ever received, unto you is born
a Savior. Joy to the world. And the hymn
writer Isaac Watts says, far, F-A-R, as far as the curse is
found. And that's everywhere, isn't
it? No one, no matter where a person is born, no matter where a person
lives, we all come into this world having inherited from our
father Adam that curse of spiritual death. Let's look tonight, if
you will, in 1 Samuel chapter 22. Tonight we begin with verse 6,
1 Samuel chapter 22. When Saul heard that David was discovered
and the men that were with him, now Saul abode in Gibeah under
a tree of 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, Here 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's none that showeth
me that my son hath made a league with the son of Jesse. And there's
none of you that is sorry for me, or showeth unto me that my
son hath stirred up my servant against me to lie in wait as
at this day. Then answered Doeg, 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 Ahathub,
and he inquired of the Lord for him, and gave him vituals, and
gave him the sword of Goliath, the Philistine. Then the king
sent to call Ahimelech, the priest, the son of Ahathub, and all his
father's house, the priests that were in Nob. And they came all
of them to the king. And Saul said, here now, thou
son of Ahathub. And he answered, here I am, my
lord. And Saul said unto him, why have
you conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse? and that
thou hast given him bread and a sword and has 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 honorable 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. Him elect thou and all thy father's
house. And the king said unto the footman
that stood about him, Turn and slay the priest of the Lord,
because their hand also is with David. and because they knew
when he fled and did not show it to me. But the servants of
the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priest
of the Lord. And the king said to Doeg, turn
thou and fall upon the priest. And Doeg the Edomite turned and
he fell upon the priest and slew on that day four score and five
persons, 85 persons that did wear linen ephod. And Noab, the
city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both
men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen and asses and sheep
with the edge of the sword. And one of the sons of Ahimelech,
the son of Ahathub, named Abathar, escaped and fled after David.
And Abathar showed David that Saul, had slain the Lord's priest,
and David said unto Abathur, 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 safe guard. These verses
that I've just read verses we are looking at tonight relate
things that happened in three different places, and that's
the way I'm going to divide the message up into three different
places. What occurred first in Ramah
and Gebeah of Benjamin, and then in the city called Nob, the city
of the priest, and lastly, in the forest of Hereth. So we've
got three different locations here that we just read about,
that things happen, and that's the way we will consider them. The first place at Rama and Gebea. Now Rama, the word Rama signifies
a high place, a high place. And it was here in Gebea under
a tree that King Saul, we see, was holding his court. Remember,
Israel desired a king. They desired a king. They rejected
God as reigning over them, desiring a king to be like all the other
nations. And now we see what kind of a
king they have. You know, there's a saying that
I'm sure all of us have heard, and it goes something like this.
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. As I read through this chapter,
that statement kept coming into my mind, and I thought to myself,
I thank the Lord, and I know we all do thank the Lord, that
he has absolute power. He is sovereign, omnipotent,
reigns over all, and yet there is no corruption in him or in
any of his actions. That statement, let me repeat
it again, power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. God has absolute power, but he
is not corrupted in himself, in his being, or in any of his
actions. In fact, the psalmist in Psalm
145 and verse 17 wrote, the Lord is righteous in all his ways,
and holy in all his works. And remember that question that
Abraham was allowed to ask the Lord, shall not the judge of
all the earth do right? He is the judge of all the earth. All men, all men will stand before
God one day. And shall he not do right? He
will. He will. We know that. Well,
let's look at the events that took place here at Ramah. First, Saul heard, we see this
in verse six, Saul heard that David was in the land and he
was at the head of 400 men. We see that in verse six, when
Saul heard that David was discovered and the men that were with him.
And we saw last week how many men were with David. There were
400 men who had come to him. And so David now has an army
He's a captain of an army of 400 men. And the jealousy, the
jealousy that Saul had of David was such that it blinded him
to the faithfulness of David and it made him think the very
worst of David. He imagines that David was guilty
of treason. Well, he's a captain, he's a
leader of an army now, and the only thing that Saul could imagine
that he's going to do, he's going to try to overthrow myself, my
government, and set himself up to be the king. The second thing
we see here is Saul has a spear in his hand. Notice that in the
last part of verse six. saw a boat in Gubea under a tree
and Rama having his spear in his hand and all his servants
were standing about him. Now most kings and most potentates,
they have a scepter, don't they? They have a scepter that shows
their authority, their reigning power. But here we see this king
and it hints to us at least how cruel this man had become. that
he has, not a scepter like we saw over in the Tower of London
when we got to visit there with that beautiful big diamond and
that scepter of the king now of England, but no, he has a
spear in his hand to show his authority and his reigning power. And we see next that Saul accused
his servants of conspiring against him. Look at verse seven and
eight. Then Saul said unto his servants
that stood about him, here 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. He accuses all of his servants
of conspiring against him. And there is none that showed
me that my son, Jonathan, hath made a league with the son of
Jesse. And you notice in this passage
that Saul never calls David by his name David. He always refers
to him as the son of Jesse. And no doubt that was to diminish
him in some way. The son of Jesse, just like he
was a nobody because Jesse was as David said, a small or not
a very important man in the nation. And there's none of you that
is sorry for me or showeth unto me that my son has stirred up
my servant against me to lie in wait as at this day. Saul, we know, was a Benjamite.
He was of the tribe of Benjamin. And that's what he means here
when he asks this question of of his servants, those around
him, he asked them, here now you Benjamites, will the son
of Jesse, who is not of the tribe of Benjamin, but of the tribe
of Judah, and no doubt his king Saul had given favors, had showed
favors to those of his tribe. And what he's saying to these
people now, do you think that when David, if he becomes king,
he's of the tribe of Judah, that he's not going to give all these
favorable positions, vineyards and making men captains of different
amounts of people? Do you think he's gonna give
that to you? that you're of the tribe of Benjamin,
he's of the tribe of Judah. Do you really believe he was
convinced that these servants of his were in conspiracy, had
conspired against him? Do you think that David, when
he becomes king, he's not going to give all these places and
positions to men of Judah. That's just the way it works,
isn't it? Just the way it is when people
come into power. They begin to pass out favors
to who? To people of their tribe, of
their families. And the fourth thing we see here,
Saul even accuses his own son, Jonathan. He accuses Jonathan
of conspiring against him. You know, the proverb says, wrath
is cruel and anger is outrageous, but who is able to stand before
envy? And Saul was so envious. He was envious mainly because
of the praise that was heaped upon David. You know, Saul has
slain his hundreds and David has slain his thousands. He just
could not abide that there's a man who's getting all the praise
and it wasn't going to him. He's such a self-centered man
and such an insecure person. even though he was king. He was
envious of the praise heaped upon David, and that caused him
to think evil even of his family, of his son. And it was true that there was
a league covenant between Jonathan and David, but when you read
that covenant, that league, there's not a word there that speaks
about Saul. There's not a word in that covenant. It has to do with Saul's or Jonathan's
descendants and David's descendants. That's all it had to speak of,
that they would be kind one to the other of their descendants.
Had said nothing at all of trying to overthrow Saul from being
king or lashing out at him in any way. You know, Saul, I looked
at this and I thought, well, He just held a pity party, didn't
he? That's all he's doing. None of you. He looked at these
men and they were loyal, no doubt. They'd followed him. None of
you feel sorry for me. A pity party. He was so self-centered and so
insecure, wasn't he? Well, we know that the spirit
of the Lord had departed from him. The fifth thing we see here is
Saul hears from this man, this Edomite named Doeg. And clearly,
clearly what this man was doing was seeking favor with Saul. None of his footmen, none of
those servants of Saul, said anything when he accused them
of being complicit in some kind of conspiracy. But this man,
he speaks up. He speaks up. And he does so,
obviously, trying to get favor, to earn favor, or find favor
with Saul. Now this, if you look back in
chapter 21 and verse 7, we read about him when David fled and
came to the priest. In verse 7 of chapter 21, we
read now, a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that
day, detained before the Lord, and his name was Doeg and Edomite,
the chiefest of the herdsmen that belonged to Saul. Notice
there's three things that we learn about this man there. First
of all, he was an Edomite. That means he was a descendant
of Esau. Remember Jacob and Esau. He was
not an Israelite. He was not a Jew. He was a descendant
of Esau. And the second thing that we
learn about him, he was a proselyte to the Jewish religion. There's no other reason why he
would have been there in the tabernacle or where the priests
were if he had not somehow joined the religion of Israel. And the third thing we learn
about him, he had the position, he was chief over the herdsmen
of Saul. Saul, like most of these kings,
they had most of their wealth in animals, sheep and cattle
and things like that. Took a lot of men to watch them,
take care of them. And this man, he had that position
of being over all of Saul's herdsmen. And he speaks up and tells Saul, I saw the son of Jesse coming
to Nob, to Ahimelech, the son of Ahathub. And he inquired of
the Lord for him and gave him vigils and gave him the sword
of Goliath, the Philistine. Now what he said was true. What
he said was true. David did come to the priest. Now we learn here that the priest
did inquire of the Lord for him. We were not told that before
in chapter 21, but we learned that now. We believe he's telling
the truth here. He did see David come. He did
see the priest inquire of the Lord for him. He did see the
priest give him that showbread. That was the only bread that
was in the tabernacle, you remember. And he did see the priest give
him the sword of Goliath. Everything that he said there
was true, but he left out some, didn't he? He left out the fact
that David had lied. that David had lied to the priest
and told him he was on a secret mission. The priest, he did not
at first, he was somewhat concerned and alarmed because David was
by himself, and he questioned David. And David said, oh, I'm
on a special mission from the king, and it requires haste,
and I had to leave without any preparation, you know. He left
all that out. And he did that on purpose, no
doubt, to defame David like he did, and to paint David in a
light as though he was, and the priest was complicit with David
in this, in this conspiracy. Well, the next thing we see is
Saul summoned the high priest, verse 11. Then the king sent
to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahathub, and all his
father's house, the priests that were in Nob, and they came all
of them to the king. He summoned all of them to come
before him, and he accused the priest, in verse 12, here now,
thou son of Ahathub, and he answered, here I am, my lord, Saul said
unto him, why have you conspired against me, thou and the son
of Jesse, and 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? He charged the high priest with
conspiring with David. And then I want you to notice
that the high priest, this is interesting, it was to me at
least, when the high priest responded to Ahimelech, he did not say
anything bad about David. He didn't excuse his behavior
by saying, well, listen, David lied to me. David told me that
he was on a mission from you. He doesn't mention that. But what he does, he asked him two questions. This high priest asked, in his
defense, he asked Saul two questions. The first question was, why?
Why would I suspect David? Notice in verse 14. And then
Ahimelech answered the king and said, and who is so faithful
among all thy servants is David. Why would I suspect him? And
Saul, you made him your son-in-law. You made him your son-in-law.
Why would I suspect him? He served you for however long
it had been now. He served you faithfully. Why,
why would I suspect him? He doesn't say anything critical
about David. He asked him that question. Why would I suspect him? He's proven himself. He goeth
at thy bidding. He's honorable in thine house.
Why wouldn't I inquire of the Lord for him? Who's so faithful
as he is? And then he asked a second question. Did
I then begin to inquire? Is that the first time? Are you
saying this is the first time I've ever inquired of God for
David? Remember, Saul sent David out. He made him a captain over a
thousand men, and he sent him out to fight his enemies. And
from this we gather that every time David went out, He sought
the Lord. He sought the Lord's will. And
he would go to the priest and ask the priest to pray. And we
know when David became king, he did that. Why? That's his defense here. Why
wouldn't? Why would I suspect him of conspiracy? He's your son-in-law, he's proven
himself faithful to you, and is this the first time? Are you
saying this is the first time I've inquired of the Lord for
him? But then we see the next thing. Saul used his absolute
power, absolute authority, and the king said, thou shalt surely
die. Ahimelech, thou and all thy father's
house." Without any deliberation, without seeking the counsel of
anyone, because he was a man now of absolute power as the
king, he gives the sentence of death, passes the sentence of
death upon Ahimelech and all the house of the priest. You
see why I thought of the saying, power tends to corrupt and absolute
power corrupts absolutely. That's what happened to this
man. I went back and looked and have it here in my notes. When
Samuel first anointed this man Saul to be the king, he was so
humble. He was so humble and saw himself
and his family and even his tribe as being the smallest tribe in
Israel. This is what he said. Am not I a Benjamite? When Samuel spoke to him about
him being chosen of God to be the king. Am not I a Benjamite
of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? And my family, the
least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin, wherefore
then speakest thou so to me? But now he's been king for a
while and he, as I said, he has absolute power, absolute authority. And he passes sentence of death
upon the priest and the high priest and all the priests. You know, pride is an awful thing,
isn't it? It really is. And none of us
are not susceptible to it. You know, pride over one thing
or the other. Everything we have except our
sin, God's given us. And yet, like this man, he started
off very humble Very meek, but now, after being given this authority
that he had been given, he's a man of proud, haughty, and
he just gives his command to kill all the priests. Just kill
every one of them. Well, the next thing we see is
that Saul's order was disobeyed, verse 17. King said unto the footman that
stood about him, turn and slay the priest of the Lord, because
their hand also is with David and because they knew when he
fled and did not show it to me. But the servants of the king
would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priest of the
Lord. You know, this is one of those
illustrations, one of those times, an example, when a civil ruler
is not to be obeyed. When a civil ruler, we know as
believers, as God's children, that all authority is of God. And God's people are to be good
citizens and are good citizens. But if we are commanded to do
something against what God commands, then we are not to obey the rulers. We've seen that Recently on Sunday
mornings in the Bible class, haven't we, how that Peter and
John, they were forbidden to speak in the name of Christ by
the religious authorities. But they knew it was better to
obey God than to obey men. And these men here of Saul, they
wouldn't do it. They refused to do it. And I
thought about those after World War II. who were tried for war
crimes. And their defense, some of them,
their defense was, we're just following orders. That's all. We were just following orders.
Well, there's some orders that men can give that men should
not obey. And if we're commanded to do
things thou shalt not kill is one of those commands, isn't
it? That's what Saul commanded these men to do, to violate the
law of God. And they wouldn't do it. But,
there's one who will. There's one as evil as Saul is. This Edomite, this Doeg, he had
one just as wicked as he was, verse 18. And the king said to
Doeg, turn thou and fall upon the priest. And Doeg, the Edomite,
turned and he fell upon the priest, slew on that day. Four score
and five persons that did wear a linen ephod. He killed 85 priests. 85 priests. Now that's what took
place at Ramah and Gebeah. Now we move to Nob, the city
of the priest in verse 19, just one verse. And Nahab, the city of the priest,
smote he with the edge of the sword both men and women, children
and sucklings, and oxen and asses and sheep with the edge of the
sword. Doeg, he followed Saul's command
to kill not only the priest, but also the families of the
priest and all of their animals. You cannot help but think the
reason that he was rejected from being king, remember, is because
he disobeyed God's command to slay all the Amalekites and all
of their animals. But he saved the best of them,
remember. And that's the reason he lost
his throne. And now his command is he has
no pity upon the families of the priest or on their livestock
or anything like that. It's kill them all, destroy them
all, including the women, children, and infants. I want you to turn
back with me to 1 Samuel chapter three. This goes back to when Samuel
was a young man in service of Eli the priest. And God spoke
to him, and God gave him a message. And Samuel had to give that message
to the priest. 1 Samuel chapter 3, and the first
verse is verse 11. And the Lord said to Samuel,
behold, I will do a thing in Israel at which both the ears
of everyone that heareth it shall tingle. That's what is taking place here.
That's what is taking place here when these, in the city of Nob,
these priests, they were descendants of the house of Eli. Notice the
next two verse. In that day I will perform against
Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house. When I
begin, I will also make an end. For I have told him that I will
judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth because
his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not. You know, when I read that about
their ears tingling, I couldn't help but think about
what's been in the news recently over there in Israel. How Hamas
not only killed men and women, but what they did to infants.
That kind of makes your ears tingle, doesn't it? That man
could be so depraved. that they would slaughter infants. And I believe some of them decapitate,
from what I've heard at least. Makes your ears tingle, doesn't
it? And that's what was taking place here. Now Saul was wrong
in doing what he did. God was just. That's just the
truth. Let me read you Matthew Henry's
comments on that. Though Saul was unrighteous in
doing this, yet God was righteous in permitting it. Now God performed
against Eli that at which the ears of those that heard it must
needs tingle, as he had told him that he would judge his house
forever. No word, and this is so important
that we hear this, this last statement, no word of God shall
fall to the ground. No word of God shall fall to
the ground. It may be years, it may be some
time, but God's word is going to be fulfilled. It is going
to come to pass. Now let's move to the last place
and I'll close, and that's to this forest. There was one of
those priests, and I assume that someone had to stay there at
the tabernacle to mend the fire and stuff like that, and the
altar, that fire was to be always burning. And so this one, he
heard, evidently he heard what Saul had done to all of his family,
and so he flees, he flees to David. And I think here David should
serve us as a picture of Christ. He is the refuge for sinners.
What David told Abathur is true beyond any question, but beyond
any doubt of the Lord Jesus Christ. David told this man, with me
thou shalt be in safeguard. with me. You're going to be safe. In other words, for Saul to touch
you, he's going to have to come through me. Oh, we've got a great
Savior. And those of us who flee to Him
for refuge for Satan or anyone to hurt you or harm you or to
try to rob you out of the hand of Christ, that just isn't going
to happen. You're safe with him, just like
this man was safe with David. And we are safe, saved, saved,
safe and saved, right? Saved and safe. those of us who
have fled to Christ for refuge. I pray the Lord would bless the
thoughts and words this evening to us here. We're going to sing
a verse or two of a hymn and we'll be dismissed.