1 Samuel 21:1-9--David and the Holy Bread

1 Samuel 21:1-9
English Standard Version

David and the Holy Bread
21  Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” 2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. 3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” 4 And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5 And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the LORD, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.

7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen.

​8 Then David said to Ahimelech, “Then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste.” 9 And the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me.”

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David is running for his life though it seems he has taken his company of men with him (or at least some of them).  He came up the Tabernacle that was set up in Nob, and spoke to Ahimelech the priest and asked the priest for bread for himself and his men.  Unfortunately, it seems the people had not been bringing grain offering of bread to the Tabernacle, so the only bread left was the holy Bread of the Presence that only the priests were supposed to eat.  It was also named the Showbread and was on the table that stood before the Golden Lampstand in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle.  The priest was caught between a rock and hard place because it would be wrong for him to let David and his men starve, but it would also be wrong for him to give them the Bread of the Presence for food.  The priest decided that as long as David and his men had kept themselves holy and were sexually pure that he would bring the Showbread out for them to eat so that they wouldn't die, for the Showbread could be replaced, but the lives of David and his men could not be replaced.  Jesus will use this example in the New Testament to show that God allows rules like this to be bent sometimes for the sake of keeping a greater commandment and to argue that He is Lord of the Sabbath (and all that is holy for that matter).


Mark 2:23-28
English Standard Version
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Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath
23 One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: 26 how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” 27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

I don't have time to break down this passage for you today because we need to get back to David and his men, but Jesus argues that if the LORD was willing to let David and his men eat the bread meant only for the priests so that they wouldn't die of hunger, then He is willing to permit His disciples to eat a few heads of grain which they had every right to since they were growing along the path/road, and that it was Jesus who was Lord of the Sabbath, not the Pharisees.  Jesus held them guiltless in the same way that David and his men were held guiltless.  Jesus also makes it clear that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, meaning that in cases where the Sabbath regulations came in conflict with saving a man's life or even as we'll see later where Jesus would heal a man or set a man free from an evil spirit on the Sabbath, it is always right to do right on the Sabbath.

Now back to David and his men.  David had not been honest with the priest, because the priests seemed to be loyal to King Saul.  There also was a servant of King Saul in custody with the priests at that point and it is very likely that this man would report back to King Saul that he had seen David at the Tabernacle.  David pretended that he and his men were on official top-secret business from the king so that they could not even disclose where they were going, but time was so much of the essence that they didn't have time to pack provisions or to get their weapons as David had no sword or spear and asked the priest if there was any weapon there in the Tabernacle that could be given to him.  The only weapon there was the sword of Goliath, which was a massive sword, but David was happy to take that with him (especially where he was going, which we'll see next time) for there was no other sword like it all of Israel.

David has hidden the real reason he is there from the priest so that the priest will not be put in a position of having to lie for him and his men, and this seems like a situation where one sin led to another, but the LORD was willing to forgive and overlook these sins on the part of David, his men, and the priest and even use it as an example later on of how Jesus being Lord of the Sabbath (and all that is holy) could overlook any offenses against God because the offense were against Himself and He would have the power to forgive sins as we see when He heals the paralytic earlier in Mark 2 (See Mark 2:1-12).  So then Jesus would establish once again by citing this Old Testament passage that He was God the Son and that meant that the Sabbath (and all that was called holy, including His disciples) belonged to Him and not to the Pharisees.