I ask this question because it has always intrigued me that Saul would not know young David, who had, if the flow of the text is properly ordered, for some time now been his musical comforter. Or, is he merely asking about David’s father’s identity, to give him some sense of how this mere teenager could have inherited such courage?
Some have suggested that Saul’s mental problems caused him to forget the appearance of David. Or perhaps David played at a distance from Saul and never was seen quite well enough for a permanent image to form.
Yet others suggest that Saul had not seen the musician for quite some time, that David had grown some, and that he was dressed altogether differently. The question from Saul could have meant, “I know that boy somehow, but I can’t place him right now. Help me out Abner.”
As for Abner, we have no reason to demand that he had ever seen David before.
Bottom line (again). We really do not know. Unacceptable to me is the omission of these and several following verses by the creators of the Septuagint, their way of solving a knotty problem. Nothing can ever be solved by daring to take verses out of the Bible.
I Samuel 20: 35-41. David gets the signal from Jonathan: Run for your life. But in the next scene we see them embracing and saying farewell. Why go through all the arrow-shooting if they were going to meet anyway?
Perhaps – and the text is not explanatory here – Jonathan was still visible after his warning shot, and David, seeing him there, decided not to just take off into the wilderness, but was compelled by his deep love for his friend, to risk the danger and return for the sad parting.
I Samuel 20 and 21. David tells a series of lies to save his life. Eg, he is going to a family gathering, and, the king is sending me on a mission, etc. We understand self-preservation, but what did the lie in chapter 21 cause? Yet in the providence of God, what promise was fulfilled? Is his lying therefore justified? (We will see more of David’s “wisdom” in chapters to come.)
The question of the justification of a lie is one that has troubled many a believer. If today I know the presence of an underground church while visiting in a Communist country, am I bound to expose that location to government officials who want me to tell them? We think not, I am sure. Here, love trumps the need to be exactly truthful. We think of those midwives in Egypt again.
But here was a case, admitted by David, that actually brought about the death of scores of priests. Now God had actually foretold this outcome, the end of the line of Ithamar. There was evil in the ranks. God’s word must always come to pass. But we catch the merciful heart of God also, who through David reaches out to the sole survivor of the slaughter. Much like our Lord whose compassion saved and healed those that were bound for the judgment of God, David seems to personify God’s mercy and grace.
I Samuel 22:18. With only one executioner, how is it that only one priest (Abiathar) escaped?
We can begin the speculation, and speculation is all we have, by suggesting that the priests were not necessarily in one place at the time. Perhaps they were in individual or small-group tents enjoying the day, or here and there going about their priestly duties. It is hard to imagine that 80 plus men were all together in one place, passively waiting for Doeg to strike them down.
Most commentaries rule out the possibility altogether of one man killing all these priests, and suggest that Doeg was not alone in his bloody work, but had a band of assistants with whom he traveled.
I Samuel 23:2. How did David hear from the Lord? Later it was through prophets. Is it the same here?
Verse 6 may have a clue for us. Abiathar the priest, the one who escaped from Saul’s slaughter, carried with him an ephod. Was this the very garment of the high priest that housed the famed Urim and Thummim? Was God speaking through this? Yet the wording of the answers is more than just yes and no. There seems to be a conversation going on.
The trouble with the above is that Abiathar met David at Keilah, and David had prayed before he came to that stronghold.
No prophet is mentioned here, but later in 2 Samuel, the prophet Gad is called “David’s seer.” He and Nathan and perhaps others were close confidants of the son of Jesse, and could easily have gone to God on behalf of him.
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