NBBC SS: 1 Samuel 21-22

Introduction: Brothers and sisters, I’ll be honest, the passages before us are rather difficult.

David has just left his best friend to be a fugitive from the king who clearly wants to destroy David’s life.

What tense circumstances David is facing!

Yet, there’s going to be a theme the ties both passages together, maybe even in a way that we did not expect. And, I believe that this theme supplies a warning to us about the particular dangers associated with this theme.

Let’s read the whole of 1 Samuel 21 and see if we can pick out anything that stands out to us.

1 Samuel 21 “1 Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech came trembling to meet David and said to him, “Why are you alone and no one with you?” 2 David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has commissioned me with a matter and has said to me, ‘Let no one know anything about the matter on which I am sending you and with which I have commissioned you; and I have directed the young men to a certain place.’ 3 “Now therefore, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found.” 4 The priest answered David and said, “There is no ordinary bread on hand, but there is consecrated bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5 David answered the priest and said to him, “Surely women have been kept from us as previously when I set out and the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was an ordinary journey; how much more then today will their vessels be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him consecrated bread; for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence which was removed from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away. 7 Now one of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s shepherds. 8 David said to Ahimelech, “Now is there not a spear or a sword on hand? For I brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s matter was urgent.” 9 Then the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, behold, it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if you would take it for yourself, take it. For there is no other except it here.” And David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.” 10 Then David arose and fled that day from Saul, and went to Achish king of Gath. 11 But the servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing of this one as they danced, saying, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands’?” 12 David took these words to heart and greatly feared Achish king of Gath. 13 So he disguised his sanity before them, and acted insanely in their hands, and scribbled on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva run down into his beard. 14 Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man behaving as a madman. Why do you bring him to me? 15 “Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this one to act the madman in my presence? Shall this one come into my house?””

We have two separate scenes in 1 Samuel 21.

First, David visits the priests in Nob (cf. BEB; LBD, passim).

Nob was NE of Jerusalem.

Became the religious center after the Philistines destroyed Shiloh.

In other words, the present circumstance is a reminder of a past failure.

David takes shewbread and Goliath’s sword.

Particularly no problem for the shewbread as even Jesus references this action in support of His approach to the Sabbath that was counter to the religious elite of His day (cf. Matt 12; Mk 2; Luke 6).

Goliath’s sword is interesting that David taking it signals that he anticipates trouble.

Ahimelech is afraid when David arrives.

What is really fascinating is that the Spirit does not reveal why Ahimelech is afraid.

I believe that the Holy Spirit does this in order to emphasize just how tense the circumstances were given the condition of the relationship between David and Saul.

Thus, whatever David does in this first episode, he must be very careful.

And that brings us to David’s initial response in this episode.

Where have we read that the king, Saul, sent David on a task?

We haven’t.

In fact, the relationship between the king and David is such that we don’t expect there to be much conversation between the two, let alone a royal task.

So what are we to make of this?

Is David lying or is something else going on here?

Importantly, all those who suggest a different approach love the Lord - their trust in the Lord is not in question.

There are those that see David not as lying but creatively referring to the real king that he serves, the Lord.

It is true that 1 Samuel refers to God as the king.

Additionally, David will refer to the Lord’s kingship in the Psalms.

However, there’s no precedent in 1 Samuel for David referring to the Lord as king .

So, while it’s possible that David may be referring to the Lord as king here, there’s no precedent in 1 Samuel up to this point that would lead us to conclude that David is referring to the Lord as king.

Instead, David is likely referring to Saul as the natural referent.

Additionally, I had looked into if maybe David is referring to Jonathan as having sent him on this journey.

After all, Jonathan and David had agreed that David should leave; hence, David has Jonathan’s permission and order (cf. 1 Samuel 20:6).

Additionally, Jonathan acts in capacities in which he makes royal decisions (cf. 1 Samuel 14, i.e. military campaign).

Yet, there’s nothing to indicate that Jonathan was referred to as the king as in part of his administration.

I believe that the conclusion that we reach here is that David was lying.

Especially in the episode with Achish (eg. “disguised”).

But, wait a moment - this is David?

You know, David who fought Goliath!

David who courageously told the giant that God would hand Goliath over into David’s hand, that David!

The question before us is, why would David resort to lying here?

Furthermore, is David justified in lying here?

I mean, who can David trust in these tense times?

The answer is that, while David doesn’t know which persons to trust, he does have the Lord Who is able to make straight his paths.

While it is true that this is a very tense situation and only intensifies when David encounters Achish, God’s people have faced tense circumstances before where the truth inevitably would have hurt them and have responded in one of two faithful ways.

First, there’s telling the truth even when it may mean harm or death.

In Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego did not deny the allegations against them and entrusted themselves to the Lord.

Importantly, the three totally expected to burn for their faithfulness to the Lord (cf. Dan 3:17-18).

However, the Lord’s faithfulness was displayed in an incredible and unexpected way.

Yet, there’s another way that believers can respond when tempted to lie.

Additionally, there’s keeping silent, even when it means harm or death.

In Matthew 26-27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19, Jesus is silent during His trial, that is, He does not seek to defend Himself against the accusations made.

In Acts 16, Paul and Silas refrain, or keep silent, about their citizenship, enduring Philippian imprisonment and whipping.

Brothers and sisters, we must trust that the Lord Who is leading us, Who has numbered our days, will give us the discernment to employ in the moment to be faithful in our responses.

That might look like telling the truth when your life is on the line (cf. Daniel 3).

That might look like silence that doesn’t guarantee avoiding hardship (cf. Jesus’ trial [1 Pt 2:23]; Paul and Silas in Philippi [Acts 16]).

If we are relying on the Lord, He will make straight our paths.

Thankfully, there is grace for God’s people, even as there was here for David.

Brothers and sisters, the temptation here is to think more of David’s sin and less of ourselves.

Yet, we must remember that David, like us, was a human with a sin nature.

Like David, we too will be tempted to sin and even fail.

We are always in need of God’s grace through His Holy Spirit employing God’s Word to fight our desire to sin and live faithfully to the Lord.

This is why the NT refers to the Christian life in terms of warfare - we’re in a fight for faithfulness to the Lord.

Yet, failure is no excuse for not seeking the Lord, as we will see in the next section.

1 Samuel 22

1 Samuel 22:1–5 “So David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; and when his brothers and all his father’s household heard of it, they went down there to him. Everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him; and he became captain over them. Now there were about four hundred men with him. And David went from there to Mizpah of Moab; and he said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and my mother come and stay with you until I know what God will do for me.” Then he left them with the king of Moab; and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. The prophet Gad said to David, “Do not stay in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah.” So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth.”

We see David begin to attract a following, demonstrating David’s leadership abilities.

Yet we also see something that gives us great encouragement.

When David receives God’s Word, he responds positively.

I find this episode rather fascinating because there’s no reference as to why the Lord told David to return to Judah.

Some will suggest that it’s because David is solidifying his leadership to eventually rule.

However, the text gives us no explicit reason other than David responding in obedience to God’s Word.

I believe that this is the reason why the Spirit has preserved this episode.

To highlight David’s immediate response of obedience to God’s Word.

I believe that the significance becomes all the more important when considering that, according to my understanding of the previous section, David failed twice in trusting the Lord by employing deception and deceptive practices.

In other words, David did not let past sin discourage him from obeying God’s Word now.

We see something similar in the Apostle Paul in Php 3.

The truth is, brothers and sisters, the enemy wants to do anything that he can to discourage us from being faithful to the Lord.

You can maybe recognize this when God’s Spirit prompts you to do something that you have previously been unsuccessful at, such as praying or spending time in God’s Word as a family.

Now is always the best time to be faithful to the Lord, even when there’s previous unfaithfulness.

1 Samuel 22:6–18 “Then Saul heard that David and the men who were with him had been discovered. Now Saul was sitting in Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing around him. Saul said to his servants who stood around him, “Hear now, O Benjamites! Will the son of Jesse also give to all of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds? “For all of you have conspired against me so that there is no one who discloses to me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you who is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in ambush, as it is this day.” Then Doeg the Edomite, who was standing by the servants of Saul, said, “I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub. “He inquired of the Lord for him, gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.” Then the king sent someone to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father’s household, the priests who were in Nob; and all of them came to the king. Saul said, “Listen now, son of Ahitub.” And he answered, “Here I am, my lord.” Saul then said to him, “Why have you and the son of Jesse conspired against me, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him, so that he would rise up against me by lying in ambush as it is this day?” Then Ahimelech answered the king and said, “And who among all your servants is as faithful as David, even the king’s son-in-law, who is captain over your guard, and is honored in your house? “Did I just begin to inquire of God for him today? Far be it from me! Do not let the king impute anything to his servant or to any of the household of my father, for your servant knows nothing at all of this whole affair.” But the king said, “You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s household!” And the king said to the guards who were attending him, “Turn around and put the priests of the Lord to death, because their hand also is with David and because they knew that he was fleeing and did not reveal it to me.” But the servants of the king were not willing to put forth their hands to attack the priests of the Lord. Then the king said to Doeg, “You turn around and attack the priests.” And Doeg the Edomite turned around and attacked the priests, and he killed that day eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod.”

What’s the impression that we get of Doeg here?

He’s an opportunist.

He doesn’t immediately seek out Saul upon seeing David.

Instead, he waits until things get really hot and steps forward with what the king wants to hear.

What are we to make of Saul’s accusation in 1 Samuel 22:13?

How does Saul know that David and Ahimelech have conspired against him?

Is it true that David is attempting to ambush Saul?

Brothers and sisters, these are assumptions that Saul has drawn from Doeg’s statement.

And now, Saul is about to make some terminal decisions based on these assumptions.

Brothers and sisters, is it wise to make significant decisions based on assumptions?

No.

It’s actually foolish.

Generally speaking, are assumptions true?

Most often, they’re not true.

So, if Saul is working off of an assumption that is not true, what is Saul believing?

Lies.

Brothers and sisters, the saddest part of this episode is not just the fact that all these people have died.

These people died on account of a lie.

Saul acted this way because he believed something that wasn’t true.

Saul’s leadership is proven to be inept because he relies on nothing better than hunches that are wrong.

In other words, Saul looks like a fool in a very costly way.

The unfortunate reality, brothers and sisters, is that, like Saul, we are prone to believing lies.

The enemy is good at telling lies that seem so believable.

And, we can act on those lies.

This is why, brothers and sisters, we need God’s Holy Spirit.

As the Spirit of Truth, He can cut through the lies.

As the Spirit of Truth, He can point out what is true.

As the Spirit of Truth, He can empower us to believe what is true, even when the lies mount and seem believable.

Saul’s behavior stemming from being deceived meant further tragedy in this town.

1 Samuel 22:19–23 “19 And he struck Nob the city of the priests with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and infants; also oxen, donkeys, and sheep he struck with the edge of the sword. 20 But one son of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. 21 Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the Lord. 22 Then David said to Abiathar, “I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I have brought about the death of every person in your father’s household. 23 “Stay with me; do not be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life, for you are safe with me.””

What is significant about the references to the what Saul destroyed?

Saul left nothing.

Unlike in Amalek in 1 Samuel 15.

Here, when it comes to threats to his kingship, he completely wreaks havoc.

Unfortunately, Saul just continues to demonstrate his selfishness that motivates his actions.

Brothers and sisters, let us take warning about the destructiveness of sin, particularly selfishness.

What does David do here?

He takes responsibility for his actions.

Specifically, David takes responsibility for Abiathar.

While David’s actions led to this tragedy, his response here demonstrates that it’s never too late to do what’s right and seek to please the Lord.

May we always be encouraged to live to please the Lord, despite past failures.

Conclusion: Brothers and sisters, what we’ve seen today is the effect that lying can have in the life of others. David told a lie that led to the deaths of the priesthood at Nob.

Saul believed lies that led to his tragic decisions to destroy the lives of those that he believed conspired with his perceived enemy.

Brothers and sisters, our only hope against believing lies that lead to tragic actions is trusting the Holy Spirit to discern what is true from what is false and believing God’s Word.