Strange Story: Did King Saul Speak in Tongues?

VARIOUS USES OF THE HEBREW VERB PROPHESY

            Before we get into the story of Saul, I need to explain something about the verb “prophesy” in the Old Testament. The word can mean “to speak under divine inspiration, to engage in ecstatic speech, to exhort or admonish with words from God,” and occasionally, “to make predictions about the future.” 

Ecstatic speech was a pagan practice, which, in its best-known instances, played itself out similar to the oracles given at Delphi, Greece. People would wait in line for days or even weeks to get their chance to see a priest of the temple or shrine at Delphi. They would tell the priest their problem, their question, their concern, and then he would leave them to go see a certain priestess. This priestess spent her days on duty hanging over a hole using a device similar to a sling or a hammock while intoxicating gasses came up out of that hole. She would get high on those gases and begin to utter gibberish. The priests who had come from hearing the people’s requests would write down a few phrase of what the priestess said, then they would leave her and go to a place where they could quietly work at writing out an interpretation of her non-sensical gibberish. Depending on who was requesting “the opinion of the gods,” the priest might wait a few hours or even a few weeks before speaking to the person or family who was waiting for the response. When he sent for them, he would give them his interpretation of the message the priestess had spoken while under the influence of the gasses coming out of the hole in the rock. Instead of just asking a priest for his advice, they used this priestess who was controlled by another influence because it lent more legitimacy to the process. They could easily convince the people that a god had spoken to her through the gasses.

I’m sure you can see how this would lend itself to priests making up whatever they wanted people to hear. Yet this was a key part of the secular understanding of the word prophecy at that time.

IN THE BIBLE, THE RIGHTEOUS FOLLOWERS OF GOD NEVER SPOKE IN GIBBERISH

I am convinced that the Bible uses the verb prophesy in a different way than the nations around them. Whatever was uttered had to come from God, it could not originate with man and qualify as true prophecy. After all, the word means “a divinely inspired utterance.” Paul rules out nonsensical babbling by indicating that all languages have meaning and even other forms of communication using inanimate objects also have meaning (I Cor 14:6-12). He also points out that God does not unplug our brains so He can work, rather He does His work by engaging our brains (I Cor 14:15). Paul also indicated in several parts of I Cor 12 and 14 that the gifts of the Spirit were always given for the benefit of others, and were to be used in an orderly fashion (I Cor 14:33 & 40). The situation with Saul happened during the Old Testament era, but the ways God’s Spirit works have not changed. Therefore, the rules governing these things would have applied in Saul’s case as well.

The Old Testament and the New Testament explain each other.

WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS LEFT OPEN TO US AFTER WE REMOVE THE GIBBERISH OF ECSTATIC SPEECH?

            Having said that God does not use tactics similar to the priests and priestesses at Delphi or any other nonsensical babble, I will now share the options for the meaning of prophesying that I think are open to us without violating anything in the rest of Scripture:

• Genuine demonstrations of deep repentance and contrition. True repentance starts with God; it is not something we can create entirely on our own, although God does not do it all without us.
• Enthusiastic worship which is out of character for the personality of that individual. This one is a bit weak because people can surprise us some times or choose to act in a way that is abnormal for them. This one should also be measured by the impact on those who hear it. If the spirit of worship is contagious and others can’t help joining that person in worship, it is most likely from God; if the person is simply seen by most listeners as making a fool of himself, it is probably not from God.
• Spontaneous creation of poetry and music that goes together perfectly and has a powerful impact. This would be most obvious if the person were not musically inclined.
• Teaching on how to apply spiritual truth to life that is so on-target and impactful to the hearers as to be obvious it is coming from God. We call this preaching. It is the impact on the hearers that marks it as coming from God.
• Addressing something that the person would not have any knowledge of if it weren’t from God. We have to be careful with this one because it can sometimes be faked if a person is really good at finding information that others think they should not have access to. I repeat that none of the gifts of the Spirit of God can be used to make the individual look good; they should only be used to glorify God and help others.

WHAT DID THEY TEACH AT THE SCHOOL OF THE PROPHETS?

During parts of the Old Testament era there existed something called the school of the prophets. What did they teach there? Did they teach people how to create ecstatic utterances? Did they teach them how to sound spiritual by doing strange things? I am convinced the answer is a resounding “no!” Instead I picture the teaching being centered around how to get closer to God, how to be a pure vessel that God can use as He desires, and how to be prepared for the working of God’s Spirit. It was the precursor to a good Bible college; it prepared the mind with teaching from the Bible and it also prepared the heart and soul for sacrificial service.

The fact that there was a school of prophets implies that there were burning questions and unspeakable burdens about what God was allowing to happen around them (usually oppression by foreigners) and what God wanted them to do. It was a mystery, and they were asking God to reveal the truth to them (His light, his Urim). The light of knowledge He gave them was a miracle; it was something they could not come up with on their own. This light/revelation was followed by practical teaching about how to apply that truth to one’s life.

MY SUMMARY OF THE FIRST TIME SAUL PROPHECIED

The first time Saul is recorded as having “prophesied” is found between I Samuel 9:15 and 10:13. I recommend that you read the story in your own Bible or online.

By God’s Spirit Samuel knew that Saul had some burning questions and deep concerns. Saul did not think he could be a good king for the people of Israel because he was from the smallest clan of the smallest tribe in the land (I Sam 9:21). Saul wanted assurance that this was from God and that he would be up to the task of being the king.

Samuel predicted that several things would happen to Saul and the fulfillment of these things would prove to Saul that God had indeed chosen him as king. One of those things was that he would meet a group of prophets returning from a time of worship at a high place with their musical instruments in hand, and they would still be prophesying (worshipping God and speaking divinely inspired utterances of various kinds). Samuel predicted that Saul would prophesy with them – something he had not done before. It happened just as God had told Samuel it would happen.

This confirms what other passages of Scripture communicate, that there was a time early on when Saul’s heart was right with God. It also shows that God could use him for spiritual good if Saul remained pure.

When people asked, “Is Saul also one of the prophets?” it meant, “Has Saul been purified by God’s flame and miraculously enlightened so as to speak with divinely inspired words or music?” They had not thought of Saul, son of Kish, as a highly spiritual man, and not on the same level as those students who were dedicating themselves full-time to learning how to grow closer to God and be used by God to serve others. So they were surprised. But this shows us that God can use anyone; we should not predetermine who we think will serve God faithfully and who will not. All of us have the potential to do so.

WHAT DID SAUL ACTUALLY DO? WHAT DID IT SOUND LIKE?

While we cannot know exactly what it sounded like, I think that, in this case, the most likely option is that he was creating poetry and music on the fly that went together perfectly and had a powerful impact. It was obviously from God. The text mentions the group of prophets were coming down from the high place with their instruments and they were prophesying (speaking divinely inspired utterances, which can include music). So I think they were expressing themselves by singing. We never read anywhere in the Bible about Saul being a musician. If he were a good musician, he would not have needed David to play the harp for him to calm him down ( I Sam 16:17-23), he would have played music himself because playing music is a therapy for the soul. For these reasons I think that in this instance Saul was singing praises to God that he was creating on the fly even though he was not a musician.

MY SUMMARY OF THE SECOND TIME SAUL PROPHESIED

The first time it happened Saul had just been anointed king by Samuel but he had not yet been acknowledged as king by the people. At this point Saul was trying to live a righteous life. The second time it happened Saul had been king long enough to get used to having power and he did not want to give it up; he was even trying to kill David in order to prevent him from becoming the next king. The second time it happened he was not trying to live a righteous life, instead he was obsessed with trying to kill a righteous man. The story of the second time Saul prophesied is found in I Samuel 19:18-23.

Saul found out where David was and sent some of his men to capture David. But when they arrived and saw Samuel and a group of prophets prophesying, they too began to prophesy (I Sam 19:20) and the text implies that they never fulfilled their mission, and probably never returned to King Saul. We do not know what their prophesying sounded like, nor that of the prophets that day, but it very well may have been a demonstration of repentance for participating with the King in this evil deed. That is why, when they stopped prophesying, they did not fulfill their assignment. Saul heard what had happened and sent a second group of men to capture David, and the same thing happened (I Sam 19:21) – they also prophesied and abandoned their mission – and likely abandoned their service of King Saul. Then Saul sent a third group of men to capture David, and even if you don’t know the story, you can guess what happened.

Finally, after the third group, Saul went himself to do the deed the others had failed to do. When he arrived, you already know what happened in part because of the title of this section. He prophesied. In fact he started speaking with divinely inspired utterances before he David, Samuel and the group of prophets. According to I Sam 19:23, he started speaking this way upon entering the town of Ramah, Samuel’s home town, and kept speaking this way until he reached Naioth, which appears to have been a specific complex of dwellings (the word means “dwelling”) where the prophets all resided. I Sam 20:1 calls the place Naioth of Ramah. I do not know exactly how far that would have been, but it would have been more than just one sentence; it would have been several minutes of speaking in this way. The text also tells us, in I Sam 19:24,

WHAT DID SAUL ACTUALLY DO THIS TIME? WHAT DID IT SOUND LIKE?

Once again, we cannot know exactly what it sounded like, but we have a pretty good idea of what went on. The fact that he lay on the ground half-dressed, which was a sign of shame, points to a deep remorse and a repentant spirit. The fact that he lay there the rest of that day and all night long shows deep sorrow for his actions. Since prophesying can mean any God-inspired utterance, it can include expressions of sorrow and repentance, which is what I think we see in this story.

The two times that David had the opportunity to kill Saul and did not do it, Saul’s response was remorse. So we know that he was still capable of feeling guilty for something and responding to the guilt with contrition. However, David knew better than to trust the king for he knew that after the moment had passed and after he thought about the power he would have to give up, he reverted to his former ways of doing all he could to protect his grip on the throne, i.e. he kept trying to kill David. Saul’s repentance was genuine and even deeply felt, but it ended up being short-lived.

MY CONCLUSIONS

Even though, at first glance, it seems like the text supports the idea that the prophesying found in these two stories was ecstatic speech, I think that is impossible because it contradicts the way God works as described in the rest of Scripture. God never overrides our will. Even when it seems that God does something in spite of us, we must consent on some level to allowing God to do it. We must be in favor of Him taking action.

We see from these two stories that there are various ways to interpret the word “prophesy.” Even the proper type of prophesying does not always sound the same.

From Saul’s genuine but short-lived repentance we can learn that, after we take a key step forward in our spiritual journey, we need to focus on what comes next, what needs to accompany that key decision in order for it to last for the long haul. Part of that is anticipating the obvious temptations that will pull us away from our commitments to God, and taking action early to avoid those temptations.