Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Sadness
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Tentative
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Tone of specific sentences
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Emotion
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Anger
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He’s on his own, running for his life.
Jonathan has aided him in his escape from Saul—Jonathan’s dad and David’s archenemy.
It’s an interesting turn of events that gets progressively more so.
David is fleeing Saul.
This is the theme of the next few chapters: David’s flight from Saul.
David’s on the run, running for his life.
Outwardly, he’s alone.
But we know better.
The Lord does not let go of His own—that, friends, is the point of the story.
David is desperate, that much is clear.
He’s on a solo run through the countryside, running from here to there, to and fro.
[Map]
David will cover the width of this map in 1 Samuel 21-22.
We can’t imagine quite what he’s going through, though you probably know what it’s like to be out of options.
At the end of your rope.
Wondering where you go from here.
What’s next?
Is there a next?
We might sympathize or empathize with David.
What we must not do is make David our role model or the hero of the story.
Granted, at this point in his life, David is doing mostly good things (though his behavior is about to get a little bit strange).
David is fine, possibly a decent example; but he’s not the hero.
We aren’t to model our lives after David or any other person in this book who isn’t Jesus.
When we come to the Bible, we should think: What is God doing here?
What does this teach me about the Lord’s character and work?
While David is on the run, he finds
THE LORD CARES FOR OUR NEEDS, BIG AND SMALL
David ran to the City of Nob, about 2 miles north of Jerusalem.
It’d be the first town up the road once he fled from the palace.
Ahimelek trembled, though it’s hard to say why.
The priest must have known something was up, something was wrong.
I’m not sure why Ahimelek trembled if he didn’t get the sense something was going on.
David’s story doesn’t make a lot of sense.
David must have been more concerned about making it out of Jerusalem alive than he was coming up with a good story.
His story is pretty weak.
He’s on a top-secret government mission that just happens to be so urgent he’s left his weapons behind.
“He sounds like a plumber asking to borrow the homeowner’s pipe wrench.”
David’s pretty unprepared for the task he says the king has sent him to accomplish.
David needs food and weapons and, honestly, a better story.
I think David’s desperation at this point is pretty understandable.
His story stinks, but it might also be that he’s trying to spare Ahimelek the priest.
If David doesn’t tell Ahimelek that he’s running away from Saul who’s trying to kill him, then Ahimelek has plausible deniability—Ahimelek can honestly say he didn’t know David was running for his life.
“He told me he was on a secret mission...”
David’s story might be desperation or it might be David’s way of protecting the priest.
What we know for sure is that the Bible neither condemns nor justifies David for his conduct.
This is merely reporting what David did.
The more important question: What is God doing here?
Did you notice what happens?
In the midst of his fear of Saul and the danger he’s faced, David is given some bread.
The Lord sustained David, meeting his needs.
This is a clear need; David has nothing, not even any food.
Every Sabbath, 12 loaves of bread were piled on the table on the north side of the holy place in the tabernacle.
They were there as a quiet witness: the Lord sustains His people and supplies their needs.
The holy bread becomes David’s daily bread.
Isn’t this what we pray?
“Give us this day, our daily bread...”
My first thought as I read this text was, “No, no.
David can’t have that.
That’s not for David to eat.
David doesn’t deserve that!”
Well, what else is new?
Who of us would have daily bread if we depended upon our deserving?
When it’s all said and done, I receive my daily bread not because I am godly or deserving, but because the Lord is gracious.
As it is with David, so it is with you and me.
The Lord cares for our needs, big and small.
He’s gracious to meet them.
This is a lesson we’ll learn, over and again, as we study and read God’s Word.
Even in the Psalms, many of which were written by David, we see David praising the Lord for meeting his needs.
“There’s a psalm for that,” we might say.
One of the psalms written in response to this time in David’s life is Psalm 34.
Listen and see how this psalm applies.
The Lord is meeting David’s needs, big and small.
David writes:
The Lord cares for our needs.
There’s never a time this isn’t really good news, but then we do something really foolish and we find He still cares about us.
Talk about foolish!
Do you remember who lived in Gath?
Turn back to 1 Samuel 17:
For some unknown reason, David runs all the way from Nob to Gath, the home of Goliath.
And David just waltzes into town carrying Goliath’s sword.
All that drama with Goliath beside, David has killed more than his share of Philistines.
What would possess David to head there?
David might have thought that he could find refuge in Gath—the enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?
He’s been reading his Sun Tzu.
Maybe David thought Achish would even welcome him—better to have David on your side than to have him opposing you.
But that’s not how it went down:
The servants of Achish know all too well who this man before them is—it’s the man, the myth, the legend.
“Those tens of thousands David has killed?
Yeah, most of them were us!”
David realized at this point that Gath would not be the safe haven he had hoped (it was a fool’s hope to begin with).
In verse 12, it says while David was in their hands, implying Achish has David arrested, confined, taken into custody, read Miranda.
What does David do?
David’s desperation leads him to playacting insane.
It’s an interesting move, to be sure.
But why not?
What else can he do?
David plays the madman, making marks on the doors…letting spit run down his beard.
It’s an odd picture of David.
But it works.
Achish doesn’t want David around; Achish has enough madmen of his own and doesn’t want another.
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