The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 412

see that he hacl lost the moral support of S;imuel, and was bent on a reckless conrse in hunting the life of David. But one man was ready to strengthen his hate and urge bim on in the fatal conflict. Doeg the Edomite, a man of low spiritual tastes an alien to Israel, maliciously added fuel to the raging evils of the unhappy king. There are several suggestive items in this brief account of the dark deed of Doeg. 1. He was not a true Israelite. By education, habit, and taste he could not he.ve sympathy with the lofty, Messianic aims of a David or a Samuel. He is the type of a formal professor, who bears the name, but has none of the spirit, of the true religion. 2. He had material interests at stake in the continued reign of Saul ( eh. m. 7; x:xii. 9). The psalm supposed to refer to him represents him as bent on the acquisition of wealth (Pa. Iii.). He is the ideal of a man whose main thought is business, and who therefore forms a judgment of religious, social, and political claims according to their presumed bearing on worldly advancement. 3. He was cruelly cool in hi,.~ plans and conduct. The simulated tone of ingenuousness in his reference to what he nad seen at Nob, his abstention from personal invective, and the matter- of-fact way in which he welded bis lie about the priest inquiring of the Lord for David with the other part of the story, reveal a cruelly cool scheme for destroying one whose pure life and lofty aspirations must have mirrored too painfully his own vileness. The readiness with which he could subsequently shed the blood of God's priests fully bears out all the severe language of Ps. Iii. He reminds us of the many vile men who, under cloak of attachment to a religion too pure for them, pursue this cruel course, seeking to heap up treasure by any means, and ready by word or deed to blight fair reputations and pander to the passions of the powerful It only requires a little knowledge of the facts of David's life to enable every just and pure mind to sympathise with his strong denunciation of such men (Ps. xxxv. 4 - 9 ; Iii. 2 - 5 ; !vii. 4 ; !viii. 4 - 1 1 ). There are affinities of evil. Sauls yearn for Doege, and Doege are ever ready to blend interest with the Sauls. Satan is not the only one lying in wait to destroy the poor and needy. Hand joins hand in wickedness, and base heart encourages base heart in the mad endeavour to destroy a greater than David. V. !T WILL PROCEED TILL IT BETB AT NOUGHT THE MOST SACRED THINGS. Bad men are often checked in their antagonism to God's purposes by the wholesome influence on their remaining religious instincts of spiritual institutions and characters. The priesthood was revered by Saul at one time. The spiritual power had been prominent in his installation to the kingdom. All the influence of early Hebrew training conspired to make_him look up with reverence to the high priest as in some sense the representative of all thnt is holy and Divine. Common prndence, religious prepossessions, every sentiment of tenderness and awe ought to have discounted the assertion of Doeg in the presence of the high priest's emphatic denial of having inquired of the Lord for David. It was therefore an evidence of the utter suppres- sion of all that hitherto had e.cted as a beneficial restraint when, in the desperate violence of his strife with God, Saul dared to sentence the innocent high priest to death. He now sank to a deeper deep. The spiritual powers became the object of bis deadly hate. The warfare must now be urged against the most sacred things of God. Facili,s descensus .A verni. Spiri.tual deterioration i,s nearly complete when men. set themselves in antagonism to the institutions of religion. It argues a terrible power of evil when a soul can accept the suggestions of bad charactem and cast aside all the reverence fostered by years of education and discipline. Yet there is a reason in the madness ; for, no doubt, ns the spiritual in Israel was at this time the most formidable, though not conspicuously active, force against Saul's permanence in the kingdom, so it is the spiritual, aR embodied in a pure Christianity, which bars the way most surely to the permnnent prosperity of the man who persistently lives in impenitence, and, therefore, from his mistaken point of view, it is essential if possible to doom it to destruction. It is the old tragedy again when men, for love of their own sinful will, trample underfoot the Son of God, and count the "blood of the covenant an unholy thing" (Heh. x. 29). The bold defiance of religion is too often simply an effort to cast away the cords of a holy restraint (Ps. ii. 3). General lessons :-1. It is well to consider the force of habit in its bearing on .unwillingness to submit to God's judgments. 2. Whenever slight circnmstancQII 1 BJ..11, E E  418 THE FIHS1' BOOK OF SAMUEL. [ell. XXII. 1-23.