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Why are you alone?

1 Samuel 21:1-9 (JDV)

1 Samuel 21:1 David went to the priest Ahimelech at Nob. Ahimelech was afraid to meet David, so he said to him, “Why are you alone and no one is with you?”
1 Samuel 21:2 David answered the priest Ahimelech, “The king gave me a mission, but he told me, ‘Don’t let anyone know anything about the mission I’m sending you on or what I have ordered you to do.’ I have stationed my boys at a certain place.
1 Samuel 21:3 Now what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever can be found.”
1 Samuel 21:4 The priest told him, “There is no ordinary bread on hand. However, there is consecrated bread, but the boys may eat it only if they have kept themselves from women.”
1 Samuel 21:5 David answered him, “I swear that women are being kept from us, as always when I go out to battle. The boys’ bodies are consecrated even on an ordinary mission, so of course their bodies are consecrated today.”
1 Samuel 21:6 So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, for there was no bread there except the Bread of the Presence that had been removed from the presence of Yahveh. When the bread was removed, it had been replaced with warm bread.
1 Samuel 21:7 One of Saul’s servants, detained before Yahveh, was there that day. His name was Doeg the Edomite, chief of Saul’s shepherds.
1 Samuel 21:8 David said to Ahimelech, “Do you have a spear or sword on hand? I didn’t even bring my sword or my weapons since the king’s mission was urgent.”
1 Samuel 21:9 The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah – notice — is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want to take it for yourself, then take it, for there isn’t another one here.” “There’s none like it!” David said. “Give it to me.”

Why are you alone?

Ahimelech was right to ask that question, and David’s answer was a lie. He should have told the truth and trusted God’s priest to help him anyway. But David will learn through experiences like those in this chapter that honesty is the best means of protection.