Neville Goddard on 1 Samuel 21:1-6 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read 1 Samuel 21 in context

Scripture Focus

1Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee?

2And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place.

3Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present.

4And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women.

5And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel.

6So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.

1 Samuel 21:1-6

Biblical Context

David arrives at Nob seeking bread from Ahimelech; the priest notes no common bread is available, only holy bread; David asserts the vessels are holy and the bread sanctified, and the priest provides the shewbread.

Neville's Inner Vision

David’s step into Nob is a mirror of your inner state. The 'king hath commanded me a business' is the ruling thought in your mind that you must perform according to external demand to receive bread. The 'holy bread' Ahimelech speaks of is the bread of inner awareness—the nourishment that is already sanctified by Presence, waiting to be claimed by a trusted state. When David declares that the vessels have been kept holy and that the bread is sanctified this day, he is aligning his outward need with an inner reality: holiness is not a ritual one performs but a state one assumes. The priest’s remark about no common bread signals the friction between sense-bound perception and spiritual reality. Yet the bread is given because the inner law—the I AM, the Presence within—recognizes the state David inhabits. The scene invites you to trust your inner priest (conscience) and to accept supply as an act of consciousness, not a concession to circumstance. By settling into a felt experience of inner nourishment, you reveal that your life is fed from the sacred, from Presence, not merely from external law.