What could she do?

Her mind raced as she hurried home. Why was this happening again? He had even helped her father win another major war with the Philistines. Israel’s enemies fled from the sight of him (1 Samuel 19:8). She asked herself, “Why can’t my father see that David is for Saul?”

Michal had given her heart to David. When her older sister Merab had been given to another, her chance had come (1 Samuel 18:19). David was the most successful warrior in all of Israel. She loved her husband deeply. He bravely fought the whole Philistine army—and survived. But now his life was in grave danger from Saul—his own father-in-law.

The full realization of David’s situation hit her hard. Her brother Jonathan’s recent attempt to save David was successful for only a brief time. Her father had seemed reasonable—but suddenly, another irrational explosion. Just tonight, Saul had tried to kill David with a spear (1 Samuel 19:10). And all this happened after the victory—while David was playing for Saul. What to do?! Michal rushed to find David.

Though he had listened to his son Jonathan’s reasoning, Saul was moved again to action by David’s tremendous victory over the Philistines. “David must be killed,” Saul whispered to himself—“he simply has to be eliminated! David is not only a threat he is the threat!” After Saul missed David with his spear, he gathered those most loyal to him and laid out a new plan for David’s demise. Michal overheard the details. Saul arranged to send men to David’s house to slay him in the morning.

Michal’s Deliverance

Absolutely devoted to her husband, Michal would do anything and everything to save his life. Those loyal to Saul would not give up until David was dead. She loved her father, but she would save her husband.

Tears welled up in her eyes when she found David. He didn’t seem to be bothered by the whole spear incident. Yet, Michal knew her father would not stop until he successfully completed his evil plan. The threat to David’s life was very real.

Michal told David emphatically, “If thou save not thy life to night, to morrow thou shalt be slain” (1 Samuel 19:11). Michal knew that Saul’s men would carry out his orders. “David, a night escape is the only way to ensure your safety,” she pleaded with her husband.

While Saul’s henchmen finalized their plans, Michal helped David flee through a secluded window. Their parting was hurried—too hurried. When would she see her husband again? Choking down her emotions—she went into action. Time was of the essence. Saul would have men looking for David. He needed every bit of darkness to stay alive.

She rushed to David’s bedroom and made it look as though he were still in bed. She took a statue, a pillow and a goatskin and covered them in the bed (verse 13). It appeared as if David were sleeping. Suddenly, someone pounded on her front door. Acting sleepily surprised, she cracked the door open—“Who is it?” she spoke softly. Saul’s beastly-looking men had arrived. “We need to speak with David,” the lead man explained. Michal replied calmly, “He is sick” (verse 14). Unbelievably they accepted her word and returned to Saul. Her husband would have enough time to escape.

When the messengers returned their report to Saul he was incensed. “What idiots. Why couldn’t they just do the job!” the insane king thought. He told them, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may slay him” (verse 15). When the messengers returned to David’s house they stormed into his bedroom and discovered Michal’s trick. Saul’s plan was foiled by a better counter plan.

Saul’s hit men were terrified. They couldn’t return to an irrational and violent king with a bed filled with a statue and goat hair. David had escaped—he was long gone. Shattered by the reality, Saul’s men knew their lives were in grave danger.

Michal had successfully delivered her husband, but now she had to face the wrath of her father. She knew that although it would be unpleasant, at least her husband, the future king, was still alive—somewhere.

Hearing the bad news of David’s escape, Saul sent for his betrayer—Michal. She gingerly entered his presence. Wild with anger, he screamed at her, “Why hast thou deceived me so, and sent away mine enemy, that he is escaped?” (verse 17). Saul’s words cut her like a sharpened sword. Fear squeezed her ribcage, so that she could not breathe. Without thinking Michal blamed the whole plot on her husband. “David threatened to kill me if I didn’t help him escape,” she lied to her father. Saying this, she feigned a kind of first loyalty to Saul. This revealed a tragic weakness in Michal. Lacking faith in God, she began to play both sides of the fence, which finally worked against her. Michal lived to regret the day she began to walk the path of disloyalty to the man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22).

Flight to Samuel

When well away from the city, David had some time to think about where to hide. He decided to go to the Prophet Samuel in Ramah. He needed some deep counsel. After his arrival—eating some food and getting some sleep—David told Samuel all that Saul had recently done to him. God’s wise man recognized that the young king’s situation was very serious. David desperately needed God’s protection. His presence in Ramah even put Samuel’s life in danger. So, to secure their safety they both moved on to Naioth (1 Samuel 19:18).

Alfred Edershiem shows in his Old Testament Bible History that the name Naioth means dwellings. He explained why David and Samuel moved to Naioth. “For greater safety, the two withdrew from the city to ‘Naioth’ … which seems to have been a block of dwellings within a compound, occupied by an order of prophets, of which Samuel was the ‘president’ … and, we may add, the founder” (Volume IV). We know Naioth to be one of the schools of the prophets established by Samuel.

David and Samuel hid themselves from public view. This gave them added time to plan how to deal with Saul. Physically speaking, no one was safe from Saul’s failing mental condition, but Samuel would do all that he could to protect David.

Of course, all along it had been Satan the devil motivating Saul to kill David. Samuel made this clear in his history: “And the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand: and David played with his hand” (verse 9). An evil spirit was motivating Saul to kill David. Saul didn’t understand his own mind or Satan’s great power. He didn’t know that he was naturally attuned to Satan’s negative pull. He was so weak mentally that he could not resist Satan’s overpowering pressure to destroy God’s king—David.

While it is true that Saul felt threatened by David. Israel’s new king was an even greater threat to Satan the devil. Satan understood how God planned to use David and his lineage both physically and spiritually. Jesus Christ was prophesied to come through David’s ancestry. If Satan could only destroy David, he then could destroy God’s plan. Saul provided Satan the avenue to work against God.

Satan works in the same manner today. He wants nothing more than to destroy the Philadelphia Church of God, which understands the great prophecies concerning David’s physical lineage and spiritual heritage. Satan is always looking for weak-minded men and women to work through. We must come to understand our carnal minds and let God’s Holy Spirit strengthen us against Satan’s negative pressure. Let us be sure that we never fall in league with Satan to destroy God’s Work.

Satan could not harm David because he was under God’s supreme protection. This was made very clear to Saul and the nation. When word got back to Saul that David was at Naioth in Ramah, Saul sent his best soldiers to get David. What took place is truly remarkable.

Saul’s Emissaries Fail

“And Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied” (1 Samuel 19:20). When Saul’s ambassadors of destruction arrived at Naioth, Samuel and his students met them. Filled with the power of God’s Holy Spirit, Samuel cast a foreboding presence. Saul’s soldiers remembered how quickly he hacked Agag to pieces. Although no words are recorded here, Samuel prophesied and warned Saul’s messengers. Miraculously, Saul’s men joined in prophesying along with Samuel! Now just purring kittens, the burly men did not apprehend David. God foiled Saul’s new plan to take David.

Controlled by Satan, Saul did not give up. He sent his evil emissaries twice more to get David. Both groups of messengers prophesied right along with Samuel (verse 21). David could not be touched. How encouraging this must have been for David! God was showing David and the nation that He was behind His new king. It is too bad that Saul didn’t get it.

Saul decided to take matters into his own hand. He rushed off to Ramah to kill David himself. Seeing a crowd of people at a popular well at Sechu, Saul asked the whereabouts of Samuel and David. “Behold, they be at Naioth in Ramah,” said an innocent bystander (verse 22). Certainly this shows that David and Samuel didn’t overly fear Saul.

“And he went thither to Naioth in Ramah: and the spirit of God was upon him also, and he went on, and prophesied, until he came to Naioth in Ramah. And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Wherefore they say, Is Saul also among the prophets?” (verses 23-24). Again God established His protection for David and His power over Saul. Ironically, as Saul approached Ramah, he too began to prophesy!

This was an extraordinary display before the people. God inspired Saul to prophesy as he approached Ramah and then for an entire day and night after he reached Ramah. God made sure that the news of Saul’s prophesying was spread around. The people even said, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” God was showing everyone, including the despot king, that David was under His blessing and protection. No harm could come to David unless God allowed it. As far as the Bible record goes, this was Saul’s last contact with Samuel. God made him lay prostrate while he prophesied. If only Saul had done this before God while he had his right mind, his history would have turned out differently.

Jonathan Keeps His Covenant

We are not given any details of what happened after this incident with Saul, but we do know that David was compelled to flee from Naioth to meet Jonathan. David may have thought that things could improve since Saul had prophesied. Yet, he had to know for sure.

Seeing his trusted friend and brother, David pleaded with Jonathan to seek information for him. “What have I done? What is mine iniquity? And what is my sin before thy father, that he seeketh my life?” David frustratingly complained to Jonathan (1 Samuel 20:1). Jonathan was completely puzzled.

Jonathan was unaware of Saul’s recent attempts to murder David, which included his father’s prophesying at Ramah. Jonathan found it difficult to believe that David’s life was in real danger. His reason: Surely Saul would have told him of any plans to kill David (verse 2). Of course we know from history that Saul had begun to act even more independently.

“Thy father certainly knoweth that I have found grace in thine eyes; and he saith, Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved: but truly as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death,” David said to Jonathan (verse 3). David doubted if Saul would ever confide in Jonathan again. This made a lot of sense.

David’s story and facial intensity convinced Jonathan that there was a problem. He offered to help David obtain the information that he needed. Due to the seriousness of the situation no one could know that the two had met. So Jonathan and David devised a plan to discover Saul’s true intentions. You can study this plan in 1 Samuel 20:5-24.

Jonathan felt deep sorrow for his King. “The Lord do so and much more to Jonathan: but if it please my father to do thee evil, then I will show it thee, and send thee away, that thou mayest go in peace: and the Lord be with thee, as he hath been with my father. And thou shalt not only while yet I live show me the kindness of the Lord, that I die not: But also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house for ever: no, not when the Lord hath cut off the enemies of David every one from the face of the earth,” he spoke stalwartly to David (verses 13-15).

“So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the Lord even require it at the hand of David’s enemies. And Jonathan caused David to swear again, because he loved him: for he loved him as he loved his own soul” (verses 16-17). After devising their plan, Jonathan and David reaffirmed their love and loyalty to each other.

Jonathan makes some incredibly important statements here. They not only show the depth of his love and loyalty, they show his deep understanding about David’s future. He fully understood that David was to be king. He stated, “The Lord be with thee, as he hath been with my father” (verse 13). We must see that Jonathan not only understood David’s future, he embraced it. He exhibited no jealousy, envy or competition with David.

Jonathan also requested that David be kind to his family. Jonathan wanted a guarantee from David that his own sons would come under David’s protection after he became king. Jonathan seemed to recognize that David’s ascent to the throne could come as the result of bloodshed.

At the end of this brief meeting, David hid out in a field. Jonathan went to his father’s house.

As you study this chapter, you will understand that David’s plan did reveal Saul’s true mind. Saul would not give up his plan to destroy David. He planned to kill David during the new moon festival. On the second day of feasting, when Saul inquired as to why David was not at the festival, Jonathan put David’s plan into action. He told Saul that David was at a family sacrifice in Bethlehem (verses 28-29). Jonathan’s answer caused Saul to unleash his full store of anger against him. Saul now looked upon Jonathan as a traitor. How could Saul kill David if Jonathan gave him leave to go home to his native village? Saul’s plan was foiled again.

In a white hot rage, Saul said, “Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman, do not I know that thou hast chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion, and unto the confusion of thy mother’s nakedness? For as long as the son of Jesse liveth upon the ground, thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom. Wherefore now send and fetch him unto me, for he shall surely die” (verses 30-31). The wicked truth was uncovered. Saul wanted David dead. And he wanted Jonathan to now go and get him.

Jonathan jumped to David’s defense. He asked his father, “Wherefore shall he be slain? What hath he done?” (verse 32). These were not the right questions to be asking. Enraged, Saul hurled his spear at his son to kill him. Jonathan now knew without a doubt that Saul would kill David. Intensely angry with his father, Jonathan stopped participating in the celebration because of the great shame Saul did to David (verse 34). Jonathan had to inform David. David’s life was in great danger.

Jonathan alerted David according to their plan (verses 35-41). “David arose out of a place toward the south, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times: and they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded. And Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, forasmuch as we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, The Lord be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed for ever. And he arose and departed: and Jonathan went into the city” (verses 41-42). Jonathan and David reconfirmed their love and covenant with one another under grievous sorrow. These two mighty warriors wept.

As the scripture states, David’s weeping exceeded that of Jonathan. Life would never be the same for either man. David was likely weeping more for Jonathan than for himself. Could David see the tragic end coming upon Saul and Jonathan? Could David also have been weeping over the loss of Michal, his beloved wife? His separation from her would have been intensely painful. The young king had to face a new reality. He was alone with his God. Not even Jonathan’s loyalty and friendship could sustain or protect him. David was forced to live a life on the run. He was David the outcast.

Fed Hallowed Bread

To preserve his life, David would have to leave Israel. He would flee into the land of the Philistines. Because he left in haste, he had no sword or provisions. David fled to Nob, where God’s tabernacle rested. He sought God’s direction as to what to do next (1 Samuel 22:10). There he met with Ahimelech, the high priest. “Why are you alone, and no man with you,” the priest asked (1 Samuel 21:1). Seeing David caused the high priest to become afraid. Was his life in danger now? Ahimelech was also anxious for David. He could see that David was unarmed and without food. He wondered why David came to Nob.

David hid the true reason of his sudden appearance. He could not trust anyone. He told Ahimelech, “The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place” (verse 2). David tried to put the priest at ease. He informed the priest that his business was top secret and of such a nature that he had to leave the king in haste.

David then asked the priest for some bread. The only bread available was the hallowed bread—the shewbread. The high priest allowed David to have the hallowed bread that was only for the priests (verses 3-6). Ahimelech used wise judgment here. David was famished and needed food. David’s immediate need warranted that he be allowed to eat the shewbread. Christ even used this example in the New Testament to show that wise judgments have to be made concerning the law. Take the time and study Matthew 12:3-8; Mark 2:25-28 and Luke 6:3-5.

David also asked Ahimelech for a weapon. The priest gave him Goliath’s sword (1 Samuel 21:9). Goliath’s sword was a fierce weapon. It was fitting for David to have Goliath’s sword as he entered into Philistine territory.

Doeg the Edomite discovered David at Nob. “Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord; and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul” (verse 7). It appears that Doeg was detained in Nob for some kind of ritualistic cleansing. Doeg’s presence in Nob would prove dangerous for David, and fatal for the priests, because Doeg was loyal to Saul.

David Feigns Madness

It is not stated whether David saw Doeg or not. However, fear haunted David. He fled to Gath. David’s reputation preceded him. He was immediately recognized. “And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath” (1 Samuel 21:11-12). Remember, David had killed many Philistines. He was without a country and now alone, but known in enemy territory. He would be an easy target. It wasn’t too difficult for David to figure out that the Philistines would want revenge. Somehow David had gotten himself out of a bad situation into a more difficult one. Now what could he do?

It was simple. He pretended to be insane. “And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard” (verse 13). David began acting crazy. He stumbled around and scratched on the gates of the city. He acted like he was foaming at the mouth and let spit run down his beard. It must have been quite a scene. David was not only a great poet and musician he was a great actor.

David must have been very convincing. When the people took David to the king they were reprimanded. The king said, “Lo, ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me? Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?” (verses 14-15). The king didn’t want to deal with David. It was obvious that he was crazy. The king wanted David out of his palace. David’s quick thinking and great acting led to his escape.

On the run again, David would soon have the company of some familiar faces.