Articles
Fear and Faith: David Amongst the Philistines
David is one of the characters in the Bible who’s presence is hard to overstate. He is the main character of the Book of Samuel, he is foreshadowed in all of the prophesies of kings in Deuteronomy, Judges, and Ruth, and he casts a long shadow of influence over the Books of Kings, Chronicles, and the Prophets. We are all well familiar with David’s character as the man after God’s own heart: he is brave, honest, loyal, steadfast, and faithful. His character is why 2 Samuel 11’s depiction of his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah is so unexpected and so tragic, as we have come to expect David to make the right choices. If we take a closer look, however, we see that the David of scripture does not always match the David of our collective memory. While David is indeed a heroic character, there are several times (before 2 Samuel 11!) where the author shows us that David is a man prone to human weakness just like everyone else. The two episodes where David flees Judah to the city of Gath show us that David’s fear overcomes his faith at times, but ultimately his faith in God wins out against his fear.
1 Samuel 21 finds David fleeing for his life from the court of Saul; Jonathan has fully realized the dangers posed to David by his father (having narrowly dodged a spear on David’s behalf!), and has advised David to leave the city to avoid Saul’s wrath. With the promise that Jonathan was still faithful to David and a reminder of his destiny as King of Israel, David flees to the city of Nob. Here he finds Ahimelech the priest, who trembles upon meeting David. The city of Nob is but two miles south of Gibeah, the hometown of Saul; Ahimelech is likely aware of the enmity the king has for David, and perhaps even suspicious of the wrath that aiding David might bring upon him. To David, however, Ahimelech might potentially be a threat; he is the brother of Ahijah, the priest of Shiloh that aided Saul in consulting the ephod in 1 Samuel 14. Could Ahimelech be an ally of Saul’s? It would appear as if David is concerned about Ahimelech’s potential loyalty to the king because he makes up a story of why he is alone (remember, David is the king’s son-in-law and a high ranking general. It would be quite odd indeed for a member of the royal court to not have any bodyguards with him). David tells the priest that he is on a secret mission from Saul of the utmost priority, and his soldiers are hiding elsewhere. To aid them, David requires bread. The only bread on hand is the Bread of the Presence, one of the emblems of the Tabernacle (Exodus 25:30; 35:13; Leviticus 24:5-9). This bread, divided into twelve loaves to represent the tribes, would be replaced every Sabbath with fresh bread, and the priests would then eat the old bread in a holy place. Given the desperation of David, however, Ahimelech makes an exception and gives David his requested five loaves on the condition that he and his “men” have remained consecrated for battle by abstaining from sexual relations. David affirms this is the case (easy to do when there’s no soldiers with him!), and Ahimelech gives the bread. The text then heightens the drama by briefly noting the presence of Doeg the Edomite, a servant of Saul’s “detained before the Lord.” The identity of this man is indeed quite alarming: the Edomites are fierce rivals of the Israelites, and the word “chief” carries connotations of “mighty, violent, obstinate.” Saul had fought the Edomites in 1 Samuel 14, so it is possible this Doeg is a hired mercenary or a turncoat; his “detaining before the Lord” adds to the ominous nature of this man.
In addition to the bread, David then furthers his deception by claiming he needs a weapon and had to leave on the king’s secret mission too quickly to procure one. This is a fairly illogical statement and highlights David’s panic; he obviously needs a weapon for his secret mission since he requests one, but the king’s business was so urgent that a seasoned soldier like David wouldn’t have properly equipped himself for the task? Ahimelech notes that the sword of Goliath has been stored at Nob, and David eagerly takes the weapon. There is a great irony in this: in 1 Samuel 17:45-46, David had scoffed at the power of Goliath’s sword and spear against the power of the Lord of Hosts. In this moment of flight, however, David marvels that there is “none like it,” and seems to take courage in the defense such a mighty weapon would provide. The irony of David using his fallen foe does end there, however, as David then flees from Nob to seek asylum in Gath: the very hometown of Goliath! While he seeks to hide in the Philistine town under Achish’s protection, the servants of Achish immediately recognize him. They ask “Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing of this one as they danced, saying, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?” (1 Samuel 21:11). While David is fleeing from his destiny, the Philistines are fully aware of David’s future as King of Israel.
Unfortunately, David responds to this recognition in a poor fashion; the text says he “greatly feared” Achish. The picture is a pitiable one: the great champion of Israel, who slew Goliath with a single stone while Saul and Israel were “paralyzed by fear” (1 Samuel 17:11, 24), is now armed with Goliath’s sword, seeking refuge in Goliath’s hometown, and is very fearful in front of a Philistine king because he is fleeing the once-fearful Saul! David has fallen right where Saul had desired him to be: in the hands of the Philistines (1 Samuel 18:17, 21, 25). In his fear, David humiliates himself by pretending to be insane and spitting on the gates of Gath so that saliva runs down his beard. The entire episode has David acting completely out of character: he has fled from the land God promised him, lied to the Lord’s priest, trusted in the weapon and city of his defeated enemy to protect him, and now bearing more resemblance to Saul’s bouts of God-induced insanity than his normal courageous self (1 Samuel 19:23-24). When David fails to trust in God, he is as fallible as any mortal man.
David flees from Philistia to the cave of Adulum, a region about twelve miles east of Gath on the edge of Judah’s territory. Here his brothers and household come to him, along with a bunch of social outcasts, debtors, and malcontents, and David becomes the captain over them; whereas he was once a commander in Saul’s army, he is now the commander of a ragtag mercenary group. The prestige of David has slipped greatly in just a few short weeks! David goes to the King of Moab (perhaps out a sense of kinship, seeing as David’s ancestor Ruth was a Moabitess), and there waits “until I know what God will do for me,” (1 Samuel 22:3). Finally, the prophet Gad comes to David and directly intervenes, and tells him it is time for David to leave the Moabite stronghold and return to Judah. While David has tried to hide his destiny and even obscure his identity in Gath, God’s plan for David will not be denied. To David’s great credit, he accepts the Lord’s will despite his great fear and returns to his homeland.
Unfortunately, David’s schemes to preserve his own life come at a cost. Doeg the Edomite, true to the ominous foreshadowing of 1 Samuel 21:7, reveals to Saul that David has been aided by Ahimelech and the priests of Nob. Ahimelech and 84 other priests are slain by Doeg in Saul’s rage, and the entire city is put to the sword for their aid of David (in a tragic bit of irony, Saul shows far more zeal in completely destroying Nob than he did in destroying the Amalekites on behalf of God!). The sole survivor, Ahimelech’s son Abiathar, flees to David and relays the news of Nob’s destruction. David blames himself for the deaths of the priests; he recognized Doeg and knew he would inform Saul of his interactions with the priests. His lying to the priests, and subsequent inaction despite knowing Doeg, has led to the deaths of the Lord’s servants. Yet the final part of David’s statement indicates a changed heart; he tells Abiathar to “stay with me; do not be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life, for you are safe with me,” (1 Samuel 22:23). While David has been fearful of Saul, his fear has been completely replaced with confidence in the Lord’s protection. The man who had run from his destiny is now willing to place himself in harm’s way to protect the Lord’s priest, and we are reminded again why David is to be the King in Israel!
David spends the next few chapters on the run from Saul, even sparing the life of his enemy twice in a display of mercy. He delivers the city of Keilah from the Philistines, gains a wise wife in Abigail, and is protected from the machinations of Saul; all clear reminders of God’s protection of David and his ultimate destiny as king. Unfortunately, after the second time David spares Saul’s life in ch. 26, David again falls prey to fear. Despite having scolded Abishai for suggesting the murder of Saul while he slept, telling his nephew that “As the Lord lives, surely the Lord will strike him, or his day will come that he dies, or he will go down into battle and perish,” (1 Samuel 26:8-1), David now fears that Saul will destroy him! David has been reassured by Jonathan, Abigail, and even Saul himself that he will be king (1 Samuel 23:17; 24:20; 25:30-31; 26:25), yet he again doubts the Lord’s promise. Fearing for his life, David once more flees to Achish, king of Gath. This time, however, he is not a lone man on the run, but a general with his own private army of six hundred warriors. David requests that Achish give him a city to rule as a retainer of Achish, even calling himself a “servant” of Achish (1 Samuel 27:5); a term previously used by David to refer to his service to both Saul and the Lord (1 Samuel 17:32; 23:10-11). It is as if David has renounced his service to Israel in favor of service to the Philistines!
As part of his service to Achish, David and his private army raid several people groups that are enemies of Israel; the Geshurites and Amalekites are both people groups that have been previously designated by God as needed destruction (Joshua 13:2; 1 Samuel 15:1-3), and so David’s war is within his intended loyalty to God. He tells Achish, however, that he has instead attacked Judah and her allies the Jerahmeelites and the Kenites. David’s ruse is successful in cementing his alliance with Achish; the Philistine king is convinced of David’s loyalty and believes he has alienated himself from the Israelites. The situation backfires for David, however, when Achish and the other Philistine lords gather for war against Israel and Achish makes David his personal bodyguard! The Hebrew word for bodyguard literally means “a guard for my head,” and the irony is once again thick: the Israelite champion who once cut off the head of Gath’s champion Goliath as a trophy is now responsible for guarding the head of the king of Gath! David has backed himself into a terrible dilemma with his decisions; is the chosen king of Israel going to have to fight against Israel on behalf of the Philistines? The narrative leaves us in suspense as it cuts to Saul’s discussion with the medium of En-Dor, and Samuel’s proclamation that Saul would indeed die the very next day in battle against the Philistines. The suspense is nearly unbearable: Will Saul’s death come at the hands of David flying the flag of Achish? Would Israel even accept a king who has just killed the previous king while fighting on behalf of the Philistines?
Thankfully, chapters 29-30 relieve the tension by showing that God’s will for David to be king will not be denied even by David’s poor decisions. 1 Samuel 28:4 has the Philistines encamped at Shunem while Saul consults the medium two miles away at En-Dor, and the next day they fight against Israel at Mt. Gilboa. 1 Samuel 29:1, however, has a flashback to when the Philistines assemble at Aphek, nearly forty miles southwest of Shunem. It is here where David is expelled from the Philistine army; while Achish has faith in his loyal retainer, the other Philistine lords have immense reservations about letting the renowned Philistine-killer David march into battle with them. They are fearful that David may betray the Philistines in battle and present their heads to Saul as an offering to return to the king’s favor. Achish bitterly dismisses his prized warrior to return to Ziklag, although the protests of David wishing to remain and fight “against the enemies of my lord the king,” are somewhat alarming to hear (a possible explanation is that David is deceiving Achish and is referring to Saul as “my lord the king, indicating he is indeed planning to betray the Philistines just as they fear!). David instead spends the day of battle fighting the Amalekites, the ancient enemy of Israel, in the Negev far to the South. This is providential indeed; had David, who had claimed to kill Judeans and was a vassal to a Philistine king, been found at the same battle at Mt. Gilboa that saw Saul slain, it seems highly unlikely that David would have been able to press his claim to become Israel’s king! Despite David’s scheming and fear, God has cleared the way for him to be king according to God’s plan. Chapter 30 ends with David successfully defeating the Amalekites, recovering the spoils of his warriors as well as his captured wives, and making allies with the elders of Judah in preparation of his kingship. Once more, David has accepted the will of the Lord and is trusting in His plan to bring David to the throne.
The stories of David in the land of the Philistines help give an important perspective on David. While he is a faithful warrior, an accomplished psalmist and poet, and the man after God’s own heart, he is still a man. He faces his moments of weakness and faithlessness just as any other man (indeed, the deception and scheming David shows here will be even more horribly highlighted in his crime against Uriah). The character of David is, almost paradoxically, even more inspiring because of his weakness. David is not a superhuman who accomplishes his greatness through his own strength. He is a mortal, weak, fallible man whose greatest strength is his trust in the supreme God. All of us today can share in this same strength: the God who saved David from Saul (and himself!) is the same God who can save us from our enemies and our own mistakes today.
