The Bible is a book of many layers, and I’ve learned I have to be careful when I think I’ve figured something out. For instance, I used to teach in my Life of David class that the beloved psalmist and famous king was also a grand liar. Now, there is still some truth to that statement. He did fudge the truth in some abominable ways, but he repented for those.

One of the places I sited, though, was his encounter with the priest when he fled from King Saul. In that passage, David tells the priest, “Yeah, I’m off on an errand for the King. I know it looks like I’m all alone, but the guys are going to meet me down the road a bit.”

Obviously Saul didn’t sent him on an errand. And, apparently, the part about his soldiers waiting down the road was a big fib. At least, I always taught it that way. Until I encountered a verse in the New Testament where Jesus says otherwise. He and his disciples are being accused of breaking the Sabbath rules by picking grain to eat as they walked through a field. He says, “Haven’t you read how David and all his companions once ate the consecrated bread in an emergency?”

All his companions? So, David wasn’t lying about that part? How come Jesus knows this and I don’t? Is it because of His omnipotence?

Maybe. But, I think Jesus was being the Son of Man in that conversation. The truth is this: there were other books with more historical information. The Book of Samuel mentions a volume called the Book of Jashar and Chronicles mentions The Book of the Annals of the Kings. The people of Jesus’ day would have known some details of Jewish history that have been lost through the centuries. These weren’t part of the Biblical cannon. They were history. David was a real king with an actual history, and people learned about him the way we learned about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

So, is this an important point? Does someone’s salvation depend on whether or not David stretched the truth on this specific detail? Maybe not. It just makes me wonder how many other layers of the Bible I’ve failed to lift in my reading. That doesn’t make we worry about mistakes. It thrills my soul with the possiblities of what is waiting yet to be discovered!