Chapter 6
Saul tried to strike David, but failing, ordered the house to which he fled to be watched; who, placing a statue in his place, descended through the window and came to Samuel. But Saul, hearing this, sent messengers three times, then came himself, and prophesied with the others before Samuel. The war was stirred again, etc., up to what is written: The proverb came out, Is Saul also among the prophets? In this reading, the mysteries of the incarnate Christ from the beginning are recalled, his birth, virtues, doctrine, passion, resurrection, and ascension into heaven, as well as the faith of those following him, and the treachery, madness, and demise of those persecuting him, is described in typological speech. For a war of temptations stirred up by unclean spirits, he came forth from the bosom of the Father into our public view, the valiant protector of the human race, namely, the one who said: I came forth from the Father, and have come into the world; again, I leave the world, and go to the Father (John XVI). And of whom the Psalmist, under the figure of the sun, explaining this in other words, says: His going forth is from the end of heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it (Psalm XVIII). Who, directing the whole line of his temporary actions against the temptations of the wicked, immediately restrained them from deceiving and harassing mortals greatly; and they fled and still flee from his face today; for wherever the grace of Christ the helper is recognized, the wickedness of the deceiving devil is immediately driven out from there.
[1 Samuel 19:9] -- And the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul, etc. When the Son of God in flesh shone with miracles, the spirit of envy was kindled against him in the hearts of the Jews, the Lord giving them over to the desires of their hearts because of the merits of their preceding sins. They were still sitting peacefully in their kingdom and homeland, and confident in their same kingdom’s splendors, they did not fear to plot the death of their Savior. Moreover, when they opposed him, and even blasphemed, he, turned to rage, by the example of his meekness and patience, tried to recall them to the mildness of spirit and sobriety, as if by the sweetness of a lyre.
[1 Samuel 19:10] -- And Saul attempted to pin David with a spear, etc. The Jews attempted to kill entirely in the flesh of Christ, who is God both soul and flesh. But he, commending his spirit into the hands of the Father, bowed his head and gave it up. Yet the wound of death touched the body alone; he fled the body, and his soul was saved from the sword, and his soul was saved from the hand of the dog (Psalm 21), by the darkness of their own treachery, with the executioners lowered.
[1 Samuel 19:11] -- Therefore Saul sent his messengers to David's house, etc. The chief priests and Pharisees sent their messengers to the Lord's tomb to guard it, hoping that by denying the truth of the resurrection, the memory of His name would be erased in the future. The frequent laments of the Church announced this to Him (for the Lord hears the desire of the poor [Psalm IX]), and trembling from the conspiracy of the faithless, it somehow said: Unless you rise from the dead, the faith and confession of the believers in you cannot firmly persist; unless you invalidate the watchfulness of the guards by overcoming death, the whole faith in the future resurrection will be taken away from the world; at last, it learned that He had left the tomb's location to His guards. He went away and escaped from His executioners and the lying guards; and by appearing to His dear ones after the resurrection, He completely restored their hope and faith. David's harp can specifically and figuratively represent the cross of the Lord; Saul's spear on the wall can represent the nails of the cross, or the very soldier's lance which opened His side. As we have said, David's house is the tomb of the Lord. The leap through the window is the concealed and sudden speed of the resurrection. The wife from whom he escaped through a plan is the Church of believing Jews, who both desired the Lord Savior to rise and taught that He had risen.
[1 Samuel 19:13] -- But Michal took an image and laid it on the bed, etc. The history of the hairy skin, of the skins of goats, is evident; for there was a cushion sewn of goat's skin, which, with its unshorn hairs, feigned the head of a man lying in bed. The statue, however, is an imitation of the true and living; the dead skin of goats is the remains of a dead animal. Therefore, Michal took an image and placed it on David's bed, as he was let down through the window and secretly saved. The Church learned to regard the Jews' Lord, who was laid in the sepulcher, not as Christ, life and truth, but as a likeness of truth and life, declaring himself to be Christ the king. The Church is said to do this in the true manner of speaking, for it bears witness to the deeds done or to be done by the ungodly, as it is written in Leviticus, "Behold, the priest shall declare him unclean" (Lev. 13): not because he could bring leprosy to the clean, but to show what was already present in the unclean. Also, Michal placed the hairy skin of goats at the head of the statue. The Church, at its beginning, discovered the perfidy even of those who not only deny the Lord Savior as Christ but also claim he was burdened with sins, not resurrected from the dead. For it is certain that the goat often holds the type of a sinner, just as a sheep does that of the just. The hairs, brittle and externally superfluous to the body, signify dead works, becoming manifest due to their density and frequency. They place the hairy skin of goats at the head of the statue set up in the bed for David, asserting the flesh of the Savior to be rough and impure due to mortal sins, saying that until now it still holds the bed of the sepulcher, into which he descended dead. However, Michal covers the statue with garments, which the Church, after recognizing such perfidy, rejects; after showing it to the faithful, it immediately demonstrates it condemned and vanquished through outstanding works that no one else could accomplish.
[1 Samuel 19:14] -- Saul, however, sent messengers to seize David, etc. The unbelieving Jews sent ambushers immediately after the celebration of the Lord's resurrection, who, probing the hearts of the faithful, would seize from them the love of Christ either by flattery or by threats. But they, still silent from carnal fear and remaining hidden until the day of Pentecost, sought to return no other response to those asking than that faith languished within them and had not yet flourished well, not being firmed by the fire of the Holy Spirit.
[1 Samuel 19:15] -- And again Saul sent messengers to see David, etc. When the Church was preaching Christ from the advent of the Holy Spirit, the leaders of the Jews sent [people] to more carefully see what was believed about Jesus, whether He was Christ or a prophet; whether He had risen or still lay in the sepulchre, saying: Proclaim to us who are present; because He has not risen from the dead, but still lying in the bed of earth, He awaited the day of universal resurrection, so that thus faith in Him may be uprooted and eliminated from the world. When the persecutors began to confront the Church, with the faithful rejoicing over Christ's triumph, nothing met the impious except the stone of stumbling and the rock of offense to those who stumbled at the word and did not believe; considering Him as if a leper, struck and humbled by God (Isaiah 53). But He, as the prophet subsequently added: He was wounded for our iniquities, He was crushed for our sins.
[1 Samuel 19:17] -- And Saul said to Michal, Why have you deceived me thus? etc. The unbelieving Jews said to the early Church: Why, having neglected our traditions, did you prefer to believe in Jesus and confess that by rising He put our guards to flight? To which she replied: Because He, she said, threatens not just me, but all who refuse to believe in Him and confess these things, with eternal death.
[1 Samuel 19:18] -- David, however, fleeing, was saved, etc. Ramathaim meaning heights, Naioth interpreted as beauty, which is a place in Ramah. Therefore, with Saul's messengers seeing only the image and goatskin in David's bed, David himself fleeing is saved; and with the Jews during the time of the Lord’s death arguing among themselves that he was a deceiver, and not truly innocent and just, but was crucified for his crime, the Lord, who was confined in the tomb, mighty arising from death, appears in the heights of life, with immortal glory to the disciples, saying: Because thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead (Luke 24); and he goes, and dwells in the beauty of the everlasting kingdom, which is in heaven. The Church has gone after him in hope both in soul and body, and thus will be with the Lord always.
[1 Samuel 19:18] -- It was announced to Saul by those saying, Behold, David is in Naioth in Ramah, etc. Which also concerning the second messengers, as well as the third, are related in similar order. It was announced to the Jews by the apostles and the disciples of the apostles that the Lord Jesus Christ, after his passion, resurrection, and ascension, sitting at the right hand of the Father, reigns exalted in heaven. But they immediately sent three of their former faith and religion, but now of their impiety and perfidy, namely priests, scribes, and Pharisees, to take away his confession from the believers who were persecuting; all of these persecutors, although bearing the mind of unbelievers, however, where disputing up to the statements of the prophets, to which the apostles with the revelation of the spiritual intelligence of Christ preside, they themselves also protesting these things written by the divine Spirit, simultaneously both loving them with the faithful and believing, though not even understanding, they were singing.
[1 Samuel 19:22] -- He also went to Ramatha, etc. After Jewish doctrine did not prevail against Christ, both words and weapons were added to persecute the Son of Man who sits at the right hand of God the Father on earth. But even their earthly principality, when searching for the hidden things of the Scriptures concerning Jesus and His disciples, found nothing else in them as a response except that He, along with His own, dwells in Naioth in Ramah, that is, in the beauty of the paternal kingdom, in the heights of the heavens. And therefore, it must be certainly known to all the house of Israel that God has made Him both Lord and Christ. And it is fitting that the cistern, which by the depth and breadth of the waters of the Scriptures corresponds to the abyss, is remembered in Socho, that is, situated in humility; because holy Scripture, being contrary to the custom of secular doctrines, existing as the teacher of humility, produced by humble authors, is open only to humble listeners or readers. But the proud, having heard through these the heavenly glory of Christ, whom they could not follow with the step of the body, nor wished to attain with the step of love, began to pursue Him with the step of nefarious action, so that He Himself, saving a certain person from such and restraining their perfidy, might protest and say from Naioth, which is in Ramah, that is, from the height of the most beautiful seat above: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me" (Acts IX)?
[1 Samuel 19:23] -- And the Spirit of the Lord also came upon him, etc. Indeed, the Jewish persecutor of the Church recognized that holy men of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, spoke; but knowing how to utter their words with his mouth, yet not knowing how to understand them rightly, he did not fear to enter furiously against Him by whom or about whom the words were spoken. However, he prophesied insanely, and indeed still prophesies today; that is, not understanding the true words of the prophets, he recites, reads, loves them, and extends the office of such prophecy to narrating the glory of that same higher beauty which we hope for in the heavens, giving sound without sense, and he reaches the mysteries of the height.
[1 Samuel 19:24] -- He also stripped himself of his garments, etc. These are clearly the acts of a furious and insane person, to strip oneself, fall down vexed, and lie naked on the ground all day and night. Yet, even through the wrath of such a person, the divine power has something mystical to say for those who hear and discern. For through Balaam, who was of a contrary mind to Him, He foretold so many mysteries beforehand, and through the impious persecutor Caiaphas, He gave the secrets of His saving passion to be prophesied, and through a mute animal speaking with a human voice, He forbade the prophet’s folly; and He Himself through the possessed Saul, in the presence of Samuel and the other prophets, revealed whatever mystical things He wished, so that the innocent David might seize the path to salvation; so the madness of the pursuing Saul might be made evident to all everywhere; and finally, it might be understood how much the presence of the perfect confers on the desires of the humble, which could even lift the proud by the power of prophecy; and thus the future fate of the persecuting people might be marked, who by their hatred deserved to strip Christ of the ornament of His unique kingdom, to fall from the state of the ancient righteousness, advancing amidst the prosperity and adversity of the Church, naked of both heavenly and earthly glory, miserable and adhering only to worldly desires, and among these to hold the writings of prophecy, which would support the faith of the Church by word alone. And it is well said that he prophesied with the others before Samuel; for even now the infidel Synagogue meditates and reads the sayings of the Law and the prophets with the Church; yet the Synagogue lacks spiritual understanding, while the Church knows all those things to be understood about the Lord.
[1 Samuel 19:24] -- From where the proverb emerged, "Is Saul also among the prophets?" The Jews of the Church have become a proverb, who, with a perverted mentality, make use of Holy Scriptures, which they do not believe or understand, while among the faithful attentive to sacred readings. It is also a proverb for those who will say on the last day: "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?" etc. (Matthew VII). And when you see certain unlearned individuals in the Church presumptuously taking the chair of teaching, and under the guise of a faithful teacher, instead of the commands of God, imposing their traditions to be observed, and their doctrines to be followed on deceived listeners, say, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"