1 Samuel 19:8-17

Relax, Read and Reflect

Prayer- Lord, Open our hearts and open our minds and help us learn. Go-Fight-Win. Amen.

1 Samuel 19:8-17 (New International Version)

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 ^a]'>[a] spirit from the LORD came upon Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the harp, 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.

¹¹ Saul sent men to David's house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, warned him, "If you don't run for your life tonight, tomorrow you'll be killed." ¹² So Michal let David down through a window, and he fled and escaped. ¹³ Then Michal took an idol ^b]'>[b] and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goats' hair at the head.

¹⁴ When Saul sent the men to capture David, Michal said, "He is ill."

¹⁵ Then Saul sent the men back to see David and told them, "Bring him up to me in his bed so that I may kill him." ¹⁶ But when the men entered, there was the idol in the bed, and at the head was some goats' hair.

¹⁷ Saul said to Michal, "Why did you deceive me like this and send my enemy away so that he escaped?"
Michal told him, "He said to me, 'Let me get away. Why should I kill you?' "

Footnotes:

1. 1 Samuel 19:9 Or injurious
2. 1 Samuel 19:13 Hebrew teraphim ; also in verse 16

Saul is still trying to kill David, and David still hangs around. Saul was in full mental illness by this time, but even after Saul tries to pin David to the wall with a spear 3 times, he is still unaware that his life is in peril.

David's wife, Saul's daughter, finally gets through to David, and helps him escape. Saul is upset and Michal lies to cover up. This is one dis-functional first family.

Questions:

1. David is a busy boy. Why would he go back to Saul after fighting the Philistines again?

2. Why does David stay in the palace after his father-in-law tries to kill him again?

3. What was an idol doing in the house of the Jewish King?