I Unpack David's Lie in 1 Samuel 21

But we're going to be in First Samuel, chapter 21 here this evening.

So if you have your Bibles, please turn there.

1 Samuel, chapter 21.

I want to thank Pastor Ethan for going through chapter 20, and there was a lot of great lessons in that chapter, and I pray that we can glean some truths from chapter 21.

Chapter 21 is a difficult chapter, to be honest with you.

As you read through this passage of Scripture, there's going to be some times probably where you're going to leave scratching your head, going, I wonder what this means?

Why did this have to happen?

And I want you to understand that within Scripture, we have passages that are what we call prescriptive, meaning this is something that we should be doing.

We're learning something from someone's life, and this is actually something that God wants us to do.

But then there's other passages that are descriptive, obviously, just describing what happens.

And just because something is in scripture doesn't mean that we are to follow that example exactly, because there's going to be times in the life of David that he does things that we don't want to follow.

Obviously, we know some of the more glaring problems in David's life, and we certainly don't want to do that.

But there's lessons to learn, even from people's mistakes in Scripture.

So there's always lessons in Scripture.

I want you to understand that.

I want you to understand that there are.

Even if the passage of Scripture is not a prescriptive passage, there's still a lesson, a spiritual lesson that we can learn in our lives.

And I believe there are some lessons here in First Samuel, Chapter 21.

So let's go here.

But before we get right into the text, let's build a little bit of the context, a little bit of the background.

What's happening here?

Well, we know from last week that David is being chased by Saul.

Saul wants to kill him.

David hasn't done anything to Saul.

He hasn't sinned against Saul.

The only thing that he's done to Saul was obviously threaten Saul's ego, his pride, his.

His throne.

And we know that this is already a promise of God that Saul's family will lose the throne and David would be the new king.

And what Saul is essentially doing is he's trying to make his own plan.

He's trying to scheme a path in which he can beat God's plan and David's running for his life.

But David also has to remember that God has made a promise to him and that God is faithful and we know that through many different instances in the early life of David that he's seen God's faithfulness go back to the whole instance with Goliath.

Obviously, the odds were stacked against David.

But he went out on the battlefield in faith.

He fought in faith.

And in his faith, he saw the victory.

So the victory was not David's.

He even admitted that himself.

If you remember, he said, the victory is not mine, it's the Lord's.

It's through the power of God.

But because of what David is going through here, he is going to face a lot of fear.

And in this fear, David does not face it with faith.

He faces it with something else.

And what we're going to learn through this passage, I believe, is that sometimes instances in our life, circumstances in our life that cause us to fear can lead us to a place of faithlessness and lead us to a place in which we are trying to figure out our own plan, scheme our own plan.

And in this case with David, he actually lies.

So I don't believe that this is a justification for David's lie.

All it is giving us is the reason why David lies to Ahimelech here in this passage.

So he's running from Saul.

David and Jonathan had that wonderful time in chapter 20 when David and Jonathan had this covenant.

And David leaves in faith.

But we know that sometimes we can have faith today, but tomorrow we struggle.

And so in chapter 21, verse 1, it says, then came David to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest.

And Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David and said unto him, why are thou alone and no man with thee?

Now, let's stop here and get an understanding about this verse.

Now, David goes to a place called Nob.

Why is Nob important?

Well, we know through the context of this passage that all of the worship was happening there.

And we see that the Ark of the Covenant's being held there.

There's this place of worship, and the priest is there, Ahimelech.

And why is he afraid?

Ahimelech's afraid because David would have been a man that had a following.

David would have been a man who probably had servants and people working with him.

And so for David to be alone and on the run, it was concerning to Ahimelech.

He was like, what's going on, David?

Why is no one with you?

Why are you alone?

It would be like today, us being out and about and seeing someone who's very famous, just out by themselves, no security, no one around them to watch them.

It would not make sense for him to be this way.

And instead of David telling Ahimelech what's going on and being honest, he comes up with this plan.

And this plan is to really essentially lie.

And David said unto Ahimelech, the priest, the king hath commanded me a business, and have said unto me, let no man know anything 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.

Now, what is he saying here?

He's basically saying that I'm on the secret mission.

I'm not allowed to tell anyone what I'm doing.

No one should know where I'm at.

I'm doing a work for the king.

Now, there's some commentators that I've read that have basically tried to justify David's lie here by saying, well, he's not really lying.

He's kind of just strategically getting around the point.

And I. I don't think that we can honestly see this passage and see anything else other than him lying.

It's not clever diplomacy.

I saw one commentator say it was just clever diplomacy.

I don't really think that we could justify it that way.

And one of the things that I thought about when I was reading this passage is that even though we could understand why David lies here, and maybe even in many cases, we, if we were in the same position, might do the same thing, but David lies.

And though we know that there's times and places where that might be more advantageous for us to lie in the moment, the Bible says that lying is never the right thing to do.

So here we would not say that David's an example of how we should be.

When we're going through a trial, we shouldn't lie about it.

We shouldn't try to avoid it.

Here we see that David tells Ahimelech an untruth, a lie, and we shouldn't try to justify it.

Why does David do this?

Well, David's fear caused him to abandon his faith and his courage and do something outside of his normal characteristics.

This isn't typically how David would respond.

David usually responds in faith, but because of his fear and because of what's going on around him, he's in real danger, and someone's coming after him for his life.

And that pressure reveals in him a weakness, a moment of the flesh.

And I want us to understand that pressure doesn't necessarily create our weakness, but it exposes our weakness.

Oftentimes as a believer, we're able to walk a path of faith, when everything seems to be going our way, when things make sense, when things are positive in the circumstances that we're facing.

But oftentimes it's when the pressure comes and the stress comes that we are in a place of doubt.

And sometimes with that place of doubt, we turn to actions of the flesh, and we would allow ourselves to fall into that weakness and fall into a sin.

And so there was a quote that I read recently, says pressure doesn't necessarily create our weakness, but it exposes it.

And in this case, David obviously was having a weakness.

And he turns to Ahimelech and he lies.

And so what does he do next?

He's going to build upon this lie by basically asking Ahimelech to do something that in cultural understanding and even according to the Levitical law, he was not supposed to do.

David turns and says in verse three, now, therefore, what is under thine hand?

Give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present.

So basically, David's like, I'm really hungry.

I need something to eat.

Give me some bread.

And he says, give me five loaves of bread.

Now, why would he ask for five loaves?

Well, there's like, a few commentators that I was reading, one that said, man, maybe he was just really hungry.

That's a lot of bread.

Or it could have been that he understood that I could eat now, but I also need to take things with me on this travel that I have to run away from.

Saul, either way, he asked for five loaves of bread.

And the priest answered David and said, there is no common bread under mine hand.

Basically, he says, I don't have any bread to give you.

He says, I do have bread, but it's not the common bread for the average everyday Jewish person.

He says, there's no common bread under mine hand, but there is a hallowed bread if the young men have kept themselves at least from women.

So essentially what he says here is, he's like, I've got this showbread, which we're going to talk about the show bread and what that is here in a moment.

And he says, I could offer this to you if you've kept yourself from women, if you're pure, if you haven't come into a place of impurity.

And David answered the priest and said unto him of a truth, women have been kept from us about these three days.

Now, this is really interesting here because he said, why are you alone?

And now he's speaking like there's a group of them around, and there really isn't a strong answer for why they're talking this way.

Other than, um, maybe the assumption is, is that there's more men with David and they're not just right there with him in that moment.

Maybe they're far out.

But either way, he says, no, we.

We've kept ourselves.

And he says, and.

And the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in the manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel.

So the priest gave him hallowed bread, or holy bread, for there was no bread there, but the show bread that was taken before the Lord to put hot bread in the day when it was taken.

So let me just give you some context of what this is all about.

There was in the temple the show bread.

The show bread was something that was instituted back in the book of Leviticus.

And what it was to symbolize was God's provision.

And we'll talk a little bit more about that later on.

But what he.

What they were to do was to have 12 loaves, and they would have two stacks of six loaves.

And that was to symbolize the 12 tribes of Israel.

And it was to show the power of God and their life.

And it was to be a remembrance of what God had done in the past for the nation of Israel.

And really what we're going to see is that in the book of Leviticus, it was said that it was only supposed to be the Levitical line that was to eat of the showbread.

Leviticus 24:5,9, give the basic regulations.

And what it was was that these 12 loaves were to correspond with the 12 tribes.

And then they would be placed in the holy place before the Lord, and they would place frankincense on them as a memorial.

The bread was supposed to be made of fine flour.

It was to be arranged in two stacks of six.

It was supposed to be placed before the Lord.

It was supposed to be replaced every Sabbath.

And as the old bread was pulled away, the priests were supposed to eat it.

So Leviticus 24:8,9 says that every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually.

Then eventually he says, and it shall be Aaron and his sons, and that shall eat of the holy place.

So this wasn't just ordinary bread that was sitting around.

It was holy bread, holy in the concept of being set apart for a specific purpose.

And that was to honor God and to feed the priest.

It was consecrated bread associated with Israel's worship and the priesthood.

So why was David even able to get it?

Why did, ahimelech, give it to him.

Well, well, David comes to this place and he is showing that he's in great need.

He's showing that he's very hungry.

And Himlek answers in the fact that he's like, there's no ordinary bread here.

There's only holy bread.

But Ahimelech clearly understands the distinction.

We know that this isn't a mistake.

Some people would say, well, Himlek didn't really understand what he was doing.

He clearly understood what he was doing.

In this case.

He was going to give David.

And he does give David this showbread that was coming off of the cycle.

It was coming off of the.

The six and six loaves there, and it was going to be replaced.

And so he's giving David these pieces of bread, and he says, you know, take it.

And he says, are they pure?

Are the.

Are the people that are with you and you pure?

And he says, yes, we are.

And normal Levitical procedure would have been that it would not be given to anyone other than the priest.

And we could just pass over this and say, okay, Ahimelech made a mistake.

Because that's how.

That's how we would read it in this context.

David made a mistake by lying, and Ahimelech made a mistake by giving the show bread to David.

And we haven't even talked about Goliath sword yet.

We're going to get there in a minute.

But then we have a problem.

If you've read the rest of Scripture, Jesus actually uses this passage as a lesson later on in the book of Matthew, Mark and Luke.

And I want us to go there and see what Jesus says in Matthew, chapter 12.

Because if we just start to gloss over this as Ahimelech making a mistake, Jesus later on says what?

That Ahimelech made the right decision and we should be like him.

So there's a problem here if, if we don't see it from what the Lord wants us to see.

Because what some people might say is that, hey, there is a contradiction here.

Was Ahimelech wrong for doing what he did?

Then why would Jesus support it?

Why would Jesus promote what he did?

Well, let's look at it here in Matthew chapter 12, and I want to give you some level of understanding of what Jesus is talking about here in Matthew 12.

And then we'll go back to first Samuel, chapter 21, and see what Ahimelech was really doing.

So in Matthew chapter 12, Jesus is out on the Sabbath day with his disciples.

And that's the context.

And Then I'll read the first four verses and then we'll see what, what Jesus is talking about here.

He says, at the same time, Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn or the wheat, and his disciples were hungered and began to pluck the ears of corn in to eat.

So Jesus is out with his disciples on the Sabbath.

They pull the grain and they eat it.

And that's a problem because the Pharisees saw it.

Verse 2.

But when the Pharisees saw, they said unto him, behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day.

And he said unto them, have you not read what David did when he was in hungered and they that were with him, how he entered into the house of God and did eat the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat.

So Jesus does not commend David necessarily for doing what he was doing.

But, but he goes on to say, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priest.

Or have you not read the law, how on the Sabbath day the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless.

So he goes on to talk about something else.

But what does he do?

He mentions and references this instance with, with David.

And Jesus acknowledges that the bread was normally restricted to priest.

He says he did something that was outside of what was the norm.

And so under normal rule, David was not supposed to eat of this bread.

But Jesus, we can't just say, well, Jesus is saying, technically David was okay, he's not breaking the law.

No, I, I don't think that's the right way to do it.

So what is Jesus's argument?

Jesus's argument is, and, and he's dealing with the Pharisees.

And the Pharisees are questioning the disciples eating grain on the Sabbath.

And the Pharisees accusation was basically this.

Your disciples are, are violating Sabbath regulations.

They're all about the law.

And Jesus responds by giving them the biblical precedent of David doing this.

And then he uses the priest.

And he actually quotes Hosea 6, 6 down in verse 8.

He says, the son of a man is Lord, even of the Sabbath day.

And he goes on to quote some other things, but Hosea 6, 6 he says, for I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

So Jesus is obviously teaching something here and he's obviously trying to emphasize a point.

Well, his point is this.

And I don't think it's just, hey, when you're hungry you can break the law.

What he's doing here is he's identifying that the law is not about just following it, and that's all we can do and forgetting about the needs of others.

What he's saying is, is that Ahimelech looked at David and recognized that David was in need of bread and he wasn't bound by that law to help someone in need.

And so what Jesus is essentially teaching is, is that, yes, the Levitical system is good and it's God given.

He's not attacking the law.

We know that Jesus came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law.

But Jesus points them back to the purpose behind God's law.

The Sabbath was given for God's glory and for man's good.

The temple regulations were given for God's worship.

The showbread was sacred.

But God didn't institute the ceremonial system so that people would be overlooked in their needs.

So.

So that a preserving a loaf of consecrated bread would take precedence over preserving a human life and a legitimate need.

So Ahimelech is not condemned for what he does, because what he says is, look, I'm taking care of a person and I'm not going to be bound or restricted by this Levitical law so that I can't help someone in need.

And so it's a.

It's a tough passage to deal with because a lot of times people look, hey, it's.

It's right or wrong.

Is, Is.

Is David right in this?

I say no, because David's lying here.

But David certainly had a need.

Ahimelech, is he wrong or, well, him just being deceived because David's lied to him.

But Ahimelech's trying to help David being in a place of difficulty.

So David was hungry, he was fleeing Saul, he was a.

He was looking for something, and Ahimelech met him in his need.

So how do we look at this passage?

We look at this passage in two different ways.

I think we can look at this as David was pressed with an issue that he had, and instead of responding biblically and honestly, he responds in a lie.

And I think David's wrong here.

But I look at Ahimelech and I look at Ahimelech saying, well, David needs something.

I'm going to help him.

I'm going to.

I'm going to be a blessing to him.

And what he was not bound by was the whole law is written so that the grace of God can be seen, the love of God can be seen, and so he wasn't bound by that.

Mark adds a different dimension, an important dimension in Mark Chapter two, Jesus says the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

So Jesus isn't saying that that Sabbath doesn't matter, but what Jesus is saying is that the ceremonial law was there to facilitate God's worship and holiness.

But we can't be bound by that law.

And we know that later on the New Testament, we're free from the bondage of the law.

So.

So Jesus is making a bigger claim that the person's need is more important than any tradition, any man's traditional law.

And by the way, it does say in the book of Leviticus that it was designed for Aaron and his family, but it doesn't say that nobody could eat it ever.

Okay, so Jesus is never going to.

What I would say is commend someone for breaking the law, but in this case, Jesus is saying, I'm lord over it.

And that's what we see in the book of Matthew, Mark and John.

So.

So there is a fascinating connection between 1st Samuel 21 and Hosea chapter 6, because Hosea chapter 6 says that God wants mercy and not necessarily sacrifice.

So.

So what he's saying here is that if we're just doing the law and we're just doing all the motions and we have no heart in the matter, God's not pleased with that.

So.

So Ahimelech could look at David and say, well, I see a need that you have, but you know what?

I'm going to follow all the rules to a T. And in this case, what he's doing is, is he's missing the heart behind that.

And the Bible says very clearly that we're supposed to help our neighbor.

So him, like, helps David in this time.

And I believe that even though he doesn't know the implication of what he's doing, obviously God understands it.

And Jesus later on talks more about that when it comes to showing help for others and not being bound by the things that we have in our life in accordance to the Levitical law.

And we know that we don't even have to live by the Levitical law anymore.

But how can we take this with us?

We could take this with us with the concept of, well, maybe you've heard the phrase, well, we've never done it this way before.

Okay, so we can allow sometimes man's traditions to hold us back from doing things of helping someone in need right in front of us.

So does Jesus approve of David's lie and Ahimelech's action?

I don't think so.

I don't think Jesus approves of David's lie.

But I do believe that Jesus understands the heart of Ahimelech and his grace and his mercy to help David in this time of great need.

So moving forward, it says in verse seven now, a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord, and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdsmen that belonged to Saul.

So basically, Saul has eyes in this place.

David can't hide from the eyes of Saul in this case.

And so Doag is there, he witnesses it.

And verse eight.

And David said unto him, and is there not here under thine hand, spear or sword?

David's like, I need a weapon, for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me because the king's business required haste.

Again he lies, David lies again.

And we could look at David here and really come down on him and say how a terrible person he is.

But I before we do that, let's inspect our own lives, because we do know that David later on, I believe it's in Psalm 34, which we'll look at later on in our study, David does come to a place of humbled repentance when it comes to these things that he does.

And then what we're going to look at in 1st Samuel, chapter 22 is that he eventually recognizes and realizes the sin that he commits here.

So it would be one thing of David later on says, look what I did back with the Himalayc, and it was all good.

But there's going to be a place.

I believe it's later on in chapter 22, verse 21.

Maybe it was another place.

But later on in chapter 22, he comes to a place where he realizes that he makes a mistake, and he realizes of the sin that he commits here in this chapter.

So he says, hey, can you find me a weapon?

I. I left so quickly with the king's business that, by the way, he did leave pretty quickly.

And maybe the king's business was to require him to have a hasty exit.

But he isn't really clear in what he's doing here in verse nine.

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.

If thou will take it, take it.

And for there is no other save that here.

And David said, there is none like that.

Give it me.

Now, what's this all about?

Because this is interesting.

I. I believe there's great irony here.

If, if you believe that God's working in this sense, remember back with David and the sword, that was a picture of David's faith in God using Goliath's own sword to take out his enemy.

That was essentially the culmination of David's faith in God's provisions.

And so now you see David back when he was there with Goliath in the valley of Elah, and he slays Goliath with this sword and he comes back as a sign of victory.

The sword is.

That's why it's being retained here.

But now David's walking in faithlessness, and now he's reminded of what he did have in the Lord with faith.

And he's reminded of that victory that God gave him.

And it's interesting where David flees to David eventually, now as he gets this weapon, flees to a place called Gath.

Now why is that significant?

That's where Goliath's from.

We're going to talk more about that next week with David because he's going to go to Gath and make some more mistakes.

But, but I want you to understand that here in this case, it's David's fear that reveals to him that he needs to come up with a different plan.

But he's reminded at the very end of this passage, at least in verse number nine, that God is still the same God that was there with him with Goliath before.

And now he's reminded of this victory that he had.

And maybe there's a sense of shame.

And I think that that's something to be reminded of as well.

In our own life, when we go through these instances of faithlessness, we need to go back and be reminded about what God has done before in our life.

And maybe that can bring us to a place of brokenness and humility when it comes to the understanding of how God can be faithful again.

And so I want us to look at Psalm 34, because Psalm 34 is really a snapshot of David pretty much right after what he does here.

And it gives us a heart of where David was after he makes this mistake.

And I think that for us, it's not always about being perfect.

One of the lines that I used at my father in law's funeral, you had to know my father in law.

You guys didn't get to meet him.

He never made it up to Delaware.

But he had a very unique sense of humor, and he was just a unique guy in general.

And so I said, you know, I wanted to be nice.

At the same time, I Wanted to say some things about who he really was.

And so I said, you know, his name was Jeffrey.

I said, you know, Jeffrey wasn't a perfect guy.

And everyone's like, nodding their head.

I'm like, yeah, but it's not all about being perfect.

None of us can be perfect.

The reality is, is that as a believer, sometimes we think the expectation is, is that we have to be perfect.

And then when we do make a mistake, we're a complete failure.

But the Bible says that really none of us are perfect.

None of us can exceed the perfect nature of who God is.

Therefore, when we do make mistakes, we do.

It's not a mark of a mature Christian to never make a mistake.

It's a mark of a mature Christian to identify where that mistake is, learn from that mistake, and come to a place of humility.

So this psalm of David in Psalm 34 is when he changes be changes his behavior before him like who drove him away.

And then he departs.

So says, I will bless the Lord at all times.

His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul shall make her boast in the Lord, and humble shall hear thereof and be glad.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me.

Let us exalt his name together.

I sought the Lord, and he heard me and delivered me from all of my fears.

So verse four tells us really what he was plagued with in this scenario.

It was his fear.

Now, the Bible tells us in other places that the fear of.

Of man is a snare.

It's a trap.

And the fear of man, our fleshly fear, will lead us to do things that we never thought we would do, or at least lead us to do things outside of what God's working in our lives.

So let's say, for example, I'm walking in the Lord every.

I'm doing everything well.

I'm reading my Bible, I'm going to church.

I'm seeing great change in my life.

But yet fear strikes me and I revert back to what I used to be.

I revert back to that bad habit.

I revert back to that anxiety.

I revert back to that fear sin that I felt like I had victory over.

Well, the Bible says that it is going to be something that will happen in our life when that fear takes hold.

And so instead of facing our problems with fear, we're called to face our problems in faith.

And so he says, I sought the Lord, and he heard me and delivered me from all of my fears.

They looked unto him and were lightened, and their face were not ashamed.

This Poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles.

The Bible really tells us here what the response is when we come to the Lord in humble submission.

He hears us and he meets us in that place of need, and he gives us a hope that can only be found when we submit ourselves to him.

And he says in verse eight, o taste and see that the Lord is good.

Blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

I think that David learns his lesson, at least in this case, when he comes to this understanding of, well, trying to go my way is not going to bring me any satisfaction.

Trying to go my way is only going to bring me guilt.

It's only going to bring me pain.

It's only going to bring me separation from God.

And he says, taste and see.

The Lord is good, blessed, happy, content is the man that trusteth in him.

Oh, fear the Lord, ye his saints, for there is no want to them that fear him.

So there's actually this unique comparison between the fear of man and the fear of God.

So as Christians, we're supposed to have fear, but we're supposed to fear the right things.

What's the proper fear?

The proper fear is knowing who God is, what he has done, what he is capable of.

And where we stand in that equation, where we stand in that equation with God is that he is all powerful and God has every right to condemn us.

God has every right to crush us.

God has every right to judge us, but yet in his grace he does.

And therefore there's that understanding that we as believers have received this wonderful grace.

And so the fear of God is not a fear of condemnation or a fear of judgment or a fear of pain, but it's a healthy awe and respect of who he is and what he has done and what he is capable of and what he is doing in our lives.

And so he says that it's the fear of God, for there is no want for them that fear him.

Now, those that fear man, fear Saul.

Fear, you know, Goliath, fear whatever, you know, whatever we might be fearing in our lives that does not bring us satisfaction, that only brings us more paranoia.

It only brings more fear.

That fear brings more fear.

And so David says the only way to get out of the fear is by not fearing that thing that we're afraid of, but having the fear of God and allowing him to do those things in our life that we need.

Verse 10.

He says, the young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.

Says even the young lions have fear.

They.

They need things, they're hungry.

But it's those who seek after the Lord that don't need anything, because they have everything in him.

Come, ye children, hearken unto me.

I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

So what we see is that David learns the lesson of the importance of fearing God.

He there's always a point in our life where we need to learn that lesson.

Sometimes God teaches us that, that hard lesson in the midst of our pride.

David certainly deals with some level of pride by saying, you know what?

I need to figure this out myself.

I need to lie, I need to get out of this.

I. I haven't done anything wrong, but I need to get out of this in my own way.

And oftentimes things that we're going to face in our life are not brought about by our own doing.

It's brought about by a circumstance that we're facing in our life that God has allowed.

But yet he says we need to learn that lesson of fearing the Lord.

Verse 12.

What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days that he may see good?

Heap thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile.

He.

He warns us here of what happens when fear comes in our life.

We begin to speak evil things and we begin to speak guile, that word guile.

There is deceit, lies.

What happens when I fear is that I begin to think that my lies are justified and I try to cover myself.

And I wish that I could say David stayed in this and never left this mindset.

But we do know that there was other times in David's life where he tries to lie out of the situation because of fear, right?

The whole classic story of Bathsheba.

He goes into that with some level of fear.

And in that fear he tries to figure out himself.

And there's lies upon lies.

And eventually God reveals that to him and to others around him.

So he goes on to say in verse 14, depart from evil and do good.

Seek peace and pursue it.

The eyes of our Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.

The face of the Lord is against them that do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

And he goes on to talk about the righteous cry being heard.

And eventually he ends this chapter with a statement.

He says, and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.

And I hope that that's a lesson that we all can learn in our life because we all going to face pressure.

We go back to First Samuel, chapter 21.

What's David's pressure here?

David's pressure is that the most powerful man in, in his known world is coming after him with everything.

David could have very easily fallen into the trap of fear because he looked like there was no way out.

I mean, remember, he was just with his best friend Jonathan, who in his mind was his greatest ally.

And Jonathan basically comes out and says, there's nothing I can do.

My dad's coming after you.

You got to run.

You got to go.

And at this point in time, David has no one to turn to.

He can't turn to anyone in his family because they're basically compromised.

He can't turn to anybody else because he's going to get caught.

So, so David has a real problem in front of him, that Saul is coming with everything.

And what does David have?

Well, at this point in materially speaking, David has nothing.

He has no food, he has, has no water, he has no protection, he has no weapon.

He has no place to lay his head.

David circumstantially has nothing.

But we know that he did have something in God.

And so the right answer, the biblical way to respond to this need was for him to completely pour out to God and say, God, I need you in this case.

But he, he goes to the right place.

He, he goes to a place of worship, but instead he comes with a lie instead of a truth.

And in this lie, he is faced with more struggles.

And you might be tempted to think, well, maybe his lie was a good lie.

You know, have you ever been caught with that conundrum before?

You, someone says, you know, you can go back in time and you're in Nazi Germany and you got, you know, Jews in your basement, and people knock at your door.

You know, what are you going to say?

You know, that's a tough one.

I, I, I can't give you all the right ways that you should respond in every scenario because obviously, you know, every, every situation is different.

But at the same time, we know the Bible says that a lie is a lie, and we had to be very careful with that.

So, so what do we do with David here?

Do we just look at him and say, well, we understand why David lied, so it's okay, he lied?

Well, no, we understand why David lied.

He was hungry.

He wanted to find some food.

He, he wanted to get out of this without anybody knowing.

So he says, hey, I'm on a secret mission.

Don't tell anybody.

I'm on the mission of, of Saul.

Because he didn't want, and and one could argue maybe he was trying to protect the priest.

Maybe he was.

But again, the lie does not equal the right thing to do.

And we know that even in his lie.

So let's see.

David tries this lie.

And if the story was he got away with it, then biblically speaking, we could say, well, look, why is it wrong for me to lie?

But you see that he didn't even get away with it.

Verse 7.

He tries to hide it and do eggs there.

So.

So the eyes of.

Of Saul were there.

And so we couldn't.

He didn't even get away with this.

We know later on that this gets reported back to Saul, and Ahimelech is in big trouble because of what he did.

And, and you guys know the rest of the story, or if you don't, we're going to talk about it soon.

But he runs.

So he.

He's seen, and then he runs to Gath.

And what we're going to see next week is that in Gath.

Why.

Why on earth would David run to the Philistines for help?

Guess.

He.

He knows how bad the Philistines are.

He just not too long ago slayed their champion.

He knew that the.

The Philistines were against God.

But he goes and flees to Gath thinking that there's hope there.

But eventually he gets there and he realizes that he's made a mistake.

And.

And we'll talk more about that next week.

But what.

What truly can we learn from this passage, at least this first part, is that when fear takes control, when.

When fear guides us, we are going to do things that God does not want us to do.

David has already been anointed king.

He's already killed Goliath.

He's already experienced God's miraculous protection.

He's already been reminded of God's love for him.

Through his friendship with Jonathan, he's heard God's promise over and over again.

Yet David is still steeped in fear.

And then his fear begins to affect his decisions.

And that fear led to lies.

It led to running away from the truth.

He seeks refuge among his enemies.

Eventually, he eventually is going to pretend to be insane.

And yet we know that through all this, God does not abandon him.

David's faith is imperfect, just like our faith is imperfect.

We're reminded in the New Testament that even when we're faithless, God is faithful.

God's faithfulness isn't predicated upon our faithfulness, because guess what?

We all would fall short, and we would all lose that faith that God has given us.

But really, it's the faith that God sustains in us.

So David's faith is imperfect, but God's faithfulness is not.

God's faithfulness is always perfect.

And we're working through this book, First Samuel, and really, we all would probably think to some degree that David is the main character, and to some degree he is.

But I want us to see not only David and Goliath and Saul and Jonathan and all these people, but ultimately the main player is always going to be God.

Through this, we see God's faithfulness.

God is the common strand of faithfulness through all of First Samuel and Second Samuel.

So.

So the showbread situation, you know, that.

That's a difficult situation to talk about because I don't believe that later on Jesus is saying, well, you know what, just break the law because people are in.

In need of things.

But what I am seeing in this passage is that Jesus is putting the needs of a person over the rigid rules that are given to them in the Levitical law.

Now, again, that's tough for me to reconcile in my brain.

It's not that Jesus is commending David's deceitfulness.

It's not even that Jesus is commending someone breaking the law.

But I think what the message is, really is, even in the New Testament in context, is that, hey, you know what?

All of us are in need of certain things in our life.

All of us are coming to places in our life where we recognize a need in someone else's life, and we shouldn't be limited by the letter of the law, the rule of law, so that we can't help others in need.

And that's what Jesus was saying in that passage.

Because God desires the heart more than the sacrifice, because the sacrifice without the heart is just a sacrifice.

It's an empty act.

But ultimately God wants our heart, and if our heart's right, our sacrifice is going to be right.

So it is a hard passage to deal with.

Certainly we know that it would be a lot clearer if everything was laid out for us, you know, in footnotes to say, you know, this is what this means, and this is what this means.

But what we can see in this passage is that ultimately the heart of all of this is that Jesus wanted to.

To.

To us, for us to understand in the Book of Matthew and then Mark and Luke, all of the different instances there in the Gospel of this reference, that God wants us to treat people with respect and dignity and give them the love and treat them as we would want to be treated.

So the big Question was, was Ahimelech wrong for giving David the bread?

I don't think he was, because I think he saw a need and he helped that need.

Was David wrong for lying to him?

Like, sure.

Was Ahimelech wrong for not asking more questions?

Maybe.

But he saw a need and he helped the need.

And I think that at the end of the day, that's the best explanation that we could have in this passage.

But it's a difficult passage nonetheless.

And David is.

And so some.

Some argue.

Okay, the rest of this chapter.

Is David wrong for what he's about to do in Gath?

Why?

But we'll talk about that next week.

Basically, David is like.

I'm not going to say he's the first actor, but he acts and he pretends like he's some.

Someone that he's not.

Some people argue that that was God working through him and giving him this way out.

I don't know that for sure.

But what we'll do is we'll study that passage next week, and we'll look more at David's flight to Gath and why he went there.

Why would David go to the Philistines?

Why would he look to someone that was not honoring God, who were pagans?

Why would he go there for help?

Well, I believe it is really wrapped up in the fear that he had and how fear can consume us and make us do things that we know we shouldn't do.

So we'll talk more about that when we come back next week.

But I do want to conclude the whole passage and.

And we'll come back and then I'll pass off chapter 22 to Pastor Ethan and we can look more into First Samuel, chapter 22 over the next few weeks.