Sunday School | David - 1 Samuel 22

Alright. You guys ready? You getting your final little breakfast plate over there? Yes. We are gonna be studying First Samuel chapter 22 today. If you're keeping up.

And full disclosure here, I have a cold. So I'm trying to avoid touching people. I don't have COVID. I took a COVID test. But I know that anytime somebody seems sick, you assume they're a dirty leper. And I am not a dirty leper. I mean, I kind of am a dirty leper, but not with COVID. So if you wanna avoid me giving you a cold, you might just keep a wide berth.

So everybody doing okay? Holding okay.

First Samuel 22 & The Bible Project App

So here's the thing. We're gonna be studying First Samuel chapter 22. We're gonna continue our series on the life of David. But we almost didn't, and I'm gonna make a suggestion to you.

Next week, I'm gonna take a quick pause in our study in First Samuel to take a look at a new product from the Bible Project that I think is really terrific, and I wanna advocate for it. I was gonna give you a demo of this product today, but then I decided just to wait a week and finish our First Samuel thing. But you might want to, and in fact, I hope that you will, get on your iPhone or Android and download the new app. It's just called The Bible Project.

The Bible Project produces these five, six, seven minute videos. They're the best thing I've ever seen. They combine fantastic theology with really solid doctrine. The primary teacher is a guy named Tim Mackie, and he does a fantastic job. He's always on point, very thoughtful, very engaging.

But Tim Mackie is combined with this guy named John Collins, who's a fantastic artist. And so they combine the totally on point theological mind of Tim Mackie with the extraordinary visual communication capacity of John Collins. And the one plus one is not two in this situation. It is like these guys are so on point.

Their videos are great. You can watch these little five, six, seven minute videos on a million different topics. And what they've done in their app is they've combined all of their videos into one spot. But more interestingly, they've added a new track that they call "The Journey." Essentially what they're creating is a through the Pentateuch in a year. Right? So the five books of the Old Testament—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Those first five books, they're gonna walk through all of that and give you all kinds of fantastic teaching. The Pentateuch is the foundational reality of the Scriptures. If you wanted to walk through those five books with these guys over the course of a year, it would be just absolutely gold.

So next week, Kellen and I are gonna explain to you how the whole thing works, and we'll do a little bit of a demonstration of it. But if you wanna download the app, just get The Bible Project on your iPhone or The Bible Project on Android and we'll explain to you how it works next week.

Understanding Narrative Structure

All right, so let's take a look at First Samuel chapter 22. You got your Bibles open? You ready? We're studying narrative. Guess what's the unit of narrative? What's the logical chunk in narrative story whether it's a movie or a book?

A scene. That's exactly right. When you watch a movie, you know that the camera changes and now we're in a new scene. Here we're having a conversation in a coffee shop and then the scene changes and now we're out here on this field, and it's a new scene. It's a new location.

And so when you read narrative, it's helpful to notice the divisions between the scenes. There's a group of people in a particular place talking about something, and they do that for a while. And then the next paragraph, suddenly now we're someplace else and new people are talking. So just watch those scenes. There's basically scenes, and sometimes scenes can be like sub-scenes within a thing.

We're in the same room, but now the camera pans over from these two to these two. That's not really a scene change, but it's quasi scene change. Here in our text there's basically five scenes in this chapter. And so we're gonna look at them one at a time. And as you read narrative, just notice that, just watch. Okay, here's one unit, one chunk, okay? We'll do them a chunk at a time.

First Samuel 22 verse one. David left Gath and escaped to the Cave Of Adullam. When his brothers and his father's household heard about it, they went down to him there. And all those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader. About 400 men were with him. — 1 Samuel 22:1

Okay, first of all, what just happened in chapter 21? What led us up to this moment? Can you go back? It's been like two weeks because we weren't here last week. So two weeks ago, what was going on?

I'm hearing two things. Okay, Robin first. David had fled Saul and went to Gath, and with that king, and then ultimately started acting like he lost his mind. Yep, excellent. So David is on the run. He had been with Saul and Jonathan shot the air and said get out of here and then he flees and he's just trying to find a place to be safe. David is fleeing for his life, trying to be safe.

And did you want to add anything, Kat? Well then he went to Amalek, priest and got the priest in the bread. That's right. And so that whole, we get this set up. One of the things that he does is he goes to this priest and he gets this bread that he's not really allowed to eat but maybe it's not that big of a deal, we're not quite sure about that. Jesus says it's kind of okay. And he takes Goliath's sword and he's off, but he's still fleeing. He's going to foreign nations. He's going to get things, and he's just trying to stay alive.

And then now he moves into the Cave Of Adullam, but he's not alone. How would you characterize the people that he has gathered around him in the Cave Of Adullam?

Castoffs. Mercenaries. Castoffs. He lived in his family. Okay, his family too. We're gonna see his family in the next scene. His family's gonna be prominent in the next scene right here. But right now this is a bunch of ruffians. Right? The way the NIV says it is it calls them those that are in distress, in debt, or discontented. What do you have in your Bible? Discontented. Discontented, malcontents, okay. Bitter and soul. Bitter and soul, okay. So this is not the most savory group of people, right? This is King David and he's gathered around him his followers, these natural people that are like with him, they're all a bunch of low lives. They're a bunch of low lives.

David Anticipates Jesus

Does that remind you of anybody else? Any other great leader who's gathered around himself a bunch of dirt bags? It is very much. That is, what is it? Robin Hood. Robin Hood, it's got the Robin Hood vibe. Yeah, that's going on. Who else? And it is absolutely, this is very much, this is one of a hundred ways that David anticipates Jesus. When Jesus, the people that Jesus gathers around himself both when he's alive and walking on the earth, right, and then when he's been raised from the dead and is gathering people from around the nations. It's all of us. It's all the lowly people.

There's a great Rich Mullins—do you guys listen to Rich Mullins music? He died a long time ago but he's a fantastic lyricist and he's got a great song, he's got this lyric in one of his songs that's all about people scorning Jesus and one of the laments that is made in this song about Jesus is that the whores all seem to love him and the drunks propose a toast. Right? And that is right on. Jesus gathered around himself all these ne'er do wells, all of these lowly people that were not so haughty and so arrogant.

And then Paul says this. Look at 1 Corinthians.

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many were influential. Not many were of noble birth. — 1 Corinthians 1

And Jesus gathers around himself all these ruffians, and Jesus did the same thing, and he invited us to come to the party. Jesus tells a story about a king who had a feast, but none of the guests wanted to come to the feast. Do you know this story? And so he says go out into the streets and drag in anybody that you can just get all these losers and bring them to the party. And the punchline of that joke is that we are those losers. We are the ones that he brought, not because we're smarter and prettier and funnier and richer, but because we were needy, and he's gathered around himself those.

That's the same thing that David is doing, all right? David in lots of ways is like Jesus, okay?

So he does this, but then watch what he does here, and this is where the family's gonna come in. Look at verse three. 1 Samuel 22:3:

From there David went to Mizpah and Moab and he said to the king of Moab, "Would you let my father and my mother come and stay with you until I learn what God will do for me?" So he left them with the king of Moab and they stayed with him as long as David was in the stronghold. But the prophet Gad said to David, "Do not stay in the stronghold. Go to the land of Judah." So David left and went to the Forest of Hareth.

First of all, why would the king of Moab be kind to David? What's going on with that?

John: David's grandmother is Moab.

This is an excellent answer. Who is David's grandmother? Is it grandmother or great grandmother? I get lost in the generations, but who was it?

Student: Ruth.

It's Ruth, right? So David has some history with the Moabites. He had a Moabite great grandmother, Ruth. So that's definitely one possibility—this is a hat tip to the whole thing going down with Ruth.

Why else do you think Moab would do this? There's some little aphorism that like, "my enemy's enemy is my friend," right? And so there may be something to that for sure.

Lorabeth: If the king sees that David is more powerful and he's gonna be talking to the king of Israel, Israel is his future ally.

Exactly. If he recognizes that Saul has slain his thousands but David has tens of thousands, then if I'm nice to you when you're down, then you might be nice to me when you're up, right? So there's all those possibilities that might be going on.

I don't have any particular insight into the king of Moab's mind, but all those things are probably in play. It might be that David goes to Moab because of the Ruth connection. Moab might respond favorably because he sees which way this tree is leaning and how it could work out for him. And there's also just the tendency—you see this several times throughout the Old Testament—that kings would be gracious to people from other lands. Part of that is "my enemy's enemy is my friend," but there are a whole bunch of instances where that's the case. So it's not surprising that Moab would respond favorably.

But nor is it surprising that Gad is gonna step in and put a stop to this. When Gad says he wants David to get out of here, he's not just having him leave the Cave of Adullam. Gad is actually interfering with this whole alliance going down with Moab. And why would that be the case? Do you have any idea why, based on Israel's history in the Old Testament?

Student: You don't want to entangle them with Moab.

Right. And do you know the history of that? Could you summarize it real quick?

Student: The Moabites were brought in to seduce the children of Israel as they were coming into the land.

That's exactly right. And there's bad news: we don't like Moab. Yes, Ruth is from Moab, and so we stutter step on this. But just take a look at this. Go to Deuteronomy 23. I think this is probably what you're thinking of. In Deuteronomy 23, Moab is like persona non grata for Israel. Check this out:

No Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord even down to the tenth generation. For they did not come to meet you with bread and water on your way when you came out of Egypt. They hired Balaam, the son of Beor of Pethor in Aram to pronounce a curse on you. However, listen to this: the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God loves you. Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them as long as you live. — Deuteronomy 23:3-6

That's what David is doing—this foreign entanglement with Moab. Gad's like, "This is gonna go badly. We're not allowed to do that. Knock it off."

So what does David do? He's found a place of refuge. He's afraid. He's getting chased down by Saul, and then Gad shows up with some Old Testament verse to quell him. What do you think he's going to do? Is he going to obey God or is he going to not?

Student: He obeyed.

He did. He does obey.

David's Surrender and True Refuge

And I think it's a pretty interesting thing about David is that he's found a place to be safe. Have you ever been afraid? And then you find a place of safety and then somebody shows up and says, no, no, no, you can't do that. That's a miserable place. You're like, come on, for crying out loud, like this is finally working for me. Could you please just step off? You're legalistic. But David doesn't do that. When Gad shows up and says you can't do this, David yields and he moves. And I think that's just one more picture of David's surrender to the Lord.

You may find yourself in some situation where you have pulled a lever and it's working for you, but it's not okay, but it is working, and those are hard things to let go of. But David just stops. He's found a refuge, he's found a place of safety, but he's going to let go of it.

And this is where if you think of the Psalms, what does David say is his refuge?

The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer. My God is my rock in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. — Psalm 18

That's a challenging thing because what is your stronghold for you, right now? Could be your job, could be your bank account, could be some relationship. That thing that makes you feel safe at night. For David it was for the moment at least it was Moab. And it's tough to let that thing go and to really believe it's not the money, it was never the money. It's not the relationship, it was never the relationship, that the Lord is my refuge. But David believes that so he's like, all right, off with Moab, and he moves on. David's a beast.

Saul's Paranoia and Doag's Betrayal

So he's going to move on. He's going to ditch Moab and look at what happens in verse six. Keep your eye on Saul. Okay?

Saul heard that David and his men had been discovered and Saul, spear in hand, was seated under the tamarisk tree on a hill at Gibeah with all of his officials standing around him. And Saul said to them, "Listen men of Benjamin, will the son of Jesse give you all of your fields and vineyards? Will he make all of you commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds? Is that why you've all conspired against me? No one tells me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. None of you is concerned about me or tells me that my son has incited my servant to lie in wait for me as he does today." But Doag the Edomite, who was standing with Saul's officials said, "Well I saw the son of Jesse come to Ahimelech son of Ahitub at Nob. And Ahimelech inquired of the Lord for him. He also gave him provisions and the sword of Goliath the Philistine." — 1 Samuel 22:6-10

All right, first off, what's our new scene? What's our new setting here you guys? What is it? Sitting under a tree, under a tamarisk tree, whatever a tamarisk tree is. Right? Sitting under a tree on the top of a hill.

It's interesting that trees are often thematically significant in the Old Testament. It's a massive theme. Lots and lots of important things happen under trees. In fact, the Bible Project guys do a whole series on the significance of trees. I would bet that the tamarisk tree fits into that broader thing. And Saul is picking this place of significance because he's probably puffing himself up and acting like a big man. This is maybe the equivalent of having your boardroom for the king. He's having this big scene here trying to demonstrate his own authority, his power and get everybody back in line because as near as he can tell he's losing the people. Saul believes there's a conspiracy afoot. This is what's going down here.

Saul is a Benjamite. So there's 12 tribes of Israel. Jacob's got 12 kids, one of them is Benjamin. And Saul comes from the Benjamin tribe. And he's kind of comparing what he has done for them. He's made them leaders over hundreds or thousands. Surely the son of Jesse is not going to be behind you but taking care of you the way I've been taking care of you. That's what he's saying. It's interesting because how does the king address his men?

The leadership—you can see this as the military leaders, you can see this as the president's cabinet. What does he call them? People. What is he the king of? Israel. The whole thing. This is like a president from Virginia who only hires Virginians, okay. So it's not quite nepotistic, but it's kind of like the second circle of nepotism, right.

What's that again? Tribalistic, that's good. So he's supposed to be ruling the nation, but he's reserved power for his own cohort, his own family, his own people. And that's just generally a bad idea, right? We're gonna see it play out. Saul is gonna have an increasing—we're gonna watch the circle of the conspiracy. It's all in his head. It's just gonna spill out. Kind of like what Quig's talking about this morning of Herod wanting to kill everybody because he thinks everybody's coming to get him. Saul is gonna have the same perspective of like, Saul is good and nobody else is trustworthy. His leaders are all gonna come from Benjamin and everybody else is gonna be like suspect to him. Watch that play out.

First John and then Kelly. Did I miss you or is it too late? Not at all. Spear in his hand. David isn't the only one that's afraid. Saul is afraid. Saul is what? Saul is afraid. Oh, absolutely right. That's why he's got the spear. That's what I'm telling you. We're gonna see undeniably that Saul is growing increasingly paranoid. He's gonna circle the wagons, have the spear, that's what's going down with him.

Kelly Sue? Yes. He's falling apart. We're watching Saul's descent into madness here, and it's gonna just get worse and worse. And the problem is when the guy that's going crazy is the king, he's got more than a spear at his command, right? And it's gonna get—it's about to get a whole lot yuckier.

Saul's Delusions

So Benjaminites, all this kind of stuff—we've a new setting. He's paranoid, he's believing false things. Do you notice anything in this passage here, verses six to ten? What's the most absurd thing that he believes? If you just scan through and maybe we might even differ on this and that's okay, multiple things. But one thing strikes me as completely, completely out of line. What's the craziest thing you see here?

He blamed Jonathan. Say it again? Blaming Jonathan. He's blaming Jonathan? Well, okay, but it is true that Jonathan made a covenant with the son of Jesse, right? Now it doesn't mean what he thinks it means, but it is true, right? So everybody's against him, right? So you've got this sense of a conspiracy that's growing. We're going to watch that thing spill more and more and more.

What else? David is lying in wait to jump at him. Clearly not. That's what I would put as the bull's eye of it. Look at it in verse—what is that?

That's also in verse eight.

None of you is concerned with me or tells me that my son has incited my servant to lie in wait for me as he does today.

Who is his servant? David. Oh, and by the way, Jonathan told David to lie in wait and kill Saul. That's his claim. My son has incited my servant to lie in wait for me as he does today. And that right there, his fundamental view of David is that David is just waiting, he's hiding around the corner. The reason you gotta have a spear in your hand at all times is because as soon as you walk through that door, David's gonna be there to kill you.

Now, if you know the future of this story—what these subsequent chapters are gonna be—is David lying in wait for Saul? No. Does David have the opportunity to kill Saul? How many times does he explicitly have the ability to jam a spear into his head? Two times.

What's the first time? Saul goes into the cave to use the bathroom and David's already there. He's like, Man, I could just literally kill you. And instead, what does he do? He sneaks up to him and cuts off part of his robe. And then when Saul leaves, David calls out to him like, Yo, if David were lying in wait to kill you, he would have killed you.

What's the second time? He snuck into the camp when Saul was in the middle of it. Yes. So Saul's sleeping up there and then David goes and he steals like his jug or something and a spear maybe, something. And again, just kill him, but he doesn't.

David is absolutely not lying in wait for Saul. And Jonathan certainly has not incited him to lie in wait. But the reality is fading. It's just drifting away from Saul and it's being replaced with his wild imagination. So I had a friend who used to talk about vain imaginations. You're vainly imagining things that just are not true. But as long as you're committed to that false picture of reality, reality will recede and you're gonna become more and more disconnected. And in Saul's case, more and more dangerous. That's really what I think our eye is supposed to capture here.

Ruby, Lily? This might be a little bit of a tangent, but where is Jonathan when his dad is accusing him of inciting David to lie in wait?

That's a great question. I don't think we get any information about that. From the time that Jonathan's launching arrows, Jonathan kind of recedes, and so he's back at the headquarters, I guess. He's awaiting his death. And maybe he—well, certainly Jonathan has fallen out of favor. And so I'm guessing that Saul's not gonna invite Jonathan to come to these meetings anymore because he sees Jonathan as like, Jonathan has become his enemy, which is also crazy. So he's getting buttonholed somehow, but we don't get data on that.

Yeah, because it's funny because then Saul and Jonathan are together in the end. They're in the battle. They're gonna die together.

Not yet though. Okay, so far so good? All right, so let's keep going. So once again we're gonna change the setting here. Oh no, DOAG, we gotta talk about DOAG.

So DOAG gives us a report. What's DOAG's report? What does he just tell us the raw goods, what does he say happens?

Okay, so I gotta tell you, because I have a cold, I can't hear. Like I need the kid clearing my ears or something. So just be louder than you think you need to be.

The priests helped him, gave him food, gave him the sword.

Okay, so he tells a story. Hey, David came in, the priests inquired of the Lord, gave him the bread, gave him Goliath's sword. Did you want to add anything Kat?

No, that's all.

Is that basically it? Okay, now that's just data and data can always be interpreted. And if you are crazy and you're a lunatic, you're gonna interpret that data consistent with your craziness, right? If you're not crazy then you're gonna just kinda take a look at that and see what it is.

So what's the benign, what's the positive interpretation of that?

Hospitality.

Okay. That the king is being hospitable. Or not the king, but the priest is being hospitable. Great. That's an interpretation based on the priest. What about David? How would you take David's behavior in that if you're just not going insane?

Come after Saul.

Yeah. He's not like he's going off, like, you know, amassing an army to go kill him. It's like the Goliath sword really is his rightfully since he killed Goliath. That's right, that's right. So he had taken Goliath, he was eating food, he was hungry, and you can even just make the case that he's going to the Lord, right? He's hurting. He's struggling. So he goes and he inquires of the Lord. These are godly things. There's nothing untoward about this. There's nothing threatening about this. There's nothing bad.

However, there's another take.

But even if he set aside Saul's madness, his insecurities, it is reasonable for Saul to feel like, okay, David's on the run. David's bleeding. Because he went to a priest. He went to like, you go to the church. You go to the cathedral. You go to the place of God to seek refuge from your agencies. He got a sword too. It's reasonable. Yeah.

I think you're right that Saul would reasonably infer, well remember he was mad at the table. When David missed dinner two nights in a row Saul's like where is he, what's he doing? And the answer is he's fleeing from you because you keep trying to kill him, right? And so you're absolutely right that Saul recognizes, okay, David's on the run, but it's unreasonable to assume that he is wicked in his flight or that he is counterattacking for he truly isn't, right? But you're absolutely right, he's fleeing and Saul knows that he's fleeing.

Totally true, okay? But what he thinks—what does Saul think it means? What's Saul's primary perception of the whole Ahimelech thing?

The witch of Endor, yeah. The witches, and here's David going to the church, so there's another, you know, just like Cain was, you know, angry.

Yes. That's a fantastic observation that when David is in distress he goes and inquires of the Lord, and when Saul is in distress he goes to a witch. That's intentional. That's great that you catch that the narrator wants you to recognize the contrast between the way these two men respond under stress, right?

And by the way, before we're like, of course, David's great and he's awful, pause real quick. What would your narrator say? What is your stress response? Like when you're under stress, does it drive you to the Lord or does it drive you somewhere else? You know, what does that look like for you? What is your—sometimes if you do your Enneagram it's like you're a four, and under stress, you're a seven, but you become like a nine or whatever. I don't know any of that stuff. But whatever—you know what I'm talking about, right? There's this: if you're this way, like, what is your stress response?

Eat.

Do you go to the witch of Endor? You eat. Is that what you said?

Yeah. This food is delicious.

Amen, Quig? It is delicious. Did you wanna say something, Robin?

Yeah. I found at some point in my walk with the Lord that when something bad happened like that, I would want to call and talk to somebody.

And the Lord reminded me that the only person I needed to go to was him. So I may not be going to a witch, but I might be taking my problems and trying to discuss it with other people and figure out their ideas instead of going to work.

That's funny that you would say that because Kelly had an ex-boyfriend, a guy named Richie—loser, but actually I remember that from Richie. He had a very strong sense that when he was under distress, his first move is gonna be to go to the Lord. And I really admired that impulse, because very often our impulse is not to go to the Lord first. It's a good thing.

Saul's Distorted Lens

So Saul's gonna look at the data and he's gonna see it because remember, he's seeing everything through a distorted lens. Everything confirms it. I knew it. This is a conspiracy. I knew it. And what's gonna happen is it's going to grow.

So in 1 Samuel 22:11, the king sends for the priest Ahimelech son of Ahitub and his father's whole family—that just got worse, by the way. Can you tell it's gonna get worse? He goes to get the priest and says, bring your dad and all of his kids. Bring all the cousins. Bring them all in. His father's whole family who were priests at Nob—and they all came to the king.

They're not next door. They're getting summoned from like 30 miles away so that you get everybody in your whole family and meet me at the tree. So they're all gonna take this journey. They're all gonna schlep in, and once they all finally get there, you know what we're gonna have? We're going to have a trial. It's going to be a trial in which the judge and the prosecutor are the same man. That's bad. When the judge, when the prosecuting attorney also has verdict power, that's bad.

So they show up and Saul says, "Listen now, son of Ahitub."

"Yes, my lord," he answered. And Saul said to him, "Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, giving him bread and a sword and inquiring of God for him?"

Do you see how when the judge is the prosecutor it's going to go poorly? He doesn't ask, "Did you conspire against me?" He doesn't ask, "Is there another way to make sense of this?" He asks, "Why did you conspire against me?" He's granting the given that there's a conspiracy afoot.

"Why have you conspired against me that you gave him bread and a sword and inquired of God for him so that he has rebelled against me today and lies in wait for me?"

Once again, David is lying in wait. David is lying in wait. Is David lying in wait? He is not.

Ahimelech's Defense

Ahimelech answered the king, "What are you talking about? None of that's true. Here's what happened. Listen to his defense. Listen to the way he's gonna frame it. He's gonna have several points to his defense."

He says, "Number one: Who of all your servants is as loyal as David, the king's son-in-law, the captain of your bodyguard and highly respected in your household?" He's saying, first of all, I didn't even know you guys were in a fight. He's the captain of your bodyguard. He's your son-in-law. He's loyal to you. He's highly regarded by everyone, and I thought by you. So what's up with that?

"Number two: This is normal. This wasn't the first time I inquired for him. I did this all the time. He's your guy, and so when he comes, he represents you. Was that the first day that I inquired of God for him? Of course not.

"Number three: Let not the king accuse your servant or any of his father's family, for your servant knows nothing at all about this whole affair. I'm not in a conspiracy. I don't know anything about this."

And the king says it's time for the verdict. You ready for the verdict? We've heard the case. The defense has spoken, and here is the verdict.

"You will surely die, Ahimelech. You and your father's whole family."

Do you recognize a friend? Do you hear an echo? You will surely die. What's the echo? That is the garden. This is the Lord issuing judgment, and Saul is stepping into that role. He's placing himself as God, as if he is wise enough, knows enough. He's heard a defense. The defense is actually spot on, but it's irrelevant to him because he is determined: "You and your whole family will surely die."

Every single point that he's—that's right.

I watched some videos the other day on YouTube of people fighting, of people going crazy in a fast food store or whatever. Have you ever seen these videos of people fighting? The world is voyeuristic and apparently I'm a voyeur as well. What was so fascinating about watching people argue is how single-minded they are. Once you're committed to a viewpoint, it doesn't matter what anyone says to you. You can watch these videos of people freaking out, just repeating themselves over and over, and it goes nowhere. You're not getting in.

I had a good friend named Kevin, and he told me that his wife observed something she called "getting hooked." When something would upset him, he would get hooked and just couldn't get unhooked. He'd hammer away at it. When I watch these videos and listen to my friend Kevin's story, it's just only a half step away from me. You ever get hooked? You ever get to the point where you're not to be reasoned with because you know what you know and so shut up about that? Has that ever happened to any of you? It's easier to see in your spouse, isn't it?

And that's where Saul is. That is a bad place to be.

The Contrast Between Saul and David

One of the things you're going to see is the contrast of Saul and David. David finds a place of safety in Moab. Somebody comes to him and says, "No, no, no, no, you can't do this. You gotta leave." And he's like, "Oh shoot," and he goes, right? Someone comes to Saul and says, "No, no, no, no, no, you're not seeing this," and he doubles down.

Are you the guy that when somebody contradicts you, you double down? Or are you the guy that when somebody contradicts you, you're quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry?

This is what you see in the book of Proverbs. The word "fool" is used over 70 times in Proverbs. About 15 of those times, it specifically identifies the fool as the one who will not learn. The fool is the person who, when you come to them with new information, they're like, "La la la la la, I don't want to hear it." They cannot grow, they cannot change. They're already committed to their thing. And that's what Saul is representing—he knows what he knows and everybody can shut up about it.

That's scary because when I get mad, my ears stop working too. Do yours?

So that's a warning to be aware of that phenomenon.

---

Bill: This whole discussion we've been having, you've taught us over time too that we tend to identify with the protagonist and the hero. I've been sitting here thinking that maybe I ought to look at Saul and see how I'm like Saul. And Saul, after hearing the sermon from Quig this morning, how Saul is like Harry. I mean, he killed a different group of people, but—

Tim: That's exactly right. You tell that story about the fighting and you're saying we're all just a step away because we're all at fault. That's exactly right, Bill. Whenever you come to the text, what we want to look at is: where's the badness and where's the brokenness? Where's the sin? Where's the suffering? Where's the guiltiness and where's the grief?

Saul is a great representation of the badness and the brokenness. He's afraid, he's nervous, he's gonna lose his kingdom and so he's freaking out. But the way that he freaks out is that he's gonna start killing people and slaughtering people and allowing his vain imaginations to run wild.

David is also afraid. But he is, by and large, not always, but usually in his fear, he's gonna turn to the Lord instead of like chopping off heads.

When I look at that, I say, "Oh, I've been afraid. All kinds of things. Here's two different ways that people might respond in fear." How many times have I been like Saul? What would it be like to either be like David or to be under the protection of one like David? Those are the exact sorts of questions that I think the narrative texts want us to start asking.

How do I see my life reflected in these things? Where's my badness and brokenness surfaced? And then what do I do with it? Because I do all these stupid things. And as Quig said this morning, and we'll say again later today, there's no bush to hide under, but there is a fountain of grace to stand beneath.

There better be a fountain of grace, because if not, we're in a mess, right? Okay, so let's keep going because the clock just never stops.

So he issues the sentence, right, you're all gonna die. And then he says in verse 17:

The king ordered the guards at his side, "Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because they too have sided with David. They knew that he was fleeing, yet they did not tell me."

What are they gonna do? They don't do it. This is an evil order, okay? We obey the government. We've talked about this during COVID. Romans 13, we obey the government even when it hurts, but we don't obey the government when they're compelling us to sin. This is a great example. These are obedient men. They are under the control of the king, but he's telling them to do a wicked thing. And once you—the king can make me suffer and I just have to drink it. But the king cannot make me sin and this would be an evil thing. So they're like, we're not doing it.

So in verse 18 the king ordered Doeg, "You turn and strike down the priest." Doeg was the guy that started this whole mess. And so Doeg the Edomite—at which point we should hiss—Doeg's baddest, Doeg the Edomite turned and struck them down. Check it out: that day he killed 85 men who wore the linen ephod. As if that. Okay, how many Ahimelechs? Let's just say Ahimelech's in on the conspiracy that doesn't exist. But let's just say he is. Maybe we kill Ahimelech for being a traitor, but he kills 85 men. Do you think 85 of these guys were all like, "Yeah, give him the bread"? Like, Saul's losing his mind.

And as if that's not enough, look at the next line, verse 19:

He also put to the sword Nob the town of the priests with its men and its women and its children and its infants and its cattle and its donkey and its sheep.

Does this not pair nicely with your text this morning, Quig? Do you see the madness of sin and just the—you're trying to kill Jesus but let's wipe out all the children in Bethlehem. And you just watch the way sin just spreads like a pool of blood and more people are caught up in the madness, right?

King Herod was an Edomite. Oh, was he really? I didn't know that. King Herod was an Edomite. Well that fits. I did not know that, okay. And so the conspiracy grows in his mind. I'm gonna look that up, brother.

It's a total annihilation of the threat, completely, thoroughly. Eliminate the threat. It seems like he's just taking that same method.

That's right. And that's the name of the game for Saul: eliminate the threat. However many people have to die, as long as my kingdom is preserved, it's worth whatever it costs, okay?

It actually is a fulfillment of the prophecy against the priest Eli that I didn't realize that. Okay, I'll have to look at First Samuel 2. First Samuel 2:31. Oh wow. And so it's fulfilled there. I'll have to look that up—First Samuel 2. Thank you for that. I wasn't conscious of that. So I'll take a look at that too, okay.

David's Response

Last thing and then we gotta go. Just notice what happens, very end, verse 20:

Abiathar the son of Ahimelech escaped and fled to join David and he told David that Saul had killed the priest of the Lord. Then David said to Abiathar, "That day when Doeg the Edomite was there, I knew that he would be sure to tell Saul. I am responsible for the death of your father's whole family. Stay with me. Don't be afraid. The man who's seeking your life will seek mine also. You'll be safe with me."

What does he mean when he takes responsibility? There's a couple of possibilities here. Does he mean, "Yeah, I shouldn't have gone there and kind of basically deceived him and eaten the bread. I should have stayed off that"? Or does he mean, "Dang it, I should have killed Doeg when we walked through the door"?

What do you think? Maybe there's another idea too. Maybe I should have warned him or taken him with me so that now he's not gonna be viewed as part of the conspiracy? I don't know what it is.

I would have initially thought that he was acknowledging that it was kind of shady because I think it was kind of shady what he did. But the commentaries I looked at said, "No, what he's really saying is, 'I should have killed Doeg.'" We're in a battle now. It's pitch war. And while David is never gonna lay a hand on Saul, the truth is he's very comfortable killing lots of other people that are not Saul. So it might be that.

And I don't honestly know, but you could just chew on that. As we talked about kind of the shadiness of David's not full truthfulness in that whole Ahimelech thing, maybe he's repenting of that here, or maybe he's just saying "I should have killed him." I don't know. You can ponder that and see what you think.

But we gotta go to church because it's late, alright? And then next week—next week we're not gonna do First Samuel 23, although you're welcome to read it.

We're gonna take a look at this Bible Project app because I think it'd be really helpful to you. If you wanna download the app and have it on your phone, that would be great.

Bob, do you need some? It's interesting to see what David says about Doeg in Psalms 52. It's specifically scoffing.

Is that full of money? Oh, so maybe he should've killed him. You think that's what he's saying?

So Bob thinks Psalm 52 has data on that. That's all wait what? Did you say my name? Okay. That's it. See you guys. It's empty. Yeah.