When we last left off, David had escaped to a place called Nob, where a sanctuary to God had been built.
He didn’t stay there long, maybe just a day.
Nob was close to Gibeah, where King Saul’s headquarters were.
Nobody knows Nob’s exact location, but many experts think it might have been on a mountain called Mount Scopus near Jerusalem.
If you’ve been to Israel, you might know it’s not far from Mount Scopus to the walls around the Temple Mount.
Now I want you to take a look at the reference to this scene in the New Testament.
“He answered, ‘Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.”-Matthew 12:3-4
Since we know that David was traveling alone, what’s up with this reference in the New Testament that clearly says David had “companions” with him?
Well, here’s the thing.
In the stories about this event in the New Testament, it seems like there was a Jewish custom or tradition that David was traveling with some men even though that wasn’t true.
Let’s not forget that David’s meeting with Ahimelech, the High Priest of Nob, was based on lies and deception.
In fact, because of David’s actions, we’re going to see that every person connected to this Nob sanctuary is about to be murdered at Saul’s hand.
On top of that, remember that David and Jonathan had conceived a plan for David to escape from Saul unnoticed.
If David was traveling with a group of men, that would hardly have been unnoticeable.
Ya feel me?
Now I don’t have a takeaway for today but I do wanna point out something important.
We’ve just arrived at a major turning point in salvation history.
Up until this point in the Scriptures, David had been a part of Saul’s royal inner court.
But that has changed forever.
From now on, David and Saul will be sworn enemies.
This is the pivotal event from which David will begin his unlikely rise to the throne of Israel.
And when I say “unlikely”, I ain’t kidding.
David’s rise from a poor shepherd’s boy to royalty will be nothing short of miraculous.
I guess you could extract a lesson from that last statement about how God can cause the weak to rise, and the powerful to topple.
But we’ll end things here today.
Have a blessed day.
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