Saul didn’t rush to his doom unopposed. Here he is impeded both by God’s Word and God’s Spirit.
As we approach the end of 1 Samuel 19 (vv 18-24), we have a stunning scene. David, under constant threat, fled Saul’s court to Samuel at Ramah. Twelve times Saul had attempted to kill David just in chapters 18 and 19, and would seek to do it again. Knowing Saul would soon be privy to his location, they moved to Naioth, a town nearby, where a school of prophets lived. When Saul’s men came to apprehend him, “the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied” (v 20). Neutralized by the power of the Word and the Spirit, a second and third group of escorts followed, but all fell under the same influence. “When Saul was told,…he went there to Naioth” (vv 21, 23). And, to our amazement we read, “Then the Spirit of God was upon him also, and he went on and prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah” (v 23). What do we make of this? Clearly the people in his day were shocked as well. Incredulously, they asked, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” (v 24). He certainly wasn’t the type! Like Balaam in the Old Testament (Num 23–24) and Caiaphas in the New ( Jn 11:49-52), Saul, stripped of his royal robes and prostrated (1 Sam 19:24), demonstrates the peril of “the natural man” who “does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14). Here he proves that, although men may disobey God’s Word, none can diminish its power. Temporarily falling under the Spirit’s influence, Saul would be unchanged even by this, and before long continued to hunt for David. How crucial it is to allow the Spirit of God to use the Word of God to change us daily to become more like the Son of God!