Faithful to the End—or Not!

        Our story begins in the town of Nob, on the eastern outskirts of Jerusalem.  It is the temporary home of the tabernacle and a large family of priests. King Saul’s head shepherd, Doeg the Edomite, is here on business when he catches sight of David being sheltered and fed by these priests. He reports his news to Saul who comes with his military and accuses the priests of treason. Ahimelech, the chief priest, maintains their innocence but, at Saul’s order, Doeg murders 85 of them, plus the women and children. One who escapes is Abiathar, Ahimelech’s son, who takes an ephod and joins David at Keilah (1 Samuel 21-23).

        In those early days, David has Abiathar the priest use the ephod at least twice—once to ask the Lord if he should leave Keilah, and once to ask about rescuing the families taken captive from Ziklag (1 Samuel 30:7).

        The next appearance of Abiathar is many years later, during Absalom’s rebellion. The priests (with Zadok, a fellow priest and contemporary) are carrying the ark of the covenant out of Jerusalem, across the Kidron Valley, and Abiathar offers sacrifices to the Lord (2 Samuel 15:24).  David then turns them around and sends the ark and the priests, along with their sons Jonathan and Ahimaaz, back into Jerusalem (2 Samuel 15:25-29). The plan is to have these two young men get news to David of Absalom’s plans. They do, at the risk of their lives, and the story reads like excerpts from a novel (see 2 Samuel 17:15-22).

        Years later, David is on his deathbed when he hears that Abiathar and Joab have conspired to make Adonijah king. This was never David’s intention and he had Solomon publicly crowned within hours, by Zadok the priest.

        After David’s death, Solomon tells Abiathar the priest, “Go back to your fields in Anathoth. You deserve to die, but I will not put you to death now, because you carried the ark of the Sovereign Lord before my father David and shared all my father’s hardships.” (1 Kings 2:26) Then Solomon makes Zadok high priest in place of Abiathar.

        As Solomon said, Abiathar shared all David’s hardships. What made him turn against David’s wishes at the very last? Did he hope to gain anything? Was he just following the crowd, since Adonijah may have been the logical heir to the throne? Sad to say, one bad choice, carelessly made, lost him and his descendants the high priesthood, had him expelled from Jerusalem, and almost cost him his life.

        Is there a lesson for us today? It seems clear—we too have a King, and we need to serve Him faithfully. The Apostle Paul put it in a nutshell in Ephesians 5:10—“Find out what pleases the Lord!”