27:1-4
David Leaves Israel for Philistia
Despite Saul’s apparent repentance, David did not believe Saul would abandon his desire to kill him. After all, Saul had said these things many times before. Each time he returned to his pursuit of David.
David decided to move to the land of the Philistines to escape Saul. Saul would not pursue David there, since it would lead to war with the Philistines. The Philistines seem to have had a superior army at the time.
There is an element of unbelief here, a moment of doubt. Whereas David previously said that God would deal with Saul on David’s behalf, here he says “Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that i should escape to the land of the Philistines”. (1)
There is a play on words here. 1 Samuel 26:10 says Saul may go down to battle and perish (at the hand of the Lord). Now, in 27:1, David says he will perish at the hands of Saul. The Hebrew word can also mean “swept away”. (Note that the New International Version does not reveal this because it uses the word “destroy” in 27:1 even though it is the same word translated as “perish” in 26:10)
Nothing indicates that David sought the Lord before making the decision. He did not send for the high priest and the ephod as he had before.
David had been to Gath before by himself. He had not been received well and had to act crazy to escape. (1 Samuel 21:10-15) This time, however, he arrived with 600 fighting men. Achish, the king of Gath, must have believed David could be useful and allowed him to stay.
David had his two wives with him and his men had their families (“household”) with them. Their total number must have been at least two thousand.
As David had hoped, Samuel abandoned his pursuit once he knew David was in Gath.
David Moves To Ziklag
17:5-7
David asked Achish to give him one of the country towns instead of living in the royal city. This would get him away from Achish’s direct supervision.
Achish gave Davi Ziklag. Ziklag was part of the territory God gave Israel. He gave them the land all the way to the Mediterranean Sea, but they did not conquer it.
Ziklag was allotted to the tribe of Judah, David’s tribe. But they had not conquered it, or had lost it to the Philistines. He lived there 16 months.
While David was in Ziklag, many more men came to him. 1 Chronicles 12 gives us a list. Some of them became David’s “mighty men”. They were skilled at warfare. They could use bows and arrows. They could use slings with either hand.
One group of men were Benjaminites, the tribe of Saul. There was also a group of Gadites (men from the tribe of Gad) who had come to David in the wilderness. They were also great warriors, strong and fast, and experts with weapons. They became leaders in David’s army.
Some men of the tribe of Manasseh also came to David. (1 Chronicles 12:19) Some were chiefs of thousands, mighty men of valor. The defections continued until David had a great army. (1 Chronicles 12:22)
David The Raider
27:8-12
From Ziklag, David and his army conducted raids against other people groups that occupied parts of southwest Israel. These were Canaanite tribes who had been in the land a long time (“from of old”).
He shared the bounty with King Achish, insuring his friendship. He also lied to Achish, saying he was raiding the Israelites. This made Achish believe David could never be part of Israel again and so would remain a loyal servant of Achish.
David himself must have become quite wealthy in this process.
But, notice that David doesn’t just raid, he destroys. He killed all of the people, but kept their livestock and other possessions as he returned to Ziklag. He killed them so they could not come to Gath and tell what David had done. He became more than David the raider; he became David the butcher.
Takeaways
It is important to speak truth to yourself rather than the lies of fear. You say the truth about the power of the Lord and his willingness to help.
David talked to himself (“David said to his heart). But he doubted God. He said Saul will win and kill me. Yet, God had told him differently. He had been anointed to be king by Samuel, the prophet and last judge of Israel. That had be reaffirmed by Jonathan and Abigail. It had been acknowledged even by Saul.
Instead of looking to God for security, David looked to the Philistines, a pagan people. He was successful in that Saul did not come after him. And for that, he may have felt justified in all of his actions.
Be careful what you speak to your heart.
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