1 Samuel 21
Judge not, less you be judged, came into my thinking as I read over this chapter of David fleeing death by the hand of Saul. It is a terrible place to put yourself into the story, having your wife the daughter of the King telling you this is your choice, letting you down on a rope from our window, or in the morning daddy is going to cut off your head. I trust the wife; I’m on the rope, not giving any thought to my overnight kit, just a good pair of running shoes. When I hit the ground I’m thinking who can I trust, for everyone knows that Saul and I are having some misunderstanding, now that’s being diplomatically correct, the dude wants to kill me.
So where do I run to the priest of Nob, his name is Ahimelech, and he seems not all that excited to see me, in fact, he is fearful and wants to know why I’m alone. If I share the truth with the priest and he helps me his life is in danger, so I come up with a lie, and if I could have seen the future I would have called it spin for I know God does not like me to lie. But then a lie is a lie no matter what they will call it in the years to come. So this was my story, Ahimelech I am on a special mission from the King and it is so urgent I did not even pack my overnight kit, and I was wondering if you had some grub, you know food and by the way how about a sword?
Somewhere in my memory, I recall the sword of Goliath the one I put in my tent ended up at this tabernacle and Ahimelech told me it was the only weapon in the place and it was mine for the taking. But when it came to the consecrated bread he was a little more reluctant, it was only for the priest, and if I had had sex it disqualified me. So I told him that before going into battle they always kept the young men away from women. He goes on to say the young men’s bodies are consecrated even on an ordinary mission, so of course, their bodies are consecrated today. The priest hands over the bread and the sword and you will never guess who saw it all coming down. It was a servant of Saul’s his name was Doeg the Edomite, what do you think he is going to do?
Think about my options, if I say in Judea or Israel someone is going to rat on me, and if I go to Gath, it is a leading city of the Philistines. But I’m not well known by the Philistines, in that I’ve killed everyone I come across, so Gath seems like an excellent place to hang out. Now I wonder why I went to King Achish of Gath and did not visit with some of the people? Maybe I got use to hanging out in King's palaces.
Let me share what Samuel wrote on this in chapter 21:11-15, “And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David, the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances, ‘Saul has struck down his thousands,
and David his ten thousands’?”
and David his ten thousands’?”
And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish, the king of Gath. So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle run down his beard. Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack mad men that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”
I sure hope you enjoyed the story, it a “But God” story and each day we will explore what faith in a big God will do for a man, any man, and especially David.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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