Ep. 89 - David and the Holy Bread

Last we left our story, David and Jonathan had just parted ways. Jonathan had thought that his father, King Saul, wasn’t trying to kill David anymore. But David knew better. So, they came up with a test. David wouldn’t show up at a feast…and if Saul went crazy, well that meant that Saul was still out to kill him. But if Saul didn’t go crazy, well that meant that everything was ok. So the test went ahead. And what did Saul do? Yah…he went crazy. Saul got so mad that he even threw a spear at Jonathan, his own son, trying to kill him…just because he asked his father why he was so mad! Now that things were clear, David would have to go on the run. So the two friends said their sad good-byes, and David left Gibeah…never to return. What would David do next? Where would he go? How could David possibly escape the clutches of King Saul? Well, let’s find out.

So, what David needed at this point was a little bit of help – just some food and maybe a few weapons. When David had fled Gibeah, he’d left in such a hurry that he hadn’t brought anything with him. David just needed to get to the next place…wherever that would be. And where could David maybe get a bit of help? Well David had already fled to Samuel once, so he probably didn’t want to go there again. And for sure he couldn’t go back to Jonathan. So the next best place as far as he could figure was the tabernacle. Maybe the priests at the tabernacle would give him a hand.

Now, at this point in Israel’s history, the tabernacle was at a place called Nob. Nob was very close to Gibeah…probably less than 5 miles away…just a few hours walk. (BTW the tabernacle had been moved from Shiloh to Nob sometime after the whole Philistines stealing the ark business. Probably someone figured that the tabernacle would be safer if it was closer to Saul’s court.) So David made the quick journey from Gibeah to Nob and went to see the high priest – a man named Ahimelech. Now, do you kidzos remember Eli? Well as it turns out, Ahimelech was Eli’s great-grandson. After Eli and his two sons – Hophni and Phinehas – had all died in one day, Samuel had basically taken over the spiritual leadership of Israel. But through Eli’s son Phinehas, at least two of Eli’s grandsons survived. One of them, Ahitub, was the father of Ahimelech…the current high priest. So it seems that at some point, Eli’s descendants had managed to get the tabernacle services going again. Samuel was still the spiritual leader of Israel. But by the time of David, Ahimelech and a growing priesthood of 85 other men from his family, were busy conducting the tabernacle services. And as far as we can tell, it seems that Ahimelech was a good high priest who served God faithfully. But when David walked into Nob, as soon as Ahimelech saw David, he knew that something was up. First of all, David was alone. This was the king’s son-in-law…one of the most important and popular captains in the king’s army. Usually someone as important as that didn’t just walk around alone with no protection. But here he was. And not only was he alone, but David looked afraid. What would David, the man who had killed Goliath, possibly be afraid of? So, the first thing that Ahimelech asked David was, “Why are you alone, and no one is with you?” (21:1)

Now by the time Ahimelech asked him this question, David had gotten pretty paranoid. Now that David knew that Saul was definitely trying kill him, Israel had become more like enemy territory than his home country. Around every corner, behind every tree, under every rock David imagined Saul’s people trying to get him. Maybe Ahimelech was one of Saul’s people? Maybe as soon as David told Ahimelech what was going on, he would grab David and take him to Saul? And with all these paranoid thoughts swirling in his head, David went back to his bad habit of lying. And David replied to Ahimelech and said, “The king has ordered me on some business, and said to me, ‘Do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you, or what I have commanded you.’ And I have directed my young men to such and such a place.” (21:2) Basically David told Ahimelech that the king had sent him on a “secret mission”. And that he couldn’t tell anyone what he was doing or where he was going. And the reason that David was alone was because he had already sent his “delta force” to a secret location. It all sounds crazy right? And then David changed the subject to what he had come there for, saying, “Now therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found.” (21:3)

Now, whether or not Ahimelech believed David’s crazy story or not…the Bible doesn’t say. But in any case, it seems that the high priest wanted to help him. But there was a problem. And Ahimelech answered David and said, “There is no common bread on hand; but there is holy bread, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women.” (21:4) So this will take a little bit of explaining. Ahimelech is saying that there was no “common” bread, only “holy” bread. But what does that mean? What is holy bread? Well, if you kidzos will remember all the way back to the bonus episode on the tabernacle, the priests were to always keep 12 fresh loaves of showbread in the Holy Place (that’s the same room in the tabernacle that had the golden lamp stand and the altar of incense). And every week the priests were supposed take out the old loaves and put in new loaves. And the old loaves that had just left the Holy Place were supposed to be given to the priests. Only the priests were supposed to eat that bread. So what Ahimelech is saying is that the only bread they had was only supposed to be eaten by priests. And David and his men definitely weren’t priests.

Now even though the law said that only priests could eat the holy bread, Ahimelech was still willing to give the holy bread to David. So, does this mean? Is Ahimelech the high priest ok with breaking God’s law willy nilly just because David asked him? Well, no…not really. You see, Ahimelech was having to decide between two laws which law he was going to keep – the law about who can eat the holy bread, and the law about helping people in need (of which there were many). In this particular case, these two laws were bumping into each other. Ahimelech couldn’t keep both the holy bread law and the helping people law. So how did Ahimelech decide which law to keep? Well this is when it helps to understand why God has given us all these laws to begin with. At the end the day, all the laws that God has given to us are for our good. God said exactly this to the Israelites back during the time of Moses when He said to, “keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good.” (Deut. 10:13) And again when Moses is talking about this, Moses said that God, “commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive…” (Deut. 6:24) So, in this situation with David where he is in desperate need of food and if he doesn’t get any he might not make it, which law should Ahimelech keep that would be more for David’s good…and more for preserving him alive? Yah…the law about helping people in need. And that’s why Ahimelech decided that he was going to give David the holy bread.

Now even though Ahimelech wanted to help David, he did have some standards for the holy bread. This is why Ahimelech added that David and his men could only have the holy bread “if the young men have at least kept themselves from women” (that is to say, if David and his men haven’t slept in the same bed as their wives). This goes back to the whole ceremonially clean/unclean thing we talked about last episode. Basically, Ahimelech wanted David and his men to at least be ceremonially clean. To which David answered, and said, “Truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out. And the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated in the vessel this day.” (21:5) And with that assurance, Ahimelech scrounged up the 5 loaves of bread and handed them over to David.

While David was getting the bread from Ahimelech, out of the corner of his eye, David noticed someone that he recognized. As the Bible says, “A certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. And his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chief of the herdsman who belonged to Saul.” (21:7) Doeg was one of Saul’s important servants…he was the man who took care of all of King Saul’s flocks (which as you kidzos already know, animals were basically money back in those days…so Doeg was basically in charge of a lot of King Saul’s wealth). And as soon as David saw Doeg, he knew that the jig was up. Even if Ahimelech didn’t say anything to Saul, Doeg would. Doeg was a loyal subject of Saul. And without a doubt, Doeg would tell Saul where he’d seen David. Just in case David wasn’t paranoid enough at this point, seeing Doeg really sent him over the edge.

Now being a soldier, whenever fear struck, David would have naturally reached for a weapon. But David didn’t have any weapons…not a single sword or spear. Like we talked about before, when David had escaped Gibeah, he hadn’t been able to bring a single thing with him. So again, David turned to the high priest for help, and he said to Ahimelech, “Is there not here on hand a spear or a sword? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” (21:8) Now of course, Ahimelech was a priest, and he lived in a town chalk full of more priests. So it wasn’t like Ahimelech was going to have an armoury of weapons just laying around. In fact, there wasn’t a single weapon in the whole town. But after thinking about it for a second, Ahimelech realized that there actually was one weapon that he could give David. And Ahimelech answered David, and said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, there it is, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it. For there is no other except that one here.” (21:9) After David had killed Goliath all those years ago, Goliath’s sword had been put next to the ephod somewhere in or close to the tabernacle. The sword wasn’t there as a weapon to fight people, but as a reminder of the amazing things that God had done for his people. And if it had been anyone else, Ahimelech probably wouldn’t have even thought to offer. But this was David. The very man who had killed Goliath in the first place. If the sword belonged to anyone, it belonged to David. So Ahimelech offered it to him. And David, probably feeling like he didn’t have a choice, answered him and said, “There is none like it; give it to me.” (21:9) And with his bag full of bread, and Goliath’s sword on his back, David left Nob. And just in case Doeg didn’t see David before, he definitely would have seen him when David walked away with (what was most likely) a giant sword!

So, after he left Nob, where did David go? Well, this is when our friend David made one of the most shocking decisions of his life. David decided he would run away to…Gath! Now, does Gath sound familiar kidzos? It should! Because Gath was one of the Philistines’ 5 big cities. And it was Goliath’s hometown! David had spent most of his adult life fighting against the Philistines. He had killed their greatest warrior. He’d killed 200 Philistines just as a wedding present. David had won battle after battle after battle against the Philistines. But for some reason David thought, ‘Yup…Gath…that sounds like a safe place to go.’ And just in case that idea wasn’t crazy enough…David was going to Goliath’s hometown with…of all things…Goliath’s sword! How does this make any sense? Why in the world would David do this? Well, it’s actually not quite as crazy as it sounds. In ancient times, it wasn’t that unusual for someone who had become an enemy of his own king to run to the king of another country for protection. If you were someone important enough, often you’d become the king’s advisor or something like that. David figured what many had figured before him – if his king hated him, his king’s enemies would probably be happy to have him. One this was for sure – Saul couldn’t just march an army into Gath to arrest David on a whim.

But while David’s move to Gath might have made some kind of sense from a strategic or military point-of-view, it made no sense from a God point-of-view. David was God’s anointed. David would one day become king of Israel. The Israelites were God’s people. How could David sign up to help the enemies of God’s people? What had happened to the David who had bravely stood up to giant Goliath and said, “I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied”? The truth was that David had not expected all this to happen with Saul, that David was scared, and that David had forgotten to trust the God who had done so many amazing things for him in the past. David was grasping at straws and trusting in his own judgement…which was making him do very foolish things like lying to the high priest and defecting to the enemies of God’s people.

As soon as David arrived in Gath, he was brought to see the city’s king – a man named Achish. But as soon as David made his appearance in King Achish’ court, it became clear that he’d made a huge mistake. The king’s servants (the people who ran King Achish’s government) immediately recognized David, and they said to the king, “Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing of him to one another in dances, saying: Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?” (21:11) David was much more well known to the Philistines than he’d realized. They knew that David had been the one who’d delivered so many defeats to the Philistines over the years…and they really hated him for it. And all of a sudden David realized that he was all alone in a room full of people who wanted to kill him. There was probably a moment of quiet while everyone stared at David…a few of them maybe quietly sharpening their swords…just waiting for the king’s command to attack. What was David going to do?

Well, again grasping at straws, the Bible says that David, “pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva fall down on his beard.” (21:13) All of a sudden, David just…went nuts. Drooling. Clawing at the gates of the city with his nails. Probably yelling and screaming. David put on a big show for the king and his servants as if he’d gone crazy. This wasn’t some grand strategy or some scheme…this was just David doing something to try to get out of this situation. Now, by all accounts, this should have been the end of David. Mad or not, King Achish was probably either going to put David in prison or kill him. Why would King Achish risk Israel’s most capable and hated military leader getting away to fight again another day? But for some reason, King Achish didn’t do either of those things. Achish just opened the gates and…let David go. It made no sense. And it was probably a miracle. And a very thankful David scampered out of the city and got as far away from there as he possible could.

As he made his way from Gath, a very grateful David composed what we now know as Psalms chapter 34, for which a few parts go like this:

“I will bless the LORD at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul shall make its boast in the LORD;
The humble shall hear of it and be glad.
Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
And let us exalt His name together.
…

This poor man cried out, and the LORD heard him,
And saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him,
And delivers them.
Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
…

Keep your tongue from evil,
And your lips from speaking deceit.
Depart from evil and do good;
Seek peace and pursue it.
…

The LORD redeems the soul of His servants,
And none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.” (Psalms 34:1-22)

David knew in his heart that God had saved him from the Philistines and the foolish decisions that he’d been making. And he realized that with all these crazy and unexpected things happening with Saul, that he’d forgotten to trust in God. He’d forgotten to let God take the lead. He was making his own decisions and doing the things that seemed like a good idea to him. And David decided that from now on, he was going to put all his trust in God…that he would let God lead him…no matter where that took him or what it meant. God had done amazing things in his life…things that David never would have imagined possible. But those things only happened when he’d let God lead in all his decisions. It was time to get back to that.

So, now that David had left Gath, where was he going to go? What was he going to do? How was God going to lead him now? Well, we will find out all about it…next time.