So we're in 1 Samuel, chapter
22, and we're going to read from verse one. And we're back to
reading about David again today. David therefore departed. You
remember that he had been in Gath, in the land of the Philistines. David therefore departed thence,
and escaped to the cave of Dullam. And when his brethren and all
his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him. And everyone that was in distress,
and everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented,
gathered themselves unto him, and he became a captain over
them. And there were with him about
four hundred men. And David went thence to Mizpah
in Moab. And he said unto the king of
Moab, Let my father and my mother, I pray thee, come forth and be
with you till I know what God will do for me. And he brought
them before the king of Moab, and they dwelt with him all the
while that David was in the hold. And the prophet Gad said unto
David, Abide not in the hold. Depart, and get thee into the
land of Judah. Then David departed, and came
into the forest of Harith. When Saul heard that David was
discovered, and the men that were with him, now Saul abode
in Gibeah under a tree in Ramah, having his spear in his hand,
and all his servants were standing about him, then Saul said unto
his servants that stood about him, Hear now, ye Benjamites,
will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards,
and make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds?
that all of you have conspired against me, and there is none
that showeth me that my son hath made a leak with the son of Jesse,
and there is none of you that is sorry for me, or showeth unto
me that my son hath stirred up my servants against me to lie
in wait, as at this day. Then answered Doig the Edomite,
which was set over the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the
son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahetub. And he inquired of the Lord of
him, and gave him victuals, and gave him the sword of Goliath
the Philistine. Then the king sent to call Ahimelech
the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the
priests that were in Nob. And they came, all of them, to
the king. And Saul said, Hear now, thou
son of Ahitub. And he answered, Here I am, my
lord. Saul said unto him, Why have
ye conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse, in that
thou hast given him bread and a sword, and hast inquired of
God for him, that he should rise against me to lie in wait, as
at this day? Then Ahimelech answered the king
and said, And who is so faithful among all thy servants as David,
which is the king's son-in-law, and goeth at thy bidding, and
is honourable in thine house? Did I then begin to inquire of
God for him? Be it far from me. Let not the
king impute anything unto his servant, nor to all the house
of my father, for thy servant knew nothing of all this, less
or more. And the king said, Thou shalt
surely die, Ahimelech, thou and all thy father's house. And the
king said unto the footmen that stood about him, Turn and slay
the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David,
and because they knew when he fled and did not show it me.
But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand
to fall upon the priests of the Lord. And the king said to Doig,
turn thou and fall upon the priests. And Doig the Edomite turned,
and he fell upon the priests, and slew on that day fourscore
and five persons that did wear a linen ephod. And Nob, the city
of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men
and women, children and sucklings, oxen and asses, and sheep with
the edge of the sword. And one of the sons of Ahimelech,
the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David.
And Abiathar showed David that Saul had slain the Lord's priests. And David said unto Abiathar,
I knew it that day when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he
would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the death of all the
persons of thy father's house. Abide thou with me, fear not,
for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life, but with me thou shalt
be in safeguard. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. I hope you don't mind me reading
these whole passages these days. I know the chapters can be a
little bit long, but I think it's good that we are familiar
with the reading of the Word of God, and there is so much
in these stories that I can't mention that perhaps it will
intrigue you a little bit to go back read them for yourself
at another time as well. But again today I want to point
out that there are two distinct incidents in this one chapter. In the first, we read about David's
return from Gath in the land of the Philistines, which he,
I'm sure, was happy to leave, and then his stay at Adullam,
where there was a cave that supplied him some security. He was able
to dwell in that cave, and indeed, there were others who came and
joined him and visited him there. Here his family came to meet
him, probably because they felt that their own lives were now
in danger from Saul. And we also read about the gathering
of a band of men to him that numbered 400. And these men were
also, like David, outcasts. They were discontented, we're
told. They were troubled people, and
they identified in some way with David's predicament, and they
sought refuge with David. And finally, we read of David
travelling to the land of Moab, where he asked the king of the
Moabites to provide safety and protection for his elderly parents,
Jesse of Bethlehem and his mother. Just a little fact, David's mother
is never named. We don't know what David's mother's
name was. And this actually is the last
that we hear of David's parents. So we don't know what happened
to them, whether they died in the land of Moab. There is a
story that they were actually killed by the king of Moab. but
that's not in the Bible, that's just a story that the Jews tell
one another. But this is certainly the last
time that we read about the parents of David in the history of David's
life. David himself, we're told at
this time, found refuge in the hold. And I don't know what the
hold is. I don't know whether it's a place
or whether it just means that he found refuge in hiding and
he, that he hid, perhaps it was in
Moab that he was actually hiding, and he was hiding out from anyone
who might be seeking to find him. But while he was there,
a man called Gad, who was a prophet and a disciple of Samuel, came
to him and advised him to return to Judah. which was his own land
and his own tribe, and there to wait for the direction of
the Lord. And I don't know whether those
400 were with him. I don't think they were, in truth,
at this time. I don't think those 400 were
moving around the countryside with David at this time. So it
may just have been that he was with his parents and maybe a
few of his family and maybe one or two others. But I don't think
such a large group. And I say that because David
writes a number of psalms at this time as well. and he seems
to be somewhat isolated in those psalms that he wrote at this
time. One of the Psalms that he wrote
was Psalm 142, and there, if we were to read that, I won't
take the time to do it, but if we were to read that, we would
discover that he felt that he had been forsaken by many and
felt himself alone, but nevertheless testified that he trusted in
the Lord and committed his needs to the Lord. And I think there's
a lovely type in this picture as well of the 400 men who came
to David and made him their captain. In this, David is a type of the
Lord Jesus Christ. David in his lifetime is a type
of the Lord in many ways and we'll touch upon a few of those
I'm sure in weeks to come just as we have already done in past
weeks. But here's another one of these
types, one of these pictures that reveals something to us
of the Lord Jesus. Because the Lord is a captain
over a little band of believers. Just as David was a captain over
these 400, the Lord is a captain over his church, his believers,
his believing people. And they follow him. because
they are in distress, and because they know themselves to be debtors
to God's law, and they know themselves to be in need, because we feel
ourselves to be outcasts from this world, and so we follow
the Lord Jesus Christ. People who were content with
life didn't come and join David's troop. And no one who is content
in this world of sin will ever seek the Lord for salvation. It's the Lord's mercy that makes
us feel distressed in our hearts and in our souls and in our minds
because of our sin. And it is the Lord's mercy that
makes us feel a need of his grace and a need for forgiveness for
our sin. So that it is the Lord who begins
the work in a person's life and afterwards we seek the Lord because
of the needs that he has placed in our heart. And under the merciful
direction of the Lord, his people, his chosen people, his elect,
learn of their spiritual poverty, they feel their guilt of sin,
the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, and we discover in the Gospel
our need of grace. We discover that we've got a
hunger for righteousness, that we never had before, that we
are thirsty after an experience of the Lord, a spiritual experience
that will refresh our souls that we never felt before. And we
discover that we can only find these things in the Lord Jesus
Christ. So that just as David became
the captain to these 400, God builds his church by gathering
needy souls under Christ's leadership from whom we obtain spiritual
blessings that only the Lord Jesus Christ can give. And in
this way, we find that Christ becomes what the book of Hebrews
calls the captain of our salvation. And this is kind of a few thoughts
from the first part of this chapter today. But if this first section
of chapter 22 sheds a light on David as a type of Christ, then
the second part is much darker and shows the cruel and destructive
nature of sin. Saul's misery, we've spoken about
this over the past few weeks, how Saul was a miserable man
and how he was oppressed by the devil in his mind and in his
soul. But Saul's misery and his melancholy
is descending into madness. He sees enemies everywhere and
he sees conspiracies all around about him. David writes in Psalm
53, there were they in great fear where no fear was. There were they in great fear,
there were they in great fear where no fear was. And that tells us that men and
women who have no confidence in God are fearful about things
that they don't have to be fearful about. And this was the case
with Saul. And I'm going to make a little
point here which I hope you will just take note of. Saul's case
is a good lesson for believers. As Christians, we have enough
enemies of our souls without inventing imaginary ones. And we've heard a lot about conspiracies
and conspiracy theories recently. People who follow and believe
these conspiracies without facts, without establishing what is
the truth, are frightened people. However, believers should not
be taken up with these notions and these fears and these conspiracies. Believers have no reason to fear
when the Lord is with us. Look at the contrast that we
have here. Saul had an army at this time. and yet he was afraid of his
own family, he was afraid of his servants and he was afraid
of his friends. David had no one except the Lord,
and yet he could say in Psalm 142, which was written at this
time, I cried unto the Lord with my voice. With my voice unto
the Lord did I make my supplication. I cried unto Thee, O Lord. I
said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the
living. Well we are all in the land of
the living right now and I hope that we will not be unduly afraid
of the things that are going on around about us because we
have found faith in Christ and we have found Christ to be our
refuge and our portion. He will protect us and he will
make us safe. We all feel low sometimes. We all feel disheartened, even
depressed at times. But Saul's depression was destructive
while David's drove him to the Lord for comfort and help. Let us follow David's example
when these challenges come into our lives. As Saul grumbled about
how everyone was against him, we encounter someone else that
we've met before in the previous chapter. Saul was moaning and
groaning and grumbling that everyone was against him, and Doig the
Edomite saw an opportunity to enhance himself and his reputation
in the king's estimation. Doig told Saul that he had seen
David with Ahimelech at Nob and how there the high priest had
helped David and provided him with weapons and food and a message
from the Lord. Doig was a wicked man. and he
spun his tail with Saul to make Ahimelech look bad and to make
himself look good. On hearing this Saul sent for
Ahimelech and the priests of his household and when they arrived
he accused Ahimelech of rebelling against him and of assisting
David. Ahimelech's defence of his actions
was factual, it was honourable, and it was evidently true. And all of Saul's servants, well
most of them, could see that. Those who weren't biased and
bigoted. But that wasn't enough for Saul. He commanded that Ahimelech and
all of the 85 priests that were with him be slain there and then,
though they had nothing to do with David. We find that there was some honour
amongst Saul's servants. They hesitated and wouldn't kill
God's priests. but Doig the Edomite had no such
reservations, and he slew all 85 of these men. Perhaps he did it personally,
or maybe he did it with the help of his family and his servants.
And afterwards, hundreds more people, women and children, were
slain in the city of Knob, so that the whole priestly city
was all but destroyed because of the rage and the temper and
the irrational fear of Saul. Let me just give you a little
aside here, a little subtext to the story here that we've
got in this chapter. This death of all these priests
was also the judgment of God. It was the judgment that God
had promised would come upon the house of Eli for the sins
of his two sons. Remember at the time when the
Tabernacle was lost or the Ark, I'm sorry, the Ark of the Covenant
was lost in battle to the Philistines because these two boys took the
Ark out to the battle and how they had been so disobedient
to the Lord in the service that they did with the religious worship of
the people at that time. And the Lord had told Samuel
that Eli would have the priesthood taken from him. Well, this was
the beginning of that judgment. This was the judgment that God
had promised. However, that doesn't take away
from the fact that Saul was still blameworthy. because God's will
was accomplished in this act. The Lord knows the end from the
beginning and all of these things work together according to the
purpose of God and this is one of these examples in scripture
where we see these two different strands coming together and dovetailing
in according to the will of God. Back to our account now and I
just want to mention a couple of things because I think there's
several lessons to be taken from this account of Saul and Ahimelech
and here is the first thing. Saul's hatred and bitterness
had expanded beyond David. He hated David, he wanted David
killed, but his bitterness had expanded beyond David. His relationship
with Jonathan, his son, was now spoiled because of his attitude. And his own servants couldn't
be trusted, he felt. He had grown sour towards those
who were closest to him. And we find that fear and hatred
with which he viewed David had now infected his attitude to
those closest to him. And this teaches us something,
I think, about the nature of sin. Sins, plural, are the things
that we do wrong when we are disobedient to God and disobedient
to God's word. But sin, singular, is something
much more devious and deceitful and destructive. Sins are what
we do. Sin is in our nature and it grows
there. and it taints and it spoils all
that it touches. It grows and it develops and
it deepens and it spreads like a disease so that in time, what
we would never have dreamt of doing once, we casually enjoy
without giving it a second thought. Saul once honoured God's priests. and now he slays them with their
families, all because of the sin that was in his own soul,
and that that sin had now made him bitter and twisted. If we tolerate sin, it will ultimately
eat us up. and it will spoil all we touch,
and it will affect and afflict all those around us that we love
the most. It is a dire and a solemn warning
from the Word of God. And here's another lesson, I
think, from this little part of the chapter. Doig, the Edomite,
was an Edomite. He was not an Israelite. He was
not one of the chosen people. He had no love for the Lord. He had no love for the Lord's
people. He was serving his own interests,
serving his own good. And as God's people, we must
be careful who we accept into fellowship and with whom we share
the service of God. The Holy Spirit tells us in 2
Corinthians, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Don't join yourself to unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light
with darkness? These things don't mix. And what
concord or what peace hath Christ with Belial or with the devil?
Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel, someone that
has no faith? And so the Bible tells us that
we need to be careful as believers who we fellowship with, who we
commune with, who we spend our time with, and we have to know
the difference between those who are believers and those who
are not. Those who have faith and trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ and those who have no interest in
these things and no love for the Lord and no love for the
Lord's people. men like Doig the Edomite. And let me just add something
here. However, having stated that warning and made that point,
let me add this. While we are not to fellowship
with unbelievers, it is not our place to take vengeance or revenge
upon the Lord's enemies or ours. In Psalm 52, David speaks about
Doig's case. And he speaks about him to the
Lord. And what he says there is that he is leaving the case
of Doig the Edomite in the Lord's hands to deal with this wicked
man's sins. And this is what he writes. God
shall likewise destroy thee forever. And so this tells us that David
was content to leave the judgment of Doeg the Edomite in the hands
of the Lord. And that is something too that
is perhaps a strand of application concerning this man who was not
of the Lord's people. And finally, let me just mention
Abiathar right at the end of the chapter. He is a son of Ahimelech. He escaped for some reason. I
don't think he escaped when the 85 were slain. I suspect he was
maybe left back in the city of Nob in order to tend to the tabernacle
there and to look after the needs of the Ark of the Covenant. but for whatever reason he was
not amongst those who were killed that day. And he managed to escape
and he fled to David. And David promised him safety
and security if he stayed with him. I like David's words to
Abiathar. Abiathar was a priest and a servant
of the Lord and David says to him, with me thou shalt be in
safeguard. And this is a promise that the
Lord makes to his redeemed church and to his covenant people. He
says, with me you will be safely guarded. That's a lovely thought
to have. And I know some of us, especially
young people, they can be fearful and anxious and worried about
what the future holds. What is going to happen? What
will happen in a year's time? What will happen in two years'
time? What will happen when I finish school? What will happen when
I need to get work? What will happen when I need
to leave the house? All of these things are questions
which we don't know and we can become anxious and worried about
the future. But this is what the Lord says,
just like David said to Abiathar, with me you will be safely guarded. We will meet with trouble in
this world and sadness and hardship and pain and disappointment. And many of the Lord's people
right now are sick and poor and sad and lonely and anxious about
what the future holds. We don't bypass trouble because
we are the Lord's people or because we trust in him. And yet the
Lord promises, our souls shall be preserved. Our wellbeing will
be secure. Christ himself, our great David,
will guard and keep us against the Saul's and the Doig's and
the devil's of this world. we shall be safe in trusting
the Lord Jesus Christ. So may we all look to him today
to safeguard our souls and supply all our needs. Amen.