Jesus in the Old Testament is a series of posts that will offer my readers a chance to consider pictures or shadows of Jesus in the Old Testament. As mentioned in the introduction to this series, some may be obvious, some may be not so obvious, and some may simply be a facet of the Lord those reading may not have considered previously.

I hope as we venture through this series, we will see the Lord in many wonderful pictures throughout the Old Testament.

A bit of context for this man named Abiathar.

In the days of David, very early in David’s wilderness years, Saul had one of his spies inform him of David’s whereabouts in the city of Nob. Now, Nob was a city of priests, and though David did stop by to get supplies and a weapon, he moved on to the Philistine nation to continue getting away from what was becoming a very dangerous situation.

By now, Saul had not fully exposed himself as one who would pursue David to the end, but his manic behavior was becoming more evident and David realized the threat. As he escaped from Saul’s court, he stopped off at Nob, requesting assistance from Ahimelech the priest.

As mentioned, a spy informed Saul, and Saul ventured down to Nob to find David. Without David’s presence available, Saul determined Ahimelech was actively working against him, by providing David assistance. Off with his head, and kill the whole city of Nob. All the rest of the priests, the wives, families, all the livestock.

Even though David was not in the city, the city suffered terribly. Saul knew he had lost David, but his frustration and fear of loosing the kingdom drove him to this incredible massacre.

Yet he missed one person. One sole solitary priest escaped the wrath of a crazy, power hungry, fearful man that wielded his power against innocent people.

This massacre foreshadowed another massacre by a crazy, power hungry fearful man named of Herod. Jesus, as with Abiathar, escaped the clutches of a madman intent on killing to protect his kingdom.

Abiathar escaped to the future King David, and though Abiathar was a faithful man to David, his last days are marked with a wrong choice in following Adonijah. Eventually Abiathar was deposed from his priestly duties and narrowly escaped death at the hands of Solomon. (1 Kings 2:26-27)

Thankfully, we are not to follow Abiathar, but the One who will never make a wrong choice, who, though He escaped the threat of Herod, submitted Himself to the power of the Roman government and Jewish hierarchy, in order to provide us a not only a faithful High Priest, but the wisest of Kings to follow after.

He is good and He is good all the time!

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