I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.
Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 21-24.
If we pay attention we learn something interesting about the way King Saul ruled when David shows up in Nob. Ahimelech the priest was frightened when he saw David. Ahimelech did not question David’s claim of being on a private mission for King Saul and was eager to give him whatever assistance that he was able. Taken in the context that only Jonathan, Saul’s son, was willing to confront him over his attempts to kill the immensely popular David, this suggests that King Saul governed in a manner which will be familiar to anyone who studies 20th Century history. King Saul, to the degree which he was able, was a totalitarian. He ruled by fear and found it necessary to eliminate anyone whose power was not entirely derived from their relationship with King Saul. We see further evidence of King Saul’s totalitarian tendencies, and their limits, in the story of how he dealt with Ahimelech and all of the priests of Nob.
We start to see the difference between David’s approach to leadership and that of King Saul later in this passage, although we see the beginnings of that difference in David’s confrontation with Goliath. There David told Goliath, “Today the Lord will conquer you, then I will kill you and cut off your head.”(slight paraphrase) David believed that God would defeat Goliath and only then would he, David, kill him. In today’s passage, the people of Keilah were suffering the depredation of Philistine raiders. David felt led to stop the raiders, so he checked with God if that was a risk he should take. When the men who followed him balked, he listened to their concern and took that to God as well. Then, when David realized that the people of Keilah would betray him to King Saul, he went back into the wilderness. I am not doing a good job expressing the difference between the two men. I want to sum it up by pointing out this key difference: David based his actions on what he perceived to be God’s will, a perception he kept checking. King Saul, on the other hand, based his actions on what he thought was most likely to accomplish his goals.