Let's hear God's word, 1 Samuel 21, beginning in verse 1. Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech was afraid when he met David and said to him, Why are you alone and no one is with you? So David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king has ordered me on some business and said to me, Do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you or what I have commanded you. And I have directed my young men to such and such a place. Now therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found. The priest answered David and said, There is no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women. And David answered the priest and said to him, Truly women have been kept from us about three days since I came out. And the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated in the vessel this day. So the priest gave him holy bread, for there was no bread there but the showbread, which had been taken from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away. Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord, and his name was Doegon Edomite, the chief of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul. And David said to Ahimelech, Is there not here on hand a spear or a sword? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste. The priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, there it is, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it. For there is no other except that one here. And David said, There is none like it. Give it to me. May God add His blessing to the reading and hearing of His Holy Word. Amen. Well, we come now to this part of 1 Samuel, which focuses on David running from Saul. Of course, we've seen some of it already. David's been evading spears. In chapter 19, we saw the key turning point there where he was led out of the window. And so the two key terms for flee as well as escape and hide. Chapter 20, of course, we saw the final evaluation of Saul's heart, and Saul himself made it abundantly clear that he was a wicked man and desires to kill David, and not just when the evil spirit is upon him. From this point on, the other things kind of set the stage, but from this point on, now we see David running on a continuous basis. But we also saw in the last chapter, Jonathan. and how he was the central figure and the one that we should emulate. He stood up against his father and his sin. He risked his own life to do it. He stood with David, God's anointed king, and promised to side with David and not claim the throne for himself. But now Jonathan fades away. in the text, mentioned only twice more, but this is because of his obedience, not because of his sin. Saul, on the other hand, is still very much in the middle of the story here because he's clinging to the throne sinfully. So now, after hearing that word from the Lord providentially through Saul's response, David now heeds God's providence and runs away. Now notice that when he left his home and was let down through the window, he went to see Samuel, chapter 19, verses 18 and following. Then he returns and speaks to Jonathan. Now David goes to the priest. And so let's look then at verse one. David came to Nob, to Himalek the priest, and Himalek was afraid when he met David and said to him, why are you alone and no one is with you? You may remember from last week I said that the very last part of verse 42 in the last chapter, so he arose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city, that that actually is verse 1 in the Hebrew here in chapter 21. For some reason, they put it at the end of chapter 20. Either way, you see the point, right? David left, he departed. Jonathan goes home to Gibeah, but David leaves, and now we are told that he comes to Nob. So here's where I want you to look at the map here tonight, and a very helpful one for us. You see, of course, where Jerusalem or Jemez is, goes straight north to Gibeah, further north to Ramah, right, where Samuel is, and then you see Nob is a bit to the southeast of Gibeah. So he doesn't go very far away at this point. And so we'll look at this further as we go through these chapters. You might say, David, this is kind of risky. Why would you go to a place that's not so far away? I mean, even then, you know, they don't have helicopters and they didn't have cars that could go 80 miles an hour and so on. But still, two miles is not that far away, even at that point. And he goes to a rather prominent place, to Nob, where the tabernacle was. But he wants help from the priest. So let's pause here right at the beginning and you see the principle for us. When we are in need, we need spiritual help. Spiritual help is required. For David, he goes to Samuel, the prophet. Now he comes to Ahimelech, the priest. For us, this would be like going and talking to your pastor or one of your ruling elders, seeking spiritual assistance. Now, in the middle of this, of course, he goes to Jonathan. You might say that's more of a personal help. And so we certainly could go to our friends, we could go to a spouse or a family member or something like that to get friendship and spiritual help to some degree in that way as well. So notice what David is doing. He's going to his best friend, he's going to his spiritual advisors, you might say. Well, let's say a brief word here about Himalaya. If you turn back to chapter 14, And this is, remember when Jonathan went with a servant to fight against the Philistines and this whole account. Remember, Saul was in Gibeah under the tree. And in verse three, we are told, Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord's priest in Shiloh, was wearing an ephod. All right, now the question for us is, what is the relationship of a Himalak to Ahijah? Some say maybe he's the same person, just a different name, which is possible. Ahimelech, Ahijah, it starts similarly, but I'm inclined to agree with those who say it probably was a different person and they were brothers. Okay, so you have Ahijah serving with Saul directly here now, Ahimelech working in the tabernacle, but both of them would be the great-grandson or sons of Eli. So we'll return to that here in the next chapter. All right, now Ahimelech sees David and he's afraid. As he says, it's because David is alone. Now why would he be afraid? I mean, what difference does it make if David's there by himself or not? I think we have the same kind of scenario as we saw in chapter 16. You remember there, God told Samuel to go and anoint David. And Samuel says, what if Saul finds out about this? Samuel was afraid for his life. Here now, not just the prophet, but the priest is afraid, likely for the same reason, because of the character of Saul. Now, it's possible that Ahimelech had heard about what had happened, that David had fled from Saul and went to Nioth where Samuel was. Maybe he had heard some of the slander that Saul had brought against David. As I mentioned there in chapter 19, when Michael said that David was trying to harm me and so on, that Saul probably used that against David. And so the slander that Saul was spreading against David may have come to the ears of Ahimelech. But I'm inclined to think that he had not heard of that yet. Certainly these things will be spread far and wide, but at this point, I don't think so. And the reason why is if you turn to the next chapter here, chapter 22, And we have to make some connections here tonight. We'll look at it more, of course, in a few weeks or whatever, when we get there. So then in verse 14 here in chapter 22, notice what Ahimelech says. Ahimelech answered the king and said, and who among all your servants is as faithful as David and who is the king's son-in-law, who goes at your bidding and is honorable in all your house? Now, he could say that after hearing bad things about David. It may be, though, that he hadn't heard any of those things yet, and so he is speaking in this way. As we'll see as we go along, Himlech seems to be totally oblivious to everything of the situation with David and Saul. So, I'm inclined to think that at this point, He knows that Saul is a bad man, and he's afraid like Samuel was in chapter 16. But more details, probably not yet. Obviously, we're speculating, but I think that's the right way for us to understand this. And so when he sees David coming alone, he's like, what's going on here? Add to that, when you have a servant of the king come, you typically would have other people along with him. And so this is unusual. He is suspicious, not necessarily of David, though certainly all of this is just a bit odd. But it says here that he is afraid. And Himilak really has no reason to doubt David. And it seems like that's how he approaches things, again, based on what he says in the next chapter. So, let's come back then. to verse two, and this obviously is our key verse in all this. So David said to Himalek the priest, the king has ordered me on some business and said to me, do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you or what I have commanded you. And I have directed my young men to such and such a place. All right, so David responds to Himalek's question in this way. All right, the king sent me to do this. Now obviously, Saul the king did not send him to do this, but Saul's not strictly the king, is he? He's acting like the king, but God has rejected him. So we could think of it in two ways. David is the actual king. He's been anointed. And so in that sense, David sends himself. But I think even more than that, God is the king. God is the one who sent David to do this. David is obeying God. We just talked about this last week, right? The providence of God through Saul's response was a message that said, David, get up and go, flee. You have to go. You remember in the last chapter, that was the point. This is what God is telling David to do. And so David is saying, my king told me to run away. And that's what I'm doing. Now, obviously he doesn't tell him like everything, but what he does say is not untrue. And so it's not a lie. It's just not the whole truth. Now think also of this. Possibly God had told David not to share all that's going on. Now maybe that could have come directly from God, maybe when David visited Samuel, maybe a word came in that way. Think of it in this way, that it is probable at this point that no one knows that David is anointed to be king except for Samuel, David, Jonathan, and at least some of David's family. Now you might say, well, didn't Saul say about David being the next king? Yes. But I'm not sure that that means that he heard that David was the anointed one. Obviously, David's a leader. Everybody has seen that since chapter 17. And I think that's what Saul is basing it on at this point. But at some point, David tells everybody else that he's been anointed by God. When did that happen? Well, surely it happened before he was anointed king in Hebron. Did it happen after Saul died? Did it happen when he's running in the wilderness? We don't know. But at this point, he likely has not sold anyone other than those few that I mentioned. So obviously, David does not tell Himelech now. But from the beginning, when God had Samuel anoint David, it was a secret, except for those few. So, again, for David not to share everything with Ahimelech now is not inconsistent with what we've seen since chapter 16. So, add to that, David, I'm sure, is not sure who to trust at this point. He certainly can trust Samuel. He can trust Jonathan. He might not be sure that he can trust Ahimelech. If Ahimelech is Ahitub, Hey, even if he isn't and they're just brothers, he might wonder. David might wonder if he can trust him. And so he's not saying everything at this point. One more thought in this way. David likely is thinking he is protecting Ahimelech. If he told Ahimelech everything and Ahimelech helped him, he would be much more likely to be harmed by Saul in some way. By not sharing everything with Ahimelech, David would be thinking, I can protect him. He can be truly in the dark in this way, and when Saul comes and questions him, he can not just play innocent, he can be innocent. So, put all these things together, and I think this is how we should understand these things. I am not trying to say that David is perfect in everything he does. Obviously, we have Bathsheba and the census and all that. But even here, I'm not assuming that he is innocent. I do think, though, we should give David the benefit of the doubt. In light of what we saw in chapter 16, where God Himself told Samuel to take a sacrifice to, in a sense, deceive Saul, Take the sacrifice. Don't tell them everything that you're doing. Well, it seems like we have the same scenario here. Even in the last chapter with David and Jonathan and their scheme, as I said, I don't think it was untrue that David's family had the celebration. You just don't tell them everything. And there you have two godly men, a man after God's own heart and Jonathan, who do not have a problem doing this. If it were an outright, blatant, bald-faced lie, I'm not sure they would have been for the scenario. David probably wouldn't have suggested it. But partial truth, it seems to be permitted. Now remember, we're not talking about just an everyday situation that we have in our lives. We're not talking about, what do you say to your friend, you know, after class on Wednesday or something like that. We're not talking about an everyday situation. We're talking about a situation that's life and death. Saul wants to kill David. Saul would have killed Samuel if he could have. It's that kind of situation. So we're talking about the midwives kind of situation here. And there in Exodus 1, the text emphasizes over and over again how many children were being born. So when the women tell Pharaoh, we can't keep up, that's true. They don't tell him everything that they were not, you know. driving 90 miles an hour down the highway just to get to the next baby to be born, they're dragging their feet a little bit. But at the same time, having so many children being born was not an untruth. They just didn't tell Pharaoh everything. So in these, can you say exceptional situations, in these unique situations, this seems to be permissible for us. Now let's turn to the next chapter again and look now at verse 22. Because there are some people that would say, no, that is not true, what you've just said. Even David admitted that what he did was wrong. Look at verse 22. So David said to Abiathar, I knew that day when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul, I have caused the death of all the persons of your father's house. So some will say, look, David admitted that he lied and that was wrong. But is that really what he is saying? Let's turn to Psalm 52 now. And as you're turning there, remember Psalm 51 was the Psalm that David wrote after his sin with Bathsheba and her husband and all that. He very clearly and openly repents of his sin. Now let's look at Psalm 52. Let's read the whole thing here. To the chief musician a contemplation of David when Doag the Edomite went and told Saul and said to him, David has gone to the house of Ahimelech. So David wrote this presumably after the priests were killed. So note how he begins. Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man? The goodness of God endures continually. Your tongue devises destruction like a sharp razor working deceitfully. You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking righteousness, say law. You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue. David is not talking about himself, talking about Doeg. God shall likewise destroy you forever. He shall take you away and pluck you out of your dwelling place and uproot you from the land of the living, Selah. The righteous also shall see and fear and shall laugh at him saying, here's the man who did not make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness. Again, David's not talking about himself. And note how he ends, but I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. I will praise you forever because you have done it. And in the presence of your saints, I will wait on your name for it is good. David has every opportunity to, can you say expand on first Samuel 22 verse 22, but he doesn't. He doesn't acknowledge his sin. He speaks of Doeg's sin. He calls himself a green olive tree in the house of God. Yes, it's possible that David is just ignoring his sin, but I don't think this psalm would be in the Bible if that were the case. So, to put all that together, I think David then was upset in 1 Samuel 22, verse 22, not because of his own sin, but because his efforts to protect someone did not work. No one was safe. In fact, in chapter 22, verses 1 and following, he takes his family to Moab. And so David is trying to protect those around him. And so it's not his lying that was the problem. It's his presence that's the problem. He was there with Ahimelech. That's all it took for Saul to kill him. We'll see in chapter 23, those in Calah, as well as those in the wilderness of Ziph, they are willing to hand David over to Saul because they don't want to happen to them what happens in Nob. We haven't gotten there yet, but chapter 22, all the priests are killed. So, you'll hear many people read it, hear it, audibly, whatever, say that what David did here was sinful. I don't think it was. I don't think the text leads us in that direction. Psalm 52, I think, prevents us from going in that direction. But remember, we're talking about a situation that is very unique. We're not talking about an everyday situation, but in a life and death situation. Telling the truth, but not all the truth, is permissible for us to preserve life. In this case, to try to preserve a Himilex life. It just didn't work. Now, let's turn to Mark chapter two. You remember, of course, that Jesus makes reference to this situation. Mark two, and at the end of the chapter, beginning in verse 23, you see about the disciples picking heads of grain Pharisees are saying, hey, they're working on the Sabbath. And Jesus responds then, no verse 25. Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him? How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him. And so then he gives the main teaching here about the Sabbath. Now, Jesus does not say anything here that indicates that David lied. I think if David did such an awful, sinful thing, and some people will say it, it was even worse than what happened with Bathsheba, because there only two people died, right? Uriah and then their son. Here, 85 people died. And so some say that this was worse than that situation. But if it was such a sinful thing, I'm not sure Jesus would use this as an example. even though he ignores this particular part of what happened with David. So, again, we're taking a lot of hints, even some assumptions, but I think these are the right ones for us to take. All right, now, two brief things to mention here. Notice that Jesus says, Abiathar, the high priest, and at first, Samuel, it says Ahimelech, Abiathar is the one that survived, the one priest that survived and became the priest for David. So, was Jesus wrong? Is the Bible wrong? Well, I think we can answer this in one of two ways, and maybe even both could be true. And that is, Abiathar was the lone survivor, and so he was more well-known. I'm inclined to think it is more likely that Himalek was not the high priest, he was just a priest. He was the one there when David came, and Abiathar was the high priest. Again, we don't know, but one of those two situations seems to be most likely, and so Jesus is not wrong. Notice also Jesus emphasizes that David had men with Him, and we just said in verse 1 of 1 Samuel 21 that David was alone. Well, David goes on to say about the people who are with him, they're just not actually there at that particular place. They're hiding out somewhere else. All right, well, you can look at Matthew 12 and Luke 6 that also speak to this. I chose this one because of the Aviathar mention and so on. So obviously, there's a lot here to verse two, but I think this is how we should take it. And so we are not lying. Some people take this passage to say it's okay to lie. I don't think that's the case. But this, can you say middle ground? You're telling the truth, just not all of it. All right, so, verse three. Now therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found. Simply, I need food. Now, you might wonder why Himelech is not asking more questions here at this point. It'd be a bit odd for the king's messenger to come without food. But, okay, an urgent matter, maybe he doesn't have stuff there with him. Remember, they're only two miles away, so you'd think David would have had something. But anyway, verse four. And the priest answered David and said, there is no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women. All right, so there's no bread from County Market or Aldi, but there is holy bread. Not the bread that's actually on the table of showbread, but the bread that they just took off. Now, let's turn to Leviticus 24 here just a moment. Leviticus 24, and in verses 5 and following we see a description of this, and let's read verses 8 and 9. Every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. and it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, for it is most holy to him from the offerings of the Lord made by fire by a perpetual statute." All right. So, on the Sabbath day, and this is likely why Jesus was picking this situation to talk about the Sabbath, because all this with Ahimelech and David happened on the Sabbath. Ahimelech had just replaced the loaves. The new ones are out, the old ones are there for the priest to eat in a holy place. And he says, look, this is all we have. So it is not holy anymore. It's still not everyday, you know, Aldi bread. It was on the table just, you know, maybe a few hours before or something like that, but it's not there now. So Ahimelech then gives up his share and even share of other priests, presumably, and is willing to give it to David. Now let me pause and make this point. I've alluded to it already tonight. Notice that the tabernacle is in Nob. Remember back in chapter 4, when the Philistines took the ark, that we learned from a couple other passages that the Philistines destroyed Shiloh. And so the tabernacle was moved. I suppose it's possible that it was rebuilt, there are parts of it, but here now it is in Nob, not in Shiloh. To have the table of showbread means you have to have the tabernacle, right? But remember, the ark is not there. Chapter 7, verse 1, it's in Kiriath Geri. Eventually David's going to bring it to Jerusalem. So there's no ark, but the rest of the tabernacle is there. So back to our point then. The priests were to eat it in a holy place. So Himelech says, OK, you can't eat it over here in the fellowship hall off the end of the tabernacle. But the men at least need to be holy. They need to be clean. And so they can't have been with women recently. Now, without getting into all the discussion about clean and unclean stuff and so on, bodily fluids would make someone unclean. So you could talk about leprosy, but you can also talk about these kinds of things or what women experience every month or something like that. These bodily fluids would make them unclean. Obviously, if you touch blood, something dead, you would be unclean. So the normal situation, though, is that you would just be unclean until sundown. More severe things or whatever, again, like leprosy, you'd be longer than that. And so here, they're not gonna be in a holy place, but they still need to be holy. So then, verse five. Then David answered the priest and said to him, truly women have been kept from us about three days since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated in the vessel this day. All right, David here says a few things. First of all, yep, we're clean, we're fine. Hey, we left three days ago. And so any bodily discharges that made him unclean, all that's over. The sundown has passed. Also, it was common for them to be abstinent from their spouses for military things. And so this is consistent in that way too. Note also what David indicates to us here. Nob is two miles away, roughly. Remember when he ran from Bethlehem out to the battle with Goliath? He ran all that time in just a few hours. He could have gotten to Nob in less than an hour if he wanted to. But he took three days, or close to it. Maybe not exactly 72 hours or something, but most likely he would have collected some of his men. We'll talk about those in the next chapter. He probably took some circuitous route to get there, hiding along the way and so forth. Now, let me just briefly mention here about vessels. Most likely this is referring to the bodies of his men who are with them, or maybe a particular part of their body. And so David is saying that they are holy, they are clean. And you also, if you have the New King James, will see several italicized words in this verse, especially as you go toward the end of the verse. It's a bit challenging to translate the Hebrew there. David is saying more or less, look, this bread is just common bread now. It's not holy. And so it's okay for us to have. Now, remember that the bread on the table of showbread represented God providing for his people. In pagan temples, they had food in the temple, but it was for the gods to eat. They corrupted it. The true meaning is you have food in the tabernacle not for God to eat, but to show that God provides for us to eat. So it's quite fitting to use this bread for David. Now he's going to eat it, the anointed one, the true king, is going to eat the, can you say, the symbol of God providing for our needs. And so we see that in that way. Now, let me pause and point out a principle here in this way. Do you see what's happening in this chapter and including this situation with the bread? Not just the ninth commandment. Law is important. Obedience is important. Ritual, even, is important. But the spirit of the law is more important. Legalists have a hard time with a passage like this. You got to keep the rules. You got to do the law. You got to do what it says. And exceptions are a problem for legalists. And this is an exception. We should tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, right? That's what we normally do, but there are some exceptional situations. The law was the priests eat it, not the king, not anybody else. But here's an exception in this unique situation. Jesus Himself said David and Himalaya had a right to do this. The same can be said for the fourth commandment, what Jesus is talking about. The law is simply, don't work. But there are some exceptions, aren't there? works of necessity and mercy. So the legalist needs to take this passage and let it impact you so you're not so focused on the rules. But the other end of the spectrum needs to be addressed too. We cannot use exceptions as justification for doing it all the time. I recently heard someone make the argument for an exception to the ninth commandment, and they were trying to apply it all the time. You can't do that. There are exceptional situations, but the exceptions do not become the norm. Just because it's okay for us to help out an animal when it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, doesn't mean we work on the Sabbath normally. Just because it's okay to eat showbread on this unique occasion doesn't mean anybody can eat it all the time. Just because it's okay for us not to share the truth on certain situations doesn't mean that we should do that all the time. So notice, you don't want to go and be a legalist. You got to keep all the rules, okay? Remember the spirit of the law. But you can't go to the other extreme, like the antinomian, and say, oh, hey, there are all these exceptions, and so you use that to justify not obeying God's word. You see some of the implications here for us. All right, let's keep going then. Verse 6, so the priest gave him holy bread, for there was no bread there, but the showbread which had been taken from before the Lord in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away." All right, simply Ahimelech agrees, gives David and his men this old bread and gives them at least five of them, maybe all 12. We're not told specifically, but David asked for five. Now, one brief recollection point here. You remember when we went through Exodus and I talked about the table of showbread, that each loaf had three and a half pounds of flour. These aren't little loaves. I mean, you think of a large pizza with a very, very deep dish. These were huge. So anyway. Verse 7, "'Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord, and his name was Doag, an Edomite, the chief of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul.'" Uh-oh. Everything seems to be going pretty well here until now. The music changes. Cut to commercial, you know, these kind of things. Now, we are not told why Doag was detained, but he was detained by the Lord. What many people suggest could have happened is that he is the chief shepherd. Why would the chief shepherd be at the tabernacle? Probably it had something to do with sacrificing animals. Maybe Saul is providing some sacrifices for the priests. We don't know. Maybe he was detained in some way. Maybe the delivery truck didn't show up in time. Maybe some of the animals got loose. Whatever it was, he is detained. Maybe he was unclean in some way. But the key point here is notice the description about Doeg. We're going to see this repeatedly in chapter 22 as well. He is an Edomite, a non-Israelite. At the end of chapter 14, you might remember that Saul conquered lots of people, including Edomites, and so it is likely that Doeg was captured at that time and served Saul here in this way. We are not told many details here, but ultimately, God detained him, and that's so he can fulfill his word to Eli, and that point we will see in chapter 22. All right, so verse eight, and David said to Ahimelech, is there not here on hand a spear or a sword? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me because the king's business required haste. You just have to wonder why Ahimelech's saying, David, what in the world is going on here? He comes without people with him, he comes looking for food, and now he's wanting a weapon. I mean, you're the king's servant. You're a leader of the army. Why don't you have a weapon? I mean, you'd think a Himalayan would be like, David, come on. But David's explanation is enough for him. Again, he has no reason to doubt David at this point. David did leave in haste when he jumped out the window. Presumably he didn't have his sword when he left Michael. But you might say, well, why didn't he get one when he was with Samuel, or even when he spoke with Jonathan? I don't know. Remember what we saw earlier in the book, that the Philistines had taken the weapons from Israel. Maybe they still were in short supply. We don't know. But it is quite odd that David would not have it. You might say his story is even a bit flimsy. But Ahimelech is going along with it. But notice how David is quite vulnerable, and God is providing for his needs. Food, and now protection. So verse 9, the priest said, the sword of Goliath and Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, there it is, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is no other except that one here. David said, there is none like it, give it to me. You remember at the end of chapter 17, verse 54, remember David took the head of Goliath to Jebus, and then he put the weaponry in his tent? Well, certainly it ended up in this tent, the sword did, and so David takes it. He now has food, he now has a weapon. But there is a third thing that David wanted from Ahimelech, but for some reason it's not mentioned here in this section. Let's turn a moment to chapter 22 again. And in verse 10, when Doeg is speaking to Saul about what happened, he said this, and he, David, inquired of the Lord, sorry, and Ahimelech inquired of the Lord for him, that is David. And then notice, gave him provisions and gave him the sword. So those two things are mentioned in our passage, but the inquiring of the Lord is not. Even if you look at verse 15, Ahimelech says this, did I then begin to inquire the Lord for him? Yeah, he did. So David came to Ahimelech, he needed food, he needed a sword, but he wanted direction. The ephod was mentioned there in verse nine. Maybe you use that, the Urim and Thummim would be part of the breastpiece. Maybe that was used. Maybe the ark's not there, so they didn't use that. But David is speaking spiritual guidance at the time of distress. Now think about this. David could have gone somewhere else to get food. He could have gone to Aldi or whatever. He could have gone somewhere else possibly to find a weapon. Maybe as someone in the army, he would have known a place to go to get a weapon. Maybe there's a pawn shop he could have found one in. I mean, who knows? Instead, he goes to the tabernacle, to Nob, to this risky place, if you will, this vulnerable place. And I think this is really the ultimate reason why he went to Nob. He was wanting spiritual guidance. It's strange to me that it's not mentioned here in verses one to nine, but that is one of the reasons why David went. So when in distress, let's go to God's house. Let's seek out help from God's leaders. Let's try to understand what God wants us to do, to understand His word. Now, conversely, you see also this point. When someone else is in distress and they come to us for help, help them, even if it may mean that we are at great risk. Jonathan did it, Samuel did it before that, and now here Himelech helps David. And then, when in distress, don't break God's law. Yet, when we are in a life or death situation, or we're severely at risk, not sharing everything seems to be permissible. Setting aside a law, in this case also to give David some food, some of these things are permissible in unique situations. Now it's, in one sense, kind of easy for us to talk about it sitting here tonight. But if you have a Nazi soldier at your door asking if there are Jews in the house, or if you have a health official coming to your church door preventing you from worship, Or Biden's new disinformation police he's trying to establish. I mean, when these things are happening, it can be challenging to know what to do. We're going to see in the next section, I think David actually sinning. It can be hard for us to know exactly what to do in the heat of the moment. And so pray about it. And as I've said a few times now since chapter 16, this is an important question for us to really understand now before we get to the time where we're going to have to implement it in our culture. And I don't think it's that far away as I've said. And there are people in our culture now that are having to implement it. And certainly our brothers and sisters in Canada and many other places around the world. So, a few thoughts here, and at least in my mind, just as a personal comment here, as I studied this passage again here for tonight, it strengthened my view. I've been talking about this understanding for several years now, and going through it now in the last number of weeks, it made me believe it even more. And so hopefully, it'll help prepare us here tonight. So let's pray together. Our Father, our God, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you have given us this account that we might learn from. Lord, we do ask for the proper understanding, but also the proper application. And Lord, we pray that you would strengthen us if and when the day comes that we have to make these kinds of life and death decisions on what to say to people, what not to say, how to help people, how to uphold your word when we can set aside your normal rules for an exceptional situation. We pray, Lord, for wisdom, for strength. And again, that you would prepare us now as we think through it for a day in the future where we may have to face it specifically. We thank you, Lord, that In all of it, You are with us. You help us, You protect us, You provide for us as You provided for David here in these ways. And we are thankful even as we saw this morning in Psalm 48, that we can rest knowing that You are with us and You protect us. And for this, Lord, we give You praise. And so we pray in Jesus' name, amen.