Is Saul also among the prophets? Of the three signs of which Saul was assured, the occurrence of the last alone is particularly described. "And the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them." "Turned into another man" (ver. 6). It was "the most important for his inner life." "Through this sign his anointing as king was to be inwardly sealed." In what is here recorded we see an instance of -

I. SURPRISING TRANSFORMATION. The question was mainly one of surprise. The change was -

1. Sudden. In what are called "sudden conversions," indeed, there is often a secret preparation of mind and heart. Even in the case of Saul the surprise would not have been so great if his recent interview with Samuel and its effect upon him had been known.

2. In extraordinary contrast to his previous life, wherein he had exhibited little interest in or aptitude for spiritual exercises. Four or five days ago among them wholly occupied with the care of oxen and asses - dull, moody, and silent; now in a transport of religious emotion, and "speaking in a new tongue!"

3. Supernatural. It was plainly due to the "Spirit of God," i.e. (in the Hebrew conception) the direct, invisible, operative energy of God, whether put forth in nature or in man, in imparting mental or physical force for great enterprises, in promoting moral improvement, in producing exalted states of feeling, or in acts of the highest inspiration (Genesis 1:2; Exodus 31:3; Numbers 24:2; Judges 13:25; 2 Samuel 23:2; Isaiah 11:2); and (according to the fuller revelation of the New Testament) the holy, personal, Divine Spirit of God and of Christ. The expression (here used in this book for the first time) is not employed with respect to Samuel, whose intercourse with God is represented as more voluntary, self conscious, intimate, and continuous than that which it here denotes.

II. SYMPATHETIC ENTHUSIASM. Saul was drawn into sympathy with the Divine enthusiasm of the "company of prophets."

1. The links which unite men are secret, subtle, and mysterious, and the influence which some men exert over others is extraordinary.

2. Human influence is a common condition of Divine.

3. The contagious power of strong emotion is often seen in religious revivals, and to some extent also in other public movements. "Ecstatic states have something infectious about them. The excitement spreads involuntarily, as in the American revivals and the preaching mania in Sweden, even to persons in whose state of mind there is no affinity to anything of the kind" (Tholuck). "As one coal kindles another, so it happens that where good is taught and heard hearts do not remain unmoved - Acts 16:13, 14" (Hall).

III. SPIRITUAL ENDOWMENT. "And one of the same place answered," in reply to the question (asked somewhat contemptuously and sceptically), "What has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also" (whose relationship and antecedents are so different) "among the prophets? and said, But who is their father?" "Who is he that teacheth these prophets, and causeth the spirit of prophecy to rest on them? Nor is there any cause for astonishment in this; for the same holy, blessed One who teacheth these prophets teacheth also this one" (Kimchi). "Prophetical perfection is not a matter that is conveyed from father to son. Under these circumstances the son may be a prophet, though the father is not so" (R. Levi Ben Gersom, quoted by Ed. of Smith's 'Sel. Dis.').

1. Spiritual gifts are not the result of natural relationship.

2. They are due to the free and sovereign operation of the Divine Spirit, "dividing to every man severally as he will."

3. When they are bestowed on ourselves they should be received with humility, and when they are observed in others they should be regarded without envy, and with admiration and thankfulness.

IV. PARTIAL CONVERSION. "And when he had made an end of prophesying, he came to the high place" (ver. 13). His inspiration was transitory, and the change which he had undergone, great as it was, and in the direction of a renewal of his heart in righteousness, did not involve such renewal. "This transformation is not to be regarded as regeneration in the Christian sense, but as a change resembling regeneration which affected the entire disposition of mind, and by which Saul was lifted out of his former modes of thought and feeling, which were confined within a narrow, earthly sphere, into a far higher sphere of his new royal calling, was filled with kingly thoughts in relation to the service of God, and received another heart - ver. 9" (Keil).

1. Great spiritual gifts may be possessed without the possession of a new heart (Numbers 24:35; 31:8; Matthew 7:22; 1 Corinthians 13:2).

2. There may be considerable moral reformation, much spiritual feeling, correct orthodox beliefs, outward profession of piety, and strict observance of religious ordinances, whilst the supreme affection or ruling purpose of the soul remains unchanged (Matthew 13.).

3. A real renewal of the heart is manifested by its permanent fruits (Matthew 7:20; John 15:16; Hebrews 3:14). "If Samuel is the great example of an ancient saint growing up from childhood to old age without a sudden conversion, Saul is the first direct example of the mixed character often produced by such a conversion He became 'another man,' yet not entirely. He was, as is so often the case, half converted, half roused His religion was never blended with his moral nature" (Stanley)

"Let not the people be too swift to judge;
As one who reckons on the blades in field
Or e'er the crop be ripe. For I have seen
The thorn frown rudely all the winter long,
And after bear the rose upon its top;
And bark, that all her way across the sea
Ran straight and speedy, perish at the last
E'en in the haven's mouth. Seeing one steal,
Another bring his offering to the priest,
Let not Dame Birtha and Sir Martin thence
Into Heaven's counsels deem that they can pry;
For one of these may rise, the other fall"

(Dante, Par. 13.) = - D.

So they said in the wild irregular season of his obscure youth, before his accession to the throne, when the Spirit of the Lord, that bloweth where it listeth, suddenly arrested the young Saul, in the midst of his dissolute companions; they repeated their scornful outcry in after years, as recorded in 1 Samuel 19:24, when the spirit of repentance again seized the royal backslider, and brought him stripped and abased to the earth before Samuel at Naloth. The saying rightly interpreted may suggest some useful practical instruction.

I. WHAT IS MEANT BY BEING "AMONG THE PROPHETS?" By "the company of prophets" in verse 5, or "a company of scribes," says the Targum, are meant the scholars of the prophets, who were at that period the only accredited teachers of religion. Mr. Harmer thinks the following custom among the Mohammedans illustrates this passage: "When the children have gone through the Koran their relations borrow a fine house and furniture and carry them about the town in procession, with the book in their hand, the rest of their companions following, and all sorts of music of the country going before." Eastern customs have little varied; they seem to abide immutable, and identical, as their sunny climes, and very probably, the procession of the school of the prophets in the context was on a similar occasion." "Is Saul also among the prophets?" — that is, is he turned psalm singer and a supplicant? Is the rough, riotous herdsman of Benjamin become a companion of prophets and an utterer of the solemn things of God? Are we to have no more merry songs together, nor the light dance and jocund festival? Saul, our old fellow reveller, become quaint and grim as a Levite? "What is this that is come unto the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?" That this is the general meaning of prophesying in this place; see also the sense in which the word is used in reference to the priests of Baal, 1 Kings 18:29: "And it came to pass, when midday was put, and they prophesied until the time of the evening sacrifice" — they prophesied, that is, were importunate in prayer to their God. Thus the phrase, "Saul among the prophets," is equivalent to what the angels, in a holier and more charitable spirit, said of the Saul of Tarsus, when the Lord changed his heart, brought him to his knees, and they described his conversion to the truth by the terms, "Behold he prayeth." A similar astonishment seized them who had known the apostle for a blasphemer and persecutor, and when they heard that he preached the faith which he once destroyed they too might have said, "Is Saul also amongst the prophets," that is, among the praying people, the people of God? There was in Saul, at different times, the development of a different man, according as "the law in his members," or "the law in his mind," obtained the mastery. Saul "did run well, but suffered something to hinder him." He began his reign in the Spirit, he ended it in the flesh. As a king he was weighed in the balances and found wanting; as a man, Mercy might have interposed and turned the scale. It is no unwarrantable stretch of Scriptural charity to imagine it possible that other tongues than those of living men might have talked of the departed Saul, as again "among the prophets." I am not ashamed to think so of the man, whom the, inspired psalmist eulogised in his sepulchre. Only if it were so, his story illustrates the apostle's case of those "who are saved with difficulty pulling them out of the fire."

II. TO THE PENITENT SINNER AND RETURNING BACKSLIDER.

1. To the penitent sinner. Imagine his repentance genuine. The difference is so marked that his old companions scarcely recognise their former hail fellow, and insinuate at once a charge of hypocrisy and a sneer of contempt, whether or no in the scornful cry, "Is Saul also among the prophets?" "Is so-and-so among the saints?" "Have they caught him with their psalm singing?" or, "Is he playing upon them with his guile?" The penitent hears this; it is meant he should hear it, they take care of that; and his first feeling is, "This is a penalty for my former association with them; 'Be sure your sin will find you out;' it has found me out, even since I left it." "The way of transgressors is hard," even after they abandon it. It is but natural that Satan should grumble at the loss of a servant, and his children only echo their father's sentiment. "They think it strange (and so it is) that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you." But you meet these people day after day. If you are a workman, you meet them at your work; if one of a higher class of the community, you meet them in business or society; and they repeat their scornful insinuations. They don't and they won't believe you to be sincere, for they are strangers to what has taken place within you, distinctly enough to your convictions, but a mystery to them. They hate you, as Ahab hated Micaiah, because the sacred contrast of your life, always, however, unconsciously, prophesies evil things concerning them, and they would visit, as the world always did, their anger at the prediction on the head of the prophet, and you will be called upon to bear many a heavy version of the contemptuous proverb, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"

2. But, further, let us suppose you have failed in maintaining your ground; that you did run well, but suffered something to hinder you; that you had followed your Saviour, like the youthful John, up to the very moment of His seizure for the crucifixion, but there your heart failed you, and like him you turned and "fled away naked," leaving behind you all your better convictions and determinations. You have done this, and you have since lived a backslider; and may we ask, "Is it well with thee?" Are you happy in your apostasy?

(J. B. Owen, M. A.)