“You will surely die, Ahimelech, along with your entire family!” the king shouted. 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. 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. 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. (16-19)
Sometimes other people pay a terrible price for our mistakes, and even worse, at times these things are allowed by the Lord to fulfill His greater plan. This is a sad story where David only needed some food and a weapon so he went to a trusted friend. Then, he told a little “white lie” to that friend that he was on the King’s business. In reality, he was running for his life from Saul. Perhaps David was trying to shield Ahimelech from getting in trouble with the King, or perhaps David was just trying to get what he wanted. Either way, that single act led to a series of events where 85 priests and their families were slaughtered at the word of a crazy, paranoid, insecure King.
While this could have possibly been avoided if David had been straight with Ahimelech, you also get the sense that this is all a part of David’s story. Saul continues to behave erratically and get further and further from pleasing God, while David continues to grow more and more like a king. If you continue reading the story, you discover that David blamed himself for their deaths and took it upon himself to make it right. That is a good thing to do whenever we create problems in other people’s lives. Yet, at the same time, all of these things were foreknown by God and incorporated into His plan for Israel, for David, and eventually for His kingdom.
Sometimes we take too much credit for the bad things around us as believers while forgetting that Sin is the reason pain and suffering are in the world. We also forget that God is sovereign and totally in control. We should take responsibility for our actions, but we have to know that ultimately we don’t determine the future, God does. We can and should regret our actions and try to learn from them, but often those who are closest to us will pay for our mistakes. What is even harder to bear, is knowing that often those we are closest to will suffer for our obedience. Sometimes, doing the right thing means we will suffer, and even that our loved ones will pay a price. Yet, we still must do the right thing regardless. All we can do is entrust ourselves and our futures to the God who holds everything in His hands.
