Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 21-24.

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I always notice when I read this that Ahimelech was frightened when David came to Nob, apparently because David was alone.  This suggests that King Saul often sent out men to kill people he saw as a threat of some sort.  I suspect that David had been sent on such missions, but possibly not.  As we read the rest of this passage, it becomes clear that Ahimelech was dedicated to at least appearing to be a loyal subject of King Saul.  We also see that Ahimelech’s fear was justified.  We see David’s behavior contrasted with King Saul’s.  King Saul killed Ahimelech and most of his family because he, Saul, perceived Ahimelech as being disloyal for helping David at a time when almost everyone thought David was still one of King Saul’s favorites.  David, on the other hand, went to Keilah, at significant risk to himself and his men, in order to protect it from Philistine raiders.  Then, when David realized that the men of Keilah would surrender him to King Saul he left without causing any problems in Keilah.  Later when presented with an opportunity to kill King Saul, David refused to do so, or to allow his men to do so.

I want to take note that David had been anointed to be king in Saul’s place, yet he was not willing to raise his hand against King Saul because Saul was God’s anointed.  I struggle to articulate the lesson we learn from this, but we get part of it in Saul’s response to David showing him what he could have done.  Saul tells David that he had repaid Saul with good while Saul had repaid David with evil.  This seems to me to tell us that David did something which the Apostle Paul told us to do in Romans 12.  “Repay no one evil for evil, … Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.