LIFE IN ZIKLAG AND ITS EXPERIENCES.
David's last meeting with Saul evidently affected him greatly; and it is probable that, as he set before him in feeling terms his condition as a partridge hunted on the mountains, and his insignificance, compared with the strength and resources of the king, as a flea, that he realized his danger in a way he had never done before, and felt that his enemies would eventually hunt him to death. The exceeding peril of yielding to anxious thoughts lie at one time pressed in language which many since have adopted for their blessing, but which at this moment he failed to realize. In Psa. 139, which brings the soul in all its internal workings under the eye of the Lord, he expresses the fervent desire to be delivered from every thought which would discourage his heart and lead to departure from God.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my thoughts:.
And see if there be any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.”
Thoughts have tempted many to forsake their own mercies, as Jonah, and observe lying vanities. Here David failed. Self-preservation was a suggestion of Satan, and he yielded to it so fully that past experiences, deliverances, joys, and testimonies were all forgotten. What discord a single distrustful thought may stir up in a truly godly soul! He loved Israel: he loved the Lord, and in this same Psalm he declares that the enemies of the Lord were his enemies.
“Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee?
And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?
I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them mine enemies.”
As the appointed ruler over Israel this was right. For the display of the righteous government of Jehovah in the earth and the deliverance of His people, it was the truth that he was called to maintain; but truth to be of any avail must be held in communion with God. There is no power in truth of itself, and knowledge is not faith. Of this, David at this time was a striking example. “He 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 shall despair of me, to seek me any more in the coast of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand.” There was now with him a band of brave men who, under his leadership, would prove a valuable contingent to the forces of the Philistines. On this he reckoned for favor in their eyes and not in vain. Thus temptation and opportunity combined to draw him away from his known duty. Achish welcomed him, and at his request gave him the city, Ziklag, to dwell in.
This suggests the thought that another motive was at work. Every man with him had his household, and David his two wives, Ahinoani and Abigail: was there not heart longing for rest as well as safety, for a home as well as a refuge, and this, if it could not be in the land of Judah, with the enemies of God?
This sudden spiritual change in a man of exemplary faith should be a solemn warning against giving way at any time to the suggestions of “a dark brooding heart.” From the time of his return from Moab to the land of Judah, he had been going on happily, seeking and obtaining counsel and help of the Lord in every difficulty, and giving expression to the joy of his soul again and again in Psalms of praise; yet at once his guilty weakness and fears betrayed him into a course of disobedience, of self-will, of open departure from the Lord, and of conduct, shameful and cruel in the extreme. We all need the lesson, or it would not have been written for us. As another has said, in writing of Job, “There is a wonderful scene going on in the heart of man. God does not always let us see it, it would not be good for us: we could not bear it. Sometimes the veil is drawn aside and the heart is exposed to itself. It is a serious thing when God thus lifts the veil and shows what is going on for good and evil in a poor little heart like ours.”
Under no circumstances hitherto would David strike a blow against Israel, yet what advantage was it to Achish to receive him if he did not: therefore to meet his searching inquiries as to the raids he made, he must deceive him. This he did, and so effectually that Achish said, “David hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him, therefore he shall be my servant forever.” But artifice and falsehood alone could not secure him from discovery. Therefore of those against whom he made war, “he left neither man or woman alive lest they should tell saying, So did David, and so will be his manner all the while he dwelleth in the country of the Philistines.” And this was his course for sixteen months! Surely in the flesh dwelleth no good thing, sin only is found there. Explicit statements of this are abundant in scripture, especially in the New Testament; but these are confirmed by narrative after narrative which discovers it where we should least expect to find it. Deliverance from it can only be by the Cross of the Lord Jesus and to this the Christian emphatically puts his seal (Gal. 5:24)—is taught to do so. About the close of the sixteen months the allied princes of the Philistines resolved upon engaging in a combined attack upon the forces of Saul at Gilboa, and Achish said to David, “Know thou assuredly that thou shalt go out with me to battle”? and David said, “Surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do “: and he and his men passed over in the rereward of the Philistines army with Achish. The time of deceit was over. Israel's champion, in alliance with their bitterest foes, is in arms, not against the people of God only, or against Saul whose life he twice spared because he was anointed, but against Jehovah of Hosts whom he had confessed before Goliath to be the God of the armies of Israel. This then raised the question as to His rights, for David was his servant; and if he were powerless to break the yoke under which he had placed himself, it should be broken for him. As the rivers of water, the Lord turneth the hearts of men, and He turned the hearts of the other lords of the Philistines against David. They insist on his immediate dismissal. “Make this fellow return that he may go again to his place which thou past appointed him, and let him not go down with us to the battle, lest in the battle he be an adversary to us.” Achish had to yield, and David returned to Ziklag to find it in flames. The Amalekites had invaded it, and taken captive the women, the children, and the cattle—everything. It was a terrible blow, but a self-earned one. Though God forgives His people, He takes vengeance on their inventions. The distress of all the men, their weeping, their despair, their almost hatred of David, for they spoke of stoning him, though he was a partner with them in. all their sorrow, added inconceivably to the anguish of his soul; but he knew the hand that smote him, and appalling as were his circumstances, “encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” Such is the simple record (1 Sam. 30:6) and such is faith; if for a season eclipsed, it shines out the more intensely when the darkness of distrust is, by grace, removed. Even the splendid triumph over Goliath cannot be compared with the victory over himself. He is David again as we knew him before his fall. He turned to Abiathar for the ephod, inquired of the Lord, and at His word pursued the Amalekites, came upon them, smote them and recovered all. Now, when his condition was right before God, his spirit was changed, his heart was enlarged. An Amalekite could leave his servant who had fallen sick to die in the field. Though rich with the spoils of Ziklag, his niggardly heart refused even the little that might give back strength to the poor exhausted Egyptian. Will David yield to the selfish suggestion of some that those of his men who were too faint to go with him to the fight should not share in the spoils? Far be the thought. His faith had taken hold of God, and the mercy which he himself received he must display. It was an opportunity for good, and he seized it: as the Christian loves, because God first loved him. In royal grace David saluted the feeble ones, inquired as to their welfare, rebuked the hard-hearted, and made a statute and an ordinance for Israel from that day forward: “As his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff; they shall part alike.”