I smell a rat.
1 Samuel 17:55–58 (ESV)
When Saul saw David going out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is this youth?”
And Abner said, “As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.”
So the king said, “Inquire whose son this young man is.”
Then, as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. And Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?”
So David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.”
Saul doesn’t recognize David from his harp playing days in the palace. How can that be?
Saul seems almost unimaginably stupid, but let’s not forget the context. Saul had called for David when he was being tormented by a bad spirit. He was more than a little distracted.
Also, when David was playing the harp, he wasn’t dressed in his shepherd’s clothes. He didn’t bring his sling, nor his pouch, nor his staff.
Instead, David was dressed nicely, didn’t smell like a shepherd who hadn’t bathed in days, and was carrying a harp (i.e., a lyre). That’s the David that Saul employed.
So, the smelly, rag-clothed kid that just knocked off Goliath might not be all that recognizable to Saul. Thus, when David said, “I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite,” Saul was likely taken aback.
If he had said, “I am David, the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite,” Saul might have fainted.
There’s another factor at play here. Saul is well aware that his successor is somewhere nearby.
So Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you.” — 1 Samuel 15:28
So, David’s seemingly miraculous victory over Goliath may have started some gears turning in Saul’s mind.
And notice that Saul doesn’t ask David who he is; he asks whose son he is. So David answers it literally.
“I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.”
Saul’s interest in which “house” this lad is from reflects an interest in his “place” instead of in him.
Saul is up to no good.
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These weekday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. The Saturday ones are written by Matt Richardson. To subscribe to the DEEP click here: https://www.ailbe.org/resources/community
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Scripture taken from the English Standard Version. © Copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
