“David went to see Achimelekh the cohen in Nov. Achimelekh came trembling to meet David and asked, ‘Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?’ David said to Achimelekh the cohen, ‘The king has sent me on a mission and told me not to let anyone know its purpose or what I’ve been ordered to do. I’ve arranged a place where the guards are to meet me. Now, what do you have on hand? If you can spare five loaves of bread, give them to me, or whatever there is.'”-1 Samuel 21:2-4
You know, something just struck me.
Verses 2-4 tell us David’s reason to flee to Nob was so he could get some food and a weapon for the long journey ahead.
But here’s a question.
How did David know he’d be able to so easily fool Ahimelech who was one of the High Priests in operation at that time?
See what I’m getting at?
How did he know?
The answer is he knew because he was a former member of King Saul’s inner circle.
David was well aware of how the king operated…
And he knew who the king confided in…
That’s why David was confident that Ahimelech and all the priests at Nob wouldn’t have a clue that Saul was trying to kill him or that he was on the run for his life.
David knew Ahimelech was a prime candidate for being duped.
However, this points to something else.
It also points to Israel’s broken political and religious climate at this time.
This is an area we should explore because it’ll give us insight into David’s behavior and why he acted the way he did in many different situations.
So starting today, and over the next couple of days, we’re going to take a good look at Israel’s situation as it existed during this time…
And see how from a Torah perspective, the Holy Nation had fallen.
Sound exciting?
Good!
So the first point is that Israel was NOT a unified nation at this time.
Saul had tried to unify Israel into one sovereign nation…
But he failed.
Israel was currently divided into two coalitions that were against each other.
One coalition was made up of the tribes in the central and northern regions of Canaan led by the tribe of Benjamin.
King Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin.
The other coalition was made up of the tribes in the southern part of Canaan, led by Judah.
David hailed from Judah.
So per the Torah, this division was not supposed to be.
Israel was supposed to be ONE nation, under ONE God, indivisible.
The fact that it wasn’t tells us something wasn’t right in Houston.
Now, let’s compare this state of affairs to what’s going on today.
The bottom line is the world and Israel are just as divided.
There are over 20,000 different Christian denominations each claiming to be the way, the truth, and the life…
Judaism is also split into reform, conservative, orthodox, and ultraorthodox…not to mention the 20% of Israelis who are atheists as well as the many Arab Muslims who make their homes in the Holy Land.
Politically speaking, things are even worse.
When Hamas attackers killed 1,400 civilians on October 7, the West voiced their shock and pledged their backing for Israel.
But as the Gaza conflict has unfolded, the political consensus has shifted in the other direction.
My point is the world is just as fractured today as it was in Saul’s time…
It is as King Solomon said in the Book of Ecclesiastes:
“What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.”
-Ecclesiastes 1:9
And I imagine things are going to keep getting worse until Messiah returns.
I’ll leave you with that today.
Stay tuned for tomorrow when we’ll look at another key area of how Israel’s situation during this time was far from Torah ideals.
Over and out.
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