1 Samuel 22: Taking It Personally

What does King Saul and Osama bin Laden have in common? Do you think you know the answer to my riddle? Read through 1 Samuel 22. Then read through what I wrote in 1 Samuel 22. Hopefully by then you’ll know the answer. But before we talk about Saul, let’s talk first about David so we can set the scene.

David doesn’t stay long in Gath. Shortly after Gath, David goes to Adullum. Adullum is located on the right on the border of Israel and Philistine, on the Philistine side, near Gath and Bethlehem. Since it’s so close to Bethlehem, word reaches David’s family that David is hiding in a cave at Adullum and they go to see him. As the text tells us, David’s family might not be going just to see about David’s well-being, but also to hide themselves. For shortly after, other refugees who are distressed, discontent or in debt with Saul follow David’s family to the cave. Apparently Saul’s degrading sanity has created quite a few enemies. When they see David, a natural leader, also becomes an enemy of Saul, they all flock to David to lead them. This may be a start of a small revolution.

All these Israelites flocking to one cave will naturally bring attention. So David moves his family and friends to Mizpah in Moab. David approaches the King of Moab and asks for permission to leave his parents there, and the king accepts. Why does the king take care of this Israelite’s family? Some have suggested that since David’s great-grandmother and Jesse’s grandmother, Ruth, is a Moabite, the king considers them partial Moabites and partial citizens. But most likely, the King of Moab believes in the phrase, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” When the king finds out David is an enemy of King Saul, he is more than happy to help David. So David drops his family off with the king, and he heads for a stronghold in Mizpah. A stronghold is some kind of fort. So David bunkers down in Mizpah.

The only problem with this is that David still isn’t showing the greatest of faith. He’s moved from just one foreign country to the next, and now that’s he’s in a new country, he just hides in a fort. David is doing his own thing for protection; he’s still not fully relying on God. This isn’t the proper behavior for the future king. So in verse 5, God sends the prophet Gad to call David out on this. The prophet Gad tells David to not stay in the stronghold at Moab, but to go back to Judah. God doesn’t want David to flee the land God promised he would rule over, but God wants him to claim his kingdom. David gets the message, and he turns his thinking around. No longer is David going to flee and hide on his own will. David will trust in God for protection, so David will go back to the land God has promised that he will rule over. He starts out heading for a forest just south of Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, back in the region of Judah, Saul receives report that David has re-entered Israel. The reader can tell from the context of the text that Saul has been searching for David all throughout Israel, so in human terms, what David did was fairly smart. His life was in danger being in the land, and so he fled the land. But now instead of flight, David is going to fight. But back to Saul. Saul calls all his officials together, who are Benjaminites. Remember that Saul too is a Benjaminiate. Saul’s close officials were all related to him. David is the son of Jesse, which makes both from the tribe of Judah. Saul begins making this a family thing. Saul rheotorically asks his men why they have left the tribe of Benjamin to side with someone from Judah. What’s he saying is, “I have given you such how positions because you are family. Do you really think life would be better for you if David was your king?” Saul attempts to guilt trip his officials to making them feel bad about not keeping Saul informed. Saul also attempts to guilt trip his officials to cough up any information they might have, but they don’t seem to know any more information than Saul does.

This is where Doeg the Edomite finds his opportunity. The reader meets Doeg the Edomite in 1 Samuel 21. He’s the one watching Ahimilech and David conversing. The reader might also might remember Doeg is being detained. In the last blog, I honestly said that we don’t know why or how Doeg was detained, but whatever way it is, it’s not good. So Doeg sees his opportunity to get in good with the king by ratting David out. Not only does he rat David out, but he rats out Ahimelech, too, as the one who gave David food, weapons and a blessing from God. Saul takes that mean to a rebellion forming against him. So Saul responds by having all the priests from Nob come before him.

Saul brings forth accusations of conspiracy, rebellion and treason for siding with David. His rhetorical question asks Ahimelech for a defense. Ahimelech doesn’t defend himself first, but rather David. He defends David five times with five descriptions: Saul’s servant, loyal, Saul’s son-in-law, captain of Saul’s body guard, and highly respected in Saul’s household. Just one of those would be a good defense, but all five of them clearly don’t sound like an enemy of the king. Then Ahimelech goes into the defense of himself. Ahimelech describes his meeting with David as a regular ordeal. He’s done it before, and he’ll do it again. Ahimelech also states that even if David’s intentions were a rebellion, he would have no knowledge of it, for David did not inform him of any such thing. Here is where David’s deceitful lie in 1 Samuel 21:3 is helpful. Ahimelech can honestly and truthfully say that he does not know David’s intention. Actually, if you remember 1 Samuel 21:3, David said he was on a mission from the king. If Ahimelech takes that seriously, for all Ahimelech knows, what David is doing is for Saul!

Ahimelech’s defense won’t work, for Saul has already made up his mind. Saul pronounces a judgment using an infinite absolute. In Hebrew, when an infinite absolute is used, an infinite verb is used next to the same conjugated verb to intensify the verb. If you were to literally translate the phrase the NIV translates as “You will surely die,” it would literally translate to “dying you shall die.” The dying is what Saul intensifies. As the rest of the verse hints, Saul is going to kill everyone and everything in the town of Nob.

Immediately Saul gives the command to his guards, but his guards don’t move a muscle. Some have suggested that these men don’t want to carry out the order because they once followed David, and they did not want to harm anyone who helped David. But I see a better reason that fits the immediate and near context. The guards probably didn’t want to kill the priests because of their sacred role. The priests spoke to God on the people’s behalf. The priests were the representatives and the messengers from the people to God. They didn’t want to send a bad message. Because of the priests sacred role, the Israelite guards might have seen the priests as righteous or holy, and to kill a righteous or holy man would be a much greater sin. I believe this is the correct view because I think this is what Saul saw in his men, and so he turned to Doeg, an Edomite. Since Doeg is an Edomite and not an Israelite, he doesn’t see what the big deal is about killing a priest. Furthermore, Doeg is still trying to get in good with King Saul. He will do anything to get in good with Saul, even if it’s mass murder. Besides, this would good revenge for the town of Nob detaining him in the last chapter. So Doeg kills all 85 priests. The author mentions the ephod as a reminder that these priests were ordained by God. Not only did Saul kill all 85 priests, but their women and their animals as well.

But Doeg doesn’t kill everyone. There is a single survivor. His name is Abiathar. He is a son of Ahimelech and the grandson of Ahitub. He is a priest just as much as his father and his grandfather. He escapes, and, being a fugitive of Saul himself, goes to find all the other fugitives, who are with David. He reports everything he saw and heard, and everything Saul did. For the first time, David has to deal with the results of his doubts. If David would have trusted the Lord more, he wouldn’t have asked the priest for food or for weapons, and maybe Saul wouldn’t have killed all the priests. David has to face what he’s done, and he does the right thing. He confesses that it is his fault, and he repents. He takes responsibility for the death of Nob. He even tries to make it up to Abiathar by taking him in, providing shelter and protection. At this point, David realizes the consequences of his wrong actions, and seeks to do the right thing by seeking what God wants him to do.

So what does King Saul and Osama bin Laden have in common? On May 2, 2011, a Navy Seal time raided bin Laden’s compound and killed bin Laden. Upon further inspection of the compound he was staying in, the place was full of pornography. Pornography is a sin in Islam just as much as in Christianity, deserving God’s punishment. Then what is an Islamic extremist terrorist doing with a pornography stash? I believe the answer is simple. At some point, bringing death to America was no longer a spiritual for bin Laden. It was no longer about Allah bringing judgment and punishment to America. It was purely for political reason, whatever those reasons may be. King Saul was in the same camp. In the beginning, he rivalry with David could have been spiritual. David’s anointing was a private matter among his family. No one else knew about the anointing. Saul could have argued that he was God’s anointed king, not David. He could have argued that God was on his side, not David’s. But the minute he ordered death to the priests, it was no longer spiritual, but political. It was no longer Saul vs. David, but Saul vs. God. Saul wants to make sure he is king and his family is dynasty, even if it is a direct defiance against God’s order. But the truth is when Samuel anoints Saul in 1 Samuel 16, any time Saul is against David, he is against God. But Saul goes from indirectly against God to directly against God. With David trusting more in God, and Saul trusting less, the outcomes will become even more obvious then they are now.

But it’s not just David and God. It’s the priests. It’s those in debt. It’s even the officials who are clueless. What do they all have in common? Saul claims they are all against him. On the opposite side, you have Doeg, the Edomite. Doeg’s a bad egg, but Saul treats him well. Why? He does what Saul asks. See what is happening? Saul is making this rivalry between David and himself person. Either you’re on Saul’s side or David’s side. The lines will be drawn, and each and every Israelite will have to choose a side. Those who will follow Saul will realize they are following a selfish madman. Those who follow David will realize they are following God.