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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadGreater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 288. Achish
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Achish
David's consistent deception and unrestrained slaughter, even of women and children, only illustrates the low moral standard of the age, and the strange contradictions of human nature. Nor is it to be forgotten that the higher and nobler side of David's nature is the more to be honoured by its contrast with characteristics in which he resembled the men around him. Spiritual development such as his, in an age so rude, crafty, and bloodthirsty, is in itself a miracle of which the only explanation is that he owed it to Divine inspiration.1 [Note: C. Geikie.]
2. Meanwhile, the Philistines were preparing for a decisive struggle with David's fellow-countrymen, and Achish summoned his vassal to accompany him to the seat of warfare. Fortunately for David the suspicion of the other Philistine chiefs compelled Achish to dismiss his nominal ally. On returning, however, to Ziklag, he found that the city had been assaulted and sacked by the Amalekites, and its inhabitants, including his own wives Ahinoam and Abigail, carried captive. The spirit of mutiny and indignation spread through his men. They probably had been angry with him for leading them to Aphek and then having to turn back, and now in their fury and sorrow, after a wild outbreak of weeping in the manner of Orientals, they proposed to stone their leader. Never did David's strength of character and real religion come out more distinctly. The Bible tells us that he “strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” He then inquired of the Lord through the priest, and God directed him to pursue the fugitives. David at once started in pursuit, and, guided by an Egyptian slave whom he found lying half-dead by the wayside, he fell suddenly on the camp of the Amalekites at dusk, and put nearly all of them to the sword. The captives were recovered, together with a great quantity of spoil. Of the captured booty he made a politic use, by sending rich presents to the different towns in Judah which had befriended and sheltered him during his exile. In this way he secured friends whose assistance was soon to be of the highest importance to him.
“David strengthened himself in the Lord his God”; do not overlook this short passage, because it is the only key to the secret of a greatness which otherwise appears almost supernatural. He knows the Lord in the light of His revealed history, and finds this name inscribed in indelible characters on every page of the book of his life. He knows by faith that this God is as truly his as He was the covenant God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. He is conscious of standing in a mutual relation towards this God, which no power, human or superhuman, can break, and now echoes within: “Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him who is the help of my countenance, and my God.”
No marvel, truly, that a disposition so exalted in itself should, in circumstances of unparalleled difficulty, possess incalculable dignity. This strength in God, it is evident in the case of David, is the only thing which permanently preserves from despair. It makes us, moreover, like him, with courage and caution, energetic in the deliverance of others. It is finally in God's time and way crowned with the most glorious result. “And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: David recovered all” (1Sa_30:18-19). This is then the Amen of God to the prayer of faith: this the crown wreathed by His own hand for the conqueror, who in the hard conflict of life chose Him as Ally. God does not always send deliverance as visibly and marvellously as here; but yet He never is weary of accomplishing His word: “Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee” (Psa_84:5). Alas, then, why do we, upon whom beams a light so much the brighter, yet stand so far beneath this hero David! He was firm when trouble struck him on the most vulnerable spot: we feel our courage sink even at the bare idea of need and danger. Thus we remain, alas! as long as we yet know not whether the Lord be indeed our God, His love in Christ our inalienable portion. Ah! shall we not rather fully learn to know this to-day than wait until to-morrow, since we know not what a day may bring forth? Only living faith in God makes real heroes like this David, and also like the brave king of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, who died on the sixth day of November 1632, but not before he had sung by the flames of Lützen his mighty hymn of faith:
It is God's cause for which we fight,
On Him our hope is placed aright;
Leave all then to the Lord!
His love in Jesus infinite,
When it procures us help in need,
Sends triumph to His word!1 [Note: J. J. van Oosterzee, The Year of Salvation, ii. 450.]
3. It was only two days after his return to Ziklag that David heard of the defeat of Israel and the death of Saul and his three eldest sons. The messenger who announced it was himself a young Amalekite, who brought Saul's crown and bracelet to David, in the hope of gaining a reward for his tidings. But David with a stern rebuke ordered him to be promptly put to death, for having, by his own admission, slain the Lord's anointed. Then, in a dirge of striking beauty-the “Song of the Bow,” as it was afterwards called-David poured forth his generous lament over his kingly foe and his chivalrous friend:
“Thy glory, O Israel, is slain upon thy high places!
How are the mighty fallen!
Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives,
And in their death they were not divided.
How are the mighty fallen,
And the weapons of war perished!”
This splendid ode of sorrow reveals to us the unshaken loyalty the deep affectionateness, the poetic power-expressing itself in appropriate words-of the minstrel-king. Does it not do something also to soften our judgment of Saul?
Shall we not lament with David over the shield, cast away on the Gilboa mountains, of him to whom God gave another heart that day, when he turned his back to go from Samuel? (2Sa_1:21). It is not our part to look hardly, nor to look always, to the character or the deeds of men, but to accept from all of them, and to hold fast, that which we can prove good, and feel to be ordained for us. We know that whatever good there is in them is itself divine; and wherever we see the virtue of ardent labour and self-surrendering to a single purpose, wherever we find constant reference made to the written scripture of natural beauty, this at least we know is great and good; this we know is not granted by the counsel of God without purpose, nor maintained without result: their interpretation we may accept, into their labour we may enter, but they themselves must look to it, if what they do has no intent f good nor any reference to the Giver of all gifts.1 [Note: Ruskin, Modern Painters, ii. (Works, iv. 213).]