I Samuel 22 – The death of Ahimelech

The events of I Samuel 22 (about 1062 BC) is the result of prophecy given by a man of God in I Samuel 2:27-36 and confirmed by Samuel in I Samuel 3:18 (about 1165 BC). About 100 years earlier. The events of I Samuel 22:

The priest Ahimelech willingly came to King Saul. It is quite apparent that Ahimelech did not go to King alone. It seems there were at least 85 people with him, because that is the number of people Doeg killed that wore the linen ephod.

The linen ephod represents the priesthood.

Doeg willingly went to Nob, the city of the priests and killed everything that breathed.

All the people of Eli were killed, or made poor because Eli honored his sons above the Lord. When we prefer family opinion over what God states, we are honoring our family above God. And that is very bad and we, and our families will pay the consequences.

In I Samuel 22:22, David did not mean that he was the cause of the death of Abiathar’s family. The word "occasioned" does not mean "cause", but "resolve, or surround, to bring, or lead, to fetch about. Therefore David is the "pivot" that brought about the death of Abiathar’s family, thus the judgment of God upon Eli was partially fulfilled. I Samuel 2:36, and confirmed by Samuel in I Samuel 3:11-18. God has used David to bring about His judgment upon this family, but the death of the family members is not the fault of David.

The lesson goes back to Eli in I Samuel 2:12-17 where the sons of Eli forced the people to give them as much of the burnt offering as they desired, whether it was the will of God, or according to the law of God, or not. Also in I Samuel 2:22-25, the sons of Eli lay with the women at the door of the tabernacle, which thing was great trespass against God and the people of Israel. Eli rebuked his sons only slightly for the last offence, but there is no record he rebuked them at all for the former offense.

For this reason, God send a prophet to Eli, who told him three times there would not be an old man of his generations. Eli’s sin is that he put his sons above God.

The man of God also gave Eli a sign that there would never be an old man in the household of Eli. The sign was Hophni and Phinehas would die in the same day. This happened, and Eli also died on that same day.

The lesson for David is that he did not cause the death of the family of Abiathar, God only used Saul’s hatred of David to complete the prophecy the man of God had declared many years earlier. God only used him to accomplish his will.

I Samuel 22:5 – It should be noted that David obeyed the Lord by obeying the prophet Gad when he was told to not stay in the hole, but go into Judah. David took care of his parents before he went back into Judah. It was not wrong for David’s parents to remain out of the country (for safety’s sake), but it was wrong for David.

The lesson for us is that things are not always the way they seem. Just because we see a certain thing, or hear a certain thing, or know a certain thing, doesn’t mean that is the way it is. There could be circumstances in the background we don’t know about that caused it all.

Abiathar – I Kings 2:27 – Solomon cast Abiathar out from being the high priest that the word of the Lord spoken against Eli in Shiloh.

Zadok – I Kings 2:35 – Solomon put Zadok in as high priest in place of Abiathar, which returned the high priest office back to The third son of Aaron (Eleazar) and stopped the high priest office from the fourth son of Aaron (Ithamar).

I Chronicles 5:4-15 and Ezra 7:1-5 does mention the name of Eli or any of his descendants in the genealogy of Eleazar.

Numbers 25:10-13 – Phinehas received the promise from God that the priesthood would remain in his family forever because Phinehas killed the Israelite man and the Midianitish woman for committing adultery in the midst of people repenting and trying to get right with God.

Nothing happened to Phinehas by these "powerful" people because of his obedience to God.

It seems, for some reason, the office of high priest was transferred to Phinehas’ uncle Ithamar’s descendants because Eli (Ithamar’s descendant) held the position for a while. Eli lost the position because he honored his sons over God.

Phinehas:

Judges 20:27-28 – Apparently, Phinehas stood before the ark of God, fulfilling the office of high priest.

I Chronicles 9:20 – Apparently Phinehas was ruler over them.

I Chronicles 6:3 – The sons of Aaron:

Nabad

Abihu

Eleazar

Ithamar