Saul & How Kings Murder Their People
A longer and more precise rewording of the title could be, “Saul & How Kings & Governments Get Their People to Murder For Them.”
How does one person murder hundreds, thousands, or even millions of other people? They get other people to do it for them, often lots of other people. How? There are a few tried and true methods that we see rulers use again and again throughout history because quite frankly, they work, repeatedly and consistently.
Not surprisingly we see one of these go-to moves used against the people of Israel by their very first king, over three thousand years ago.
King Saul had become jealous of his servant David and was determined to have him killed. When David found out, he went on the run. One of his first stops was in a town called Nob where he obtained food and a sword from a priest named Ahimelech who had known David for a long time and did not know that David was on the run from Saul and no longer his servant.
Unfortunately for Ahimelech and many other people, there was a man who witnessed this interaction. He was Saul’s chief shepherd, Doeg the Edomite. Saul summoned Ahimelech, his extended family and all the other priests at Nob. Saul began to accuse and question Ahimelech. Here is what happened next (1 Samuel 22):
14 Ahimelek answered the king, “Who of all your servants is as loyal as David, the king’s son-in-law, captain of your bodyguard and highly respected in your household? 15 Was that day the first time I inquired of God for him? Of course not! Let not the king accuse your servant or any of his father’s family, for your servant knows nothing at all about this whole affair.”
Here is King Saul’s response:
16 But the king said, “You will surely die, Ahimelek, you and your whole family.”
17 Then the king ordered the guards at his side: “Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because they too have sided with David. They knew he was fleeing, yet they did not tell me.”
But the king’s officials were unwilling to raise a hand to strike the priests of the Lord.
18 The king then ordered Doeg, “You turn and strike down the priests.” So Doeg the Edomite turned and struck them down. That day he killed eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod (priests). 19 He also put to the sword Nob, the town of the priests, with its men and women, its children and infants, and its cattle, donkeys and sheep.
There you have it, one of the most go-to moves of murderous kings and governments – order someone in your employ to murder who you want murdered, if they won’t do it, find someone else who will. It’s as easy as that and it’s not limited to the particular evil of murder. It works with every other kind of evil just as well.
Notice two things. Nothing happened to the guards who did not do the king’s killing for him. Despite people’s fears, this is typical. Also, notice that even though Saul’s guards were not willing to kill the priests they were perfectly willing to stand by and let them and countless other innocents be killed. History has shown that this too is consistent with human behavior. This day and so many other days in history would have been different if the people in a position to do something had a moral stance on higher ground than, “Hey, I wasn’t the one who swung the sword or pulled the trigger. Besides, I’m not the king/president/commander/manager/sergeant/warden/boss. It’s out of my hands. What could I do?”
This simple method for democide has worked far too often. History doesn’t have to repeat itself. We just need to remember it, learn from it, and pre-decide to be different.
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