Day to Day

1 Samuel 27

¹ Then David said in his heart, “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. Then Saul will despair of seeking me any longer within the borders of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand.”

² So David arose and went over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath.

³ And David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal’s widow.

⁴ And when it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, he no longer sought him.

⁵ Then David said to Achish, “If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be given me in one of the country towns, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?”

⁶ So that day Achish gave him Ziklag. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day.

⁷ And the number of the days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months.

⁸ Now David and his men went up and made raids against the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites, for these were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as far as Shur, to the land of Egypt.

⁹ And David would strike the land and would leave neither man nor woman alive, but would take away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the garments, and come back to Achish.

¹⁰ When Achish asked, “Where have you made a raid today?” David would say, “Against the Negeb of Judah,” or, “Against the Negeb of the Jerahmeelites,” or, “Against the Negeb of the Kenites.”

¹¹ And David would leave neither man nor woman alive to bring news to Gath, thinking, “lest they should tell about us and say, ‘So David has done.’ ” Such was his custom all the while he lived in the country of the Philistines.

¹² And Achish trusted David, thinking, “He has made himself an utter stench to his people Israel; therefore he shall always be my servant.”

You’ve heard the adage, “keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” Well, apparently that is what King Achish has decided to do. Even though David and this king are enemies, they agree to live together in a fairly peaceful way for 16 months. It is not safe for David to live where Saul can still reach him, so he flees into enemy territory and lives there with his men and their families. This is an interesting move on the part of Achish, to allow a very well trained and seasoned “army” to live in his territory; even to the point of giving David a city of his own. David’s use of the largess of Achish is intriguing and I’m not sure whether those lies about where David had been and whom he had conquered were shrewd or godly, but they served the purpose in allowing David to protect and defend God’s people. Residence in Ziklag, located on the Philistine / Judah border, allowed David to remain out of Saul’s grasp and served as the leader of God’s people from a foreign land.

During this time, God remains silent. He gives neither recrimination nor reward to David for his actions. So we cannot make any assumptions about God’s feelings toward David’s choices at this time. What we know is that David still had it in his heart to lead and protect God’s people. Here is where our lives are like David’s. If you are hearing from God on a moment by moment basis, you are indeed rare. Our biblical model is that God just doesn’t feel the need to communicate with us all of the time. We are expected to live our lives, making decisions based on what we know of God and His ways. If He doesn’t like our path or wants to redirect, then he will intervene. But for the most part, we move through our days doing the things that need to be done. During these days, I’m sure that David prayed, praised, and worshipped on a daily basis. The Scriptures attest to the fact that this is the man that he was throughout his life. That is who we can also strive to be; people who pray, praise, and worship on a daily basis.

If you want to read ahead --- tomorrow we deal with the story of Saul and the witch of Endor. What an interesting story waits us! There’s a tease for you!