Discourse Analysis is the act of linking the text at hand
with the previous text and the post text. It can be done with verses,
sentences, paragraphs, chapters, even whole books. We’re already done a little
discourse analysis between 1
Samuel 16 and 1 Samuel
17 ; now we’re going to do it again between 1 Samuel 18 and 1 Samuel 19 . There’s 3 fact
you’ll need to remember from 1
Samuel 18 . First, Jonathan, Saul’s son, and David are best
friends. Second, Michal, Saul’s daughter, is madly in love with David and marries
him. Third, Saul has made David his enemy. All 3 of these will add up to
conflict, and 1 Samuel 19
shows the reader how the conflict plays out.
By the beginning of chapter 19, Saul is getting impatient
with his previous plans. Michal is not a snare to David. The Philistines aren’t
harming David. So Saul is done waiting and decides to make a more affirmative
action to kill David. In verse 1, Saul commands Jonathan and all the attendants
to kill David. Now this puts Jonathan at a terrible crossroads. He has 2
choices: either he sides with his father and pursues to kill David, or he sides
with his best friend by trying to convince his father to act differently
towards David. Clearly, he chose the latter, but don’t think Jonathan is
totally turning on his father. Jonathan chooses the second option merely
because he does not see David to be a threat, and Jonathan wants to communicate
that to his father Saul. But before Jonathan does that, Jonathan first goes to
David. He warns David of the immanent danger and he even provides a safe haven
for David to hide until Jonathan is done persuading his father.
Then Jonathan goes to persuade his father. His persuasive
argument is short and to the point. First, Jonathan points out that David has
committed no crime or wrongdoing of any sort, so Saul has no basis to kill him.
Second, Jonathan makes Saul aware about how much David has done for both the
king and the kingdom. To kill David would be detrimental to both the king the
kingdom. Why should Saul kill someone who has done nothing wrong and has done
everything right?
The Bible tells the reader in verse 6 that Saul legitimately
listened to Jonathan. After hearing Jonathan’s persuasive speech, Saul couldn’t
argue with it. Saul had to agree with all of Jonathan’s points. Saul promises
on oath that as surely as the Lord lives, so too David will live. Saul seems
ready to repentant and ready to reconcile with David, if even for a second.
Jonathan gets this feeling, too, so he reports back to David what Saul said and
then brings David to Saul. And for a while, it seems like everyone is back
where they started. But it only lasts for a short while. 1 Samuel 19:9 ,10 parallels 1 Samuel 18:10 ,11 very nicely. Once again, an
evil spirit comes upon Saul, and Saul tries to kill David. But this time David
isn’t sticking around. He’s leaving.
Up to this point, the first 10 verses of 1 Samuel 19 , Jonathan is the main
character saving David’s. Now, for the rest of the chapter, it will be Michal.
David flees Saul and heads for his own house. Saul is smart
enough to realize this and he sends his own men to lie in wait until morning to
kill. Michal, David’s wife, sees the men lying in wait and plans accordingly.
During the night, Michal helps David down a window so he can flee. But Michal has
to make it look like David is still there. So Michal takes a teraphim, an idol
that looks like a human, and puts in the bed to look like David is sleeping
there. She even takes goat hair and puts it on the teraphim to make it look
like real hair. This does buy David more time, as Saul’s men seem to be fooled
the first time around. It would seem that the men went back and reported to
Saul that David was sick, and Saul had to say back to them, “Well then bring
him in his bed!” When they return, they discover that David is missing.
Interesting enough, when Michal is thrown into Saul’s presence to explain her
action, she claims that David threatened to kill her if she didn’t let him
escape. It is interesting that Michal results to lying and deception in order
to save David. Notice that the author of Samuel does not seem to approve or
disapprove. The author seems more focused on David’s rough situation and God’s
protection of David. What I find interesting is we find Michal going down the
same slippery slope as her father David. It also serves to foreshadow what her
personality will be like and what her relationship with David will be like.
Where does David go when he escapes? David probably figured
he couldn’t go back home, for King Saul would be expecting it and his men might
be lying in wait. So he goes to Ramah to seek counsel from Samuel. After all,
Samuel is the one who anointed him king. It’s possible that David went to
Samuel for any spiritual advice, as any prophet of the day would. So Samuel
takes David to Naioth. Some Hebrew scholars believe the name Naioth comes from
the same root as the Hebrew word navi, which means “prophet.” This leads
those scholars to believe Naioth was a school campus where Samuel trained
prophets. Perhaps Samuel and David considered that Saul would figure out that
David went to Samuel in Ramah, so both of them moved on to hide David somewhere
else. Or maybe Samuel moved David onto Naioth because he knew what would happen
next.
Before fully diving into the rest of 1 Samuel 19 , once again, we have
to take at a look to the word “prophesying.” First off, we need to look at the
word in Hebrew, not in English. The Hebrew root word [transliterated] is navi.
In this verse tense, it’s niveim. In the simplest term, the definition
means “to prophesy.” Yet depending on
verb tense and context, it has a big range. Of course, as you may suspect, the
word could mean “prophesy” as “foretelling the future.” It could mean
“prophesy” as in “speak the word of God.” It could even mean simply “to be in a
prophetic trance” or “to behave like a prophet.” There’s also non-prophesy
definitions. It can mean “to rave.” For my translation and interpretation, I’m
going to stick with something between the second-to-last and the third-to last
answer. The Spirit of God is so strong in this area that anyone who stepped in
the area could only praise, worship and glorify God; they can do no evil.
That’s the problem Saul and his men have. When they enter the town, they cannot
perform the mission they’ve been sent to do, for it’s evil. Saul even tries a
second and third time, but it leads to the same result.
Saul must have said to himself, “If you want something done
right, you have to do it yourself,” for Saul himself embarks to find David. In
Naioth, Saul gets the same result, but even more. The last verse says that Saul
“stripped off his robes.” Now there’s some disagreement among the scholars
among what this means. Some scholars suggests the phrase means that Saul
stripped himself naked. Other scholars suggest that the robes simply refer to
royal robes, so Saul’s not naked, but down to his undergarments. Either way, it
has a deep meaning. Once again in the presence of God, Saul’s still not at the
great kingly state he used to be at. Instead, the Spirit of God has him strip
off his royal garments (and maybe more!). In the Spirit, Saul himself
symbolically admits he is no longer the king by removing his kingly robes. Yet
when the people see him prophesying, they doubt their doubts. At this point
there’s probably some people already leaving Saul’s side for David’s side
because the people have seen God work more through David and less through Saul.
But now they see Saul prophesying, they might be second guessing themselves and
asking, “Is Saul among the prophets?”
Do you see the family conflict now? First, Jonathan had to
choose between helping his father hunt down David and saving David from Saul,
and he chose to save David. Then Michal helped David escape from her father’s
men, and when Saul confronts her, she lies about it. When Saul’s family has to
decide between Saul and David, and both choose Saul. But it’s not just family,
it’s also Saul’s “co-worker” and “friend” Samuel. Samuel has the Holy Spirit
working so hard in Naioth that Saul can’t even do anything himself. God
continues to protect David from Saul, and he does it by using those closest to
Saul: his family and friends. It just goes to show more that God has left Saul
and joined David’s side himself. God is using those closest to Saul to protect
those against him. Let me close this entry with quote from Jesus, as recorded
in the Gospel. Because sometimes being a follower of God means turning against
your family.
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