In yesterday's text we found David asking the Philistines a second time for asylum. The first time he attempted this, in Chapter 21, he was rejected. But an unknown number of years have passed since then and it has become well known that David is living in exile since King Saul turned on him. King Achish of the Philistines was more than happy to receive David the second time he showed up in Gath, believing David when he swears allegiance to him, hoping David will be as mighty in battle for him as he once was for King Saul. The fact that David is bringing six hundred troops with him likely sweetens the deal, for Achish is gaining not only a successful military commander but a whole new army unit.
Achish has been most generous to David, to his men, and to all their wives and children. He invited them to make their home in the royal city. But David asked, in what I believe was an attitude of false modesty, to be allowed to live at a distance from the king. To paraphrase his conversation with the king, he said something like, "Your servants are honored by this offer but we don't want to be a bother to you or to your people. You don't need us underfoot, crowding you, since there are so many of us. We ask only for space to dwell in the corner of your kingdom. There we can still be of service to you but will not be in your way." Achish was pleased with David's answer and graciously granted him the area known as Ziklag, which lay at the southernmost tip of the territory allotted to the tribe of Judah. Ziklag was part of the inheritance of Judah as described in the book of Joshua but it was either part of the region that the Israelites had not yet conquered or else they had conquered it in the past but it has been reoccupied since then by the Philistines. It is certainly under Philistine control at this time; otherwise it would not have been within Achish's power to give it to David.
Why do I believe David was feigning a humble spirit when he asked to be allowed to live in some out-of-the-way place? Because we will see that he wants to live at a distance from the king in order to carry out a deception. He will be forced to demonstrate loyalty to the king by raiding those whom the king considers his enemies. This means Achish expects David to attack the Israelites and their allies. David will pretend to be raiding outlying settlements of Israel when in reality he's raiding those who have historically been the enemies of Israel: tribes who inhabited the land of Canaan prior to the Israelites' arrival there, pagan people whom the Lord instructed the Israelites to drive from and destroy from the land. The Israelites had not, by David's time, taken all the land the Lord assigned to them. David will attack these people, bring the spoils back to the king, and tell the lie that these goods were taken from the Israelites.
"Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites and the Amalekites. (From ancient times these peoples had lived in the land extending to Shur and Egypt.) Whenever David attacked an area, he did not leave a man or woman alive, but took sheep and cattle, donkeys and camels, and clothes. Then he returned to Achish." (1 Samuel 27:8-9) Some Bible scholars condemn David's violent actions in this passage while others defend him, asserting that he is only operating within the command given by the Lord to the people of Israel regarding the promised land. The Lord instructed the Israelites: "When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their high places. Take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess." (Numbers 33:51-53) David is justifying his actions by saying to himself and to his men, "These are people we were supposed to have destroyed when we first moved into the land of Canaan, but our forefathers didn't finish the job. We're only doing what they should have done." Is he right or is he wrong? He's right in saying that their forefathers didn't do everything the Lord told them to do, but whether or not he's operating within the will of God by attacking these people now and in this way, I am not so confident.
The reason I am not so confident he's in the right is because he should not have been living among the Philistines to begin with. He's experiencing a crisis of faith and is suffering from doubts about whether the Lord will keep on protecting him from Saul. He said in yesterday's passage, before appealing to the Philistines for asylum, "One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul." David hasn't stopped believing in the Lord but he's perhaps begun thinking the Lord has stopped believing in him as the best candidate for king of Israel. I think maybe David started relying on himself to stay strong and that, when he fell prey to exhaustion from so many years on the run, he didn't fall to his knees before the Lord to have new strength poured out on him. If David or anyone else relies solely upon themselves for strength---if they keep trying to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, as the saying goes---they will falter. Human strength can only last so long. A person can only encourage himself or herself so much. David fell prey to doubts and fears because his own strength gave out. That's why he's someplace he shouldn't be and that's why I think the things he's doing are things he shouldn't be doing.
To add further credence to the theory that he's probably not operating within the will of God when he attacks some of the tribes of Canaan at this time, he lies about it, as we'll see momentarily. When a person is doing right, they don't have to lie about it. David repays the kindness of King Achish with deception. In doing so, he's setting a poor example of faith for his own men and their families who are looking to him not only as their military/political leader but as a spiritual leader as well.
"When Achish asked, 'Where did you go raiding today?' David would say, 'Against the Negev of Judah,' or, 'Against the Negev of Jerahmeel,' or, 'Against the Negev of the Kenites.' He did not leave a man or a woman to be brought to Gath, for he thought, 'They might inform on us and say, 'This is what David did.'" (1 Samuel 27:10-11a) Here we find the real reason David kills every inhabitant of the settlements he attacks. He doesn't want any survivors to expose his lie that he's attacking the Israelites and the allies of Israel. He may be telling himself that what he's doing is okay because the people he's killing are enemies of Israel. He may be justifying the slaughter by referring to the command the Lord gave the Israelites when they entered Canaan. But at its core, the reason for this wholesale slaughter is to protect himself and to preserve his lie of loyalty to King Achish.
David didn't only do this once or twice. He operated in this way and kept telling this lie the whole time he lived among the Philistines, which according to yesterday's text was a year and four months. "And such was his practice as long as he lived in Philistine territory. Achish trusted David and said to himself, 'He has become so obnoxious to his people, the Israelites, that he will be my servant for life.'" (1 Samuel 27:11b-12) King Achish says, "David will never betray me and return to his people. He couldn't do that even if he wanted to because his people will never allow him back."
David hasn't betrayed Israel or the God of Israel in the way Achish thinks he has but David has betrayed some of his own principles. He's living someplace he shouldn't be living and he's doing and saying things he shouldn't be saying. I've been guilty of being places I shouldn't be and of doing and saying things I shouldn't be doing and saying. You can likely say the same. If we are going to point out any of David's faults we must be willing to acknowledge our own. If David's mistakes seem bigger than ours (the slaughtering of whole villages full of people) that may only be because we've never found ourselves in David's circumstances: running for our lives with a bounty on our heads, attempting to hide out among the enemy and pretending to be on their side so they don't kill us. I've never walked in David's shoes but I've made mistakes that began with putting myself in places and in situations where, as a child of God, I should never have been. It's a slippery slope and in today's passage we find David sliding down that slope. But God is gracious! God is forgiving! David will have a chance before long to stand up and man up in the faith. He will not fail on that occasion.
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