1 Samuel 21:1-15


Desperate times call for desperate measures, and David is certainly facing desperation.  He is alone and running from the king who wants to kill him.  He cannot return to his home for that is the first place that Saul would look.  He is famous throughout the land so there is no way that he can simply blend in to the society and not be discovered.  He is a man without a country and no place to hide.  His only option at this time is to trust the Lord.  Certainly during these times of desperation David was looking to the Lord, wrestling with the Lord and forging a trust in the Lord that would help him walk with God and continue to trust God throughout his life.  The Lord will often allow us to go through times of desperation in order to build our character and help us learn to trust Him as a way of preparing us for what He has planned in our lives.  No matter how dark the days or how desperate we may become, we must remember to place our trust in the Lord.

GOD PROVIDES RESOURCES FOR DAVID: As David is running away he comes to the home of Ahimelech the priest.  David is well known to Ahimelech who assumes that David is still in good graces with Saul.  He wonders why David would be traveling alone and now with the soldiers he leads, but David explains that he is on an expedition for the king and well be meeting the soldiers in another place.  He asks for bread and a weapon which the priest provides for him.  Normally David would not be permitted to eat this bread, however in this situation God allows it.  It is important to note that David did not barge in and take the holy bread, he simply asked the priest for any bread and the priest only had this bread available which he made available to David.  He also gave David Goliath’s sword so David went on his way with the food and weapon he needed.  We certainly can question David’s lie in this situation.  He probably would have had the same support had he told Ahimelech the truth about Saul and asked for his help, but David is desperate.  God knows our weaknesses and He is always faithful even when we are weak and fail.  It is a comfort to know that God is patient with us.

GOD PROVIDES A REFUGE FOR DAVID: David’s only option is to flee from his country because he is so well know in Israel.  The problem with that is that David had been mighty warrior and had fought the surrounding nations under Saul.  David come to Gath where his reputation has proceeded him and so the people warn Achish, the king, that David has killed many of the enemies of Israel.  Once again David is desperate and decides that his only hope of being left alive is to pretend that he had gone crazy.  The scheme works and they feel sorry for him and allow him to live among them.  How humiliating this must have been for David!  He goes from being the anointed successor of Saul leading as a general in the army of Saul to being a hunted man that has to act insane in order to be able to live among the people he was once fighting.  David must have felt like he was at the bottom of the barrel.  We should not be surprised when we too find ourselves in desperate situations scraping at the bottom of the barrel.  God will allow us to face desperation in order to forge our character in the fires of adversity.  It is during these times that we must simply trust Him and know that He knows what He is doing.

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