1 Samuel 26:2 Commentary and Bible Study

As before (1 Samuel 24:2) Saul takes with him three thousand crack troops especially selected from Israel, versus David's six hundred men who were not trained soldiers at all. ‘And Saul pitched in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon, by the way. But David abode in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness.’ What happens in this 26^th chapter is, to a large extent, a repeat of what happens in chapter 23. Of course this incident is quite different: different place, different circumstances, but very similar in principle. And we ask, why? Why do you have chapter 23, and chapter 26 to 28, where very similar kind of things happen? His faith is tested, very powerfully, but his faith holds and his obedience to the Lord. And then, seemingly unaccountably, once his faith has held, he collapses and gives way to false reasoning. But then he recovers himself, and God strengthens him and blesses him. Yet now an almost parallel series of events takes place and so the lesson is reinforced, as if we needed to see it all over again. What faith and trust David required. As we go through these chapters, we see that he is vulnerable to failure and to falls. But we say that carefully, because when you consider the extent of the hostility against him, and his terrible predicament, and the length of time for which it went on, you can understand that he was strained to the very limit.