I Samuel 27:10-12
“Achish would ask, ‘And whom did you raid today?’ David would tell him, ‘Oh, the Negev of Judah,’ or ‘The Negev of Jerahmeel,’ or ‘The Negev of the Kenites.’ He never left a single person alive lest one show up in Gath and report what David had really been doing. This is the way David operated all the time he lived in Philistine country. Achish came to trust David completely. He thought, ‘He’s made himself so repugnant to his people that he’ll be in my camp forever.’”
“‘Where did you make your raid today?’ Achish would ask. And David would reply, ‘Against the south of Judah, the Jerahmeelites, and the Kenites.’ No one was left alive to come to Gath and tell where he had really been. This happened again and again while he was living among the Philistines. Achish believed David and thought to himself, ‘By now the people of Israel must hate him bitterly. Now he will have to stay here and serve me forever!’”
The Bible records real life and it is a comfort to we who live it. These verses portray David in one his less inspiring moments. Living amongst Israel’s traditional enemies must have been hard for his followers. Achish, who seems like a nice guy was deliberately deceived. There was also the raiding discussed in the previous post. How could this have been God’s best plan? Perhaps it wasn’t. David, worn by the ceaseless tension of leading a large band of outlaws in the wilderness, maintaining multiple hideouts, constantly on the move, decided God could not protect him anymore and found his own solution. He chose to live among Israel’s heathen enemies.
We have moments like this too, giving up on God and taking matters into our own hands. We fail in faith just as David. And we also end up in big trouble as David did when he found himself arrayed with the Philistines for war against Israel. (I Samuel 29:1-2) Graciously God bears our failings, covers for our blunders, and provides a way out. His purpose for us still goes forward, though not as well as it could have and not without consequences. Real life recorded in the Bible teaches us we are not lost and may still climb up on God’s best path for our lives.
Oh Lord! This is so good to read. My life seems a constant series of mistakes and you know all about them. I give them to you, trusting you alone can work magic through them, continuing to fit me for eternity.