Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 21-24.

I am not sure why this never occurred to me before, but it struck me that David, whose great grandmother was a Moabite, took his parents to the king of Moab to keep them safe while he was on the run from King Saul.  This made me wonder if Ruth had been related to the royal family of Moab?  I think that is probably not a conclusion we are intended to reach, not even that Ruth’s descendants kept some kind of connection with her homeland.  As I have thought about it more, it seems like David went to Moab as the logical conclusion.   First, he had gone to Gath, in Philistia, and before he could ask for the king of Gath to shelter his parents he realized that he was seen as an enemy there.  If we then look at Ancient Israel we see that Philistia was on one side of Judah and Moab on the other.  Basically, after Philistia, Moab was the next place where David could take his parents.  Further, his other options would have required travelling through territory controlled by Saul, where David had no allies (at least not at this point in his life).

The other thing I want to look at is the men who followed David.  In 1 Samuel 14:52 it says that “whenever Saul saw a mighty or brave man, he took him into his service.”  In today’s passage it says that when David was at the cave of Adullam “All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander.”   Yet out of those discontented, distressed, or debtors came David’s mighty men.  Saul took the mighty and brave to build his army.  David took the outcasts.   David took the distressed, the discontented, the debtors, the outcasts and forged a force of mighty warriors.  Just as Jesus forges His Church out of the outcasts of our society.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Samuel 21-24.

I am going to write about some elements of today’s accounts which we often overlook.  I am not sure that they contain much in the way of spiritual insight, but we will see.  In this passage, at one point it says that David’s parents stayed with the king of Moab as long as David was “in the stronghold.”  Then at the end of the passage, after David declined the opportunity to ambush and kill King Saul, it says that David and his men “went up to the stronghold.”  On both of these occasions it uses the singular as if it was a single location. In addition, at one point the prophet Gad tells David to leave “the stronghold”.   Elsewhere, it refers to David and his men staying in “strongholds” (in the Desert of Ziph for awhile, then later in the wilderness of En Gedi).  So, I am unsure if the places where the passage uses the singular for stronghold refers to a single place (and, if so, was it the same place each time?), or was the writer just using the singular because it was easier than writing the plural…and it doesn’t really matter for us to understand what was going on.  On to another point: when David was in the Desert of Ziph, near Horesh, Jonathan was able to find him and speak with him.  Yet, just a short time later, Saul was unable to do so.  This is not particularly surprising, since David wanted to meet with Jonathan, and wanted to avoid being found by Saul.

The final item we normally overlook does have a bit of spiritual lesson for us.  Because of the way the passage tells the accounts we normally miss that the priest Abiathar did not join David until he was at Keilah.  Once Abiathar had joined him in Keilah, David had Abiather use the ephod of the high priest (and presumably the Urim and the Thummin ) to consult God’s will.  However, the passage makes clear that David sought God’s guidance in his decisions before that point.  I find two points worth thinking about here.  First, if we seek God’s guidance, He will make it known to us.  In fact, He will even make it known to us in ways which others who are skeptical of our initial interpretation of God’s direction will find convincing.  Second, as we seek to know God’s guidance for our actions, He will provide us with ever clearer ways to understand what He wants from us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Samuel 21-24.

One thing which always strikes me about this passage is that Ahimelek the priest was afraid of David when David came to him alone.  We know from the rest of the passage that Ahimelek did not yet know that David was running from King Saul.  It seems that Ahimelek feared that David had been sent by Saul to kill him.  We see from King Saul’s actions later when he ordered Ahimelek, his family, and  all of the people of the town of Nob killed (note that Nob was a town of priests) that Ahimelek’s fear was not without basis.  However, I want to focus on what the incident at Keilah tells us about David’s decision making.  When David heard that the Philistines were raiding Keilah, he asked God for guidance as to whether he should defend the town.  Then, when his men were afraid to go, he asked God again.  Once he was in Keilah and heard that King Saul was mustering the army to attack Keilah, David sought God’s guidance once more.  We see here that David regularly sought God’s guidance in making decisions.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.