1Samuel 21:1-9
Not That Way!
So far, everything we have said about David was good. He was spirit-filled, wise,
loyal, godly—everything that a man of God should be. But David was not perfect.
No one is. In this chapter, David falters. Even though the Lord had given him
an example of how strong He was and what He could do in his life
\\#1Sam 19:20-24\\, David turns to his own devices, and things turn to
destruction quickly.
Understand, I am not being critical of David. David is a man with his world
turned upside down. He is probably fumbling, looking for a right road to take.
Although strong in the Lord, he has never gone through anything like this before—
no one had. Probably without thinking, David turned to his own cunning. To
David’s credit, he learns in a hurry that is not the way!
We have two examples of David’s downward trek in this chapter.
I. \\#1Sam 21:1-9\\ David lied to a priest.
A. This is not the first bit of lying that has gone on.
1. \\#1Sam 19:11-17\\ Michal, David’s wife, liked to the soldiers
and to Saul.
a. She lied to the soldiers, saying David was sick.
b. She lied to her father, Saul, saying David forced her.
2. \\#1Sam 20:5-6\\ David had Jonathan lie to Saul, saying he had
returned to Bethlehem for a family sacrifice.
B. \\#1Sam 21:2\\ Now David lies to the priest about being on the king’s
business.
1. He may have also lied about the men with him being apart from
women \\#1Sam 21:5\\.
2. That may have been true but since David has already lied once,
who can tell?
3. That is the thing about lying! Once a trust is broken, it may
never be repaired!
4. Parents, teach your children the important of trust! How?
a. First, you must be honest.
b. You must teach them that trust is tied to privileges.
(1) Give them your trust.
(2) If they break that trust, stop their privileges until they
can earn it back.
(3) Make earning trust back HARD. A simple apology is not
earning it.
c. The goal is to teach them that trust is tied to privileges.
If you can’t trust them, you can’t give them privileges.
5. Understand, if you don’t teach them this early, you won’t teach
this to them at all.
C. Now, we all understand why David lied.
1. He was scared, wanted help, and was afraid he would not get it if
he told the truth.
a. We sympathize because we have all been there.
b. However, wanting, or even needing something, does not make
wrong right.
2. Wrong does not become right when there is an urgency.
a. David’s life was on the line when Michal lied, but that didn’t
make it right then either.
b. David felt the need to prove to Jonathan that his father had
turned against him, but that didn’t make it right either.
c. And on this occasion, God makes it clear to David that it is
wrong. Just wait a few minutes and you will see.
3. By the way, we do not know what God would have done in those
situations if God’s people had told the truth.
a. The Holy Spirit fell when David was Naioth.
b. Not only so, but the Lord will gather a army around David to
fight for him, will give him his personal priest, will give
him a Urim and Thummim to guide him.
c. Is it possible that God was waiting on David to give up on self
and trust Him to start working on David’s behalf?
d. It is possible that God is waiting on us to quit leaning on
our own abilities to start working on our behalf?
D. By lying, David got what he needed.
1. That is the problem with lying.
a. It usually works in the short run.
b. Most of the time, at least for awhile, doing it yourself does
work.
2. He got food.
a. \\#1Sam 21:3-6\\ He got five loaves of bread.
(1) That would indicate there were four people with David,
each man taking a loaf.
(2) The fact that this was holy bread, bread that sat on the
Table of Shewbread \\#6\\, indicates the Tabernacle
was being kept at Nob during this time.
(a) At this time, there was no Temple built.
(b) The Tabernacle was portable.
(c) We do not know for certain where Nob was but it was
probably close to Jerusalem if the Tabernacle was
located there.
(3) \\#4\\ There was no common bread for the men to eat.
(a) Either David and his men had come at a very unusual
time, when no one had finished cooking and all the
leftovers were gone, or else things were pretty
tight for this religious city.
(b) Nob had the Tabernacle, but no bread!
(c) Priests got their food from the people’s tithe.
(d) It looks like Israel was in a state of spiritual
decline.
(e) Of course that does make sense. Everything rises
and falls on leadership.
(f) It would have been awhile since Saul had any kind
of relationship with God.
b. \\#1Sam 21:8-9\\ David got the sword of Goliath.
(1) David had left in such a hurry, he didn’t even have a
weapon.
(2) The last we saw of this sword, David cut off Goliath’s
head with it.
(3) David took Goliath’s armor for a memento. No doubt, the
sword was part Goliath’s armor.
(4) How did it get to Nob?
(a) It was probably being kept IN the Tabernacle.
(b) That would indicate that David had given the sword
as an offering to the Lord.
(c) Isn’t it interesting that would you give to the Lord
you never really loose and what you keep for
yourself you never really have?
E. \\#1Sam 21:7\\ Notice, almost in passing, the Bible mentions that one
of Saul’s servants was in Nob.
1. Doeg, an Edomite, was there.
2. The Edomites were descendents of Isaac, but they did not walk with
God.
3. Doeg kept Saul’s sheep.
4. Remember this man. We will meet him again later.
II. \\#1Sam 21:10-15\\ David fled to Gath.
A. Gath was a one of the five royal cities of the Philistines!
1. To be honest, I don’t know WHAT David was thinking here.
2. I understand that he wanted to go someplace that Saul could not get
him, but there were other directions on the compass to which he
could have fled.
a. The Edomites (southeast) were occasional enemies with Israel.
b. The Moabites (northeast) were occasional friends with Israel.
c. In addition, David had family ties with the Moabites.
(1) His great grand mother, Ruth, was a Moabitess.
(2) David will take his own parents to Moab to dwell
\\#1Sam 22:3-4\\.
d. The Syrians (north) and the Egyptians (southwest) could go
either way.
e. But the Philistines (west) were Israel’s constant enemy at that
time.
f. By going to the Philistines, David was betraying both Israel
and God!
g. Besides all this, the Philistines are the enemy that David
had successfully fought repeatedly.
B. \\#11\\ No sooner does David get to Gath than he realized his mistake.
1. When you’re hosts are singing the songs of how you killed them,
you probably picked the wrong place for a vacation.
2. David realizes he had gotten himself into a mess.
3. These people were going to kill him.
4. Now, David has two troubles.
a. He has an angry king who wants to kill him.
b. But even worse, he has gotten himself out of the will of God
so there was little hope of God staging a rescue.
5. I’m not saying God would not have, but have you ever noticed that
it is hard to ask God to bless your sin!
6. Whether David asked God for help or not, God did help him.
a. David was just a blessed man.
(1) Some are like that.
(2) What they do, prospers.
b. David pretends to be crazy.
c. The king believes it and sends David away instead of killing
him.
d. That will be a mistake that Achish will regret the rest of his
life.
III. In both cases, David seemed to come out to the good.
A. David had gotten food and weapons for lying to the priest, and he had
gotten in and out of Gath with his craftiness.
1. If you are one of these that thinks it isn’t a sin unless you get
caught, you’d be flying pretty high right now.
2. However, sin is not defined by the consequences.
3. Sin is always defined by the Word of God.
4. So far, David’s consequences have been light, but that is about
to change.
B. \\#1Sam 22:1-5\\ David fled to the wilderness to hide in caves of
Adullam.
1. Saul comes looking for him but could not find him.
2. \\#1Sam 22:7-8\\ Saul asked for help.
3. \\#1Sam 22:9-10\\ And Doeg tells Saul about Nob.
a. Doeg is an Edomite that does not fear nor obey God.
b. Doeg lied about Ahimelech.
(1) Doeg tells Saul that Ahimelech sought God’s guidance for
David.
(2) That would be something that would bother Saul greatly
because God no long spoke to Saul.
C. \\#1Sam 22:16\\ In the end, Saul does a terrible thing.
1. He has the priest and all the priestly line killed.
2. \\#1Sam 22:17\\ Saul’s own soldiers would not kill the priests for
they feared God.
3. \\#1Sam 22:18-19\\ So Saul has Doeg do it.
4. \\#1Sam 22:20-21\\ Only one son will escape, Abiathar.
D. \\#1Sam 22:22\\ Notice what David said when he heard what Abiathar
told him.
1. "I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father’s
house."
2. David had lied to Ahimelech, and Ahimelech, believing David’s lie,
had helped David and lost his life.
3. Would Ahimelech have helped David if he knew the truth?
a. We will never know, but if he did, at least he would have died
for doing what he believed was right.
b. This way, he died being lied about by an evil man and by being
lied to by a good man.
4. And David would have to live with the consequences of this lie for
the remainder of his life.
What can we say about all of this? We can say that David is on the wrong path!
So is anyone and everyone is who trusts in their own guile and deceit! Instead,
we must obey God and leave the consequences to Him.
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