David Bahn – Reflections

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These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are 1 Samuel 20-22, Psalm 112.

1 Samuel 22:11-23

Then the king sent to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father’s house, the priests who were at Nob, and all of them came to the king. ¹² And Saul said, “Hear now, son of Ahitub.” And he answered, “Here I am, my lord.” ¹³ And 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, so that he has risen against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?” ¹⁴ Then Ahimelech answered the king, “And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king’s son-in-law, and captain over your bodyguard, and honored in your house? ¹⁵ Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? No! Let not the king impute anything to his servant or to all the house of my father, for your servant has known nothing of all this, much or little.” ¹⁶ And the king said, “You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s house.” ¹⁷ And the king said to the guard who stood about him, “Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David, and they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me.” But the servants of the king would not put out their hand to strike the priests of the Lord. ¹⁸ Then the king said to Doeg, “You turn and strike the priests.” And Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore the linen ephod. ¹⁹ And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword; both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey and sheep, he put to the sword.

²⁰ But one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. ²¹ And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the Lord. ²² And David said to Abiathar, “I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I have occasioned the death of all the persons of your father’s house. ²³ Stay with me; do not be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life. With me you shall be in safekeeping.”

Randy Alcorn’s book, If God is Good wrestles honestly with the reality of suffering while holding firmly to two truths: God is completely good and fully sovereign. While not all suffering may be explained, none of it is meaningless in God’s hands; he uses it for purposes we may not fully see and promises ultimate justice and restoration. In the end, Alcorn points us not to tidy answers, but to trust – grounded in the goodness of God, what he has done in Christ, and the certainty that he will make all things right.

The classical Lutheran answer for suffering in the world is the unholy trinity: the fallen world, the devil, and our sinful flesh. Here we can see the ruthless evil of Saul as evidence of the sinful flesh run rampant in the reign of Saul. Not satisfied to call David an enemy, he resorts to the vindictive slaughter of Ahimelech and 85 other priests. Then we read that at Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword; both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey and sheep, he put to the sword. Saul is not just insecure. He is evil through and through.

David remains faithful – at least in his direct dealings with Saul. He flees, seeks help from Ahimelech (the occasion that incites Saul’s ire), and eventually takes Abiathar under his wing and promises protection for him in the face of Saul’s relentless ruthlessness.

It’s difficult for me to imagine such vile and violent actions as Saul undertakes. Surely he was in danger of being replaced by David – if only because David had such a strong following. But before we are too quick to point the finger, we must admit that there is a little of Saul in every one of us. We may not order the killing of 85 priests and then a whole city. We may not hunt down our supposed enemies in order to kill them. But we can wish people dead all too easily. We can hold ourselves unaccountable while demanding justice for our enemies. The difference is not the quality of our evil, but the extent to which we will go to carry it out.

This is why we need a Savior and a Sanctifier. We need a Savior so that our sins may be forgiven. We need a Sanctifier so that we don’t carry out every evil desire or idea that comes to mind. We face evil in this fallen world because of human sin, yet God is not distant from our pain – he has entered it in Jesus Christ. The cross becomes the clearest answer, where the worst evil is turned to the greatest good. May the Holy Spirit keep us in true faith and sustain us in the face of temptation and evil. We do well to pray Jesus’ words: Lead us…not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen

Click on the graphic below to watch the Bible Project video summary of the book of 1 Samuel.