Issued: 4/24/23

PLEASE NOTE:  Because Bible versions sometimes differ from each other in crucial ways, the version quoted here will be the one that best clarifies the point being made.  For a quick comparison between versions, please go to: http://www.biblehub.com.

   All bracketed material may be authorial comments, attempts at proper syntax, or minimal rewordings of Scripture for the sake of clarity and continuity.  These emendations will not be italicized.

   The “/” will be used to signify “and/or.”  The symbol “↔” is used to connect verses corroborating each other and so establishing doctrinal truths (Matthew 18:16↔2Corinthians 13:1).

   In differentiating between Yahweh of hosts [later Jesus] and Yahweh the Most High God, lower case letters have been used when discussing the former; upper case letters are reserved for the One and Most High God.  Since Jesus was at pains to differentiate himself from God the Father, we have followed his lead here.

   The term neo-Christians will be used to differentiate between false Christians and Jesus’ true followers.

   Like love, friendship is a word largely misused and misunderstood.  We tend to call ‘friends’ acquaintances whose company we enjoy on a regular basis, but with whom we do not necessarily share deep, emotional bonds.  We call ‘friends’ wives and husbands whose relationships are built on mutual convenience in terms of material, sexual, and psychological needs.  We even call favorite pets ‘friends,’ as if they had the intellectual capacity to understand the principles involved.

   While Christians do not need apocryphal writings to support Biblical teachings, Paul exhorted us to examine everything and retain what was good (1Thessalonians 5:21)—as long as, needless to say, such writings conformed to Christian norms.  Such is the case with Ecclesiasticus 6:14-17:  “A faithful friend is a strong defense: and he that hath found such a one hath found a treasure.  Nothing doth countervail a faithful friend, and his excellence is invaluable.  A faithful friend is the medicine of life; and they that fear the Lord shall find him.  Whoso feareth the Lord shall direct his friendship aright: for as he is, so shall his neighbor be also.”¹

   Scripture could not agree more.  “A friend loves at all times and is a brother in times of adversity” (Proverbs 17:17).  “One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24).  “Do not forsake your friend…and do not go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity; better the one at hand than the other far away” (Proverbs 27:10).  “Just as iron sharpens iron, friends sharpen the minds of each other” (Proverbs 27:17). “Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows and death, so is the man who deceives his friend, and says, ‘Was I not joking?’” (Proverbs 26:18-19). “If they stumble, the first will lift up his friend—but woe to anyone who is alone when he falls and there is no one to help him get up” (Ecclesiastes 4:10).  The writer of Ecclesiasticus appears to have been rephrasing teachings from earlier, canonical texts.²

   In all of these we see that friends are rarely spoken of in the context of ordinary relationships; rather friends are the contingencies to rely on when those relationships fail us.   Scriptures like Deuteronomy 28:54-57 and Micah 7:5-6—which Jesus repeated (Matthew 10:36), show us that, no matter protestations of love and loyalty, familial and matrimonial bonds are not necessarily to be counted on when push comes to shove.  And when Micah 7:5 says not to rely on ‘friends,’ or Jeremiah 9:4 writes about ‘friends’ spreading slander, they are telling us to make sure who amongst people we befriend are true friends and who are mere acquaintances we have chosen to call ‘friends,’ for the former will never betray us whereas the latter might.  We are now in the midst of an apostasy where lots of people will not be at their moral best and ‘friendships’ will be sorely tested (Matthew 10:21; 2Timothy 3:1-5).

The Greatest Love

   Naturally it fell to Jesus to define the quintessence of friendship:  “No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13)—meaning himself (1John 3:16); therefore no one who loved anyone better than him was worthy of him (Matthew 10:37).  Jesus is quite entitled to demand our fealty to him.  Why so?  Because he sacrificed everything (Philippians 2:5-8; Hebrews 12:2) so that his friends could share his God-given inheritance (Psalms 2:8; Colossians 1:16; Revelation 21:7).  For the Son of the God Who eschews favoritism (Deuteronomy 10:17; Acts 10:34-35), every righteous, faithful disciple irrespective of race, sex, ethnicity or social status (Galatians 3:28) was someone deserving of his friendship; and it was only fair he/she should repay him in kind (Matthew 19:29; Romans 8:17; 2Timothy 2:12).

   It does not take rocket science to realize that Jesus used the words ‘friend, neighbor, and brother’ as interchangeable aspects of love’s continuum.  “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31) does not mean ‘loving’ people indiscriminately or favoring the guy next door, but those who, like oneself, value and prioritize Christian love (Romans 12:10; 2Corinthians 6:14-15).  It is true we are ‘brothers’ in the Biblical sense humanity shares common parents; we are ‘family’ in the sense believers share the faith of Abraham (Galatians 3:7); but these are mindsets rather than shared genetic components.  The glue that binds us is friendship, freely and joyfully given, out of love for Christ’s ‘friends,’ gazillions of whom, as Paul understood, we never knew or might never get to know until Jesus’ second coming (1Thessalonians 4:14-17; 2Timothy 2:10). 

Motherly Love

   Now Satan has managed to exalt motherly love above all forms of human love, which is the reason why Marian worship and cults of heavenly goddesses/mothers in general, have scored bull’s-eyes for him in terms of ensnaring souls.  Instead take stock of Jesus’ attitude towards Mary:  His mother was any doer of God’s will (Matthew 12:46-50);³ he never included Mary in his ministry nor left instructions for her veneration at a later date; and rather than speaking to her as a ‘loving’ son would, he addressed her impersonally as ‘woman’ (John 2:2, 4:26).

   Why?  Because he knew what moles inside the Church would in time build around Mary:  An idolatrous cult whose practitioners were doomed to burn (Revelation 21:8).  Even on the cross with Mary grieving at his feet, Jesus was reaffirming Christian precepts.  Since in terms of faith Mary was as much a mother to him as she was to John, he exhorted them to be mother and son to one another (John 19:26-27).  Which was in keeping with an earlier teaching:  “No one who has left…brothers or sisters or mother or father or wife or children [i.e., blood relatives] for my sake and for the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more brothers and sisters and mothers and children [i.e., spiritual kin] in this present age” (Mark 10:29-30).  And this tells us what?  That friendship and not familial bonds is at the heart of Christian love.

   It may be that to wean us from preconceptions regarding motherly love, the Bible is not always complementary when it comes to mothers.  Sarah, for example, wanted Abraham’s son by Agar to be kicked out of camp on account of sibling envy, which meant sure death for Ishmael in inhospitable deserts—not very ‘motherly’ of her.  To his credit Abraham resisted the idea until Yahweh satisfied everyone’s needs (Genesis 21:8-21).  In favor of Jacob, Rebecca was instrumental in depriving her son Esau from paternal blessings that were his by birthright (Genesis 27:5-17)—indirectly dooming him.  Herodias prevailed on her daughter to have John the Baptist beheaded (Matthew14:6-8).  In contrast mothers who are exalted in Scripture took a gamble on faith and did as they were told:  The widow of Zarephath [a non-Jew (1Kings 17:9-15)]; Ruth [a non-Jew and David’s grandmother (Ruth 1:15-17, 3:1-5,18, 4:22)]; and Mary, the mother of Jesus (Luke 1:38).

David’s Significance

   In Scripture, David is pivotal to establishing Jesus’ messianic bona fides.  David worked as a shepherd for his father (1Samuel 17:34); Jesus is the Shepherd of souls tending to his Father’s flock (Ezekiel 34:23; John 10:11-16; 1Peter 2:25).  David was anointed with oil (1Samuel 6:13), as Jesus is anointed and anoints [as High Priest↔Hebrews 7:21-28, 10:19-21] with the Holy Spirit (1John 2:27).  David is linked to Jesus both in prophecy (Isaiah 22:22↔Revelation 3:7) and direct lineage—through Joseph, not Mary (Isaiah 11:1; Matthew 1:16; Luke 2:4; Revelation 22:16).  David was the warrior king who prevailed over Israel’s enemies, the way Jesus is depicted in Revelation 19:11-16.  David bought the acreage and supplies needed by Solomon to build Yahweh’s Temple (1Chronicles 21:22-26, 22:14-19), as Jesus is the cornerstone stone and builder of God’s Holy of Holies:  His mystical body, the human-bricked Church (Acts 4:11↔Psalms 118:22; Isaiah 28:16; Ephesians 2:19-22, 4:6, 5:23; Hebrews 3:6; 1Peter 2:5).

   Despite these correspondences, David’s name was used to signify Jesus in duties David had not performed in life, like becoming steward of God’s people over the deposed Satan [Shebna]:  “I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open” (Isaiah 22:15-24).  When was this prophecy fulfilled?   When following his resurrection and exaltation in Heaven (Revelation 5:5-13), Jesus was given authority over all of creation (Matthew 28:18).  Note that the key given ‘David’ in Isaiah is part of the set alluded to by Jesus in Matthew 16:19, keys that bind and unbind things in heaven and on earth that cannot be undone, which are also the keys he claims to possess in Revelation 1:18.

   Also the symbolism of Isaiah 22:24 regarding bowls and jars is linked to Paul’s argument in 2Timothy 2:20-21, whose gist is that in God’s house all vessels serve a purpose to glorify Christ no matter their rank or designated use.  As Paul further elucidates with parts of the human body in 1Corinthians 12:12-30:  “For the body is not one member, but many… It is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it.  But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.  And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.”

   As much as he wished it, David was forbidden to build Yahweh’s Temple on grounds he had shed much blood:  A son of his, a man of peace, would accomplish that task (1Chronicles 22:9, 28:3-7).  Please note that in 1Chronicles 28:7 God promised to establish forever the kingdom of another peaceful son of David who was not Solomon, the historical builder of Yahweh’s of hosts earthly abode;⁴ for after his apostasy, Solomon’s kingdom was torn leaving him only the tribe of Judah—Jesus’ tribe (1Kings 11:1-8,13,31-32,35-36,39; Hebrews 7:14)—in David’s memory (1Kings 11:36). 

   We have previously argued that the Most High has never lived nor will ever live in buildings built by men (Acts 7:45-50, 17:24); so that He never dwelt in either Moses’ Tabernacle or any of the so called First [Solomon’s] and Second [Ezra/Nehemiah] Temples.  And if anybody believes that any divine presence indwelled Herod’s upgrade rebuilt for political reasons, they had better think twice; because from his Edomite background to his acts of bloodshed, Herod was a vector for evil.  It is no coincidence that Jesus was born during Herod’s reign; when Jesus, the preexistent Yahweh of hosts, had vacated the Holy of Holies to enter Mary’s womb as a conscious embryo (Psalms 22:10, 139:13; Isaiah 49:1,5; Jeremiah 1:5), so that in life he would prophesy Herod Temple’s inevitable doom (Matthew 24:1-2).⁵

David and Jonathan

   Because Scripture is male-oriented to focus on the attributes Jesus embodies, the signal friendship was the one between David and Jonathan.  In typical anti-religious fashion, this relationship has been smeared with insinuations of homosexuality.  One reason may be David’s declaration that Jonathan’s “love” was dearer to him than that of women (2Samuel 1:26); and ‘love’ in the minds of most people is indistinguishable from sex.  It may be that David’s physical description (1Samuel 16:12) has spawned illicit fantasies; but the truth is that besides being needful of women until his end (1Kings 1:4), David was not above engineering a man’s death to obtain a desired female (2Samuel 11:2-4,15, 26-27).  That David engaged in same-sex liaisons His God found abominable (Leviticus 20:13↔Revelation 21:8) is ludicrous; and a shameful attempt by assorted parties to justify their own lifestyles/agendas.  So let us review David and Jonathan’sfriendship for what it was and for the Christian lessons it teaches.

Facts

   On the one hand David was the underprivileged of the two:  David had nothing to offer Jonathan, who having ‘knitted’ with David’s soul (1Samuel 18:1), gave David his most treasured possessions (1Samuel 18:4).  Whereupon they made a pact between them based on Jesus’ second greatest commandment:  Jonathan loved David as himself (1Samuel 18:3↔Mark 12:31). 

   Saul, Jonathan’s father, grew jealous of David’s charisma, so that he tried to impale David (1Samuel 18:11) and actively conspired to bring about David’s downfall (1Samuel 18:20-29).  Scripture here makes the point that “an evil spirit from Yahweh” compelled Saul to throw a spear at David (1Samuel 18:10).  There are parallels here between Saul and Judas.  Both men had been rejected by God for having betrayed their oaths to Him (1Samuel 15:22-26; Matthew 26:14-16; John 6:70, 13:2; Hebrews 6:4-6, 10:38); so that God had turned them over to satanic influences.  Thus when Scripture talks about an evil spirit coming from Yahweh, it is telling us that God owned up to that fact rather than blaming Satan, who can never do anything unless God allows it (Isaiah 45:7; Ezekiel 21:3,10-15↔Revelation 6:8; Daniel 4:35).  At the moment of possession neither Saul nor Judas had the power to resist evil:  Saul threw his spear at David and Satan entered Judas’ heart to lead Jesus’ arrest (Luke 22:3).

    Saul conspired to have David murdered; Jonathan pleaded to Saul on David’s behalf, thereafter alerting David to Saul’s designs against him. Saul promised to behave but the evil spirit came upon him again, whereupon he tried to impale David for the second time.  Understandably, David flew the coop (1Samuel 19:1-18).⁶

   After this David and Jonathan met again to discuss plans regarding David’s safety, to which Jonathan committed himself even if those plans involved betraying Saul’s confidences and risking his own life.  In exchange Jonathan asked David that when he ruled, David would “never cut off [his] faithful love from [Jonathan’s] house”;whereupon Jonathan “caused David to swear again for the love that [Jonathan] had to [David]; for [Jonathan] loved [David] as he loved his own soul.”  Subsequently, Saul shifted his rage onto Jonathan, trying to impale his own son after berating Jonathan for remaining loyal to David.  Jonathan understood Saul was hell-bent to kill David; so following a prearranged plan, David and Jonathan met for the last time:   “And they kissed each other and wept together, but David wept the more.  Jonathan said to David, ‘Go in safety, inasmuch as we have sworn to each other in the name of Yahweh [that He] will be between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants forever’” (1Samuel 20:1-42).  The last we hear of Jonathan is as a casualty of war (1Samuel 31:2).

Christian Lessons

   OK, so now let us be, in relation to Jesus, what Jonathan was to David.  Upon knowing Jesus, our souls ‘knit’ with his.  We feed/clothe/comfort Jesus by taking care of others’ needs (Matthew 25:35-40) but never receiving from Jesus pay for our labors:  In life, we give to him.  Though we are promised shares in Jesus’ inheritance, no Christian is rewarded ahead of time, but jointly and equally at the completion of God’s task (Matthew 20:7-8; Hebrews 11:39).  We ‘give’ Jesus spiritual progeny by converting people to him:  Sex was never nor will ever be a factor in the striving for and realization of God’s vision (Mark 12:25; Galatians 4:19; Philemon 1:10).

   Like Jonathan we prioritize loyalty to Jesus over familial demands; and like Jonathan, relatives may turn against us once that choice is made (Matthew 10:35-38).  Some of them, like Saul, might try to kill us (Matthew 10:21).  Like Jonathan we have made a pact with Jesus before our God that our family names may not be forgotten in Jesus’ Kingdom.

   We are in the habit of referring to Jesus as Lord; but Jesus was the first one to do away with such labels:  “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you” (John 15:15).  If by virtue of receiving the Gospel, Scripture calls us ‘gods’ (Psalms 82:6-7; John 10:35), then Jesus’ teachings confer divinity upon us—not only figuratively but literally in our resurrection, the reason why the medium at Endor saw a vision of “gods” rising from the ground (1Samuel 28:13).

   What was Jesus driving at?  No distinctions existed between him and disciples who followed his example (Luke 6:40).  The doctrine he brought the Apostles was the Father’s (John 7:16); and that doctrine quickened in them something that lay dormant, which once stirred could not be resisted.  When Jesus selected them, they did not set out to check Jesus’ credentials before putting their lives on hold:  They acted on the belief that Jesus embodied something beyond marital ties or familial duties; yet far more precious and compelling, which to them, incomprehensibly perhaps at first, promised eternity in an impermanent world (John 6:68).

   And this is why friendship is the human emotion Jesus exalted above all else:  A bond predicated not on immediate gratification, reward, or exchanges of material goods, owing nothing “except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the [spirit of God’s] Law” (Romans 13:8).  Like Jonathan, we give unto David/Jesus willingly and unstintingly; not for us the holding back that doomed Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-10).  God and Jesus are beings of extremes:  The wishy-washy have no part in their grand scheme (James 1:6-8↔Ephesians 4:13-14; Revelation 3:15-16)—which is why Jesus demanded of us what Jonathan freely gave David of his own volition:  Everything he owned to prove worthy of David’s friendship (Luke 14:33↔Philippians 3:7).

Human Misconceptions

   Now we see why married couples, parents and offspring, owners and pets, are not ‘friends’ in the Christian sense of the word.  The last group we can easily dismiss, because no matter the deep ways in which animals bond with us, it is us who rationalize the relationship:  Animals have no way of intellectually explaining why they feel as they do.  We feed them, provide them with home and shelter, take care of their needs; and they respond back with behaviors we ascribe to notions our brains define and analyze.  There are exceptional pets that rise above the norm and are sources of inspiration; but the very fact their behaviors are directed exclusively towards a beloved owner already tells us they do not love any other owner like its own.  So this is not the kind of friendship Jesus prioritizes.

    When we come to married couples, or parents and offspring, no matter how ‘attuned’ they might be to each other, there are instinctive feelings, physical needs, societal norms, and material exchanges shaping their ‘friendship.’  The hallmark of friendship is that it operates outside these constraints:  no family values are involved; sex never enters the picture; assets and bank accounts are not held in common; loyalties are not prioritized by kinship.  Jonathan was a dutiful son and as such stood by Saul until death; but when it came to David, who harbored no resentment against the man trying to kill him, Jonathan could see in David a soul worthier than Saul’s; so his loyalty to David was his primary concern.

   The problem with marriage, as Paul saw it and we fact-check it from daily experience, is that married couples seek to please each other rather than God (1Corinthians 7:33-34):  Their primary focus is on mutually-shared objectives Jesus found senseless (Matthew 16:26; Luke 17:26-30).  The specter here is sex, which judging by relentless media blitzkrieg, is where it (?) is at.   With Paul sex sounds like a crutch, a fix the addicted must have in order to regain his/her spiritual senses (1Corinthians 7:5-6); but then Paul had subsumed himself into Jesus (Philippians 3:8) the way Jonathan had cleaved to David’s soul.  Though Paul could have married (1Corinthians 9:5), he understood that normal concerns stood in the way of spiritual success (2Timothy 2:4).

   We need not further belabor human relationships vis-à-vis the spirituality of Christian friendship.  We all know from personal experience the strengths and weaknesses inherent in marriage and other indiscriminate relationships.  It serves no purpose trying to express in words feelings that transcend human emotions, or trying to grasp the quintessence of Jesus’ friendship in terms of what passes for friendship amongst most mortals.  These things are only understood in the context of faith; and as Paul told us, “those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are discerned spiritually” (1Corinthians 2:14).

Personal Opinion

   In discussions of Scripture it is customary to use ‘we’ as any writer is part of the general discourse.  I would like to conclude with what I personally have experienced in terms of friendship.  I have been lucky to have known two people whose friendships with me were above the norm, perhaps not fully qualifying as Christian friendships but incorporating many of its attributes.

   One was a male with whom it was possible to discuss everything.  In many ways, his mind ‘sharpened’ mine as mine ‘sharpened’ his (Proverbs 27:17), so that we learned from and enriched each other emotionally and intellectually.  He understood the principle that friendship needs to be worked at; that one never takes friends or their emotions for granted; and that friendship is always a striving for rather than a destination:  One never quite gets ‘there.’  Material generosity was never an issue, though in my case, he was in a better financial position; in this respect, he was Jonathan to my poorer David.  While living in different states, we made it a point to remain in touch often and regularly; and his marriage did not interfere with that arrangement.  How many people do we know who get married, and lifelong friends become ‘second-tiered’ to sexual partners/espouses that never played roles in the forging of such friendships?  When Jesus said “the last will be first, and the first will be last” (Matthew 20:16), he was not talking about rearranging friendship priorities to suit new relationships:  He was referring to later converts whose commitment to him surpassed that of earlier converts who had forgotten their ‘first love’ (Revelation 2:4-5).

   My other friend was a female, whom I will call, as she did me, my soul-mate.  She was a devout Christian; happily married; and a solace to prisoners whom family/society had written off.  We too were intellectually matched; could discuss anything; and kept regularly in touch.  Material things were never an issue between us; and we owed each other nothing but the duty to love one another (Romans 13:8). She too lived in another state until cancer deprived me of her companionship; and though I wished to no avail to be with her during her last days, it was her choice, for whatever reasons, that I would not do so.  In retrospect, knowing her as I did, I can think of many reasons why she wished it so; and though I hinted at it at the time, the gnawing frustration of not being with her when it most mattered pains me to this day.  Yet her memory sustains me; and if I make it to God’s Kingdom, I hope we will stay close for eternity.

   It is because of her that I do not agree with Solomon’s assessment regarding women in Ecclesiastes 7:28; perhaps this was true of his experience but it certainly is not of mine.  And I am not alone in this. I read once about a man and a nun who shared a deep, emotional, spiritual bond; when she was dying of Ebola in Africa, he dipped his finger in her bloody tears to wipe his own, in the process dooming himself.  For this man life was incomprehensible without this woman’s friendship; in that fateful moment, he perhaps could think of no better way to express what she meant to him; so that before she passed on, he wanted her to know fully.  Rather than viewing his actions as an act of willful suicide, I see it as an act of transcendent friendship and love, the way some people chose to give their lives in lieu of Jews about to be exterminated in Nazi concentration camps.  These people honored the kind of love Jesus professed (John 15:13); for when you think about it, though his blood was necessary for the remission of sins, Jesus, who had a choice to save himself (Matthew 26:53), embraced death as an act of love for his friends.

   With women David had to perform and gratify expectations/demands; with Jonathan, he could relax and be accepted/loved for what he was. It should not scandalize anyone that David found Jonathan’s brand of love more satisfying than that of women because Jonathan’s love did not drain him like his sexual liaisons did; and with Jonathan a peace of mind and a sense of belonging were possible that women never afforded him.

   And so it is with Jesus, though in this respect, he is our Jonathan:  The Son of a King eager to share his possessions with his friends. And those of us who understand this, like David, weep for his absence until we meet again.

¹ King James Version with Apocrypha.  Also known as the Book of Sirach.

² Scripture tells us that Proverbs was written by a younger King Solomon (1Kings 4:32; Proverbs 1:1↔Ecclesiastes 12:9); whereas rabbinic tradition holds that Ecclesiastes, with its pessimistic view of life, was written by an older Solomon who had not found lasting joy in anything he had experienced or accomplished (Ecclesiastes 1:1,12, 2:3-11).  In all probability Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes after he apostatized and his kingdom was torn apart (1Kings 11:1-40).

   Solomon began to rule approximately in 967 BCE and he ruled for 40 years (1Kings 11:42), so he must have died around 927 BCE.  The apocryphal Ecclesiasticus is thought to have been written between 200 and 175 BCE.

³ In truth Jesus was never related by blood to Joseph, Mary, or any of his siblings [James↔Galatians 1:19, Joseph, Judas and Simon] born to Joseph and Mary after Jesus’ birth, when Joseph ‘knew’ Mary (Matthew 1:25)—Scriptural code for sexual interaction.

   The embryo that became Jesus of Nazareth, if we can call it that, was implanted by the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb (Luke 1:31-35), so that it contained no genetic material, as we understand it today, from either parent.  Since all this information was written down for posterity, Jesus’ generation thought him to be Joseph’s and Mary’s natural son (Mark 6:3; Luke 3:23).

⁴ The Most High does not live in human-made temples (Acts 7:48-49).  Even Solomon, centuries before Isaiah (Isaiah 66:1), knew this to be the case (1Kings 8:27; 2Chronicles 6:18) —which Jesus later confirmed (Matthew 5:34-35).

   It follows that “the glory of Yahweh” who filled the interior following the dedication of Solomon’s Temple (2Chronicles 7:1-3) was Yahweh of hosts, not the Most High God.  And lest we overlook the significance of the noun “glory,” it refers both to outward, divine majesty as well as to Yahweh of hosts specifically, he who proclaims the Most High’s name and is the latter’s paramount creation (Exodus 33:18-23; Hebrews 1:5,8-10).

⁵ The interpretation that Jesus is the speaker through David, Isaiah and Jeremiah does not invalidate the notion that his human counterparts believed themselves chosen by God from the moment of their conceptions.  This agrees with teachings that all righteous were foreknown and chosen in utero before the world was (Exodus 32:32; John 6:39; Romans 8:30, 9:22-23; Hebrews 4:3).  Paul validated his ministry on those grounds (Galatians 1:15).

⁶ Since the Holy Spirit had disowned Saul (1Samuel 14:1↔Hebrews 10:26-27), we are at a loss to explain 1Samuel 19:23-24.  Why would the Holy Spirit come upon the already rejected Saul?

   There is another parallel which may suggest the answer:  Numbers 22, 23 and 24.  Balaam had been contracted to curse the Israelites; Yahweh told him in no uncertain words not to be complicit in that deed.  The Moabites upped the ante; Balaam opted to push the envelope and leave the final decision to Yahweh, who had already told him nothing doing.

   Yahweh then tested Balaam and told him to go with the Moabites, though Balaam would be bound to say whatever Yahweh put in his mouth.  We are then told that the Most High was irate at Balaam’s decision to go Moabite (22:22); and that the Angel God, Yahweh of hosts, blocked Balaam’s way three times, though seen only by Balaam’s unfortunate ass, who got a beating through no fault of its own.  The animal spoke out in protestation, whereupon Balaam’s eyes are “opened” so that he could see Yahweh of hosts.  This ‘eye opening’ is of the supernatural kind encountered in other Scripture like 2Kings 6:16-17 and Luke 24:31; in no wise were any of the people involved either sleep or sleep-walking:  They were wide awake and processing visual input from their surroundings, but not spiritual realities.

   Here is Balaam, the poster-prophet of all profit-minded preachers (2Peter 2:12-16), who happens to be at hand for God to show His will cannot be contravened; so that no matter how many altars were built offering holocausts to Yahweh to turn Him against the Israelites, Balaam could only utter blessings.  Finally Balaam ‘gets it’; and why did he get it?  Because his eyes were “opened” when the Holy Spirit came over him:  He finally understood God could never be opposed (Numbers 24:2-3).  So here is one case where one rejected by God channels His Holy Spirit to reaffirm an article of faith—which is, by the way, what Caiaphas did when justifying the need to get rid of Jesus (John 11:49-52).

    Going back to Saul….Upon known that David had gone to Samuel at Naioth in Ramah, Saul sent two groups of messengers to apprehend David; we are told that Holy Spirit came over them and they began prophesying along with Samuel’s prophets.  Saul decides to take matters into his own hands and goes to Ramah; whereupon the Holy Spirit comes over him, so that after getting out of his clothes (?), he starts prophesying as well.  Though Scripture does not tell us what was being prophesied, we can make an educated guess they were either blessings or exultations concerning David (1Samuel 19:18-24).

   The important thing to realize is that when a situation furthers God’s plans, whoever happens to be at hand, good or evil, will be used as His means of communication.  This is what Yahweh did with Deborah in Judges 4.  Though her prophetic powers lacked the divine pedigree accorded to Isaiah’s (Isaiah 6:8-9), Jeremiah’s (Jeremiah 1:4-10), and Ezekiel’s (Ezekiel 2:2-4), Deborah, who had self-appointed herself as Judge over Israel (Judges 4:4, 5:7) was the prophet at hand to call Barak to task; informing him that because he had put his trust on Deborah rather than on Yahweh, a woman would be given the victory that otherwise would have been his (Judges 4:6-9, 17-22).