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1Sa_27:1-6
Allowing due weight to this consideration, we were never yet able to understand the step taken by David in going over once more to the Philistines, until we took into account the further influence exercised upon his most susceptible temper by the treachery of the man he had trusted. This was likely to make him feel for the time, that he was continually in the power of spies and traitors, who might gain his confidence only to destroy him. How could he know but that the men who had hitherto been most faithful to him, and in whom he most trusted, might one day desert him to will the favor of a king, or betray him, at unawares, to his undoing. It was under the influence of such depressing feelings, that he resolved to put an insurmountable barrier against the further pursuit of the king, by going over to his enemies. He did so: and the immediate result was such as he expected; for when Saul heard of this step taken by David, he abandoned all further designs against him. But although we can account for this step, we cannot justify it. Indeed, there was a certain consciousness in his mind which prevented him from asking counsel of the Lord in this matter, as he had habitually done in affairs of less real importance. Instead of this, he reasoned the matter “in his heart”—in his own heart, in this manner, “I shall now one day perish by the hand of Saul; there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines.” But instead of there being nothing better for him, there could really have been nothing worse for him; and had the Lord’s pursuing mercy not followed his chosen servant, even in this his wandering from steadfast faith, and averted from him, by his shielding hand, the perils he brought upon himself by this step, there is no knowing what the result might have been. “The overlong continuance of a temptation may easily weary the best patience, and may attain that by protraction, which it could never do by violence,” says Bishop Hall. Knowing, therefore, what is in man, we do not wonder that David at length began to bend under his trial; but we do wonder that he went over to the Philistines under this influence. It was not only a wrong—it was a mistake, which politicians say is worse than a wrong. It is true that it was most effectual, as a human means, for safety from Saul—which was the immediate object in view. But it is lamentable that such a man as David, should have made that the primary consideration in such a movement; and had not his naturally courageous spirit been for the time utterly prostrated by personal apprehensions, it is scarcely credible that the political error of the step should have escaped his penetration. That he had a latent misgiving as to its religious fitness, is shown by his refraining to seek counsel of God. The considerations which belong to this matter, have already passed under our notice in contemplating his first lapse of the same kind; but, so far as the political influences of the movement are in question, the present step was far more dangerous than the former, as this time he goes not alone, but takes with him a strong band of resolute and daring men; and it must be apparent that they would be received only in the expectation, that they might be employed to the detriment of the Israelites—and this employment of them would have been a slur upon his name all the rest of his life, if it did not prevent or retard his recognition as king. In fact, so much was he eventually aware of this, that he was reduced to a series of low contrivances, and degrading falsehoods, to avert the natural consequences of the step he had taken.
Nevertheless, David entered the land of the Philistines in a far different attitude from that in which he had before appeared there. The inveterate hatred of Saul, now so well known, was his recommendation, and no distrust could be entertained of a man who fled for his life to the enemies of his country—exasperated by wrongs, and willing, it might be supposed, to avenge them. Won by these considerations, and by the assurance that this able leader and valiant troop were withdrawn from the defensive force of Israel, and added to the strength of the Philistines—David found a most friendly reception from the king of Gath, in whose presence be had some years before so egregiously played the madman. It is, indeed, not unlikely that Achish—acting upon the hint of the previous attempt of David to find refuge with him, had sent to offer him an asylum from the wrath of their common enemy; and there can be little doubt that, as Josephus suggests, David had at least taken care, previously, to ascertain the footing on which he would be received.
We may be sure that the redoubted son of Jesse, the slayer of Goliath, and the overcomer of so many Philistines, was beheld with great admiration at Gath. Some close commentators, whose knowledge of life and man is rather a matter of excogitation than of experience, marvel that he did not find himself in personal danger among a people he had so much aggrieved; indeed, that he was not torn in pieces by the mob. But in reality there was no danger. Prowess is respected among a military people; and a great general, when he comes as a fugitive among them, is liked none the less for his skill and courage having been manifested at their expense. In fact, he is rather liked the better for it.
Nevertheless, David found himself in an embarrassing position at Gath. It must have been obviously difficult for him and his men to be living there among idolaters without giving or taking offence; and there was constant danger lest, with so many strong and reckless men moving about among their old enemies, some affray might arise on religious or national grounds, which might have a fatal and ruinous termination. Besides, they lived under constant observation; and the mere presence of so many strong and daring men, would be of itself likely to suggest the employment of them against the Israelites—a result which David regarded with such dread and apprehension as probably left him little of the repose he had expected to find among the Philistines. He therefore, at length ventured to ask the king to assign to him some town in the land, where he might live apart with his men; and where, as seems to be adroitly implied, they might provide for themselves, and be no longer burdensome as guests in the royal city. This was a large and bold request. But it was met in an open and generous spirit; and David was at once raised almost to the dignity of an independent prince, by having the fortified town of Ziklag assigned to him—in such absolute and free possession, that it remained attached to the house of David ever after.
Understanding the wishes of Achish, and being also desirous to maintain and exercise his men, he led them, from time to time, in forays against the neighboring nations. But these nations were friends of the Philistines; and as he wished it to be believed, and indeed positively affirmed, that these expeditions were against the Israelites, the troop made it their constant practice to put to death every living soul of the places they assaulted, that there might be none left to apprize the Philistines of the truth. The delight the king felt in the assurance that by these alleged operations against Israel, David had made himself odious to his own people, and must, therefore, remain attached to his interests, clearly shows the nature of the danger he incurred by the step he had taken, and indicates the deplorable error into which he had fallen, seeing that he could only evade the consequences by bloodshed, by falsehood, and by making a dupe of the confiding protector by whom he had been treated so generously. Bishop Hall, who excuses the slaughter on the ground that these people were of the doomed nations, whom the Israelites held a commission from God to extirpate, yet finds no excuse for this dealing with king Achish: “If Achish were a Philistine, yet he was David’s friend, yea, his patron; and if he had been neither, it had not become David to be false. The infirmities of God’s children never appear but in their extremities. It is hard for the best man to say how far he will be tempted. If a man will put himself among the Philistines, he cannot promise to come out innocent.”
“Ah, what a tangled web we weave,
When first we venture to deceive!”