Bible Talks

From: Messages of God's Love: 1954

1 Samuel 20:35-21:9³⁵And it came to pass in the morning, that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a little lad with him. ³⁶And he said unto his lad, Run, find out now the arrows which I shoot. And as the lad ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. ³⁷And when the lad was come to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried after the lad, and said, Is not the arrow beyond thee? ³⁸And Jonathan cried after the lad, Make speed, haste, stay not. And Jonathan's lad gathered up the arrows, and came to his master. ³⁹But the lad knew not any thing: only Jonathan and David knew the matter. ⁴⁰And Jonathan gave his artillery unto his lad, and said unto him, Go, carry them to the city. ⁴¹And as soon as the lad was gone, David arose out of a place toward the south, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times: and they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded. ⁴²And Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, forasmuch as we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord, saying, The Lord be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed for ever. And he arose and departed: and Jonathan went into the city. ¹Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee? ²And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place. ³Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present. ⁴And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women. ⁵And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel. ⁶So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the showbread, that was taken from before the Lord, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away. ⁷Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord; and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul. ⁸And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste. ⁹And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me. (1 Samuel 20:35‑21:9).

Jonathan, as he had promised, went with a young lad into the field where David was hiding. Then he shot three arrows as though he shot at a mark, and told the lad to run and find them. He had planned this beforand with David. If the arrows went beyond him, David would know that evil was determined from the hand of Saul. After this Jonathan sent the young lad away while he went to where David was. Then they kissed each other and wept until David eeeded. David then went his way to be hunted “as a partridge upon the mountains” by Saul, while Jonathan made his sad decision. He chose the easy path in the court of his father, king Saul, where he knew David was hated, rather than the path of trial and hardship with David, God’s rightful king.

What is going to be your choice, dear young believer? What you may think is an easy path may not be the one the Lord has marked out for you in His Word. May God grant that you will be led to follow a rejected Christ here, for one thing we know, as some one has said, “There are joys in the path of faith known only to those who walk in it.” Jonathan missed all this, for he never lived to see David crowned as king, nor was he among David’s mighty men. It was those who shared the hardships of the cave of Adullam, where David was forced to hide, who were reckoned among David’s mighty men in his day of power. And so God has said, “If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him.” 2 Timothy 2:12¹²If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: (2 Timothy 2:12).

David then fled to Ahimelech the priest at Nob and asked bread from him. The priest told David and his men that he had nothing there but the show-bread, so David took this, for they were hungry and faint. David, as we have noticed, was God’s rightful king, but he was rejected, and so all God’s ordances lost their value because the one whom God had chosen was in exile. The same thing was true when the Lord Jesus was here. His disciples could pluck the ears of corn and eat them on the sabbath, when the nation was rejecting Him, the One who was Lord of the sabbath. (Mark 2:23-28²³And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn. ²⁴And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful? ²⁵And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him? ²⁶How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the showbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him? ²⁷And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: ²⁸Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. (Mark 2:23‑28).)

Doeg, the Edomite, was there in the house of the Lord with Ahimelech, and he was the servant of Saul. How this shows the condition of things in Israel, for the Edomites were enemies of God’s people, and were not to be received into the congregation of the Lord until the third generation (Deut. 23:8⁸The children that are begotten of them shall enter into the congregation of the Lord in their third generation. (Deuteronomy 23:8)). Everything was in disorder.

After eating of the showbread with his followers, David then asked Ahimech for a sword and he gave him the sword of the slain giant Goliath. How beautifully all this typifies our association with the blessed Lord Jesus in His victory. Satan’s power through death has been defeated, like David’s triumph over Goliath, and now we trmph in Christ’s victory. Death may overtake us, but its sting is gone. It is now ours, like David with Goliath’s sword, for should we be called upon to pass through it, it only takes us out of this sad world to be “with Christ which is far better.” If we should be alive when the Lord Jesus comes, we will not have to pass through death at all. Goliath’s sword (Satan’s power through death) is now in the hands of our David—the Lord Jesus Christ.

His be “the Victor’s name,”

Who fought the fight alone;

Triumphant saints no honor claim,

His conquest was their own.

ML 11/14/1954

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