Sarah
After David defeated Goliath, you would think he would be living a life of honor and celebration.
Instead, because he became too successful, King Saul grew jealous and wanted him dead.
Every day, Saul had only one thing on his mind:
“I have to kill David.”
So David had no choice but to run for his life.
One day, after fleeing for quite some time, David arrived at a town called “Nob”, where God’s priest, “Ahimelech”, lived.
When Ahimelech saw David, something immediately felt strange.
He thought to himself,
“That’s odd. David is usually surrounded by soldiers. Why is he here all alone? Has something happened?”
So he carefully asked,
“David, why are you here by yourself? Where are your men?”
David knew that if he told the truth—
“King Saul is trying to kill me. I’m running for my life.”
—the priest might also be put in danger.
So David told a lie.
He replied,
“The king has sent me on a secret mission. No one is supposed to know about it. My young men are waiting for me somewhere else.”
After saying that, David realized how hungry he was.
So he asked,
“Do you have anything to eat? Five loaves of bread would be great—or anything that’s available.”
The priest looked troubled.
He answered,
“I don’t have any ordinary bread. The only bread I have is the holy bread that was offered before the Lord.”
Normally, only the priests were allowed to eat this bread.
But Ahimelech asked one more question.
“If your men have kept themselves ceremonially clean and have not been with women recently, then you may eat it.”
David replied,
“Don’t worry. We’ve remained ceremonially clean these past few days.”
So the priest gave David the “Bread of the Presence”, the holy bread that had just been removed from before the Lord.
Years later, Jesus referred to this very event, teaching that God values human life and genuine need more than a rigid, legalistic application of rules (see Matthew 12).
But there was one man who saw everything that happened.
His name was “Doeg”.
He wasn’t an Israelite.
He was an “Edomite”.
He served under King Saul and was the chief overseer of Saul’s shepherds.
He watched everything carefully and remembered it all.
Later, because of his report to Saul, a terrible tragedy would take place.
(We’ll get to that story later.)
After David had eaten, another thought suddenly crossed his mind.
“Oh no… I escaped so quickly that I didn’t even bring a weapon.”
So he asked,
“Do you have a sword or a spear I can borrow?”
The priest answered,
“Actually, I do.”
He walked behind the sanctuary and unwrapped a large cloth.
Inside was a massive sword.
The priest said,
“This is the sword of Goliath, the Philistine you killed. We’ve kept it here ever since. If you want it, you can have it.”
The moment David saw it, his spirits lifted.
He said,
“There is no sword like this one. Please give it to me.”
Once again, David held the very sword that had defeated Goliath.
But this time, he wasn’t the nation’s celebrated hero.
He was a fugitive running for his life.
David continued traveling south.
Eventually, he arrived in “Gath”.
That was no ordinary place.
It was Goliath’s hometown.
In other words, David had just walked into Philistine territory.
At first, no one seemed to recognize him.
But before long, King Achish’s servants looked at him more closely.
One of them suddenly said,
“Wait… isn’t this David?”
Another replied,
“The one who killed Goliath?”
Then someone else added,
“Isn’t he the one people used to sing about? ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands!”
The moment David heard those words, his heart nearly stopped.
He thought,
“Oh no… They’ve recognized me!”
If King Achish simply gave the order,
“Kill him!”
that would be the end of him.
What could he do?
Run?
It was already too late.
Then David came up with an idea.
He pretended to be insane.
He stared blankly.
He acted strangely.
He scribbled all over the city gates.
He mumbled nonsense.
He even let saliva run down into his beard.
He looked nothing like the fearless warrior everyone once admired.
King Achish watched him for a moment and finally said with disgust,
“What’s wrong with you people?”
“Don’t I already have enough madmen around me?”
“Why did you bring this crazy man to me?”
“Get him out of here!”
And just like that, David’s life was spared…..