When we operate out of fear we often make bad decisions. However, God can meet us in the midst of our fear and give us great faith. Join Dr. Marty Baker as he takes us through 1 Samuel 21 and unpacks the redemptive work of God in the life of David.
The nice-looking single woman, whom I’ll call Tamara, met a well-built, square-jawed divorced man, I’ll call Gary, with two teenage children. Sitting in my office one day, she sought counsel regarding what she should do. Should she continue to date him? Should she consider marrying him? After investing a good deal of time into the conversation, and weaving this info into what I knew about Gary, this is what I told her:
- I do not believe that he is a believer. Therefore, you should not be unequally yoked with an unbeliever, according to Paul (14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? (2 Cor. 6, KJV).
- You say that his children disrespect you constantly, dropping f-bombs and whatnot on you at will. Do you think this aberrant behavior will cease if you marry him? I don’t think so.
- The fact that Gary doesn’t do anything to stop his teenagers from trashing you to your face tells me a lot of things about him, and none are good. Why won’t he defend you in front of them?
- He is a vice cop specializing in pedophiles. You must realize there is a possibility that his work has taken a toll on him, so you must be prepared for that.
- So, based on this information, biblical and otherwise, I do not think it wise for you to continue to date him, and you certainly shouldn’t marry him.
With that, she looked at me and said, “Pastor Marty, thank you so much for telling me what I needed to hear. I can never thank you enough.”
Not long thereafter, Tamara, fearing being alone and not having children, lowered her standards and married Gary. Sadly, you will not be shocked to learn that the marriage didn’t last very long. Her life could have been so different if she had made a wise decision instead of an unwise one.
Have you ever made a bad decision, one you knew went against Scripture, but you did it anyway? How did that go for you? Better yet, how is it going for you?
Regardless of where you are on this decision spectrum, I invite you to learn from the life of David. Scripture classifies him as a man after God’s heart, but he did have those moments when he followed his heart right off the proverbial cliff. What happened in the ensuing chaos teaches us much as we deal with life’s pressures and challenges, especially when they are directly related to our faith.
First Samuel 21 is a snapshot of David’s life, which we need to study, analyze, and gain wisdom from, for it will not take many verses to see how much like him we can be some 3,000 years later. The chaos his dumb decisions created begins in verses 1 through 2. Let’s title this section . . .
The Ruse (1 Sam. 21:1-2)
David’s life fell apart after his glorious defeat of Goliath on the battlefield. Saul became insanely jealous and envious of the young warrior, and these unchecked sinful dispositions drove him to attempt to kill him on several occasions. He even tried to take David out with the dowery requirements he asked him to pay to marry his lovely daughter, Michal. Asking him to bring one hundred foreskins from dead Philistine soldiers was a dangerous, deadly request. Later, on two separate occasions, Saul threw a spear at David in a quest to kill him (1 Sam. 18:10-11; 19:9-10). And then we have the episode of Saul exploding all over Jonathan when David didn’t show up for the new moon festival. Throwing a spear at his son because he dared to align himself with David showed David and Jonathan that the king only desired to murder this young, courageous shepherd.
So what did David do when his world fell apart and the pressure mounted as the entire political and military system devoted itself to his destruction? He did what you might be tempted to do right now. Instead of turning to God, he ran like the Philistines did when he fought them. No, he ran in total fear. What happened to the valiant warrior who dared take on Goliath with only five smooth stones and a slingshot? He eventually crumbled emotionally and spiritually as the heat in the kettle of regal hatred rose in intensity:
1 Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech came trembling to meet David, and said to him, “Why are you alone and no one with you?” 2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has commissioned me with a matter, and has said to me, ‘Let no one know anything about the matter on which I am sending you and with which I have commissioned you; and I have directed the young men to a certain place.’ (1 Sam. 21)
Follow David’s geographical movements for a moment. To get away from Saul, he first ran to the prophet Samuel in Ramah, just north of the mountain hometown of the king within the tribe of Benjamin called Gibeah (1 Sam. 11:4; 15:34). From Ramah, he probably ran back to Gibeah where he hooked up with Jonathan (1 Sam. 20:1). Once he discovered Saul really wanted him dead, he took off for a two-and-a-half-mile run to Nob, a priestly town located southeast of Gibeah and slightly north of Jerusalem. Note how, in all this running in fear, we never hear David praying to God and seeking His will and way. This is carnal David acting on his own. Before you judge him, consider how you have probably done this too. That’s what Tamara did.
Realizing he needed food, water, and some degree of protection, while also not knowing who he could trust, David attempted to secure all three from the High Priest, Ahimelech. The way he went about it was not optimal. In a word, he lies straight to the High Priest’s face. Was he on a special assignment from the king? No. He wasn’t working on a secret project with the king, but was running from him. He didn’t have a bunch of warriors with him either, hiding out in the countryside. He didn’t have anyone with him until he reached the Cave of Adullam later (1 Sam. 22:1-3). Really, he couldn’t have been more alone. You know things are going bad in your life when you lie to a spiritual leader. It has happened to me many times over my pastoral career. As we’ve discussed before, it is far wiser to speak the truth and let the chips fall where they may, if it is not a life-or-death issue.
Why did Ahimelech, the great-grandson of Eli, the former High Priest, tremble in his tunic before David? Abimelech was an intelligent, astute man. Seeing David without a weapon and soldiers probably tipped him off that something was amiss. David looked like a fearful fugitive. Could it be? Based on the scuttlebutt, everyone would have known about Saul’s hatred of David; the priest had every right to worry.
David, however, sought to calm the High Priest’s fears with a lie. How tragic. These two seemingly minor lies designed to acquire food and weaponry for Israel’s future king, will motivate Saul in a short time to murder the High Priest and all other priests associated with him and his assistance to David (1 Sam. 22:22). David’s lie wedded to Saul’s David Derangement Syndrome will leave a stain on David’s conscience for the rest of his life. He should have trusted God and spoken the truth, but he didn’t because fear, not faith, controlled him.
I took a young man named Larry up in a tree on the grounds of Dallas Theological Seminary to teach him how to thin it with a chainsaw. Climbing up a thirty-foot ladder, we moved carefully all through that tree, dropping various branches to the crew on the ground. After a couple of hours, we headed back to the ladder. I went down first, and Larry was supposed to follow me. I descended about ten rungs when I realized Larry was still at the top of the ladder. I’ll never forget what I saw as I looked up. His white-knuckled hands grasped the ladder in a death grip, and his eyes looked straight out at the horizon. I shouted, “Hey, Larry, you comin’?” He replied, “I can’t move.” “Why can’t you move?” I asked. “I’m frozen in fear, man,” he retorted. I then logically replied, “How can you be fearful when you’ve been in this tree with me for two hours?” I’ll never forget his response, “I looked down when I got to the ladder.” I had to climb back up, grab his middle belt loop on his jeans, and manually pull him slowly down the ladder to safety. Fear will do weird things to you, like cause you to freeze up. David froze in fear, so he lied to the High Priest.
Seeing the priest’s face relax a bit, David explained what he really needed while on this secret mission for the king:
The Requests (1 Sam. 21:3-9)
Moving from his two lies, David presented what he desired from the High Priest:
3 “Now therefore, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found.” (1 Sam. 21)
Abimelech must have considered this a strange request if a band of warriors traveled with you. He must have said under his breath, “You mean you only want five loaves of bread?” David knew the priest always had bread because he was in charge of the twelve loaves placed on the Table of Showbread every Sabbath (Lev. 24:8).
What did Abimelech say? Read on:
4 And the priest answered David and said, “There is no ordinary bread on hand, but there is consecrated bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.” (1 Sam. 21)
Ah, this is most interesting. Abimelech is willing to give David and “his men” the twelve loaves from the Lord’s Table of Showbread, but he will only do it if the men are ceremonially clean, meaning they had not become unclean through sexual contact (Lev. 15:18; Exo. 19:15). God, of course, created sex between a married man and woman, and it is biblically seen as a good gift from God (Ge. 1:28; 9:7; Psalm 127:3-5; 128:3-6). Sex, according to Levitical law, made a man, in this instance, unclean temporarily insofar as the exchange of bodily fluids involved, to some degree, a form of death. Hence, the man in question must perform divinely ascribed rites to become clean again.
So, Ahimelech used what we call Graded Absolutism, as we have seen before with Michal, David’s wife. When there is moral conflict between moral absolutes, you choose the loftier moral mandate on those rare occasions. In this situation, providing food to sustain the life of David and “his men” far outweighed ceremonial requirements. Jesus, our Lord, will tap into this passage in Luke chapter 6. When the hostile Pharisees accused Him of breaking the ceremonial law forbidding work on the Sabbath by allowing his disciples to “harvest” grain so they could have some food because they were hungry, Jesus responded how He, as the Lord of the Sabbath, knew, like David and Abimelech did, that preserving life trumped ceremonial mandates. Legalists always tighten what God loosens, and loosen what He tightens. Nothing has changed in the last two thousand years.
Realizing that Ahimelech was primed to help him, David spoke up:
5 And David answered the priest and said to him, “Surely women have been kept from us as previously when I set out and the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was an ordinary journey; how much more then today will their vessels be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him consecrated bread; for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence which was removed from before the LORD, in order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away. (1 Sam. 21)
The fact that “hot bread” was readily available tells us this probably occurred on the Sabbath because that is when the bread was traded out. The priests were supposed to eat the old bread per the requirements of the Law of Moses (Lev 24:9), but in this situation, the rules were bent to help sustain the life of David and “his men.” At this juncture, David’s lie, which was prompted by fear, doesn’t appear too destructive. Continue reading, and you will learn something new.
At this juncture, we encounter a side story for a brief moment.
7 Now one of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s shepherds. (1 Sam. 21)
Why is he introduced in the middle of David’s two requests? Doeg is an archenemy of Israel. As a descendant of Esau (Gen. 25:30; 36:9), this Edomite came from a people who had blocked Israel’s safe passage into the holy land under Moses (Num. 20:14-21). God pronounced judgment on them for their evil actions against their kinfolk (Num. 24:18), but they continued to hate Israel historically. The fact that Doeg was Saul’s chief shepherd speaks volumes about Saul’s ability to run the nation well. He permitted ancient enemies to hold positions of power within the nation, thinking they would benefit the nation. He thought wrong. In the next chapter, Doeg will be the bloodthirsty man who can’t wait to kill a few “rebellious” priests. If you are going to lie, like David did, you had better be very careful who might be listening. That person might return to hurt others who unsuspectingly fell for your fabrication of the facts.
Now, back to David’s requests based on his two foundational lies.
David needed food to live and a weapon to defend himself. After he killed Goliath and decapitated him with his massive and heavy sword, he placed the weapon in his tent. A battlefield prize of this nature just didn’t disappear. I think David knew exactly where it had gone as he ran around the countryside. That sword was entrusted to the High Priest, probably because it reminded him of God’s greatness in relation to this giant warrior. Armed with this background information, David sheepishly asked:
8 And David said to Ahimelech, “Now is there not a spear or a sword on hand? For I brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s matter was urgent.” (1 Sam. 21)
Ah, here is yet another lie. You mean to tell me the king sent you on a special secret mission, and you didn’t have time to grab a weapon? Sure. This has the smell of a lie all over it.
Because he trusted David, Abimelech stepped forward and said:
9 Then the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, behold, it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if you would take it for yourself, take it. For there is no other except it here.” (1 Sam. 21)
Goliath’s sword to end all swords was hidden behind the ephod, or the garment that held the breastplate containing the sacred lots the High Priest used to ascertain God’s will. Within a few seconds, the priest drug the monster sword out and gave it to David.
How did David respond?
And David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.” (1 Sam. 21:9)
How sad. Did the mighty David need the sword of a defeated foe for protection and power? No. When he encountered Goliath on the battlefield, he did so with formidable faith, a few rocks, and a trusty slingshot. Years later, fear and opposition ate away at David’s former faith to the point that he wrongly thought he needed a sword when he needed a renewed shot of faith in his Lord. Let me get personal for a moment with some questions: What is fear doing to you right now? What dumb decisions is it tempting you to make? How will you move from fear back to a point of great, unmovable faith?
Instead of moving from fear to faith, David permitted his fear to lead him into another lame decision. We can easily refer to this next historical section as. . .
The Regression (1 Sam. 21:10-15)
David’s fear caused him to make a jaw-dropping decision that, in turn, caused him to lose all self-respect:
10 Then David arose and fled that day from Saul, and went to Achish king of Gath. (1 Sam. 21)
Huh? He did what? He went twenty-five miles down the hillsides of Judah to Achish, the king of Gath. Isn’t this Goliath’s hometown? Yep. Wouldn’t most people in that town recognize him immediately? Yep. Didn’t that hate David because of all the Philistines he and his troops had killed (1 Sam. 18:27-30; 19:8)? Yep. Wouldn’t everyone in town know whose massive sword hung on a stranger’s slender, though muscular, body? Yep. Doesn’t fear that’s devoid of faith cause you to do the unthinkable? Yep. David was desperate, so he did a desperate thing. He headed to Gath, or the last place on earth Saul would look for him.
Are you on your way to Gath right now? Perhaps you’re in Gath and can’t believe what you’ve done, as you’ve walked away from your faith and anyone who could have helped you. And you’ve devised some clever, though vacuous, rationalizations to defend why you’re living off the proverbial grid of God’s protection and provision: “Come on, I didn’t have any other choice. I didn’t have any other viable options. I didn’t have anyone I could go to. I was under such pressure, I had to do something radical to relieve the pressure”… and so on and so forth.
How long did it take for David to be recognized? About a minute.
11 But the servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing of this one as they danced, saying, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands ‘?” (1 Sam. 21)
Astute Philistines connected the dots quickly with this new arrival to their small town. Interestingly, based on David’s exploits on multiple battlefields, they knew he was Israel’s king. They had even heard of the lyrics from the song the young Jewish girls sang to commemorate David’s fantastic victory over their supposedly invincible warrior, Goliath. Ironic. From the mouths of Philistines came truth that David should have listened to and learned from. But he didn’t.
How did David respond? To preserve his life in such a hostile place, he quickly duped all of them by playing like he had gone crazy:
12 And David took these words to heart, and greatly feared Achish king of Gath. 13 So he disguised his sanity before them, and acted insanely in their hands, and scribbled on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva run down into his beard. (1 Sam. 21)
It is sad to see how far the mighty warrior of Israel had fallen because of fear. Looking at him scratching on the wooden doors of the palace, and seeing him drool uncontrollably, left the king with one conclusion:
14 Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man behaving as a madman. Why do you bring him to me? 15 “Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this one to act the madman in my presence? Shall this one come into my house?” (1 Sam. 21)
David was no worthy foe, according to the noble Achish. He had enough crazy people running around town, and he didn’t need another one, like David, in his presence, so he moved his men to remove this public nuisance. Talk about a lack of self-respect. David had none at this point because he chose fear over faith. Not once in this episode do we hear him turning to God for help. Not one prayer from his lips, only drool.
To drive Saul’s character flaws out of David’s heart to prepare him to be a king Israel would never forget, God had providentially permitted David’s life supports to be removed from his life. He lost his relationship with King Saul, who was now his opponent. He was cut off from Samuel the prophet, Jonathan, his best friend, and his wife, Michal. His lie even set him up to be removed from Abimelech, the High Priest. Facing all of this pressure led him to emotional and spiritual instability, and instead of leaning on his faith in the living God, as he had when he was younger, he chose to run in fear. That choice would have cost him his life had he not been quick-thinking on his feet in the presence of Achish.
We don’t know how long David stayed in Gath, but it must have been for a short while, as evidenced by the fact that he wrote two Psalms, Psalm 34 and 56, recounting how the entire tragic episode awakened him spiritually. In Psalm 56, we find dejected David on his knees, crying out to God concerning his time in Gath:
1 For the choir director; according to Jonath elem rehokim. A Mikhtam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath . Be gracious to me, O God, for man has trampled upon me; Fighting all day long, he oppresses me. 2 My foes have trampled upon me all day long, for they are many who fight proudly against me. 3 When I am afraid, I will put my trust in Thee. 4 In God, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?
5 All day long they distort my words; All their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They attack, they lurk, they watch my steps, as they have waited to take my life. 7 Because of wickedness, cast them forth, in anger put down the peoples, O God! 8 Thou hast taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Thy bottle; Are they not in Thy book? 9 Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call; This I know, that God is for me. 10 In God, whose word I praise, In the LORD, whose word I praise, 11 In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? 12 Thy vows are binding upon me, O God; I will render thank offerings to Thee. 13 For Thou hast delivered my soul from death, indeed my feet from stumbling, so that I may walk before God In the light of the living. (Psalm 56)
Mikhtam in Hebrew means “a covering.” These lyrics, written from a scared, broken, fearful heart, speak about how God covered David when he made one of the dumbest decisions of his life. The very language of the psalm informs us how David did spend some time walking around Gath looking and acting like a madman, when in reality, he was a sad man who knew he had sinned. In this psalm, we learn how he slowly turned from fear to faith, as we all should. He had made some terrible missteps, but God had never abandoned him . . . not even in Gath. David experienced a spiritual awakening in Gath, as we will learn in the ensuing chapters, which changed him forever and providentially positioned him to do greater things for God.
If your dumb decisions, based entirely on fear, have led you to your version of Gath, I pray that in your emotional and spiritual turmoil, you will have a “come to Jesus” moment. You know, that is one of those life-altering moments when you see your sin, confess your sin, and seek and find God’s help in the hardness. You will find Him. David did. Imagine that. God works even in a jacked-up place called Gath. So, permit me to lay this divine truth before you to consider, as you are bumbling around a place you should be:
