1 Samuel 21:1 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Samuel 21:1

Comments

In chapter 21 several things are happening. David visits a priest settlement with his band of men. He thinks he can get help from Ahimelech, but he does not trust him enough to explain to him his situation. Instead of opening his heart to the priests there, and telling them that he is on the run, instead of laying his problems before the Lord, he lies to them. He pretends that he is on a secret mission from Saul. The priest in charge of the settlement is a little surprised to see someone as eminent as David without a proper escort, and he rather wonders if he might be coming as a fugitive. But no, David puts his mind at rest by lying to him, and saying he is on a secret kind of mission, and he obtains food, and he is given the sword of Goliath. If only, as Bishop Hall said long ago, he had shared his problem. If he didn't think he could trust the priest, he could have shared his problem with the Lord. But David’s failure at that time was this: he had got so despondent and so low, that it didn't seem to him in that grey moment that it would do any good. David now begins his flight. He is under threat of death from Saul. He will most certainly find him and kill him, he thinks. Nob is about one mile east of Jerusalem. The ark was not there. It was at Kirjathjearim. But the tabernacle was pitched at Nob. It had been moved about several times, and that's where it was with the officiating senior priest of the Lord, Ahimelech. David wasn't actually alone; he had a band of men outside, but he was without the normal company of soldiers that he usually travelled with, so in that sense he was alone. ‘Why art thou alone and no man with thee?’, no fellow officers, no retinue of people. Why was Ahimelech so touchy, so nervous? Probably because, as we will read in a few verses, a man named Doeg, an Edomite, was there, who was the head over all Saul's farmers, the people who kept his land and managed his herds and his flocks. This chief steward, chief man – who was a proselyte Jew but actually an Edomite – was a cunning individual. If he was there, then the news, the information, that David had fled to Nob would soon get back to Saul, and if David was in fact in trouble, then Saul would not look kindly upon Ahimelech. So Ahimelech was suspicious that David was on the run: ‘What is going on? Am I going to be in danger. Is he going to ask me to help him or to hide him, and I too am going to come under Saul’s displeasure?’ ‘And he said to him, Why art thou alone, and no man [no army] with thee?’ But he does not know for sure, and he is not lying later when in his defence he answers Saul, ‘Who is so faithful among all thy servants as David, which is the king's son in law, and goeth at thy bidding, and is honourable in thine house? … Let not the king impute any thing unto his servant, nor to all the house of my father: for thy servant knew nothing of all this, less or more’ (1 Samuel 22:14-15).

Application

A little time has gone by, and we see David again going downhill spiritually. Here is one of the values of the life of David: we see him one minute with strong faith, and then we see what can happen when he gets worn down. He who in time past had shown such courage when walking with the Lord, is now overcome by fear and resorts to a lie. What a condition to be in! We have all been in this condition. When your faith gets so low, you don't even think it is going to do any good to pray, and so you invent your own remedy, your own way out of the dilemma, even if it means that you have got to stoop to excusing yourself, or lying, on doing something you shouldn't be doing. Let us learn from David: you can walk by faith, and then if you do not watch you can soon be brought very low.

Questions

‘And David said unto Ahimelech the priest,’ – so here is another story; there are efforts made to excuse David in this – ‘The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place.’ People suggest – and it may be so – that David told this story to protect Ahimelech, to give Ahimelech the opportunity to say, ‘He told me he was on a special mission. I didn't know he was on the run.’ Then others say, David had a permanent commission, if necessary, to sort out some diplomatic things with a much smaller party, and to do it secretly and to tell nobody. They say that that is what he is talking about. ‘Don’t you know, Ahimelech, I have a commission to conduct secret missions; I can't tell you what I am doing.’ But it is still a bit of a stretch, in order to cover his being on the run from the king's wrath and murder, to invent this elaborate story. Once again you see signs of David's integrity crumbling after the loss of faith.

Ahimelech shouldn't really have been officiating. He was a descendant of Eli, and God had said that all Eli's sons were disqualified from priesthood, and there was also the prophecy that they would be judged, and the time would come when all the sons of Eli would disappear. If the children of Eli had only got out of the priesthood, or laid down their responsibilities and gone and worked their homesteads like other people, and not attempted to officiate, perhaps the judgement of God would not have been bought upon them. But the house of Eli had to be brought to an end, and they didn't listen. It is interesting that they were still used by God. You could still seek the Lord's will through them. That is often how God works even today. In our churches, we may do things which are wrong and condemned by the Scripture. Various evangelical churches may engage in things like extreme worldliness, which are extremely dishonouring to God. It does not mean that God takes away all their instrumentality and usefulness instantly. They are put under notice, just as somebody might be who is renting a flat and misbehaves; there will be a notice period. If the people of God, or those who claim to be the people of God, disobey the methods of God, they won't necessarily be immediately disposed of by the Lord. This confuses some people. They say, ‘Here is this or that preacher who has become notorious for doing things that are quite unbiblical. Why is it that they still see some fruit, and some usefulness, and their churches have not totally disintegrated or come under judgement? Because there are warnings given, and there is a period of grace, a notice period; and it seems that Ahimelech and all the line of Eli were still being tolerated by the Lord. If they had known what was good for them, they would have retired completely from priestly functions, but actually there was no way they were going to do that, and so a prophet was able to say to Eli, this judgement will happen; it will take place, because God of course knew that they would not give up their office and their functions.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

1 Samuel 21:1 Commentary and Bible Study