I Samuel Chapter 22 "David's
Flight [1-5]." This Bible
Study is written by Roger Christopherson, and it's
transcription is provided with written permission by http://www.theseason.org I Samuel 22:1 "David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him." David's family was a very close knit family, and when David's family heard of David's troubles and his escape, they came to help him in his time of need. In a very short time David will end up with about four hundred men, to band together for their mutual protection. The caliber of these men that came to David were all fighters. I Samuel 22:2 "And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men." This was a real rag-tag army of misfits and malcontents; however with David as their leader, and trusting in the Lord, they can do much. These men were discontented with the great debt that was over their head, and they did not see much help for themselves from the shape of the nations conditions. Evil was everywhere, even at the very top, with the lies and evil that came from their king. This was a type of what we are seeing forming today. They all came together and placed themselves under David's command. David became their captain. These men felt the presence of God through David, and David built their confidence in themselves and in God. Though the distress was on the whole nation, there were just a few that felt the need to do something about it and make their statement. Saul was a very evil and wicked man, and when any leader of a government becomes evil and looses his or her character, that government is in trouble. Why? Because God's blessings will leave that government and its people. Any wise person knows that, and that is why these strong men came to follow David. I Samuel 22:3 "And David went thence to Mispeh of Moab: and he said unto the king of Moab, "Let my father and mother, I pray thee, come forth, and be with you, till I know what God will do for me." David knew that his family was not safe because of the trouble that he was in with Saul. Saul would think nothing of killing David's entire family just to get to him. David had been anointed by Samuel to lead his people as king, yet that time had not come yet. He wanted his family safe from the hands of Saul until God would show him what He had planed for David. Moab was the nation of Lot's son's offspring. When Lot fled the destruction of Sodom, and came to a cave, he had a son by the conception of his own daughter. The word "Moab" means "of his own father". The Moabites are kin to the Israelites through Abraham, and his nephew Lot. I Samuel 22:4 "And he brought them before the king of Moab: and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold." The king of Moab took care of Jesse, David's mother and the rest of the family as long as David would remain in hiding. I Samuel 22:5 "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 Hareth." While David was in hiding in the land of Moab, which was also the land where the tribe of Gad was placed by Joshua, the prophet of God came to David and told him to return back to the land of the tribe of Judah. The prophet knew that God had need of David back in Judah. I Samuel 22:6 "When Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men that were with him, (now Saul abode in Gilbeah under a tree in Ramah, having his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him;) Stop and think for a moment; What had David done to Saul? He has won many battles for him, David was a kind son-in-law and good to Saul's daughter. David has done nothing to deserve the treatment that Saul is showing for David. The only thing that entered here was Saul's spirit of jealousy against David. This evil spirit of jealousy is from Satan himself, and anytime you have the spirit of jealousy, your mind can be twisted and distorted to cause you to do many evil acts against the very one you truly love and respect. That is what comes from an evil spirit and it's evil thoughts. It destroyed Saul and it will destroy you if you allow it to affect your mind. I Samuel 22:7 "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;" Saul was the king, and now Saul is using bribes to try to get the very people of David's family to turn against him, and become loyal to Saul. I Samuel 22:8 "That all of you have conspired against me, and there is none that sheweth me that my son hath made a league with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you that is sorry for me, or sheweth unto me that my son hath stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?" Looking back on what had happened in the past, Saul wants to believe that Jonathan was faithful and loyal to him and not to David. Though the evidence was there, Saul sought not to accept it, and continued to give Jonathan the benefit of the doubt. In Saul's mind he wants to believe that Jonathan never joined with David to plot to kill him. "Lie in wait" means to plot to murder him. This poor old Saul was sitting there in self pity allowing the evil spirits to turn his mind into a "poor me baby" kick with is mind. Saul doesn't know it but David would become a very loyal servant to him, if he would just allow it to happen. If things just don't seem to go right in your life, that is the time to get right with God and straighten things out in your own mind. That is the time to put things in true perspective. God blesses people that are positive in their thinking and are "can do" type people. I Samuel 22:9 "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 Ahemelech the son of Ahitub." This is going back to the man of Psalms 52; Saul had taken this man of Esau and placed him over all the servants of Israel. In modern day terms, it is like taking a man of authority in Russia [Rosh or Esau] and placing him over all of our people here in America. Think about it and what effect it would have on the one in charge. Doeg was the one that was there when David went to Ahemelech, and he witnessed David being given the bread and sword. He also was the one that brought this news to Saul and presenting it in his own distorted words. Doeg had been deceitful. I Samuel 22:10 "And he enquired of the Lord for him, and gave him victuals, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine." Doeg was telling everything to Saul as he saw it and twisted to fit his story. I Samuel 22:11 "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." Saul wanted every last priest that was at Nob to come and stand before him. I Samuel 22:12 "And Saul said, Hear now, thou son of Ahitub." And he answered, "Here I am, my lord." Now watch what the spirit of jealousy can do to your mind. I Samuel 22:13 "And 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 enquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?" Saul still thinks that David is out to kill him, and Saul has had every evil thought that he can imagine against David. Saul has closed his mind to the reality of the truth, and has allowed this evil spirit to take complete control over his mind. So the priest is now going to defend his actions before Saul. I Samuel 22:14 "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?" The priest is calling attention to Saul that David has been faithful to him in everything that the king has asked of him. He has lived in Saul's house, and yet would take nothing that did not belong to him. I Samuel 22:15 "Did I then begin to enquire of God for him" be it far from me: let not the king impute any thing unto his servant, nor to all the house of my father: for thy servant knew nothing of all this, less or more." The priest is now asking Saul, Did I ask of anything of God for David? Let not the king think such a thing of me. I knew nothing of this trouble that went on in your household between David and the king. Not even the least little thing did I or my father know about those troubles. At the time that David entered into the priest's house at Nod, Ahimelech was a man that could be trusted, and David was thought to be a man of the authority of the king. He thought David was a man of the king's household, and was a trusted member of the family. Even with these words being spoken, Saul's twisted mind by Satan received none of it. Negative thoughts can destroy a family. Most of the time the cause of any family breaking up in divorce, comes from the evil spirit of jealousy and negative thoughts. It starts in ones mind being removed from reality and the willingness to listen with understanding. The love of God takes away those evil spirits of Satan, and we are commanded by God to order them out of our lives, if we are of God. If there is a home that has the love of God in it, you have a home that simply doesn't worry about divorce. I Samuel 22:16 "And the king said, "Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou, and all thy father's house." Ahimelech was from the family of Eli, the offspring of one of the sons that went bad, as recorded back in the second chapter. This slaughter by Saul then will finish off all that remains of the family of Eli the priest, except for one of Ahimelech sons. I Samuel 22:17 "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 shew it to me." But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the Lord." Stop and think of what is said here. The religious leaders are men that stand between each of them and God, and Saul was asking the army of Israel to remove and kill those religious leaders. That is the principle followed by the new world order today, to have foreigners to stand as the military and policing forces within each nation. They know that the people of any nation will have more sense than to turn on their religious leaders in times of trouble, and this was a type of what can happen when this is allowed. It is a lesson for you and I to watch for today. Saul has ordered his military men, strangers to Israel, to slay all the priests of Nod, the center of religious thought, and the men of Israel refuse to follow the command. Saul is asking the people to slay the priests of the Living God. That is not good judgment on anybody's part, for it then brings YHVH the Living God into the fight. Every thing that Saul was saying in this verse was a lie; for the priest truly did not know the trouble that existed between Saul with David, nor did he know that David was on a flight from Saul. The charges are all trumped up and the people of understand and the military can see right through those lies. Stop and look at what is going on in our nation today, for from the highest levels the lies and deciet that is coming from the top simply cannot be trusted. When the leader of any nation can't be trusted in his words, all nations simply want nothing to do with that leader, nor do they trust that nation. Remember also that David also started out with telling three lies to the priest, and this priest just didn't know who to trust. They did not know that David was fleeing from the king to save his life. "The Lord" as used in this verse is in the upper case, and in this place the "Lord" is "YHVH, the Almighty Father". There is no way that any Israelites would lay a hand on any priest to kill them. Saul's command was to slay these anointed ones of the Lord. Friend, that is a good way to turn your life up-side-down and place a curse on you forever. I Samuel 22:18 "And the king said to Doeg, "Turn thou, and fall upon the priests." And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priests, and slew on that day fourscore and five priests that did wear a linen ephod." Doeg was the Edomite, the one that Saul put in charge for he knew that there was no fear of the Living God within him. Doeg was of the same family of people as the Russians of today. They are not Kenites, so when Saul gave his command to Doeg, instantly he drew his sword, turned and killed the eighty five priests that stood before him. There could be no doubt in the killing, for each of them wore the linen ephod of a priest. Each of them were in their role of a priest and in the active duty of a priest. God hated Esau from before he was even in his mother's womb, and He hated Esau because of how his soul acted in the first earth age. Doeg was the son of the very one that God hated, and Saul put him in charge over Israel's wealth. Saul with his evil spirit, and Doeg, both had very little to do with God, and they were both led by evil spirits. I Samuel 22:19 "And Nob, 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." Doeg didn't stop with those eighty five that stood before Saul, but he went to Nod and killed every living thing in the town, women and children, animals and every thing that lived. Doeg was given the order of a mad man, and he acted as a mad man in carrying out those orders. The name "Doeg" means "fearful" and on that day he was fearful. Doeg cleaned out every living thing in the priest's village. I Samuel 22:20 "And one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David." "Abiathar" in the Hebrew tongue means "the father of abundance". Abaithar went to David because he knew that David would protect him. I Samuel 22:21 "And Abiathar shewed David that Saul had slain the Lord's priests." The slaying of God's priests was a wicked thing, and it shows that a evil spirit that was in Saul. That evil spirit was out to destroy the priest line, as well as the lineage of the Christ child that would be born through the loins of David. I Samuel 22:22 "And David said to 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." This shows the type of guy that David was, for it shows the mark of tenderness to Abiathar. David knew the day that he was at the temple, when Doeg was present, that this would all end as it did. David knew that when that Edomite showed up, that he should have killed him. Of course the reason that David did not, was that it was the Lord's house and David had respect for the place. It would have taken time to follow Doeg away from the house to commit this act, and because David did not, Doeg lived to destroy many of God's priests. David through his goodness, messed up, and he was taking the blame for it here. I Samuel 22:23 "Abide thou with me, fear not: for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life: but with me thou shalt be in safeguard." The point that is made here is that we should not allow things to slide. When we see the need to do a thing, most likely it is the unction of the Holy Spirit. God put it into his mind at that moment, and David should have handled it at that time. The point is to think through those things that come up, and react to them at that time. David is binding himself to Abiathar, for they both realized that they have a common enemy, who is Saul. David was committing himself to protect Abiathar.
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