In our last episode, we saw that Saul, instead of repenting, actually leaned into his sin. He went over to the dark side by feeding his rage, resulting in murder, obsession, witchcraft, and ultimately, paralyzing fear. All this time he was chasing David, trying to eliminate him as a threat to his rule and that of his son Jonathan. So, what was David doing during this time? David was running away to fight another day.
We can understand the timeline of the last chapters of I Samuel if we imagine them like a split-screen effect in a television show or in a motion picture. In one window of the screen, we are shown what one of the characters in the show is doing, while the actions of another is shown in the other window. In our last chapter, we saw what Saul was doing in his window of the screen, and in this chapter, we see David‘s actions which happened simultaneously with Saul’s.
For David, this was a brand-new experience. He had never seen such anger and rejection before. Until now, everyone had recognized David for what he was, and obedient servant of God, and of those whom God had placed over him. For David this was a shocking and unsettling situation. In the American south a common way to describe what David felt was, “He was like a calf, looking at a new gate.” Or maybe, “He was like a deer in the headlights.”
In Scriptures that we have previously considered, David had expressed full confidence in God because when David needed His help God had provided it. In those circumstances, however, David had faced creatures and people whom he knew to be his enemies. In this case, however, David was being chased and threatened with destruction by his king, the one whom he willingly served. David was in a place where he’d never been before. How did he react? How would we react?
Like David, we often choose dysfunctional ways to respond to these types of circumstances. In fact, David’s response is a great illustration of the saying by Alexander Pope, “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” Let’s begin by reading 1 Samuel 21:1-9,
David went to the priest Ahimelech at Nob. Ahimelech was afraid to meet David, so he said to him, “Why are you alone and no one is with you?” David answered the priest Ahimelech, “The king gave me a mission, but he told me, ‘Don’t let anyone know anything about the mission I’m sending you on or what I have ordered you to do.’ I have stationed my young men at a certain place. Now what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever can be found.” The priest told him, “There is no ordinary bread on hand. However, there is consecrated bread, but the young men may eat it only if they have kept themselves from women.” David answered him, “I swear that women are being kept from us, as always when I go out to battle. The young men’s bodies are consecrated even on an ordinary mission, so of course their bodies are consecrated today.” So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, for there was no bread there except the Bread of the Presence that had been removed from the presence of the Lord. When the bread was removed, it had been replaced with warm bread. One of Saul’s servants, detained before the Lord, was there that day. His name was Doeg the Edomite, chief of Saul’s shepherds. David said to Ahimelech, “Do you have a spear or sword on hand? I didn’t even bring my sword or my weapons since the king’s mission was urgent.” The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want to take it for yourself, then take it, for there isn’t another one here.” “There’s none like it!” David said. “Give it to me.”
David Erred Through Deception:
Almost immediately after he fled from Saul, David turned to a trusted spiritual advisor, the priest Ahimelech. From other Scriptures, we know that Ahimelech had sought God’s guidance for David on several occasions, and it was natural that David would turn to him for help in a time of need. Where David erred, and what I mean by erring is that David sinned, was that he lied to his priest and that he tricked him as well.
When Ahimelech saw David, he knew something was wrong, but just like what happens in every church every Sunday, when David’s pastor asked him how David was doing, he essentially told Ahimelech that he was fine, in this case because he was on a secret mission for King Saul. Not only didn’t he say that he was in trouble, but he also actually made up a false story. Remember, we don’t always have to say all that we know, but what we say must be the truth!
David went on to tell further falsehoods. No evidence exists that he had any men or that anyone had purified themselves, despite what David promised Ahimelech. In addition, the bread that David ate had been dedicated to God, and David was arrogantly assuming that God wouldn’t mind if he disrespected the priests, the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, and even God Himself. Also, the king’s mission was urgent, but it was to kill David, not to have David arm himself with Goliath’s sword.
In the end, Ahimelech believed David, someone who, up until now, had never told a lie. This cost Ahimelech and many others their lives, and all because David lied to him. What would have happened if David had been honest with Ahimelech can never be known, but what did happen showed that sometimes others can pay the price for our sins. Next, let’s read 1 Samuel 21:10-14,
David fled that day from Saul’s presence and went to King Achish of Gath. But Achish’s servants said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Don’t they sing about him during their dances: Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands?” David took this to heart and became very afraid of King Achish of Gath, so he pretended to be insane in their presence. He acted like a madman around them, scribbling on the doors of the city gate and letting saliva run down his beard. “Look! You can see the man is crazy,” Achish said to his servants. “Why did you bring him to me? Do I have such a shortage of crazy people that you brought this one to act crazy around me? Is this one going to come into my house?”
David Erred Through Faithlessness:
We have seen how Saul went over to the dark side spiritually, now we see David going over to the dark side literally. Achish was a king of the Philistines, someone who was a sworn enemy of David’s people, and of David’s God. Now, David was turning to this heathen king for help.
Up until now, David had kept faith with his family, his king, his people, and his God. When faced with a situation that he’d never seen before, David decided that his best course of action was to fake being crazy, so that the enemy of his people would take him in. While the saying “any port in a storm” might be true for ships on the high seas, it is manifestly not true for God’s people.
In taking this action, David was rejecting all that was good and holy, and righteous and just. Even then it didn’t work out for him, because Achish wanted nothing to do with an apparently crazy man who had killed many of his own countrymen in battle. Later, after David had realized his mistake, he wrote the 15th Psalm which says,
Lord, who can dwell in your tent? Who can live on your holy mountain? The one who lives blamelessly, practices righteousness, and acknowledges the truth in his heart who does not slander with his tongue, who does not harm his friend or discredit his neighbor, who despises the one rejected by the Lord but honors those who fear the Lord, who keeps his word whatever the cost, who does not lend his silver at interest or take a bribe against the innocent the one who does these things will never be shaken.
Trying to do God’s work, or even trying to survive, by using the means of the Devil is not only an error, but it is also a sinful lack of faith and faithfulness. Next, let’s read 1 Samuel 24:1-7,
When Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the wilderness near En-gedi.” So Saul took three thousand of Israel’s fit young men and went to look for David and his men in front of the Rocks of the Wild Goats. When Saul came to the sheep pens along the road, a cave was there, and he went in to relieve himself. David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave, so they said to him, “Look, this is the day the Lord told you about: ‘I will hand your enemy over to you so you can do to him whatever you desire.’” Then David got up and secretly cut off the corner of Saul’s robe. Afterward, David’s conscience bothered him because he had cut off the corner of Saul’s robe. He said to his men, “As the Lord is my witness, I would never do such a thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed. I will never lift my hand against him, since he is the Lord’s anointed.” With these words David persuaded his men, and he did not let them rise up against Saul.
David Erred Through Arrogance:
One obvious factor in David’s life was that he had skills. He was a talented musician and writer, and he was also an outstanding warrior with the endurance to complete an entire military campaign. Up to this point, everything that he had put his hand to had been a success. This record of achievement went to his head, and David became arrogant and he put aside his humility.
Being humble does not mean that you can’t have confidence in your abilities. The physical, mental, moral, and spiritual abilities we have, all come to us from the greatest source of all: God above. If God has called and equipped you for a task, humility requires that you attempt to accomplish it.
On the other hand, when you become overconfident, and when you forget how you got to where you are, you begin to exhibit an ungodly and unseemly arrogance. This happened to the Children of Israel after the fall of Jericho. Not only had a man by the name of Achan kept some gold and silver from Jericho in violation of God’s commandments, but the Israelite soldiers came to believe that they had won the Battle of Jericho instead of God. Then they started free-lancing and decided to capture the small village of Ai. Confident in their own strength, the Israelites sent only a small force to Ai, but they were quickly defeated, with thirty-six men killed and the survivors running from their enemy.
David’s son Solomon would later write in Proverbs 16:18 that, “Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.” We must always remember that as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:7, “So, then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” Our arrogance puts us on the thrones of our lives, and this is a serious error, and a sin. Next, let’s read 1 Samuel 25:39-43,
When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord who championed my cause against Nabal’s insults and restrained his servant from doing evil. The Lord brought Nabal’s evil deeds back on his own head.” Then David sent messengers to speak to Abigail about marrying him. When David’s servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David sent us to bring you to him as a wife.” She stood up, paid homage with her face to the ground, and said, “Here I am, your servant, a slave to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.” Then Abigail got up quickly, and with her five female servants accompanying her, rode on the donkey following David’s messengers. And so she became his wife. David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and the two of them became his wives. But Saul gave his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Gallim.
David Erred Through Lust:
In a previous episode, we saw how Samuel had twice offered David the chance to become his son-in-law, but David was reluctant. David was humble, at that time anyway, and he didn’t think that he was worthy to marry the king’s daughter. Later, after much persuasion, he did marry Saul’s daughter Michal, but he left her behind when he fled for his life.
It is interesting to note that in I Samuel 22, David had found a safe place for his father and mother with the king of Moab. However, he didn’t find a way to rescue Michal from Saul’s household. He left her there in Saul’s hands, and the king gave David’s wife to another man. Later, when David was king and Michal was restored to him, she would come to despise David. It is easy to think that their relationship was spoiled years earlier when David ran off and left her.
Although at one time David was too humble to take one of Saul’s daughters to be his wife, he had now come to the point that he had no qualms about taking a wife. In fact, he took for himself two wives. It seems as if David had convinced himself that there wasn’t much sanctity in marriage after all. If one wife was good, then two or three must be better. Even a warrior on the run deserves a little comfort now and again, right?
It seems as if David looked on marriage the way that some people look at ice cream, wanting to enjoy the flavor of the month. Paul, in Ephesians 5:25-33 gives us a much different picture of how a husband ought to view marriage,
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, since we are members of his body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church. To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband.
Let me be clear, what David was doing was common for the culture of his day. Any man who could afford to have multiple wives did, and even those who probably couldn’t afford them, like David, also did so. The fact that something is common in the surrounding culture does not make it wise or acceptable for God’s people to do that thing.
All of this looks bad, but sadly, it gets worse. Let’s read 1 Samuel 27:8-12,
David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. From ancient times they had been the inhabitants of the region through Shur as far as the land of Egypt. Whenever David attacked the land, he did not leave a single person alive, either man or woman, but he took flocks, herds, donkeys, camels, and clothing. Then he came back to Achish, who inquired, “Where did you raid today?” David replied, “The south country of Judah,” “The south country of the Jerahmeelites,” or “The south country of the Kenites.” David did not let a man or woman live to be brought to Gath, for he said, “Or they will inform on us and say, ‘This is what David did.’” This was David’s custom during the whole time he stayed in the Philistine territory. So Achish trusted David, thinking, “Since he has made himself repulsive to his people Israel, he will be my servant forever.”
David Erred Through Violence:
During my time as a military chaplain, I served with some troops who had been well-trained in the application of violence to accomplish a mission. Some had become comfortable with that idea, and they expressed that comfort with some pithy sayings like, “If someone is worth shooting once they are worth shooting twice.” Or “When it comes to shooting your enemy in close quarter battles, always give them ‘p’ for ‘plenty.’” Or the classic from the Cold War, “Nuke’em ‘til they glow, then shoot them in the dark.”
The passage from 1 Samuel 27 reveals to us that the little shepherd boy had now become a stone-cold killer. David had gotten far too comfortable with violence, and while his massacre of witnesses made great tactical sense, at least in the World War II German SS war crime sort of way, it is hard to see someone anointed by God killing innocent people. God’s people must not err by convincing themselves that sinful behavior, even for the right reasons, is righteous.
So far, it seems as if David was making all the same mistakes that Saul did. He was on a slippery slope to depravity and destruction, but before that happened, David, unlike Saul, turned to God. Let’s read 1 Samuel 30:1-8,
David and his men arrived in Ziklag on the third day. The Amalekites had raided the Negev and attacked and burned Ziklag. They also had kidnapped the women and everyone, in it from youngest to oldest. They had killed no one but had carried them off as they went on their way. When David and his men arrived at the town, they found it burned. Their wives, sons, and daughters had been kidnapped. David and the troops with him wept loudly until they had no strength left to weep. David’s two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had also been kidnapped. David was in an extremely difficult position because the troops talked about stoning him, for they were all very bitter over the loss of their sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God. David said to the priest Abiathar son of Ahimelech, “Bring me the ephod.” So Abiathar brought it to him and David asked the Lord, “Should I pursue these raiders? Will I overtake them?” The Lord replied to him, “Pursue them, for you will certainly overtake them and rescue the people.”
David Turned To The Lord:
In this passage we see the essential difference between David and Saul. Up to this point, both men had tried almost everything imaginable to win their mutual struggle. Sadly, nothing they had tried so far was successful, and most of it was downright sinful.
These men remind me of the test pilots that author Tom Wolfe wrote about in his book, The Right Stuff. A recording of one such test pilot tells a sad tale. As his experimental airplane was crashing, he was heard on the radio, saying, “I’ve tried A! I’ve tried B! I’ve tried C! I’ve tried D! Tell me what else I can try!” Then came a “truly spooky click” on the radio that indicated the airplane had crashed. As test pilot Bob Hoover said, “If you’re faced with a forced landing, fly the thing as far into the crash as possible.” Both David and Saul flew the crashing airplane of their lives as far as they could. One factor, however, was different between the two of them
Saul ultimately crashed, because he desperately tried all the wrong things. David almost followed suit, but at the last second, he turned to God. This both saved him and it redeemed the absolute mess he had been making of his life.
Conclusion:
As we close, let us return to the saying, “To err is human, to forgive divine.” If someone like David can make so many mistakes when faced with a new and threatening reality, so can we. David traveled a long and twisted path to come to the place where he gave up on his own efforts, and returned to his God, the One forgave him, and the One who helped him. Why don’t we skip to the end of the story in our own lives, and just turn to God? We will save ourselves from making many mistakes, only to wind up in the same place, seeking God and His forgiveness and guidance!
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