And David went thence to Mizpeh in Moab, and said to the king of Moab, Let my father and my mother, I pray thee, come forth amongst you, till I know what God will do for me.
David has just become the centre of a growing company at the cave of Adullam. His next move is to take his elderly father and mother out of Saul's reach and put them in the care of a foreign king. Commentators read the move in very different ways: was it a son's proper duty, or a step off the ground God had given him?
The practical reasons for the move lie on the surface.
David's parents were no longer young, so exile with David would be a hard experience for them. David was likely afraid that they would be in danger of persecution from Saul if they stayed in their own home. So he took them to Moab (v.3), and asked the king of Moab to keep them under his protection until David's situation settled. This was not the resource of faith, but of natural expediency.
Moab was Ruth's country, and David came from her line. One writer finds a warning in that, not a welcome.
The thought of Moab as a refuge for his father and mother would be entirely natural to a descendant of Ruth; but her history had a very different lesson for him. Those two names are strikingly alike in meaning: Elimelech, "my God is king," and Jesse, "Jehovah exists." Yet here are Elimelech and Jesse, fugitives in Moab. How that contradicts what their names mean! And would the Moabitess who left her country to come into poverty and reproach in Bethlehem have advised a return to Moab? No; for the word is — David's own word, once he had learned the lesson — "Dwell in the land, and truly you shall be fed." The land was Israel's inheritance, God's gift. Nothing could take it from the faith that laid hold of it.
(That last line is the writer's own rendering of Psalm 37:3. The ESV reads, "Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.")
The tension here is not between love and selfishness. It is between two good things, and that is what makes it hard to see.
Saul had abandoned the responsibilities of his calling for self-gratification: will David abandon his for the sake of his parents? The importance of the question is our reason for dwelling on it; for duties and cares may lead a true soul astray when plain self-seeking would have alarmed it. Now we must not refuse the claims of natural affection: Scripture upholds them (Ex. 20:12, 1 Tim. 5:8). They must, however, come second to the higher claims of Him who created all things for His pleasure. We must let neither the dead nor the living, however dear, get in the way (Luke 9:59-61). He must be first, and all needed things will be added.
David asked for shelter only until he knew what God would do for him. The arrangement did not stay temporary.
He turned away from what he knew was "the inheritance of the LORD" and looked for help in his difficulty from idolatrous Moab. This was neither the fear nor the way of the LORD. It was the way of nature. Once he had got into Moab, he and his followers are next found "in the stronghold" there. It is easier to leave God's path than to return to it. How many have left it for the sake of their families who would never have left it for their own!
Commentators differ over how much blame David deserves. Some hold back from a verdict altogether.
Here, too, we will not condemn him too strictly for the weakness of faith that fails to count entirely on the faithfulness of God. Moab stands for religious profession, and profession is surely no place of shelter for the people of God.
God did not leave David in Moab.
There was a real difference between David's flight to Gath in complete distrust of God, and his turning to Moab for the sake of his aged parents. To deliver him from Gath, he was humbled before the Philistines. To restore him from Moab, the Lord in sovereign grace stepped in by the prophet Gad — that is, by His word. He said to him, "Do not remain in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah." … David knew well what obeying would cost him. It meant giving up a position of apparent quiet and facing persecution, danger and distress. Yet he obeyed.
- The land. The land was Israel's inheritance and God's gift. Safety lay inside it, not outside.
- Leaving it. Love for his parents, not selfishness, carried David over the border — which is why the step was so hard to spot.
- Settling in it. A temporary shelter became a stronghold; leaving the path of God is easier than getting back on it.
- Called out of it. God restored him not by humiliation but by a word through the prophet Gad: leave the stronghold, go back to Judah.
- Back in it. Returning meant losing a place of apparent quiet and facing danger. David obeyed anyway.
And he brought them before the king of Moab; and they abode with him all the while that David was in the stronghold.
David is on the run from Saul. He puts his elderly father and mother in the care of a foreign king, and this verse tells us how long they stayed there. Was that the move of faith, or of a worried son doing the natural thing?
David's brothers could share a cave with him. His aged parents could not.
It was natural to think of his parents. The Lord thought of His mother on the cross, and provided a home for her with John the Evangelist. But was David right in placing Jesse and his mother under the protecting care of an idolatrous king? … His brothers had come to him in the cave of Adullam, but the care of their aged parents clearly fell to David.
Not every writer presses the charge hard.
David's parents were too old to bear the hardships he faced, so they find a temporary shelter with the king of Moab. Ruth, David's ancestor, was a Moabite woman, and there seems to have been a certain friendliness between David and the Moabites. Here too we will not condemn him too harshly. His faith was weak, and it failed to count fully on the faithfulness of God.
Moab was in the family history. Ruth, David's ancestor, had come from there. That made the door easy to open. It also made the choice strange.
A descendant of Ruth would think of Moab at once as a refuge for his father and mother. But her history had a very different lesson for him. The two names mean almost the same thing — Elimelech, "my God is king," and Jesse, "the LORD exists." Yet both men became fugitives in Moab. How that contradicts the meaning of their names! And the woman of Moab who left her country to come into poverty and reproach in Bethlehem — would she have advised a return to Moab?
Commentators are broadly agreed on what the move was: sensible, understandable, and not the path of trust.
David likely feared that Saul would persecute his parents if they stayed at home. So he took them to Moab (v. 3). He asked the king of Moab to keep them under his protection until his own circumstances settled. This was not the resource of faith, but of natural convenience.
One step like this tends to fix a man in place. That is what our verse records.
He turned away from what he knew was "the inheritance of the LORD" and sought help in his trouble from idolatrous Moab. This was neither the fear nor the way of the LORD. It was the way of nature… Once in Moab, he and his followers are next found "in the stronghold" there. It is easier to leave God's path than to return to it. How many have left it for the sake of their families who would never have left it for their own!
There is a longer view. David took protection from a king he would one day have to judge.
How painfully inconsistent, then, to ask them for favours in the time of trouble, when he must deal with them in judgment once he was in power! The saints of God will surely sit with Christ when He judges the world in righteousness. What can be more inconsistent than to seek the world's friendship now, to win its passing favour and protection!
David meant to settle in the stronghold. God would not let him.
He thought of making his nest there — more than a nest, a stronghold. It was not according to the mind of the Lord… He was trying to escape the troubles ahead of him. He had to learn patience and endurance… In all his unbelief and failures the Lord did not forsake him. His watchful, loving eye followed His rejected servant.
The recovery came by a word, and obedience cost David the quiet he had found.
To restore him from Moab, the Lord, in sovereign grace, stepped in through the prophet Gad — that is, by His word… David knew well that obeying meant giving up a position of apparent quiet. It meant facing persecution, danger and distress. Yet he obeyed, and in the wilderness of Judah and its caves he composed some of the most instructive and beautiful of his psalms.
- Natural. Thinking of his parents was right, and the Lord Himself did it from the cross. The question is not the love, but where David placed them.
- Convenient. Moab was open to him through Ruth. That made it the easy door, not the faithful one — natural convenience, not faith.
- Sticky. "All the time" is the warning in the verse. A step off the path settles into a stay, and returning is harder than leaving.
- Inconsistent. He leaned on a king he would later have to judge. God's people do the same when they seek the world's protection now.
- Recovered. God did not abandon him. A word through Gad moved him out of the stronghold into danger, and out of that danger came some of his psalms.