1 Samuel 27
David was a remarkably resilient person. The relentless persecution he faced from King Saul would have caused a lesser person to wilt in defeat. But David persevered all the way onto the throne of Israel. It is a remarkable statement about the strength of his character.
When our son, Austin, was a student at Walla Walla University, I noticed a poster on the wall of the hallway outside his door. It showed the picture of a canyon cut into the rock of a wilderness scene. The canyon was deep, and, at the bottom of the canyon, a river flowed. At the bottom of the picture, the caption read: “In the confrontation between the river and the rock, the river always wins … not by strength, but by perseverance.”
In a sense, David was like that. As King Saul persisted in trying to finish David off, David was doggedly persistent in his fight to stay one step ahead of Saul and stay alive. In fact, he was so focused on staying alive that 1 Samuel 27 tells the story of his choice to do something that does not cast a particularly good light on David.
The Philistines and the Israelites were mortal enemies. To get a flavor of their hostility, just remember the name Goliath. He was the giant Philistine champion David had slain. David’s act in doing so had, no doubt, ensconced him in the hallway of Philistia’s mortal enemies. One can imagine that many Philistine warriors would have just loved to get their hands on David!
But, suddenly, David moves into the neighborhood. A Philistine neighborhood. He takes up residence in Philistia!He becomes — for all practical purposes — a naturalized Philistine!Such a choice begs the question “Why?!”
The text answers that question quite frankly. It says: “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” (1 Samuel 27:1, TNIV).
David uses an alliance with the Philistines as his escape plan. But he does more than that. He ultimately is willing to go to war with the Philistines against Israel.
Kind of sets you back, doesn’t it? Kind of takes some of the shine off David’s character, doesn’t it? And … it kind of makes mewonder to what lengths you and I would go to “save ourskin.”
It’s quite different than what we find in the life of Jesus — the Jesus who willinglystepped into the path of danger for the good of others; the Jesus who said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13, TNIV); the Jesus who gave himself rather than saving himself.
But, I actually take comfort in David. Or, maybe better stated, I take comfort in David’s God. Because David’s God is a God who will take those of us who are a mixed bag of realities — good and bad, beautiful and ugly, kind and mean, altruistic and selfish — and still love us, care for us and slowly change us until we become more and more like him. I don’t know what you call that, but I call that grace. In fact, it’s the kind of grace that we sometimes experience when we failto be resilient like David was.
I am very, very thankful for that God.
—Randy Roberts, DMin, is vice president for spiritual life and mission at Loma Linda University Health.