1 Samuel 27

David was a man of the Promised Land, even though he would have to escape beyond the borders of Israel for a time in order to survive. There was nothing better for him to do at that time but to leave Israel. Nonetheless, everything that he did and everywhere that he went was in support of a larger mission that was not his own.

Living among the Philistines would be dangerous, but the Lord would preserve his life in enemy territory, and perhaps Saul would eventually despair of chasing after him. He knew that Saul would not look for him among the Philistines.

David aligned himself and his six hundred men and their households under Achish, the son of the king of Gath. This was God's wisdom to David, for Saul's response was exactly what David predicted. When Saul heard that David had fled to the Philistines, Saul no longer sought David.

David was in this strange situation for 16 months. In that time he not only gave Saul the space that he needed in order to stop chasing him, he also won the confidence of Achish. David requested and was given a city for all who were with him within Philistine territory.

It may be important for us to remember that according to the Lord's allotment of the land, none of this was Philistine territory. It all belonged to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yet the Hebrews had not completed the conquest as the Lord had commanded them. When David was given Ziklag by Achish, he was taking something that the Lord had already given to Israel.

David lived among the Philistines as a man of the Lord's conquest. His true loyalty was to Israel and to Israel's God, but Achish did not understand this. According to the ethics of David's continued conquest he concealed from his enemy important details of his mission. He never attacked the Lord's people, but only those who presumed to deny the Lord's people what their God had given to His chosen people. No one was left alive to contradict the word of the Lord's warrior. Achish believed everything that David told him. Therefore he did not worry about David's loyalty, reasoning that David had made himself an enemy of his own people by conducting raids against them.

Our King had a different kind of conquest than the one that the Old Testament warriors conducted. His victory cost Him His own life and saved ours. His battle and ours is a conquest by the power of divine love that is willing to suffer and die for our enemies. Yet even the disciples of Jesus were told to be as wise as serpents at the same time that they were to be gentle as doves.

We still need to seek the Lord's wisdom as we navigate the dangerous channels of God's assault against evil. We look to our King to give us the strength to keep on going in dangerous times that may seem too strange for us to comprehend.