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.”
2 So David and the six hundred men with him left and went over to Achish son of Maok king of Gath. 3 David and his men settled in Gath with Achish. Each man had his family with him, and David had his two wives: Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, the widow of Nabal. 4 When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him.
5 Then David said to Achish, “If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be assigned to me in one of the country towns, that I may live there. Why should your servant live in the royal city with you?”
6 So on that day Achish gave him Ziklag, and it has belonged to the kings of Judah ever since. 7 David lived in Philistine territory a year and four months.
8 Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites and the Amalekites. (From ancient times these peoples had lived in the land extending to Shur and Egypt.) 9 Whenever David attacked an area, he did not leave a man or woman alive, but took sheep and cattle, donkeys and camels, and clothes. Then he returned to Achish.
10 When Achish asked, “Where did you go raiding today?” David would say, “Against the Negev of Judah” or “Against the Negev of Jerahmeel” or “Against the Negev of the Kenites.” 11 He did not leave a man or woman alive to be brought to Gath, for he thought, “They might inform on us and say, ‘This is what David did.’” And such was his practice as long as he lived in Philistine territory. 12 Achish trusted David and said to himself, “He has become so obnoxious to his people, the Israelites, that he will be my servant for life.”
28:1 In those days the Philistines gathered their forces to fight against Israel. Achish said to David, “You must understand that you and your men will accompany me in the army.”
2 David said, “Then you will see for yourself what your servant can do.”
Achish replied, “Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life.”
Points of Interest
- ‘One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul’--in the intervening chapter, David has once again passed up the opportunity to kill an unwitting Saul. He knows that sooner or later Saul will have the opportunity to turn on him in one of those moments; and Saul is less likely to hold back his sword.
- ‘David and the six hundred men with him left and went over to Achish’--tired of living in the desert, running from hideout to hideout, David decides to immigrate to Gath once again. It didn’t work out so well the last time; if you’ll remember, he had to act like a rabid animal so that people would leave him alone. This time it’s different though. Instead of alone and vulnerable, he comes as the captain of a large, well-armed, battle-hardened mercenary company.
- ‘Each man had his family with him’--they intend to stay a while. Plus, it’s safer for their families, who could get the Ahimelek treatment if it’s ever discovered that their husbands or father or brothers fight for David.
- ‘Achish gave him Ziklag’--I imagine it could have been awkward and tense at times for David’s men and Achish’s men to be in close quarters in Gath. They are supposedly allies now, but they’d just been at war with one another a short time ago. To defuse the situation, David suggests that Achish post him at a safer distance, and Achish indeed gives him his own town to run.
- ‘he did not leave a man or woman alive’--David is playing a dangerous game here. He’s working for Achish now, but his true, lifelong loyalty is to the Israelites. He hopes to be their king someday; so fighting against them now is unthinkable. So instead he fights against Israel’s enemies, but tells Achish that he’s been raiding the Israelites. In order to make sure that word of his ruse never makes it back to Achish, he takes no prisoners. It’s an effective military plan, though ruthless. War is a terrible thing.
- ‘your men will accompany me in the army’--it would have been interesting to see what David would do here. David would have been finally, definitively forced to choose between the Philistines and the Israelites. As it turns out, the other Philistine kings are less keen than Achish to have David’s troops in the middle of their army in a pitched battle; so they demand that Achish leave David at home in Ziklag.
- ‘I will make you my bodyguard for life'--it’s remarkably common throughout history for kings to use foreign troops as their bodyguards. The Byzantine emperors had a company of Vikings called the Varangian Guard. The Ottoman sultans were guarded by the Janissaries, an elite company composed of Christian slaves. The Swiss created an entire industry out of hiring themselves out as the bodyguards for various European kings and dukes, including to this very day the Pope. These bodyguards would not only stand post in the palace; they would also be the troops immediately surrounding the king in battle. Often, the king felt safer in the hands of these foreign companies than those of their native armies, who might be tempted to assassinate the king and affect a coup under cover of the king being ‘killed in battle.’
Taking it home
- For you: Are you in a situation or an entire period of your life that feels less than ideal? We don’t know exactly how long David lives and fights on Philistine turf, but it has to have been a good while; they brought their families with them, and they had plenty of time for quite a few wars. I have to imagine that David would eventually be asking, ‘Is this over yet? When can I be done with this arrangement?’ Maybe he knew it wouldn’t last forever, but he just knew that for now this is what he had to do. Talk to God about how you feel where you are in life. If you are in a monotonous routine that you don’t really like, ask God for his comfort. If you’re in a situation where things don’t seem to be working out as planned, ask God to turn it around. If you get the sense this situation will last a while, ask God for patience and even for satisfaction in the midst of the un-ideal.
- For your six: Achish and David have an interesting relationship. David seems to have enough charisma and wisdom that he is able to build a really helpful relationship with this quirky, older authority figure. Pray that God would give your six the same type of favor with authority figures in their lives. Ask God to put them in situations that are helpful to them and give them what they need.
- For our church: Last week, David was leading battles against the Philistines, and now he thinks that their land would actually be a good place to which to flee. Pray that God would give our church the same entrepreneurial spirit as David, to see the possibilities in unlikely places.
- For families: Take time to share about unlikely friends that you have had in your life. Are there people who had very little in common with you or were not your normal type of friend but somehow became your friend? What is your friendship like? Ask God if there are any candidates for an unlikely friendship in your life right now.
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