I’ve found the most despicable person in the bible. No it’s not Judas. It’s not Pilate, or Herod or any Roman. It’s not the Pharisees or Saducees or any religious leader. It’s not Ahaz or Jehoram or any other wicked king. It’s not Jezebel or her spawn Athaliah or any evil woman. He’s just an ordinary guy, with an ordinary job: Minding the king’s sheep. His name is Doug, and he’s the most despicable person in the bible…

Well actually his name is Doeg (which sounds like Doug in my mind), an Edomite, who is King Saul’s chief herdsmen. Manager of the ranch we might call it? Doeg obviously became unhappy with status of head shepherd; because he went on one of the most savage rampages any single man has bloodied his feet on, to advance his position in Saul’s kingdom.

Violence is no major scandal in the Old Testament, but killing 85 innocent priests? And their families? And their entire village? By himself? What makes the story so bad is that the cause seems simply to climb the Kingdom corporate ladder.

Here’s the story. David runs away from Saul after numerous attempts on his life, and the first place he runs to is the temple, where a Priest named Ahimelech is presiding. Ragged from the run, the dream of a future kingship burst by Saul’s javelin, heart broken from his only real friendship left behind in enemy territory, David enters the sanctuary. A good place to visit in those circumstances I’d say! Hungry, scared, begging for food, Ahimelech offers him all that he has: Shewbread. Bread offered on the altar as a reminder of God’s provision for Israel, bread that is to be eaten only by Levitical priests. Not David. But he’s desperate, Ahimelech is merciful (see Jesus’ opinion on this ‘transgression’ of the law in Matt 12:1-7), and David is filled. He also needs a weapon, memories of the effectiveness of a simple sling and stone now faded. Goliath’s sword hangs like a trophy in the sanctuary, and again Ahimelech obliges, mercifully. David leaves with a full belly, and a massive sword on his back.

This entire exchange probably only took about 5 minutes. But 5 minutes is enough for an ‘observer’ in the shadows named Doeg to take plenty of notes. He noted Saul’s arch enemy enter the temple, he noted his lie to the Priest (Ahimelech had no clue David was on the run), he noted him wolfing down sacred bread and he noted David leaving with the prize exhibit. And went straight to Saul and told him about it.

Saul responds by unleashing his fury on Ahimelech, for aiding and abetting a marked man. Not that Ahimelech had any idea about the aiding and abetting bit… And the anger is not just directed at Ahimelech mind you, but every priest in the neighborhood, all 85 of them. Yes, these were Saul’s insane, demon oppressed days. He commands his soldiers to kill every single one of the Priests, an order which for once they could not obey. Kill 85 Priests of the temple of the Lord? Insane. Not one battle hardened soldier could even entertain the thought of killing an innocent Priest. Doeg Could. Doeg did. Doeg slaughtered the Priests, their wives, their children, their sheep, their cattle and donkeys.

All seemingly for a better standing in Saul’s kingdom. To show his loyalty to Saul, and perhaps earn a promotion.

At this point it may seem that an obvious application of this story is how far people will go to climb the corporate ladder. Fair enough lesson. But perhaps there’s a deeper one.

How many Christians go to church not to be fed, but to take notes that they can use against their brothers, use to put them to the sword, belittle them, judge them, pour condemnation on them? Perhaps justifying it to themselves as Doeg might have, that it was the right thing to do? The Priest did give David sacred bread to eat didn’t he?

Maybe deep down inside the reason Christians beat each other up is because they want to be higher up in their kingdom than the rest. Their kingdom. It’s certainly not in God’s kingdom that brothers and sisters destroy each other. Perhaps we are unhappy with being just shepherds and want to feel important, and thus strike to destroy those brethren doing honest work. Hurting, killing and bringing more destruction than anything else. In the name of truth. Or perhaps the name of self-exultation?

The only response to the story of Doeg is to lament, lament as David did upon hearing of the killing of the priests in Psalm 52. Lament for the church today that is more intent on killing the people inside it than taking the message outside.

Posted by Rich on Wednesday, April 25th, 2007 at 22:12 and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.