1 Samuel 21

1 David went to Nob, to Ahimelek the priest. Ahimelek trembled when he met him, and asked, “Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?”

2 David answered Ahimelek the priest, “The king sent me on a mission and said to me, ‘No one is to know anything about the mission I am sending you on.’ As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place. 3Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find.”

4 But the priest answered David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread on hand; however, there is some consecrated bread here—provided the men have kept themselves from women.”

5 David replied, “Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual whenever I set out. The men’s bodies are holy even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!” 6 So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the LORD and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away.

7 Now one of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained before the LORD; he was Doeg the Edomite, Saul’s chief shepherd.

8 David asked Ahimelek, “Don’t you have a spear or a sword here? I haven’t brought my sword or any other weapon, because the king’s mission was urgent.”

9 The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here; it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want it, take it; there is no sword here but that one.”

David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.”

10 That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. 11 But the servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Isn’t he the one they sing about in their dances:

“‘Saul has slain his thousands,

and David his tens of thousands’?”

12 David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. 13 So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.

14 Achish said to his servants, “Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? 15 Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?”

Points of Interest

• ‘David went to Nob’--at this point, the Israelites don’t really have what you would call an organized religion. Instead, the land is dotted with shrines built around the site of a visitation from God or the possession of an honored relic. Nob is apparently one of these shrines.
• ‘Ahimelek trembled when he met him’--David is a famous and important general. He would usually travel with a big entourage, if not an entire army. So, when he arrives alone, unarmed, and perhaps a bit bedraggled, Ahimelek immediately knows that something is wrong.
• ‘The king sent me on a mission’--this is, of course, a lie. I don’t know if David is truly trying to hide his plans from Ahimelek, or if he’s trying to give Ahimelek plausible deniability. In other words, if Ahimelek ever got into hot water for helping David, Ahimelek could honestly say, ‘David told me he was on a royal mission.’
• ‘I have told them to meet me’--while the part about being sent by the king is a lie, this part might be true. David is trying to collect more food than might be necessary just for him. And he and his men do indeed meet up shortly after this.
• ‘there is some consecrated bread here’--twelve loaves of bread were continually set out in the sanctuary as a memorial to the way God fed the twelve tribes of the Israelites miracle bread as they wandered in the desert. Once a week, the priests would bake new loaves and eat the old ones. Ahimelek is offering David his own food, food that only priests were supposed to eat. That’s why Ahimelek shows some hesitation and asks the strange question about whether or not they’ve had sex recently. If he’s going to give the priestly food to non-priests, he wants to at least make sure that they are what’s called ‘ritually clean,’ that is, adequately prepared for religious service. For whatever reason, refraining from intimate contact with women is one element of that ritual preparation. Serendipitously, at least as far as getting the bread is concerned, being away at war has kept the men away from women; so they’re good on that front.
• ‘Now one of Saul’s servants was there that day’--perhaps Doeg is the audience for David’s line about being on assignment from the king.
• ‘The sword of Goliath the Philistine’--David drops into a random shrine looking for food and a weapon. Amazingly, not only is there, in fact, a sword he can borrow, but it’s his own sword, the one he won by killing Goliath. I imagine that this must have been pretty encouraging to David. Right now, things aren’t how he might have expected them to be. But every time he looks down at his sword, he can remember that God did indeed come through for him in an amazing way in the past; maybe that’s enough to bolster his belief that God will come through again in the future.
• ‘behind the ephod’--the ‘ephod’ is the special garment worn by the priest while performing his official duties. It’s hard to tell from this passage whether the ephod is being displayed when it isn’t in use, or is being stowed in a closet, with the sword stuffed in a corner behind it.
• ‘There is none like it’--the Philistines had a local monopoly on the best metalwork (ch. 13:19-22).
• ‘went to Achish king of Gath’--Gath is one of the Philistine cities; it’s Goliath’s hometown. David is trying to put himself well outside of Saul’s reach. It seems like David is trying to enter the town incognito and get some work as a mercenary. This is perhaps not the best thought-out plan ever. Very quickly people start to ask, ‘Hey, don’t we know you from somewhere?’ And they figure out that he’s the subject of that irritating, omnipresent hit song, ‘David Slew his Ten Thousands’--surely a song that was a lot less liked in Philistia than in Israel.
• ‘he acted like a madman’--I get the impression David is improvising here; the best chance he has of staying alive is to pretend to have gone insane. It’s just possible that in that case he’d be pitied or mocked or feared instead of hated and killed. It’s quite a steep decline for David. Not so long ago, he had defeated Goliath, chased the Philistine army off, and become his country’s biggest hero and most respected general. Now, he’s an exile, hiding out in Goliath’s own town, and letting the spittle collect in his beard so that people will leave him alone.

Taking it home

• For you: Goliath’s sword serves as a reminder of a time when God worked miraculously on David’s behalf. When did God last do something truly miraculous in your life? Take some time to remember, and to thank God for that time. If it seems like a long time ago, tell God that you want to experience God’s power more regularly. Ask God to give you all the encouragement and reminder signs you need today to continue to trust him.
• For your six: When David went to the priest, it wasn’t for spiritual guidance; David just needed some food, his lunch for the day. Sometimes, it’s the simple things that matter most. When is the last time you shared a meal with your six? Take one of your six out for dinner or a drink, or invite them over. Pray that this time together would hit the spot, just like the bread did for David.
• For our church: A big part of David’s job during this phase of his life is to keep persevering. Earlier, he experienced glory and stardom. Now, he’s basically just trying to survive. As a church, we too have had our high times and our more difficult times, and I’m sure we’ll have them both again. Pray that God would make us a church that perseveres well through seasons of difficulty.
• For families: We can do practical things for our friends as well as pray for them. Think of one of your friends. Ask God to tell you if there is anything this person needs that you might be the right person to help them with.