1 Samuel 29:1

GOD'S RESCUE OF DAVID FROM THE ARMY OF ACHISH

"Now the Philistines gathered all their forces at Aphek; and the Israelites were encamped by the fountain which is in Jezreel. As the lords of the Philistines were passing on by hundreds and by thousands, and David and his men were passing on in the rear with Achish, the commanders of the Philistines said, "What are these Hebrews doing here"? And Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, "Is not this David, the servant of Saul, king of Israel, who has been with me now for days and years, and since he deserted to me I have found no fault in him to this day." But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him; and the commanders of the Philistines said to him, "Send the man back, that he may return to the place to which you have assigned him; he shall not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us. For how could this fellow reconcile himself to his lord? Would it not be with the heads of the men here? Is not this David, of whom they sing to one another in dances,

`Saul has slain his thousands,

And David his ten thousands'?"

It would have been some kind of a miracle if David's long association with Achish had not resulted in his being sucked into the vortex of war against his own people; and only the intervention of God Himself prevented that from happening, as revealed here. Fortunately, the temptation that came to David in this trial brought with it the promised "way of escape," as the Lord promised (1 Corinthians 10:13). David wrote in Psalms that, "I do not sit with false men ... I hate the company of evildoers" (Psalms 26:4-5); but at this juncture in his life he had been closely associated with the wicked for years. God alone could have spared him from the disastrous results which might have ensued.

WHY THE PHILISTINE COMMANDERS REJECTED DAVID

Willis cited no less that four reasons why the commanders of the Philistines vetoed the intention of Achish to take David and his men into the battle against Israel. These were:

(1) The long enmity between the Philistines and the Hebrews had resulted in deep mistrust on both sides.

(2) In the battle of Geba (1 Samuel 14:21), the Hebrews who had deserted to the Philistines defected to their fellow-Israelites and aided Saul in destroying the Philistines. As Caird noted, "That was an unanswerable objection to David's being allowed to join their army."[1]

(3) If David and his men decided to go back to Saul, they would easily do so by slaughtering the Philistines (any great number of them) and taking their heads to Saul. An opportunity like that, the lords of the Philistines were determined not to put into the hands of David.

(4) David had a reputation of having slain "tens of thousands" of Philistines; and the lords of the Philistines were not about to forget it.[2]

It is surprising that H. P. Smith wrote that there is, "An absence of any allusion to Goliath,"[3] in this chapter, but the quotation of the Philistine lords of that song which was sung following David's killing Goliath is just about the strongest allusion to David's killing that giant that could be imagined.

"David ... has been with me now for days and years" (1 Samuel 29:3). These words from Achish indicate the indefinite chronology of this whole chapter. As noted earlier, the Bible does not tell us how long David's total sojourn in Philistia actually lasted. R. P. Smith wrote that, "This passage refers to an indefinitely long time."[4]

"I have found no fault in him to this day" (1 Samuel 29:3). David had completely deceived Achish; but fortunately for the Philistines, the other lords of the Philistines were not so gullible.

"They were angry ... Send him back" (1 Samuel 29:4). Regardless of the wishes of Achish, the Philistine lords outvoted Achish and successfully removed David and his men from their forces.

"In this manner David was saved from making war on his own people and was returned to Ziklag exactly at the right time to save his wives and property from their confiscation by the Amalekites."[5]

How marvelous are the ways of God in the protection that He casts like a cloak around his saints!