A Tale of Two Kings

1 Samuel 22

            David’s star is rising; Saul’s is sinking. It doesn’t look like that at the beginning. At the beginning, David is a fugitive, an outlaw, and Saul is king. David has a rogues’ gallery of misfits—distressed, indebted, discontented, desperate men. Saul has an army, to whom he can give fields and vineyards. But there are two clues about David’s ascendancy, one in the beginning and one at the end. And there is a clue about Saul’s decline in the middle.

            The first clue about David is that he has a prophet with him—Gad. Between assembling an army and having a prophet to speak the Word of the Lord to him, David is assembling the trappings of a royal court. Indeed, Gad will stay with David for years, well into his reign (2 Samuel 24). And the men who we will meet in his ragtag army of 400 will form the backbone of his royal army for years to come. Saul, on the other hand, seems to be barely holding his army together, cajoling and threatening. Then, he orders the execution of the priests of God! The rupture between Saul and the Lord could hardly be more obvious! Finally, the lone remaining priest, Abiathar, escapes to David’s protection. In some ways, all the pieces of David’s royal court are not in place: he has military advisers, religious advisers, cultic advisers. It will still be years until David is officially king, but we can see him building the support necessary for when it happens.