Escaping Saul: The Tactical Mind of David

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The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.

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When David was running from Saul, he ran afoul of the law of unintended consequences. He and the priest reasoned their way around a law that said David could not eat the holy bread from the tabernacle. I mean, that bread was only for the priests. But David and his guys got there, and they didn’t have any food with them at all, and he’s begging for something. So he and the priest figure out, well, there’s a reason why we can do it, and let’s just go ahead and do it on this occasion. In fact, even Jesus seems to accept that even though it was unlawful, it was an understandable exception. But it was not without its consequences. The priest gave him the hallowed bread, because there wasn’t anything there but the showbread. It was taken from the Lord to put hot bread in the very day it had been taken away. This is in 1 Samuel 21. Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg, which is uncomfortably close to dog, and Edomite. the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul. He was in charge of all of Saul’s livestock. David said to Ahimelech, is there any weapon here? Is there a spear? Is there a sword? I didn’t bring my sword or my weapons with me. The king’s business required haste, and David is lying in his teeth. You know, he doesn’t want to create a problem, but he would like to get something to fight with. And the priest said, well, the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, it’s here, wrapped in the cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it. There is no other than that here. And David said, well, there’s surely none like that. Give it to me. So the priest not only fed David, he armed him, not knowing what was going on. So David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul, and he went all the way down to Achish, the king of Gath. One of the servants of Achish recognized David. He said, Hey, this is David, the king of the land. Now, apparently word had spread all the way down there that Saul was being replaced, that David had been anointed in this place. He recognized him. He said, Didn’t they sing to one another about this man and dances, saying, Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands? Now, once David recognized that, once he realized that he was known and who they were, he was afraid of Achish, the king of Gath. He really figured that that man could rise up and kill him. So he began to change his behavior before them. He pretended that he was crazy. He, as the King James says, feigned himself mad in their hands, and he scrabbled on the doors of the gate and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. Quite a sight David was making, and quite an act he was putting on. Then said Achish to his servants, Look, this guy is crazy. What have you brought him into me for? I don’t need madmen around here that you brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence. I’m not going to let this man in my house. So David was able to leave, as which he did quickly, and escape to the cave Adulam. This is in 1 Samuel 22. When his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him. And everyone who was in distress, everyone that was in debt, everyone that was discontented, gathered themselves to him, and he became a captain over them. And there were with him about four hundred men. What a motley crew David had. Now, he was a fine man himself. He was a man of considerable strength, talent, ability, charisma. He was a fighting man. And certainly the key people around him were also good fighting men. But an awful lot of them were people who had run for it because they were in debt. And some of them had just gotten fed up with Saul and the way he handled his business and decided, I’m going to go join David. Whatever, David wound up with an army of about 400. So he went from there to Mizpah of Moab, and he said to the king of Moab, Let my father and my mother come here and be with you till I can understand or see what God will do for me. And he realized very clearly that if he was in danger, so were all the people of his family. And he had better take care of his mother and father, or they would not survive this internecine war that was going on. And the king of Moab agreed, and he brought them to him, and they stayed with him all the while that David was in the hold. In fact, all the time that David was on the run. Now, the prophet Gad said to David, You better not stay here. Get out of here to the land of Judah. So he left and came to the forest of Hareth. Now, when Saul heard that David was discovered… And the men that were with him, Saul himself, rode a boat in Gideon under a tree in Ramah, having his spear in his hand. I guess he never put the thing down. And all his servants were standing around him. And Saul said to his servants standing all about him, said, Listen now, you Benjamites. Will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards and make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds? Saul has, of course, already done that with these people. He says, Is this why all of you have conspired against me, and there is none of you that shows me that my son has made a league with the son of Jesse? And there is none of you that is sorry for me or shows unto me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie and wait as at this day? Saul is really quite mad at this time. But he’s all the more dangerous for it because he has power. And because of his power, there’s a certain category of men who will do anything he asks them to do. But he looks around at members of his own tribe, and he accuses them of conspiring with his own son and with David. And he says, and it’s so sad that he puts it this way, there’s not a one of you that feels sorry for me. There’s nothing sadder, I think, than to listen to a king whine. Now enter the snake. Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who was set over the servants of Saul, and said, Well, I saw the son of Jesse come to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub the priest. And he, that is Ahimelech, inquired of the Lord for him, and gave him food, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine. Well, that was just a little too much for Saul. So he sent to call Ahimelech the priest. He got all of his father’s house to come, all the priests that were in Nob. He brought every single one of them before him. And Saul said, Here now, you son of Ahitub. He said, I’m here, my lord. And Saul said to him, Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him, that he should rise up against me to lie in wait, to ambush me as this day? The man is really crazy. Then Ahimelech answered and said, Who is so faithful among all your servants as David? He’s the king’s son-in-law. He goes at your bidding. He is honorable in your house. Why shouldn’t I inquire of God for him? Be it far from me, don’t let the king impute anything to his servant, nor to all the house of my father, for your servant knew nothing of all this, less or more. He says, I didn’t know. I mean, after all, give it some thought. David is a big man around here and has been for a long time. Why should I have suspected anything? What was Saul’s response? You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s house. And the king said to the footmen standing around him, Turn, slay the priests of the Lord, because their hand is with David, and because they knew when he fled and did not show it to me. They didn’t know, and they didn’t have any way to show it to Saul. And the servants of the king knew that as well as anyone, and they would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the Lord. That was just a little too much for all of them. And the king turned and said to Doeg, who was not an Israelite, who did not worship God, who did not really come before God as these other men did, turn and fall upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priest, and slew on that day eighty-five persons that did wear a linen priest’s garment, eighty-five of them. And Nob, the city of the priest, he smote with the edge of the sword men, women, children, sucklings, oxen, and asses, and sheep with the edge of the sword. And he did all this at the behest of of King Saul of Israel. One of the sons of Ahimelech named Abiathar escaped. As they say, in any massacre, there’s going to always be somebody that gets away. He fled after David, and Abiathar showed David that Saul had slain the Lord’s priests. At this point, at the tabernacle of God, there was not left one man to serve the altar or to inquire of God for anyone. And David said to Abiathar, I knew it that day when Doag the Edomite was there that he would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the death of all the persons of your father’s house. One of the things about David that I admire the most, I think, is his willingness to accept responsibility for the things he does. He doesn’t dodge it. He doesn’t blame other people. He doesn’t point fingers. He just looked at this and said, I knew it. I should have known it. I should have done differently from this. I knew it was going to happen. It’s my fault. Stay with me here. Don’t be afraid. For he that seeks my life seeks your life. But with me, you will be in safeguard. Well, while Saul was out pursuing David instead of tending to business, the Philistines were up to their old tricks. We’ll continue with the story, but first, grab a pencil and a piece of paper. I want to give you an address and tell you how you can be in touch.

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The book of Samuel includes so much valuable history and lays the foundation for understanding the rest of the Bible. The entire series of programs on Samuel and the book of Kings is available for a special price this week only. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE-44 and tell us the call letters of this radio station.

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You may not know this, but the Philistines occupied that area that we today call the Gaza Strip. And it’s almost as though the spirit of the Philistines is still in the ground down there because the people, what they’re doing, makes just about as much sense as what the Philistines. Well, no, it doesn’t. It doesn’t make as much sense as the Philistines. At least they were out stealing stuff and trying to get rich on it, I guess. Well, the people were being beat up bad by the Philistines while Saul was out chasing David up one hill and down the other. So what were the people to do? They called David. They knew that David would do something about it. They had no faith whatsoever that Saul would. So they told David, saying, Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and they’re robbing the threshing floors. So David inquired of the Lord. Now, there’s an important thing that’s happened here. When that priest Abiathar came down here, he brought with him what’s called the ephod. And nobody knows for sure what that ephod was, but somehow or other it was used to get answers from God. I don’t know if they were yes or no’s or go or don’t go, but they enabled David to inquire of the Lord. And he asked, he says, shall I go and smite these Philistines? I really like that word smite. It says a lot. And the Lord said to David, go smite the Philistines and save Keilah. Now, here is an interesting case. It’s something to really think about. David’s men said to him, look, we’re afraid here in Judah. How much more are we going to be afraid if we go all the way up to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines? So David went back and inquired of the Lord again. And the Lord answered and said, no, go ahead, go down to Keilah. I will deliver the Philistines into your hand. Now, what’s important about this is just a simple little lesson. It’s okay to ask God something twice just to be sure. He won’t conclude that you’re just lacking faith or you’re not trusting him or anything of the sort. He understands if you’re not sure, you go back and you ask again. So David and his men went to Keilah. They fought the Philistines, and they brought away their cattle, smote them with a great slaughter, and David saved the inhabitants of Keilah. It came to pass that when Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, fled to David to Keilah, he came down with that ephod in his hand, and that’s how David inquired of God. But as things will happen, Saul found out that David had gone down to Keilah. And Saul said, God has delivered him to my hand. He’s shut in. He’s gone into a town that has gates and bars. We can trap him there. He got all of his people together to war to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his 400 men. Well, David knew this. He didn’t know what he really had to tell him, that Saul was going to be practicing mischief against him. And so he said to Abiathar, bring the ephod. And he said, O Lord God of Israel, your servant has certainly heard that Saul is planning to come to Keilah to destroy the city because of me. Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down? As I’ve heard, I beseech you, tell your servant. And the Lord said, Yes, he will come down. Then said David, Will the men of Keilah deliver up me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord said, They will deliver you up. There’s a part of me that feels very sad when I read that because it seems so ungrateful. And yet, it’s really a mistake to depend on gratitude. Someone once told me, and I thought it was wise, he said, you know, if you’re ever in trouble and you need help, do not go to someone you have helped. Go to someone who has helped you before. And I thought about that a long time, and I realized that when you help people, and then you go to them asking for help, it makes them very uncomfortable because they say to themselves, well, what is this, a payback? Am I obligated here? And it can really begin to damage a friendship. In this particular case, the men of Keilah would have been risking their lives They didn’t necessarily have David’s faith. Even though they had called David, he’d come down there, he had saved their neck. And the truth is that if they were challenged, they would have turned him over to Saul. So David and his men, about 600 of them now, arose and got out of Keilah and went wherever they wanted to go. And it was told Saul that David had escaped, so he didn’t bother going down there. And David abode in the wilderness in strongholds and remained in a mountain in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul kept on looking for him every day. He had patrols out looking for David. But God would not deliver David into Saul’s hand. So when David saw the whole pattern of things going on, he was in the wilderness of Ziph in a wood. And Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose. And he went to David in the wood and strengthened his hand in God. The covenant these two men had made a long time before that was based on the love of brothers stood in these hard times. And he said to him, Don’t be afraid. The hand of Saul, my father, will not find you. And you will be king over Israel, and I’ll be next to you. And that also Saul, my father, knows. And indeed he did. And it was driving him even further into the darkness. So they too made a covenant before the Lord, and David abode in the wood, and Jonathan went home. Then came the Ziphites. You know, here’s another bunch of traitors. They went to Saul and Gibeah and said, David is hiding himself with us in strongholds in the wood, in the hill of Hakila, on the south of Jeshimon. Now, therefore, O king, come down. Do what you want to do. Our part will be to deliver him into the king’s hand. I mean, there’s a Benedict Arnold on every corner, it seems, in times like this. Traitors everywhere. And Saul said, Well, blessed be you of the Lord, for you have compassion on me. I finally found someone who feels sorry for me. Go, I pray you, and prepare yet, and know and see his place where his haunt is. And who has seen him there? For it’s told to me that he deals very subtly. Well, yes, he did. If he didn’t, he would have been dead long before this day came. See, therefore, get your men out there and get scouts, and take knowledge of all the lurking places where he hides himself. And you come again to me with some certainty, and I’ll go with you, and it’ll come to pass, if he’s in the land, I’ll search him out throughout all the thousands of Judah. So they arose, and they went to Ziph ahead of Saul. But David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the plain to the south of Jessamine. So Saul and his men went to look for him, and they told David. And David came on down into a rock and abode in the wilderness of Maon. When Saul heard that, well, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon. And Saul went on one side of the mountain, David and his men on the other side of the mountain. And David did his best in hurry to get away for fear of Saul. For Saul and his men surrounded David and his men to take them. But about the time they had this done, a messenger came to Saul saying, you’d better come back. The Philistines have invaded the land. We have a major Philistine invasion. So Saul returned from pursuing David and went up against the Philistines. So they call that place the Rock of Escape. And David went up from there and dwelt in the strongholds at En Gedi. This is high drama. I’m really surprised that no one has made a good movie about this. Maybe there is one, but it hasn’t been good enough to really dominate the scene. When I come back, we’ll take this story just a little bit further.

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The story moves on in 1 Samuel 24. It came to pass when Saul got back from following the Philistines, it was told to him saying, Ah, we found David. He’s out in the wilderness of En Gedi. So Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his 600 men upon the rocks of the wild goats. He came to the sheepcoats, by the way, where there was a cave. And Saul went into the cave to relieve himself. It just happened that David and his men were hiding in the sides of that cave. As Saul approached the cave entrance, the men of David said, Look, this is the day the Lord said to you. Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand that you may do to him as it shall seem good to you. And this was, in a way, a real test for David. So David slipped up behind Saul as he was relieving himself. And he took his knife out and he cut off the hem of Saul’s robe secretly. He could have easily, just as easily, stuck that knife in Saul and ended it all right there. He didn’t do it. All he did was cut off the hem of Saul’s robe. And some scholars tell us that that may well have meant a symbol of Saul’s authority because it was in the fringes of garments and hems of garments that special things were put to show your rank. It came to pass afterward that David’s heart smote him because he had cut off Saul’s, the hem of his garment. And it’s an odd thing about David. He felt guilty about this. when he actually could have killed the man. And he said to his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch forth my hand against him. He is the anointed of the Lord. David understood something that I’m afraid a lot of people don’t. God had placed this man in office, and it was really God’s job to take him out if that was what was to happen. David just simply knew, and he also knew another principle. You will never have peace if you are the person who kills the man you’re replacing. There was, in Israel’s history to come, a man named Zimri who would become king by assassinating the existing king. And a woman named Jezebel kind of called the game when she said, “…had Zimri peace who slew his master?” That’s passed into my vocabulary with good reason over many, many long years to realize you just can’t stab people in the back and expect to have any kind of peace yourself in years to come. Somehow, David knew this. So he stayed his servants with these words and he would not permit them to rise against Saul. So Saul got himself up, walked out of the cave and was on his way. Right behind him, David got up, walked out of the cave and cried after him, saying, Saul, my lord, the king. When Saul turned around behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth, and he said, Why are you listening to men’s words, saying, Behold, David seeks your hurt? What a thing to say! I know it’s true. I know there were people all the time telling Saul, oh, well, David wants to kill you. David’s trying to harm you. David’s trying to take your kingdom away from you. But the reason people told Saul that was because that’s what he wanted to hear. It’s what he believed. And you could actually gain points with Saul by saying that. And if you tried to tell him otherwise, it could cost you your life. Anyway, David says, you shouldn’t be listening to this. Look, this day your eyes have seen how the Lord has delivered you into my hand in the cave. Some bade me kill you there, but my eyes spared you, and I said, I will not put forth my hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord’s anointed. Moreover, my father, it’s interesting that he refers to Saul as a father. In a way, he was his father-in-law. He had married Saul’s daughter. Moreover, my father, see, look, the skirt of your robe in my hand. I cut off the hem of your robe, and I didn’t kill you. That’s how close I was. Now do you see and know there is neither evil nor transgression in my hand, and I have not sinned against you, yet you hunt my soul to take it. The Lord judge between you and me, and the Lord avenge me of you. But my hand will not be upon you. You know, as you study this man’s life, more and more you begin to understand why God loved him so. It wasn’t that he didn’t do dumb things. It wasn’t that he didn’t commit sins. But he’s a man whose heart was right with God. He goes on to quote the proverb of the ancient, wickedness proceeds from the wicked, but my hand shall not be upon you. And after whom has the king of Israel come out? What are you actually doing out here? Who are you pursuing? A dead dog, a flea. The Lord therefore be judge and judge between you and me and plead my cause and deliver me out of your hand. And Saul is standing there, I guess, with his mouth open through this entire speech by David. And when he’d gotten through speaking, Saul said, Is that your voice, my son David? And he lifted up his voice and wept aloud. And he said to David, You are more righteous than I am. You have rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded you evil. And you have showed this day how that you have dealt well with me, because the Lord had delivered me straight into your hand, and you didn’t kill me. If a man finds his enemy, is he going to let him go away? Wherefore the Lord reward you good for that which you have done for me this day. And then Saul made quite an admission for him. He said, I know well that you shall surely be king.

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and that Israel, the kingdom, shall be established in your hand. The Born to Win radio program with Ronald L. Dart is sponsored by Christian Educational Ministries and made possible by donations from listeners like you. If you can help, please send your donation to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. You may call us at 1-888-BORN-TO-WIN Bible44 and visit us online at borntowin.net.

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