1 Samuel 19 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: 1 Sam 19:1-10

1 Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan had taken a great liking to David 2 and warned him, ‘My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding and stay there. 3 I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I’ll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out.’

4 Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, ‘Let not the king do wrong to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly. 5 He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The Lord won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?’

6 Saul listened to Jonathan and took this oath: ‘As surely as the Lord lives, David will not be put to death.’

7 So Jonathan called David and told him the whole conversation. He brought him to Saul, and David was with Saul as before.

8 Once more war broke out, and David went out and fought the Philistines. He struck them with such force that they fled before him.

9 But an evil spirit from the Lord came on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the lyre, 10 Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall. That night David made good his escape.

A. Find Out:

1. What instructions does Saul give? v.1
2. Of what does Jonathan remind Saul? v.5
3. With what result? v.6
4. What was David able to do subsequently? v.7
5. What did David continue to do? v.8
6. Yet what did Saul do again and why? v.9,10

B. Think:

1. How did Jonathan go about being a peacemaker?
2. Yet what caused further division between Saul and David?
3. What is the lesson here in respect of Saul?

C. Comment:

    Saul, we said before, was weak, jealous, and disturbed. This insecure king is threatened by the godly young man with God’s blessing on him, and the only way he sees to deal with the threat is to destroy David.  We then see the love and diplomacy of Jonathan at work which, for a while, seems to calm Saul and allow David to be restored to his position in the court. But very soon Saul is again disturbed by an evil spirit and tries yet again to kill David.

     Observe again, this is demonic activity sent by the Lord.  If we didn’t take it in the first time, we ought to be getting it by the third time!  The foundation of Saul’s life is wrong – he is in rebellion against God, and therefore he is vulnerable to enemy attack. When the Lord wants to move the situation on a bit, He simply allows the enemy permission to come against Saul. 

     While Saul is in a wrong attitude and wrong relationship in respect of the Lord, he may try to contain it, but the truth is that it is just a situation waiting to explode.  It is like that with every person who doesn’t respond properly to the Lord.  It is just a crisis waiting to happen.  The Lord knows David can move faster than Saul and so He allows Saul to be further provoked.

D. Application:

1. Do we understand what it means that “God is sovereign”?
2. God’s knowledge and wisdom is unlimited. Worship Him!