The ugly truth is always better than the best dressed-up lie. Sooner or later, the disguise comes off.
David’s escape plan in fleeing to the old prophet, Samuel, had only been a short reprieve from Saul’s relentless pursuit. So he made a run for Nob, where the priests were in residence. Ahimelech clearly was nervous. “Why are you alone, and no one is with you?” (1 Sam 21:1), he asked. Wasn’t David one of Saul’s generals? There was something not right about the situation. If he assisted David when he was fleeing the king, wasn’t that aiding and abetting the enemy? Now let’s push the Pause button. Have you ever been in a fearful situation and felt pressed to fudge a bit on the truth, even to cover yourself with a bold-faced lie? David was fleeing for his life from the king and his confederates. They seemed to have an effective spy ring, and knew every move David made. If the priests, God’s special servants, wouldn’t help him, where could he go? So David panicked. “The king has ordered me on some business,” he said, and the mission is top-secret. “Do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you” (v 2). This is like excusing an unexplained absence to my wife by saying I work with the CIA. Then David asks for supplies. First, bread. All they had was the showbread from the holy place. Strangely, in giving it to David, the high priest provided the Lord Jesus with a precedent to justify His disciples plucking and eating heads of grain from the field on Shabbat (Mt 12:4). God can salvage anything! David also was looking for a weapon and, lo and behold, Goliath’s sword was being stored there (1 Sam 21:9). A lot of good it did for Goliath! But here’s the problem with lying: you can never tell just one. In fact, David’s continuing fear-fueled flight will take him from lying all the way to lunacy!