VISITING NOB
Let’s review a bit. In Chapter 21 of 1 Samuel, we find David visiting Nob, then Gath. David went to Nob to see Ahimelek the priest. When Ahimelek saw David he wondered why he was all alone and no one was with him. David answered, “The king sent me on a mission. He said to me, ‘No one is to know anything about the mission I am sending you on.’ As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place. Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find.”
TAKING THE BREAD OF CONSECRATION
The priest told David he did not have any ordinary bread, only the consecrated bread. Normally this bread could be given only to men who had kept themselves from women. David explained that his men had not been with women, as that wasn’t allowed on such missions. Their bodies were holy.
Since there was no bread there except for the Bread of the Presence which had been removed from before the LORD and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away, the priest gave David the consecrated bread.
DOEG OVERHEARS
Doeg the Edomite, who was Saul’s chief shepherd was there. He overhead David’s conversation with the priest.
David told Ahimelek that he had left his sword behind, since the King’s mission was so urgent. He asked if Ahimelek had any weapons for him to use. The priest told David that the sword he had used to kill Goliath was there, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. He welcomed David to take the sword. David agreed to do so, saying “there is none like it.”
FLIGHT TO GATH
When he had what he needed from Nob, David fled to Gath where Achish was the king. Some of the natives there noticed David. They remembered that he had slain thousands and they recalled the songs sung in the streets when David and Saul defeated the Philistines.
David was afraid that King Achish would also feel threatened by the people’s response to his reputation. He feared this king might also try to have him killed. So, David acted like a person who was insane. He let saliva run down his beard as a madman would. David went about making markings on the city gates.
King Achish criticized his men for bringing this crazy fellow to him. What would he need such as madman to do? King Achish had no fear or any useful need of David.