Doeg, the Spy
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Doeg the Edomite turned informer.
Moved by ambition and avarice, and by hatred of the priest, who had reproved his sins, Doeg reported David’s visit to Ahimelech, representing the matter in such a light as to kindle Saul’s anger against the man of God.” “He virtually told Saul that Jonathan and the Benjamites were not so much in the wrong as the priest, who not only gave David food but inquired of the Lord for him, and gave him a weapon (v. 10). Doeg apparently did not volunteer this information until bribed by offers of rich rewards and high position.” “The priest thought that in doing a kindness to an ambassador of his [Saul’s] court, he was showing respect to the king. He was altogether innocent of any evil intention toward Saul or his realm. David had not taken a straightforward course before the priest, he had dissimulated, and on this account he had brought the whole family of the priesthood into peril. “But Doeg was a slanderer, and Saul had such a spirit of envy and hatred and murder, that he desired the report to be true. The partial and exaggerated statement of the chief of the herdsmen, was suited for the use of the adversary of God and man. It was presented to the mind of Saul in such a light that the king lost all control of himself, and acted like a madman. If he had but calmly waited until he could have heard the whole story, and had exercised his reasoning faculties, how different would have been the terrible record of that day’s doings! “. . . Ahimelech was not present on this occasion to vindicate himself, and to state the facts as they existed; but Doeg cared not for this. Like Satan his father, he read the mind of Saul, and improved the opportunity of increasing the misery of the king by the words of his mischievous tongue, which was set on fire of hell.” “Lying lips are [an] abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight” (Proverbs 12:22).
