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by Logan Ames

There is an old legal saying with an unknown original source that goes like this: “If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither on your side, pound the table." Clearly, this would lead to a lot of anger and pounding regardless of the actual truth. I remember my first day in class when I started college in the criminal justice program and one of the professors said, “The criminal justice system is a game, and the goal of the game is to win." In other words, he and many other professors wanted us to know up front that it’s not really about the truth, but how you can best navigate the system to achieve your desired result.

Despite this way of the world, the Christian faith tells us no pounding is needed. Jesus himself said, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). If you are on the side of the truth and have been set free by the Lord, then literally nothing else can take you captive. There is a little-known man in the Bible who showed his faith by doing what he knew the Lord would want him to do, and when it was clear that it would ultimately cost him his life, he simply stood by the truth. In Hebrews 11:37, we see that some of the faithful heroes of the past “were killed by the sword." God’s people went through several dark periods in their history when his servants were intensely persecuted. One of those periods was when King Ahab and his wife Jezebel were slaughtering the Lord’s prophets and Elijah spent much of his time on the run but still boldly spoke God’s word. Another time was when eighty-five priests, along with their families and livestock, were killed with the sword by Doeg the Edomite at the command of King Saul in the town of Nob (1 Samuel 22). One of those priests was Ahimelek and he is our hero of the faith for this week.

Ahimelek became part of God’s story when David, who had been anointed as the next king of Israel, had to flee because the reigning king, Saul, had become hellbent on killing him. Since the Bible is in part a history book, it helps to know the context of what happened to Ahimelek and the other priests. Saul was the first king of Israel when the people demanded a king to lead them so that they could be like the other nations (1 Samuel 8). Initially, Saul had the Spirit of the Lord on his side and gave credit to the Lord when a battle was won. As time went on, however, he walked away from the Lord and became obsessed with self-preservation. He was afraid to take on Goliath in 1 Samuel 17 despite the fact that he was bigger and badder than anyone else in all of Israel. God anointed David as Saul’s eventual successor and David proved himself to the people by killing Goliath.

After David’s victory and sudden rise to fame, Saul became increasingly jealous of him and tried to protect his throne at all costs, even if it meant killing David who he knew was innocent. He tried to kill him several times, but the Lord kept David safe and he was able to escape. David then had to flee for his life and ended up going several different places, one of which was Nob (1 Samuel 21). There, David went to the right place when he sensed that he was in trouble - the house of the Lord. That’s when he met Ahimelek, the priest at Nob. The story can be found in 1 Samuel 21:2-9. David lied to Ahimelek, pretending that Saul had sent he and other men on a secret mission when in reality he was completely alone and running from the king himself. David desperately needed food so he asked Ahimelek to give him whatever he has to eat.

This is our first look at the heart of Ahimelek. As a priest, he had certain customs to follow regarding the “consecrated bread” that was kept at the house of the Lord for the priests. But here, there was a human need right in front of him. In giving David the bread, Ahimelek went against the priestly customs but did not go against God’s word. God never said that ONLY priests should eat the consecrated bread; that part, while logical, was an addition to God’s word. We must never put our interpretations or applications of what he said on par with what he ACTUALLY said. Jesus spoke of Ahimelek’s example as the Pharisees questioned his disciples for picking heads of grain on the Sabbath when they were hungry in Matthew 12:1-8. He used it to make the point that human need is more important than religious tradition. Jesus’ words show us that Ahimelek was to be commended for putting his faith in the Lord over traditions and customs.

In addition to the bread, Ahimelek also gave David the very sword that he had previously used to kill Goliath. Unfortunately for Ahimelek, Doeg the Edomite witnessed all of the help that Ahimelek gave to David under the impression that David was on a mission from the king. Later, in 1 Samuel 22:9-10, this eyewitness evidence sealed the fate of Ahimelek. Doeg reported to Saul, who was already off his rocker, that he saw Ahimelek helping David, whom Saul continued to intentionally refer to as “the son of Jesse” just to remind everyone that David was just a little man from a poor family. Saul then asked Ahimelek and many other priests why they would conspire against him. Ahimelek’s response is listed in 1 Samuel 22:14-15, where he simply stood by the truth, which was that he clearly knew nothing of the conspiracy. He praised David to Saul, showing that he truly did not know Saul wanted to kill him, and also admitted to helping and praying for David other times, which revealed that he believed David’s lie that Saul had sent him on a mission.

Ahimelek’s defense was the honest truth. Once he had spoken it, he simply asked the king to not falsely accuse him or his family. We don’t hear of another word from Ahimelek as Saul had already made up his mind to have him killed. Verses 16-19 that follow tell us that he, his family, and most of his town were put to death by Doeg. Ahimelek did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and his death could be blamed on David’s lies as much as Saul’s anger. But in the end, Ahimelek valued love for a human in need over religious tradition and valued standing firm in the truth over his own life. While he is not mentioned by name in Hebrews 11, the faith of he and the other priests at Nob was known to Jesus and the believers that came after him. Ahimelek’s life ended when he was killed by the sword, but even today his example urges us to put the needs of others above our traditions and to let the truth stand on its own when we are falsely accused. If you are facing either of those dilemmas in your life today, learn from this man of faith.

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