Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

Back at the end of 1 Samuel 27, the Philistines were gathering to go to war. I passed over a blip there because I wanted to put it here. Achish was going to war against Israel, and he wanted David to come with him. David, loyal friend to Achish by all accounts, agreed to go. David has up to this point never fought against his own people. He ran from Saul and did not engage him. He claimed raids on Israeli territory, but always hit the enemies of his people. Here he is being offered the chance to fight Saul’s army – David would certainly be justified in doing it – and he seems to be accepting the position. Dangerous ground. And ground that never would have been reached if he hadn’t left Israel on his own ideas and gone into Philistine territory in the first place.

The Philistines gathered at Aphek (where the Israelites had lost once before – 1 Samuel 4:1-10). All the Philistines passed in review, hundreds upon thousands of them. And there in the rear was Achish and David. Which was a surprise to the other Philistines. Wasn’t this David, servant of Saul? Weren’t these Hebrews? But Achish defended David. David had been with him a long time. Years, even. In all that time, he had never had cause to doubt David. The other rulers were angry. Didn’t it make sense that David’s best bet for a restoration with Saul was to attack them all from the rear in the coming battle? They refused to go to war with David. Period.

Achish called David and told him to go home. David was wounded. Almost seems desperate to help defend Achish, but he is firmly told no. This is the hand of God preventing David from fighting his own people. David seems very lost as far as perspective goes, but he isn’t rebelling against God. His failure is one very common to all of us. He’s failing to seek God’s will. God, being a loving Father, is protecting David from rash decisions by using the natural distrust of the Philistines. What a blessing.

David and the boys went home early the next morning and arrived to find their city completely sacked and burnt to the ground by the Amalekites. Remember those people David was raiding and destroying city by city? It might have been the judgment of God on them (1 Samuel 15:1-3), but they didn’t like it. They may have come over to get revenge on David. They had taken all the people they found – David and his men clearly felt the children were taken but their wives had been killed (shown by their wanting to stone him because of their children, with no mention of the wives – 1 Samuel 30:6). They wailed and grieved until they had no strength to grieve anymore.

David was very upset. But he strengthened himself IN THE LORD. David didn’t go to find comfort anywhere but in God. He put total faith in God and Psalm 23’d himself until he was in a better place. His God was bigger. His God was better. He asked God what he should do through the high priest. Chase down the Amalekites or not? God answered: pursue for I will give them over to you and you will recover ALL. Wives, children, possessions, ALL. Off David and his men went. They travelled as far as the Brook Besor, but not all the men had the strength to continue. They’d been travelling days at this point, and had spent a lot of their strength grieving. David had them (200 men) make camp and continued with the others (400 men).

They found an Egyptian abandoned in a field. He was a slave of one of the Amalekites and had been abandoned because he got sick. They gave him food and water. He told them all about it. They’d been raiding all through Judah and the Philistine territory. He agreed to show them were the camp was if they didn’t kill him or give him back to his master. They agreed and David was able to attack with his men from twilight until the evening of the next day. They killed everyone except about four hundred young men who had escaped on camels. David got back everything they had taken from Ziklag, plus all the stuff they had taken over the course of their raiding.

They went back and met with the men at camp. The four hundred didn’t want to share anything with the two hundred except the recovered wives and children. David insisted that everything be split equally among the men. The people who guarded the baggage were just as much a part of victory as the men doing battle. He made it a law and they stuck to it throughout the time of Israel as a nation. David also made gifts from his portion to the people and rulers of towns throughout Judah. Thirteen cities were given a gift which David called a share in “the enemies of the Lord”.

“Then they took their bones and buried them under a tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.” (1 Samuel 31:13)

The Philistine army and the army of Israel, led by Saul and his sons (Jonathan, Abinadab, and Machishua), battled together in and around Mount Gilboa. And Israel got thrashed. It was a fierce battle and Saul and his sons were a particular target. Saul was severely wounded by the archers of the Philistines. Saul was dying. He didn’t want to be tortured or made sport of, so before they were overrun, he commanded his armour bearer to kill him. But the young man was too scared to. Saul grabbed a sword and fell on it, killing him. The armour bearer fell on his sword too. Saul, his armour bearer, his sons, and all the other men with him (not the whole army, probably his special three thousand – 1 Samuel 24:2; 26:2) died on the same day. Saul had reigned as king of Israel for forty years (Acts 13:21), over seventy years old when he died. Jonathan would have been in his fifties. Saul’s youngest son, Ishbosheth (forty years old), was not at the battle.

When the Israelites on the other side of the valley saw that Saul and his company were slain, they booked it. They left their cities behind and fled with their families. The Philistines were very happy. When they found Saul, they were thrilled. They cut off his head, stripped him of his armour, and sent word throughout all their land. They put his armour in their temple and fastened his body onto the wall of Beth Shan along with his sons.

Do you remember the city of Jabesh Gilead? They were the first city Saul saved. They heard about what was done and all the valiant men of the city travelled all night and stole the bodies of Saul and his sons off the wall. They took them to Jabesh and buried them properly there under a tamarisk tree. They never forgot the heroic young king who led the Israelites to save them from their enemies (1 Samuel 11). They fasted in honour of him for seven days.

Summary

Key Players: God, David, Saul, Achish, Philistines

Key Themes: Good Conduct, Recovery, Judgment, Remembrance/Honour

Key Verse(s): 1 Samuel 29:2-3, 6-8, 11; 30:3-6, 8, 17-19, 26-31; 31:1-3, 8-13