Desperado...

Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women.” And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the LORD, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away. (1 Samuel 21:1-6 ESV) David was a man on the run. Having been expelled from King Saul's court, he was now an outsider, viewed only with suspicion. He was a desperado. Desperate to find safety, security, and food for his men. He made sure they behaved above reproach. There was no immorality such as was common with other bands of soldiers. Everything was on the up and up, except for one thing. Did you notice? David deceived the priest. In his fear, he pretended to be on the King's business. He is not alone among the godly men who did such things: Abraham deceived out of fear. The worst part is: it is unnecessary. Once the bread was "off the table", it became the priests to do with as he saw fit; he could of chosen to give it knowing the full story. At the end of the account in chapter 22, the deadly results of this deception are seen. God would have provided without a lie. In times of desperation, fear and doubt we have options. It seems like we do not, but we do. When persecution is chasing us down, let us not run from or ahead of God.