1 Samuel, Chapter 27 - Why David Fled | Prophets of Israel Daily

[music] Shalom friends. Welcome to the Prophets of Israel Daily. This is 1st Samuel chapter 27. I'm Jeremy Gel with my [music] study partner here, Arya Bremwitz. And this series is brought to you by the Land of Israel Network at [music] the land ofisrael.com. Friends, before we begin, if you want to do a mitzvah, click like, hit subscribe, leave a comment. It's so easy and it's so quick. And the more you engage, the more these words of the prophets reach new people, new eyes, new hearts. And so, thank you for that. All right, let's get right to it. Last chapter, we see David just a giant of amuna and faith. And like once again, Saul's like hunting him down about to kill him. And David in complete faith spares the king of Israel, declared his trust in God. In this chapter, we sort of meet David at the end of his rope. He has a little bit of a spiritual crisis. It seems like he's just reached his limit and actually starts to despair. Look at verse one. Vy Davidid alipo. And David said to his heart, "Now I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul." Vy David Alipo. He spoke to himself. He reasoned it out alone. He spoke in his own heart. He's not speaking to God or a prophet. He's speaking to his own heart. One of these days Saul is going to get me. And David thinks he has no choice. I mean, he fled throughout Judea. He's lived in caves. Everyone keeps on like ratting on him. and he's lived like among these wilderness tribes and now he just comes to the conclusion he has nowhere else to go except to the land of the Philistines. And you know some people they fault David for not consulting with God or a prophet. But I want to posit that David at this stage in his journey he's actually consulting with God by speaking to his heart. I mean that's how David is living a guided life living by that intuition of his heart. And we're going to see that all of David's journeys now it's all a part of a bigger plan that he's going through. >> Yeah. So I I want to say that I'm not 100% clear on what's right and true here because I hear a lot of different perspectives. You know the on one level the the opening phrase could maybe be the whole tragedy elibo to his heart because just a few chapters ago when the men of Ka were ready to hand him over to Saul what did David do? He called for the aphod and inquired of Hashem and not once right again and again. David's entire greatness has been that in every crisis he turns the question upward and here for the first time he turns it inward. You know for a moment it seems like he stops talking to God and starts talking to himself. And listen to what his heart tells him. I will perish by the hand of Saul. That's really the message he comes with. But but but Jeremy, that simply isn't true. Samuel anointed him. Jonathan told him plainly, "You're going to be king." Saul himself just admitted it, right? Every single voice from heaven says David will live and reign. And the only voice in the world saying that he's going to die seems to be the one from inside his own exhausted head. And on some level, maybe sometimes that's what fear does. It takes the one lie you tell yourself and makes it louder than every other truth God ever told you. I just want to make it clear. I do believe that there's a time to turn inward into your own heart and even to try to hear Hashem's voice from there. But people are complex and life is confusing and David is really in a difficult spot. >> Exactly. David is constantly in a difficult spot and we just have to have compassion for David here. I mean he's just spent he's worn down. It's like years of running living in caves betrayed by the people that he saved. I mean it's not like faith is just something you can flip on and then you have it. And Muna is something that needs to be renewed every day. And David is just exhausted. And so as he sees that there's nowhere to go. So he leaves the land of Judea. Saul has found his hiding spot. There's really nowhere else for him to go. And so he crosses over to the enemy again. Verse two. Davidesh. So David arose and crossed over. He and 600 men with him to Akish, son of Ma, king of God. Of all people, David runs to the king of the Philistines. Akish, the king of Got. The same Akish, the same God where David fled in chapter 21 where he had to drool into his beard and played like a madman just to escape alive. And now he goes back and it's like at first glance, that's pretty puzzling to say the least. But it's important to note this time is really different. I mean, last time he ran there a lone fugitive. This time he's coming with 600 fighting men and their families behind him. I mean, this time he's coming back as a warlord. And by now he's known for years that he's been wanted by the king of Israel. He's an enemy of the king. So Aisha's like, "All right, come on in." He welcomes him with his 600 men with all their swords, a sworn enemy to Saul. That's exactly the asset a Philistine king wants. And so David's plan works. Verse four. And it was told to Saul that David had fled to God and he no longer sought him. On the surface, David's plan worked. He finally finds safety. He finds rest for the first time in years. Finally, no one is hunting him. >> Yeah. And and I want to just say that I don't want to just rush past this because we could ask ourselves now that nobody's hunting him. Why does the road to the throne have to go through enemy territory? Why does the anointed king of Israel have to go down into Philistine land before you can go up to Jerusalem? Now, I think maybe it's part of the oldest pattern in our whole story. Maybe even the story of the world aliyah, a descent for the sake of an ascent. Aram goes down to Gar. Yakov goes down to Egypt. Yseph goes down into the pit before he rises to rule. The seed of Israel almost always has to be buried in foreign soil before it breaks through into something greater. And there's a lot to it. And you know, I'm looking at what David is actually doing down there. He's not just hiding. He's learning. The future king is about to spend over a year living inside the Philistine camp. Their language, their politics, how their kings think, what their armies fear. Saul Saul fought the Philistines his whole life, but from the other side of the valley, and he died on Mount Gilboa, never having ever ever really understood them. David is going to walk among them, study them, and one day break them so completely that the word Philistine becomes a memory. Right? David isn't a man who lost his way. I think he's a man being planted. He's a man that's no longer being defined by the guy who who was chasing him all this time, but now he's actually coming into his own definition on some level. >> Yeah, I think that's exactly what's happening. I mean, David gets tested all of the time. And so, Akish gives David a town called Clog to settle in and David begins this journey. And what's interesting is he immediately starts defending Israel. He starts conducting raids. I mean, David looks a little bit like Samson. He's like working for Israel deep from within the Philistine territory. I mean, and you just see like look who David's reigning on on behalf of the king of Philistines, the king Akish. Look at verse eight. And David and his men went up and raided the Gisherites, the Girizzites, and the Amalachites. He's attacking the enemies of Israel, the Amalachites, the very nation Saul was commanded to destroy and fail to. David is picking up the slack. David is still fighting Israel's battle. He's still clearing out Israel's ancient enemies, even from inside Philistine territory. And so, you know, it's interesting. In his war, David leaves no survivors, men or woman. Look at verse 11. David would let neither man nor woman live to bring news to God, saying, "Lest they tell about us." lest they tell about us. He leaves no one alive because no one can be allowed to report the truth back to Akish. When Akish asks like, "Where did you raid today, David?" David says, "Oh, it's against the negative in Judah." Making it sound like he's attacking the Israelites in Israelite territory. He's making believe he's become a traitor to Israel and he's burned every bridge to home. So, Aish will just trust him completely. >> Yeah. And look, by the way, look at who David is killing out there in the wilderness. the Amalachites, the very nation that Sha sitting on the throne with the crown on his head and a direct command from the prophet Samuel ringing in his ears. Saul couldn't bring himself to wipe them out. He had Saul had everything, the kingship, the army, the word of God spoken to his face. And he spared Amalcch and it cost him the kingdom. Now look at David. No throne, no crown, on the run in exile, hiding behind a lie in the city of his enemies. And he is the one finishing the job Saul left undone. I really think that is a big part of the secret of what it means to be the anointed one of Israel. It was never about wearing the crown. It was about carrying the mission. Saul held the throne and abandoned the mission. David lost everything and he still carries it even from the gutter, even behind enemy lines. That's why the kingdom is being torn from Saul and being given to David. >> Exactly. I mean, that is what makes David David. I mean, even when he's down and out, the mission never leaves him. You just have to love him. I mean, he's been hunted by the king of Israel to the point where he has to escape to the Philistines. And all the while, David is still protecting Israel. I mean, every raid is against Israel's enemies. He never once harms his own people, obviously. And I mean, it's just thinks he does. And so the instinct to guard Israel is so ingrained in him. It pulsates through him even in his toughest situations. I mean the monster within that we talked about before with Naval, David is able to still point it in the right direction. And when everything around him is going sideways, he never loses focus of his mission to be the leader of Israel and protect them. But the reality is that David is a little bit in a trap that he's making himself. I mean, ultimately, the truth is going to come out. Something is going to happen that's going to expose David for who he really is. But the chapter ends with David's plan working. Look at verse 12. Amen. And trusted David, saying, "He has surely made himself utterly hated by his people Israel. Therefore, he shall be my servant forever." Evolam, a servant, a slave forever. I mean, Akish is convinced. He thinks David is now permanently his. David has so betrayed Israel. He could never go home. He will serve God for the rest of his life. So the lie worked so well that David, he's kind of talked himself into a corner because in the very next chapter, Akish marches out to war with Israel and he expects David, his servant forever, to fight against his own people. And so the lie that brought David safety, it's about to demand something that David can really never do. >> Yeah. And and I want to just focus on that word for a second, Jeremy. Uh levid olam, a servant forever. Because Akish looks at David, like you said, and he's certain he's got him figured out that he's a broken man. He's a traitor with no home to go back to. He's an asset that Aish owns for life, right? And we know that he could he couldn't be more wrong. This is the blindness of the nations in a single sentence. They're forever sure that they finally figured out the Jew, that we're finished, that we're dependent, that we belong to them now. Pharaoh was sure of it. Babylon was sure of it. Every empire that ever held us and was convinced it had written the last chapter of our story. But look at who the word forever actually belongs to. It isn't David who is the servant forever. It's the house of David that is the kingdom forever. Malut Bed, the eternal throne. Akish got the entire Philistine world is going to vanish so completely that today like we said we use their name as a synonym for defeated right and and the man Akish thought was his property for life is going to outlast every one of them and he is going to be the father of the line of Messiah the anointed redeemer of Israel and the whole world right and that's why we hear the word forever at the end of this chapter we need to realize that we are hearing a prophecy the enemy stumbled into without really understanding a single word of it. The nations keep declaring forever over their hold on us and they keep being wrong. In this whole story, there's only one thing that is truly forever and it was never theirs. It was ours. No, that's exactly right. You know, and friends, that's why this chapter is so important. It shows us the great King David at one of the lowest points in his life. I mean, he's living among the Philistines. And so why? It's so that we understand something essential. It's like the path to the throne is not a straight line up. It doesn't happen overnight. It's filled with caves and detours and escapes. I mean, David is being refined. And on our way to the top, we are going to be refined as well. And I see a prophecy for our generation that we're living through right now. We're living through this transition of the era of Saul to the era of David. From a nation that's focused only on survival to a nation that's living its divine purpose. And in chapter 27, it's that's a prophecy that's embedded right in the middle of this transition. It's like the question has to be asked if David is the anointed one. He's the chosen king of Israel. Why does he have to seem so weak? Why does he have to rely on the king of another nation? Why is a part of his journey to become this like subservient servant of this other king? Can't he just become the king? And so today people ask the same question. If Israel is the chosen people, if this is if what's happening in this land is a part of the great redemption. Why does Israel have to run everything by the president of America like we're their servant? I mean, if we're anointed, can't we just be a self-respecting country? I mean, David aligning himself with the interests of Akish teaches us that before the rise of King David, before David is recognized as the king, there going to be moments where it might seem like we have to rely on President Trump because our interests might align against our common enemies. It may seem embarrassing to operate under the authority of another nation. It's embarrassing for David, but King Akish treats him and sees him like a servant forever. And as embarrassing as that might be, David through his political alliance is able to fight and remove the enemies of Israel from the world. And with some perspective, just a bird's eye view, we can see that all of David's ups and all of David's downs, they're just a part of a greater plan that's unfolding. And the real King David is rising up and soon to be revealed in the world. And so friends, if the prophets of Israel is giving you perspective on the Bible, on prophecy, if it's a blessing in your life, please consider becoming a sponsor of the series honor a loved one, a milestone, a soul in the world. Join us as we broadcast the words of the prophets to the world. Join us at the land of Israel and merit in all that we do. And of course, I invite you to the land ofisrael.com to find out about all of the wonderful things that our network is doing. Be strong and courageous, [music] my friends. We will see you tomorrow. Chapter 28 with Ari. Shalom from the hills of Judea.