THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF MURDOCH 

This blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily readings along with a headline from world news

1 Samuel 22:1-23

22David left there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; when his brothers and all his father’s house heard of it, they went down there to him. 2Everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him; and he became captain over them. Those who were with him numbered about four hundred.

3 David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab. He said to the king of Moab, ‘Please let my father and mother come to you, until I know what God will do for me.’ 4He left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. 5Then the prophet Gad said to David, ‘Do not remain in the stronghold; leave, and go into the land of Judah.’ So David left, and went into the forest of Hereth.

6 Saul heard that David and those who were with him had been located. Saul was sitting at Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree on the height, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing around him. 7Saul said to his servants who stood around him, ‘Hear now, you Benjaminites; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds? 8Is that why all of you have conspired against me? No one discloses to me when my son makes a league with the son of Jesse, none of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as he is doing today.’ 9Doeg the Edomite, who was in charge of Saul’s servants, answered, ‘I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech son of Ahitub; 10he inquired of the Lord for him, gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.’

11 The king sent for the priest Ahimelech son of Ahitub and for all his father’s house, the priests who were at Nob; and all of them came to the king. 12Saul said, ‘Listen now, son of Ahitub.’ He answered, ‘Here I am, my lord.’ 13Saul said to him, ‘Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, by giving him bread and a sword, and by inquiring of God for him, so that he has risen against me, to lie in wait, as he is doing today?’

14 Then Ahimelech answered the king, ‘Who among all your servants is so faithful as David? He is the king’s son-in-law, and is quick to do your bidding, and is honoured in your house. 15Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? By no means! Do not let the king impute anything to his servant or to any member of my father’s house; for your servant has known nothing of all this, much or little.’ 16The king said, ‘You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s house.’ 17The king said to the guard who stood around him, ‘Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David; they knew that he fled, and did not disclose it to me.’ But the servants of the king would not raise their hand to attack the priests of the Lord. 18Then the king said to Doeg, ‘You, Doeg, turn and attack the priests.’ Doeg the Edomite turned and attacked the priests; on that day he killed eighty-five who wore the linen ephod. 19Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword; men and women, children and infants, oxen, donkeys, and sheep, he put to the sword.

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20 But one of the sons of Ahimelech son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. 21Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the Lord. 22David said to Abiathar, ‘I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I am responsible for the lives of all your father’s house. 23Stay with me, and do not be afraid; for the one who seeks my life seeks your life; you will be safe with me.’

David, who can be quite as ruthless as Saul, begins to accept the dangers of being God’s chosen just as Saul begins to reject them.

David makes his home in a cave in wild country, so that it will be hard for Saul to capture him. But his presence draws other outlaws, rebels and poor people to his side. The true king in the wilderness with his rag-tag-and-bobtail fighters is a common theme in the legends of many peoples. His care for his parents, now at risk because of his breach with Saul, shows both his filial kindness and a sharp eye for consequences. He listens with due humility to the advice of the prophet.

Saul on the other hand is filled with rage at David’s escape and Jonathan’s support for him. He feels that he’s surrounded by treachery on all hands. The blameless Ahimelech and the priests of Nob are destroyed by the sinister Doeg who takes the chance to gain the King’s gratitude when even the royal guards refuse to commit murder. The reader is meant to feel the insanity of Saul’s bloody rage and his entry into an evil from which there will be no exit.

David’s sorrowful acknowledgment of his responsibility for the deaths of Ahimelech and his people and his offer of protection to the one survivor, are accompanied by evidence of his sharp-sightedness, that he spotted and understood the danger posed by Doeg.

Christian literature has tended to show God working through holy men and women, priests, ministers, monks, nuns, missionaries, enthusiastic converts and the like. The book of Samuel in its unsparing realism and psychological insight shows the kind of material that God is actually capable of working with. God is not absent from the power struggles of his world; nor distant from those who have ambition and live by their wits. Indeed the author may be suggesting that where there is largeness of ambition, as in Saul and David, there may also be the largeness of heart which comes from a fundamental openness to God’s goodness. We might say that God covets involvement in the lives of leaders for the sake of their people. An appetite for justice and a readiness to bear set-backs and misfortune are signs of this involvement.

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Often my theology has been too timid to meet the world, concentrating on matters of conscious belief, church life, individual salvation and so on. This week’s events in the UK, the fall of the house of Murdoch, are much more biblical than the Archbishop of Canterbury’s latest burble about gay priests. I need a theology which can deal with the powers of the world without simply denouncing them as all equally sinful. I need to be able to discern the movement of God’s justice in the midst of the struggles of powerful and powerless human beings. I need, in other words, the theology of the books of Samuel.