1 Samuel 27: So Says The Heart of Man
1 And David said in his heart, “Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me anymore in any part of Israel. So I shall escape out of his hand.”
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) Man says, “Follow your heart!” God says, “Follow the Word of God! “
“‘And David said in his heart’— Not well ballasted with grace, but wherried about with unbelief, [Heb 13:9] whilst he consulted not with God as formerly, but with carnal reason, an evil counsellor.” (Trapp) His heart reasoned something like this: “I see by this late experience his [Saul’s] restless and implacable hatred against me, and how little heed is to be given to all his pretences of repentance or friendship.” (Poole) —> “‘There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines.’ This resolution of David's was in every respect wrong-Because it was removing from the place where the divine oracle intimated to him to remain (1 Samuel 22:5).” (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown)
There is a battle between the spiritual man in the carnal man within each believer. This verse was seed and comfort for Paul who said “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.” (Romans 7:15) “Surely the Holy Ghost had a most gracious design in giving the church the true portrait of David in this verse. Was it possible for David after two such remarkable interpositions, as 1Sa 24 relates at the cave of Engedi, and as 1Sa 26 relates of the event in the wilderness of Zeph: was it possible for David ever to question the Lord's care of him, even if he had not also been anointed for the succession to the kingdom? But Reader! in David we behold what all human nature affords evidence of, to demonstrate what a man's faith is when supported by God, and what the same man is when left to himself. Put it down, my brother, as a maxim of everlasting truth and, certainty, if the Lord leaves our faith alone to act of itself, that act will be weak indeed. It is but for the Great Author and Finisher of faith to withdraw the arm of His power, and then the poor believer falls into fears and doubts, as David did. Reader! if you know anything of precious faith, I would charge it upon yon as one of the grand lessons of the soul: learn to make Jesus the Finisher as well as the Author of your faith and salvation. There are many souls who know Christ as the Author, but very few are so highly taught as to make Him the Finisher.” (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary)
“Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)
Be comforted by the testimonies of Scripture concerning Paul and David. God said “I have found David [Psalm 89:20] the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’ [1 Samuel 13:14]” (Acts 13:22)
Not that he had obtained the perfect will of God— but that he generally sought it. “He was a man after God's own heart, because he [generally] ruled [himself and] the people according to the Divine will. He did not allow of idolatry; he did not set up for absolute power. He was guided in the government of the nation by the law of Moses, as the standing rule of government, and by the prophet, or the Divine oracle, whereby God gave directions upon particular emergencies." (Joseph Benson)
1 Samuel 27: David Seeks Refuge in Gath
2 Then David arose and went over with the six hundred men who were with him to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 3 So David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s widow. 4 And it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath; so he sought him no more. 5 Then David said to Achish, “If I have now found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?”6 So Achish gave him Ziklag that day. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. 7 Now the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was one full year and four months.
“During this dark and cloudy moment, he looked round him for a refuge. Saul had beaten the neighbouring kings to the east; and there seemed no protector but Achish, who was the chief prince in Philistia.
With him therefore he sought protection, and formed an alliance.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) “How much better it would have been if he had enquired of God what to do, depending fully upon God's leading! But he goes to Achish, whose name means ‘only a man!’” (L. M. Grantt)
David's position now as the captain of 600 men was quite different from what it was in 1 Samuel 21:10, when he came alone and resorted to feigning madness to escape harm by king Achish’s hand. “Unbelief is a sin that easily besets even good men, when without are fightings, and within are fears; and it is a hard matter to get over them. Lord, increase our faith!” (Matthew Henry) “David had every assurance that he would be king… yet suddenly he seems to have had a fainting-fit and to have concluded that he would after all perish by the hand of Saul. It was thus with Elijah under the juniper bush, when he asked God to take away his life; and thus with the Baptist, when from prison he sent to ask whether Jesus was the Christ.-- Brethern, let us not sink into despair when the shadow of discouragement falls across our path. Let us believe that God’s Word shall stand though the heavens fall. Let us especially beware of taking our own measures of self-defense. The caves of Adullam are safer for the child of God than the land of the Philistines.” (F. B. Meyer)
This sounds like an account of Israel’s sojourn in Egypt, but the difference is that here David was outside of the will of God. We must rightly divide the word of truth. Pharaoh freely gave Goshen to the children of Israel- the hand of divine providence, but here David went and asked for a place.
“‘And David dwelt with Achish at Gath,’ Where doubtless he was much vexed many times, as Lot was in Sodom, and cried, ‘Oh that I had the wings of a dove! etc.’” (John Trapp)— “’he and his men, every man with his household,’ with his family, ‘even David with his two wives, Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess, and Abigail, the Carmelitess, Nabal's wife.’ 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: others are thus wrongly influenced by his lack of faith, including families of all these.” (L. M. Grantt)
“’And it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath; so he sought him no more.’— By which it is implied that he would have gone on in persecuting David, if he had continued in his dominions.“ (Matthew Poole) David asked for and received his Goshen— or in this particular case, Ziklag— And as Ziklag was on the border and “originally belonged to Judah, it was literally no other than giving back again what belonged to Judah. See Joshua 15:31.” (Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary) ”Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day.” So he, in fact, remained in Judah. The future king of Israel was still under the eye of the Almighty.
1 Samuel 27: David’s Work While in Ziklag
7 Now the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was one full year and four months. 8 And David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. For those nations were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as you go to Shur, even as far as the land of Egypt. 9 Whenever David attacked the land, he left neither man nor woman alive, but took away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the apparel, and returned and came to Achish. 10 Then Achish would say, “Where have you made a raid today?” And David would say, “Against the southern area of Judah, or against the southern area of the Jerahmeelites, or against the southern area of the Kenites.” 11 David would save neither man nor woman alive, to bring news to Gath, saying, “Lest they should inform on us, saying, ‘Thus David did.’ ” And thus was his behavior all the time he dwelt in the country of the Philistines. 12 So Achish believed David, saying, “He has made his people Israel utterly abhor him; therefore he will be my servant forever.”
David and his men, as well as their families, had been given Ziklag on the border of Gath and Canaan, where they dwelled, until Saul died. —
And these renown warriors "went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. For those nations were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as you go to Shur, even as far as the land of Egypt. Whenever David attacked the land, he left neither man nor woman alive,’ for a ban or anathema had been was pronounced by Yahweh against these original inhabitants of Canaan. “To us, of course, all this killing is rightly abhorrent. But then most of us live in a society where there is an adequate police force, and where there are organised prisons. We do not live on our wits, faced with constant attacks from merciless tribesmen, with no one to protect us but ourselves. The sentence of death on them was the consequence of the fact that they were seen as regular murderers who would never learn their lesson and therefore needed to be finally dealt with in the only way possible to render them harmless, death (at a time when for all people death by violence was an everyday occurrence for their households, to be constantly warded off by killing others, especially in the Negeb).” (Peter Pett)
This provides a picture or example of the second death, that blessed final destruction of those who persist in wickedness. “David used the opportunity that his location afforded to defeat and to annihilate [first death only] the common enemies of Israel and the Philistines that lived to Israel’s southwest. David did not leave any survivors, as the LORD had commanded (Deuteronomy 3:18-20; Joshua 1:13). He was clearing the Promised Land of foreign foes so the Israelites could occupy it.” (Dr. Thomas B. Constable) "These Saul should have utterly rooted out, [1 Samuel 15:3; 1 Samuel 15:7; 1 Samuel 15:9] but did not.” (John Trapp)
“David continued to subdue Israel’s enemy neighbors later when he became king (2 Samuel 8 ).” (Dr. Thomas B. Constable) But "after the exile, the Jews did not practice the anathema (or ban) by putting people to death; people who violated a curse were excommunicated and put out of the congregation of Israel (Ezr 10:8). That meant that the person was no longer part of God's people and was considered ‘dead.’ Jewish synagogues practiced excommunication, or anathema, in the NT period (Lk 6:22; Jn 9:22; 12:42; 16:2).
Later, Christians excommunicated persons by declaring them outside of the redeemed community (Mt 18:17) or ‘delivered to Satan’ (1 Cor 5:5; 1 Tm 1:21). Both practices stemmed from the OT ban.
Unlike that curse, however, the excommunication could be removed as soon as the person repented.” (Tyndale Bible Dictionary)
“‘But took away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the apparel, and returned and came to Achish,’ which these “would have obtained by the same method…” (Peter Pett) from innocents, for these possession were not devoted things, as in some cases. “To violate the ban by preserving any part of the cursed things was to come under the ban oneself. Because Achan did not respect the ban placed upon Jericho, the terms of that curse came upon all Israel until Achan confessed and was executed (Jos 7).” (Tyndale Bible Dictionary) All things are lawful for us, who believe in Jesus, but all things are not helpful. Paul expounds: "All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power." (1 Corinthians 6:12-14)
“Then Achish would say, ‘Where have you made a raid today?’
And David would say, ‘Against the southern area of Judah, etc.’ These and the following words are ambiguous; for they may be understood, either of the southern parts from Judah, etc., which he would have Achish understand; or of another country lying southward from Judah, etc., which David meant, and which was the truth...” (Matthew Poole)- but intended to deceive. In battle, isn’t it prudent to hide your intentions from the enemy!? Gath was also an enemy of Israel. “The primitive documents do not seem to attach much importance to veracity, especially to foreigners (cf. the stories of the Patriarchs).” (Arthur Peake) "God was in it, otherwise it could not have been so concealed, though these nations dwelt remote, and scattered in a solitary wilderness." (John Trapp)
David was executing the wrath of God but the annihilation policy served another purpose, according to him, so that none could bring news to Gath— “Lest they should inform on us, saying, ‘Thus David did.’
Motives are mixed. If we wait for a pure heart to do the work of God, we will never commence our work. And we practice our religion in the midst of the camp of our enemies. We must likewise be wise. Jesus says that His servants do not fight (John 18:36) for this is the time of harvest of souls. And in Matthew 10:16, He advised the disciples, “‘Look, I’m sending you out as sheep’; defenceless, unprotected by human power.— ‘among wolves’; men disposed to assault and kill you. ‘Therefore be shrewd as serpents’; emblems of wisdom.— ‘and as innocent as doves.’ Ministers of the gospel are bound to be wise as well as good; to exercise discretion as well as courage; not needlessly to exasperate even the worst of men, but meekly to instruct them.” (Justin Edwards)
Here is the effect of his policy. “Achish believed that David had alienated himself from the Israelites and would therefore be loyal to him from then on (1 Samuel 27:12; cf. 1 Samuel 17:9).” (Dr. Thomas B. Constable)
Beware, you would would be a friend of the world but are enemies to God. Watch your hearts in the sight of God for "an equivocation which serves the purpose of a lie, is as like to it as a hypocrite is to a profane person, it is only better in appearance, therefore more dangerous.” (Matthew Henry) “How sad that we should ever leave the impression with anyone that we are on the world's side rather that linked with the people of God! But if instead of being led by the Lord in obedience to His Word, we leave the place of obedience, we shall soon find that being in the wrong place leads to further disobedience, just as Abram, in going down to Egypt, thought it necessary to practice deception (Gen 12:11-13).” (L. M. Grant)
Yet God did not seem to reprove David as he did in Abram's case. Neither will I. I will not judge. "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect?" (Rom 8:31-33)