In 2002 Tom Cruise had to go on the run in a futuristic America described in a movie called “Minority Report”. The premise was that crimes could be detected before they took place, allowing the criminal to be arrested before committing the crime, creating a perfect, crime free society. It turned out the pre-crime reports didn’t always agree (hint – free-will not fate) and the owner of the corporation controlled the minority reports to his advantage. Cruise discovered it and had to run for his life. To keep the movie moving he barely managed to stay one step ahead of the law until he broke in and stole the person responsible for the minority report and was able to expose the corrupt owner. In just over two hours Tom solved America’s problems.

Meanwhile back in real life we know it doesn’t happen that way. Oh, people still run for their lives, but usually get caught by the dumbest things like running a stop sign, or having a broken tail light. Sometimes folk do stay ahead of the law, but usually it’s purely by accident. Sometimes they need direct interference by others.

It’s hard to believe David lived a decade on the run from Saul. Sometimes he almost got caught by the dumbest things – like hiding in a cave that Saul entered to use as a bathroom in one case. But he always managed to escape. Sometimes with human intervention and sometimes by divine intervention. Since David himself was a prophet, who lived when other prophets were around, the Bible records a few of the times where God’s direct intervention was necessary to help him escape Saul’s attempts on his life.

One of those times of direct intervention was recorded in 1 Samuel 19 when David’s decade long flight from Saul first began. Despite his earlier promise to Jonathan Saul made killing David a military priority Last time we saw David’s wife (Saul’s daughter) helped him escape. Not knowing what to do David fled to God’s prophet, priest, and judge, Samuel. When Saul found out, he sent men to get David, but everyone sent to get him was overwhelmed by God’s Spirit and began to prophesy (1 Sam 19:18-24).

Even Saul was overcome by God’s Spirit and began prophesying. The details of what the men prophesied are not revealed so there’s no point in speculating. What is clearly revealed is God directly intervening to stop Saul from doing what he wanted to do. God was going to protect His servant David no matter how hard Saul tried to kill him.

Since it was God working there was no “minority report”, there was simply THE REPORT. Too bad Saul wouldn’t listen. It would have saved him a decade of desperation, disappointment and self-destruction, and perhaps, more importantly, his soul. What about us – do we listen to God? He has given us one report to tell us what He wants us to do – the Bible. If we will listen and obey it will save our soul.