“So Achish called David and said to him, “‘As surely as the LORD lives, you have been reliable, and I would be pleased to have you serve with me in the army. From the day you came to me until now, I have found no fault in you, but the rulers don’t approve of you.”
~ 1 Samuel 29:6
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever started to do something that you were not sure that you wanted to do but you still went ahead to do the best that you could to do it? Have you ever been doing something that you really would have preferred not to be doing but you kept on doing what you were doing because you thought that there was nothing else for you to do? Have you ever wished that you could do something else other than what you were doing because you knew that what you were doing was not the right thing for you to be doing? 1 Samuel 29 is about David and the dilemma that David found himself. David and the outcasts who had joined him had been living for over a year among Philistine people group guys and gals even though Philistine people group guys and gals were archenemies of Israelite people group guys and gals. David was an Israelite people group guy. David had become so crosswise with Saul – who was at this time the Israelite people group king, that David’s only hope from being killed by Saul or by Saul’s soldiers was to live with an Israelite enemy people group of guys and gals – such as the Philistine people group guys and gals. Because David had been anointed by an old prophet – who was Samuel, to be the next king over the Israelite people group guys and gals, David knew that he would one day replace Saul. David in the meantime had to hide from a deranged guy who was insanely jealous of David’s popularity among the Israelite people group guys and gals. David had a lot of abilities and talents. David was a song writer and harp player. David’s résumé included killing a bear, lion and giant. David was handsome. Because of David’s mounting reputation and growing fame among the Israelite people group guys and gals – who were God’s specially chosen guys and gals, and because Saul was coming across to the Israelite people group guys and gals as a guy who was losing it, David could have led a coup against Saul to take over being king over the Israelite people groups guys and gals. That was not David. David trusted God to unfold the future events that were directly relevant to him in a way that would have him replacing Saul as king over the Israelite people group guys and gals in God’s timing versus forcing the issue by overthrowing Saul to be the king over the Israelite people group guys and gals.
There invariably comes moments of reckoning for a guy, gal or kid when he or she finds himself or herself between ‘a rock and a hard place’ predicaments just as David found himself one day in one after Saul amassed his Israelite people group army at the spring at Jezreel. The Philistine people group army at this time had amassed at Aphek. The Philistine people group army commanders decided to attack the Israelite people group army where they were camped at the spring at Jezreel. David – and his fellow renegades, marched at the back of the Philistine people group army. When the Philistine people group army commanders realized that David – and his band of defectors, were going into battle with them, the Philistine people group commanders angrily told Achish – who was the king over the guy and gals in the Philistine town where David and his motley band of guys were hiding, that they did not want David and the guys who with him to go into battle with them against his own people group. The Philistine people group commanders did not trust David. They thought that David and the guys who were with him would turn against them when they would begin to fight against the Israelite people group army where they were bivouacked at the spring at Jezreel. Achish had to let David know that he – and his rebel gang, could not fight in the pending battle against the Israelite people group army. Verse 6 says, “So Achish called David and said to him, “‘As surely as the LORD lives, you have been reliable, and I would be pleased to have you serve with me in the army. From the day you came to me until now, I have found no fault in you, but the rulers don’t approve of you.” Do you think that David really wanted to go and fight against his own people group – killing fellow Israelite people group guys and gals? David had found himself in a precipitous situation where he either had to fight against and kill Israelite people group guys who he maybe knew or having the Philistine people group guys find out that he was using them to protect him from a crazed Israelite people group king – which would very possibly have had the Philistine people group guys turning on him and . . . so when David asked to know from Achish what he had done that was causing the other Philistine people group army commanders to not want to have him – and his ragtag bunch of guys, fight with them, David was pretending. David was breathing a sigh of relief that he was being told to go back to the Philistine people group land area without having to fight against and kill his Israelite people group compatriots.
When your grandpaa arrived in Colorado Springs to begin a negotiated responsibility at the mission office of the mission agency that your grandmaa and grandpaa had been missionaries with for eight years, your grandpaa found that a series of decisions outside your grandpaa’s control had changed what your grandpaa had agreed that he would do. Even though your grandpaa was disappointed that he was not going to be doing what he was looking forward to doing, your grandpaa tried to do the very best that he could in the job assignments that he was asked to do. Your grandpaa has felt for the past three years that he was not being given the opportunities to apply the training and ministry experiences that he has had over the last thirty years as a missionary. When your grandpaa was released nine days ago by the mission agency to . . ., your grandpaa feels today like David may have felt over 3000 years ago when he was told by Achish that the other Philistine people group commanders did not want him to fight with them.
1 Samuel 29 (733)