When David was raiding the tribes of Canaan and pretending to Achish that he had instead raided his fellow Israelites, he never expected or intended to be conscripted into the Philistine army where he would be forced to fight against his own people. It's only because Achish's commanders suspiciously and prejudicially objected to the presence of "Hebrews" in the army, in yesterday's passage, that David and his six hundred men will be spared from betraying their own countrymen. If they had balked at Achish's orders to go out with his army, I believe they would no longer have been given asylum from King Saul, so they are planning to go with the army and do whatever they must in order to keep living under the protection of the Philistines, for they are vastly outnumbered by the elite force of 3,000 highly trained men that King Saul keeps taking along with him in his hunt for David.
King Achish tried to talk his commanders into trusting David like he does but they would not listen to him. As I said yesterday, I think the commanders would have refused to lead the soldiers out to battle if Achish had not given in to their demand to release David and his men from military service. Today Achish apologetically sends them back to Ziklag with his blessing.
"So Achish called David and said to him, 'As surely as the Lord lives, you have been reliable, and I would be pleased to have you serve with me in the army. From the day you came to me until today, I have found no fault in you, but the rulers don't approve of you. Now turn back and go in peace; do nothing to displease the Philistine rulers.'" (1 Samuel 29:6-9) He can't afford to lose his top commanders so he reluctantly excuses David and his men from service at this time. He says, "I want you to understand that if it were up to me you would be at my right hand in battle. You have proven yourself loyal to me and I trust you completely. But my army generals don't know you like I do. They think you're plotting to turn on us during the fight. They think you want to win back the approval of King Saul and be allowed to rejoin your countrymen by killing me and my commanders after the battle starts. Please believe me when I say that I harbor no such suspicions against you. I could not be happier with everything you and your men have done since you've been living among my people. But I can't afford to offend my generals so I'm sending you back to Ziklag and hoping there will be no bad feelings between us over this."
David is paradoxically indignant to be released from a duty he didn't want to undertake in the first place. "'But what have I done?' asked David. 'What have you found against your servant from the day I came to you until now? Why can't I go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?'" (1 Samuel 29:8) Some scholars believe David speaks these words only as a means of keeping up the pretense of having turned his back on Israel and having given all his loyalty to the Philistines. That is likely part of the reason he protests his discharge from the army but I think his outrage is genuine. He feels insulted by the Philistine commanders' prejudice toward him for being a foreigner. He feels angry that they would doubt his words and his loyalty, when in truth he has been lying to the king for about a year and has been loyal to no one but himself and his men. But have you ever felt insulted or hurt by not being invited to something you didn't want to attend in the first place? I was just thinking yesterday about an upcoming event that I wouldn't at all want to attend but which I wasn't invited to attend. I was both relieved I didn't have to go and yet insulted that I wasn't asked to go. Isn't that silly? The person in charge of the event actively dislikes me for reasons I've never been able to find out but we're so closely connected, professionally and socially, that if she invited me I'd be obligated to attend. My feelings aren't hurt that I wasn't asked but, like David, I found myself feeling slighted.
David is being released from an obligation he should never have had to fulfill and he ought to just be grateful. Yet it's human nature to feel slighted when we're informed our presence either isn't required or isn't wanted. So he protests to the king that he could have been of good service to him. The king understands David feeling slighted and reassures him that this is not his doing, that he feels the Philistine commanders are being unreasonable, but that his hands are tied. "Achish answered, 'I know that you have been as pleasing in my eyes as an angel of God; nevertheless, the Philistine commanders have said, 'He must not go up with us into battle.' Now get up early, along with your master's servants who have come with you, and leave in the morning as soon as it is light.' So David and his men got up early in the morning to go back to the land of the Philistines, and the Philistines went up to Jezreel." (1 Samuel 29:9-11) The Philistine commanders' dislike of David is being used by the Lord for David's benefit. Now he will not have to fight against his own countrymen. Now he will return to his settlement in Ziklag in time to catch up with the Amalekites who have raided it in his absence, looting everyone's belongings and taking all of their families captive.
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