1 Samuel 21:1-15: Desperate Times and Desperate Measures

1 Samuel 21:1-15: Desperate Times and Desperate Measures

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of 1 Samuel, and today the next passage we come to is 1 Samuel 21:1-15. Hear now the words of the Living and True God:

¹ Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” ² And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. ³ Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” ⁴ And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women.” ⁵ And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” ⁶ So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away. ⁷ Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s herdsmen. ⁸ Then David said to Ahimelech, “Then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” ⁹ And the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me.” ¹⁰ And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. ¹¹ 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’?” ¹² And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? ¹⁵ Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”

May God bless the reading of his Word.

 Let’s pray: Father, every word we find written in this passage is a priceless treasure because it’s your self-revelation. Thank you that we don’t have to guess about who you are or how we can know you or live in the realm of your blessing. You’ve already told us in your Word. So help us to understand everything we need to understand and be changed in every way we need to be changed through the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

It’s often said that “desperate times call for desperate measures”—and there are many situations in which that’s absolutely the case. I’m reminded of one rather extreme situation that was depicted in a movie that came out a number of years ago called “127 Hours.” This movie depicts the true story of an outdoor adventurer going out by himself to a remote canyon in Utah without telling anyone where he’s going. And as he’s climbing in the canyon, this climber accidentally slips and falls down into a very large crevice in the rock.

And during his fall, he dislodges a boulder which falls down after him and smashes his arm and traps his arm against the canyon wall. So now, he’s stuck, and nobody knows where he is. So, for the next 127 hours, this guy desperately tries to get himself free in a variety of ways and eventually uses a dull pocketknife to actually amputate his own arm. Then, after doing that, he rappels down a 65-foot cliff and walks 7 miles before finally being found and rescued. It’s certainly a memorable story—and one that illustrates the extreme measures to which people will often go in order to survive. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

And in our main passage today of 1 Samuel 21, we see David—in a time of desperation—likewise going to some extreme measures to survive as he flees from Saul. That’s the main idea of this passage. David goes to extreme measures to survive as he flees from Saul. Now, don’t worry—we won’t be reading about any amputated arms or legs today. It’s not quite that dramatic. Yet David nevertheless does some pretty extreme things in an attempt to preserve his life.

And as we read about the desperate situation in which David found himself, it naturally leads us to consider the difficult situations in which we sometimes find ourselves. Even though we might never experience a situation as desperate as David, there are still times in our lives when we feel overwhelmed by our circumstances and close to our breaking point. So, how should we respond when that’s the case? And, if God truly loves us, then why does he even allow us to go through situations like that in the first place? These are some of the questions we’ll consider as we walk through this passage.

Now, to remind you of the context here, the previous chapters have told us about King Saul repeatedly trying to kill David in a variety of different ways. So, finally, David’s forced to flee for his life from Gibeah—where Saul was located—to a place not too far away called “Nob.”  

And that’s where the story picks up here in 1 Samuel 21:1. It says, Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” So, Ahimelech seems to sense that something’s not quite right about David’s visit. Specifically, where are all of the men who would typically accompany David as he went about the king’s business? I suppose it might be similar to the Secretary of Defense unexpectedly showing up at your house without any bodyguards or personal assistants and asking if he could come in. That would be highly unusual, to say the least. So, Ahimelech’s understandably a bit suspicious about the circumstances surrounding David’s visit.

We then read in verses 2-3, ² And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. ³ Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.”  So, David basically tells Ahimelech a straight-up lie about Saul supposedly sending him out on a secret mission. David then asks Ahimelech for some bread.

Verses 4-6 then tell us, ⁴ And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women.” ⁵ And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” ⁶ So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.

Now this “holy bread”—identified as the “bread of the Presence”—was a special bread that was supposed to be reserved for the priests. You can read more about that the regulations God had instituted for this bread in Leviticus 24:5-9. God commanded that twelve loaves of bread should be baked each Sabbath day and set out on a special golden table in the tabernacle as a sign of the covenant between God and the twelve tribes of Israel. Essentially, this was holy bread that was supposed to be eaten by the priests alone. So, by giving this bread to David, Ahimelech was deviating from the instructions of the Old Testament law.

Now, interestingly, in Matthew 12:1-8, Jesus appears to say that, in the particular situation between Ahimelech and David, Ahimelech giving David the bread was a morally permissible thing to do, since the general principle of showing mercy toward those in dire need takes precedence over some of the smaller ceremonial details of the Old Testament law. Jesus makes this point in the context of defending his disciples against accusations from the Pharisees that his disciples were violating the law about the Sabbath day by casually picking and eating some grain from a field as they were walking along. He compares the behavior of his disciples in picking a little bit of grain on the Sabbath to the behavior of David in eating the holy bread recorded in our main passage.

We’re then told in verse 7, “Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s herdsmen.” As we’ll see in the next chapter, Doeg the Edomite is bad news. He’s going to report to Saul about everything David did and then do something truly horrific to the priests of Nob.

We then read in verses 8-9, ⁸ Then David said to Ahimelech, “Then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” ⁹ And the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me.”

Now, as we read everything these verses tell us about David’s interactions with Ahimelech—and especially the way David lied to Ahimelech—we might wonder whether this was really a morally appropriate thing for David to do. Because, if you’ve been attending here for the past several months, you may remember us reading about the Israelites utilizing deception back in 1 Samuel 11 in order to defeat the invading Ammonite army. And, as we discussed in our examination of that passage, it’s been intensely debated for centuries whether it’s ever morally permissible to lie or deceive. And I argued that, in certain extreme cases, it is permissible.

Ordinarily, of course, God expects us to tell the truth. God is a God of truth, and Christians should therefore be a people of truth. There are countless commands in the Bible to that effect. Yet I do believe there are exceptions to that in certain very extreme cases—such as in a just war or in a situation very similar to a just war such as someone intending to murder or do serious physical harm to someone else. Just as most of us would agree that killing is morally justified in the course of a just war, I believe that deception is likewise justified in the course of a just war and in other similar circumstances. That’s why, for example, it’s not wrong for an army to wear camouflage. By doing so, they’re deceiving their enemies into thinking that they’re a tree or a bush when they’re actually not a tree or a bush. But that’s okay—because deception is morally permissible in those kinds of circumstances.

This view is confirmed by the numerous accounts we read in the Bible that seem to view deception in a positive way in such circumstances. These include the Hebrew midwives lying to Pharaoh in order to avoid having to kill the male infants as Pharaoh had commanded, Moses telling Pharaoh that the Israelites only desired to leave Egypt in order to celebrate a three-day festival, Rahab employing deception in order to protect the Israelite spies, and the Israelites pretending to retreat in the course of their battle against Ai. In all of these situations, deception seems to be viewed as morally justified. In some cases—such as Rahab—God even explicitly commends her behavior.

However, as we read about David lying to Ahimelech here in 1 Samuel 21, I think we should be very hesitant about saying that David’s deception was morally justified. Although it’s true that David was in a desperate situation, we have no indication that Ahimelech had made himself an enemy of David. Perhaps if Ahimelech was actively seeking to bring significant harm to David, deception would have been justified, but we have no indication of that being the case. So, even though I believe there are numerous situations recorded in the Bible in which deception seems to be viewed as morally permissible, I personally have serious reservations about viewing this as one of those situations.

And I think the subsequent chapter of 1 Samuel confirms this assessment. It records how David’s interactions with Ahimelech eventually result in Saul putting to death Ahimelech and all of the rest of the 85 priests of Nob and then going on to massacre the entire city. Of course, Saul himself bears ultimate responsibility for his evil actions, but it’s nevertheless David’s deceptive interactions with Ahimelech that play a key role in triggering this massacre. So, the Bible seems to portray David deceiving Ahimelech as something he really shouldn’t have done.

And this just goes to show that, even though David’s generally depicted as godly and even “a man after God’s own heart,” that doesn’t mean David was perfect. He was flawed and sinful and in need of a Savior—just like all of the other “heroes” of the Old Testament. And I appreciate how the Bible doesn’t try to hide David’s moral shortcomings or sweep them under the rug but instead gives us an accurate picture of both the moral virtues and the moral shortcomings of David’s life.

Then, continuing on in our main passage, we read in verse 10, “And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath.” Now, let’s just pause for a moment and consider how bold—and even somewhat reckless—it was for David to go to Gath. As you can see on the left-hand side of this map, Gath was located outside of Israel. And you can also see that Gath was located not only outside of Israel but in the land of the Philistines!

Now, think about what we’ve read so far in 1 Samuel about David’s military accomplishments. At the very top of the list is David killing Goliath, who was a Philistine. We also read about David killing 200 Philistines in order to marry Saul’s daughter Michal. And as recently a 1 Samuel 19:8, we read, “And there was war again. And David went out and fought with the Philistines and struck them with a great blow, so that they fled before him.” So, David’s killed quite a few Philistines.

But it gets even better—because guess what city in the land of the Philistines Goliath was from? I’ll give you one guess. Gath. 1 Samuel 17:4 introduced us to Goliath in the following way: “And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.” Take a moment and imagine a small town here in America that produced a famous NFL quarterback. Let’s say that there wasn’t really anything else notable about the town except the fact that this famous NFL quarterback had played football at the local high school. You can probably imagine how proud this town would be of their association with this quarterback. You’d probably see things all over town named after him. Well, that’s probably similar to the way the city of Gath felt about Goliath. He was Gath’s very own hometown hero. Perhaps they named their local high school “Goliath High School” and had an impressive statue of Goliath right outside city hall. 

But, of course, David killed Goliath. So, how do you think the people of Gath might feel about David? Do you think they just might have some hard feelings toward him? That’s probably a pretty safe assumption. Not only that, keep in mind that David’s walking into Gath with whose sword strapped to him? Goliath’s sword, right? And it was probably a very distinctive and recognizable sword. So, David’s made a career out of defeating the Philistines in battle, he’s killed Gath’s hometown hero Goliath, and now David actually has the nerve walk into Gath with Goliath’s sword strapped to him. I can only imagine what David must have been like whenever someone on the street recognized him. “Well, this is awkward. So, yeah, about that whole ordeal with Goliath…um…maybe we could just forget move on from that?”

And the reason I’m going into so much detail about this is because I want us to see how extreme of a measure David was going to in order to escape from Saul. David literally goes to the last place in the world Saul would expect him to be. This reveals how much danger David believed he was in from Saul and how desperate he was to escape. David actually opts to take his chances in Gath instead of sticking around in Israel. Like we said earlier, desperate times call for desperate measure.

We then read in verses 11-15, ¹¹ 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’?” ¹² And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? ¹⁵ Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”

So, David again engages in deceptive behavior. But this time, I’m thinking his deception was probably morally justified. Achish was an enemy king who almost certainly would have killed David if David hadn’t pretended to be insane. By the way, it’s not clear why the servants of Achish in verse 11 refer to David as “the king of the land.” Perhaps the way David conducted himself in his famous showdown against Goliath somehow gave the Philistines the impression that he was the king. Regardless, by calling David “the king of the land,” the Philistines unknowingly foreshadow what’s going to happen in the future.

But, again, the main thing I believe we’re supposed to see from this narrative is related to how desperate David is to escape from Saul. Again, our maid idea is that David goes to extreme measures to survive as he flees from Saul. He essentially becomes a fugitive and is forced to flee for his life from the murderous intentions of Saul. David’s so desperate that he even goes to Gath and rants and raves and has drool dripping down his beard like a madman in an effort to preserve his life.

And as we reflect on David’s actions throughout this chapter, I appreciate the way this chapter really brings to light the tension we might sometimes feel—especially in the midst a particularly difficult situation—between trying our best to be resourceful and ultimately trusting in God. The resourcefulness David demonstrates in this chapter is pretty impressive. Yet, especially in his deception of Ahimelech, there are times when David appears to rely on a little too much on his own resourcefulness and go too far in taking things into his own hands.

Likewise, in the midst of a difficult situation, we also might struggle to find the proper balance between being resourceful and trusting God. And ultimately, of course, our confidence needs to be in God rather than in ourselves. I believe that’s where David fell short in the first half of the chapter and where we need to be careful not to fall short ourselves. Even though it’s very appropriate for us to be resourceful and employ good and necessary methods to address whatever difficulties we might be facing, we need to make sure that our ultimate confidence is in God and that we’re trusting God both to accomplish his purposes through the trials we face and to sustain us and provide for us in the midst of those trials. Desperate circumstances should ultimately drive us to God so that we rely on him more than ever before to help us and take care of us.

And actually, that’s a key reason why God allows us to experience trials in the first place. God allows us to go through difficult times in large part in order to teach us to rely more fully on him. I appreciate the clarity with which the Apostle Paul states this truth in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9. He writes, ⁸ For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. ⁹ Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. So, according to Paul, the purpose of the afflictions he and his companions experienced was “to make us rely not on ourselves but on God.” And indeed, that’s the only way we can learn to rely on God. We’ll never learn to truly rely on God until he uses difficult circumstances to bring us to the end of ourselves and teach us to rely on him.

Perhaps you’ve heard the story of the Cecropia moth emerging from its cocoon. According to the story, someone was watching this moth go through the intense struggle of trying to free itself from its cocoon. And in an attempt to help, this person broke open the cocoon for the moth so that the moth could be free. However, instead of emerging from the cocoon and extending its wings to fly, the moth emerged with its wings all shriveled up. And its wings stayed that way. The moth was doomed to live out the rest of its short life without ever being able to fly as the beautiful creature God created it to be.

You see, it turns out that the struggle to emerge from its cocoon was an essential part of that moth developing its muscular system and pushing its bodily fluids out into its wings to expand them. And so, by short-circuiting the struggle and “helping” the moth emerge from its cocoon, the person actually doomed the moth to a very miserable existence. Likewise, God has a purpose for the trials in our lives. Although it may sometimes seem like things are spinning out of control and like the train has jumped the tracks, so to speak, we understand that that’s not the case and that our sovereign God has a purpose for it all. He’s teaching us things we couldn’t learn in any other way—including how to rely on him for everything. Ultimately, God knows what we need even better than we do and will use difficult circumstances to supply everything that’s lacking within us.

So, regardless of what we’re going through, it’s imperative that we remember that God’s sovereign over it all and is working through it all to accomplish his perfect purposes. In Ephesians 1:11, Paul describes God as “him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.” The God we serve is a sovereign God. And when you think about it, for God to be sovereign is an essential part of what it means for God to be God. R. C. Sproul once said that, “If there is one maverick molecule in all the universe, then God is not sovereign. And if God is not sovereign, He is not God.” 

So, never lose sight of the fact that God’s sovereign over every situation you’ll ever face. And when you start to truly grasp that, you’ll discover it’s one of the most comforting truths you could ever comprehend. Charles Spurgeon once said that, “When you go through a trial, the sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which you lay your head.”

And that’s so helpful to keep in mind not only in the midst of difficult circumstances personally but also as we consider this world as a whole. As we’ve been reminded of even recently with all of the conflict in the Middle East, we live in a very tumultuous world. Yet, as Christians, we know that this entire world is under the umbrella of God’s sovereignty.

As a result, we can respond to all of the various kinds of trials—both in our lives and in this world—in the same way that David responded to the trials he experienced in our main passage. Now, you might ask, how do we know how David responded spiritually to the desperate situation he was in? How do we know what he was thinking and what was going on in his heart throughout this ordeal?

Well, it turns out that David himself actually tells us in two of the psalms he wrote—Psalm 34 and Psalm 56. The title of Psalm 34—which is part of inspired Scripture—reads as follows: “Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.” Scholars tell us “Abimelech” is another name for the king of Gath. And the title of Psalm 56 states, “A Miktam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath.” So, everything David writes in these psalms reflects his mindset in the midst of that incredibly difficult and desperate situation.

And he says in Psalm 34:1-8, ¹ I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. ² My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. ³ Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together! ⁴ I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. ⁵ Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. ⁶ This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. ⁷ The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. ⁸ Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! And by the way, we’ll read next week in the next chapter of 1 Samuel that God did indeed “deliver” David from Gath and enable him to escape back into the territory of Israel.

In addition, David says in Psalm 56:3-4, ³ When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. ⁴ In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?” So, is that the confidence you have in God in the midst of whatever situations he allows you to face? 

And, of course, the most desperate situation we could ever face is one that we all have in common. The Bible teaches that each one of us is sinful and there condemned before a holy God. In fact, when you think about it from an eternal perspective, our situation is even more dire than David’s situation in our main passage. We’re enslaved to the sinful desires of our hearts and destined to face God’s punishment for all eternity and have no ability whatsoever to extricate ourselves from this terrible situation we’re in. 

Thankfully, though, God’s provided for us the rescue that we could never have provided for ourselves. In his mercy, God the Father sent his own Son Jesus into this world to live a perfectly sinless life in our place and eventually die a sacrificial death in our place and thereby pay for our sins. Essentially, Jesus voluntarily took on himself the punishment our sins deserved. He suffered God the Father’s wrath on the cross so that we wouldn’t have to suffer it in hell. After that, Jesus was raised from the dead with the result that he now stands ready to save everyone who will put their trust in him.

If we try to rely on our own abilities or our own moral accomplishments to get to heaven, we have no hope of ever getting there—because we can never be good enough for a holy God. But if we instead put our full trust and confidence in Jesus, he’ll forgive us of our sins and make us right with God and give us the free gift of eternal life. As David himself wrote in Psalm 34:22—again, in view of the desperate situation he faced in the city of Gath—“The Lord redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.” Have you taken refuge in Christ?