Man, let's turn then to the narrative of Saul and Doeg and their tongues, which falsely accuse of conspiracy and the acts of evil, recorded in 1 Samuel chapter 22. Page 312 in most of the Pew Bibles, 1 Samuel chapter 22. will be reading and considering verse 6 to the end of the chapter verse 23. Let us hear 1st Samuel 22 beginning at verse 6, the word of God. Now Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men who were with him. Saul was sitting at Gibeah under the Tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him. And Saul said to his servants who stood about him, here now, people of Benjamin, 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, that all of you have conspired against me? No one discloses to me when my son makes a covenant 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 at this day." Then answered Doag, the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech, the son of Ahithah. And he inquired of the Lord for him and gave him provisions and gave him the sword of Goliath, the Philistine. Then the king sent to summon the Himalaya, the priest, the son of a high tub and all his father's house, the priests who were at knob and all of them came to the king. And Saul said, here now, son of a high tub. And he answered, here I am, my Lord. And Saul said to him, why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, and that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him so that he has risen against me to lie in wait as at this day. Then the Himalaya answered the king. And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law and captain over your bodyguard and honored in your house? Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? No, let not the king impute anything to his servant or to all the house of my father, for your servant has known nothing of all this, much or little. And the king said, you shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's house. And the king said to the guard who stood above him, turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand is also with David. And they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me. But the servants of the king would not put out their hand to strike the priests of the Lord. Then the king said to Doeg, you turn and strike the priests. And Doag the Edomite turned and struck down the priests. And he killed on that day 85 persons who wore the linen ephod. And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword. Both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey, and sheep, he put to the sword. But one of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitab, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priest of the Lord. And David said to Abiathar, I knew on that day when Doeg the Edomite was there that he would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the death of all the persons of your father's house. Stay with me. Do not be afraid. For he who seeks my life seeks your life. With me you shall be in safe keeping. So far the reading, the grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our Lord endures forever. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, how cautious is cautious enough? If something horrible happens, How responsible am I? What could I have done differently? See, these are questions that we can ask ourselves. Questions like, what could I have done differently? Are questions that we could ask in everyday situations. They are questions that we can ask in the face of tragedy. And these are questions that we should ask ourselves. Indeed, the believer is always to be examining self in every way. So let us make these kinds of examinations, ask ourselves these kinds of questions, but let us not have these examinations turn into a cruel what if game. If only I had done this, if only I had done that, if only I had done all of this, then everything would be okay. People of God, let us not turn self-examination into self-incrimination. As the saying goes, hindsight is 20-20. In this sense, Let us not examine our past actions too quickly, too harshly. Instead, carefully, slowly, let's take as much responsibility as we should without crushing ourselves under the guilt of what if scenarios. Perhaps we are not directly accountable. You see, our text today speaks in a very sobering way about an extreme tragedy, a slaughter, a massacre. And the text before us helps us to consider those kinds of questions and how we are to examine ourselves and the warnings the warning signs for those who would not be asking these kinds of questions. And so we ask the big question, who is responsible for the slaughter at Nod? And as we work through that question, we do so with this theme, let us seriously and carefully examine our actions. Let us earnestly look at ourselves, but let us not too quickly or rashly look at ourselves in the face of tragedy. And so we'll ask, is Saul responsible? Is Eli responsible? Is Doeg responsible? Is David Responsible. Well, the first person of our narrative is our first point and our first focus, which is Saul. And we ask, is Saul responsible? And we find him sitting in Gibeah, sitting under the Tamarisk tree, sitting with his servants all around him and sitting, what? Holding his spear in his hand. Maybe one of the spears that he hurled at David, or maybe just another spear, but whatever it is, it reminds us that Saul At this point in his life is always ready for violence and not only ready for violence but as the king as the sole monarch of Israel he has servants around him and he has the ability to do much violence not only himself but through those around him. And we see throughout the narrative that Saul is going to use his authority to call for evil and violence. He begins with a conspiracy hunt. We see that especially in verse 8. And then he's going to summon the priests of Nob to come to him in verse 11. And then he's going to cast a sentence upon them in verse 16 after he executes his trial as an unjust judge. And then in verse 17 and 18, he's going to call for the execution of the punishment that he has declared. In short, Saul is directly responsible for the evil and horrible deeds recorded in this chapter. And as we would sit back and we would see how Saul goes about this, it gives us many warnings in the narrative for how we ought not to behave. And the first warning of this, and we've said this before as we've worked through 1 Samuel, but the first warning is this, it is the danger of abusing authority. Saul here is so evil. that taking the language of John from 1st John chapter 4 speaking about how many Antichrists have come. This has been called one of the Antichrist chapters in the Bible. And what stands out if we think about the many Antichrists who have come, and we would think about great evils recorded in the Word of God, it is always done by somebody with some position of authority, whether it is the Pharaoh in Egypt calling for the slaughter of all the male babies, whether it is Haman using his position of authority to try to influence the king to exterminate the Jews completely, or whether it is in New Testament times, of those in places of authority like Herod or Pontius Pilate abusing that authority or whether it is Saul here abusing his authority. What we see is that with more authority comes a greater impact of wickedness. Saul has his servants around him. servants who could have been used for good, but instead he will seek to make as much destruction as he can. Saul is the judge. The king is the judge of the nation in many ways. He could use this for just judgment, but instead he uses it for false accusation. Well, the second warning is the danger of self-pity. Some people have called 1 Samuel 22, verse 7 and 8, Saul's pity party. What if we just paraphrase what he's saying here? Nobody likes me. Nobody talks to me. What he's really saying is nobody tells me what I want to hear. That's what Saul's saying in verses 7 and 8. twisting the truth in the process, right? Have Jonathan and David really conspired against him in such a way that they're stirring up against Saul? No. No, Jonathan and David have worked together for David's safety, and he mixes in truths along the way. It is true that they have a covenant together, for example. And this is going to be the theme of whenever Saul speaks in this chapter, he's mixing in true facts with false accusations. That's the third warning. What does his pity party lead to? Well, it leads to a paranoia and a conspiracy hunt, right? Nobody likes me. Everybody's against me. And so now I'm going to see proof of conspiracy and hatred on the part of others, even if it's not really there. People of God, we are not absolute monarchs, but we can abuse the authority that we've been given. We can fall into pity parties. and we're certainly capable of hunting for the errors of others, whether they exist or not, while we would fail to ever look at ourselves. Let us say it this way, the tower of Saul's sin is here an anti-Christ's tower of abused absolute monarch authority. The tower stands out as something which is huge in its scope of evil. But the building blocks of that tower are the same kind of building blocks of sin which we can have in our own lives. Building block of heresy hunting, hunting for errors in others, whether they're there or not, the building block of pity parties, the building block of abusing whatever authority we do have. And while we are not absolute monarchs in Saul's position, we can use those same building blocks to build our own towers of hostility. Those same building blocks to build a tower of evil within the relationship of our marriage, within the relationship with our family, within the relationship with our church family or our neighbors or others around us. Let us simply say it this way. We should all be on guard against pity parties. We should all be on guard against hunting for errors in others so that we can ignore our own issues, which is what Saul is doing. So is Saul responsible? Well, certainly he is. And we'll mention Saul again, but let's come to our second point. Is Eli responsible? Is Eli responsible? Now Saul is mentioned in our chapter. Doeg is mentioned in our chapter. David is mentioned in our chapter. Where is Eli? Where does this come from? Well, people of God, I'd like you to turn back with me to 1 Samuel chapter three. All the way back to 1 Samuel chapter three. And there was in chapter two an unnamed man of God who came to Eli. Might be good to read that for review. It's the lengthier prophecy. We're not gonna read all of that now. We're gonna read the shorter summary. which God gave to Samuel in chapter three, which Samuel then repeated to Eli later. First Samuel chapter three, verses 13 and 14. And I declare to him, that is to Eli, that I am about to punish his, that is Eli's house forever for the iniquity that he knew because his sons were blaspheming God and he did not restrain them. Therefore, I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever. Now, turning back to our text, we see the phrase, and all his father's house a number of times, for example, in verse 11, and the king sent to some of the Himalaya, the priest, the son of a height of it, all his father's house. the priests who were at Nob. Well, who is Ahimelech? That's the grandson of Eli. Who is Ahithah? Well, that's his son. That's the great-grandson of Eli. Who is Abiathar? Well, that's his son. That's the great-great-grandson of Eli. And what then is their father's house? part of the house of Eli. And we read Exodus chapter 20 almost every Sunday morning. You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children of the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me. The 85 priests killed by the hand of Doeg in verse 18 are all part of the house of Eli. The third, the fourth, the fifth generation. People of God, God takes sin seriously. God takes sin seriously. The sin of blasphemy, the sin of idolatry. It can lead to terrible consequences, even for the descendants many years down the road. Even if those descendants are God fearing men. Now. Lord willing, we might speak about this more next week. The priesthood is in need of reformation. There's some, we don't get a lot of details, but there's some basic things that are not getting right. I mean, the Ark is in Kiriath-Jerum, and the rest of the tabernacle's in Nav. That's pretty basic, okay? There is a need for a reformation in the Levitical priesthood. By the way, it's gonna be a big part of the kingship of David years down the road. But despite their needs for reformation, every indication we have of a Himelech and then of Abiathar, not only here, but for decades down the road, Abiathar is going to be a faithful priest at the side of David all the way through the end of David's life. Every indication we have of these two priests who are named is that they are God-fearing men. Are you saying that sin has far-reaching consequences that will even negatively impact those who are righteous? Yes, it does. Now, I can never condemn them eternally. So what we're saying is that there were people here who suffered the consequences of sin on earth, although they were God-fearers. who would be preserved by God in other ways for eternity. Consider Ahimelech. He is a noble character. He could have lied when he gives his testimony in verse 14 to 15. He could have thrown David under the bus. He could have capitulated to the evil desires of Saul and told Saul what he wanted to hear. He does none of this. He stands up, he gives a straightforward, he gives an honest answer. He says, Saul, the details of what you have said are true. And so far as, yes, I gave David the sword of Goliath. But Saul, there is no conspiracy here. Stop imputing desires and motivations and conspiracy theories upon me, which are not true. And by the way, David is faithful and honorable. Those are the adjectives he uses in verse 14. This is a noble defense of the truth and an honoring of God, right? I mean, consider the implications of verse 14, verse 15. Is today the first time that I've inquired of God for him, for David? No! David is habitually going to God's house and inquiring of God, and Ahimelech is habitually helping David. Maybe there's even a little bit of implied condemnation of Saul there, something like this. You know, you're the king, you should be the first person coming to me and inquiring of the Lord. You know who actually comes and inquires of the Lord of me? David. This is a noble, straightforward, honest testimony before a tyrant. Actually, it's precisely the honesty and the truthfulness of Ahimelech which Saul hates. And that brings us to another warning from the attitudes of Saul. William Blakey the great Scottish minister and professor from the 1800s, he said it this way, quote, it is just because the Himalayan defense was so true and so complete that it was most offensive to Saul. What is there that a tyrant likes worse than to hear that he is entirely in the wrong? What words irritate him so much as those who prove the entire innocence of someone with whom he is angry? Saul was angry, both with David and with Ahimelech. People of God, to understand how this applies to us, all we need to do is ask this question. How do you react when you have been proved wrong? Do you carefully, do you earnestly examine yourself? And when the evidence is laid out before you, and someone would stand up and give a straightforward, honest, God-fearing answer with some implied or direct rebuke that you need to hear, how do you respond? Do you fight back? Do you lash out in anger? Or are you humbled and ready to acknowledge what you are responsible for. These are good questions to ask of ourselves. These are questions which Saul is unable to ask of himself. And so, the very innocence of Ahimelech irritates Saul and leads to the unjust condemnation for his death in verse 16. And that takes us to our third point, is Doeg responsible? Now, brothers and sisters, we can be thankful that some are willing to stand up against tyranny. On this day and on that day, many servants of Saul choose to be obedient to God rather than obedient to the sinful condemnation of an earthly king and so in verse seventeen it says, but the servants of the king would not put their hand to strike the priests of the Lord. Brothers and sisters it is also a sad reality that in this sin-cursed world evil will have its allies. Doag the Edomite and the text emphasizes that he is an Edomite, it repeats that three times verse nine, verse eighteen, verse twenty-two. Doeg, the descendant of Abraham through unrighteous Esau. Doeg, the one who, notice he's standing there, but he's separated a little bit from the rest of the servants, right? And so the language of the text is, and Doeg was there also, right? So we kind of have this picture of he is a servant, but he's also an outsider. He's an Edomite, right? And so what's he going to do? Well, when no one else will stand out to do what the king wants, the king who is able to give great earthly benefits and blessings, as Saul so reminded everybody in verses 7 and 8, hey, who's able to give you vineyards? Who's able to give you fields, by the way? Doeg says, well, here's my chance. I've always been a little bit of an outsider. I'm an Edomite. Here's my chance. So he plunges the sword into 85 unarmed men. And then after he wipes out the priests who were summoned to Gibeah, he marches two miles down the road back to Nob to wipe out The whole city of priests, man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey, and sheep, he put to the sword. And such are the grim details of verse 19. Now, after our last point and the reminder of the judgment which God declared upon the house of Eli, we might say, But wasn't this just God's just judgment against Eli's house? And the answer to that is yes. But it was still evil for Saul and Doeg to carry out this justice of God in this unjust and evil way. Psalm 76 verse 10 says this. Surely the wrath of man shall praise you. The wrath of man shall praise you. What does that mean? People of God, it means that the wrath of man cannot defeat God's purposes. We are called to leave justice in God's hands. We must guard against all forms of wickedness. And we must justly point to the horrible wickedness of Doeg and Saul in carrying this out in the manner that they carried it out for what it is. But let us know that the wickedness of man will in ways that are beyond our comprehension, in ways that frustrate the wicked ones, be used for God's purposes. Please turn with me to Acts chapter 2 verse 23. The clearest, the most important reminder of that truth that we just spoke of. This is the Apostle Peter speaking in Jerusalem shortly after the death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Condemned to death in Jerusalem, put to death just outside of Jerusalem, and what does the Apostle Peter say to the Jews in Acts chapter 2 verse 23? This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. Was it evil to condemn the righteous one to death and crucify him on the cross. That was evil. And the Jews were responsible for that even as Pontius Pilate and Herod and the soldiers all had their own form of responsibility. And even as we all have our own responsibility because of our own sins. which made necessary that death on the cross. It was evil, but God used it for his plan his definite plan his plan of salvation so that the terrible event of the cross is also the wonderful and beautiful event of the cross where our Savior willingly takes our sins upon himself and bears our transgressions and sets us free by His righteousness. If only we repent of our sins and believe in Him and cling to that cross as our only boast and our only hope. You see, people of God, the ways of God are beyond our comprehension. We might think of what David that prayed at an unknown time in Psalm 131, O Lord, my heart is not lifted up. My eyes are not raised too high. I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me, but I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. People of God, let us earnestly examine ourselves. Let us earnestly see as evil all the evil that we are responsible for, including our responsibility in our own sins, being part of what God's wrath was poured out on Jesus Christ for. And let us leave in God's hands his sovereign plan, which frustrates wickedness. Now we don't know when David wrote Psalm 131, but we do know as we, as we saying from Psalm 52, when David wrote Psalm 52, and we're going to consider that together with the last words of our text for our fourth point is David responsible. Is David responsible? And the first answer to the question, is David responsible, comes from David's lips in the narrative of verse 22. I have occasioned the death of all the persons of your father's house. Now David is basically acknowledging there that he has some part to play in this. He should have been more honest with the priests at Knob. David is not taking full responsibility for the slaughter of the entire extended family. He's not falling down in repentance upon his face and tearing his clothes and weeping. That would have been a proper response of the fully responsible Saul and Doeg. that will be the response of David when he sees his blood guilt in the murder of Uriah and confesses that sin. This is not like that. He has played some part. He acknowledges that. I have occasioned. But that's not the same thing as saying, I repent in deep guilt and sorrow. You see, in short, David, even that Hebrew word, I have occasion, the Hebrew word behind that, it means something like I have caused this turn of events, but it does not necessarily imply guilt. It can be used either in a positive way or a negative way. It's a neutral word in that sense. What's even more clear about where David feels the full responsibility lies is his inspired prayer in Psalm 52. And what does he pray about there? He prays about not his tongues, but your tongue plots destruction. And that could be referring to either Saul or Doeg. Notice how they both imply motives of David and of the priest. They're both doing that. Doeg does it in verses 9 and Saul does it repeatedly and especially in the trial. So they're speaking deceitfully. They're mixing some truthful facts of the events with accusations false accusations of conspiracy and that's david's prayer and salt fifty-two he prays about their tongues that plot destruction and their deceitful tongue which god will break down in short salt fifty-two shows us that david is not placing direct full blame upon himself he takes some measure of responsibility I have occasioned the death. And then he's seeking to learn from his mistakes, right? And now turns protector. That's another important detail, right? He doesn't just shove this all in the past and say, I'm just going to forget about it. But he is not taking more responsibility than he should. People of God, we live in a messy world. There are many things that we must repent of fully and quickly and take full responsibility of in a direct way. And people of God, there are other things where we need to examine ourselves, but we need to be careful not to to crush ourselves under the weight of terrible things where we are not directly responsible. There are so many what if games we can play in our life. What if I had done this differently? What if I had done that differently? What if I had said this? What if I had said this? What if I had not said that? When there are tragedies, when there are rebellions, people of God, we will not be able to keep all those around us safe. We will not be able to keep everyone from spiritual folly. We cannot crush ourselves under what if games. It's honorable that David takes as much responsibility as he can. It's honorable that David is now going to especially seek to turn protector for the one priest of the House of Eli who remains alive. And as I said earlier, Abiathar is going to be by David's side through the end of David's life. But let us be careful not to crush ourselves with something that we're not directly responsible for. This is what it means to examine ourselves both earnestly and carefully. People of God, this world is messy and full of evil. And may that bring us back always, always to the cross. Oh, how we need that cross. You know the cross is not only the place where our sins are removed. It's also the place where the redemption of the whole created order begins to be completed when Christ comes again. And so whether it's matters that we should take full responsibility for and fall on our knees and confess in dust and ashes or whether it's matters where We have some responsibility, but not any direct responsibility, and it's all a mess, and it's all painful, or anything in between. People of God, all of these things are resolved. Christ brings resolution and peace to all things. The world is full of trials and distresses. The world is full of our foolishness. The world is full of our sins. And Christ both removes our sins, redeems our soul, and will bring redemption to this whole earth. And so under Christ's reign, there's no folly of any kind, even as there is no sin of any kind, but only wisdom and peace and harmony. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Help us to take full responsibility, but not be crushed by what if games as we await your coming. Amen. Let us pray. Our great God and heavenly father, we pray that you would lead us and keep us, guide us and direct us. Lord.