servant or Jonathan to do it.
- I’ll do it.
Obviously Jonathan isn’t going to murder his best bud. But he does manage to talk some sense back into his unstable father and gets David readmitted into Saul’s presence.
For about five minutes. ⏱️
Then after yet another victory of David’s over the Philistines we get a part 2 of Saul attempting to kill David with a spear.
Let’s think about this for a minute.
The text is clear that Saul is being influenced by an evil spirit 😈 as David is playing his harp. I can tell you from firsthand experience that evil spiritual entities do NOT like worship. They can’t stand it. Sometimes when I’m leading worship, I can feel resistance in the spirit.
Have you ever had a conversation where you are trying to help someone understand the truth and they just refuse to listen? That’s what it feels like – only minus the conversation. It’s just the feeling. It feels like a scowl and arms folded and squinty eyes and stubbornness. It feels like spite and pettiness and frosty hardness. 😠
Sometimes I have felt something like a sudden boredom- as if the whole congregation just checked out; like a teenager that just decided they were done listening. 🥱
It’s hard to describe but I feel the good things when they happen too. When the Spirit of the LORD is among His saints, it’s always fantastic. 🤩 Like, when people are really engaging with the Lord in their hearts it’s almost like feeling little plants stretching toward the warm sun 🌱 or dirt being washed away by rain 🌧️. Or both. It feels like daisies 🌼 and picnics ☀️and healing.
The influence of the beings in the spiritual realm is REAL. They impact the visible world. We would do well to remember that in our homes and at work and while running errands and on vacation.
If things at home or work are touchy and problematic, PRAY. 🙏 Anoint the place and pray. If there was a pile of garbage stinking the place up, you’d get rid of it. 🚮 There’s probably a stinky evil spirit lurking around. Haul it out of there. Pray and dedicate the physical space to the Lord. If you are a representative of Christ, you have His authority to evict spiritual squatters from His property. If that feels like black-belt level stuff 🥷and you’re not there yet, get cha a radio 📻 or a Bluetooth speaker 🔊 and put on some worship music and sing along. But DO something. Don’t concede that territory to Darkness.
So when we see David playing his harp 🎶 (and very likely singing too), and Saul getting all worked into a rage, we’re seeing a spiritual battle show up in the physical realm. Saul is under the influence of a malevolent spirit. 👿
A DUMMY IN THE BED
David runs from Saul and gets home but Michal helps him escape in the night because Saul has sent troops to kill David.
I don’t know where Michal got the idea to put a teraphim dummy in the bed 🛌 with a goat’s hair “wig” but it was genius. If she only knew how many movies have borrowed that idea… 😏
But what I wanna know is… what’s she doing with a teraphim idol in the house? 🤔Maybe I’m misunderstanding the text, but it sounds large, if it’s meant to look like a grown man in the bed – kind of like an old “cigar store Indian” figure.
The fact that a daughter of Saul had a terphim is a little peek into the spiritual life of Saul’s family. Daughters were often given teraphim as a gift upon their marriage – like being given granny’s dinnerware. 🍽️
Remember how Saul called Yahweh “your God” to Samuel? Perhaps in his home, Saul had a shrine to the ancestors – which is really weird for a Jew because their ancestors are Abraham and Shem and Noah. No Nephalim demigods in the family tree. That’s really the root of the whole ancestor shrine thing. If your ancestors were divine you’d honor them in some way and pray to them for help, right?
And by the way, the world is still honoring and praying to the dead Nephalim ancestors. Hispanics call it Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).
The Japanese have Obon – Festival of the Dead.
The English celebrate Halloween…
Tribal peoples around the world have elaborate festivals and ceremonies surrounding death and veneration of dead ancestors and receiving help and guidance from those dead ancestors. 👺
Interesting isn’t it that basically every culture has this embedded in it?
When do you think people started venerating their ancestors? I strongly suspect it was when those ancestors could claim a certain level of divinity as the offspring of a human and a fallen angel. Genesis 6.
This idol that Michal used as a dummy had to have come from somewhere and something tells me it didn’t come from David who was wholehearted toward Yahweh alone. Saul was probably dabbling in a bit of the local Canaanite and Philistine practice of household teraphim.
DAVID GOES TO SAMUEL’S… SCHOOL?
Naioth (or Navith) [naw-veeth]. At first glance it’s just a place within Ramah. But I did some poking around because it seems to be special. Here are the clues in the text:
- It’s some place near enough to Ramah to be said to be “in Ramah” but distinct enough from Ramah to have a separate name.
- It seems to be a location that Samuel feels would be safer for David than his house in Ramah because after David tells Samuel what has happened, Samuel takes David there.
- There are a LOT of prophets there. And they seem to live there and they actively prophesy.
- There seems to be a special presence of God there that causes even non-prophets to begin to prophesy.
You may have heard of the Jewish Targums. The Targums were written primarily during the Babylonian captivity. They were basically like sermons. The writer would paraphrase the scripture in language the hearer could understand (Aramaic) and would also explain details that might be obscure.
The one called “Targum Jonathan” was written by a Jonathan Ben Uzziel and the Talmud says that he composed it “from the mouths of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi,”, or under the direction of some of the last of the prophets. Anyway, Targum Jonathan translates Naioth/Navith here in 1 Samuel 19 as “house of learning.”
When we get into First, but mainly Second Kings, we’re going to repeatedly encounter a group called “the sons of the prophets.” They live together in a kind of commune and they study and learn and practice doing prophecy. I suspect that Navith is the first one. It’s a house of learning.
In the Bible to be a “son of” mostly means offspring, but it’s also used in the sense of spiritual patterning- like the phrase “sons of belial” that is used to describe wicked men. So, “sons of the prophets” might mean actual sons of prophets but it could also infer men who have been discipled and spiritually parented by a prophet. It’s probably both.
A “house of learning” really makes sense too. Samuel is no longer needed as a Judge because Israel has a king now. He is still a prophet. He knows all about the priesthood too. He has been used by God to add scripture to the growing collection. Samuel has dedicated his whole life to leading Israel in the way of Yahweh. He is not just gonna go off and retire to Shady Oaks and hope that somebody decides to pick up where he left off. No, Samuel obviously has a relationship with these prophets at Navith or he wouldn’t have picked it as a safe place to take David who is on the run from the king. Who do you think trained these prophets? Who taught them the scripture? Who had access to the Torah? Ya’ll, I think we just found the world’s first Bible College. 🤓
Oh – and I’m not sure what to make of this but Navith in Hebrew is NVYT.
N – nachash: shiny serpent, wise, spiritual
V – vav: tent peg, and/with (conjunction: join)
Y – yod: hand, make/do, power, authority
T – tav: + cross, mark, strong indicator, THIS
A serpent, a nail, a hand and a cross.
🤯 I have no idea what to do with that but there it is. 😯
NVYT is also where wisdom and spiritual life is joined with making/doing (practical application) and the way of the cross. I’m not sure about other places, but that’s a fair description of my Bible College experience. Well, that and a lot of homework, Ramen Noodles, and Papa John’s pizza. 🍕 📚🍜 😏
So Saul sends some regular army guys to capture David and when they arrive on campus, Samuel and the other prophets are prophesying.
And I for one would really like to know what that looked like and what they said! I strongly suspect based on Elisha in 2 Kgs. 3:14-15 and Elisha’s strong ties to “the sons of the prophets,” that there were musicians at this Prophet School. Remember the group of prophets Saul encountered as a sign he was chosen to be king? They were playing instruments too. Maybe it’s the innate sensitivity of being a musician that lends itself to prophecy and hearing from the LORD. Somehow music makes it easier to hear from the Lord.
Anyhoo…
So the army guys start prophesying too.
Now, if you’ve never experienced this, let me tell you – It’s a thing. If you are in an atmosphere where the whole group (this is KEY) is engaged in worship, high sensitivity and yieldedness to the Spirit of God, and giving extemporaneous prayers and praises and declarations that are being directed by the Holy Spirit, and there is music from an anointed musician, it’s VERY easy to prophesy in that atmosphere. Stuff just pops in your head and out our mouth. I have done this on occasion. You somehow know things that you have no way of knowing. It’s weird and wonderful and also kinda scary. To use Pentecostal lingo I’d say that I sometimes “flow in the prophetic.”
I wouldn’t consider myself a prophet by any stretch. But – full disclosure – I sometimes know things before they happen. And I’m not talking about Deja vu. Sometimes it’s a vague sense- like the faint scent of rain in the breeze and you know it’s coming though the details on what “it” is are unknown. That’s usually how it is before I move or experience a major life change.
Sometimes it’s so specific I could draw you a picture. But I rarely share these because:
- I have a huge healthy fear of being a false prophet
- Most people will think you’re nuts
- I haven’t felt like the Lord has told me to share.
Christian groups that recognize spiritual gifts like prophecy as being active in the church today such as Pentecostals and Charismatics generally divide prophetic gifts into 2 types:
- The Office of a Prophet ☝🏼🤨
- This function is listed in the 5 roles of service that build the church: Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd, Teacher. (Eph. 4:11)
- This is the person that is given information about the future and functions like Samuel or Deborah or Nathan in the OT or like Agabus and John in the NT. They foretell and forewarn with God-directed words.
- This role is fairly uncommon (in other words- not everyone calling himself a prophet really is), and prophesies should be tested as God said: “If the prophet speaks in the Lord’s name but his prediction does not happen or come true, you will know that the Lord did not give that message. That prophet has spoken without my authority and need not be feared.” Deuteronomy 18:22 NLT
- The Gift of Prophecy 🎁
- This is the gift of inspired speech that may be exercised by more than just those in the Office of a Prophet.
- The Apostle Paul encouraged the Corinthian Christians to desire the gift of prophecy and he went to great lengths to teach them how to exercise this gift in meetings. (1 Cor. 14) Paul does call them “prophets” but…
- Paul explained the gift of prophecy to the Corinthians like this: “But one who prophesies strengthens others, encourages them, and comforts them.” 1 Cor. 14:3 NLT. Thus the distinction between this gift and the role or office of a prophet. A person with the GIFT speaks to strengthen, encourage, and comfort. A person in the OFFICE foretells and forewarns.
K… Now that we’ve rabbit trailed 🐰on more than you probably cared to read about prophets and prophecy… back to the army guys who got caught up in the presence of Yahweh and forgot all about catching David.
Well… except I feel like I should also explain to those who haven’t experienced this kind of atmosphere; this heavy, powerful presence of the LORD- it’s intoxicating. 😍🤩 (Well- that’s coming from someone who has never actually been intoxicated and only once twice accidentally got high on chemical fumes.) But – if intoxicated feels euphorically peaceful, then this powerful presence of the Lord is intoxicating. 😌
And you really do lose sense of time. You can think you’ve been basking in the glow of glory for a few minutes and HOURS have passed.
So that’s why the troops never arrest David. The text isn’t clear if they just stayed and hung out with the prophets or if they eventually drifted home in a blissful daze. Either way, Saul sends 2 more units of soldiers and they all end up the same way. That’s some POTENT anointing!
So Saul is once again back to the “I’ll do it myself” option. He shows up in this apparently on-going gathering and his response is…well…. 😬
“He tore off his clothes and lay naked on the ground all day and all night, prophesying in the presence of Samuel. The people who were watching exclaimed, “What? Is even Saul a prophet?” 1 Samuel 19:24 NLT
Y’all, I’ve seen and heard of a LOT of things happening in powerful services – indoor lightening strikes, ⚡️the audible voice of God, 📣 people getting out of wheelchairs ♿️ deaf ears opened… Thank heavens I never saw anything like this! 🫣
Now, in all fairness to the text, the word “naked” in the Bible doesn’t always mean completely nude. It can. But even up until the 19th century, if a man was only shirtless he would be described as “naked.” It’s more likely that Saul was stripped down to his skivvies (which is bad enough). 🩲 (And yes – I know all about Isaiah prophesying naked and we’ll get to that.)
As much as we may want to KNOW, “Was Saul buck-naked or not?” 🫣 We may have to settle for a “Maybe, but probably not.”
🤔 Hmm… Maybe Samuel covered Saul up with one of those modesty cloths that some Pentecostal churches have.
😐 What on earth are you talking about?
🙂 Oh, in some Pentecostal churches there are these pieces of fabric – kinda like baby blankets – folded up under the front pews or the altar. When people fall out in the Spirit, (especially the ladies), someone drapes the fabric over them so everything is uh… covered up.
😳 Really?!
😌 Yes really.
🤨 You’re sure you’re not puttin’ me on?
🙂 No. I’m serious! I’ve seen it many times. Worn a few myself. 😌 When I was a kid, usually a brother would take his suit jacket off and drape it over the lady in the floor. But what happens if not enough men have jackets? You get the quilting bee ladies together and you make modesty cloths. And you pick a fabric that compliments the church carpet and general decor. 😉
🤔 Pentecostals sure are weird.
😏 Maybe. But let me tell ya, when you need prayer, you call a bunch of Pentecostals and get em prayin’ and I’m tellin’ ya – things happen. They’re like the SpecOps of the Church. They can get through Enemy territory and burn mess to the ground and send demons fleeing in seven directions.
🤔 Hmm. Well, I guess if they want prayer cloths then, that’s fine.
🙄 No… not prayer cloths. Modesty cloths. Prayer cloths are a different thing.
😯 They have more than one kind?!
😉 Ya know, I think you’ve learned enough for one day. We’ll cover prayer cloths in another post.
Here is one more possible take on the strange phenomenon of Saul disrobing and lying on the ground all day and night…
Josephus described Saul in this incident as “disordered in mind and under the vehement agitation of a spirit,” so as to ascribe his disrobing to some evil influence.
Powerful spiritual encounters can cause some people to behave in bizarre manners. I’ve seen people flop like a fish out of water, convulse, laugh uncontrollably, scream, stagger, and fall unconscious for extended periods of time. IN CHURCH. Some reactions may be just the human being overwhelmed by glory. Some of it… well, some of it is downright sketchy. It’s possible that a wild reaction is the result of a demonic influence manifesting when confronted by the presence of the Lord.
Just because Saul “prophesied” does not absolutely prove that he was doing so by the Spirit of the LORD.
“On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many miracles in your name?’”
Matthew 7:22 LEB
You already know Jesus’ response to these people. “I NEVER knew you.” So how did they prophesy? The prophet Ezekiel gave a message about something like that:
“The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel, who are prophesying, and say to those who prophesy from their own hearts: ‘Hear the word of the Lord!’ Thus says the Lord God, Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! They have seen false visions and lying divinations. They say, ‘Declares the Lord,’ when the Lord has not sent them, and yet they expect him to fulfill their word.” Ezekiel 13:1-3, 6 ESV
It’s possible – in the context of church or the worship of Yahweh, mind you – for people to see visions and have prophetic words that are not from the Lord. The New Testament warns about false prophets in that time and all the way up to today. And here is what Christians are charged to do:
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” 1 John 4:1 ESV
If you continue to read John’s epistle you will find that the “test” is one of doctrine; particularly what is called a “high Christology.” Beware of voices that try to make Jesus “one of us” and sideline His full Divinity and eternal existence as the Word of God.
If you want to dig more into the topic of counterfeit gifts and how it is impacting many churches today, I recommend the book, Counterfeit Kingdom by Holly Pivec and R. Douglas Geivett.
Earlier this year I went with a group of ladies from my church to see the musical stage production of King David at the Sight & Sound Theater in Branson, Missouri. It was fantastic. And I wept silently through much of it- when I wasn’t being blown away in delighted wonder at the special effects and brilliant use of ginormous puppetry.
One of the scenes that really got me was the way they depicted Navith. It was like a secret grotto in the deep forest. At twilight. With a waterfall and soft grass and flowers. Everything about the lighting and costuming was cool and soft and comforting. And there were harps playing and the people sang in a layered polyphony that was a like an audible tapestry. It’s was beautiful and on point.
And when Saul arrived, it was like he remembered back to when Samuel had anointed him and he ran into that group of prophets with instruments and he began to prophesy with them. For a moment, Saul forgot all about the pressures of being king and the threat of the Philistines. For a moment his mind was at peace again and he had no thought of harming David. He lay on the ground all day and all night, savoring the glorious presence of Yahweh. He had forgotten how wonderful that was.
That was the play’s take on this passage.
Perhaps Saul had taken the Spirit of the LORD for granted. Until He left. Kind of like Samson.
Saints who are in Christ Jesus have been granted a unique relationship to the LORD. The Holy Spirit does not periodically “rush upon” us as He did Samson or Saul or David. Because of the atoning work of Christ, the Holy Spirit abides. He dwells in us and we in Him. But that does not mean He cannot be grieved.
“And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.”
Ephesians 4:30 NLT
Let’s not be like Saul and take the presence of the Lord for granted. Let’s cherish His presence and delight in Him. 🥰
If they could have such powerful gatherings in the OT so that even a bunch of army grunts and a half-mad king would spontaneously fall down and prophesy for hours on end, only think what glorious potential the gathered saints of God could have today! 🤩🤯
And we’re content to sing a few songs, hear a message, and go home. 😔
I dunno. Maybe we need to find a grotto in the woods 🌳🌳🌳 and just take some stringed instruments 🎸🎹🎻and go pray and worship for days on end until everyone is empowered.
Only I’m making one rule right now.
Everyone stays fully clothed. ☝🏼🤨
To The Reader 