1. Life is like a Soap Opera

5. 3 Major
Players
David
Doeg
Saul

7. Ahimelech

8. 1 Samuel 21:1-2 David went to the town of Nob to see Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech trembled when he saw him. “Why are you alone?” he asked. “Why is no one with you?” 2 “The king has sent me on a private matter,” David said. “He told me not to tell anyone why I am here. I have told my men where to meet me later.

9. 1 Samuel 21:3-6 3 Now, what is there to eat
1 Samuel 21:3-6 3 Now, what is there to eat? Give me five loaves of bread or anything else you have.” 4 “We don’t have any regular bread,” the priest replied. “But there is the holy bread, which you can have if your young men have not slept with any women recently.” 5 “Don’t worry,” David replied. “I never allow my men to be with women when we are on a campaign. And since they stay clean even on ordinary trips, how much more on this one!” 6 Since there was no other food available, the priest gave him the holy bread—the Bread of the Presence that was placed before the Lord in the Tabernacle. It had just been replaced that day with fresh bread.

11. 1 Samuel 21:7 7 Now Doeg the Edomite, Saul’s chief herdsman, was there that day, having been detained before the Lord*. *religious obligation (according to some sources)

12. 1 Samuel 21:8-9 8 David asked Ahimelech, “Do you have a spear or sword
1 Samuel 21:8-9 8 David asked Ahimelech, “Do you have a spear or sword? The king’s business was so urgent that I didn’t even have time to grab a weapon!” 9 “I only have the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah,” the priest replied. “It is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. Take that if you want it, for there is nothing else here.” “There is nothing like it!” David replied. “Give it to me!”

14. 1 Samuel 21:10 10 So David escaped from Saul and went to King Achish of Gath.

15. 1 Samuel 21:11-15, 22:1 11 But the officers of Achish were unhappy about his being there. “Isn’t this David, the king of the land?” they asked. “Isn’t he the one the people honor with dances, singing, ‘Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?” 12 David heard these comments and was very afraid of what King Achish of Gath might do to him. 13 So he pretended to be insane, scratching on doors and drooling down his beard. 14 Finally, King Achish said to his men, “Must you bring me a madman? 15 We already have enough of them around here! Why should I let someone like this be my guest?”…22 So David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam.

17. Psalm 142 A psalm of David, regarding his experience in the cave
Psalm 142 A psalm of David, regarding his experience in the cave. A prayer.
1 I cry out to the Lord; I plead for the Lord’s mercy. 2 I pour out my complaints before him and tell him all my troubles. 3 When I am overwhelmed, you alone know the way I should turn. Wherever I go, my enemies have set traps for me. 4 I look for someone to come and help me, but no one gives me a passing thought! No one will help me; no one cares a bit what happens to me.
5 Then I pray to you, O Lord.     I say, “You are my place of refuge.     You are all I really want in life. 6 Hear my cry,     for I am very low. Rescue me from my persecutors,     for they are too strong for me. 7 Bring me out of prison     so I can thank you. The godly will crowd around me,     for you are good to me.”

18. 1 Samuel 22:1-2 So David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam
1 Samuel 22:1-2 So David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. Soon his brothers and all his other relatives joined him there. 2 Then others began coming—men who were in trouble or in debt or who were just discontented—until David was the captain of about 400 men.

20. Enter Saul…

21. 1 Samuel 22:5-6 5 The prophet Gad told David, “Don’t go back to the cave. Go to Judah.” David did what he told him. He went to the forest of Hereth.6 The news of his arrival in Judah soon reached Saul. At the time, the king was sitting beneath the tamarisk tree on the hill at Gibeah, holding his spear and surrounded by his officers.

22. 1 Samuel 22:7-10 7 “Listen here, you men of Benjamin
1 Samuel 22: “Listen here, you men of Benjamin!” Saul shouted to his officers when he heard the news. “Has that son of Jesse promised every one of you fields and vineyards? Has he promised to make you all generals and captains in his army? 8 Is that why you have conspired against me? For not one of you told me when my own son made a solemn pact with the son of Jesse. You’re not even sorry for me. Think of it! My own son—encouraging him to kill me, as he is trying to do this very day!”

23. Enter Doeg…

24. 1 Samuel 21:7 tells us that Doeg was in Nob at the Tabernacle on day that David was there seeking food. “Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s herdsmen.”

25. 1 Samuel 22: Then Doeg the Edomite, who was standing there with Saul’s men, spoke up. “When I was at Nob,” he said, “I saw the son of Jesse talking to the priest, Ahimelech son of Ahitub. 10 Ahimelech consulted the Lord for him. Then he gave him food and the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”

26. 1 Samuel 22: King Saul immediately sent for Ahimelech and all his family, who served as priests at Nob. 12 When they arrived, Saul shouted at him, “Listen to me, you son of Ahitub!” “What is it, my king?” Ahimelech asked. 13 “Why have you and the son of Jesse conspired against me?” Saul demanded. “Why did you give him food and a sword? Why have you consulted God for him? Why have you encouraged him to kill me, as he is trying to do this very day?” 14 “But sir,” Ahimelech replied, “is anyone among all your servants as faithful as David, your son-in-law? Why, he is the captain of your bodyguard and a highly honored member of your household! 15 This was certainly not the first time I had consulted God for him! May the king not accuse me and my family in this matter, for I knew nothing at all of any plot against you.”

27. 1 Samuel 22:11-20 cont. 16 “You will surely die, Ahimelech, along with your entire family!” the king shouted. 17 And he ordered his bodyguards, “Kill these priests of the Lord, for they are allies and conspirators with David! They knew he was running away from me, but they didn’t tell me!” But Saul’s men refused to kill the Lord’s priests. 18 Then the king said to Doeg, “You do it.” So Doeg the Edomite turned on them and killed them that day, eighty-five priests in all, still wearing their priestly garments.19 Then he went to Nob, the town of the priests, and killed the priests’ families—men and women, children and babies—and all the cattle, donkeys, sheep, and goats. 20 Only Abiathar, one of the sons of Ahimelech, escaped and fled to David.

28. Psalm 52 A psalm of David, regarding the time Doeg the Edomite said to Saul, “David has gone to see Ahimelech.”
1 Why do you boast about your crimes, great warrior? Don’t you realize God’s justice continues forever? 2 All day long you plot destruction. Your tongue cuts like a sharp razor; you’re an expert at telling lies. 3 You love evil more than good and lies more than truth. 4 You love to destroy others with your words, you liar! 5 But God will strike you down once and for all. He will pull you from your home and uproot you from the land of the living.
6 The righteous will see it and be amazed. They will laugh and say, 7 “Look what happens to mighty warriors who do not trust in God. They trust their wealth instead  and grow more and more bold in their wickedness.”
8 But I am like an olive tree, thriving in the house of God. I will always trust in God’s unfailing love. 9 I will praise you forever, O God, for what you have done. I will trust in your good name in the presence of your faithful people.

29. David

30. 1 Samuel 22:22-23 22 David exclaimed, “I knew it
1 Samuel 22: David exclaimed, “I knew it! When I saw Doeg the Edomite there that day, I knew he was sure to tell Saul. Now I have caused the death of all your father’s family. 23 Stay here with me, and don’t be afraid. I will protect you with my own life, for the same person wants to kill us both.”

31. Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but he who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”

33. Lessons from Saul…

34. Jealousy is the fear that you will lose something valuable to you (In Saul’s case it was his throne); envy is the anger you feel because someone else got what you wanted (In Saul’s case the respect and admiration of the people). Jealousy is fear, envy is anger.

36. Lessons from Doeg…

37. “Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house” (1 Sam 2:31).

38. Lessons from… David

39. No one ever gets away with sin
No one ever gets away with sin. It is a moral law of the universe that all sin is eventually punished. “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). It was a lesson David learned the hard way.

40. for

41. Galatians 6:7-10 (NLT) 7 Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. 8 Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature 8But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.9 So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. 10 Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.

43. Blinded--Lucien Coleman Blinded—Thomas Marshall
References
Blinded--Lucien Coleman
Blinded—Thomas Marshall
“Saul’s Slaughter & David’s Sorrow!”—Brian Bill
Every Doeg Has His Day!--David Wilson
The Fugitive—Ray Pritchard
Doeg: Evil in the Hands of a Good God—Greg Lanier
The Cave—Neil Locke
The Green Eyed Monster—Ray Pritchard