Year 1, Day 307: 1 Samuel 21

Controversy

I’ve read several commentaries on 1 Samuel 21.  I’ll be honest here.  I’m not really content with this story.  I’m not content because I feel that this is a controversial story.  It’s controversial because David seems to be lying to the high priest about his reason for being there.  Yet, things seem to go well for David.  However, we know that David’s action is seen by Doeg the spy, and this will lead to treachery and bloodshed.  What’s worse is that Jesus refers to this story in a positive light in Matthew 12:3-4 (or Mark 2:23-28).  So what is a good Bible scholar to do?

I’ll tell you what I am not going to do.  One commentary that I read tried to tell this story in such a way that David is not lying.  The reasoning goes like this.  First, David said that he was on a mission for the king.  Since the high priest never asks David to identify the king, the author of the commentary argues that David is talking about God; but we all think he’s talking about Saul.  Since David is God’s anointed, he’s always on a mission for “the king.”  Now don’t get me wrong.  The logic holds.  God is King and David is God’s anointed.  I just don’t buy that David is talking about God here.

What I actually think is going on here is that David is going about life as he sees fit.  Now this doesn’t mean that he’s abandoned God.  What it means is that like you and I, David occasionally put himself before God.  Of course, any scholar of 1 and 2 Samuel knows that David does this pretty often.  All we have to do is remember the Bathsheba story and realize that David occasionally put his own needs before living God’s ways.

So this story then begins to make sense.  David is fleeing for his life.  He’s on the run, in a panic, and in need of food to keep up the journey.  He lies to the priest about his journey to get a favor.  However, he doesn’t likely lie about the status of his (or his warriors’) purity.  The high priest gives David both the bread and the sword from Goliath.  David’s lie gives him short term prosperity.  However, David’s lie also enables Doeg to find him out.  As we’ll hear tomorrow, Doeg reports back to Saul about David.  This will turn into bloodshed.  The ultimate end of the story is that although David got a short-term victory through his lie, David and the people around him will pay a hefty price.

So why then would Jesus use a story involving sin to illustrate one of his points about holiness?  Well, notice that when Jesus talks about the story in Matthew (or Mark) Jesus only talks about David eating the bread.  Jesus doesn’t talk about the lie; Jesus simply talks about the bread.  Just because David lied does not mean that everything David did was sinful.  Furthermore, is not God able to redeem our sinful acts?  Sure, the lie tainted the act.  But David’s eating of the bread can be seen as acceptable because as Jesus teaches, law was made for man rather than the other way around.

I feel a little better about this passage.  David’s lie does eventually catch up with him.  Jesus’ endorsement of the passage has nothing to do with an endorsement of lying.  It all seems to have worked out in the end.  And we don’t have to go through some theological hoop of God being David’s king to make David’s actions justified.  Rather, we can accept David for the sinful man that he occasionally is and move on.

David Goes to Gath

This story is proof that what I said earlier is true.  David is on the run and not making wise decisions.  He’s doing whatever he thinks it takes to survive, but he’s not thinking.  He wasn’t thinking about the dangers of lying in the prior story.  Now he’s not thinking about going to Gath.

What’s so wrong about going to Gath?  Well, first of all Gath is a Philistine town.  Second, David has the sword of Goliath with him.  Third – and this is the big point – remember that Goliath was not only a Philistine but a Philistine from Gath!  Oh, David!  Logic is far from the front of his mind.

What do we see David do to cover himself up?  David pretends to be a madman.  Wait a minute … yes, it does look like David is lying and scheming again.  It’s a good thing that David is such a repentant guy!  But we should pick up on a pattern.  David – like most people – will try to cover their actions through lies and deception rather than admit them straight on.

I think here we finally arrive at a point in these stories.  I can’t condone David’s lies, scheming, and pretense.  I know he’s a great king and a man after God’s own heart.  But what he did was wrong – and thank the Lord that God forgives the repentant!  The moral of this part of David’s life is simple: when we are on the run - flying by the seat of our pants, if you will – we tend to make really bad decisions.

When we fail to plan, we plan to fail!  We fail because in our short-sightedness we always think of ourselves and our needs more than God and God’s ways.  We fail because our short-sightedness usually brings consequences on other people – just wait until next chapter when we hear about what Saul does to the priests at Nob as proof of this point.  Human beings aren’t very good people when it comes to the times in our life where we “do it our way” or “do things spontaneously.”

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