Abiathar, Lone Survivor

Not satisfied with his revenge, Saul destroyed Nob.

“The innocent suffered with the supposedly guilty. The inhabitants of Nob probably had had nothing to do with the removal of the tabernacle and the priestly families to Nob (see on [1 Samuel] 21:1), yet Saul’s senseless and satanic fury wiped out the entire town.” One survivor escaped to the safety of David and his men.

Upon being informed of the destruction of the town and all the priests, David recognized his part in the tragedy. “And David said unto Abiathar, I knew it that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul: I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father’s house” (1 Samuel 22:22). This deed of Saul “filled all Israel with horror. It was the king whom they had chosen that had committed this outrage, and he had only done after the manner of the kings of other nations that feared not God. The ark was with them, but the priests of whom they had inquired were slain with the sword. What would come next?” David immediately offered sanctuary to Abiathar (v. 23).

“What encouragement it must have been to see the Urim and the Thummim ([1 Samuel] 23:6) and to know that in spite of the devastation of Nob, the hand of God had been over the ephod and the priest who guarded it. Yet when David learned the awful facts of the tragedy, he was filled with remorse as he realized that he had been responsible for the death of the high priest and those who had perished with him. He now wished that he had refused to stoop to duplicity. Gladly would he have done differently could he have had the year to live over again! But the past could not be undone. Dreadful as was his self-reproach there was nothing to do but to reach ‘forth unto those things which are before’ (Phil. 3:13).” Some duplicitous actions have dire, unforeseen consequences.