David Breaks The Rules

But David learned of Saul’s plan and told Abiathar the priest to bring the ephod and ask the Lord what he should do. Then David prayed, “O Lord, God of Israel, I have heard that Saul is planning to come and destroy Keilah because I am here. Will the leaders of Keilah betray me to him? And will Saul actually come as I have heard? O Lord, God of Israel, please tell me.” And the Lord said, “He will come.” Again David asked, “Will the leaders of Keilah betray me and my men to Saul?” And the Lord replied, “Yes, they will betray you.” —1 Samuel 23:9-12 NLT

The Bible describes the time period when David was on the run from Saul as “David’s Stronghold.” It was a time of great panic and unsettling unrest for David, but he handled it by consistently seeking insight from God concerning the steps he should be taking and the things that would happen. When things got really emotionally tough for David, he inquired of God by using a part of the priestly garment called an ephod. It is worth noting that David was not a priest or a prophet for him to be directly inquiring of God in that way but here is where things get kind of funny—and by funny I mean horrible. Saul had all the Lord’s priests murdered because he thought they were trying to help David flee from him. There was only one priest who escaped from Saul’s slaughter and he was a priest named Abiathar. Abiathar is the one who managed to escape with, what the Bible calls, an “ephod” and that is what David sometimes used to inquire of God whenever he was in distress about which strategies to take during his stronghold.

To be fair, here is a bit of history about what an ephod really is. An ephod was (or is) part of the priestly garment God told Moses to make for Aaron, who was the first high-priest of Israel after the Israelites escaped from Egypt. God had given Moses specific instructions about what to add to the ephod. In Exodus 28:30, God says to Moses, “Insert the Urim and Thummim into the sacred chestpiece so they will be carried over Aaron’s heart when he goes into the Lord’s presence. In this way, Aaron will always carry over his heart the objects used to determine the Lord’s will for his people whenever he goes in before the Lord.” The brief mention of the “Urim and Thummim” is significant here, although often overlooked.

Now, this is where I do not wish to disrupt anyone’s theological knowledge, but the facts are that the Urim and the Thummim that God told Moses to add to the ephod are fortune-telling stones that symbolize certainty and objective knowledge. This is corroborated in Ezra 2:63 when the Bible says “The governor told them not to eat the priests’ share of food from the sacrifices until a priest could consult the Lord about the matter by using the Urim and Thummim—the sacred lots.” Nevertheless, this is not just a message about the role of the ephod as much as it is an inquiry about why David felt it was so urgent for him to use the ephod without being a priest and without even being in the temple!

In the verses that come before our reference scriptures, David had just received news that Philistines were stealing grain from the threshing floors at a place called Keilah. David then calmly inquired of God, without using any ephod. 1 Samuel 23:2 states, “David asked the Lord, “Should I go and attack them?” “Yes, go and save Keilah,” the Lord told him.” This is an example of how easy it was for David to be able to talk to God and discern what God was saying in response, without using the ephod. Then, just a few verses later, David received news that his enemy Saul was coming to Keilah and all of a sudden it seemed as though his calmness just flew right out of the window. He knew Saul’s mission was to kill him so David was very scared.

In our reference verses above, you can almost hear the undertone of panic as David asked the priest to bring the ephod to inquire of God about what to do. Another time David panicked in this way while asking for the ephod can be found in 1 Samuel 30, in a very familiar story about David’s entire camp being raided while his men spoke of stoning him. After “weeping until they couldn’t weep anymore,” the Bible then says of David in 1 Samuel 30:7 that, “Then he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring me the ephod!” So Abiathar brought it.” It seemed as though David only called for the ephod whenever he was in a state of panic. As a matter of fact, I practically nearly even entitled this blog post, “Don’t Panic!”

Can we not relate to David’s panic though? When things are going well or only mildly disruptive for us, we pray, we talk to God, God impresses things upon our hearts in different ways, we listen, and all is well. However, as soon as things start getting really bad, we want to chase down every prophet in the land, and if I keep it real, some even pursue fortune tellers, and there is just this underlying urgent need to know what is going to happen so that the mind can be placed at rest. Sometimes, the things we seek for, outside of ourselves, can be found deep within us if we would only sit still long enough to calm down and see what God is saying. It is great that David stumbled across receiving an ephod, but what if he had never received one? God would have still been there to answer all of his questions, the same way he always was in the past. The answers you and I seek are already inside of us. When we seek God and refrain from panicking, we find what we are looking for.

Lots of Love, XO