Day 26: 1 Samuel 21:1–9

The priest told him, “There is no ordinary bread on hand. However, there is consecrated bread” (v. 4).

David was scarcely twenty years old when he was forced to leave his home, his livelihood, and his beloved friend Jonathan as he fled from the madman who happened to be king of Israel.

When David resigned to live as a fugitive, he first went to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. David did not haphazardly end up there. He sought relief in the “city of priests.” Nob, a village between Jerusalem and Gibeah, was the venue where the tabernacle was relocated after the destruction of Shiloh. Like many of us in times of crisis, David may have desired to draw closest to those who seem closest to God—not a bad idea.

When Ahimelech asked David’s reason for coming, David responded to the priest with a lie. Throughout our look at his life, we will be witness to more than a few compromises in David’s character. In this case the compromise was David’s willingness to lie. He was probably attempting to spare the priest’s life, hoping that Saul would not hold Ahimelech responsible for helping David.

Famished from his flight, David asked the priest for bread. He asked for five loaves. The request strikes a familiar chord to those schooled in the Scriptures. Christ fed the multitudes with five loaves of bread in Matthew 14:19. In 1 Samuel 21:3, David requested of Ahimelech, “Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find.” In all four of the Gospels, as Christ sent the disciples to search for food, five loaves were all they could find. For David, no bread could be found except the bread of the Presence.

Perhaps God had a point to make with the five loaves. The bread of the Presence has always been connected to God’s covenant. The regulation concerning the bread of the Presence appears in Leviticus 24:5–9. Verse 8 says, “This bread is to be set out before the Lord regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant.”

Consider two possible reasons why God might have purposely used the bread of the Presence to feed David. First, the bread of the Presence might have symbolized God’s everlasting covenant with David. Somewhat like the stars of the sky symbolized the offspring of Abram (Gen. 15:5), the bread of the Presence was placed before God as a reminder, or symbol, of the everlasting covenant. God may have used the bread of the Presence to remind David of the everlasting covenant He had made with David’s kingdom.

Second, the bread of the Presence might have symbolized the provision of God’s presence in the life of David. Just as the first possible reason was a corporate symbol for a kingdom covenant, the second reason might have been a private symbol for a personal covenant. The Hebrew term for presence is paneh, which means “countenance, presence, or face.”11 The everlasting covenant symbolized by the bread of the Presence was a reminder of the pledge of God’s presence to His people. As He offered bread to David through Ahimelech the priest, I believe God pledged His presence to David throughout his exile and promised to be his complete sustainer. God was doing more in this moment in Nob than feeding David’s hungry stomach.

God also extends His presence to you as your sustaining provision. Note the name Christ calls Himself in the Gospel of John:

“I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life” (John 6:47–48).

Did you notice how Jesus combined the bread of life with everlasting life? Christ is the bread of God’s presence to us. His scars are placed before God as a perpetual memorial that the wages of our sins have been paid. Christ said, “This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51b). Those who have eaten the bread of His presence enjoy the same everlasting covenant He made with David thousands of years ago. He renews His promise to us in Hebrews 13:5:

“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

God reminded David of His presence and provision not just through the priest of Nob; God also reminded David in another way. Does it seem coincidental that when David asked for a weapon, the only one in the city of Nob was Goliath’s sword? Is it possible God was trying to remind David that he had overcome a greater enemy than Saul with God’s help?