1 Samuel 27:1-4
Verse 1 But David thought to himself, “One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.”
We read in our reading yesterday that after David had given his speech to Saul and his men, the king went home and David went on his way. We see in today’s reading that David still didn’t trust Saul to keep his word about continuing to pursue the younger man and so David went to land of the Philistines. Though David had tried this before, this time it seems to have a slightly better result.
Saul on the other hand doesn’t seem so innocent when we read that he decided not to pursue David because of his going to live among the Philistines. But David didn’t just go over to the land of the enemy and hang around the outskirts of the area, he moved into Gath, the city that Goliath was from, with his wives and 600 men and their families! This would have been more like an invasion. Over 1200 people moving into a town would likely have greatly impacted the city in multiple ways.
We need to ask though why David chose to move into Philistine country. Sure it may have discouraged the king from pursuing him but hadn’t he just given the king a big speech about feeling like he was being kicked out of the country and made to worship foreign gods and yet the first thing he does is flee to the very area that holds those false gods.
This isn’t the first time David had fled to Gath or come into the presence of Achish. The first time the Philistine men were afraid of David and so David pretended to be insane and left the area. But now it appears the men around Achish weren’t afraid and David and his men move right in to settle with him.
David wasn’t going in pretending anymore. He had learned some things since the last time he was in Gath and he wasn’t going to run scared from these men of false gods. Saul had revealed his hand about not wanting to be aggressive about expanding Israel’s territories and so Gath was the perfect place for David to protect his wives, men and their families. At least to protect them from Saul, not from false gods.
Making It Personal
Have you ever had to make a choice which had you doing something you said you would never do? How did that choice affect your life for the good or bad? How can you know what the wise choice is?
Making It Personal Kids
What are some hard choices you have had to make? What did you learn from having to decide what was best? Who can help you make good choices?
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for giving us Your Holy Spirit to guide us to make the right choices. Help us know what to do in each situation. In Jesus’ name, amen.