Treachery in Israel. Regard for Saul.
1893 306 When David left the land of Judah for the sake of his parents, though the motive abstractedly was innocent, the first of all duties was neglected. When God has His rightful place, everything is referred to "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." This necessarily stands at the head of all obedience, and this was the lesson which David was taught by his failure. Immediately on his reaching the forest of Hareth he heard that the Philistines had attacked Keilah and were plundering the threshing-floors. With the desire not to repeat his fault he enquired of the Lord. "Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the Lord said, Go, and smite the Philistines and save Keilah." But why the sword? Why does he say: —
"Blessed be the LORD my strength,
Who teacheth my hands to war
And my fingers to fight." (Ps. 144)
Why is the desire so often expressed by Israel for judgment on their enemies, and why was it counted an honour to execute it upon them? The answer is this. "The earth is the LORD's," the ordering of it is His also. In His sovereignty He has apportioned to Israel the chief and central place among the nations (Deut. 32:7-9). In them divine government has been displayed on the earth, and will be again. With a high arm He brought them out of Egypt to Himself to be their King and their God; and the idolatrous nations that opposed and mocked at His power were His enemies, Israel being used by Him to execute judgment on them. Under the first and legal covenant the chosen people so grievously failed that "they are scattered among all peoples from the one end of the earth even unto the other" (Deut. 28:64); but "He that scattered Israel will gather him" (Jer. 31:10). Now, sinners reached by God's grace through the gospel, whether Jew or Gentile, are brought into one body, the church, a people for heaven, who while on earth should be manifestly a heavenly people. The ceaseless efforts of the god of this world have been directed to make the church a "mock Israel," and with much success. Happy are they who have been able to stand against his wiles (Eph. 6:10-18). The Gentiles, placed in authority on the overthrow of the house of David, have never had any care for the divine plan for ordering the earth, but eagerly strive for the possession of it. We have now reached that period in their history when the question is, how to mingle the iron of the image in Daniel 2 with the clay, for they will not cleave one to another, and further revolutions are anticipated. The Christian, not sharing the fears of the world, reads in this the near approach of the day of deliverance (Dan. 2:44-45). THE EARTH IS THE LORD'S, and He will take it Whose right it is. Then shall Israel be restored and take their true and glorious place among the nations; Jehovah shall be manifestly their King and their God, and the earth shall rest from war. The Psalms, while full of instruction for us, concern Judah and Israel. David's desires and actings were thus in strict accordance with the ways of God on behalf of an earthly people.
To save the men of Keilah, their enemies must be smitten, but they brought the judgment on themselves. Those with David however were not ready to follow hint now. To go with him to Moab presented no difficulty; but to go to Keilah was a challenge to their faith, and what was the answer? "Behold," they said, "we be afraid here in Judah: how much more then if we come to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?" David refused to put his personal influence in the place of the word of God. He neither reasoned with them nor rebuked them, but enquired of the LORD yet again. "And the LORD answered Arise, go down to Keilah for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand." This assurance of divine power overcame their fears; they went with David, smote the Philistines with great slaughter, and Keilah was saved.
Saul on hearing that David was now "in a town that had gates and bars" at once prepared to besiege him, and at this time Abiathar, fleeing from Nob, came to him with the ephod in his hand. It was indeed a token for good. The breastplate, inseparable from the ephod, bore the names of all the tribes of Jacob; and, as he was about to learn by bitter experience the character of the people whom he was to serve, he by it was reminded of the unchanged compassion of the Lord for them, changed as were their circumstances. To view them in the light of their conduct might have estranged him from them; but to see them according to the thoughts of the Lord, expressed in this type, would deepen his interest in them, while by the Urim and Thummim he could have the guidance he needed. Hence he said to Abiathar, "Bring hither the ephod." Most solemn, most reverent, most earnest was his cry. Appealing again and again to the LORD as the LORD God of Israel, he enquired. "Will Saul come down? And the LORD said, He will come down. Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul. And the LORD said, They will deliver thee up." He made no complaint. He cannot wage war with Israel, with the people whose names were on the breastplate. He can strike no blow at his master, the LORD's anointed. He will not fight, but "he and his men, which were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went whither they could go."
Many of his Psalms bear witness to the strong emotion under which they were composed; few more so than those which were written on the discovery of the ingratitude and treachery of the people he served.
"For my love they are my adversaries
But I give myself unto prayer.
And they have rewarded me evil for good,
And hatred for my love." (Ps. 109)
See also Ps. 35:12-16, Ps. 38:20, Ps. 69:4, and others.
God has thus used his afflictions by the Spirit "to express the feelings not only of the people of God, but often of the Lord Himself."
We find him next in the wilderness of Ziph, where Jonathan with affectionate sympathy and noble courage and devotion came to him, and "strengthened his hand in God." How he needed it, for the Ziphites, more treacherous than the men of Keilah, volunteered to betray him to Saul, who actually blessed them in the name of the LORD for having compassion on him! Guided by them he led his forces in pursuit and reached the mountain near Maon on the other side of which were David and his men. The peril was extreme. In a very short time they would he surrounded and all hope gone. Nothing but the direct interposition of God could save them; and it is beautiful to see how, led by the Spirit, he cast himself and those with him on God as known, or in the language of scripture on "His name" — "Save me, O God, by thy name, and judge (vindicate) me by thy strength." (Ps. 54) His cry was heard. "A messenger came to Saul saying, Haste thee and come for the Philistines have invaded the land." Thus pressed he was obliged to return and David was saved. So marked was this deliverance that the place where it occurred was called "The cliff of Escape."
We have now to see this servant of the Lord under very different circumstances. Twice Saul was in his power: once when he retired alone into the cave where David and his men were hiding; and a second time when he and his guards were "in a deep sleep from the LORD." On the former occasion David cut off the skirt of his robe as a proof of the danger to which he had exposed himself. On the latter, David and Abishai noiselessly approached him and took the spear and cruse of water from his bolster; "and no man saw it, nor knew it, neither awaked." Urged by his followers to take the opportunity, which to them seemed to be of the Lord, to rid himself of so relentless an enemy, he firmly refused. Indeed his magnanimity of spirit, his loyalty and obeisance to the king, as his master, his earnest and even affectionate appeal to him, as in the presence of the Lord, when he said, "My father, see, yea, see the skirt of thy robe in my hand," the witness that he had not sinned against him, though Saul was hunting his soul to destroy it, display a character of no ordinary kind. Whence was it? There can be but one reply. In his recent afflictions he had sought the Lord more diligently than ever, and in communion with Him had learned much of the ineffable goodness of His nature. He was certainly born of God, and had thus the capacity of enjoying and valuing the favour, the loving-kindness, of God. Light as to the flesh and the new creation did not shine out then as since the cross, but he could not be much in the presence of God without a real moral change, and this in an interesting way is discovered in the Psalms. If our translators found it difficult to render into English the one word in Hebrew that expresses the nature of God, and have employed six English words to convey its meaning, they have in like manner used five to express the moral character of the faithful remnant in Israel of whom David was certainly one (see Psalm lxxxvi).
"Bow down thine ear, O LORD, hear me:
For I am poor and needy.
Preserve my soul, for I am holy:
O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee."
The word "holy" is, in the margin, "one whom thou favourest;" in the R.V., "godly." The same word is also rendered "saint," "the merciful" and in Micah 7:2, "the good man." How intimate and beautiful is the connection between the graciousness of God and the graciousness of the heart that by faith knows and delights in Him; but alas how different is the result in those who do not. The same sun, that perfects the beauty of the rooted living flower, withers the rootless one. So was it seen in David and in Saul, in the remnant and in the nation of Israel, and so is it now in the true receiver of Christ and in the mere professor. Oh! for more faith in the quiet power of communion with God.