I Samuel 19:20: “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.”
Saul sends out his goons to take care of David, but before finding David they run into Samuel and his school of prophets who were standing around prophesying. All of a sudden Saul’s assassins started to prophesy themselves and came back to Saul prophesying. Saul sends out another group of cold, heartless hit men and they come back prophesying. He sends out a third group of killers and they too come back prophesying. So Saul goes himself and when he encounters Samuel he begins to prophesy, only he does one better and strips himself naked before Samuel, falls on the ground and starts to roll around in the dust all day and night prophesying.
I am sure if they tried to make a movie of this some director is going to sit back, scratch his head and say: “How in the blazes do we portray this in a movie?” I agree, unless we really understand what that word prophesy means in this Biblical context, we do not really get what is going on in this story. Now I know that word prophesy is used in many different contexts and means many different things to different people and groups. I am only seeking the meaning of this word as used in this context and not based upon a modern day expression. I want to drill down to the very root and core of this word, take it back to it’s Semitic roots and see if it will shed some light on what was really going on in this passage.
As a child growing up in a Baptist church, I never heard any preacher or teacher explain what the prophets and Saul were really doing when they were prophesying. To me, to prophesy meant to foretell the future. So I pictured this scene as the prophets and Samuel walking along saying such things as: “In 2014 there will be a great earthquake in California.” Then Saul steps onto the scene and he begins to prophesy: “In 2016 a great army will approach the Middle East.”
Obviously, that is not what is taking place. Later on I ran into a group of people who call themselves prophetic and they are prophesying. They simply explained this as speaking the mind of God. Therefore any preacher preaching, is prophesying. That made more sense, but I still can not image a group of hit men from the mafia walking into a church and suddenly they get caught up in the preacher’s sermon and they start preaching their own sermons. This weekend I attended a conference which was called a School of Seers. I usually considered prophets and seers as the same breed, but apparently there is a slight difference, although I am a bit hazy as to just what that is. It does appear that a Seer is one who is able to peer into the supernatural realm. It would seem a prophet does a little more than that but I assume they also see into a supernatural realm. During the conference my study partner had someone prophesy over her telling her things about herself that this person could not have known. Still that does not seem to be what is taking place in I Samuel 19.
Logically, this prophesying is another step higher than the just the preaching we are use to. I recently read where the Star Wars sage is making a return engagement. I remember years ago when “Star Wars” was a big hit and I became aware of the fact that there was a lot of mystical Jewish thought wrapped up in that story. I remember asking an old orthodox rabbi what he thought this word prophesy meant. He apparently did not much like this goyim (gentile Christian) asking him such questions so he only gave a sly grin and said: “It is the force.” He then walked away. I felt like shouting back at him: “Yeah and the force be with you too.” Only later did I begin to wonder: “What does an orthodox rabbi know about Star Wars?” He obvious does not go to movies or does he?”
Thinking back to Star Wars I remember Obi Wen etc. causing Klingon guards (I think I’m getting my space operas mixed up, the movie is pretty old) to change their minds and to say things that they did not really mean. I recalled Luke Skywalker using the force to hit a bulls eye on the Death Star. If you are following my adventures into seeking God’s heart, you know I am into this bulls eye stuff particularly with my study of word the chata which we translate as sin but has a primary meaning of missing the mark. That is where I am at right now, trying to understand what I need to do so I do not miss the mark or the perfect will of God. I remember my study partner, who was doing more research into chata, had once said that this word also includes the shooting of an arrow. This morning after attending this conference, I am wondering if perhaps I am not this arrow that God has shot to his target and my direction will not be altered so long as I remain in the divine force behind that arrow? Is prophesy the force directing me to that target and if I allow some other force to enter, I will miss the target? In other words I feel as if I am on target right now but if I miss that target it is my fault for letting something enter my life that will misdirect me.
The word prophesy in Hebrew is nevim which comes from a Semitic root word navu. Look it up in your lexicon and/or Hebrew dictionary it will tell you it means prophesy. Big help. It also means to announce or predict. Still no help. However tracing this word back through its Semitic roots into the Akkadian language I find that a Babylonian god was named navu who was the God of writing and wisdom. It is said that he had the power to increase or diminish one’s life. He was so powerful that he would engrave each man’s destiny in a clay tablet. He was the son of Marduk who was the God of magic and judgment. When you think of the role that Biblical prophets played, you begin to see the Semitic connection with navu to Nevim.
The word nevu is spelled Nun Beth and Aleph. The first letter Nun expressed the idea of being swallowed or totally encompassed. The second letter is Beth which carries the idea of a house and with the Nun you have the idea of being totally surrounded by or in a house. The last letter is Aleph which represents God and when joined with the Nun and Beth carries the idea of opening ourselves up to be completely encompassed by God or living inside of God and experiencing the joys of His heart and the expressions of His heart. Thus when Saul and his group of assassins began to prophesy, what they did was open themselves up to be swallowed by the Spirit of God and to experience the joys and pleasure of God Heart. In other words their minds were so wrapped up in the ecstasy of God that they completely forgot about their mission to kill David.
It would seem that the word nevim has a broad range of use and there is enough room for most, if not all, of the definitions of prophesy I have heard of to fit in this little word. But if I were to search for one common element throughout all these definitions I believe you would find that what they all have in common is a strong, tangible presence of God. Nehemiah 8:10 tells us the joy of the Lord is our strength. Perhaps that is the joy Saul felt under the nevim. Jesus said that He will give us His peace, not the peace that the world gives (John 14:27). If this old arrow can rest in that nevim or joy and peace of God, then any attempts by the enemy to send me out to assassinate some David will be deflected and I will instead hit that bulls eye.
Recent Comments