Scripture says little of on nature of demons. This one had permission from God to oppress and provoke Saul to folly. As time passed, the demon appears to have made himself a home in Saul's heart, as Saul's state worsens. He determined to murder David. At the same time, the spiritual fellowship between David and Jonathan deepens. Jonathan clearly sees that David will displace him as the next king, yet David has no such pretensions.
1 Samuel 19:1-3 -- Saul orders the death of David. In this context, it was yet another momentary raving of a man living with a demon. The order would have been an urgent command to do so that day. Saul is not yet fully aware of the covenant between David and his son, so includes Jonathan in the plan. Jonathan warns David to disappear until dawn. He further promised to approach his father and seek a reversal of this order.
19:4-7 -- Jonathan reminded his father of all the things David had done right, especially in royal service. If Saul could rejoice when David, at great personal risk, faced Goliath alone, how could he now order his death? David only did as Saul had asked and saved his kingdom from slavery. Saul relented, or so it appeared. The author constantly alludes to the spiritual forces at work. The demon's greatest enemy at this point is David, who is an agent for God's power and presence. If the demon can persuade Saul to kill David, there is little to stand in the way of full possession.
19:8-17 -- As was David's routine, he went out to meet a Philistine assault and defeated them sorely. Afterward, while David celebrated God's victory in song, the demon provoked Saul to skewer him with his javelin. Saul missed and the weapon lodged in the wall. As it was evening, David escaped into the darkness. Saul ordered soldiers to lie in wait outside David's house in the city, to ambush him as he came out the door in the morning. Michal knew her father well enough to insist David escape completely from the city. Apparently their home was on the wall and she let David down through a window that faced out over it.
Like many women in Israel, Michal secretly kept a wooden Asherah image. It was a common thing for women who were barren. She used this wooden image and some goat hair to simulate David in his bed. When David did not come out that morning, Saul sent messengers to the house itself, to arrest him and bring him out. Michal lied that David was ill and a glance in his bedroom presented a plausible image to the soldiers. Upon their report to Saul, the king demanded they bring the bed with David on it. All the better, since a man so ill would not resist when Saul performed the execution himself. At this point, it seems obvious Saul would not have dared to fight David one on one. Discovering the ruse, the soldiers brought Michal before her father. Upon demanding why she was conspiring against him, Michal claimed David had threatened her. If in this state Saul believed her, it shows how much he was out of touch with reality.
19:18-24 -- David took refuge with Samuel in Ramah. Samuel took David with him down to the Prophet's Academy, a place called Naioth ("Residence"). Most likely this was one or more buildings, either in town or near it, dedicated to housing the students and their training sessions. Saul got wind of it and sent soldiers to arrest David. As they approached the academy, they saw Samuel standing in leadership of the academy, which was actively engaged in prophesying as a group. While public prophecy might take any number of forms, it was often something dramatic, as a means of calling the heart to ponder sin. Such demonstrations might last days. As soon as the soldiers got close enough, they were seized by the Holy Spirit and joined the group in prophecy.
Again, Saul got a report, this time of how his deputation had been co-opted by the school. This happened twice more. Finally, Saul went himself. As he had done once long ago, Saul stopped at the great well outside the city gates of Ramah and asked where he could find Samuel and David. The text names this place outside the gates as Sechu ("Climbing" Place), which accords well with an image of the city built up the side of a hill, with its main entrance on the low side. When he was told they were at the Prophets' Academy, he went straight there. Yet again, he was overtaken by the power of the Holy Spirit, to the extent he disrobed -- a common prophetic image of the shamefulness of sin, which leaves one naked before a judging God. This renewed the byword, "Is Saul also among the prophets?" Yet, echoes of his past could not touch Saul's heart.
20:1-11 -- Taking advantage of the situation, David fled the next morning and found Jonathan. Upon asking what the nature of his offense was, why it merited execution, Jonathan was stunned. Having just received assurance a few days previously that David was safe, he could not imagine Saul would change his mind without mentioning it to his own son. David offered a solemn oath before the Lord as assurance he spoke truthfully. Jonathan had not secured David's safety, but had merely succeeding in tipping Saul off that he needed to keep Jonathan out of his counsel. Jonathan asked then what David would suggest he do.
We should remind ourselves that Israel's whole culture was agrarian, with events reckoned by seasons and by the phases of the moon. Every new moon (completely shadowed) was marked by a festival lasting three days, marked by ceremonial meals in the evening. Scholars tell us most likely Saul took the seat of honor -- his back to the wall and facing the door -- at a table for four. Jonathan would face him, with Abner to his right, and David to his left. You can be certain David would be conspicuous by his absence at this feast. On the first night, it was all too common that a soldier would in the course of his duties make himself ceremonially unclean (touching dead bodies). Thus, for the duration of that one day he would be forbidden to participate. He couldn't use that excuse twice. At the same time, as David's father aged to the point where he passed the household management to his eldest son, it could be that son's judgment that David should come home for one last annual sacrifice before their father passed. This would normally be a valid excuse, as that social ritual takes precedence over most other duties. In fact, it is one of the few times an elder brother could give a legally binding order to a younger, while both were adults.
That this failed to pacify Saul was all the proof anyone would need. Jonathan held senior place in their covenant, David reminded him. If anyone should be the first to uphold God's honor in passing sentence on a sinner, it would be a covenant brother of the sinner. A true friend in the Lord would not let you carry on in error. We scarcely understand that sort of honor code today. Jonathan was sure such a measure was unnecessary and promised to inform David of the results of this test. They went out to find a suitable place for passing this information.
20:12-16 -- Jonathan revealed how clearly he saw the hand of Jehovah in all this. Rather than jealously guard his place in line for the throne, he remarked that the royal spirit obviously rested on his friend. Given that David was God's chosen king of Israel, he made a request that in his reign, David deal kindly with him and his household. When he spoke of God cutting off David's enemies, he knew that meant his own father. Then the two extended their personal covenant to include their future households. One particular part of this pact was to ask the Lord to oversee the terms of the covenant during the impending forced separation of the two. If David failed, God was called to witness and strengthen David's enemies to punish him.
20:17-23 -- This place was near some boundary marker, but within walking distance of Saul's palace. The scene is laden with sorrow and compassion. The two men agreed on a time to meet the second day from then, with David hiding by the boundary marker stone. They agreed upon a secret signal, something subtle that would appear to be within the normal routine for Jonathan. During archery practice he would give one of two typical commands to his helper. With a final reminder that God was watching them both, they parted.
20:24-40 -- David slept in the fields, as he had done so often when pasturing his father's flocks. At the first meal that night, Saul said nothing of David's absence. He supposed the most obvious, that David was ceremonially unclean that day from killing the enemy. At the second evening meal, Saul asked. When Jonathan replied he had dismissed David for what amounts to a final visit with his aging father at a traditional family gathering, Saul exploded. In the presence of his court, the king declared Jonathan unfit to be his heir. Saul's declaration was that Jonathan was more the son of rebellion than of the king. While some scholars contend the word "woman" is implied by the phrase, it is by no means certain that he was calling Jonathan the son of a whore. The context seems to deny that, for in the next breath he says Jonathan was as shameful as one who stripped his honorable mother naked in public. Saul also reminded Jonathan he could not sit securely on the throne as long as David lived.
Jonathan called for his father to announce publicly the nature of David's crime. Saul's response was to throw the same javelin he had used to try and kill David. Inflamed at his father's complete lack of justice, Jonathan left the hall without touching food. This was to honor God, by not defiling the celebration with his anger. He was torn by sorrow over David and his own shame. The next morning, he went to the boundary as promised and shot his three arrows. Aside from the signal that David was truly in danger and should flee, Jonathan added the admonition that David should waste no time about it, though the boy chasing arrows thought the comment was aimed at him. Jonathan dismissed the boy to take the weapons back to the armory.
20:41-42 -- Knowing they might never meet again, David came out of hiding when he and Jonathan were alone. He greeted Jonathan with an extravagant display reserved for the rarest occasions of appearing before royalty, bowing three times to touch his forehead to the ground at his superior's feet. It was a clear declaration he had no intention of seizing the throne for himself. As far as David was concerned, Jonathan was still the royal heir until God changed things. Then they exchanged a more ordinary greeting, which is echoed today in Eastern nations, wherein two men embrace and touch the sides of their faces together, alternating sides, three times. They also exchanged tears at the bitter fate in which they were caught. Jonathan accepted the senior role and dismissed David into God's hands.
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Ed Hurst
01 May 2004, revised 14 January 2013
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