1st Samuel 21 WHEN FAITH SEEMS TO FAIL In the freshness of youth and when the ways of the Lord with us are new and glorious, our faith is strong and we realize our own weakness and God's strength. At those times we can understand better the fact that God's strength is "made perfect in weakness." However, even the best of men can become preoccupied with themselves, their private lives, their personal difficulties and their ambitions. When that happens, we can make some bad decisions that lead to bad actions and bad consequences.
In David's flight from Saul, he goes to the priest who had moved the sanctuary of the Lord from Shiloh to Nob. Both the prophet and the priest were outside the mainstream of the nation, and now the rejection king is in the outside place as well. In our modern society including the religious systems, our Lord Jesus is outside of the practice of popular opinion that motivates religious groups to adapt to whatever pleases the people. They focus the practices of their organizations on what they think makes mankind better by trying to be as much like the worldly society as possible and still maintaining religious and biblical words. Political society wants to control the minds and actions of the citizens to "the majority rules" opinion. So, they make edicts and change laws to say what can or cannot be done based on the consensus of popular opinion.
David had either to a measure been influenced by the fleshly lifestyle of Saul's court, or had taken his eyes off God and succumbed to "the fear of man [which] bringeth a snare." When one begins to lie in order to get what he wants, or to escape certain consequences, he has started something that increases like a snowball. In the case of David and Ahimelech the priest, David's lies ultimately led to the death of eighty-five priests and tragedy to that small village.
The foreigner, Doeg the Edomite, who was chief herdsman for Saul, was there ready to betray David to the king as David wrote in Psalm 52.There are many in religious leadership taking their place in what they would claim is the house of God, who will readily betray the Lord and deny the truth of God's word for personal and religious advantage. The words they use may be scriptural terms but are not used in the context of scripture and are suited to their own opinions.
The Lord Jesus in when he was challenged because his disciples gathered food to eat from the grain field as they walked on the Sabbath day recalled this event. He said the food that was sanctified for the table of showbread, and a week later was for the use of the priests, was given to David and those who followed him. To do what is right and to save a life is of greater importance than to follow the formal observance of a law.
The rest we find in Christ does not depend on formal laws but on our willingness to take His yoke upon us and learn from Him who is "meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest to your soul. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." The provision for spiritual food we find in Christ is the "bread which came down from heaven." From Him we find we shall be satisfied and neither hunger nor thirst.
David had defeated Goliath some years earlier when he was young, and he had only a sling and a stone - and his confidence in God. Now he is looking for a sword to give him the power he needs. Once he had relied on the Lord by faith. It seems like he was now acting in the flesh by taking the huge sword that was used by a man of the flesh. Our greatest victories may be followed by our greatest defeats. When we get to the place where we think "we did it," instead of "GIVE GOD ALL THE GLORY," we are in a position where we can have a great downfall. Up until this time where Goliath's sword was kept was of no interest to David. He had won victories since defeating the giant and they were all done by the power of God who was with him. As long as he inquired of God and knew God's mind about a matter, he was safe. In this instance he did not do that.
The only way to avoid the undermining activities of those who oppose the work of God in our hand (like Doeg), or those who want us to fail personally, is to stay true to the word of God and be strong in our faith in Him. God in grace, knows what to do on our behalf in difficult situations and we need to turn to Him in faith and rest in the assurance that His grace is sufficient. There remains an on-going problem that will never leave us when we focus our attention on that which is behind us. There may even be a longing for something we left behind that we shouldn't have had in the first place. There may be fear that someone has instilled in us, and that cause for fear has long been removed but we don't know it. There may be a sense of guilt over what we have done and cannot change. Even though it has been confessed to God and forsaken, it still seeks to claim our attention.
When that happens, it is like we are "fleeing when no man pursueth." If we look ahead and take time to consider the choices we have, we can make a wise decision based on our faith in God and rational thought. We don't know the outcome of a matter but we can avoid the complications that await us if we act in haste without due consideration. David fled to a place he knew Saul would not come, a stronghold of the Philistines, but he did not consider what would happen. Perhaps he thought they would welcome him as a defector or deserter, and would overlook what he had done to them personally previously.
Our enemy, Satan, will take every opportunity to defeat us that he can. He will bring up failures of the past, or even use our victories and change them to his advantage. Our weakness at the moment makes us particularly vulnerable to his subtlety and deception. Fear of the future has been a tool he uses to paralyze us into compromise and inactivity. David even resorted to debasing himself in the eyes of his enemies until he became the object of mockery and derision.
If it weren't for the words of Psalms 34 and 56, we would think David had forgotten who he was and why he was here. Even though outwardly he seemed far away from God, when he came to Ahimelech, he knew "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and His ears are open to their cry." He knew "The Lord delivereth them out of their troubles." Even when he was taken by the Philistines in Gath, his trust was in "The Most-High." "What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee."
We learn from David that when our faith is failing and may be temporarily forgotten, when we "Cast (our) burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain thee..." is a real and precious promise that is as real and good for us as it was for him. In one way we may condemn David for his lies and defection to the enemy. We may think he had abandoned his faith in God. But when we find ourselves in the same kind of situations and resort to lies and half-truths to get out of a difficult dilemma, or even compromise a little to be accepted by friends, we need to do what David did and learn from the words expressed from his heart at that difficult time in his life.