Deeper ReflectionABIATHAR, SON OF AHIMELECH, escaped from Saul’s slaughter of the priests at Nob and fled to David when he was at Keilah (v.6; 1 Sam 22:20). The two events of Saul’s slaughter of the priests (1 Sam 22:18-19) and David’s deliverance of Keilah from the Philistines (vv.1-6) “are not in strict chronological order”
40 as they may seem to be. Abiathar’s arrival at Keilah to meet David (v.6; 1 Sam 22:20) “takes place after or during the deliverance of Keilah”
41. This means that Saul’s slaughter of the priests at Nob is “roughly contemporaneous with” David’s deliverance of Keilah.
42 Through these two chronologically parallel events, the narrator seeks to further his agenda of contrasting David with Saul.
43 While Saul murdered God’s priests, David accomplished what Saul should be doing: delivering God’s people from the Philistines (see 1 Sam 9:16). And David protected the one remaining priest from the murderous Saul (1 Sam 22:23). When Saul heard that David was in Keilah, thinking that David had “shut himself in by entering a city with double gates and bars”, his response was: “God delivered him into my hand” (v.7). Saul thought he saw God and that God was with him and for him in this situation, while the reverse was true: God was with David and for David against him. This is spiritual incongruence that results from self-deception of one who was once Spirit-empowered (cf. 1 Sam 10:10; 11:6).
40 Robert B. Chisholm Jr., 152
41 Robert B. Chisholm Jr., 152
42 Robert B. Chisholm Jr., 152
43 Robert B. Chisholm Jr., 152
