1 Samuel 21:1-15 CSB
David Flees to Nob
21 David went to the priest Ahimelech at Nob. Ahimelech was afraid [trembling] to meet David, so he said to him, “Why are you alone and no one is with you?”
Ahimelech/Ahimelek (Hebrew) means ‘brother of a king’
Abimelech/Abimelek (Hebrew) means ‘my father is a king’ / ‘my father reigns’
“Abimelech was the generic name given to all Philistine kings in the Hebrew Bible from the time of Abraham through King David.”
Why is Ahimelech trembling?
Why did Ahimelech ask David the same thing twice?
2 David answered the priest Ahimelech, “The king gave me a mission, but he told me, ‘Don’t let anyone know anything about the mission I’m sending you on or what I have ordered you to do.’ [I have directed the young men to a certain place.] 3 Now what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever can be found.”
4 The priest told him, “There is no ordinary bread on hand. However, there is consecrated bread, but the young men may eat it only if they have kept themselves from women.”
Men would be ceremonially unclean
This consecrated bread is The Bread of the Presence
Leviticus 24:5-9 CSB
5 “Take fine flour and bake it into twelve loaves; each loaf is to be made with four quarts. 6 Arrange them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure gold table before the LORD. 7 Place pure frankincense near each row, so that it may serve as a memorial portion for the bread and a food offering to the LORD. 8 The bread is to be set out before the LORD every Sabbath day as a permanent covenant obligation on the part of the Israelites. 9 It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place, for it is the holiest portion for him from the food offerings to the LORD; this is a permanent rule.”
This bread ‘is the holiest portion for him from the food offerings to the LORD.’
5 David answered him, “I swear that women are being kept from us, as always when I go out to battle. The young men’s bodies [vessels] are consecrated even on an ordinary mission, so of course their bodies [vessels] are consecrated today.” 6 So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, for there was no bread there except the Bread of the Presence that had been removed from the presence of the LORD [in order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away]. When the bread was removed, it had been replaced with warm bread.
How is it that David is allowed to take this bread?
David is NOT a priest
Matthew 12:1-8 CSB
Lord of the Sabbath
12 At that time Jesus passed through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick and eat some heads of grain. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “See, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”
3 He said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry: 4 how he entered the house of God, and they [he] ate the bread of the Presence—which is not lawful for him or for those with him to eat, but only for the priests? 5 Or haven’t you read in the law that on Sabbath days the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath and are innocent? 6 I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, [Hosea 6:6] you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
Hosea 6:1-3, 6 ESV
1 “Come, let us return to the LORD;
for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
2 After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.
3 Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD;
his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
as the spring rains that water the earth.”
6 For I desire steadfast love [Septuagint mercy] and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
I desire mercy…not sacrifice.
Acknowledgement of God…not burnt offerings
What is Hosea saying?
What was Jesus saying?
7 One of Saul’s servants, detained before the LORD, was there that day. His name was Doeg the Edomite, chief of Saul’s shepherds.
Doeg is a spy.
Doeg has been stationed there by Saul to spy on the priests.
This is why David & Ahimelech have been acting so out of character.
8 David said to Ahimelech, “Do you have a spear or sword on hand? I didn’t even bring my sword or my weapons since the king’s mission was urgent.”
David has bread.
What else does he need?
A sword
2 Corinthians 10:3 ESV
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ…
9 The priest [Ahimelek] replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want to take it for yourself, then take it, for there isn’t another one here.”
There are no other swords in Nob
“There’s none like it!” David said. “Give it to me.”
David has bread.
David has a sword.
David Flees to Gath
10 David fled that day from Saul’s presence and went to King Achish of Gath.
Gath is a border town
Goliath was from Gath
11 But Achish’s servants said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Don’t they sing about him during their dances:
Saul has killed his thousands,
but David his tens of thousands?”
12 David took this to heart and became very afraid of King Achish of Gath, 13 so he pretended to be insane in their presence. He acted like a madman around them, [in their hands] scribbling on the doors of the city gate and letting saliva run down his beard.
David, Yahweh’s king, is fooling the enemies of Yahweh.
But David must wait on the LORD.
1 Samuel 17:45-47 ESV
45 Then David said to the Philistine [Goliath], “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.”
David knows that Yahweh will deliver him.
Do you know this?
Psalm 56:1-4 ESV
To the choirmaster: according to The Dove on Far-off Terebinths. A Miktam [probably a musical or liturgical term] of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath.
1 Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me;
all day long an attacker oppresses me;
2 my enemies trample on me all day long,
for many attack me proudly.
3 When I am afraid,
I put my trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can flesh do to me?
Psalm 56:8-11 ESV
8 You have kept count of my tossings; [wanderings]
put my tears in your bottle.
Are they not in your book?
9 Then my enemies will turn back
in the day when I call.
This I know, that God is for me.
10 In God, whose word I praise,
in the LORD, whose word I praise,
11 in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
David has been captured by his enemies.
David could be saying:
“Has God abandoned me?”
“God, do You even love me.”
“Are you even real at all?”
Psalm 56:3-4 ESV
3 When I am afraid,
I put my trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can flesh do to me?
Psalm 56:9b-11 ESV
This I know, that God is for me.
10 In God, whose word I praise,
in the LORD, whose word I praise,
11 in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
God is for you.
14 “Look! You can see the man is crazy,” Achish said to his servants. “Why did you bring him to me? 15 Do I have such a shortage of crazy people that you brought this one to act crazy around me? Is this one going to come into my house?”
David is delivered.
“What can man do to me?”
Psalm 34:1-22 ESV
Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech [King Achish], so that he [King Achish] drove him out, and he [David] went away.
1 I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul makes its boast in the LORD;
let the humble hear and be glad.
3 Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
and let us exalt his name together!
4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant,
and their faces shall never be ashamed.
6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
9 Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints,
for those who fear him have no lack!
10 The young lions suffer want and hunger;
but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
11 Come, O children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12 What man is there who desires life
and loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking deceit.
14 Turn away from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.
15 The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous
and his ears toward their cry.
16 The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
17 When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the LORD delivers him out of them all.
20 He keeps all his bones;
not one of them is broken.
21 Affliction will slay the wicked,
and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
22 The LORD redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
How is He speaking to you today?
How is He calling you to respond to Him?
How will you respond?