Devotional - May 18, 2004

When a crime is committed and the costs are high, there's an agonizing effort to find the person(s) guilty of the crime. To this day in the culture of the Middle East, the price paid by the surviving victims can demand an eye for an eye from those found guilty of the crime. Someone must pay.

Responsibility is often difficult to assign, but let's put the issue of blame for Christ's crucifixion to rest once and for all shall we? In John 10, Jesus lets us know that He alone is responsible for his own death, because He chose to allow it to happen. No guilt, no blame, no pay back, no retribution; seemingly no justice for the crime many still try to assign someone.

David's visit to Nob was providential as God led him there and the priests of Nob knew that David was as godly as Saul was ungodly. They did what their conviction led them to do as they helped David and risked their life for their actions. They knew they might be held accountable to Saul and might have to pay the price for his rage when he found out. (1Sa 22:6-23) And they were right.

It's interesting to notice that Saul wouldn't personally harm the priests, but he found little wrong with ordering someone else to do it. He obviously had no godly conviction, when he asked his guards to do it. Now, the guards had little godly conviction, but they had enough to know you don't mess with God's anointed unless you have a death wish. They realized they'd likely die either way, but at least they'd have a fighting chance against Saul's anger and rage.

Finding no one in his ranks willing to kill the priests, Saul turned to the Edomite named Doeg who had no problem in telling Saul all the priests had done in the first place. Not only did he have no godly conviction, but Deog had no respect for God's anointed. He gladly killed the priests, their families and their livestock in the same way God's people killed the Canaanites when they entered the Promisd Land.

So Doeg is solely to blame, right? Then, what about David? When he learned what happened, he took sole responsibility for the whole debacle because he felt it had been in his power to kill Doeg earlier. He must have known Deog was capable of evil. (1Sa 22:17-22)

With so many complicit in this tangled web, just who is guilty of killing the priests? I imagine if the priests could talk from the grave, they'd stop this silly debate and agree with Jesus, "No one is to blame. No one took our life. Instead, we gladly gave it in service of God Almighty and we'd do it all over again."

Such it is with godly conviction; it doesn't blame and neither does it bow to threat, but it stands tall by God's grace - even if it means standing alone. Since it's impossible for conviction to exist without persecution, I'm wondering where are all of God's people these days?

1 Developed from Read the Bible Thru ( 1Sa. 22:1-23:29 Jn 10:1-21 Ps. 115:1-18 Pr. 15:18-19 )
2. Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society