Show Notes
1 Samuel 21:1-8
Pastor Christopher Chelpka
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Amen. Let's pray.
[00:00:08] Lord, we come before you now. I'm asking that you would further give us the grace of your Holy Spirit to be at work in our lives, to open to us the word of God, that we might hear it and understand it. Lord, the evil one is often always at work taking your true word and distorting it. He wants us to mishear it. He wants us to misuse it. We ask that you would protect us from that and that you would give us a greater understanding, clarity in our minds, and zeal to follow where you lead. May your word be a light on our paths, and we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:01:03] Well, let's remain standing and turn to 1 Samuel. Chapter 21.
[00:01:23] So David begins his flight.
[00:01:26] He has been warned by Jonathan that no improvement has happened in Saul, that Saul does continue to desire to murder him. And so David is fleeing now, fleeing away from Saul, from the. From the throne, and going into this wilderness period. And so we begin to hear about this now. Let's hear God's word first. Samuel 21:1 through 1 through 12. This morning or nine then David came to Nob, to Himelech the priest. And himlech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, why are you alone and no one with you? And David said to Himlech 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.
[00:02:35] Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever is here. 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. 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? So the priest gave him the holy bread, and 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 that day when it is taken away.
[00:03:16] 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.
[00:03:25] 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. 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.
[00:03:53] And David said, there is none like that. Give it to me.
[00:03:59] May God bless his word to us. You may be seated it.
[00:04:29] So in this passage, we see David fleeing to Nob.
[00:04:36] He flees to Nob and he meets Eli's great grandson, Ahimelech, which means something like brother king. Interesting name. And when they meet, we see that David is hungry and Ahimelech is nervous.
[00:04:51] What are you doing here? What's going on?
[00:04:55] He meets David, trembling, and says to him, why are you here and no one is with you? There's something about David and what's going on that doesn't really make sense.
[00:05:08] Sometimes you have these moments.
[00:05:11] Maybe Homelik knew more than is said here. Maybe he knew about the palace, things that were going on, and all the trouble with David.
[00:05:20] But I'm not entirely sure about that, because we see that Jonathan didn't know some of those things, and Jonathan was right there. We also see many people celebrating David and David having success and victory.
[00:05:35] Either way, you take it. Ellen seems to be nervous. Maybe he just is noticing things like, why is David here and not there? Why does he not have any weapons with him? If he's going on a battle, why does he not have food, right? There's all. The situation is odd.
[00:05:51] So he comes to David, who has become this great warrior, and he says, what are you? Why are you alone and no one is with you?
[00:06:00] How does David respond? He responds with this kind of coy answer. It's all very vague. He says, the king has charged me with a matter, right, not very specific, and said to me, let no one know of anything about the matter which you send you. So he's cutting off the conversation. And even this word, the king, some commentators will say, well, maybe he was talking about God. Maybe he was talking about Saul. Maybe he was being coy, as I said, and not being clear on purpose.
[00:06:35] But he speaks to Ahimelech this way, and he reveals to him a problem in verse three. The problem is he's hungry. He says, give me five loaves of bread or whatever is here.
[00:06:50] Now we know from this story that David is going to get what he's going to get, the bread of the Presence.
[00:06:57] But that's not what he wants, right? He's not there to Eat the bread of the Presence. He's there to eat, right? Give me. What do you have on hand? What is under your control? What do you have to eat? We're hungry. We need food. And remember, he left in a rush.
[00:07:15] And there were other circumstances we could point to that would point to the reasonable hunger and needing of sustenance. The bread of the Presence, what that is, is described here. For us, it was loaves of bread, 12 loaves of bread representing Israel that were baked fresh and they were presented before the Lord. And then after a week, those would be taken away, but only as new bread was present, presented.
[00:07:42] That bread was before the Lord. It was a part of worship. It was part of the holy things that were going on in the worship of God.
[00:07:53] Now, because that's all that this priest had, he points out that this is, of course, kind of a problem, right? This is the Lord's bread. This is not common bread to be eaten for any purpose. He says, I have no common bread on hand. There is holy bread if the young men have kept themselves from women.
[00:08:13] Now here we have this theme of holiness introduced, and we'll see that it's quite strong throughout in both obvious and less obvious ways. The concern for holiness comes up first in this bread, that it's bread that is not common but holy. It's set apart to the Lord for the purposes of fellowship with him. We also have holiness in this requirement about women when. When men would go to worship and there were other rules around battle, they were not to have relations and other commands about cleanliness with regard in preparing for worship. Well, David says, well, this is what we always do when we're in battle. Keep that in mind when we come to Uriah later on. But he says, this is what we always do in battle. And so, yeah, we're all good. And here we see a part of David's character.
[00:09:09] Remember how various ways we've seen contrast with David and Saul, whenever it came to the worship of God or sacrifices or things like that, Saul is always stumbling over himself, doing the wrong thing, transgressing, making transgressions of various commands that had been given for the sake of lesser things is kind of a mess. And David's already ready to go, right? He comes into this situation already prepared, not even having prepared for the situation, but just doing the right things. We see the wisdom here in David and in his leadership, the way that he lives his life out, always before the Lord. He doesn't wait until he gets in a mess and then tries to figure it all out he's doing things in advance to live well before the Lord, to serve well before the Lord. He has these characters, characteristics about him that then create these moments where he's prepared. And we see his wisdom in this, his godliness in this. And so the priest agrees to give him the holy bread. And the reason is, is that there was no bread. There was no other bread but the bread of the presence there.
[00:10:21] So this is what happens there. Then in verse seven we have this very interesting thing. Did you notice that about Doeg? It says 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. And then nothing else is said about him.
[00:10:42] What's happening? Well, do you know? I'm not going to tell you, but I'll tell you later. I'll tell you. I'll give you. I'll get you prepped though, you know, in those, you know, I think it's Alfred Hitchcock. I'm sorry if this is wrong, but there's an old quote about, you know, when you see a gun in the first scene, it goes off, you know, at some point in the movie, right? It's sort of like that.
[00:11:07] The camera kind of pans out, we see Doeg and then it just moves on.
[00:11:13] And that is a bomb that is going to go off soon. And so you can remember Doeg being there.
[00:11:22] The author is preparing us as he tells the story of things that are going to come. So we'll leave that for later as the author does. And so we come back on this final bit here. Before David flees to Gath, he has had his needs taken care of with regard to his life eating. But now he has needs with regard to his mission, the thing he's supposed to be doing with his life, which is of course attacking the Philistines, eventually ruling as king. But he lacks a sword, he lacks a spear. And so he goes to the priest and he says, what about weapons? Thanks for the bread. Do you have any weapons? And then the craziest of all things, right, well, I don't have anything but this. And the. This is Goliath's sword.
[00:12:14] Now, remember I said there was big themes about holiness here, right? When David struck down Goliath, it wasn't just some macho thing on the battlefield. It was the holy work of God defeating the Philistines in judgment to save a people for himself.
[00:12:33] The fact that this sword was now in this holy place with a holy priest near the holy bread, it really speaks to everything that the Lord is doing, that the Lord is in all of these things. It's the Lord through his priest, who provides the bread. It's the Lord who provides the sword. It's the Lord who provides the victory. David, again, doesn't have what he needs to do the things that God has called him to do. And guess how it all works out? God provides for him.
[00:13:07] The theme of the Lord providing for his chosen one in order to save his people is strong throughout these books. It's one of the chief messages that we are supposed to understand about David, which ultimately points us forward to Christ.
[00:13:24] Jesus came into this world weak and under pressure and persecuted without much means. He lived his life often without a place to lay his head. His disciples were at various times hungry. He was persecuted a lot of ways, and ultimately he was put to death on a cross for our sins and because of the sins of many.
[00:13:53] And in all of that weakness, God provides for him. God provides for his chosen one.
[00:14:01] Now Jesus, of course, is not just an ordinary man like David. He is ordinary in the sense that he is fully human. But we also know he's divine. He's fully God. But notice there's various times in Jesus ministry in Jesus wilderness periods. You could even think particularly about the temptation of the devil when Jesus was in the wilderness, right? There was a moment there where the devil said, well, why don't you just call your angels to help you? You could turn these stones right into bread. And Jesus doesn't do these things.
[00:14:38] In his humanity, Jesus willingly suffers and receives the provision and the blessings of God in and through that suffering.
[00:14:50] And ultimately he, like David, becomes king, but a much greater one. He even becomes the temple. He becomes the priesthood. He becomes everything. He fulfills everything that the old covenant pointed towards and ultimately secures our success.
[00:15:06] The great application of this is in our own wilderness wanderings, which is really everywhere in this world. Wherever we go, we can continually look to the Lord and to our King Jesus to provide for us, to provide for our daily bread and to provide the tools that we need to fulfill the missions that he's given us. Both our everyday callings in this life and that great calling of spreading his word throughout the world.
[00:15:35] He doesn't give us Goliath's sword, He gives us something much better. He gives us the sword of the spirit, a much more powerful sword that is able to not just put people to death, but bring them to life. Quite a sword.
[00:15:52] A sword that speaks into people's lives. A sword that puts to death what's earthly in us and causes something from the Spirit to rise.
[00:16:04] This is how the Lord provides for us. He takes care of us and preserves us in all these ways. And this is really, really important when we come to think about holiness and the rules of God, the law of God.
[00:16:21] Because there is a law here that's transgressed in this passage, and it seems to be, okay, the holy bread is not for common purposes, and yet here it's being used for common purposes.
[00:16:36] God specifically says, don't do this. And yet both David and the priest does it. And here's the kicker. Jesus says it was all okay, well, how's that?
[00:16:51] We have a hard time understanding this because we often take on the worldview of the world, which is filled with people that relate to God's law in a couple ways.
[00:17:08] I'll say three ways.
[00:17:10] One way is they hear God's law and they totally despair, say, this is way too hard. I can't do it. I'm just going to go do my own thing or give up.
[00:17:22] That's one way people respond to the law of God. Another way people respond to the law is they make a lot of excuses.
[00:17:31] They say, well, look at this. I don't really have to do it. And it's not a big deal. And there's constantly all sorts of reasons why they think they should do it, but they really don't have to. And they come up with reasons to excuse themselves from it.
[00:17:47] And then you have legalists, you have excuse makers, you have legalists who say, you must do the law and you can do the law, and so you better get after it. And if you're not doing it well, you need to work harder. And in all of these things, either people are giving up on their relationship with the Lord, or they're making excuses about it, or they're thinking that somehow through obedience to the law, by obeying the law and all of its particulars, that they can find holiness, fellowship, and communion in the holiness of God.
[00:18:24] People do all kinds of crazy things within this worldview. They'll say things about God that aren't true. They'll think that God, for example, is really just about making up a bunch of rules which then we all just have to follow, and if we follow them good enough, then he'll be happy. It's kind of the basic worldview of a lot of people today, or people that feel they can never measure up, or people who are determined to measure up all these various instances.
[00:18:52] But none of those explain what we see here.
[00:18:56] None of those, explain what we see here.
[00:19:00] What we see here is that there's a principle working underneath all of this that is more fundamental than the law, a principle that is more fundamental to our relationship with God than the law, and that's mercy and grace.
[00:19:21] The laws that God has, the ceremonial law, the civil law, these laws that God has, the moral law as well, are to create, are to create and to enable fellowship between us and Him.
[00:19:41] They're part of our blessedness, they're part of our happiness, they're part of our life.
[00:19:46] And the ceremonial law in particular was meant to point toward that. It was meant to point toward our life in Christ. Why did God want holiness when people came into his presence? Because God is holy, right? God doesn't want to be expelling people who aren't holy when he's after fellowship with us. And so He. He helps us to understand that. And he creates all kinds of rules in the old covenant around that to help us to understand both that he is holy, that we need to be holy, and that he takes care of those problems. But what is he fundamentally after in all of that? He's after fellowship, he's after life with us.
[00:20:30] And so when it comes to the bread of the presence here, the Lord's servant is hungry.
[00:20:36] He needs to eat. And God desires to provide for him that more than he desires that the ceremonial law might be fulfilled in this particular way.
[00:20:50] Because both the ceremonial law and the eating of this bread are out of God's mercy, both are coming from that more fundamental point.
[00:21:04] In other words, we have to understand that our communion and fellowship with God can never be based on the law, either neglecting it or obeying it. The law is important, but it never establishes our relationship with God in a final and ultimate way.
[00:21:22] It points us towards that, it guides us toward that. It shows us how we can't have it. It does all kinds of things. But at the end of the day, fundamentally we have the Lord teaches us that we have to look to him, the Law Giver, even more than the laws.
[00:21:41] Perhaps I'll help to think about this some more by hearing Jesus words. If you would turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew, verses 12:1 8, where Jesus references this this moment.
[00:22:11] Here, Jesus demonstrates several things happen at the same time. 1. Jesus demonstrates that he is the true king. He is the king, Davidic King, who is Lord and ruler. He is the one through whom we have our mission, provision for our mission, we have provision for our lives. He is the One whom we ought to follow. Just as Israel was called to follow David.
[00:22:39] And we also have that king, King Jesus, referencing this moment with David at this particular time. Let's hear the story of Romans 12. I'm sorry, Matthew 12.
[00:22:50] At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said, look, your disciples are doing what's not lawful on the Sabbath. He said to them, have you not read what David did when he was hungry and those who were with him? How he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests.
[00:23:20] Now, Jesus references another thing, and he says, or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless?
[00:23:30] I tell you something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would have not condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.
[00:23:49] So several interesting things he does here. Jesus, on the one hand, recognizes that what they did was not lawful.
[00:23:58] They did not. David and his men did not obey the law.
[00:24:04] Now, the second thing he says is they were.
[00:24:12] He says they were. They were guiltless.
[00:24:16] I'm paraphrasing, paraphrasing. What he says to them is, he said, if you had understood this, you would have not condemned the guiltless. So he says, they did not obey the law and they're guiltless.
[00:24:29] They did not obey the law of God and they're guiltless.
[00:24:34] Wow.
[00:24:35] How so?
[00:24:38] Well, because there's something more fundamental going on. Not in every moment that somebody breaks the law. Don't be an excuse maker.
[00:24:47] But at this moment, something was happening with David. And at this moment, in the grain field, something was happening with Jesus.
[00:24:55] Something was happening with Jesus. Something fundamental, something that we must understand what it means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice.
[00:25:06] By sacrifice here, I think he's referring to the ceremonial law. He's referring to all the. To the Sabbath and the ceremonial law, to things that are done, not done on the Sabbath. He's referring to David and the Bread of the Presence and all of these kinds of things.
[00:25:22] And what he's saying is more important than checking the boxes on these things that I have required. I'm not saying I'm not. I have not required them. But more important than checking the boxes and all of these things is a fundamental principle of Fellowship, particularly through mercy of God, providing things that we cannot provide for on our own. That's the fundamental principle, mercy and grace as well. Which is to say, not only does God give to us and provide for us our need, but he gives to us what we don't deserve, what we've often fallen short of. And in this we see that we cannot come into fellowship, we cannot be provided for, we cannot have a holiness in the Lord through the law. Because if it's possible to both be guiltless when not following the law, it's also possible to have guilt when one has followed the law. That's another sermon.
[00:26:24] The point is that these laws were part of a bigger picture. And what we tend to do is we isolate them out of that bigger picture. We jump on the law track and we say, all right, now, I'm going to chug along here on my way to happiness. I'm going to do all these things and get it all right, or I'm going to not care, or whatever. But our minds are all set on this. We're not looking at Jesus, and we're just going this way, just going this way.
[00:26:50] And the Pharisees were doing that, demanding holiness, demanding all of these things. And yet their hearts were a mess.
[00:26:57] They couldn't obey the law. They were trying hard, sort of in some ways, outwardly.
[00:27:04] But what they needed was God's mercy and his provision.
[00:27:12] And God provides that for us and for the world through Jesus.
[00:27:16] And God provided that and for Israel in a foreshadowing way, through David.
[00:27:26] So when is it okay to break a rule?
[00:27:31] Especially around worship or the Sabbath or communion. Holy things takes wisdom.
[00:27:42] It is possible to break rules and be guilty. We have to say that we do it all the time.
[00:27:50] God commands the commands that he has, not just so that we can, well, whatever. David broke a rule, so I can do whatever I want.
[00:27:58] God commands these things and does hold people guilty for them when they are rightfully held guilty.
[00:28:06] One of the things that we need to understand, though, and it's a big topic, but at the bottom of it, is we need to understand the law's relationship, the gospel. We need to understand how we relate to God through grace primarily, through mercy primarily.
[00:28:23] And from that, then we can understand the law and the requirements for obedience and our zeal for obeying it and how to interact with it and to work in our lives, how to act in our lives.
[00:28:40] One of the things that I think this passage does in 1st Samuel 21 is it undermines our certainty around our obedience to the law.
[00:28:54] It undermines people who think that if they, especially in outward ways, follow all the right things, that they'll be okay, because it throws a monkey wrench in that whole system.
[00:29:07] It kind of breaks that machine because it's not really working. If God is okay with David doing this thing, and that's a really good thing, it's good for that machine, as I put it, that way, that path, that way to get broken in your mind, because it will never fully or ever give you what you ultimately need, which is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. It will never get you to that end.
[00:29:41] What we have to do instead is we must look to the Lord and His mercy and his grace in the midst of all of our weaknesses, in the midst of our wilderness era, in the midst of our persecution, in the midst of our suffering, in the midst of our disobedience, as David will experience later as well, great disobedience.
[00:30:07] And he looks to the Lord and asks him to not count his iniquities against him, to show him mercy, to show him grace.
[00:30:18] And in these things, the last thing I'll say, and we'll close with this.
[00:30:22] One of the amazing things that we see, and this is to give you boldness and confidence in these things, is in the same way that David's authority and kingship is not seen and under trouble here, and yet he totally has it.
[00:30:41] The same is true with the Lord and his people.
[00:30:45] On the one hand, it seems like David's on the run, David's not the king, et cetera, et cetera. On the other hand, David has the bread. He's eating the bread of the presence, and has the sword of Goliath.
[00:30:58] He's already the king. It's already been stripped from Saul. The thing is, Saul's in the palace.
[00:31:06] Saul's giving marching orders. Saul has some kind of power, but not ultimately and not even really right now.
[00:31:15] That's important for us to remember as we look to the Lord for His mercy, as we look for fellowship and holiness, as we look to be obedient to God's laws, as we look to rely on him for everything that we need in body and in soul, to remember that Jesus is the king. Already there's a not yet that's coming. There's a fulfillment that's coming. There's an enthronement and visible rule that is coming. But he's ruling and reigning right now. If you were a young man deciding, do I follow Saul or do I follow David at this moment? And you see Saul in the palace. And you see David being persecuted on the run. What's the right answer?
[00:32:01] Follow David not because he's persecuted and on the run, but because he is the Lord's anointed. And that is being proven over and over and over and over again in the midst of his suffering.
[00:32:14] And the same goes for the church of Christ.
[00:32:19] If you have a choice between standing with the kingdoms and the powers of this world that are wealthy and influential, influential and clearly have so much power and wealth and influence and all these sorts of things, and the choice of joining yourselves to a kingdom that's not of this world and undergoing suffering and persecution and all kinds of things there. Weaknesses of various kinds. Why would you go with the church of Christ? Why would you go with the kingdom that is not of this world? Because it is the kingdom that is anointed. It is the kingdom that God is protecting and providing for through her king. And it is the kingdom that one day will fully reign forever and ever in all perfection and consummated glory when Jesus returns.
[00:33:09] So hit yourself to Christ, put your faith in him, follow him through grain fields, through his mission in this world, through the spreading of the gospel, and you will be saved. He is a good king. He's the anointed king, and he has us carefully in his hands. Let's pray to him and ask for his blessing.
[00:33:37] Lord, we ask that you would give us confidence and boldness in the provision and in the work of Christ and help us to stand with him and in him in everything that we do.
[00:33:51] Lord, give us wisdom when it comes to ethical standards, to knowing when it is the right thing to do one thing instead of another.
[00:34:04] One of the ways that we come to understand these things is through your word.
[00:34:10] Your word which reveals to us your commands, your principles, your desires, your heart, your priorities, your missions, your aims. Lord, we ask that as we study your word, as we think about your word, as we apply it to our lives, we should do so. Not in trying to earn some kind of favor from you through our obedience, but, Lord, that we would do it for you out of gratitude and thankfulness, ultimately rooted in faith, that you provide for us in the midst of our confusion, in the midst even of our lawlessness and our guiltiness and our shame.
[00:34:49] Lord, we confess that there are many ways in which we have been excuse makers when it comes to the law, setting aside things which are clearly commanded, doing unholy things with our bodies which have been called holy. We also confess that we have been legalists, judgmental and awful. Toward other people.
[00:35:11] I'm quick to judge people for commands that we don't even follow ourselves. Even piling up human made rules and traditions and things that you haven't even commanded just so that we can think highly of ourselves. Lord, we ask that you would put all this to death in us, all the garbage and the filth of trusting and faith in the world or in ourselves or in the law. Lord, we ask that you would strengthen our faith in Christ and all that he gives to us.
[00:35:45] Lord, we finally ask that you would pray that you would provide for our earthly needs. You tell us to pray for our daily bread and we are praying for it now. Lord, we ask that you would give to us the shelter and the clothing and the food that we need, the relationships that we need. And we know that you know what we need. We also ask, Lord, that you would not only provide for our earthly needs, but our spiritual ones as well. And in particular, strength for our mission in spreading the gospel.
[00:36:19] Give us the strength in your word.
[00:36:22] Give us strength to speak it and apply it and to pray it and to sing it, and to invest in others around us so that they too may know what it is to come into the presence of the Lord and to be provided for in every way by Him. We pray this all in Jesus name, Amen.
