Deeper Reflection
ABIATHAR, SON OF AHIMELECH, escaped from Saul’s slaughter of the priests at Nob and fled to David when he was at Keilah (v.6; 1 Sam 22:20). The two events of Saul’s slaughter of the priests (1 Sam 22:18-19) and David’s deliverance of Keilah from the Philistines (vv.1-6) “are not in strict chronological order”⁴⁰ as they may seem to be. Abiathar’s arrival at Keilah to meet David (v.6; 1 Sam 22:20) “takes place after or during the deliverance of Keilah”⁴¹. This means that Saul’s slaughter of the priests at Nob is “roughly contemporaneous with” David’s deliverance of Keilah.⁴² Through these two chronologically parallel events, the narrator seeks to further his agenda of contrasting David with Saul.⁴³ While Saul murdered God’s priests, David accomplished what Saul should be doing: delivering God’s people from the Philistines (see 1 Sam 9:16). And David protected the one remaining priest from the murderous Saul (1 Sam 22:23). When Saul heard that David was in Keilah, thinking that David had “shut himself in by entering a city with double gates and bars”, his response was: “God delivered him into my hand” (v.7). Saul thought he saw God and that God was with him and for him in this situation, while the reverse was true: God was with David and for David against him. This is spiritual incongruence that results from self-deception of one who was once Spirit-empowered (cf. 1 Sam 10:10; 11:6).

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⁴⁰ Robert B. Chisholm Jr., 152 ⁴¹ Robert B. Chisholm Jr., 152 ⁴² Robert B. Chisholm Jr., 152 ⁴³ Robert B. Chisholm Jr., 152