A Tale of Two Cities
Preached by Jason Abbott
July 31, 2016
Next week, our church book club will mull over the classic Dickens novel—A Tale of Two Cities. And in the providence of God, the three chapters of 1 Samuel which we’ll look at today is also a tale of two cities. Not the two European cities from the novel: Paris and London; but, rather, two Ancient Near Eastern cities: Nob and Keilah.Our story goes something like this. David is now fully on the run from Saul. He’s in the wilderness looking for refuge from this brutal, power-hungry king. And, Saul is drunk with the idea of killing David—getting this rival out of the way so that he might once and for all establish his kingdom.While on the run, David comes to the city of Nob—one of the priestly cities of Israel. He’s hungry and unarmed. So he asks the priest, Ahimelech, for weapons and food. Ahimelech doesn’t seem to know anything about David’s fugitive status and gives him both a sword and some bread.1 And, just as quickly as David comes, he goes. Yet, there are spies everywhere, and a foreigner named Doeg runs quickly to report what’s happened to Saul. So, Saul makes Nob pay him a visit.Shortly after this little episode—while he is still trying to evade capture—David and his men hear that the Israelite city of Keilah is under Philistine attack. Of course, David is under constant threat from Saul who relentlessly pursues him. And he knows (as someone who’s under a death sentence from the “reigning king” of Israel) that helping this Israelite city is not really part of his job description. Nevertheless, David pays Keilah a visit.So, those are our two cities. And as we look at the story of these two towns and these two visits which they receive, we’ll learn something of the rise and fall of two men; we’ll learn something of the rise and fall of two kinds of kingdoms; and, we’ll learn something of the rise (without fall!) of God’s chosen King.Well, let’s pray and then we’ll look at this tale of two cities.
1. Nob
The first time we meet Saul in these three chapters he’s under a tamarisk tree with a spear in his hand. (Sounds familiar!) He’s sitting; everyone else is standing. He’s kicking back and resting in the shade while David is running for his very life. What a contrast!Then Saul speaks. He’s irritated and feeling sorry for himself:
7. . . Hear now, people of Benjamin; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, 8 that all of you have conspired against me? No one discloses to me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. None of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day (22:7-8).
Saul is feeling alone. He’s chewing-out his own clan, the tribe of Benjamin, for conspiring against him. Nobody tells me anything, he complains.Then, as if to prove the point, in steps someone from the tribe of Benjamin? No. From the nation of Israel? No. Who finally tells him something about David? An Edomite named Doeg does. Perhaps, Saul’s complaints are closer to the truth than he’d like to think. Perhaps, people are beginning to turn against him as king. But he’s always got Doeg, right? At least as long as he has stuff to offer!I think we can clearly see Saul’s view of how the world works in this text. Notice the “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” philosophy he espouses here. “. . . will [David] give . . . you fields and vineyards, will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds . . .” (v. 7). From Saul’s point of view, life is all about possessions and power, and people are just pawns who want them.I wonder if this isn’t the default philosophy that we often bring to the table. How often do we secretly really value our lives by the accumulation of stuff—vacations taken, degrees earned, cars driven, spouses married, houses purchased, and so on and so forth? If so, we’d do well to remember Jesus’s warning:
. . . what does it profit a man to gain the whole world [yet] forfeit his soul? (Mark 8:36).
The answer is, of course, it profits him nothing!Gaining all at the cost of the soul is unfortunately the rule not the exception in this world. Nevertheless, I can think of a few exceptional examples I’ve seen:
Like a man who forsook career advancement because it would take time away from his God given calling to his church and his family.
Like a successful business woman who moved into the broken, inner-city of North St. Louis in order to follow God’s calling to help plant a church.
And, while there are many Saul’s, there are also some exceptional people around us. We consequently have real choices to make about which kind of person we’ll be: the rule or the exception?Well, let’s get back to Saul and Doeg and the city of Nob. Saul sends word, when Doeg makes his report about David’s visit, for the priests to come see him. The narrator tells us about this meeting:
11 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?” . . .
16 . . . “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 . . . he put to the sword (22:11-13, 16-19).
This is the sad and horrible tale of Nob and how Saul deals harshly with it. This is a dark picture of what Saul’s kingdom has become.Notice two things about this. First, notice that the priests must come to Saul. Perhaps Saul hasn’t even left the shady, lounging comfort of his tamarisk tree yet. Saul’s good at giving orders, good at being served, and good at making judgments (especially harsh, snap ones!); but, that’s about it. See, from Saul’s perspective, the kingdom exists to serve him. So: Tell them to come here!Second, notice the growing deterioration of Saul’s authority in this passage. He issues a death sentence. Saul orders the guard nearest him to: “. . . kill the priests of the Lord . . .” (22:17). But, he won’t. In fact, none of the “servants” of Saul will. The only person who obeys the “king of Israel” is a pagan—Doeg the Edomite. You see, Saul’s kingdom is falling fast. (And strangely, that’s a really good thing for Israel.)Before we move on, do you remember why Israel originally wanted a king? Do you recall what their desire was in having one? If we go back about 14 chapters in 1 Samuel, we are reminded. The people demand a king saying:
No . . . there shall be a king over us, [so] that we also may be like all the nations . . . (8:19-20).
Friends, the people here have now the very thing they asked for back then—a king just like all the nations have. One commentator describes it this way:
Saul is seated “spear in hand”…appearing like a Gentile king with Gentile armour, and the only person who is loyal to him is a Gentile. He has become a king like those of the nations—the king God had warned his people about and the king they had nevertheless asked for.2
I do wonder if, in this fiasco of an election season, we aren’t getting this—getting what we’ve asked for. Getting presidential candidates that look a lot like us as a country. (This is just me thinking.)We live in a culture that’s entertaining itself to death and composing its view of life in 140 characters or less. We live in a shallow, sex-crazed society today. (And again, this is me not necessarily the Lord.) But, when that’s what we take in, should we be surprised with the kind of results we now see? I do wonder.Well, let’s move briefly to the tale of our second city.
2. Keilah
When this city’s name is first mentioned, we find out that it’s being attacked. The Philistines are raiding its food supply. A messenger comes and tells David about it, and David rallies his band of misfit troops to help this little Israelite city. Let’s read what happens:
1 Now they told David, “Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are robbing the threshing floors.” 2 Therefore David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I go and attack these Philistines?” And the Lord said to David, “Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah.” 3 But David's men said to him, “Behold, we are afraid here in Judah; how much more…if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?” 4 Then David inquired of the Lord again. And the Lord answered . . . “Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand.” 5 And David and his men went . . . and fought . . . and brought away their livestock and struck them with a great blow. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah (23:1-5).
In contrast to King Saul commissioning the destruction of an Israelite city, here we have David riding to the rescue of an Israelite city. Again, what a contrast! Consider the differences:
Saul gets his information from a pagan while David gets his from God.
While Saul insists that the people serve him, David serves the people.
Saul has all the priests of God killed while David shelters the one priest of God who escapes.
While Saul is full of vengeance, David is full of compassion.
What different kings we see here! What different kingdoms they represent! Saul, the kingdom of man, and David, the kingdom of God! Saul’s is falling fast even as David’s is rising fast.And in the end, there’s really no question about which city we would choose or which man we’d want to encounter or whose kingdom we would want to reign over us. Between Saul and David, there’s really no contest.For, while David is God’s anointed king, Saul is the anti-anointed.As we close, I want us to consider some words of Jesus about the Scriptures, especially as his words might apply to this passage of Scripture. In Luke’s gospel, the resurrected Jesus meets two disciples who don’t initially recognize him. They’re dejected because Jesus was crucified, and they’d hoped he was the Christ, God’s Anointed Savior-King. But, they wonder, how could Jesus be the Anointed if he suffered and died? In response, this is what Jesus says to them:
25 “O . . . slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself (Luke 24:25-27).
Let’s be clear, Jesus is telling these disciples that they should have known about the suffering of the Anointed Savior-King of God because it was spoken of in all the Scriptures—in all the Old Testament writings. So my question is this: How might today’s text speak about the suffering of an Anointed Savior-King? Well . . . how does David enter into his kingdom?3 Notice two things:First, we must recognize that David’s road to the throne of Israel was slow. He lived on the margins for years “with no home, facing prejudice and betrayal.”4 Interestingly, there are some twenty chapters that give details of David’s kingship, that give details about his reign. Do you know how many chapters describe David before his kingdom comes? The answer is also twenty chapters. David had to wait and suffer before he became king.Second, we must consider the many psalms David wrote during this period of waiting and suffering—“they are mostly psalms of lament.”5 They’re the psalms which Jesus and the New Testament authors see as a description of Jesus’s pain and suffering and death. Thus, these “laments of David were a prototype or picture of his [greater] successor”—Jesus Christ.6I do not think it’s a stretch to say that Jesus may have used these 3 chapters of Scripture (1 Samuel 21, 22, and 23) as he encouraged the two dejected disciples about his saving work through his suffering work.And if this is the way the Anointed Savior-King of God builds his kingdom, then why should we imagine that it would be different for us as we follow him? Jesus clearly said that it wouldn’t be (cf. Matthew 16:24; John 15:20).
It wasn’t easy for David to follow God.
It wasn’t easy for Peter to follow God.
In fact, I cannot think of a single person in the Bible who had it easy when following God.
So, in closing, it’s appropriate for us at Community Free Church to ask: How are we like David here or like Saul here? How are we picking up our crosses in order to follow Jesus rather than making others pick them up and carry them for us? Where are the costs of discipleship in our lives?Please prayerfully consider this question. Don’t neglect to ask God about it. Let me close us in prayer.
1 The kind of bread (Bread of the Presence) and the sword’s identity (Goliath’s sword) are both important details. However, time is short and I’m summarizing 3 chapters of the Bible in just a few paragraphs! So please forgive me for omitting such details and please continue to study this passage both personally and corporately.
2 Tim Chester, 1 Samuel for You, 154.
3 The following is largely adapted from Tim Chester’s arguments in 1 Samuel for You, pages 158-160.
4 Ibid, 159.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
