1 Samuel 21:7 Commentary and Bible Study

In a seemingly unrelated piece of information, we are told that a man called Doeg was there. He was ‘detained before the Lord.’ It doesn’t mean he was imprisoned or anything like that; detained in that way; it means means that for some reason he had business there of a religious nature, or in connection with the priests. This turns out to be important because of what will happen later, and we are being told how David’s presence was later reported to Saul. Doeg was a servant of Saul, and loyal to him, but he was not an Israelite; he was an Edomite – Edom being a historic enemy of Israel – who had somehow found his way into the king’s service. We are told this to explain his wicked behaviour after he returns to his master, Saul. Doeg was an official with responsibility for Saul’s livestock, a senior position, but he was a man without principle who was going to use the information he gathered on this occasion to gain favour with Saul, whatever the price paid. David saw him, and knew him from some previous contact at court. He later tells Abiathar that when he saw him there, he was sure that he would go back to Saul and report David’s presence to Saul. Doeg also knew David, and he made careful note of all that he saw in Nob, intending, if the opportunity arose, to use this information against David should the opportunity arise. He was a spy in the camp, a dangerous man, a ruthless man, who cared nothing about Israel or the priesthood, but only about his own advance. He would happily serve an evil master by doing evil deeds for him, which no one else was prepared to do. But Doeg feared David enough not to confront him to his face and to keep his head down for the moment. David’s lie about the nature of his mission made it hard for him to do anything about this. He could not share his suspicions with Ahimelech, without admitting that he was on the run. David asks for a weapon. It is more and more suspicious that he has had to move so quickly; he is not even armed. He has to embellish his lie in order to make it sound feasible; one lie leads to another. It is much harder to invent a consistent story than to tell the truth. But Ahimelech cooperates with him. ‘And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod.’ That makes us stop and reflect. David knew it was there; he knew it was kept as a trophy in the house of God. But when it was produced, wouldn’t it have set all the bells ringing in David's mind? ‘This is the sword of Goliath, the champion of the Philistines: this towering giant of a man who God miraculously enabled me to slay, and gave me the courage to face in one-to-one combat, and to stand on his promise that he would be with me. This is the sword of Goliath. What am I doing running from Saul? What I doing cringing in this place, and covering my tracks with lies? What am I doing in this position?’ But it seems that nothing can affect David, whether it's Samuel’s ministry to him, miracles almost before his eyes, or the sword of Goliath, the reminder of the greatest triumph of faith in his life up till now. We see David in an uncharacteristic period of weakness. He's going to have some more periods of weakness, but he has been so strong. When a shepherd for his father, he fought against the lion and the bear. He fought against Goliath. We have seen him behaving himself perfectly while he was with Saul. He is almost a near perfect person; he isn’t, of course, but his behaviour is admirable in every way. But David is human. He has lost his place in court; he has lost his military command, his comforts, his home – his wife will stay in the court of Saul – and he has lost perhaps his greatest asset, and that is the friendship of Jonathan. They have had to part company. He would no longer have the support and help of Jonathan, because he was on the run and away from court. At that time David seems to have been crushed by his position, and so here he is uncharacteristically trying to lie his way out of a situation. There is going to be another strange thing he will do, before by the grace of God he is able to draw back to a position of real trust and faith. When you see that he is an ordinary, vulnerable human being like ourselves, we admire him all the more for his stand by faith most of the time.