Unmentioned

If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to 1 Samuel 27. We’re going to read this entire chapter and a couple extra verses (don’t worry, it’s short).

As I’m reading, as you follow along, I want for you to see if you notice anything strange about this chapter. Keep an eye out for odd details or strange omissions.

If you are able and willing, please stand for the reading of God’s Holy Word:

1 Samuel 27:1–28:2 NIV

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.” 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.”

May God add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!

This is, admittedly, a very odd dozen or so verses. What did you notice? What’s missing?

If you noticed, this is a godless text. God is not mentioned. The name of the Lord isn’t invoked. Not once.

This isn’t altogether unheard of in the Bible. There’s an entire book of the Bible where God is never mentioned, God’s name never shows up. The book of Esther is, in that sense, a “godless” book. But there’s much to be gained from the book of Esther; it’s one of the greatest stories in the history of God’s people.

Likewise, there’s much to be learned from this part of 1 Samuel. It’s not a complete story, you might have noticed. The writer of the book leaves us hanging. He interrupts the flow of the story. He deliberately chops the story off where we stopped reading today.

But this is how it was intended for us to read. Here we have it. So we need to work with it, or rather, let the text and the Holy Spirit work on us.

Dale Ralph Davis breaks down the story like this:

David’s Plan (27:1-4)

David’s Town (27:5-7)

David’s Practice (27:8-12)

David’s Dilemma (28:1-2)

You might remember when David went to Gath before. It was 1 Samuel 21. That was when he acted insane among them so they would let him go.

This time, however, David was welcomed in Gath, Goliath’s hometown.

David comes with 600 men. This would make a good, strong extra army division that Achish could use however he felt.

What David does while in Philistia is very interesting. I had to read it a few times before I understood what was going on. At first blush, I thought David was a traitor, fighting for the enemy. What he was actually doing was rather crafty.

He’s a little sneaky-sneak.

From the town the Philistine king gave to David, David and his men would attack. They were “desert raiders who raided desert raiders.” David would attack bands of Geshurites, Girzites, and Amalekites (1 Samuel 27:8), killing the men and women, plundering what they had, taking the livestock with them.

David would take back to Achish his share, the king’s share, of the spoil. And then David would lie about where it came from, telling the Philistines it came from attacks on Judah or clans associated with Judah.

So Achish would think David was working for him, attacking Israelites, but David was really working against the Philistines, helping Israel, and killing whoever might rat David out.

I told you. Sneaky-sneak. Achish believed David, appreciated what David was doing (or what he thought David was doing).

David has Achish fooled into thinking David is actually fighting for Philistia and against Israel.

David so successfully fooled Achish that Achish wants David and his men to join the Philistines in battle against Israel.

1 Samuel 28:1 NIV

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.”

Well, shoot. Plan’s backfired a little. What’s going to happen? David’s response is just ambiguous enough. “Well, Achish, you’re about to see what I can do.”

David has a moment to figure out exactly what to do.

>In all of this, says Richard Pratt, “the text does not mention God, does not say precisely or directly what the Lord is doing in this episode, does not even inform us of the Lord’s point of view.”

There is, for all we can’t know about what’s going on here, some direction for the Lord’s people in these verses. First,

Think about your Thinking

What struck me first as I read these verses was what David was thinking.

1 Samuel 27:1 “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.”

David thought, possibly correctly, that Saul was going to destroy him, strike him down. That’s a decent thought; he’s probably correct.

But then David thinks “the best thing” he can do is to go to the land of the Philistines.

“Really?! That’s the best thing you can do? That?!? To go to Philistia?” David’s thinking is broken. But, of course, it would be.

David has faced a lot of trauma. He’s been chased around the country by a murderous madman. He’s been living in caves and in the wilderness. It’s a lot. His decision-making is a bit foolish. It’s bound to be.

David needed to think about his thinking.

As the proverb goes, “there is a way that seems right to man...”

It’s not that David wasn’t thinking at all; David thought about this move to Philistia. The problem is David’s thinking.

What David thought about being safe from Saul in Philistia ended up to be true.

David reasons: 1 Samuel 27:1 “Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.”

A few verses later, that’s proven true: 1 Samuel 27:4 “When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him.”

David’s thinking isn’t all wrong. David escapes Saul. David is given some land, the town of Ziklag. From Ziklag, David can do what he wants, attacking Israel’s enemies under the guise of fighting against Israel.

What David thought about and carried out worked. For a while, even.

But then, Achish says David and all his men are going to join Philistia in a battle against Israel.

David could be risking his kingship. If David marches with the Philistines against Israel, well, that’s that.

David’s thinking has placed him in quite a pickle. This is a major dilemma.

David need to think about his thinking. David’s thinking isn’t God’s thinking.

Now, it’s easy to be a spectator, removed a few thousand years from the issue at hand, commenting with all our our hindsight, but anyone should be able to see this isn’t great.

David should have sought the Lord here. David’s deception and lying and killing is wrong. David needed to think about his thinking.

Same is true for us. Some of what we think, some our our “well-thought-out” decisions aren’t that.

There’s a biblical word for thinking about your thinking. It’s the word “repent.” That’s what the word we translate “repent” actually means. Metanoiew means to “think about your thinking.”

Think about your thinking and then change your life in accordance with what God’s Word tells you and what you know to be true and right and good and God-honoring.

Dallas Willard brilliantly defines repentance as: “re-thinking your thinking so as to change the way you’ve been thinking and acting.”

Think about your thinking.

The ESV, KJV, RSV, and other translations translate the opening phrase of 1 Samuel 27:1 as “David said in his heart...”

This, a heart-led decision, heart-level thinking may sound good. But we know the heart is deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9). To follow your heart, to do what seems right in here, is just asking for trouble.

Don’t listen when people tell you to “follow your heart” or to “do what makes you happy” or to “do what seems right to you.”

That is, all of it, terrible advice. The heart is deceitful. Your heart will deceive you.

Only thinking and a heart which are controlled and constrained by the Holy Spirit and God’s Word are worth trusting. And even then, be careful.

I can’t understand what David was going through, but I believe if he would have taken a beat, taken a moment to think about his thinking, this would have gone down differently.

Consider the Source of your Security

What David does by heading to Philistia, even though he’s looking out for his men and their families, is a sad commentary on David’s perspective and understanding.

1 Samuel 27:1 “The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines…”

David is looking to Philistia—to the enemy, to a people—for his security.

David is all of a sudden convinced that he’s going to be destroyed by the hand of Saul if he doesn’t get out of Israel.

The Lord has protected David all this time. In the fields as he watched his father’s flock. From lions and bears. From Goliath. From Saul on several occasions. In battle against countless enemies.

The Lord has promised David, through his best friend Jonathan and his new wife, Abigail, that the Lord is going to protect him and give him the kingdom. But David is certain he’ll be destroyed. He just knows it. His heart told him so. He thought about it for a minute and decided:

The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines.

David is no longer looking to the Lord as the source of his security.

This is a crazy move. To move from trusting the Lord Almighty to placing trust in mere humans, not to mention former enemies.

In verse 1, David is talking to himself. What he said to himself determined his action.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones among others argue that “what you say and keep saying [to yourself] will direct your way. We constantly talk to ourselves (maybe not audibly, though some of you do). You are constantly speaking to yourself. What you [say to yourself and what you] are feeding your soul matters.”

How important it is—crucial, even—to feed our souls truth, especially about the adequacy and sufficiency and power of our God.

If we feed ourselves junk, half-truths, lies, especially about God, who God is, what God wants from us, we will lead ourselves down a dangerous path.

David’s security will not be found in Philistia.

Though, because God is not bound by borders, nor is He constrained by geography, the Lord is protecting David during these 16 months he spends in Philistia.

Make no mistake: it’s the Lord who protects David. Not Achish, not anyone in Philistia. The LORD does it.

Security, the source of our security, is not found in any particular place or people. Our security is found in the Lord.

We must be careful about trusting any false source of security.

The Psalmist—David, ironically—would direct us to our true and only security:

Psalm 20:7 NIV

7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Some people trust in government, in policy, in money, in power, in success, in their family name, in their country, in their goodness, in their works.

We know all those things, good as they might be, are not worthy of trust.

Our security rests in no other than the Lord Almighty.

For David to run off to Philistia thinking he’d be safe there, more safe there than with the Lord…well, that’s just plain silly.

God is our security.

Glimpse the Grace of God

The text here understands David, but isn’t willing to justify all his conduct. You might even feel some sympathy for David and what all he’s going through. The guy has faced quite a bit.

In this part of the story, David is calculating, deceptive, and ruthless. Not only does David do some raiding, but he’s a butcher, too. The number of people he killed just to keep them quiet...

If we think back to 1 Samuel 16, when the Lord told Samuel to go to Jesse, that one of Jesse’s sons would be the next king, we found David. We like David. He’s the anti-Saul. Then he kills Goliath. He’s a good friend. A patient, faithful, loyal fella. Honorable. He spares Saul’s life twice.

We like David. And we feel for him. He’s afflicted and hunted and hated.

But here, I think I might not be alone in being disappointed by our friend, David. David’s different than we thought. He has betrayed us, in a way.

I believe the Bible here is trying to correct us. The Bible does that, you know.

2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness...”

I believe the Bible is attempting a correction. Because maybe, if we’re not careful, we can fall into the trap of hero worship. We might be tempted to look at certain Bible characters and exalt them too highly.

1 Samuel 27 is teaching us, painfully, that David, this chosen, anointed servant is made of the same stuff as all the Lord’s people.

David is a sinner—a real whopper of a sinner.

We can’t view Saul with contempt and judgment and spare David the same. These verses keep us from attempting to make David our hero.

David’s not our hero. He is not the hero of the story. The hero of the story is a descendant of David, One greater than David.

Our hero is Jesus, not David.

What these verses nearly force us to do is to remember, to glimpse the grace of God.

The servants of God are not dipped in Clorox so they will be infallibly sin-free and attractive to you. The living God doesn’t have clean material to work with; only sinful clay in the hands of the Good Potter.

The fact the Potter stoops to work with such stuff should cause us to marvel, and to worship. As long as we wallow in the idea of worthiness, we will never understand the Bible, we will never tremble before God, never delight in Him. -Dale Ralph Davis

Like you and me, David is a recipient and a beneficiary of God’s grace. It’s God’s grace in David’s life, not David himself, that makes David a redeemable character.

We must understand that David is human. David is a sinner. David is going to mess up, time and time again.

But for the grace of God, David would have nothing.

Same for me. Same for you.

Though God is unnamed here, unmentioned here, the grace of God is on full display. God is going to use this imperfect man, sinful, deceptive, vile as he may be—God’s grace is sufficient in David’s life.

Same for you. Same for me. Would we be given eyes to see the grace of God, working in us and through us and even—praise God!—in spite of us.

Jesus, the Son of David, is our hope and security. In Him, we are safe and secure from all alarms; He has us in the palm of His hand. No one, nothing can take us from Him.

Why would we search for security in anything else? Any one else? Any place else?

Jesus is our security.

Unlike David here, let us think about our thinking. We need to repent, to rethink our thinking and change our lives in accordance with God’s Word and His good, pleasing, and perfect will.

And cling to the grace that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.