- Introductory guidance
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (4-part series)
- National (In)security (6-part series)
Today's session should take about 45 minutes.
So, as usual, find a quiet space. Sit down and take a few breaths.
Ready?
Since our series is called Mythbusters, let's begin by watching another segment from the Discovery show Mythbusters:
Section one. Truth and Lies.
OK, let's read 1 Samuel 20:1-17, the click back here.
As we might remember when we left off last time, David is fleeing from Saul and his men who are out to kill him. David leaves Saul in his prophetic stupor and races to his friend Jonathan. David is confused and scared and it seems Jonathan is confused as well, because he unaware of all the fuss. It seems that during this conversation David is rabidly seeking to make Jonathan understand his father's death wish for David. In fact, in verse 3, our text literally says: "...he has sworn a pact between me and Death." Saul has made another rash oath (remember 1 Samuel 14:24-52 and his rash oath when fighting the Philistines?) and sworn to take David's life. P. Kyle McCarter comments, "Death is here personified as David's partner in a sworn agreement, a kind of grim parody of the covenant between David and Jonathan..." David pleads with Jonathan to honor the covenant of friendship and hesed (loyal-covenant-based-love) that the two had previously made. David foreswears several times in this exchange that he is innocent, and as we progress further into the turmoil of Saul seeking to kills David, we will see David again and again go out of his way to incur no blood-guilt in terms of Saul.
In this passage we encounter one of the many kinds of feasts that the Israelites celebrated: the new moon feast. This was a celebration marking the beginning of a month (remember the ebrew/Jewish claendar is lunar based), and this was a day of rest for the nation (see Amos 8:5). In Numbers 28:11-15, we see the special sacrifices prescribed, and the feasting could last for an additional day or two typically.
David and Jonathan end their exchange with re-affirming their covenant of friendship and their loyalty to one another.
Let's now read 1 Samuel 20:18-29, then return here.
So continuing their plan for keeping David safe and finding out what the intentions of Saul are, Jonathan and David hatch the "arrow alert". While David will hidden away, Jonatahn will get the bottom of the mystery and then tell David what he has found out. Does the text bring your imagination alight with all this intrigue and imagery? Keith Bodner highlights one aspect of the text that harkens to us imagining what is happenng: "As the scene switches to the "new moon" feast Saul is positioned "by the wall," a wall which may be punctured with spear-marks. This small detail of "the wall" thus provides a flashback to chapters 18 and 19 (when Saul hurls his spear at David, attemtping to frame his portrait, as it were) and also foreshadows another of Saul's violent outbursts (this time with Jonathan himself the target)."
This passage ends giving a peek into the paranoid obsession of Saul with David and then Jonathan's explanation that he and David had previously came up with to explain why David was not at the feast, except Jonathan improvises a little implicating one of David's brothers as the one who has called David back to Bethlehem for the new moon feast there.
OK, let's finish off chapter 20 by reading 1 Samuel 20:30-42, then return here.
Saul explodes with anger at the mere explanation of why David is not at the feast...and he is icensed at Jonathan! immediately we see the foul-mouth and further oath-making/cursing that has gotten Saul into so much trouble. Saul uses a particularly sexist vulgarity in verse 30, saying that Jonathan has disgraced the genitals of his miother, from whence he was birthed. But Jonathan is not put off by this (until later, when he refuses to return to the feast after Saul has insulted him in this way) and continues to defend David. Then, the next burst of outrage by Saul: he hurls a spear at his own heir to the throne which he just said that he was preparing for Jonathan and that david was seeking to take it.
Saul also betrays his own awareness somehow of David's destiny. Saul is angry and probably a bit bewildered by Jonathan. David is in the way of establishing Jonathan's own kingship, and yet Jonathan is bound-up with David. But did you notice that it seems Saul blames everyone but himself? Barabra Green explains: "Saul has stated his priority, which is to leave his son Jonathan to rule; it is a subset of his main drive, which is to remain king. Saul sets the problem in terms of Jonathan's shaming his mother and names David as the obstacle. He avoids saying that Jonathan's actions shame him and that he has been told that the obstacle to Jonathan's rule is God's preference. Even at his most forthright moment, he leaves a great deal submerged. Blaming at very least Jonathan and David, Saul refuses to acknowledge his own role for what it is. David's life on earth is a threat to Saul's rule as well as Jonathan's, a situation Saul has been acting on for several scenes. That his own actions have obviated his goal Saul does not acknowledge."
From there Jonathan warns David through the arrow scheme, and then we get the re-newed oath-language of covenant friendship that now extaends to descendants (which will be very important when we get to 2 Samuel). Peter Miscall explains further: "Jonathan and David are close friends and are bound by a covenant that extends to descendants (vv. 12-17, 42). Jonathan demands an oath from David sealing the covenant because his sincere love for his friend or because of his fear of David's violence. Jonathan has sufficient experience to know the violence and irrationality that his father is capable of and may fear the same of David if David prevails in the conflict with Saul."
Have you noticed that there is a lot of deception going on? Saul deceives David but then tries to kill him, David flees and Michal deceives her father; David then colludes with Jonathan to deceive Saul. The deception doesn't end here, as we will see in the next chapter.
Section two. When we practice to deceive.
Now, let's read 1 Samuel 21:1-15, then return here.
Thus David flees to Nob after having been warned by Jonathan. Immediately we get our next deception: David lies to Ahimelech, who is trembling and asks why David has come there alone. Nob is a priestly city just north of Jerusalem in the territory of Benjamin and in fact not far from Saul's home town of Gibeah, some 3 miles away. The priest in charge who greets David is Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, and thus a descendant of Eli (remember the curse on the line of Eli God gave back in 1 Samuel 2:30-36 and 1 Samuel 3, in which God promises to break the house of Eli and that: "Yet I will not cut off every man of yours from My altar so that your eyes will fail from weeping and your soul grieve, and all the increase of your house will die in the prime of life." This is immediately in the background and foreshadows bad things...not good news for Ahimelech.
So David tells Ahimelech he is on a 'secret mission' and then the priests at Nob provide him with provisions. There is no ordinary bread, so they provide David with the bread for priests also known as the Bread of the Presence. Again, notice David gets the priestly portion of bread, just as Saul did back in chapter 9. According to Leviticus 24, the Bread of the Presence consisted of 12 cakes of pure wheat flour arranged in rows on a table in the sanctuary. The bread was replaced each week on the sabbath, and the priests were allowed to eat the week-old bread. Ahimelech is concerned that David and his men be ritually pure to eat the bread, and David reminds Ahimelech that his men will not touch a woman while on active duty - this is a statement that will come back to haunt David in 2 Samuel 11 with Uriah the Hittite). Often in the scriptures we see warriors consecrated for battle, like in Joshua 3:5, and Deuteronomy 23 points out that since YHWH-Elohim wals among the men in the camp, the military camp must be kept ritually pure for God must not see any indecent thing among them or He may turn away from them.
Note the presence of Doeg the Edomite, who will come into play at the end of chapter 22 as well. Why is this foreigner at a temple, and why is he at Nob? Ernst Kutsch notes the Hebrew there is specific, and the verb tense in the Qal form may mean "refrain from work" or in the Niphal, "to hold one's self back from work" which would mean Doeg is taking a holiday, yet Kutsch goes on further to say: this foreigner is taking a holiday and celebratuing before YHWH. Also note that since Ahimelech gives David five of the twelve loaves of the priestly bread, it had not yet been eaten, and it was likely a sabbath day that David flees into Nob.
We also see here the sword of Goliath is given back to David. Many scholars have puzzled as to why David flees to Nob. Perhaps this is why David came there in the first place, he needs a weapon, because he fled without one. In the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean, sacred shrines and religious temples were also the banks and safe-deposit places for valuables and last will and testaments. David is the rightful owner of the sword of Goliath, and thus he comes to claim his sword.
Outfitted with provisions and weapons, David flees Nob and goes to of all places the Philistine city of Gath, the enemies and oppressors of Israel. Here he decieves the local Philistine cheiftain, Achish, by acting like a lunatic and drooling down his beard. Robert Alter comments: "Achish's words are a mirror of outrage and disgust. As Simon Bar-Efrat has nicely observed, Acish three times uses the root for raving mad (meshuga), three times the first person pronoun, and three times the root b-w-' ("to bring" or "to come"). Thus David has succeeded in making himself so revolting that he arouses in Achish a primitive revulsion from the spectacle of the insane, so that the king simply wants to get David out of sight rather than have him killed. This is an extraordinary moment in the story of the founding king of Israel: avid, the glamourous young hero of the preceding episodes, is prepared to do whatever is necessary in order to survive, even if it means making himself appear to be the most repulsive of humankind. It is an even lower humiliation into which David in adversity will willingly plunge. It is noteworthy that David feigns madness in order to survive, in contrast to Saul, whose genuine madness reflects his loss of control over the kingdom."
Section three. Deception and Consequences.
OK, let's read 1 Samuel 22:1-10, then return here.
David then flees from Gath to what is known as the cave of Adullam, which we think is about a 10-mile journey East-South-East from Gath. This cave of Adullam is called a stronghold, probaly making it a well-fortified hilltop, much like how "the stronghold of Zion" that becomes Davod's later residence in Jerusalem is called.
David relatives and those "bitter in spirit" gather to him, as he is now publicly an insurgent, because the public - likely unaware of the secret anointing of David by Samuel years ago - still sees Saul are the rightful and legitimate king of Israel. David's social base is strongly compared to Jephthah from Judges 11 by Alter.
Thus David begins his sojourn as a fugitive from the law in the Judean wilderness. Remember, this is sort of home territory for David, he is of the tribe of Judah, so he is among his relatives and kinsmen. Many Jewish revolutionaries have taken to hiding in the Judean wilderness, inculding over the years Judah macabee and later after Jesus Christ, Bar-Khokba. Also remember, David has family in Moab, because his great grandmother was Ruth, the Moabitess, thus he moves his parents to Moab.
We also see David has several prphets that have bound themselves to him, Gad and Nathan. In verse 5 we see Gad providing David with what we might call "prophetic intelligence". David takes this prophetic intelligence seriously and begins moving around, going into the forest of Hereth.
We witness again the paranoid Saul, as the scene in verse 6 is a familiar scene in the ancient Near east of a ruler sitting in his royal council under some sacred tree with his military implements. The tree in this scene is a tamarisk tree, also witnessed to in Genesis 21:33. Saul's harangue of his council and leading men provokes Doeg the Edomite to come forth with the information that a while ago, he saw David at the shrine in Nob.
Let's finish up for today by reading 1 Samuel 22:11-22, then return here.
Here is a scene from the movie King David depicting the action and slaughter of the priests at Nob:
Thus comes the end of Ahimelech, of the line of Eli. Yet, it is important to note that one of his sons - Abiathar - gets away and goes to David. Abiathar is taken into David's house. Significantly, he can now provide priestly services to David, especially since he gets away from Nob with the ephod, and will through it give David access to this oracualr object. Access to oracles of God and to His prophets is a major point for David, as he continually is guided rightly through them, and Saul becomes increasingly desperate for divine guidance.
Section four. Assignments.
- As we have witnessed Saul swearing more and more oaths that he waffles on, I think this week we should take some time to reflect on the oaths and vows that we have made in life and how we have been loyal to them or waffled on them. Ask God to bring something specific to your mind, just one thing, and then take that before the Lord and seek to hear what God has tio say about it. Journal your thoughts and what you think God is saying to you.
- This week, memorize Jesus' answer to the Pharisees who claimed he was violating the sabbath in Mark 2:25-28: "He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions." Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
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