October 18, 2014
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Lies and Deception

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Opening Prayer

Lord, clear my mind that I might see in Your Word something to help me live rightly for You today.

Read 1 Samuel 21:1-15

[1] David went to Nob, to Ahimelek the priest. Ahimelek trembled when he met him, and asked, “Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?” [2] David answered Ahimelek the priest, “The king sent me on a mission and said to me, ‘No one is to know anything about the mission I am sending you on.’ As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place. [3] Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find.” [4] But the priest answered David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread on hand; however, there is some consecrated bread here-provided the men have kept themselves from women.” [5] David replied, “Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual whenever I set out. The men’s bodies are holy even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!” [6] So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the LORD and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away. [7] Now one of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained before the LORD; he was Doeg the Edomite, Saul’s chief shepherd. [8] David asked Ahimelek, “Don’t you have a spear or a sword here? I haven’t brought my sword or any other weapon, because the king’s mission was urgent.” [9] The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here; it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want it, take it; there is no sword here but that one.” David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.” [10] That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. [11] But the servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Isn’t he the one they sing about in their dances: “‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands’?” [12] David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. [13] So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard. [14] Achish said to his servants, “Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? [15] Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?”

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

Serious consequences can sometimes hinge on seemingly insignificant choices. It behooves us to ask God for wisdom and guidance in all situations, big or small.

The story goes that in World War II, a body in British army uniform was found floating in the sea. On his person were top-secret documents detailing plans for an invasion of Greece by Allied forces. These papers found their way to Hitler. The jubilant Nazis had no idea that the man was a dead drifter, dressed up and planted by the British with false information tucked into his person: Greece was a dummy target–the real plan was to invade Sicily. This deception helped turn the tide of the war.

So is deception sometimes a good thing? In today’s passage David practices deception twice. The feigned insanity before Achish was a clever ruse and pretty harmless; furthermore, David himself attributed it not to his own cleverness, but to God’s rescue of him (see heading for Psa. 34). However, the deception of Ahimelech was an altogether different matter, and led to disastrous consequences for innocent people, as we shall see tomorrow. And yet what else could David have done? He was a fugitive and hungry, so inventing a story about a top-secret mission and a group of ritually pure collaborators gave him access to a good supply of food. Even though the Law forbade non-priests to eat the consecrated bread, Ahimelech recognized that there were exceptions. Moreover, Jesus approved, when later he used the story to exonerate his disciples (Matt. 12:1-8).

In our lives today things are rarely black and white, and sometimes we need to make difficult decisions. We cannot foresee the consequences of our decisions any more than David could when he first approached Ahimelech. Is it a cop-out to suggest that there are times when we need to choose the lesser of two evils and leave the consequences to God? It may help to remember that God is willing to use imperfect servants when their hearts are right with him.

Apply

What “sacred bread” has the Lord fed you with in the past week? With what “sword” has he armed you?

Closing prayer

Father, help me to see things from Your perspective when issues don’t seem clear to me.

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