Did David do anything right in this passage? He was on the run from King Saul, but lied and said that Saul had sent him on a secret mission. No one but the priests were supposed to eat the Bread of the Presence (see Leviticus 24), but David and his few followers dared to ask for it anyway. Oh, and David’s lies ended up getting Ahimelech killed (see chapter 22), even though Ahimelech had no idea that David was an outlaw. So, what’s going on here?

Well, perhaps Jesus can help us out. When He was having one of his many disputes with the Pharisees over the right way to keep the Sabbath, He pointed to David’s example as a way of condemning their narrow-minded legalism. The main point of the Sabbath, Jesus said, was to be a blessing for human beings (Mark 2:25-27), not to make us joyless and miserable. Just so, the Bread of the Presence was intended, at least in part, to symbolize God’s provision for all the twelve tribes of His people. So, since David was in great need of God’s help, it was quite appropriate for him to eat the consecrated bread.

Ah, but what about David’s lies? Well, remember that, at the Last Supper, Jesus took bread and said, “This is My body” (Mark 14:22). In fact, He called Himself the bread of life, the true bread of Heaven (John 6:48, 50-51), the One Who sacrificed Himself so that His people might live forever. So yes, David may have been a liar, but the Son of David paid the penalty for every sin he ever committed – and for all of our sins as well. In fact, none of us are worthy to eat the true Bread of the Presence, to become one with Christ Himself. But Jesus still offers Himself to all who will trust in Him.

So, no matter what desperate situation in which we may find ourselves today, the cross of Christ proves that God loves even sinners like us enough to give us everything that we need. Regardless of what we may have done or left undone, Jesus welcomes us to draw near to Him, to find in Him alone the security and the nourishment that only He can provide.

I Samuel 21:1-9 (NASB)

Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech came trembling to meet David, and said to him, “Why are you alone and no one with you?”
2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has commissioned me with a matter, and has said to me, ‘Let no one know anything about the matter on which I am sending you and with which I have commissioned you; and I have directed the young men to a certain place.’
3 “Now therefore, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found.”
4 And the priest answered David and said, “There is no ordinary bread on hand, but there is consecrated bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.”
5 And David answered the priest and said to him, “Surely women have been kept from us as previously when I set out and the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was an ordinary journey; how much more then today will their vessels be holy?”
6 So the priest gave him consecrated bread; for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence which was removed from before the LORD, in order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away.
7 Now one of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s shepherds.
8 And David said to Ahimelech, “Now is there not a spear or a sword on hand? For I brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s matter was urgent.”
9 Then the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, behold, it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if you would take it for yourself, take it. For there is no other except it here.” And David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.”