Title: 13
Author: JBG
Last saved by: PJ D
Company: GDC

David’s Heir		13-05-12-A.ES13-23 /

David’s Heir: Saul’s Fourth Attempt to Murder David, 1 Sam 18:11; Music No Longer Soothes Saul’s Soul; Following His Failed Attempt, Saul Is Afraid of David, v. 12; Saul Has Lost Enduement while David Has the Power of the Spirit; Jesus  Christ Controls History: Transition of Power Is Gradual to Demonstrate Saul’s Failures & David’s Attributes; Saul Imagines a Vain Thing
1 Samuel 18:10 -	Now it came about on the next day that an evil spirit from God came mightily upon Saul, and he (4) raved in the midst of the house, while David was playing the harp with his hand, as usual; and a spear was in Saul’s hand.  (nasb)
29.	The word “raved” is the Hiphil imperfect of the verb ab*n* (navaʼ): “to prophesy.”
30.	Although Saul was enabled to prophecy when under the enduement of the Holy Spirit, having lost that power he now is under the influence of demonic forces.  This needs some explanation and for that we go to 1 Samuel 10:
The beginnings of the Israelite monarchy witnessed the emergence of a prophetic movement known as the “sons of the prophets” (1 Kings 20:35).  “Sons” is used here in the sense of “members of a group.” 
The characteristic activity of the prophetic bands was “prophesying” (1 Samuel 10:5), usually interpreted in these contexts to mean “uttering ecstatic praises/oracles” or the like.  (p. 624)
In verse 5, the actions and activities of prophetic bands elsewhere were sometimes accompanied by music or minstrels (2 Kings 3:15).  The ancient lyre was a three-to-twelve-stringed instrument played with the fingers or a plectrum.
Individual or group prophesying, ecstatic or not, was often induced when the Spirit of the Lord came on a person in power (v. 6).  At such times the prophet would experience an altered state of consciousness and would be “changed into a different person” (v. 9).  Such ecstasy was often contagious (v. 10).  Similar ecstatic phenomena, though in a negative sense, were sometimes induced when an “evil” or “injurious” spirit came on a person (18:10).  (625)

Ronald F. Youngblood, “1, 2 Samuel,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, gen. ed. Frank E. Gaebelein (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 3:624–25.

31.	The reason the NASB translates navaʼ with “raved” is because Saul is in an ecstatic trance brought about by demon influence.  Here is the definition of the word: “to talk irrationally in or as if in delirium; to speak out wildly; to utter in madness or frenzy.”

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed., s.v. “rave.”

32.	Note that the words “the harp” are italicized to indicate what David played with his hand.  It references back to 1 Samuel 16:23 when David performed his first concert for Saul.  The word there is roNK! (kinnor): “lyre,” but translated “harp” in the NASB.
33.	Saul’s carnal status betrays several aspects of the reversionistic spiral.  His disorientation to truth has opened a vacuum in the soul so that cosmic problem-solving devices have linked up with the lust pattern to produce a motivation to murder David.
34.	The verse also notes that during his ravings, Saul held a spear in his hand.  Next he makes the first of ten attempts to either murder David personally or to put him in danger of being killed by others:
1 Samuel 18:11 -	Saul (5) hurled the spear for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.”  But David escaped from his presence twice.
35.	PRINCIPLE: The saying, “Music has charms to soothe the savage beast,” is not always true.  Sometimes the beast is Homo sapiens in reversionism and under the influence of demons.

“From a play, Love for Love, which William Congreve wrote in 1695” (William Morris and Mary Morris, The Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins [New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1977], 392).

36.	David is much younger than Saul and is in excellent physical condition due to numerous thirty-mile runs over mountainous terrain.  He is agile enough to dodge two spear hurls from Saul and make his escape.  The foiled attempts caused Soul to become afraid.
1 Samuel 18:12 -	Now Saul was (6) afraid of David, for the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul.
37.	Saul was angry with David in verse 8; now he is afraid of David.  The word is the Qal imperfect of the verb ar@y* (yareʼ): “to be continuously afraid.”
38.	Saul is convinced that David has his eyes on the throne, so Saul has his eyes on David. 
39.	The reason he is fearful of this prospect is because David possesses the enduement of the Holy Spirit while it has been withdrawn from him.
40.	Without the power of the Holy Spirit, without access to the Urim, and without the power and confidence these provide, Saul fears David.
41.	The transition of power was intentionally gradual.  The one in authority must be revealed through experience to be incompetent and unqualified while his successor must demonstrate publically that he is competent and qualified.  
42.	David not only possesses leadership qualities, he has demonstrated these things publically to the people of Israel and Philistia.
43.	David has doctrine and therefore makes good decisions from his position of strength; Saul is in reversionism, has suffered a shutdown of whatever doctrine he knew, and thus makes poor decisions from a position of weakness.
44.	Good decisions broaden future options while bad decisions limit future options.  Saul has enough discernment left in his soul to understand this.
45.	David’s future options are broadened by the enduement of the Holy Spirit; Saul’s are limited by the loss of that enduement.
46.	David has all the assets for good leadership, the people admire him, and due to authority orientation poses no threat to Saul.
47.	Saul never had leadership qualities; the people now distrust him, and due to an inordinate fear of David, Saul regards him as a threat.
48.	People in reversionism imagine a vain thing, whether individually or collectively.  The former experience diminished ability to think rationally while the latter produce historical downtrends.  David asks this rhetorical question in:
Psalm 2:1 -	Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing?
49.	In this context, David observes that the heathen nations of the Tribulation reject Jesus as the Christ.  In addition, they place the blame of chaotic circumstances on the Jew.  The vain thing devised is an international ecumenical effort to exterminate the Jews.
50.	The vain thing Saul conjures in his soul is the elimination of one Jew: David, tribe of Judah, and the royal ancestor of Messiah.   The next verse reveals how he planned to do this.
1 Samuel 18:13 -	Therefore Saul removed him from his presence and appointed him as his commander of a thousand; and he went out and came in before the people.

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