1 Samuel 29:1 Commentary and Bible Study

So Saul, the nominal believer, has a very bad ending. What about the backslider David? Back to him in chapter 29. We have come to the point in the life of David where he is living in Ziklag, down in the south – what was supposed to be territory of Judah. He is a guest of Achish king of Gath. Achish was the first of the five lords of the Philistines, the senior of them, and the only one of the five who was styled as a king, and he had taken in David. David had fled to him from Saul. We have seen previously, it was a disastrous thing to do; it was a great mistake; it was the second time he had done it. God had commanded him to stay in Judah through the prophet Gad, but he got into a very depressed state of mind, (even after a time when he had seen a remarkable deliverance from the hand of Saul), and he said to himself, ‘I shall now perish [be killed] one day by the hand of Saul’ (1 Samuel 27:1), and so he went to Achish. Now he must have had some reason to believe that Achish would be hospitable to him, and indeed he was. He stayed in Ziklag, – if we understand the record correctly – for something like a year and four months. During that time he conducted raiding parties into Philistine territory, and even Amalekite territory, and all the time he misled Achish king of Gath into thinking that he was raiding his own people, the Israelites. So David got into this period of his life where he disobeyed God, although he never ceased to be a believer. He put himself in an outrageous, an impossible situation, and he frequently lied to cover his tracks. Of course, the Israelites were delighted with him, because they were being attacked by the Philistine marauding, raiding parties, and it was David down there in Ziklag, who would retaliate and respond, not Saul, and it was Saul's calling to do this, but actually David was doing it. Of course it was quite out of keeping with his being guest of the first lord of the Philistines, who had given him that city, and so he had to lie constantly and show excessive cruelty to his enemies, so that none ever survived to tell the story that might find its way back to the king of Gath. Now the beginning of chapter 29; David's position is impossible. Well, at the beginning of chapter 28, we have been introduced to it: ‘And it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel. And Achish [David’s host] said unto David, Know thou assuredly, that thou shalt go out with me to battle, thou and thy men (1 Samuel 28:1). Well how could David do that? If he went out to battle with the Philistines against his own people, how would God's purpose for him ever be fulfilled? How could the Israelites receive him and trust him as king, in the event of the death of Saul, if he had made himself their enemy and their executioner? Of course this was an impossible position, and we can only assume that David – though he couldn't conveniently and easily just clear off – looked to God to be delivered from the impossible position he had put himself in. ‘Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek: and the Israelites pitched by a fountain which is in Jezreel. ² And the lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds, and by thousands: but David and his men passed on in the rereward with Achish.’ It was an enormous force that was raised. David and his six hundred men passed on in the rear with Achish. Aphek is about fifty miles from Ziklag, and David had to make that route march up with his six hundred men from Ziklag. It is said that it would have taken them anything from three to four days. He actually goes and offers himself and his men in the service of the Philistines. Now we know Saul was a monster by now, and a tyrant, and had hounded David out of the country. But that David could even think of selling himself and his services to the enemy’s side! Still God is going to deliver him, but there is going to be a deep trial; it will be used to restore his faith again. God completely overrules in a remarkable way, and God's deliverance comes in this way. What mercy God shows to his people, in delivering them sometimes from their very worst selves! Here is grace: something happens now that David doesn't deserve, at all.