Sermon 81: 1 Samuel 22:11-23

11. Then the king sent to summon Ahimelech the priest, son of Ahitub, and all the priests who were in Nob. They all came to the king. 12. And Saul said: Hear me, son of Ahitub. 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, and given him bread and a sword, and consulted God for him, that he should rise up against me, lying in wait to this day? 14. Then Ahimelech answered the king and said: And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, the king's son-in-law, who goes at your command, and is honored in your house? 15. Did I begin today to consult the Lord for him? Far be it from me. Let not the king suspect such a thing of his servant or of any of my father's whole house, for your servant knew nothing of this matter, neither little nor great. 16. And the king said: You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's house. 17. And the king said to the messengers who stood about him: Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, for their hand is with David, knowing that he was fleeing, and they did not show me. But the servants of the king refused to put forth their hands against the priests of the Lord. 18. And the king said to Doeg: Turn and fall upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned and fell upon the priests, and slew that day eighty-five men who wore a linen ephod. 19. And he struck Nob, the city of the priests, with the edge of the sword: men and women, children and nursing infants, ox and donkey and sheep with the edge of the sword. 20. But one son of Ahimelech, son of Ahitub, escaped, whose name was Abiathar; he fled to David. 21. And he told him 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 am guilty of all the souls of your father's house. 23. Stay with me, do not fear; if anyone seeks my life, he will seek your life also; with me you will be kept safe.

We undertake to explain a sad and mournful history — that such a great and mournful confusion and disturbance of all things infested God's church that the king himself, who ought to have been a figure of our Lord Jesus Christ, attempted to abolish the priesthood, another testimony of divine grace. For God had declared that the Israelite people would be to him a kingdom of priests; and by these two things, as by raised banners, God declared himself to be the leader and emperor of this people. One of these was royal authority, the other the priestly office; by which as by two images that supreme King and Priest, our Lord Jesus Christ, who would come at last, was represented. I admit that in Saul the promise was not yet fulfilled, since the scepter had to be confirmed in the tribe of Judah. Therefore until David, God had not perfectly declared that he wished to give the people a king as a mirror in which they might behold the Redeemer and nourish themselves in the hope of the promised Messiah and Redeemer. But since the anointing of Saul was common with the kings who followed — though it was abolished in him — God then began already to teach the people that he would finally give them a king full of meekness and clemency, who would keep the people in peace and be its preserver. So therefore God raised these two banners and signs in his church, to which the individual faithful might turn their senses and by which their faith might be supported as by columns: namely, the priesthood and the kingdom.

And yet we see Saul the king, who ought to have been a figure of our Lord Jesus Christ, attempting with all his might to overthrow the priestly office. What an obstacle, I ask, was set before those wretched men, who had only the shadows of the law, and indeed the most obscure ones, and therefore did not have such evident knowledge as has been brought to us today through the preaching of the Gospel? Indeed, it was as if Jesus Christ had torn himself apart — I speak of the legal figures. For king and priest had to live joined together by a mutual indissoluble bond, as if they were two pledges of divine grace, signifying him whom God had promised to come for the salvation of the whole people. Therefore by such a horrendous deed of Saul, the trust of God's children seemed to be vehemently shaken, and they were brought into such confusion that according to the sense of human reason they would think God had deceived their faith, and that it was illusory and ridiculous to look either at the priestly dignity or at the royal authority.

Then, on the other hand, we must consider how God permitted such a horrible deed to be committed — which nevertheless did not happen without cause. From this, therefore, we have many things to consider, so that we may recognize God's judgments and reverently adore them, since they surpass our senses and all human reason. Whoever reads this history thoughtlessly will not call to mind what was said above — that by God's decree the priesthood was to be taken from the house of Eli and transferred to another family, and that the family of Eli, which had defiled God's tabernacle with so many crimes and pollutions, was to be so abased that it would be reduced to the necessity of begging alms, and that Eli's descendants, to whom all the sacred offerings had pertained, would receive a stipend like hired servants. God therefore had long since pronounced this sentence, from which all that time had flowed during which Samuel had lived and then during which Saul had reigned — during which whole time no change had yet been made in Eli's house. So that God's decree might seem vain and a frivolous announcement, and God forgetful of his decree and not having spoken seriously. But now, behold, eighty-five priests are killed, and at Saul's command they are slain in one day.

And although Saul, in inflicting death on the priests, was thinking of nothing less than fulfilling God's will, and was not himself obeying, nevertheless he was carrying out God's hidden counsel, and in some astonishing way was fulfilling it. In this matter we ought to adore and venerate God's secret counsels, which are so hidden and deep that they surpass all human grasp. Yet from that family someone — namely Abiathar — fled to David, so that God's sentence might not yet seem perfectly fulfilled. For if David's kingdom had been perpetual, Abiathar would seem to have to be honored with the priesthood, since he was the sole survivor from that family of priests, and David had also promised this to him. But God at last finished the work he had begun. For it happened that Abiathar, having become a participant in Adonijah's conspiracy, fell from his dignity and the priesthood was taken away from him and transferred to Zadok, by which means a way was made also for God's judgments.

Moreover, although God permitted such a slaughter of priests to take place, it nevertheless turned out to Saul's greater confusion, as the wicked are accustomed to hasten their own condemnation and to summon down divine judgments upon their own heads, and as it were to run to meet them. God therefore willed Saul to slip into such impiety and savagery so that he might more quickly receive his reward — which we shall see he received not long afterward. Furthermore, God's counsel here is to be admired, who willed David to be deprived of all aid and help in this manner, so that he might learn to rise up to God alone. Meanwhile God also condemned Saul through his own ministers and household — namely his attendants, soldiers, and mercenaries — by whose judgments and votes he wished him to be condemned. For commanded by Saul to attack the priests and kill them, they refused, and so only Doeg the Edomite was found who would obey his commands — a treacherous and impious man, completely alien from the church of the Israelites.

But we shall consider these things more carefully in the explanation of each detail. And first it occurs that Saul summoned the priests, who when summoned immediately appeared to the number of eighty-five. Indeed, the wretched men would never have suspected that such would be Saul's cruelty toward them. For although they had been accused as traitors and indeed falsely — namely that they had received David, a fugitive from the king, and seemed to be conscious of the betrayal — they nevertheless had a legitimate excuse by which they could defend themselves if Saul had not been mad. For they could truly say, both Ahimelech and the rest of the priests, that they were ignorant of David's flight from the king, since the king had told no one, and there had been no proclamation that no one should embrace David with any favor or help him in any matter, because Saul had hitherto pursued David with hidden hatred from sheer cruelty. Therefore those priests, having a just excuse, would never have suspected that Saul would rage so cruelly against them as to order them all to be killed; and so when summoned they came in such great number.

The accusation was indeed grave when he says they had conspired against the king with the son of Jesse; but the king ought to have been satisfied by Ahimelech's reply, by which they had sufficiently cleared themselves of the accusation of conspiracy. Indeed, even if some crime worthy of punishment had been committed here, Ahimelech alone would seem to be guilty of it. For he himself had given David those loaves of the showbread and had handed him the sword of Goliath. Yet Ahimelech sufficiently makes plain his innocence by his answer, that he supposed David had been sent on the king's business; and he expresses this in these words: And who among all the king's servants is so faithful as David, the king's son-in-law, who goes at your command and is honored in your house? Did I begin today to consult God for him? Far be it from me. I therefore, consulting God for David and praying for him, supposed he had been sent by the king for the welfare of the people; therefore I prayed for all good things for him.

Indeed, by these words even the most furious Saul ought to have been pacified. But he admits no excuse, is led by no reason or equity; preoccupied with fury, he closes his ears against all reasoning. Therefore he says: You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's house. From this, then, it appears that Saul was seized with fury and madness and impelled by an evil spirit — just as we have often seen before that an evil spirit had been sent by the Lord, by which he was vexed and driven into fury, so that he came into universal contempt. From this, therefore, we have an example of God's terrible judgments, from which it appears that men once forsaken by God plunge headlong day by day into more grievous crimes, and as it were by degrees are sunk into the deep abyss of hell. Indeed, before, Saul would have shrunk from killing them; and even the most shameless men, hating the priests, would not have dared then to open their mouths against them, even though they had wished their death a thousand times. Yet there is now no excuse left to Saul and his ministers, since Ahimelech's answer testified more than enough to the priests' innocence. When therefore Saul came to such a pitch of fury, it appears from this that the reprobate do not suddenly become most base and criminal, but step by step, as they depart from God, they come into the power of the devil, until at last they degenerate into brute beasts and the most horrible monsters. Without doubt, contrary to nature, Saul raged against so many priests, and indeed innocent ones. For what occasion did he have for raging against them — for being so enraged at those who had thought to advance the king's affairs? Indeed, if any of the royal attendants should incautiously strike the king, it is certain that the fault should easily be pardoned him, especially if, eager to serve the king, he had injured him contrary to his will. So Ahimelech testifies that, on account of the king's affairs, he wished to fulfill the part of a good subject, helping David with bread and counsel. But Saul, on the contrary, going beyond the bounds of reason, sufficiently shows that he is forgetful of both God and all humanity. For by what reasoning did he rage against eighty-five priests, and indeed innocent ones? Truly an abominable and horrible deed, at the narration of which those endowed with any feeling ought to shudder.

Moreover, another circumstance must be noted — namely, that all of them wore the ephod, which was a priestly ornament. The ephod of the high priest was indeed peculiar, but the other priests of the same family also wore an ephod, as they could attain to that dignity. The papists have ridiculously imitated this example like apes. For they still retain some such ornament as an ephod. But thus the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is buried, when the legal shadows are recalled and instead of evangelical simplicity the rites of the Jews are retained without foundation. Now the ephod of which we speak was a priestly ornament to indicate the dignity of priests, whose office was to placate God's wrath against the people and to intercede for the people with God — which has been perfectly fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ.

The ephod is mentioned here by name to amplify Saul's cruelty and impiety, whom not even the sacred signs restrained, which God had set as signs of refuge. It is certain that those signs of God given to the priests ought to have had more weight than any insignia or emblems of kings or princes that are affixed to certain places for refuge and security. For God by that kind of garment declared the priests chosen by him and consecrated to himself, as it were, by this sacred vestment — who, though in themselves unworthy to intercede for the people with God on account of innate corruption, God nevertheless clothed with righteousness and integrity, so that they might represent a certain angelic perfection. Therefore if Saul had had a single drop of true piety and religion, no doubt at the mere sight of the priests or the ephod he would have shuddered all over, since they were sacred and dedicated to the name of God. From this, then, it appears that Saul was not only monstrous in savagery and cruelty, like a furious wild beast, but had stripped off all humanity and the fear of God, and had been completely blinded by the devil and rendered stupid, so that he had no sense of God.

Now these things must be applied to our use, and not merely read as some history, but from them we must learn to walk in the fear of God with reverence and concern, lest we ever depart from the Lord. For if we turn our backs on God, it is certain that he will also withdraw from us; and as our offenses grow, we too will be abandoned by his Spirit and stripped of all his gifts and graces, until we are transformed into horrible monsters and cast off all knowledge of God. Saul certainly was not unaware that the priests of the living God had been instituted by his command; indeed, if asked, he would have said that he wished to be the defender and protector of the sacred order. Yet suddenly these things slipped from his memory.

Let us, on the contrary, learn that God wills that those whom he has set over his church and ordained as ministers be honored and esteemed. For although in themselves men have nothing especially deserving of honor, yet when they are chosen by God and constituted in some dignity, God's decree must be obeyed; and this principle must be retained: that all preeminence rests on God's will and decree. And therefore those who do not simply submit to those whom God has elevated to dignity rebel against God's power. Such was then the priestly dignity.

Furthermore, as for the fact that God permitted Saul to kill so many priests, we should not too curiously inquire why this was done, since God's reason for his judgments stands by itself, which men cannot grasp by their minds; and we said above that God had most just causes for abolishing and rooting out the house of Eli the priest. But still someone may ask: Why did God exercise his vengeance on these innocent men? For Hophni and Phinehas, Eli's sons and most criminal men, deserved such a divine judgment and vengeance, which finally fell on their own heads. But that those who were not yet born and seemed innocent should be so wretchedly dragged to the slaughter could seem contrary to the equity of God's judgments, if the deed is weighed by human sense. If therefore we should wish to inquire from the sense of human reason why God permitted Saul to rage so cruelly against innocent men, it is certain that we shall fall into a labyrinth from which there is no exit.

Indeed, today many fanatics allow themselves to blaspheme against such judgments when they see many such judgments contrary to human senses. But let us rather learn to adore those divine judgments, even though their reason is unknown to us. For he himself has his own reason for judgments, even though we cannot grasp it with our senses. But if we wished to measure God by the limits of our own grasp, what great presumption and arrogance, I ask, that is! That worms of the earth should come to such arrogance that, if they cannot perceive the reason of God's judgments, they therefore dare to accuse God of injustice — as if God did not have greater wisdom than men, and his incomprehensible wisdom did not far surpass our conceptions and imaginations. Diabolical, then, is the obstinacy when men want God to be subject to their imaginations.

Let us, on the contrary, learn to judge soberly and modestly of God's works, and confess that God is just in all his deeds, even if their reason does not appear to our senses. Therefore David in many of his Psalms says: O Lord, I will praise you in your works. By these words he as it were puts a bridle on himself, lest he give loose reins to his thoughts, but holds his senses captive, lest he speak against God or murmur against him. And since he knew it was needful, he glorifies God in this without anxious inquiry. And in other passages, speaking of his afflictions and complaining that he had been forsaken by God for a time, he says he puts his hand on his mouth and keeps silence: Because, he says, you, Lord, have done it. By this word he acknowledges God's righteousness and teaches us to restrain our reason when we cannot investigate God's judgments, lest we burst out in blasphemous words. For it is certain that God in his judgments must be justified, even unwillingly by men; and if we come to such audacity that we dare to condemn his judgments, it will be done with our utmost confusion. David therefore in that Psalm, considering this whole matter accomplished by God's governance, says he will celebrate his name, because it is impossible that anything should proceed from God which is not full of wisdom, righteousness, rectitude, and every perfection.

Indeed, our senses certainly grow blind in these matters, because we indulge ourselves too much, and therefore do not know how to distinguish good from evil, and consequently cannot glorify God as we ought. But our faith will then be conspicuous and proven, when at all the obstacles by which we could be disturbed, in silence we will revere and adore God's judgments — and confess that he is our Lord, and therefore whatever proceeds from him must be received as just and good. Moreover, although God defers his judgments, we should not therefore think that he consigns them to oblivion. For example, he had foretold that Eli's posterity would be despoiled of the priesthood and much time had elapsed since that prediction, so that it could seem to have been in vain. But at last he showed by the deed itself that he brings his decree to its end, and that his threats are never empty or vain. Therefore, when God has promised something, let us patiently await its fulfillment; let us not be so foolish and senseless as to wish to set the time or the hour ourselves, but let us rely with faith on God's promise, knowing that our patience is being tested, as the apostle also urges. And conversely, when God terrifies us with threats, let us so weigh his judgments that we do not fall into despair and distrust on the one hand, nor sit in slothfulness and sluggishness on the other, as if we had escaped the threats of divine judgments because he has deferred them for many years. For neither is it the case that, because one or two years, or even ten or more, have elapsed, we have therefore escaped God's hand. For, as the prophet says, a thousand years before the Lord are as one day. Therefore if he does not at the first opportunity overwhelm us with great blows, let us not for that reason think our condition the better, but flee to the remedy proposed in Scripture — namely, that with sighing and tears we may be cast down under his mighty hand, and urge it with constant prayers, that he turn his vengeance and condemnation away from us.

And this very thing Paul teaches us, when he says that God, awaiting us for a time, invites us to repentance and gives us leisure to flee to him; and if we abuse his patience, he will avenge our excessive ingratitude more severely. Therefore when God has spoken, let us learn to consider his word as a settled and irrevocable matter; and therefore if he has promised that he will be our preserver and will bring help in afflicted circumstances, let us be certainly persuaded that he will never fail us. But if he has threatened, let us be moved by his threats, and shudder at his judgments, and never rest until having found grace with him, being assured of the remission of our sins. By this means it will come about that his wrath is turned away from us.

Next follows that none of Saul's attendants was willing to lay a hand on the priests of the Lord. From this it appears that God willed him to be condemned by the votes of his own household who served him, and who had hired out their services to the tyrant. God, I say, willed them to be Saul's judges, when they refused to lay hands on the priests of the Lord. And although the priests were not therefore freed, nor was their condition made better, since Saul was not appeased — yet God in part conferred authority on the priesthood, when the king's attendants, accustomed to plundering, despoiling, and brigandage, and idle men, were nevertheless unwilling to obey the king's command about killing the priests, but kept their hands from such a monstrous crime. And by this means the priesthood retained its dignity and honor; and meanwhile Saul was made all the more inexcusable, when he saw his commands rejected as unjust by his attendants, and yet persisted in his obstinacy.

The treacherous Edomite Doeg alone remained to him, a profane and unbelieving man, an enemy of God and his law and of pure religion. He alone obeyed his lust. And meanwhile he himself so forgot himself as to order the priests killed. He ought to have considered with himself that such a great crime could not remain unpunished among men, and that those seeing innocent blood shed would make an attack on Doeg, saying: Wicked man, will you so profane God's holiness with impunity, and trample his sacred law underfoot? Both Doeg therefore and Saul himself ought to have feared a popular tumult; but, as I said before, he was furious and mad. And nevertheless he was made inexcusable by God.

Moreover, Doeg, being so prompt to execute that command, sufficiently shows that he was wonderfully delighted by the confusion and disturbance of all things, and gloried in his own cruelty, to abolish God's glory if he could and to overturn the entire worship of God prescribed by the law. And this was Doeg's mind. But the fact that God lets the reins to his cruelty seems again a wonder, and contrary to our senses, and one that throws us into the highest astonishment. Could it be that God allowed or willed such a wicked Edomite man to fall upon the sacred priests and slaughter so many innocents at once? And if God is the judge of the world and its dispenser, how did he not prevent this from happening? See how easily mortals would contend against God and his judgments, and would burst out into blasphemous words.

But if we allow ourselves so much, as we see today many profane men accustomed to do, it is certain there is a way to excessive audacity, which finally makes us rise up against God himself and casts a sinister opinion of God into our minds — namely that he is no longer to be trusted, no longer to be fled to in arduous matters, nor any longer to be invoked. Many despisers are carried by these reasonings to every kind of crime in the hope of impunity, which they have drawn from those depraved imaginations of theirs. Therefore, the more our descent into these crimes is steep, the more carefully must the doctrine here set before us be meditated — namely, that we should await God in silence and fear, if he does not at the first opportunity oppose our enemies and bring help; indeed, if he permits the impious to bring their monstrous designs to the desired end, as if they were approved by God himself, but not we who are afflicted by them. And let us learn to say with David: Lord, I am silent, because you have done it. And in Psalm 52 he shows that he then meditated on the same doctrine and applied it to his own use, when he says: Doeg was an impious man who did not place his trust in God, but in honors and power, and was strengthened in his malice — but he will at last be uprooted; whereas he himself had placed his hope in God, and therefore he would be like a flourishing olive tree in God's house forever. David therefore there in part sets before himself what could not yet appear. For he says that when God exercises his judgments on Doeg, the righteous will laugh and have joy — as if to say that, although God may for a time loose the reins to impious and profane men, he will nevertheless finally give occasion for joy to all who call upon him and place their hope in him, and will bring it about that they recognize that even though he tests the patience of his own, he has not therefore cast them off, but exercises them in various ways so that their faith and patience may be tested.

For this reason David says that Doeg in the first place did not hope in God, so that the source of his cruelty and impiety might appear — namely, that he had neither faith nor religion. For when the fear of God, which is the head of all wisdom, does not hold its place in us, it is certain that we are carried with loose reins into every evil. Then he adds that Doeg gloried in his riches and authority. And so the wicked are accustomed to do, when they are very strong in authority and favor. For they persuade themselves that everything is permitted them and as if there were no God in heaven, they are puffed up according to their lust. But the heap of evil falls upon all the foregoing, when David says Doeg gloried in malice, and was strengthened in his vanity. This is common to all the wicked: that elated by prosperity and intoxicated by what they call their good fortune, they promise themselves anything, and think themselves no longer subject to any law, and are manifestly insulting toward God and willingly provoke him to anger; and they are hardened more and more, promising themselves impunity for all their crimes, of which they will never give an account.

These things are set before us so that by Doeg's example we may learn to detest and abhor all those vices as a most pestilent plague.

Furthermore, David's constancy appears, who though in the opinion of men he was most wretched and afflicted, so that there was no hope he would ever emerge from such great evils, nevertheless placed his hope in God and rested in his goodness. And therefore he glories that he will be a flourishing olive tree in God's house. Yet at that time he was an exile from God's sanctuary and, as we saw before, had betaken himself to a foreign land. But not looking at his present condition, he contemplated the happiness laid up in his soul, from which he was then far away. Therefore after he said he was awaiting God's goodness, he says it will be forever. And yet at that time, in human judgment, he had no sense of that favor, when he was pressed on every side, and Saul was urging on every side, so that he was being abandoned by all as one guilty of death. But nonetheless he glories that he will be like a flourishing olive tree retaining its fruit and vigor in God's house perpetually. Why so? Because he places his hope in God's goodness.

And we must imitate David's example, especially because the world today is full of Doegs and Sauls, and many traitors who attempt to bring nothing into God's church but confusion. And such pests above all occupy the courts of princes, and because they want to indulge themselves, they attempt to introduce the confusion of all things. When we see these things, and God's work seems to suffer delay, we ought to imitate David. And just as he in the midst of his trials and afflictions and the greatest distresses did not cease to hope in God, so let us know and be persuaded with firm faith that every tree that God has planted will never be uprooted, but will produce flowers and fruits in its own time, however unwilling all the wicked may be. But on the contrary, the impious and criminal men, who are like rotten and wild trees, will perish and be cast into the fire, as our Lord Jesus Christ himself teaches us. We know that our salvation is founded in God, and our life is not from men nor placed in their power; but God receives us into his grace from his mere goodness and liberality, and calls us to himself sweetly through the preaching of the Gospel. Therefore let us boldly mock all Doegs and Sauls, and as many enemies of God as there are in the world, and proceed alacritously in our calling, in all humility and patience, awaiting the time when God, having taken pity on us after some trial, may stretch forth his hand to us and testify by the deed itself that he never forgets us, even though he has often seemed to hide his face, and we have been reduced to such a state that we are regarded as the refuse of the world.

Now then, let us proceed, etc.

11. Then the king sent to summon Ahimelech the priest, son of Ahitub, and all the priests who were in Nob. They all came to the king. 12. And Saul said: Hear me, son of Ahitub. 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, and given him bread and a sword, and consulted God for him, that he should rise up against me, lying in wait to this day? 14. Then Ahimelech answered the king and said: And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, the king's son-in-law, who goes at your command, and is honored in your house? 15. Did I begin today to consult the Lord for him? Far be it from me. Let not the king suspect such a thing of his servant or of any of my father's whole house, for your servant knew nothing of this matter, neither little nor great. 16. And the king said: You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's house. 17. And the king said to the messengers who stood about him: Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, for their hand is with David, knowing that he was fleeing, and they did not show me. But the servants of the king refused to put forth their hands against the priests of the Lord. 18. And the king said to Doeg: Turn and fall upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned and fell upon the priests, and slew that day eighty-five men who wore a linen ephod. 19. And he struck Nob, the city of the priests, with the edge of the sword: men and women, children and nursing infants, ox and donkey and sheep with the edge of the sword. 20. But one son of Ahimelech, son of Ahitub, escaped, whose name was Abiathar; he fled to David. 21. And he told him 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 am guilty of all the souls of your father's house. 23. Stay with me, do not fear; if anyone seeks my life, he will seek your life also; with me you will be kept safe.

We come now to a sad and grievous account — of such great and terrible disorder invading God's church that the king himself, who was supposed to be a figure of our Lord Jesus Christ, attempted to destroy the priesthood, another testimony of God's grace. God had declared that the Israelite people would be to Him a kingdom of priests. By these two things — the royal office and the priestly office — God declared Himself to be the King and Lord of this people, raising them up as His standards before the world. Each of these — royal authority and the priestly office — served as a figure and image of that supreme King and Priest, our Lord Jesus Christ, who would at last come in person. I grant that in Saul the promise was not yet fully realized, since the scepter was to be established in the tribe of Judah. So until David, God had not yet fully shown His intention to give the people a king who would serve as a mirror in which they could see the coming Redeemer and sustain their hope in the promised Messiah. But since Saul's anointing was of the same kind as the kings who followed — even though it was taken from him — God had already begun to teach the people that He would one day give them a king full of gentleness and compassion, one who would preserve the people in peace. So God raised these two standards and signs in His church — the priesthood and the kingdom — as pillars by which the faith of each believer might be supported and sustained.

And yet we see Saul the king — who was supposed to be a figure of our Lord Jesus Christ — doing everything in his power to tear down the priestly office. What a devastating blow this was to those people, who had only the shadows of the law — the most obscure shadows at that — and did not have the clear knowledge that the Gospel's preaching has brought to us today. It was as if Christ had been torn in two — speaking in terms of the legal figures. For king and priest had to stand together, bound by a mutual and unbreakable bond, as two pledges of divine grace, pointing to the One whom God had promised would come for the salvation of His whole people. Through Saul's horrifying act, therefore, the trust of God's children seemed violently shaken. They were thrown into such confusion that, by every human reckoning, they would have concluded that God had deceived their faith — that looking to either the priestly dignity or the royal authority was foolish and empty.

On the other hand, we must also consider why God permitted such a terrible deed to take place — and it did not happen without reason. There is much here for us to reflect on, so that we may recognize God's judgments and revere them with awe, since they exceed our understanding and all human reason. Anyone who reads this account carelessly will not call to mind what was said earlier — that by God's decree the priesthood was to be taken from the house of Eli and transferred to another family. The family of Eli, which had defiled God's tabernacle with so many crimes, was to be humbled to the point where it would be reduced to begging, and Eli's descendants, who had received all the sacred offerings, would receive only a hired servant's wage. God had pronounced this sentence long before — and from that time until Samuel's death, and throughout Saul's reign, no change had yet come to Eli's house. It would have been easy to conclude that God's decree was vain, that His announcement had been empty, that He had forgotten what He said or had not spoken seriously. But now, behold — eighty-five priests are killed in a single day, at Saul's command.

Though Saul, in killing the priests, had no thought of fulfilling God's will and was certainly not consciously obeying Him, he was nonetheless carrying out God's hidden counsel and fulfilling it in a way that exceeded all human understanding. In all of this, we ought to adore and reverence God's secret counsels — so hidden and so deep that they surpass all human comprehension. Yet one person from that family escaped — Abiathar — so that God's sentence was not yet seen to be completely fulfilled. Had David's kingdom been established permanently at that point, Abiathar would seem to have been destined to hold the priesthood, since he was the sole survivor from the priestly family, and David had promised this to him. But God finished the work He had begun. Abiathar later joined Adonijah's conspiracy, fell from his position, and the priesthood was taken from him and transferred to Zadok — and in this way God's judgment was fully carried out.

Though God permitted such a slaughter of priests to take place, it ultimately brought about Saul's greater ruin — for the wicked tend to hasten their own condemnation and call down God's judgments on their own heads, running to meet them as if eager for their own destruction. God therefore permitted Saul to sink into such impiety and cruelty so that his punishment would come all the sooner — which we will see happened not long afterward. Furthermore, God's purpose here is also to be admired in allowing David to be stripped of all aid and support — so that he might learn to look to God alone. At the same time, God condemned Saul through his own men — his attendants, soldiers, and hired soldiers — whose refusal to obey his command served as a verdict against him. Commanded by Saul to attack and kill the priests, they refused. Only Doeg the Edomite was willing to obey — a treacherous and godless man, completely outside the covenant community of Israel.

But we will examine these things more carefully as we work through each detail. First, Saul summoned the priests, who came immediately when called — eighty-five men in all. These poor men would never have imagined that Saul would be so brutal toward them. Even though they had been accused — falsely — of harboring a fugitive and appearing to be aware of a betrayal against the king, they had a perfectly good defense. Any fair judge would have heard them out. Both Ahimelech and the other priests could truthfully say that they had no knowledge of David's flight from the king. Saul had told no one, and there had been no public proclamation that no one was to help David or show him any favor. Saul had been pursuing David with hidden hatred, driven by nothing but cruelty. Because they had a legitimate defense and no reason to expect Saul's murderous rage, the priests came in such numbers when summoned, never suspecting the danger.

The accusation was serious — that they had conspired with the son of Jesse against the king. But Saul should have been satisfied by Ahimelech's answer, which more than cleared them of any charge of conspiracy. Even if some wrongdoing worthy of punishment had taken place, Ahimelech alone could be considered responsible for it — since he was the one who had given David the bread of the Presence and handed him Goliath's sword. But Ahimelech plainly demonstrates his innocence in his reply. He tells the king that he had assumed David was carrying out the king's business, and he says it in these words: 'And who among all the king's servants is so faithful as David, the king's son-in-law, who goes at your command and is honored in your house? Did I begin today to consult God for him? Far be it from me.' In praying for David and consulting God on his behalf, Ahimelech explains, he had assumed David was carrying out a royal mission for the welfare of the people — and so he prayed for God's blessing on him accordingly.

Even the most furious Saul ought to have been calmed by these words. But he admitted no defense, was moved by no reason or justice — seized by fury, he shut his ears to all argument. And so he declared: 'You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's house.' This shows that Saul was in the grip of madness and fury, driven by an evil spirit — as we have seen repeatedly before, that the Lord had sent an evil spirit to torment him and drive him to such extremes that he became despised by all. Here we see a terrifying example of God's judgments: once a man is forsaken by God, he plunges day by day into worse and worse crimes — step by step, sinking into the deep abyss. Earlier, Saul would have recoiled from killing priests. Even the most shameless men who hated the priests would not have dared to openly call for their deaths, even if they had inwardly wished for it a thousand times. But now no excuse remains for Saul and his servants, since Ahimelech's answer had more than established the innocence of the priests. The fact that Saul reached this level of fury shows us how the reprobate do not suddenly become the worst of criminals — they descend step by step, departing further from God, coming increasingly under the power of the devil, until at last they degenerate into something worse than brute beasts, becoming the most horrible of monsters. Saul raged against innocent priests — acting against all nature and human decency. What grounds did he have to rage against men who had believed they were serving the king's interests? If even a royal attendant accidentally struck the king while trying to serve him, he would rightly expect to be pardoned — especially if the injury was unintentional and came from eagerness to help. Ahimelech made exactly this case: he had helped David with bread and counsel because he believed he was acting in the king's interest as a faithful subject. But Saul, going beyond all reason, showed himself utterly forgetful of both God and basic humanity. By what logic did he rage against eighty-five priests — and innocent ones at that? This is an abominable and horrifying deed, and anyone with any feeling ought to shudder at its telling.

One more detail deserves attention: all the priests wore the ephod, which was a priestly garment. The high priest's ephod was unique to him, but the other priests of the same family also wore an ephod appropriate to their dignity. The papists have imitated this example in a ridiculous, ape-like fashion, retaining some similar ornament. But when the shadows of the law are revived and the rites of the Jews are preserved instead of evangelical simplicity, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is buried. The ephod was a priestly garment indicating the dignity of the priests, whose office was to appease God's wrath toward the people and intercede with God on the people's behalf — an office perfectly fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ.

The ephod is specifically mentioned here to magnify the depth of Saul's cruelty and impiety — not even the sacred signs that God had established as marks of refuge restrained him. Those signs of God given to the priests certainly carried more weight than any royal or princely emblems affixed to places of sanctuary. Through that priestly garment, God declared the priests to be chosen by Him and consecrated to Himself — clothed, as it were, with this sacred vestment. Though in themselves unworthy to intercede with God for the people because of their own corruption, God nonetheless clothed them with righteousness and integrity, so that they might represent a kind of angelic perfection. If Saul had possessed even a single drop of true piety, the mere sight of the priests or the ephod would have made him tremble — for they were sacred and dedicated to the name of God. Instead, this shows that Saul was not merely monstrous in cruelty like a wild beast, but had stripped off all humanity and all fear of God. He had been completely blinded and stupefied by the devil, so that no sense of God remained in him.

These things must be applied to our own lives. We are not to read them merely as history, but to draw from them a lesson about walking in the fear of God with reverence and care — lest we too ever turn away from the Lord. For if we turn our backs on God, He will withdraw from us as well. And as our offenses multiply, we too will be abandoned by His Spirit and stripped of all His gifts and graces — until we are transformed into horrible monsters, having cast off all knowledge of God. Saul certainly knew that the priests of the living God had been instituted by His command. If asked, he would have said he wanted to be the defender and protector of the sacred order. And yet all of this suddenly slipped from his mind.

Let us instead learn that God wills those He has placed over His church and ordained as ministers to be honored and respected. Even though in themselves such men have nothing especially worthy of honor, when they are chosen by God and established in some dignity, God's decree must be obeyed. This principle must be held firmly: all authority rests on God's will and appointment. Therefore those who refuse to submit to those whom God has elevated are in fact rebelling against God's authority. Such was the nature of the priestly dignity.

As for the fact that God permitted Saul to kill so many priests — we should not probe too curiously into why this was so, since God's reasons for His judgments stand on their own, beyond what human minds can grasp. And we noted earlier that God had perfectly just reasons for abolishing and uprooting the house of Eli. Still, someone might ask: Why did God carry out His vengeance on these seemingly innocent men? Hophni and Phinehas, Eli's sons — the truly criminal men — deserved exactly this kind of divine judgment, and it fell on their own heads. But for men not yet born at the time of those crimes, men who appear innocent, to be dragged so wretchedly to the slaughter — this can seem contrary to the fairness of God's judgments when measured by human standards. If we try to answer by human reason alone why God permitted Saul to rage so cruelly against these innocent men, we will enter a labyrinth from which there is no way out.

Indeed, there are many today who allow themselves to blaspheme against such judgments whenever they encounter something that contradicts human logic. But let us instead learn to bow before God's judgments, even when their reason is unknown to us. God has His own reason for His judgments, even though we cannot grasp it with our understanding. And if we wanted to measure God by the limits of our own comprehension — what staggering arrogance that would be. That worms of the earth would presume, because they cannot see the reason for God's judgments, to accuse God of injustice — as if God did not possess far greater wisdom than men, as if His incomprehensible wisdom did not far exceed our every conception and imagination. It is diabolical obstinacy when men want God to submit to their own mental categories.

Let us instead learn to speak of God's works with soberness and humility, confessing that God is just in all He does — even when we cannot perceive the reason with our senses. This is why David in many Psalms says: 'O Lord, I will praise You in Your works.' By these words he puts a bridle on himself, refusing to give his thoughts free rein. He holds his own mind captive, so that he does not speak against God or murmur against Him. Knowing this discipline was necessary, he glorifies God without anxious inquiry. In other passages, when speaking of his afflictions and crying out that God seemed to have forsaken him for a time, he says he puts his hand over his mouth and keeps silent: 'Because You, Lord, have done it.' By these words he acknowledges God's righteousness and teaches us to restrain our reasoning when we cannot investigate God's judgments — lest we burst out in blasphemous words. God will certainly be justified in His judgments — even by those who do so unwillingly. And if we grow so bold as to dare to condemn His judgments, the confusion and shame will fall entirely on ourselves. David therefore, considering this whole matter as something accomplished under God's sovereign governance, declares that he will celebrate God's name — because it is impossible that anything should proceed from God that is not full of wisdom, righteousness, uprightness, and every perfection.

Our perception does grow dull in these matters, because we indulge ourselves too much and therefore cannot distinguish good from evil — and as a result we cannot glorify God as we ought. But our faith will be clearly visible and tested when, at all the points of disturbance and confusion, we hold our peace and revere and adore God's judgments in silence — confessing that He is our Lord, and therefore whatever comes from Him must be received as just and good. Furthermore, when God delays His judgments, we must not conclude that He has forgotten them. He had foretold that Eli's descendants would be stripped of the priesthood, and much time had passed since that word was spoken, so that it could seem to have been in vain. But in the end He proved by the event itself that He brings His decrees to their fulfillment, and that His threats are never empty or vain. Therefore, when God has promised something, let us wait patiently for its fulfillment. Let us not be so foolish as to try to set the time or the hour ourselves, but let us rest with faith on God's promise, knowing that our patience is being tested — as the apostle urges us. Conversely, when God threatens us with judgment, let us weigh those warnings carefully — neither falling into despair and distrust on one hand, nor sitting in sloth and carelessness on the other, as if we had escaped God's threatened judgment simply because it has been delayed for many years. It is not the case that because one, two, ten, or more years have passed, we have therefore slipped out of God's reach. As the prophet says, a thousand years before the Lord are as one day. Therefore if God does not strike us immediately with heavy blows, let us not take our situation as better than it is. Let us instead flee to the remedy Scripture sets before us — humbling ourselves with sighing and tears under His mighty hand, and pressing Him with persistent prayer that He would turn His wrath and condemnation away from us.

This is exactly what Paul teaches us when he says that God, waiting for us for a time, is inviting us to repentance and giving us opportunity to come to Him. But if we abuse His patience, He will avenge our excessive ingratitude all the more severely. Therefore when God has spoken, let us regard His word as settled and final. If He has promised to be our protector and to bring help in afflicted circumstances, let us be fully persuaded that He will never fail us. But if He has threatened, let His threats move us. Let us tremble at His judgments and not rest until we have found grace with Him and been assured of the forgiveness of our sins. This is how His wrath is turned away from us.

Next, we read that none of Saul's servants was willing to lay a hand on the priests of the Lord. From this it appears that God intended Saul to be condemned by the verdict of his own household — the very men who had hired out their services to this tyrant. God willed them, I say, to serve as Saul's judges when they refused to raise their hands against the Lord's priests. Though the priests were not thereby set free, and their situation was not improved since Saul's fury was not calmed, God still in part upheld the honor of the priesthood through this. The king's own attendants — men accustomed to plundering, pillaging, and thieving — were nevertheless unwilling to obey the command to kill the priests. They refused to participate in so monstrous a crime. By this, the priesthood retained its dignity and honor. At the same time, Saul was made all the more inexcusable — since his own servants had rejected his command as unjust, and yet he persisted in his obstinacy.

Only one man remained to him: the treacherous Edomite Doeg — a godless and unbelieving man, an enemy of God, of His law, and of true religion. He alone was willing to carry out Saul's lust for blood. And yet Saul so forgot himself as to give the order to kill the priests. He ought to have considered that such a great crime could not go unpunished — that those who saw innocent blood shed would turn against Doeg and ask: 'You wicked man, will you desecrate God's holiness without consequence, and trample His sacred law underfoot?' Both Doeg and Saul ought to have feared a public uprising. But as I said before, Saul was in a blind, furious madness. And yet before God he was left utterly without excuse.

Furthermore, Doeg's readiness to carry out the order shows plainly that he rejoiced in the confusion and disorder of everything, glorying in his own cruelty — as though he wanted to wipe out God's glory if he could and overturn the entire system of worship God had established by law. This was Doeg's heart. But that God gave free rein to his cruelty appears again as something wondrous — contrary to all our instincts, throwing us into the deepest bewilderment. Could it be that God allowed or willed this wicked Edomite to fall on the sacred priests and slaughter so many innocents at once? And if God is the judge and ruler of the world, how did He not prevent it? See how quickly mortals are ready to argue with God and His judgments — and to burst out into blasphemous words.

But if we allow ourselves to go down that road — as we see many ungodly men doing today — it leads inevitably to the most reckless audacity, which ends in rising up against God Himself and instilling a dark suspicion of God in our minds: that He is no longer to be trusted, no longer to be fled to in hard times, no longer worth calling upon. Many who despise God are led by this kind of reasoning into every kind of crime, encouraged by the hope of going unpunished — a hope they drew from these corrupt imaginations. Therefore, the steeper our descent into such thinking, the more carefully we must meditate on the doctrine set before us here: that we are to wait on God in silence and fear, even when He does not immediately oppose our enemies or bring help. Even when He permits the wicked to carry their monstrous plans through to the end as if He approved — while we who are afflicted seem to be left behind. Let us learn with David to say: 'Lord, I am silent, because You have done it.' In Psalm 52, David shows that he applied this very doctrine to himself in this moment, saying: Doeg was a godless man who placed his trust not in God but in wealth and power, and was emboldened in his malice — but he will be uprooted in the end. David himself, by contrast, had placed his hope in God, and therefore he would be like a flourishing olive tree in God's house forever. David was setting before himself what could not yet be seen. He says that when God executes His judgments on Doeg, the righteous will laugh and rejoice — as if to say: although God may for a time give the godless free rein, He will finally give occasion for joy to all who call on Him and place their hope in Him. He will make it plain that even while He tests the patience of His own people, He has not cast them aside — He is exercising them in various ways so that their faith and patience may be proven.

For this reason David says first that Doeg did not hope in God — to expose the root of his cruelty and impiety, which was simply that he had no faith and no religion. When the fear of God — which is the foundation of all wisdom — has no place in a person, that person is given over with loose reins to every kind of evil. David then adds that Doeg boasted in his wealth and authority. This is what the wicked typically do when they grow powerful in influence and favor. They convince themselves that everything is permitted to them, and as though there were no God in heaven, they swell up according to their own desires. But the worst is added on top of all the rest when David says Doeg boasted in malice and was emboldened in his wickedness. This is common to all the ungodly: lifted up by prosperity and drunk on what they call good fortune, they promise themselves anything, consider themselves subject to no law, openly insult God, and willingly provoke Him to anger. They grow harder and harder, assuring themselves they will never answer for any of their crimes.

These things are set before us so that through Doeg's example we may learn to detest and abhor all those vices as a deadly plague.

David's steadiness also stands out here. Though in everyone's estimation he was the most wretched and desperate of men — with no reasonable hope of ever escaping such overwhelming trouble — he nevertheless placed his hope in God and rested in His goodness. And so he declared that he would be a flourishing olive tree in God's house. Yet at that time he was an exile from God's sanctuary and, as we saw, had been driven to a foreign land. But he did not look at his present condition. He fixed his gaze on the happiness stored up for him by God — happiness that was still far from view. After declaring that he was waiting on God's goodness, he says it will be forever. At that time, in any human reckoning, he felt none of that favor at all — pressed on every side, with Saul closing in, abandoned by all as a man condemned to death. And yet he declared that he would be like a flourishing olive tree, bearing fruit and vigor in God's house perpetually. Why? Because he placed his hope in God's goodness.

We must imitate David's example — especially because the world today is full of Doegs and Sauls, and many traitors whose only goal is to bring confusion into God's church. Such dangerous people above all haunt the courts of princes, and because they want to please themselves in everything, they work to throw everything into disorder. When we see this happening, and God's work seems to progress slowly, we must imitate David. Just as he, in the midst of his trials, afflictions, and extreme distress, never stopped hoping in God — so let us know and be firmly persuaded that every tree God has planted will never be uprooted, but will flower and bear fruit in its own time, however much all the wicked might resist. The godless and the criminal, by contrast — who are like rotten and wild trees — will perish and be thrown into the fire, as our Lord Jesus Christ Himself teaches us. We know that our salvation is founded in God, and our life does not come from men and is not in their power. God receives us into His grace from His own free goodness and kindness, and calls us to Himself gently through the preaching of the Gospel. So let us boldly look past every Doeg and Saul, and every enemy of God in the world — and press on eagerly in our calling, in all humility and patience, waiting for the time when God, having had compassion on us after some trial, stretches forth His hand and demonstrates by the deed itself that He never forgets us — even when He has seemed to hide His face and we have been reduced to a state where the world regards us as nothing but refuse.

Now then, let us proceed, etc.