This is the Bible Book Club. I'm Heather and I'm Susan and we're in the book of First Samuel.

Welcome to the club.

In chapters 22 and 23, David, the fleeing future king, picked up more followers and his family.

Then he dropped his family off in Moab,

the former home of his great grandmother Ruth, who we got to know in season eight of the Bible book club. Saul, in an effort to kill David, pressured the people and found the mole he was

looking for in Doag the Edomite. Doag informed Saul that Ahimelech, a priest at Nob, had aided David with food

and Goliath's sword. Saul, in his fury, at Ahimilek, did the unthinkable. He ordered the death of

85 priests and the entire city. Ahitube, the son of Ahimelech, is the only one who escaped and he ran to David. David

grieved that he was the cause of the death set nob and with Saul hot on his trail, David was

driven into the wilderness where he got one last encouraging word from Jonathan. Okay, so here's our

setup for this episode. In the next three episodes, while David is in the

wilderness, he is going to have three tests. The first test is the temptation to avoid suffering.

David suffers in the wilderness. He is always on the run from Saul, never comfortable, far from the family and the Israelite people he loved and wanted to serve.

The chase would never end until God removed Saul, unless, of course, David killed Saul.

This was his temptation.

To kill Saul was David's opportunity to put an end to his wilderness suffering.

He will be tested with that opportunity in this episode.

Now, the second test we'll get to next week.

It's the temptation to avenge himself.

David was anointed but not yet appointed king.

As the future king, he was a threat to the current king, Saul.

So Saul and his followers treated David as a defector, an outlaw,

...