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New children’s message audio link.

So we we have been waiting to see what would happen to Ahimelech the priest and to David when David got to eat the bread set before God in a place called Nob. The Bible tells us that there was a certain servant of King Saul there that day. His name was Doeg the Edomite and he was in charge of Saul’s shepherds. And David asked the priest Ahimelech if he had a spear or a sword handy since he had not brought any weapons with him because the king had sent him in such a hurry on this secret mission. And the priest said that the sword of Goliath the Philistine whom you killed is here but there are no other weapons here. So David took it and went to the king of Gath and heard them talking about how David was a greater warrior than King Saul so he pretended to be insane so that they wouldn’t think of him as a threat. And then he left there and went to hide in a cave and while hiding in that cave his family heard about it and others from their tribe who were down on their luck – maybe in debt or bitter about things – all came to David in the cave and thus David became a commander of about 400 men. Now it is getting a little harder for David to hide so he took his parents to the king of Moab and asked that they be able to stay there for a while and hearing from a prophet named Gad then David moved into a forest in Judah. And word that David had been found and that he had these 400 soldiers reached King Saul.

Now Saul was sitting at home under a tree with his spear in hand and his servants standing about and Saul accused them of all conspiring against him. So Doeg the Edomite spoke up and said that he saw David come to Nob to the priest Ahimelech and the priest prayed for him, gave him food, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Giant. So King Saul sent for Ahimelech and asked him why he had conspired with David against his king. But Ahimelech answered King Saul by saying, “No one among Saul’s servants was as faithful to Saul as David, the king’s own son-in-law, captain of the king’s bodyguard, honored in the king’s house.” Ahimelech said, “This isn’t the first time I have prayed to God for him. I didn’t know anything, nor did anyone in my father’s house know anything, about David being unfaithful.” So the king ordered his guard to turn and kill the unarmed priests. But his guard refused to do so. Thus the king ordered Doeg the Edomite to do it and Doeg struck them down – 85 that day and he went and put the city of Nob to the sword and struck down all of the people and animals in the city except one of Ahimelech’s sons named Abiathar escaped and went and told David that Saul had killed the priests. David felt guilty about it because seeing that Doeg the Edomite was there, he thought that Doeg would surely tell Saul, so David felt responsible for the death of all those people and told Abiathar to stay so that he could keep Abiathar safe. Then word came to David that the Philistines were attacking and stealing grain from the threshing floors so David asked the Lord whether he should go attack the Philistines and the Lord said to go attack them.