1 Samuel 21:1-15
There's
this creek that runs through the town I used to live in. At one spot in
the creek, there are water pipes that run across, and they're about
thirty feet high. My friends and I used to climb up to the pipes using a
rope we'd attached, shimmy our way to the middle section, and jump into
the water. It was a blast, and jumping off these pipes became very
popular when I was in high school.
One of these times as we were jumping, we heard the roar of a boat engine turning around the creek bend. None of us thought twice about it because it was normal to see boats racing through the creek. However, this was a different kind of boat. This boat came with flashing red and blue lights and a megaphone. It was the police! The officers pulled up to the swimmers and docked at shore, right where our cars were parked.
Everyone got out of the water except me. I was terrified. I had previous run-ins with the police, and I didn't want another one. So, I submerged in the water. Thoughts of Rambo started flooding my mind. A scene in which he used a reed as a snorkel flashed through my head, and I thought, "I can do this."
As everyone got back to shore, I secretly started making my way down the creek with only my eyes and the top of my head showing. I felt like a badass because my plan was working. I only needed to go about one hundred yards before the creek turned and I'd be out of sight from the officers. When I got around the bend, I rested and waited. Before I knew it, one of my friends came down the shoreline in front of me and told me the coast was clear. Mission accomplished!
Although my experience running from the police officers was very different and way less extreme, David found himself running for his life from an angry king. After he departed ways from his best friend Jonathan, he went to Saul's high priest. The priest went out to greet him, and asked, "Why are you by yourself? Where's all your men?"
David responded, "The king's sent me on a top secret mission. I can't tell anybody the details, but I'm supposed to meet my men at a certain place. Do you have any bread? My men and I are starving."
The priest said, "I don't have any regular bread, but I do have holy bread. Have you or your men touched a woman recently?" David told the priest that he, nor his imaginary men, hadn't had sex recently, so the priest gave David the bread. Then, David asked the priest if he had a sword or spear or anything like that. The priest told him he had one weapon in the temple, and it was the sword of Goliath - the one David had used to chop off his head.
David said, "Now that's a good sword. I'll take it!" Just as David was retrieving the sword, he noticed that opposite the temple was King Saul's chief shepherd taking a religious vow. David realized he was inches away from trouble, so he grabbed the sword and ran out of the temple. His life was now a game of inches and seconds.
He made his way to Gath, where King Achish was king. As he walked up to the city gates, the king's servants had out their binoculars, inspecting the traveler David. They said to each other, "Is this the famous David, the one we've heard about about killing ten thousand?"
As David walked into the city, the servants escorted him to the king. David realized they all recognized who he was, and he panicked. He was terrified of what the king might do to him. So, in the greatest ploy of all time, he acted like a crazy man. He started pounding his head on the city gate and foaming from the mouth. Spit dripped from his beard. He knew he had a target on his head, and probably a pretty good reward for his capture.
As the king watched David, he told his servants, "Can't you see this is a crazy man? I've got enough crazies to deal with. Get him out of here!"
David ran for his life. He's innocent, but has no way of proving it. No one knows he's innocent because the king's been trying to kill him in secret. No one's going to take the word of a former shepherd boy made army officer over the king's. The only way to find freedom from the tyranny of the ravenous king is to run for dear life from everyone connected with the king. That means David's got a lot of running ahead of him.
There's
this creek that runs through the town I used to live in. At one spot in
the creek, there are water pipes that run across, and they're about
thirty feet high. My friends and I used to climb up to the pipes using a
rope we'd attached, shimmy our way to the middle section, and jump into
the water. It was a blast, and jumping off these pipes became very
popular when I was in high school.One of these times as we were jumping, we heard the roar of a boat engine turning around the creek bend. None of us thought twice about it because it was normal to see boats racing through the creek. However, this was a different kind of boat. This boat came with flashing red and blue lights and a megaphone. It was the police! The officers pulled up to the swimmers and docked at shore, right where our cars were parked.
Everyone got out of the water except me. I was terrified. I had previous run-ins with the police, and I didn't want another one. So, I submerged in the water. Thoughts of Rambo started flooding my mind. A scene in which he used a reed as a snorkel flashed through my head, and I thought, "I can do this."
As everyone got back to shore, I secretly started making my way down the creek with only my eyes and the top of my head showing. I felt like a badass because my plan was working. I only needed to go about one hundred yards before the creek turned and I'd be out of sight from the officers. When I got around the bend, I rested and waited. Before I knew it, one of my friends came down the shoreline in front of me and told me the coast was clear. Mission accomplished!
Although my experience running from the police officers was very different and way less extreme, David found himself running for his life from an angry king. After he departed ways from his best friend Jonathan, he went to Saul's high priest. The priest went out to greet him, and asked, "Why are you by yourself? Where's all your men?"
David responded, "The king's sent me on a top secret mission. I can't tell anybody the details, but I'm supposed to meet my men at a certain place. Do you have any bread? My men and I are starving."
The priest said, "I don't have any regular bread, but I do have holy bread. Have you or your men touched a woman recently?" David told the priest that he, nor his imaginary men, hadn't had sex recently, so the priest gave David the bread. Then, David asked the priest if he had a sword or spear or anything like that. The priest told him he had one weapon in the temple, and it was the sword of Goliath - the one David had used to chop off his head.
David said, "Now that's a good sword. I'll take it!" Just as David was retrieving the sword, he noticed that opposite the temple was King Saul's chief shepherd taking a religious vow. David realized he was inches away from trouble, so he grabbed the sword and ran out of the temple. His life was now a game of inches and seconds.
He made his way to Gath, where King Achish was king. As he walked up to the city gates, the king's servants had out their binoculars, inspecting the traveler David. They said to each other, "Is this the famous David, the one we've heard about about killing ten thousand?"
As David walked into the city, the servants escorted him to the king. David realized they all recognized who he was, and he panicked. He was terrified of what the king might do to him. So, in the greatest ploy of all time, he acted like a crazy man. He started pounding his head on the city gate and foaming from the mouth. Spit dripped from his beard. He knew he had a target on his head, and probably a pretty good reward for his capture.
As the king watched David, he told his servants, "Can't you see this is a crazy man? I've got enough crazies to deal with. Get him out of here!"
David ran for his life. He's innocent, but has no way of proving it. No one knows he's innocent because the king's been trying to kill him in secret. No one's going to take the word of a former shepherd boy made army officer over the king's. The only way to find freedom from the tyranny of the ravenous king is to run for dear life from everyone connected with the king. That means David's got a lot of running ahead of him.
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