1 Samuel 22:6-23

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we're going to be at 1 Samuel chapter 22, the second, like, four-fifths of the chapter, all about Saul goes back crazy. Dude's nuts. Murderous nuts. Crazy. Let's find out. Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word. That's right.
Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word. And we pray, God, that you would please help us to read your word, being able to make honest evaluations and assessments, but also with humility, knowing our own hearts, our own proclivities, our own sinfulness. Lord, we cannot come to your word thinking we have it all together, but we come to you, Lord, knowing that we need you. We need your grace. We need your wisdom and guidance and direction. So please, Father, help us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Here we go. 1 Samuel 22, beginning at verse 6.
When Saul heard that David and the men who were with him had been discovered, now Saul was staying in Gibeah under a tamarisk tree in Ramah with his spear in his hand and all his servants standing about him. Then Saul said to his servants who stood about him, Here and now, you 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?
All of you have conspired against me, and there is no one who reveals to me that my own son has made a covenant with the son of Jesse. And there is not one of you who is sorry for me or reveals to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in wait as it is this day.'
Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who was set over the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse going to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahithob, and he inquired of the Lord for him. gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath of Philistine. So the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitab, and all his father's house, and the priests who were in Nab. And they all came to the king, and Saul said, Here now, son of Ahitab. He answered, Here I am, my lord.
Then Saul said to him, Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread and a sword, and have inquired of God for him, and he should rise against me to lie in wait as it is this day? So Hamilech answered the king and said, And who among your servants is as faithful as David? Who is the king's son-in-law, who goes at your bidding, and is honorable in your house? Did I then begin to inquire of the Lord for him?
Far be it from me. Let not the king impute anything to his servant, or to any in the house of my father, for your servant knew nothing of all of this, little or much. And the king said, You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's house.
And the king said to the guards who stood about him, turn and kill the priests of Jehovah, because their hand is also with David, and because they knew when he fled, he did not tell me. But the servants of the king would not lift their hands to strike the priests of Jehovah.
And the king said to Doeg, you, turn and kill the priests. So Doeg the Edomite turned and struck the priests and killed on that day 85 men who wore linen ephod. Also Nob, the city of the priests, he struck with the edge of the sword both men and women, children and nursing infants, oxen and donkey and sheep and with the edge of the sword.
Now one of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Haitham named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the Lord's priests. So David said to Abiathar, I knew that day when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul, I have caused the death of all the persons of your father's house. stay with me do not fear for he who seeks my life seeks your life but with me you shall be safe lessons that portion of the reading of god's word so we have to ask ourselves a what is this about b what's the best verse to summarize this and c what are we called to do so what's this about right this is about saw being Raging up with paranoia and his power, right?
You're all against me. Nobody told me about this covenant with Jonathan and this servant David. All of you guys just are going... He's throwing everybody under the bus. Who knew? How did they know about this? He thinks David's buying them all off, that this is some giant conspiracy. God had told Saul what was going to happen through the prophet Samuel when he tried to grab onto his robe and it ripped. No, no, no, no. But Doegs is the one who says, oh, no, no, I know who he is. He's a Slytherin fiend, right?
This is the type of guy that you watch Lord of the Rings or something. He's like the guy whispering in the king's ear. This guy's a snake. So let's show that Preezy's a snake when the priests come and Saul confronts him like, hey, you knew what was going on. And he says, no, I didn't. He's honorable. He's your right hand man. He's your son-in-law. How was I supposed to know anything? He said, it came on your business. I prayed for him. That's the same. He's a priest.
What else are you going to do? But Saul doesn't care. No, you're lying. Doesn't matter. No, kill him. But his men won't. And so he looks at the Edomite, not an Israelite. He looks at Noeg. He says, you kill him. Saul, by lawless hands, is taking the lives of innocent men. Doug does it. He kills 85 of them there. But then worse than that, he goes to Nob and he kills everyone and everything in the city.
Women, children, nursing, babies, ox and sheep. Total, two days in a row, these yawns, total annihilation. This guy is a fiend, man. There's one. There's one who manages to go get away, Ahitab, the son of Ahimelech. He runs to David, tells him everything that happens, and David is grief-stricken. Man, I knew Doeg was gonna go tell him. You could see it in his eye, right, in his faces. The person trying to kill you is trying to kill me, too, so I'll keep you safe. Stay with me. So what's this section about? This section is about Saul's increasing paranoia and now murder. So much for being a king. So much for being God's anointed. So much about caring about righteousness.
What's the best verse to summarize this? Well, I have verse 8 underlined in my Bible. That's about the conspiracy. Maybe underline something different. That's fine. Let's talk about seek calling. You know, I think this just points us to Christ. I'm just going to go ahead and jump there.
We can talk about paranoia. We can talk about anger. We can talk about ninth commandment. We can talk about how you need to listen to people when they talk. We can talk about all sorts of communication skills. We can talk about assuming the best motives of people rather than being suspicious. All those things we could talk about, but I don't think they're what I want to talk about.
I wanted to talk about Saul, who was supposed to be righteous, supposed to be leading the people and become so drunk with his own power, with his own desire for some dynasty, some riches of his own and some name, that he's willing to kill and kill the innocent.
And I think we see in Ahimelech, we see a picture of Jesus. Jesus knew what it was like to stand before the high priest, stand before the Pharisees, stand before the elders. Twice, man. I need to get more sleep, guys. Jesus knew what it was like to suffer, to be betrayed, to be innocent. and yet condemned to death.
And yet it's in that tragic death of Jesus that we have life, that we have the hope of eternity, that we have joy. And so trust in Him. God is our King. God is the one who knew all this was going to happen. That's why he was taking the crown from Saul. We live in those types of worlds. We're never gonna escape it. People are drunk with their own power.
But God is good. And so we trust him. Don't put your trust in earthly princes. will fail us, but we trust in God. We hope in Christ. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for giving us Jesus, our perfect King of righteousness, our priest who is willing to suffer evil and wrong and even the shame of the cross for us. Lord, we thank you for the grace that you have sent us in your son, and we pray that you would please help us to abide in Jesus and bear good fruit. In his name we pray. Amen. Well, may you trust in the Lord. May you walk in his ways, and I'll see you next time. Bye.