2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
It seemed to me rather odd at first that God would direct Samuel to include the 16 months of David’s life in Philistia with King Achish in the middle of this narrative of events leading from his covenant with Jonathan to how it impacted the life of Jonathan’s son, Mephibosheth. Once again, I needed to be reminded that not one word of the Scriptures is waste or there without a reason. That is why I’m led to write this message on 1 SAM 27: 1-28: 2 this morning. Through this time in Philistia, watch for God’s interaction with David to see how He carries out His part of their covenant relationship. Also note how accurately David takes God’s direction and what results from that in this story.
After the incident where David and Abishai had gone into Saul’s camp and taken his sword and his water jug, Saul realized that once again David had spared his life while he was in David’s power to take it. The two armies parted, and we are allowed to see into David’s thoughts in 1 SAM 27: 1-2, “David said to himself, ‘One of these days Saul will kill me. The best thing for me to do is to escape to Philistia. Then Saul will give up looking for me in Israel, and I will be safe.’ So David and his six hundred men went over at once to Achish son of Maoch, king of Gath.” This seems initially to be a rather curious thing for David to do, but we must put this incident in the context of time and geography to better understand it. This was early enough in David’s history that the wars between Israel and the Philistines hadn’t reached their crescendo yet. Philistia was a strip of land that lays within modern-day Israel’s borders along the SW coast of the Mediterranean Sea. At that time, it was a separate and idolatrous nation. King Achish gave David and his men the town if Ziklag [northeast of the Garar River and the town of Garar. The more modern description of its location is NW of Beersheba.] 1 SAM 27: 6-7, “So Achish gave him the town of Ziklag and for this reason Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah ever since. David lived in Philistia for sixteen months.”
King Achish was clearly aware of the fact that while David and his men lived in Ziklag, they would go on raids in the southern portion of Israel, but David was never forthcoming about exactly where these raids actually took place. While they were really attacks on the people of Geshur, Girzi, and Amalek, David told Achish they were in the southern part of Judah or to the territory of the tribe of Jerahmeel or to the territory where the Kenites lived. During these raids, all the men, women, children and even animals belonging to these people who had occupied their land for a long time were killed, so that no one could come back to Achish and tell him the truth (8-11). It would easy to jump to judgment against David for this deception, but it must be remembered from the days of Joshua that God wanted the Jews to kill all these idolatrous people in His quest to fulfill His covenant promise to give the Jews the land [DT 20: 16-18; JS 6: 17-21]. David was fulfilling one of his covenant agreements in obeying God here.
We are allowed to know Achish’s thoughts in 1 SAM 27: 12-28: 2, “But Achish trusted David and said to himself, ‘He is hated so much by his own people the Israelites that he will have to serve me all his life.’ Some time later the Philistines gathered their troops to fight Israel, and Achish said to David, ‘Of course you understand that you and your men are to fight on my side.’ ‘Of course,’ David answered, ‘I am your servant, and you will see for yourself what I can do.’ Achish said, ‘Good! I will make you my permanent bodyguard.’” Imagine! David fighting on the side of the Philistines?! This passage evokes two reactions in me. 1) We can note how very far from truth that men not led by God really are. Remember Christ saying in JN 8: 31-32, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free?” Achish and the Philistines are hardly free in the real sense of that word. They have “exchanged the truth for a lie” as RO 1:25 says. God is truth, and these men don’t know God. 2) I can’t help but notice a pattern first seen in GN 41:40-41 when Joseph was made governor over Egypt, second in command to the Pharoah himself. This pattern also is seen in Daniel when Daniel becomes King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia’s most trusted advisor in DN 2:47-48. In 1 SAM 27: 28: 2, we see the Philistine king making David, the future king of Israel, his most trusted bodyguard. What more evidence must we see that God can accomplish anything He wants? [MK10: 27]. Amazingly, we can now see the value of this story of David’s 16 months in Philistia being included here. It is a story of God’s covenant transcending generations of Jews and helps us to understand the great value of taking our own willingness to live up to our Covenant of Grace agreements. We also see God’s supremacy, sovereignty, faithfulness, compassion, and protection of His covenant partners at work.
PRAYER: O Lord, You have shown us by the story of David’s sixteen months in Philistia with King Achish that Your will is supreme and shall be carried out. There are times when you do this in ways that astonish us, as You did by making Joseph second in command in Egypt, Daniel King Nebuchanezzar’s most trusted advisor, and David the Philistine King Achish’s personal bodyguard and a soldier on the side of Israel’s enemies. We can’t help but see how Your promise of land made in the Abrahamic Covenant is consistent and that covenant promises made by the Jews of Abraham’s time still apply to the people in David’s time and for all eternity. We must understand the eternal nature of these covenant promises, just as You do. We must model Your behavior in keeping Your promises to us. Had David refused to obey You, Dear Lord, the cost to him personally and to us would have been unthinkable. That is because it was from the royal line of David that You brought us Jesus Christ, our Messiah and King. We do not need to understand all the details of Your commands when You give them to us. What we must do is to obey them in an accurate and timely fashion. We dedicate ourselves to doing this and to taking time from our busy lives to listen to You for direction. None of this or the protection that will allow us to eventually live in eternal joy and fellowship with You would be available to us were it not for Your profound love, patience, and compassion toward us. For these reasons and so many more, we humbly approach Your altar to offer You our adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, trust, obedience, glory, honor, praise, and thanks. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will continue our story of David and Saul, by seeing what happens when Saul commits a grievous act of disobedience against God and the consequences that follow. Mephibosheth has not been forgotten. All these events that lead up to his story really reveal how much our own covenant agreements matter and how small acts of obedience can have huge implications. In the meanwhile, take comfort in knowing that as faithful servants of God, He is surrounding us with the warmth, guidance, and protection of His love no matter what kind of spiritual warfare we must face. We are all winners when we are on God’s side and He is at the helm of our lives. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn