Where do you expect to experience opposition to God, and what form do you expect it to take?
This chapter is one of the bibles nasties, it’s one of those stories where after the first reading you find yourself thinking what on earth is this teaching me about God? Because in it everything seems to be going wrong, and God seems absent. David is on the run from Saul who is determined to kill him, why? Not because of anything David has done, in fact David has done nothing but treat Saul well, a point Ahimalek makes (14) as he lists David’s loyalty and good service. Yet he is a fugitive. And Abiathar finds himself in the same boat all he has done is fulfil the role of priest and been loyal to Saul(15). And yet his whole family and everyone in the town are butchered despite their innocence, and he is on the run.
What are we to make of this chapter? How do we get our bearings in it? Turn back to 1 Samuel 2. Hannah’s prayer sets out at the start of the book who God is and who he will be revealed to be in the chapters that follow. It is the primer that helps us understand the rest of the book and the events it records and what is happening in them. In (10-11)Hannah’s prayer expresses a hope for rescue from God’s king who he will raise up and the kingdom he will bring about. But it also tells us that this kingdom will come about in the face of opposition. Now Saul is Israel’s first king but he is a king in the mould of all the other nations, and therefore as one who opposes God he will be broken. But God is at work to exalt a king to the throne who will bring about a kingdom and be a picture of the ultimate king – the Messiah.
Opposition to God is a realityFrom chapter 15 onwards reading about Saul’s kingship is like watching the slow motion replay of a car crash. He proves to be exactly what Israel asked for; a king “such as all the nations have”(8:5). And that is seen as he increasingly opposes God and rules less and less like a king of Israel should. It begins gradually with his making the burnt offering himself, then in compromising and not wiping out the Amalekites, their flocks and herds. Bit by bit he has become more and more focused on his retaining power so that by ch22 Saul is set on a course that is totally opposed to God.
He’s determined to secure the throne for himself and kill God’s anointed. He’s been told that the throne has been taken from him and given to another but he won’t have it, he won’t accept it, he will fight God. That’s what he is doing as he hurls the spear at David, as he yells at Jonathan, and he hunts David. This isn’t a personal dislike of David, it’s not a matter of politics or securing the succession this is Saul at war with God and God’s anointed. This is Saul opposing God’s plans and purposes.
The scene opens with Saul ruling over Israel(6) and the paranoia that his opposition to David and God is causing as he flings out accusation against his men, his son and David himself as he tries to justify his actions(6-8). None of the accusations Saul makes in this chapter are true, but he does not care. Reality and evidence do not matter, Saul has fixed his own reality and David must die!
Throughout the chapter Saul is isolated in his opposition to God. Only one man supports him in his actions, Doeg. And what is emphasized three times about Doeg? He is an Edomite (9, 19, 22). He is not one of God’s people, he’s of a line that has stood opposed to God right from Esau who despised his birthright and lost the blessing. Saul and the Edomite stand side by side in their bloody and determined opposition to God.
(11-19)As he summons the priests again reality and evidence don’t matter, despite Ahimelek’s evidence that David is loyal and not plotting and that he himself is faithful to Saul decrees that all the priests must die. Saul effectively institutes the ban – total destruction – on the priests and the town of Nob. That is shocking Saul the King of Israel, who Deut 17 tells us is supposed to read and know the law so he reveres God, carries out the ban – reserved only for removing sinful Canaanites from the Promised Land - against the Lord’s priests. And even when his loyal Israelite men will not do such a thing because it should not be done he ignores their implicit rebuke and simply finds someone who will do it. Doeg the Edomite. Saul’s opposition to God is so great that the only person who will enact his will is an Edomite from a nation who have opposed God’s people throughout history. But even that fact will not draw Saul up short.
We see here is Saul that opposition to God is not reasoned, or calm, rational or on the basis of evidence. It is based on a determination to reject God and his word and will and moulds its reality around that desire. And it is directed at God’s people. Hunting David and striking out at Ahimelek his family and the town are Saul’s way of striking out at God. Opposition to God is a reality we cannot ignore it or expect to avoid it. And we must learn that God’s people will be the focus for opposition to God, we must expect it.
It is what Jesus tells Saul in Acts 9. Saul has been persecuting the church, but Jesus says persecution of his people is persecution of him. Persecuting God’s people is to persecute God and people will try to attack God by attacking his people. It must not surprise us, Satan is like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour as he rails against God by attacking his people.
So how should we react? How do we prepare ourselves? What do we cling to in the face of opposition?
God’s love and kingdom are the ultimate realityYou can’t help but see the repeated pattern of the Bible’s narrative here as (20) one son of Ahimelek escapes. Saul’s opposition to God sees him try to wipe out the priests but one survives. Just as Pharaoh’s attempt to restrict and stop Israel becoming too numerous sees one boy, Moses, survive. Just as Athaliah tries to destroy the royal household only for Josiah to survive, and just as centuries later Herod would oppose God and try to kill the Messiah, only for Jesus to flee to Egypt and return to bring the kingdom.
Opposition to God and his kingdom is the norm. But God’s kingdom will not die. In fact Saul and Doeg’s actions, evil though they are and accountable as they will stand for them, simply serve to fulfil God’s words and play a part in the rise of God’s anointed, in the strengthening of David’s kingdom. As Saul murders the priests of Nob, he partially fulfils God’s word of judgement against Eli and his family (2:31-33), not that that is his intention, but even God’s opponents can’t stop God fulfilling his word.
But Saul also drives Abiathar to who? To David. Abiathar runs from a king seeking to take his life to one who promises safety and security. And as he does so he strengthens David. David who at the end of ch20 is a lone man on the run from a king who is hunting him, now has a band of men around him, and Gad the prophet with him, and due to Saul and Doeg’s actions and God’s protection and provision a priest with him through whom David can enquire of the Lord his will.
Every act of opposition and evil will be judged but God takes and uses them to give strength to his king, to exalt his anointed. They do not challenge God’s rule they only confirm it. But it doesn’t make the pain any less real for Abiathar or the struggle any less real for David. But they can trust in the God who always keeps his will, whose kingdom is un-existinguishable, and he gracious encourages each of them in each other.
David knows that even these events are not outside of God’s steadfast, reliable love. Turn to Psalm 52. David trusts in God’s love and his word and that enables him to wait for God to act.
And that is another repeated pattern in the Bible. It is a truth we cannot just trust in but bank our lives upon. Turn over to Acts 2 Peter reminds us that we see that supremely in Jesus, the ultimate king to who David points, who is the one to whom we come and find not just safety and security now but for eternity. “Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”
And again in Acts 4 as the church is threatened and opposed by more Jewish rulers. “ Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
God is so sovereign that he works opposition and acts of evil for his purposes to advance his kingdom. God doesn’t promise that we will never die for his kingdom but he does promise that his kingdom will never die.
We need to live expecting opposition, aware that throughout the Bible God and his people are opposed and that that opposition is often unjust and irrational and bloody and fiercely determined. And that it may come from places we do not expect it.
But we must also resolve in the face of it to live trusting that our God who loves us with a unbreakable love will enable us to meet it. That we are secure in God’s love for us in Jesus forever and that God will work all things for the growth of his kingdom. That even in that act of opposition God is working to advance his kingdom in ways we do not yet see.
“I trust in God’s unfailing love, forever and ever.”
1. What stops us expecting opposition? Why is this dangerous for us?
2. What truths about God do we need to learn and prove before and during facing opposition?
3. How can we best help one another prepare for facing opposition and when facing opposition to stand trusting in God?
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