Tag Archives: 1 Samuel 21-24

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April 5, 2024 Bible Study — David Forged a Force of Mighty Warriors Out of the Distressed and Discontented

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Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 21-24.

I am not sure why this never occurred to me before, but it struck me that David, whose great grandmother was a Moabite, took his parents to the king of Moab to keep them safe while he was on the run from King Saul.  This made me wonder if Ruth had been related to the royal family of Moab?  I think that is probably not a conclusion we are intended to reach, not even that Ruth’s descendants kept some kind of connection with her homeland.  As I have thought about it more, it seems like David went to Moab as the logical conclusion.   First, he had gone to Gath, in Philistia, and before he could ask for the king of Gath to shelter his parents he realized that he was seen as an enemy there.  If we then look at Ancient Israel we see that Philistia was on one side of Judah and Moab on the other.  Basically, after Philistia, Moab was the next place where David could take his parents.  Further, his other options would have required travelling through territory controlled by Saul, where David had no allies (at least not at this point in his life).

The other thing I want to look at is the men who followed David.  In 1 Samuel 14:52 it says that “whenever Saul saw a mighty or brave man, he took him into his service.”  In today’s passage it says that when David was at the cave of Adullam “All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander.”   Yet out of those discontented, distressed, or debtors came David’s mighty men.  Saul took the mighty and brave to build his army.  David took the outcasts.   David took the distressed, the discontented, the debtors, the outcasts and forged a force of mighty warriors.  Just as Jesus forges His Church out of the outcasts of our society.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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April 5, 2023 Bible Study — If We Seek God’s Guidance For Our Actions, He Will Provide Clear Direction

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Samuel 21-24.

I am going to write about some elements of today’s accounts which we often overlook.  I am not sure that they contain much in the way of spiritual insight, but we will see.  In this passage, at one point it says that David’s parents stayed with the king of Moab as long as David was “in the stronghold.”  Then at the end of the passage, after David declined the opportunity to ambush and kill King Saul, it says that David and his men “went up to the stronghold.”  On both of these occasions it uses the singular as if it was a single location. In addition, at one point the prophet Gad tells David to leave “the stronghold”.   Elsewhere, it refers to David and his men staying in “strongholds” (in the Desert of Ziph for awhile, then later in the wilderness of En Gedi).  So, I am unsure if the places where the passage uses the singular for stronghold refers to a single place (and, if so, was it the same place each time?), or was the writer just using the singular because it was easier than writing the plural…and it doesn’t really matter for us to understand what was going on.  On to another point: when David was in the Desert of Ziph, near Horesh, Jonathan was able to find him and speak with him.  Yet, just a short time later, Saul was unable to do so.  This is not particularly surprising, since David wanted to meet with Jonathan, and wanted to avoid being found by Saul.

The final item we normally overlook does have a bit of spiritual lesson for us.  Because of the way the passage tells the accounts we normally miss that the priest Abiathar did not join David until he was at Keilah.  Once Abiathar had joined him in Keilah, David had Abiather use the ephod of the high priest (and presumably the Urim and the Thummin ) to consult God’s will.  However, the passage makes clear that David sought God’s guidance in his decisions before that point.  I find two points worth thinking about here.  First, if we seek God’s guidance, He will make it known to us.  In fact, He will even make it known to us in ways which others who are skeptical of our initial interpretation of God’s direction will find convincing.  Second, as we seek to know God’s guidance for our actions, He will provide us with ever clearer ways to understand what He wants from us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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April 5, 2022 Bible Study — Seeking God’s Guidance For Our Actions

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Samuel 21-24.

One thing which always strikes me about this passage is that Ahimelek the priest was afraid of David when David came to him alone.  We know from the rest of the passage that Ahimelek did not yet know that David was running from King Saul.  It seems that Ahimelek feared that David had been sent by Saul to kill him.  We see from King Saul’s actions later when he ordered Ahimelek, his family, and  all of the people of the town of Nob killed (note that Nob was a town of priests) that Ahimelek’s fear was not without basis.  However, I want to focus on what the incident at Keilah tells us about David’s decision making.  When David heard that the Philistines were raiding Keilah, he asked God for guidance as to whether he should defend the town.  Then, when his men were afraid to go, he asked God again.  Once he was in Keilah and heard that King Saul was mustering the army to attack Keilah, David sought God’s guidance once more.  We see here that David regularly sought God’s guidance in making decisions.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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April 5, 2021 Bible Study David Had Faith That God Would Remove King Saul When The Time Was Right

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Samuel 21-24.

When we compare Ahimelek’s reaction to David arriving in Nob by himself with what happened later when King Saul summoned Ahimelek and his family before him, we get a pretty clear idea that King Saul was comparable to many modern day totalitarians in that he used fear to rule over the people of Israel.  It seems clear that Ahimelek feared that David had come to him under orders from King Saul to kill him.   I want to interject here that I have been struggling with what I wanted to write about this passage for some time now.

The relevance of this passage for us finally hit me when I wrote the previous paragraph.  Despite the fact that King Saul could be viewed as an evil ruler, David refused to kill him when offered the opportunity.  David recognized that King Saul was God’s anointed king over Israel and was therefore unwilling to kill him, even though David himself had been anointed by God to replace King Saul.  David knew that God would remove King Saul in His own time and was willing to wait for God to act.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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April 5, 2020 Bible Study — We Discover That Totalitarianism Is Nothing New

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 21-24.

I think that I have commented on this previously, but I always find it interesting that when David was fleeing King Saul and went to see the priest Ahimelech, the priest was frightened to see that David was by himself.  This suggests two things.  First, it suggests that King Saul sent men out to kill people he had decided were a threat to his power, and second that Ahimelech thought that David was one of those King Saul sometimes sent.  I am pretty confident that the first part of that was true: King Saul sent out men to kill those he had decided were a threat to his power.  Further, it seems likely that Ahimelech believed that some of those killed in that manner had no idea why King Saul wanted them dead.  I always find it enlightening to realize that such totalitarian behaviors go so far back into history.  We even have an informant who rats out Ahimelech to the king for aiding David when he thought David was still a trusted aid to King Saul.  Finally, we see Saul turning to a foreign mercenary to carry out orders his native supporters were unwilling to follow.

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April 5, 2019 Bible Study Do I Trust My Judgemnt, Or Do I Trust God?

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 21-24.

If we pay attention we learn something interesting about the way King Saul ruled when David shows up in Nob.  Ahimelech the priest was frightened when he saw David.  Ahimelech did not question David’s claim of being on a private mission for King Saul and was eager to give him whatever assistance that he was able.  Taken in the context that only Jonathan, Saul’s son, was willing to confront him over his attempts to kill the immensely popular David, this suggests that King Saul governed in a manner which will be familiar to anyone who studies 20th Century history.  King Saul, to the degree which he was able, was a totalitarian.  He ruled by fear and found it necessary to eliminate anyone whose power was not entirely derived from their relationship with King Saul.  We see further evidence of King Saul’s totalitarian tendencies, and their limits, in the story of how he dealt with Ahimelech and all of the priests of Nob.

We start to see the difference between David’s approach to leadership and that of King Saul later in this passage, although we see the beginnings of that difference in David’s confrontation with Goliath. There David told Goliath, “Today the Lord will conquer you, then I will kill you and cut off your head.”(slight paraphrase)  David believed that God would defeat Goliath and only then would he, David, kill him.  In today’s passage, the people of Keilah were suffering the depredation of Philistine raiders.  David felt led to stop the raiders, so he checked with God if that was a risk he should take.  When the men who followed him balked, he listened to their concern and took that to God as well.  Then, when David realized that the people of Keilah would betray him to King Saul, he went back into the wilderness.  I am not doing a good job expressing the difference between the two men.  I want to sum it up by pointing out this key difference: David based his actions on what he perceived to be God’s will, a perception he kept checking.  King Saul, on the other hand, based his actions on what he thought was most likely to accomplish his goals.

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April 5, 2018 Bible Study

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 21-24.

    Reading between the lines of this passage gives us insight into what type of ruler Saul was. The first thing we note is that when David, known as Saul’s reliable right-hand man and son-in-law, came to Ahimelech the priest, Ahimelech trembled in fear. Ahimelech’s comment suggest that what most frightened him was that David was alone. This suggests that Saul sent men to kill those whom he believed had wronged him. Then later when Saul learned that Ahimelech had aided David, he assumed that Ahimelech had conspired with David against him. Further Saul had Ahimelech, all of his family, and all of the families of the priests living in Nod (the village where David met with Ahimelech) killed. The passage suggests that Saul’s style of ruling resembled that of modern dictators such as Saddam Hussein, or the rulers of North Korea.

    Saul acted the way he did because he was convinced that people were conspiring against him. Throughout his reign Saul suffered from bouts of rage and paranoia, angered and convinced that people were out to get him (note the rant Saul went on against his own senior officers). David, on the other hand, did not seek revenge against those who clearly were out to get him. Even when he had the opportunity to kill Saul and end the threat to himself and his family David held his hand and allowed Saul to get away.

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April 5, 2017 Bible Study — Good Leadership vs. Bad Leadership

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 21-24.

    When Ahimelech the priest saw David arrive by himself, he trembled, which suggests that he was frightened by seeing a servant of Saul arrive alone. This makes me wonder if Saul had a reputation for having people killed for reasons that people did not understand. The more often I read this passage the more convinced I am that Ahimelech was eager to assist David out of fear of Saul rather than out of love for David. The story about being on a secret mission for Saul which David gives Ahimelech as his reason for being there supports this view of the situation. This suggests that Saul had killed other people in a manner similar to what he had attempted with David.

    On previous days I talked about how Saul’s insecurities undermined his ability as a leader. Today we see what happens with a leader who never deals with his insecurities but allows them to eat at them. There is more to it than that, we see here how Saul’s subordinates allowed, perhaps even encouraged his paranoia to grow. When Saul berates his lieutenants, one of whom David was just a short time earlier, for allowing David to get away none of them challenged his contention that David was plotting to kill him, not even when Saul said that his own son had encouraged David to do so. None of them even spoke up when Saul ordered Doeg the Edomite to kill the priests. So, we have Saul who, with the passive resistance of his chief lieutenants, kills those he perceives, with no real basis, to be plotting against him. Then, in contrast, we have David, refusing to kill Saul when presented with the opportunity, despite the encouragement by his chief lieutenants to do so and the clear evidence that Saul was actually plotting his death.
    The passage tells us that David refused to kill Saul because he was God’s anointed king over Israel. I believe that this was genuinely David’s reason, but I also believe that David realized that if he killed Saul it would lead to the collapse of the people of Israel as a unified people. David, by this time, knew that he had been anointed by God to replace Saul as king, but he needed to wait for God to make that happen. I mentioned in one of my previous posts that Saul was a pragmatist. In Saul’s case his pragmatism was a weakness because it was not informed by faith in God. David was also a pragmatist, but his pragmatism was informed by his faith in God. It was David’s faith in God which led him to be willing to confront Goliath, but it was his pragmatism which led him to reject using the weapons and armor of a warrior to do so.

    There is one other thing I want to point out about David as a leader. It was his love of his people, the Israelites, which led him to march to the defense of the people of Keilah when the Philistines were raiding them. David did this despite the danger involved of putting himself where Saul could pin him down. But he did not just act out of his concern for the people, he asked God for guidance first. Then when Saul began to march to trap him there, David did not just run away. First, he consulted God to see if his judgment was correct. In sum, David made plans based on his best calculation of the strategic and tactical situation, then, before he acted, he consulted God for guidance acknowledging that no matter how good of a commander he was there were things known only to God.

Daily Bible Study

April 5, 2016 Bible Study — Saul, Prototype Totalitarian

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

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Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 21-24.

    At the end of yesterday’s passage David fled from Saul’s men in the middle of the night. David chose to go to the priest Ahimelech in Nob to obtain supplies. We are not given any reason why David went to Ahimelech. Ahimelech’s reaction to David arriving alone (the passage tells us that Ahimelech trembled) suggests that Saul had earned a reputation for sending agents to kill people. Further, Ahimelech found David’s response about being on a secret mission for Saul believable. Further down we read of Saul’s reaction to Doeg the Edomite telling him about this. The entire account of Saul’s reaction to David, and now to Ahimelech, reminds me of modern totalitarians. When David’s success began to give David support among the people that did not derive from Saul, Saul began to perceive him as a threat and started to take action to eliminate David. When Ahimelech offers support for David, not knowing that David has fallen out of favor, Saul orders Ahimelech and his entire family killed for their perceived disloyalty.