1 Samuel 27 (JND) - Bible Truth Library

God had caused him to be anointed king of Israel, and promised his accession to the throne, and had so often interposed in his behalf, that he was authorised to believe the very reverse.perish.

Heb. be consumed.

there is nothing.

1 Sam. 22:5• ⁵And the prophet Gad said to David, Abide not in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah. Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hareth. (1 Sam. 22:5)

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Ex. 14:12• ¹²Is not this what we told thee in Egypt, when we said, Let us alone, and we will serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness. (Ex. 14:12)

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Num. 14:3• ³And why is Jehovah bringing us to this land that we may fall by the sword, that our wives and our little ones may become a prey? Is it not better for us to return to Egypt? (Num. 14:3)

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Prov. 3:5‑6• ⁵Confide in Jehovah with all thy heart, and lean not unto thine own intelligence;
⁶in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will make plain thy paths. (Prov. 3:5‑6)

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Isa. 30:15‑16• ¹⁵For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest shall ye be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be your strength; but ye would not.
¹⁶And ye said, No, but we will flee upon horses,--therefore shall ye flee; and, We will ride upon the swift,--therefore shall they that pursue you be swift. (Isa. 30:15‑16)

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Lam. 3:26‑27• ²⁶It is good that one should both wait, and that in silence, for the salvation of Jehovah.
²⁷It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth: (Lam. 3:26‑27)

into the land.

1 Sam. 27:10‑11• ¹⁰So Achish said, Have ye not made a raid to-day? And David said, Against the south of Judah, and against the south of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites.
¹¹And David left neither man nor woman alive, to bring them to Gath, for he said, Lest they should tell of us, saying, So did David. And such was his custom as long as he abode in the country of the Philistines. (1 Sam. 27:10‑11)

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1 Sam. 21:10‑15• ¹⁰And David arose, and fled that day from before Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.
¹¹And the servants of Achish said to him, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul has smitten his thousands, and David his ten thousands?
¹²And David took to heart these words, and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath.
¹³And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard.
¹⁴And Achish said to his servants, Behold, ye see the man is mad: why did ye bring him to me?
¹⁵have I lack of madmen, that ye have brought this one to rave in my presence? shall this man come into my house? (1 Sam. 21:10‑15)

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1 Sam. 28:1‑2• ¹And it came to pass in those days that the Philistines gathered together their armies for warfare to fight against Israel. And Achish said to David, Know thou assuredly that thou shalt go out with me to the camp, thou and thy men.
²And David said to Achish, Thereby thou shalt know what thy servant can do. And Achish said to David, Therefore will I make thee keeper of my person for ever. (1 Sam. 28:1‑2)

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1 Sam. 29:2‑11• ²And the lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds and by thousands; and David and his men passed on in the rearward with Achish.
³And the princes of the Philistines said, What are these Hebrews? And Achish said to the princes of the Philistines, Is not this David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, who has been with me these days, or these years, and I have found nothing in him since the day of his falling away to me to this day?
⁴But the princes of the Philistines were wroth with him; and the princes of the Philistines said to him, Make the man return, that he may go again to his place where thou hast appointed him, that he go not down with us to the battle, that in the battle he be not an adversary to us; for wherewith should this fellow reconcile himself to his master? should it not be with the heads of these men?
⁵Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul smote his thousands, and David his ten thousands?
⁶And Achish called David, and said to him, As Jehovah liveth, thou art upright, and thy going out and thy coming in with me in the camp is acceptable to me; for I have not found evil in thee since the day of thy coming to me to this day; but thou art not acceptable to the lords.
⁷And now return, and go in peace, that thou displease not the lords of the Philistines.
⁸And David said to Achish, But what have I done? and what hast thou found in thy servant so long as I have been with thee to this day, that I should not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?
⁹And Achish answered and said to David, I know that thou art acceptable to me, as an angel of God; nevertheless the princes of the Philistines have said, He shall not go up with us to the battle.
¹⁰And now rise up early in the morning with thy master's servants that are come with thee; and rise ye early in the morning, and when ye have daylight, depart.
¹¹And David rose up early, he and his men, to depart in the morning, to return into the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jizreel. (1 Sam. 29:2‑11)

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1 Sam. 30:1‑3• ¹And it came to pass, when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had made a raid upon the south, and upon Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag and burned it with fire;
²and had taken the women captives that were in it; both great and small: they had put none to death, but had carried them off, and went on their way.
³And David and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burnt with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters were taken captives. (1 Sam. 30:1‑3)

• God, no doubt, makes use of this means to remove David from peril. But at the same time, he is tried and chastened, and is exposed to the dreadful necessity of appearing ready to fight against Israel. (“1 Samuel 27” by J.N. Darby)

• We may remark that it was immediately after an evident interposition of God (ch. 26:12) that David’s faith fails. It is the same with Elijah (1 Kings 19). One would say that, in our hearts, faith exhausts itself by an unusual effort. Faith may carry us through the crisis; but the heart, which was the vessel of faith, is terrified by it. (“1 Samuel 27” by J.N. Darby)

• We must often experience that a great victory is apt to be followed by a great despondency. When God was with us, did we not happen to attribute something to ourselves? When David said to Saul: “Jehovah will render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness” (1 Sam. 26:23), God alone knows whether or not there was some self-satisfaction in these words. (“1 Samuel 27” by H.L. Rossier)

• Let us remember that having been used by God does not mean that we know ourselves yet, and let us remember that this self-knowledge is indispensable for us to appreciate grace. We often have this experience after times of special blessing. The enemy takes advantage of the situation to make us fall when, armed with God’s power, we have illusions about our own strength, esteeming ourselves to be unassailable. (“1 Samuel 27” by H.L. Rossier)

J. N. Darby Translation

And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me to seek me any more within all the limits of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand.