Page 4253 - 1970S

me? You gave him food, a sword
and advice from God! You encour–
aged him to revolt against me, to
attack the king!"
.Ahimelech attempted to defend
himself against these crimes of high
treason: "But, your majesty-David,
the most faithful of your servants,
captain of your own bodyguard,
your own son-in-law, and a highly
popular hero in all Israel , has come
to me many times for advice, and as
the king's advisor I have given hiin
deference and hospitality, as 1 did
this time. 1know nothing of any plot
and think it highly unfair to be ac–
cused in this matter."
Saul's Rage
The facts enraged the king further:
"You will die for this, Ahimelech!
You! Your entire family! And all
these priests who are obviously in
this conspiracy with you! Guards!
Kill them all!"
But just as his men had before
refused to slay Jonathan his son
when Saul had foolishly condemned
him to death for eating honey
on a fast day he had decreed, the
soldiers refused to slay harmless
priests.
Infused with purple hate, Saul
turned to Doeg, the accuser and in–
former: "Do it , Doeg!"
And Doeg did! Although the sol–
diers would not slay the priests
themselves, they did not prevent
Doeg from slaughtering 85 priests of
God.
Then Doeg. in his zeal to please
Saul, went to Nob and finished the
job, killing the families of all these
priests, men , women, children ,
babies, even oxen, donkeys and
sheep. Only one son of Ahimelech
escaped, Abiathar, who tled to
David.
David, Jearning of the priest po–
grom from Abiathar, the one sur–
vivor, wept bitterly, accused himself
of being the cause of it, and offered
the young priest his personal protec–
tion: "Any harm to you will come
over my dead body!" Then David
went off privately in sorrow and
wrote wh¡1t we read today in Psalm
52.
Physically, mentally, psychologi–
cally exhausted-but spiritually re–
freshed - David waited for unknown
events yet to come. O
38
FEASTS
(Continuedfrom page 30)
athlete exercises self-control in all
things. They do it to receive a per–
ishable wreath ["crown," KN], but
we an imperisha ble (eternal
life].... but l pommel my body and
subdue it, lest after preaching to
others 1 myself should be dis–
qualified" (1 Cor. 9:25-27).
This then is the message-sym–
bolism- the meaning of the Days of
Unleavened Bread. The Christian
must expe/ sin- root , core and
branch-out of his life. But he cannot
do it alone without constant forgive–
ness for his slips and falls along the
way-and without the active help of
bis Savior and High Priest who under–
stands his every weakness.
By eating unleavened bread, a
little at the Passover service itself,
and an amount each day through
the seven Days of Unleavened
Bread, we symbolize our continuing
dependence on and identification
with the Person who said: "1 am the
bread of life.... This is the bread
which comes down from heaven,
that aman may eat of it and not die.
1 am the living bread which carne
down from heaven; if any one eats
of this bread [what we are saying
when we eat it is that our whole life
of overcoming is centered around
and dependent on Jesus Christ as
our High Priest], he will live for
ever; and the bread which 1 shall
give for the life of the world is my
tlesh" (John 6:48-51 ).
The children oflsrael escaped from
Egypt by night. So must we start out
ofsin as soon as we accept the blood of
Jesus Christ. But Pharaoh pursued
them before they could get very far.
They were poised helplessly at the
Red Sea awaiting recapture. Then
Jesus Christ-the God of the Old
Testament-opened up the Red Sea
and the children of Israel marched
through with a high hand. Sooo the
walls of water collapsed upon Pha–
raoh and his army and destroyed
them toa man. This aptly pictures our
victory over sin in Christ.
.lo future articles, we will examine
the meaning of the remainder of
God's annual holy days and discuss
just how they are financed. o
(To Be Continued)
SHROUD
(Continuedfrom page 35)
the rolls of cloth he had brougbt for
the usual wrapping, perhaps in–
lending to return and use them after
the Sabbath. They suppose this may
have been what Peter saw when he
carne into the tomb after the resurrec–
tion and saw "linen cloths lying, and
the napkin, whi'ch had been on his
head . .. rolled up in a place by itself'
(John 20:6-7). ·
But Matthew tells us that "Josepli
took the body, and wrapped it in a
clean lineo shroud" (Matt. 27:59).
This shroud was obviously not
merely a long tlat cloth like the Tu–
rin shroud, laid out under the body,
then folded over it from the head.
The Gospel of John plainly tells
us that Joseph and his company ac–
tually "bound it [the body-not
merely covered it] in finen cloths
[plural] with the spices, as is the
buria/ custom of the Jews" · (John
19:40). This was done even before
they carried the body to the tomb
(verse 42).
ls lt of God or of Men?
lt is said that Luther's protector,
Frederick the Wise , possessed
19,O13 relics which earned the be–
holder 1,902,202 years' remissioo of
purgatory! Physical man's desire for
material objects for use in worship
leads to such absurdity.
Can we believe .that God Himself,
knowing the inevitable misuse and
the decline of true religion it would
produce, would have given mankind
for an icon, a relic, the very shroud
in which Jesus was buried? The
same God who hid the body of
Moses and hid the exact location of
his grave, test the lsraelites should
worship the body ofMoses, and lose
sight of the worship ofGod?
U.S. Catholic thus concluded its
discussion of the shroud: " ... For–
gers do forge, and people have a
great ability to rationalize and theo–
rize their way toward what they
would like to believe.
"Ultimately, it's about as difficult
to prove scientifically the authenticity
of the Shroud of lurio as it is to
document or explain the Resurrec–
tion itself. But the Jatter is an essential
question, and the former is not." o
The PLAIN TRUTH December 1978