And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me to seek me any more within all the limits of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand.
David has just come through a striking victory, with God's protection proved again and again. Then, in one sentence spoken only to himself, he decides he is a dead man — and that his safety lies with the Philistines.
This failure comes right after David's finest hour. One writer traces the collapse to what a great victory can do to a man's view of himself.
Isn't it surprising to see David's weakness here after so many striking marks of divine protection? Just yesterday he had said, full of confidence: "Let my life be highly esteemed in the eyes of the LORD, that He may deliver me out of all distress!" Today his courage is gone... We must often experience that a great victory is apt to be followed by a great despondency. When God was with us, did we not happen to attribute something to ourselves?... So God leaves us to ourselves — I am not saying, of course, that He abandons us — to show us that we cannot put any confidence in the flesh.
Another points out the irony of the timing: the threat David dreaded was in fact finished.
Worn out at last by constant exposure to the king's malice, he says in his heart, "Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul." And he says it just when the danger appears to be over... The man of faith leaves God's ground and deliberately looks for shelter in enemy country.
The verse tells us where this decision was born: in David's heart. What starts there does not stay there.
The heart is the birthplace of unbelief — but also the place where God creates true faith... David gives way to fear that dishonours God. Then, forgetting God, he looks around for a place of safety — and what a sad choice he makes! In his judgment it was the best: there was nothing better than to flee to the Philistines! A heart that distrusts God turns to the world, and it always makes the worst choice. Mark it well, dear reader, the evil began secretly in his heart, and ended in taking the position of an open enemy.
David had many rescues behind him. Unbelief refuses to count them. One writer sets the two ways of reasoning side by side.
How opposite is the arguing of unbelief to that of faith! Faith reasons, "Because You have been my help in the past, therefore I will rejoice in the shadow of Your wings." Every past mercy is a pledge for mercy to come. Unbelief treats every new danger as a bigger threat than anything before it. It forgets the mercy of God and remembers only the dangers it has passed through. We need not be hard on David. Better to ask ourselves: have we not often fallen the same way?
David's plan worked, in the narrow sense: Saul stopped hunting him. The bill came in elsewhere.
David's judgment about Saul was correct... But at what a price did David buy rest from the king's relentless pursuit! Deception marked him again. By accepting the town of Ziklag as a gift from Achish, he openly admitted the Philistine king's right to hand out land that belonged to God's people. A refugee from his own country, living off the bounty of Achish... he was ready to add his men to the Philistine army.
The pull here is not open wickedness. It is the longing to stop living under pressure.
Without grace, we grow tired of attacks that come again and again. The soul loses sight of the Lord and asks: why not give up my principles for a while? Why not drop my testimony, and leave the ground I know is the heritage of God's people? Can I not let all this go for a time, just to get a little ease? Here David steps onto the very ground that all Saul's power had never been able to drive him to. It is ever true that our greatest enemy lurks in our own hearts.
David has failed badly. What comes next is not what anyone would expect.
At the end his faith breaks down; and he, fearing he shall one day fall by the sword of Saul, falls away to the Philistines... We might expect some rebuke or dreadful chastisement. "But He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust." A battle takes place. David is still on the Philistine side, but God keeps him far from the battlefield. Saul is killed, and the crown comes to David... The blessing comes in the moment of failure. It displays the infirmity of the vessel and the gracious faithfulness of God.
- Heart — the ruin starts in an unspoken thought, not a public act: "the evil began secretly in his heart, and ended in taking the position of an open enemy."
- Forgetting — faith counts past mercy as a pledge of mercy to come. Unbelief remembers only the dangers.
- Timing — David breaks down right after his greatest victory, just when the danger from Saul was over.
- Cost — the escape bought rest at the price of deception, living off Achish, and readiness to march with the Philistine army.
- Grace — the crown arrives while David is still in the wrong place. His fear proved false; God's faithfulness proved larger than his failure.
And David arose and passed over, he and the six hundred men that were with him, to Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath.
David's faith has just collapsed, right after a great victory. So he walks out of Israel with his whole company and puts himself under a Philistine king — in Goliath's own city, and without asking God.
David was afraid. The deeper problem is that he never asked God, as he had done before. One writer lines up the questions this move leaves open:
Is it God who is commanding David to save himself in the land of the Philistines? Weren't his earlier experiences at Achish's court enough (1 Sam. 21:11-15)? Was it God who had sent him there then? No. Back then God gave him a clear command through the prophet Gad: go into the land of Judah (1 Sam. 22:5). Had God taken that command back? And why didn't he inquire of the Lord as he had done at Keilah (1 Sam. 23:1-13)? Rushing ahead, discouragement, forgetting God's word, asking Israel's enemies for help, trusting his own thoughts instead of seeking God's direction — every one of these weaknesses comes together in David here.
David could have gone elsewhere. And one step of unbelief forces the next:
After a great victory, and a wonderful display of God's goodness to him, David's faith collapses again. He sees nothing ahead but dying one day at Saul's hand. So he makes a decision in which no wisdom from God guides him at all. He leaves the inheritance of the Lord for the land of Israel's pagan enemy. He does not even go to Moab. He goes to Gath — the city of the giant he had beaten by faith, and the place where he had already failed badly once before through unbelief. The higher the height, the deeper the fall. Once he gives in to unbelief, one false step makes another necessary, and one lie needs a second lie to back it up. He has to add cruelty to deceit, and many lives have to pay the price to keep his own safe. What a cowardly thing unbelief is!
Six hundred men went with him. This failure was not private:
He had before overcome the power of Goliath of Gath. Now he becomes friendly with Goliath's city. We too may once have won a clear victory over the world. Then later, as faith weakens, we become friendly with it. He takes his 600 men with him. So his lack of faith pulls others the wrong way too, including all their families. We may wonder why Achish and his people were not alarmed by an army of 600 Israelites coming to stay in their city. Some of them probably had doubts, but Achish seems rather naive.
David got what he wanted: Saul stopped hunting him. But this safety cost him more than the danger did:
He receives the town of Ziklag and stays there for sixteen months. During that time he has no fear of Saul at all. But he is far from God and far from Israel. It is, in one sense, a very easy matter to get out of a place of trial; but then we get out of a place of blessing also. David would have been much happier if he had stayed where Saul could reach him, but with the protection of the God of Israel. That was far better than looking for safety in the arm of the king of Gath. The enemy always has a side road open to the man of faith. He had an Egypt for Abraham and a Ziklag for David. Now he has the world, in all its many forms, for us.
The move solved nothing. David traded one threat for another, with no claim on God's protection:
When a believer runs into the world to escape the fear of trial, he is sure to increase his own troubles and sorrows. So it was with David. Is fear removed? No. It only takes a different form. His life is now in real danger, because he had no right to claim the protection of the God of Israel. But mercy is above all, and his great danger is the means of driving him back to the land which he ought not to have left.
David's place in Gath is bought with dishonesty. Yet God does not drop him:
In the land of the Philistines he wins the king's favour. He does it not by faith, but by a shrewdness that did not keep to the truth. It is an unhappy position. Still, God does not abandon him. He chastises him, and in a painful manner, but He spares and preserves him.
- One step. David "arose and went over" after a single despairing thought — and right after a great victory and a fresh display of God's goodness.
- One question skipped. At Keilah he asked God. Here he asked no one, and trusted his own thinking instead.
- One place chosen. Not Moab, but Gath — the city of the giant he had beaten, and the scene of his earlier failure.
- Six hundred followed. His weak faith pulled a whole company, and all their families, into enemy land.
- One mercy. He escaped the trial but left the blessing. God disciplined him hard, and preserved him through it all.
And David abode with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household; David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jizreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's wife.
David has just spared Saul's life a second time, and now he moves his whole camp into Gath, the city of the giant he once killed. He lives there under Achish, the Philistine ruler, and Saul gives up the chase — but at what cost?
David chose this. He left God's ground and went to live among the people he had spent years fighting.
The man of faith deserts the ground of God, and deliberately seeks a shelter in the country of the enemy. David arises, passing over to the enemy he had so often conquered… Can we wonder that so evil a step led to others? Or that David then kept up a course of deception of the most painful and pitiable kind? And this in a servant of the Lord who was once so true, so simple, so open.
One writer points to the timing. David's courage failed the day after he spoke with such confidence.
Isn't it surprising to see David's weakness here after so many striking marks of divine protection? Just yesterday he had said, full of confidence: "So may my life be precious in the sight of the Lord, and may He deliver me out of all tribulation." Today his courage is gone… We often have to learn that a great victory can bring on a great despondency. When God was with us, did we not happen to attribute something to ourselves?
The verse counts David's men and every household with them. One writer weighs what a leader's weak faith cost those families — and asks why Gath let them in at all.
He had before overcome the power of Goliath of Gath. Now he becomes friendly with Goliath's city. We too may at one time have gained a clear victory over the world, then later become friendly with it because of weakening faith. He takes his 600 men with him. So his lack of faith pulls others the wrong way too, including all their families. We may wonder why Achish and his people were not alarmed by an army of 600 Israelites coming to live in their city. Probably at least some of them had misgivings, but Achish seems to have been naive.
Why bring wives and children into enemy country?
This suggests the thought that another motive was at work. Every man with him had his household, and David had his two wives, Ahinoam and Abigail. Was there not a longing of heart for rest as well as safety, for a home as well as a refuge? And if it could not be in the land of Judah, then with the enemies of God?
The move worked: Saul gave up the chase. That success is where the warning lies.
David does indeed rid himself of Saul. But in giving up his trouble, how much more does he sacrifice with it!… It is one thing to rid ourselves of trial, and another to keep the sense of God's approval. Whenever we are pressed to give up a clear principle and a true position, we are in effect leaving the land of Judah ("praise") and going down into the Philistines' country. That pressure may come from open opposition, or from the plea that we shall gain fresh supporters.
One writer notices what this period did not produce.
A single false step seems to cancel the lovely walk of faith that had marked him. But it is good for our souls to measure the depth of these cliffs… For David to save himself by fleeing to Achish could in no way be a type of Christ. There was no altar for Abraham in Egypt; David's second stay among the Philistines did not inspire him with any psalm.
Both women are named again here, and commentators read them as pictures — though they differ on which picture. One takes them as two distinct figures:
Abigail (the father's joy), like Rebecca, is one of the rare types in the Old Testament who prefigures the Church; she is the Bride, David's voluntary, humble, joyful associate during the days of his rejection. Ahinoam (the son's grace), who is more in the background, represents rather, as I see it, the remnant of Israel who have entered into relationship with the Messiah before the establishment of His reign.
Another takes the two together, and draws attention to what they went through with him:
Ahinoam was of Jezreel, a place linked with the enemy early on… she and Abigail give the position of the remnant before the king reigns. They more than anticipate the joy and glory of the kingdom, since they shared in his sufferings.
What follows in the story is neither instant punishment nor a blind eye.
David, however, is loved — surely he is, and, in the great sense, as deeply as ever. But the Lord has not treated his sin lightly. He is loved… for the Lord steps in to save him from the huge results of his unbelief and lies… Yet the burning of Ziklag and the carrying off of all that was in it lie ahead of him. They will let him know, and know it painfully, that the Lord has not overlooked his sin.
- Cause. A great victory can breed quiet self-satisfaction, and self-satisfaction opens the heart to a fall.
- Choice. David's step was deliberate. He left God's ground and picked the enemy's country.
- Reach. No choice like this stays personal. 600 men, their families and his two wives all went into Gath with him.
- Relief. Saul stopped hunting him. Trouble can end and the sense of God's approval can go in the same move.
- Result. No psalm, no picture of Christ, and Ziklag in flames ahead — yet God still loved him, and stepped in to limit the damage.
And it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath; and he sought no more for him.
David's plan worked. As soon as Saul heard that David had crossed into Philistine land, the manhunt stopped. But is relief the same as blessing? The verse raises the question of what David gave up to buy his quiet.
The hunt stopped. But what did the stopping cost? One writer points to the chapters that follow.
Grace alone is able to prevent our fall, but often we must long experience the consequences of a walk which did not have the Lord's approval. This course delivers David from Saul's pursuit: "And when it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, he no longer sought him" (v. 4). At what price? The following chapters inform us, and this chapter instructs us already.
The move to Gath grew out of a wish every hunted believer knows — that the attacks would stop.
But we would like to get rid of the constant assaults of persecution. Without grace, we grow weary of repeated attacks. The soul loses sight of the Lord and asks: Shall I not sacrifice my principles for the time being? Shall I not give up my testimony? Shall I not leave the ground which I see to be the heritage of God's people? Can I not let all this go for a while, to get a little ease? Here David takes the ground to which all the power of Saul had never been able to drive him. It is always true that our greatest enemy hides in our own hearts. Not all the malice of Satan, nor the cunning of men, can dislodge a soul that trusts the living God without wavering.
Saul lost his target, and David lost something he had held through years of running. The place he chose says the rest.
David goes back to the court of Achish, to the very city of Gath where Goliath had once lived, and he takes his whole household and his fighting men with him. He does indeed rid himself of Saul, but in giving up his trouble, how much more does he sacrifice with it! It was told Saul that David had fled to Achish, and he no longer sought him. But it is one thing to rid ourselves of trial, and another to keep the sense of God's approval... whenever we are pressed to sacrifice a clear principle and a true position, we are in effect leaving the land of Judah ("praise") and going down into the Philistines' country. The pressure may come from opposition, or from the plea that we will gain fresh supporters.
A truce with the enemy is not the same as safety.
When Saul heard that David had gone to Gath, he no longer sought him (v.4). Having gone that far, David did not pose such a threat to Saul's comfort. What a lesson there is for us here. Leaving the ground of testimony for God may avoid Satan's direct persecution. Yet the deceit involved in this lack of faith will reap a painful harvest, as David learns later.
One writer weighs David's years of faith against this one step.
A single false step seems to cancel the lovely walk of faith which had marked him... For David to save himself by fleeing to Achish could in no way be a picture of Christ. There was no altar for Abraham in Egypt; David's second stay among the Philistines did not inspire him with any psalm.
The line to God was never cut.
David had still maintained unbroken communication with God. Yet, tellingly, we do not find him making use of this priceless privilege during his stay in the land of the Philistines. Unbelief and communion with God do not go together.
David's failure did not end God's care for him.
David moves away from the royal city. In the land of the Philistines he gains the king's favour, not by faith, but by a shrewdness that is inconsistent with truth. It is an unhappy position. Still, God does not forsake him. He disciplines him, and in a painful way, but He spares and preserves him. We have seen similar ways of the Lord in the case of Jacob when he was a fugitive.
- Relief. Saul called off the hunt, just as David hoped. The plan worked — and that is what makes it a warning.
- Price. Escaping the trial cost David the sense of God's approval. He left the land of Judah, whose name means praise.
- Reason. David was no longer a threat to Saul's comfort. The enemy left him alone because his testimony had moved out of range.
- Silence. This stay produced no psalm, and David never used his open line to God — unbelief and communion do not keep company.
- Mercy. God disciplined David in a painful way, yet never forsook him. He spared him and preserved him.
And David said to Achish, If now I have found favour in thine eyes, let them give me a place in some country-town, that I may abide there; for why should thy servant abide in the royal city with thee?
David had just spared Saul's life a second time. Then he decided that Saul would kill him anyway. So he crossed into Philistine country, to Gath — the home town of the giant he once killed. Here he asks his old enemy's king for a town of his own. How did a man of such faith come to this, and what did it cost him?
David's words are careful and flattering. One writer explains the tact behind asking for a country town instead of the capital:
We have before seen that David's character was commendable, and he was soon able to gain the favour of Achish. So he asks Achish to allow him to live in a smaller town that was apparently under the authority of Gath, but some distance away. In suggesting this he implied that his presence in Gath might take away from the honour of the king in the royal city (v.5).
David had been to Gath once before. This time nobody drives him out. He asks for a permanent address.
As we have said, this was no sudden lapse in David, nor is he driven away from Achish as before. Instead he asks for a permanent place where he can stay, and Ziklag is given to him. It was well for David — as it is always well for us — that Another was working for him. He would overrule even David's acts of unbelief and folly. "Ziklag," we read, "belongs to the kings of Judah to this day."
Safety alone may not explain it. He came with families, and a town is a place to settle:
This suggests the thought that another motive was at work. Every man with him had his household, and David had his two wives, Ahinoam and Abigail. Was there not a longing of heart for rest as well as safety, for a home as well as a refuge? And if this could not be in the land of Judah, then among the enemies of God?
The grant worked. Saul stopped hunting him. But the deal had a price:
In following David further in his stay in the land of the Philistines, we only find fresh cause for humiliation. He gets the grant of Ziklag, where he stays for sixteen months. During that time he was free from all fear about Saul. But he was at a distance from God and from Israel. It is, in one sense, a very easy matter to get out of a place of trial; but then we get out of a place of blessing as well. … The enemy always keeps a side road open for the man of faith. He had an Egypt for Abraham, and a Ziklag for David; and now he has the world, in all its varied forms, for us.
Achish expected value for his gift. So David raided, lied about where he had raided, and left no survivors to contradict him:
Up to now David would not strike a blow against Israel under any circumstances. Yet what use was it to Achish to take him in if he did not? So to meet his searching questions about the raids he made, he had to deceive him. He did this so well that Achish said, "David has made his people Israel utterly detest him, therefore he shall be my servant for ever." But lies and tricks alone could not keep him from being found out. So of those he made war on, "he left neither man nor woman alive, lest they should tell about it." And this was his course for sixteen months!
Ziklag did not last:
David had received Ziklag as his wages for going over to the uncircumcised. Was it not "the wages of unrighteousness"? But the Lord can cut holes in the bags where we put money like this. And so He does here. While David was in the camp of the Philistines, the people of the south came to Ziklag — the very people he had beaten and slaughtered before. They burned the town and carried off everyone in it as captives: wives, children, cattle and all.
Commentators read David's move into Philistine country as a picture of something wider than one man's failure:
Is there not a parallel here? David left the land and made a home among the Philistines. The professing church forsakes its true place, forgets its standing, and makes a home for itself in the world — so as to avoid the consequence of the cross: hatred and persecution from the enemies of Christ. … As a whole the professing church is living contentedly in a kind of spiritual Ziklag, until God permits the enemy to overthrow it. … It is righteous judgment, but also great mercy. For God will bring His people, those true in heart to the person of Christ, out of every false position.
- The thought: one distrustful thought — that Saul would win — sent David to ask a favour of the enemy he had once beaten.
- The ask: careful, flattering words, aimed at a quiet country town far enough from the royal city to give him room of his own.
- The gift: Achish gave him Ziklag and the hunting stopped. Relief from trial cost him distance from God and from Israel.
- The upkeep: only lies kept Achish satisfied, so David paid for his town in deceit and slaughter for sixteen months.
- The end: Ziklag burned. Yet the same grace that overruled his folly kept the town for the kings of Judah. God's purpose stood where David's faith had not.
And Achish gave him Ziklag that day; therefore Ziklag belongs to the kings of Judah to this day.
David has just spared Saul's life a second time. Instead of resting in that, he crosses into enemy country and asks the Philistine king for a town of his own. Two questions follow: what does a believer gain by escaping pressure his own way, and what does God do with a place gained by unbelief?
Commentators agree that God never sent David to Philistine country. One writer lines up the questions David failed to ask:
Is it God who is commanding David to save himself in the land of the Philistines? Weren't his earlier experiences at Achish's court enough (1 Sam. 21:11-15)? Did God send him there then? No. Through Gad, God had given him a clear command to go into the land of Judah (1 Sam. 22:5). Had that command been cancelled? And why didn't he ask the Lord, as he had done at Keilah? Rushing ahead, discouragement, forgetting God's word, seeking help from Israel's enemies, trusting his own thoughts instead of asking God for direction — all these weaknesses come together in David here.
The move worked: Saul stopped hunting him. But safety came at a price:
As we follow David in his further stay in the land of the Philistines, we find only fresh cause for humiliation. He gets the grant of Ziklag and stays there sixteen months. In that time he had no fear at all about Saul, but he was far from God and far from Israel. It is, in one sense, a very easy matter to get out of a place of trial; but then we get out of a place of blessing also.
Living as a guest of Israel's enemy led David into lying. One writer traces the same path in a Christian today:
The stay at Gath gives rise to falsehood. He cannot tell the Philistines that he has had to leave Israel, or he would look like their enemy... Just see how many serious consequences come with looking for the world's help! The Christian who is swamped by the "social conventions" he lives under loses his true character there. He no longer affects the consciences of those around him. He lives in fear of displeasing the world that is protecting him. Like David, he tries to destroy every witness who could give evidence of his hostility to the enemies of God's people. He no longer has a good conscience.
Ziklag kept David safe for a while. One writer weighs what that safety cost, and how long it could hold:
Ziklag may shelter for a time, but it will perish. Even while it lasts, it must be bought at the cost of a good conscience toward God and toward His people. A heavy price for a short relief from pressure! How much better to bear the pressure for a time!
David did win the Philistine king's favour. One writer shows how he won it, and how God dealt with him after:
David removes to a distance from the royal city. In the land of the Philistines he wins their king's favour — not by faith, but by a shrewdness that did not keep to the truth. It is an unhappy position. Still, God does not forsake him. He disciplines him, and in a painful way, but He spares and preserves him.
The verse ends by looking far past David's lifetime. A Philistine town stayed with the kings of Judah. One writer sees Someone else at work in it:
As we have said, this was no sudden lapse in David. He is not driven away from Achish as before. Instead he asks for a permanent place where he can stay, and Achish gives him Ziklag. It was good for David, as it is always good for us, that Another was working for him — One who would overrule even his acts of unbelief and folly. "Ziklag," we read, "has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day."
Ziklag's story runs past David's stay there. It also became a gathering point for men who sided with a king the nation had not yet accepted:
Ziklag was a city in the south of Judah, given to David by Achish, one of the Philistine kings. The Amalekites burned it down and carried its people away while David was gone, but he recovered the captives and the spoil, and the city later returned to the tribe of Judah. Scripture lists the warriors who came to David at Ziklag while Saul was still alive, and so while the nation had rejected David. 1 Chr. 12:1-22. Amasai, chief of the captains, said "We are yours, O David, and with you, O son of Jesse! Peace, peace to you, and peace to your helpers! For your God helps you." Cheering words to one in such a place! They seem to picture those who follow the Lord Jesus now, while the world at large still rejects Him.
- Cause. David acted without asking the Lord, and every weakness showed at once — haste, fear, forgetting God's word.
- Trade. Leaving the place of trial meant leaving the place of blessing. He escaped Saul but lost nearness to God and to Israel.
- Cost. A refuge the world gives costs you lies and a clear conscience — and it burns in the end.
- Grace. God's discipline was painful, yet He never left him. He spared and preserved the man whose own choices had put him in danger.
- Overruling. Another was at work for David. He turned this folly into lasting gain for Judah's kings, and made David's exile the gathering place of men loyal to a rejected king.
And the time that David abode in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months.
Sixteen months pass in one line of Scripture. David is living in enemy country, out of Saul's reach but far from the land God had told him to live in. How did he get there, what did the stay cost him, and how did God bring it to an end?
The number of months is not filler. One writer reads it as the point of the verse.
David remains in the land of the Philistines a long time, a year and four months. That shows how long a course of departure from God may continue.
David reached Ziklag by his own reasoning. What makes the move striking is that he had a settled pattern of asking God first, and here he abandoned it.
Is it God who is commanding David to save himself in the land of the Philistines? Hadn't his experiences at Achish's court been enough (1 Sam. 21:11-15)? Was it God who sent him there then? No. Through Gad, God had at that time given him a clear command to go into the land of Judah (1 Sam. 22:5). Had God cancelled that command? And why didn't he inquire of the Lord as he had done at Keilah (1 Sam. 23:1-13)? Rushing ahead, discouragement, forgetting God's word, looking to Israel's enemies for help, trusting his own thoughts instead of seeking God's direction — all these weaknesses come together in David here.
The plan worked on its own terms. Saul stopped hunting him. But the safety came at a price David had not counted on.
David receives the grant of Ziklag and stays there for sixteen months. In all that time he had no fear of Saul, but he was far from God and far from Israel. It is, in one sense, a very easy matter to get out of a place of trial; but then we get out of a place of blessing also... David accepted Ziklag. Instead of staying a homeless stranger in the cave of Adullam, he becomes a citizen in the land of the Philistines. He does not act the madman now, as he did before; now he plays the part of a deliberate deceiver.
Living under Philistine protection pushed David into a double life. One writer traces his lying straight back to where he was standing.
A false position leads to falsehood. It spoils even the activities that would otherwise deserve praise. And how often a person tries to make up for glaring unfaithfulness with great activity.
The same pattern is applied directly to the reader: a person who depends on the world's shelter learns to keep quiet about where his loyalties really lie.
The Christian swamped by "social conventions" forced on him loses his true character there. He no longer reaches the consciences of those around him. He lives in fear of displeasing the world which is protecting him.
These months were not idle. David fought, won, and gathered spoil. One writer weighs what that activity was worth.
David stayed there one year and four months; a long time to be away from the Lord. And at the same time he made raids on the enemies of God and His people... It was not a real work for God, but the result of a self-centred heart, and its aim was selfishness. It shows how a person whose heart is out of touch with God may outwardly fight evil for selfish reasons... And the road leads down. Unbelief drags down, lower and lower.
Ridout weighs these raids both ways. He notes that the peoples David struck seem to have been Israel's ancient enemies "and therefore under a ban," yet finds "little to relieve the darkness which has gathered about David here."
The Lord did not overlook these sixteen months. One writer sees both love and discipline in what follows.
David is loved — he surely is, and in the great sense as deeply as ever. But the Lord has not overlooked his sin. He is loved, and he soon receives a gracious proof of it: the Lord steps in to save him from the enormous results of his unbelief and lies.
Another writer counts the cost of that shelter.
Ziklag may shelter for a time, but it will perish. And even while it lasts, it must be bought at the cost of a good conscience toward God and toward His people. A heavy price, surely, for a temporary relief from pressure! How much better to endure the pressure for a time!
- The step. David never asked God about Gath. Haste, discouragement and trust in his own thinking took the place of asking.
- The stay. One fearful decision hardened into sixteen months — proof of "how long a course of departure from God may continue."
- The trade. Getting out of the trial meant getting out of the blessing: free from Saul, but far from God and from Israel.
- The cost. A false position bred lies. Busy war on evil could not replace a heart in touch with God.
- The rescue. Ziklag sheltered David for a time, then perished — yet the Lord stepped in and saved him from the full results of his unbelief.
And David and his men went up and made a raid upon the Geshurites, and the Gerzites, and the Amalekites for those were of old the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to Shur, and as far as the land of Egypt.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And David smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the oxen, and the asses, and the camels, and the apparel, and returned, and came to Achish.
David is living at Ziklag under the protection of Achish, a Philistine king, and raiding Israel's old enemies. Were these raids obedience to God, or the cover story of a man hiding where he should never have been?
One commentator reads the killing as a precaution, not as a command obeyed. David left no survivors to contradict the story he told Achish.
Verse 11 tells us that David did not take any captives or allow any of these enemies to live. This was not because God had commanded it. He did not want anyone to bring Achish a true report of what had happened. It seems strange that he could keep up such deception for so long a time.
Another writer names what the lie was protecting: a shelter David had chosen for himself.
David, however, accepted Ziklag, and instead of remaining as a homeless stranger, he becomes a citizen in the land of the Philistines. He no longer acts the madman, as before: no; he now plays the part of an outright deceiver. He wages war on the Geshurites and Gezrites, and lies about it, in case he should again lose his self-chosen place of protection.
The people David struck were real enemies of Israel. The targets can be defended; where he was standing cannot.
David goes up into the land of the Geshurites and Gezrites, where the Amalekites also were. He destroys them completely, leaving neither man nor woman alive, and carries off the plunder. These seem to have been Israel's ancient enemies, and so under a ban of destruction. Yet little seems to lighten the darkness that has gathered around David here. We cannot feel that his victory belongs alongside those of Joshua, or even of the Judges.
Ridout takes up the return to Achish, and the lesson in it.
Coming back to Achish, he pretends he has gone into the land of Judah, among his own people. His aim is to make Achish think he has turned completely against Israel. He has cut off every one, so no one is left to give Achish the truth. A false position leads to lying. It spoils even work that would otherwise deserve praise. How often, too, does someone try to make up by great activity for glaring unfaithfulness. Clear truth about one's own place may be rejected, and a lower path taken. Alongside this may go what looks like great activity against certain forms of error, and a great show of faithfulness.
This was not a moment's panic. It became a way of life, and one writer draws a verdict on human nature from how long it lasted.
Up to now David would not strike a blow against Israel under any circumstances. But what good was it to Achish to receive him if he did not? So, to meet his probing questions about the raids he made, David had to deceive him. He did so, and it worked. Achish said, "David has made himself an utter stench to his people Israel; therefore he shall always be my servant." But trickery and lies alone could not keep him safe from discovery. So of those he made war on, he "would leave neither man nor woman alive," in case they should tell what he had done. And this was his course for sixteen months! Surely in the flesh there dwells no good thing; only sin is found there. Deliverance from it can come only by the Cross of the Lord Jesus.
Taking Philistine protection cost David his freedom. The raids kept his protector satisfied.
Achish, who knows David, wants to use him in his service, and David cannot refuse. Faith gives a man energy from the Spirit of God. But if unfaithfulness has put him in a false position, he has no power against the one whose authority he has placed himself under. And if he does not use that energy on his protector's behalf, he naturally stirs up his jealousy. God in His mercy preserved David, but he was now in a sad and false position.
The scheme succeeded, and that is the danger. Ridout reads the success itself as the reason chastening had to come.
The ruse succeeds with Achish, as it may succeed for a time in any case, but chastening is sure to follow. The Lord loves His servant too well to let him carry on in a false position, and gain standing with his enemies by a false account of his own battles.
- Position. David chose a shelter God never gave him; everything in this verse grows out of that one step.
- Protection. To keep the shelter he had to lie. To keep the lie safe he left no survivors. The killing served the cover story, not a command.
- Performance. Real enemies, real victories, real plunder. But activity cannot repair unfaithfulness. A false position spoils even good work.
- Price. A borrowed shelter costs freedom: the man under a protector's authority has no power to refuse him.
- Pursuit. The deception worked for sixteen months. Success was not approval. Love sends chastening rather than leave a servant in a false position.
So Achish said, Have ye not made a raid to-day? And David said, Against the south of Judah, and against the south of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites.
David was living in Philistine country, and King Achish kept asking where his raids had taken him. The three places David named were not the ones he had attacked, and commentators trace the lie back to a position he should never have taken.
David had left Israel and was living under a Philistine king. One writer weighs how he kept that king's goodwill.
In the land of the Philistines he gains their king's favour, not by faith, but by a prudence inconsistent with truth. It is an unhappy position; still, God does not forsake him.
The lie had a logic to it, and David told it again and again. Achish was not sheltering him for nothing.
So far, David would not strike a blow against Israel under any circumstances. But what good was it to Achish to take him in if he did not? So, to meet his searching questions about the raids he made, he had to deceive him. This he did, and so effectively that Achish said, "David has made his people Israel utterly abhor him, therefore he shall be my servant forever." … And this was his course for sixteen months!
David picked those three names with care. The Negeb means the south country, and the writer below calls it that.
David returned to Achish, who asked him where he had gone. David lied to him. He said that they had attacked the south of Judah, the south of the Jerahmeelites and the south of the Kenites. The last two peoples were friendly to Judah and Israel, so Achish thought David had turned fully against his own nation.
One writer sees the damage spreading past the lie itself.
A false position leads to falsehood. It even spoils the activities that would otherwise deserve praise. How often, too, does someone try to make up for glaring unfaithfulness by being very busy.
The pattern is not unique to David. One writer sets him beside Abram, and points to the impression we leave on others.
How sad that we should ever leave the impression with anyone that we are on the world's side rather than linked with the people of God! But we may leave the place of obedience instead of letting the Lord lead us in obedience to His word. Then we shall soon find that being in the wrong place leads to further disobedience. Abram did the same: when he went down to Egypt, he thought he had to use deception (Gen. 12:11-13).
The lie worked, and that was the danger. The more Achish trusted David, the closer David came to fighting on the wrong side.
Here, then, we have a strange contradiction. A king of Israel is about to become the bodyguard of a Philistine. He is about to draw the sword against the armies of the living God. Was there ever anything like this? The slayer of Goliath, servant to a Philistine!
Yet the Philistine lords never believed him. One writer reads their suspicion as a lesson about how the world treats a believer who drifts into it.
The men of this world can never fully trust someone who has once stood for the truth of God. A believer who has lost communion and gone back to the world may go a long way with them. But they will never regard him or trust him as one of themselves. They will suspect him, just as the Philistines suspected David.
God did not abandon David here. That did not make his sin a small thing.
David, however, is loved — surely he is, and in the great sense as deeply as ever — but the Lord has not treated his sin lightly. He is loved, and the Lord soon gives him a gracious proof of it: He steps in to save David from the terrible results of his unbelief and lies… But the burning of Ziklag and the carrying off of all that was in it lie ahead of him. They will let him know, and know it with a vengeance, that the Lord has not overlooked his sin.
- Place first. David's lie began with his location. He had moved in among Israel's enemies, and shrewdness, not faith, won him the favour he enjoyed there.
- Then words. A false position leads to falsehood. It also spoils the good a person does.
- Then reputation. The peoples he named were friendly to Israel. Naming them told Achish that David had turned against his own nation for good.
- Then entanglement. The lie worked so well that the man who killed Goliath was in line to guard a Philistine king. Even so, the Philistine lords would not trust him.
- And then mercy with a bill. God stepped in to spare David the worst of it, yet Ziklag burned. God loved him, and still did not overlook his sin.
And David left neither man nor woman alive, to bring [them] to Gath, for he said, Lest they should tell of us, saying, So did David. And such was his custom as long as he abode in the country of the Philistines.
David has left Israel and settled at Ziklag under Achish, king of Gath. He raids desert tribes, then tells Achish he has been attacking his own countrymen — and this verse shows the grim step that kept that lie standing.
The verse gives a motive, and it is not a command from God. One commentator states the difference plainly:
Verse 11 tells us that David did not take any captives. He did not let any of these enemies live. This was not because God commanded it. It was because he did not want anyone to bring Achish a true report of what had happened. It seems strange that he could keep up such deception for so long.
On paper his raids looked right. But the report he carried back to Achish spoiled them:
When he comes back to Achish, he pretends he has been raiding the land of Judah, among his own people. He wants Achish to think that he has turned completely against Israel. He has killed every one of them, so no one is left to tell Achish the truth. So Achish is led to think that David has openly taken sides against his own nation, and will now serve the Philistines forever. A false position leads to lying, and it spoils even the activities that would otherwise deserve praise.
Earlier, David had escaped from Gath by pretending to be insane. Now the pretending takes a harder form:
David, however, accepted Ziklag. Instead of staying a homeless stranger in the cave of Adullam, he becomes a citizen in the land of the Philistines. He no longer pretends to be mad, as he did before. No — now he plays the part of an outright deceiver. He wages war on the Geshurites and Gezrites, and lies about it, so that he will not lose again the place of safety he chose for himself.
The verse calls this his custom for the whole time he lived among the Philistines — sixteen months. One writer weighs what that length says about the human heart:
But trickery and lies on their own could not keep him from being found out… And this was his way of life for sixteen months! Truly, in the flesh no good thing lives; only sin is found there. Scripture states this plainly many times, above all in the New Testament. Story after story confirms it, uncovering it where we would least expect to find it. The only deliverance from it is the Cross of the Lord Jesus, and the Christian firmly sets his seal to this (Gal. 5:24) — he is taught to do so.
The lie worked. That is the problem, because of what Achish now believed:
Achish was completely fooled. He believed that David had made himself so hated by his own people Israel that he would serve Achish forever. How sad that we should ever leave anyone with the impression that we are on the world's side instead of joined to the people of God! If we stop following the Lord in obedience to His word and leave the place of obedience, we will soon find that being in the wrong place leads to more disobedience. Abram did the same: when he went down to Egypt, he thought he had to use deception (Gen. 12:11–13).
Nothing bad happens to David yet. One writer warns against reading that silence as approval:
David is still loved — he truly is, and in the deepest sense he is loved as much as ever — but the Lord has not treated his sin lightly. He is loved, and soon he is given a kind proof of it, because the Lord steps in to save him from the huge results of his unbelief and lies… But the burning of Ziklag, and the capture of everyone in it, still lie ahead of him. They will teach him, and teach him fully, that the Lord has not overlooked his sin.
- Motive. The killing here was not obedience to God. It was damage control: no survivors meant no witnesses to contradict David's story.
- Position. A wrong position produces wrong words. David stood where God had not put him, so he had to lie to stay there — and the lie spoiled campaigns that looked successful.
- Duration. It lasted sixteen months. A wrong path can run that long without any visible collapse, so success is no proof that God approves.
- Witness. The lie worked so well that a pagan king was sure David had turned against God's people. That is the worst impression a believer can leave.
- Outcome. David was loved the whole time, yet Ziklag still burned. Grace holds the wanderer without excusing the wandering, and only the Cross delivers from the nature that lies.
And Achish trusted David, saying, He has made himself utterly odious among his people Israel; and he shall be my servant for ever.
Running from Saul, David left Israel and settled in Philistine land under Achish, king of Gath. This verse records what Achish concluded about him after sixteen months there. The king's trust was real, but a chain of lies held it up. So what does a believer become when he shelters under the world's protection?
Achish's welcome came at a price. He needed proof that the warrior he sheltered had turned against Israel.
Up to now David would not strike a blow against Israel, under any circumstances. Yet what use was it to Achish to receive him if he did not? So, to answer his searching questions about the raids he made, he had to deceive him. This he did, and so effectively that Achish said, "David has made his people Israel utterly detest him, therefore he shall be my servant for ever." But trickery and falsehood alone could not save him from discovery... And this was his course for sixteen months!
(The older translation says Israel "utterly abhor" him. The ESV says he "made himself an utter stench to his people Israel." The sense is the same.)
Achish reasons that David's own people hate him, so David has nowhere else to go. One writer applies that to anyone who leans on the world for safety.
David is a guest of the Philistine, who on that basis thinks he has him under his power: "He shall be my servant for ever" (v. 12)... See how many serious consequences follow from looking for the world's help! The Christian who is swamped by the "social conventions" he has submitted to loses his true character there and no longer has any effect on the consciences of those around him. He lives in fear of displeasing the world that is protecting him; like David, he tries to destroy every witness who could come forward and give evidence of his hostility to the enemies of God's people; he no longer has a good conscience. Though he is a child of God, he is walking a path of hypocrisy.
Achish speaks the language of ownership. He speaks it over a king of Israel.
Here, then, we have a strange contradiction. A king of Israel is about to become bodyguard to a Philistine, and to draw the sword against the armies of the living God. Was there ever anything like this? The slayer of Goliath, servant to a Philistine! Who could have expected such a thing?
The timing of David's failure is the strange part.
Notice that David's faith fails right after a clear intervention of God (1 Sam. 26:12). It is the same with Elijah (1 Kings 19). One would say that, in our hearts, faith wears itself out by an unusual effort. Faith may carry us through the crisis. But the heart that held that faith is terrified by it. In Jesus we find a steadiness of perfection that is altogether divine.
Achish now had a use for his guest.
Achish, who knows David, wants to employ him in his service, and David cannot refuse. A man may have the energy the Spirit of God gives through faith. But if unfaithfulness has put him in a false position, he has no power against the one whose authority he has placed himself under. And if he does not use his energy on behalf of his protector, he naturally stirs up his protector's jealousy.
Achish believed David. The other Philistine rulers did not, and God used their suspicion.
The very lords of the Philistines were the instruments the Lord used to deliver David from his strange position. Judging by his past behaviour, they refused to trust him as an ally. "Is not this David, and how can we trust him?"... In a word, the people of this world can never place full confidence in someone who once took a decided stand for the truth of God. A believer who has lost communion and gone back to the world may go a long way. But the world will never regard him or trust him as one of its own. It will suspect him, just as it suspected David.
- Trusted — Achish's confidence was genuine, but lies had bought it. David told him what he wanted to hear.
- Tired — the fall came right after a high point. Faith can carry us through a crisis, and then the heart that held it gives way.
- Trapped — a false position drains our power. Once David took a protector, he could not refuse that protector's demands.
- Tempted — we fear upsetting the world that shelters us. So we lose our effect on other people's consciences, and our own good conscience too.
- Turned back — the world's trust does not hold. God used the Philistine lords' distrust to bring David out of his false position.