Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
1 Samuel 26:20

Clarke's Commentary

Verse 1 Samuel 26:20. As when one doth hunt a partridge — It is worthy of remark that the Arabs, observing that partridges, being put up several times, soon become so weary as not to be able to fly; they in this manner hunt them upon the mountains, till at last they can knock them down with their clubs.

It was in this manner that Saul hunted David, coming hastily upon him, and putting him up from time to time, in hopes that he should at length, by frequent repetitions of it, be able to destroy him. See Harmer.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

The move to Philistia (26:1-27:12)

Although he had every intention of killing Nabal, David still refused to harm Saul; but Saul remained determined to harm David (26:1-5). When another opportunity arose to kill Saul, David refused to act. He was content to leave the matter with God, who would remove Saul when he saw fit (6-12).
Once again David produced proof that he had no evil intentions towards Saul (13-17). But clearly David was becoming tired of this continual flight from the mad king. Not only was it wearying, but it was driving him from God through cutting him off from the public worship places of his people (18-20). Saul confessed his wrongdoing and promised not to harm David, but David still thought it wise to remain in the south and keep away from Saul (21-25).

Worse was to follow when David left his own territory for the safety of enemy Philistia. This time Achish, the Philistine ruler, welcomed him, because he now knew that David was Saul’s enemy and not one of his army commanders. (For David’s previous meeting with Achish see 21:10-15.) Also, David’s army, strengthened by the addition of a number of Benjaminites skilled in long-range warfare (1 Chronicles 12:1-7), would be useful to the Philistines. Wisely, David obtained a separate town, Ziklag, for his people. This enabled him to avoid trouble with the Philistines and to hold his followers together. He stayed there sixteen months (27:1-7).

This was not a time of great spiritual profit for David. His previous experiences, when he was hunted by Saul in the Judean wilderness, spiritually enriched him and produced many of his psalms. By contrast, his time in Philistia was often characterized by shameful behaviour and, so far as we know, produced no psalms.
David pleased Achish and enriched his people by carrying out successful raids that Achish thought were against the Israelites or peoples friendly to the Israelites. But David lied to Achish, for the raids were against other peoples, usually those hostile to the Israelites. To his shame David directed his men to slaughter all the inhabitants of the towns he raided. In this way he made sure that no one was left to tell Achish the true story about which people David had plundered (8-12).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

DAVID'S EARNEST APPEAL TO SAUL

"Saul recognized David's voice, and said, "Is this your voice, my son David"? And David said, "It is my voice, my lord, O king." And he said, "Why does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done? What guilt is on my hands? Now therefore let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is the Lord who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering; but if it is men, may they be cursed before the Lord, for they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the heritage of the Lord, saying, `Go serve other gods.' Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of the Lord; for the king of Israel has come out to seek my life, like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains."

"It is my voice my lord O king" There is a dramatic difference in David's reply to Saul here as contrasted with that other occasion at Engedi. There David addressed Saul as "My father" (1 Samuel 24:11), and Saul here sought the same kind of response from David, but David no longer used that terminology. Saul had given his wife Michal to Palti, and there were no grounds whatever, either for Saul's words, "My son," or for David's responding with, "My father." It was this, perhaps, that enabled David instantly to see that Saul's words were those of a confirmed hypocrite. There are many irreconcilable differences in these two accounts in which Saul's life was spared by David.

"They have driven me out… that I should have no share in the heritage of the Lord." Every Jew felt that the presence of God pertained especially to the land of Israel, and no Hebrew wanted to die away from it, but, "It is unnecessary to infer that David believed that God was operative only in the land of Israel. Such a view is ruled out by 1 Samuel 30:7-8."The New Bible Commentary, Revised, p. 301. "Here David pleaded with Saul for some opportunity that would prevent his having to leave his own people and the land of Israel."The Teachers' Bible Commentary, p. 177. The failure of Saul to provide any answer that David could trust was at once followed by David's leaving the land of Israel for that of the Philistines. This, of course, was a far different result from that which followed the first sparing of Saul's life by David.

"Like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains" The older versions use the word "flea" instead of "partridge" here, and critics love to cite this as one of the similarities with the event at Engedi, but, as H. P. Smith wrote, "This reading gives a sense more in accord with the context."International Critical Commentary, op. cit., p. 233.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Let's turn in our Bibles to first Samuel, twenty-six, and let's begin our study of these final five chapters, six chapters.

The wilderness of Ziph actually lies between Hebron and the area of the Dead Sea, a very vast, barren area.

And the Ziphites came to Saul to Gibeah, and they said, David is hiding himself there in the wilderness of Ziph. So Saul went down with three thousand of his men seeking David. And Saul pitched there his tents, or his camp. David was staying in the wilderness, and he saw how Saul came to him. And David sent out his spies, and learned that Saul indeed had come. And so David arose, and came to the place where Saul had pitched: [Now that wilderness area is such that there's just a lot of places where you can hide, and a lot of places where you can observe the movements of others without being seen yourself.] and David saw the place where Saul was lying, and Abner the captain of his host nearby: and Saul lay in the trench, and the people were pitched around about him. And David answered and said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Who wants to go with me to Saul to the camp? And Abishai said, I will go down with you ( 1 Samuel 26:1-6 ).

Now again as I have said so often, I admire David, I admire the courage of this guy, I admire the daring. Here is Saul out to get him, and so David is looking over the camp, he sees where Saul is lying down. He's so daring he's gonna sneak down into the camp of Saul at night. Rather than just running the other direction and making as much distance as he can between him and Saul, he's just got that adventuresome spirit, and he says, "Who wants to go with me down to the camp here tonight?" Abishai says, "I'll go with you."

So David and Abishai came down into the camp: and [they were all sound asleep,] Saul was lying there, and his spear was stuck in the ground beside him: And Abishai said to David, [All right David, look at that. Lying there on the ground,] let me take this spear and run him through, I won't even hit him the second time. God's delivered your enemies into your hands. And David said, Who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed, and be guiltless ( 1 Samuel 26:7-9 )?

Now I have to have great respect for David's respect for the anointed of God, even though the anointing of God had, for all practical purposes, been lifted from Saul. Still David had such a high regard, and respect for the fact that God's anointing had been upon his life, that David refused to touch him. Because God had said in the law, "Touch not Mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm"( 1 Chronicles 16:22 ).

Now God places a protection really, around His anointed servants. That's just one of the fringe benefits of the ministry. There's a lot of hardships in the ministry. It isn't all glamour and excitement, and drama and thrilling experiences. There's a lot of heartaches in the ministry, there's a lot of hard experiences in the ministry. Dealing with people isn't always the easiest thing in the world. There are a lot of situations in which there seems to be absolutely no way out, and you just don't know what to do, what to say, you're at a loss. You're not infallible; you can make a lot of mistakes. The Lord knows I've made my share of them. But one of the fringe benefits is that He stands with you. As I stand here to minister the word of God, I don't stand alone, the Lord stands with me. It's wonderful to know that protective power of God upon your life, and surrounding your life.

Now there are a lot of people who feel they know much better how to run the church than I do. Now let me confess, I don't know how to run the church, and I don't pretend to know how to run the church. I do my best to get my orders from the Lord. But there are some people who feel that they are like the Lord. That they can give me the orders, and they seek to conform me into their image.

Now my wife tried to do that for years. Obviously we're not on the radio tonight, I don't think. Finally one day I said, "Honey you're not God, I'm not to be conformed into your image of what you think a husband should be. I want to be conformed into His image. I'm not so sure that you and He are lined up in what I ought to be." So my wife finally gave up trying to conform me into her image.

But there are people who write and try to tell me how the services ought to be conducted, what we ought to be doing. And it's sort of sad because I see that when a person once gets their mind bent towards criticism that it grows, and grows, and grows and it becomes like a cancer. It soon overwhelms them and they become so critical of everything. We have people that come and say, "Well, why don't you do this in your services? Why don't you do that, this?" and all these ideas of what we ought to be doing. In reality, nearby there are churches that are doing those very things, why don't they go to those churches where they are doing those things if that's what they want the church to do? You see I must follow the Lord, and the leading of the Lord, and if you want a lot of shouting, and a lot of demonstration, there are churches that have these kinds of things, I suggest you find one.

I got a letter from a lady awhile back that said, "I've been looking for years for a church where the Word of God was being taught. We came to your church, and we were just so thrilled because the Word was being taught. But then the usher told us that we couldn't bring our little two-year old baby into the services with us. If my baby isn't welcome, then I don't feel welcome." She began to lay a trip on me because her baby wasn't allowed in the church, you know, and so disappointed.

Well, I wrote her back and told her that we have some hundred and eighty babies, to two hundred and twenty, two-year olds and under that are here on an average Sunday morning. And that if all of those babies were in the service, no one would be able to hear the teaching of the Word of God. So I told her that I was praying that the Lord would help her to find a church where the Word of God is being taught, where her baby would be welcome. But I also just hope that if her baby was welcome, that she'd be able to hear the service and the teaching of the Word in that particular church that she might find.

Now there is a reason why we don't have children in the services. It's so that we can minister to people on an adult level, with a high level of attention so that there aren't the distractions of children going in and out, children going through song books, babies crying and so forth. That's the way the Lord has led us to do it, and if you want to go to a church where you can sit and have your baby on your lap, crying through the whole service, there are churches that will let you get by with that, and you're welcome. Go find one.

It's interesting to me to in the New Testament Jesus said how that the people were getting around the law that said you're to honor your father and mother, you're not to curse them, and if you curse your parents you're to die. So they had developed that, it's like the fellows in Israel tell me, he said, "I'll talk to the Rabbi, they can always figure a way around it, you know." So on the Sabbath day you're not to spend any money, but you can use credit cards now on the Sabbath day because that's not money. They always figure a way around.

So they said, "If you tell your mother and father before you curse them, say, "This is just for your benefit, this is for your good. I want you to know that you're a lousy creep," and then you can tell them anything you want. As long as you say, "This is a gift for you, this is for your benefit and your good," and then say whatever you want. So circumventing the law completely. Someone writes me notes and signs "agape." Well, because they sign "agape" they think they can say all kinds of mean, critical things in their note, because after all, they signed it "agape." There's no agape there at all; it's hypocritical.

Touching the anointed of God should never be considered as something that should be, should be light, or David had a high respect, he wouldn't touch Saul. He said, "Look, God is gonna take care of him." That's the proper attitude. If he is God's servant, God is gonna take care of him. Paul said, "Who are you to judge another man's servant? Before his own master either stands or falls, and God is able to make him to stand."

Now if I were serving you then I should be taking orders from you, but I'm serving the Lord, and my responsibility is to the Lord. Someday I'm gonna stand before Him and give an account of myself, and of my ministry to Him. Therefore, I've got to listen to Him, because I'm gonna be accountable and answerable to Him one day.

So David said, "God's gonna take care of him some way or other. God is gonna smite him, he's gonna fall in battle, God'll take care of him. I don't want my hand to be against the anointed of God. I don't want to be guilty of that."

The Lord forbid [he said,] that I should stretch forth my hand against the Lord's anointed: but, I pray thee, take thou the spear that is at his bolster, and the cruse of water, and let's get out of here. So David took the spear and the cruse of water from Saul's bolster; and they got away, no man saw it, or knew it, neither did they wake up: for they were all asleep; because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them. Then David went over to the other side, and stood on the top of a hill that is far off; a great space being between them: David cried to the people, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, Answerest thou not, Abner? Then Abner answered and said, Who art thou that criest to the king ( 1 Samuel 26:11-14 ).

Now David got a great way off and called. There's an interesting thing about that country, and that is that there is a tremendous acoustics of some kind that you can hear for miles. I was pointing it out to the people when we were up on the Herodian. There were children that were at least three quarters of a mile away that were playing out there. I said, "Listen to those kids." You could hear them; you could hear them as they were playing. You could hear them calling to each other and all. When they had gone up to the top of the Herodian, as we were going up the hill, I saw some caves about half way up the hill. I was curious what might be in those caves. So I, rather than walking up the road to the top of the Herodian, walked around the side of the Herodian to explore these caves which I found to be big cisterns there in the side of the Herodian, and some interesting ruins of the walls. But the people were up on the top, and I could hear them just talking to each other in their conversations, though I was half way down the mountain. So I started talking to them, and we could converse back and forth over an area of four hundred feet in normal voice, without yelling, or lifting our voices, we could converse at a distance of over four hundred feet very clearly. There's something about the atmosphere or whatever, but sound really is conducted very easily over there. You can actually hear for miles.

So David went over to the other mountain, just a great way off, and they cried back. You could hear him, you could actually-sound transfers so well in the atmosphere or whatever that it's really amazing. People wonder how in the world could Jesus ever talk to five thousand people, but the way the acoustics are there, there isn't any really problem at all to address large multitudes of people without public address systems. It's really something that is quite unique and interesting. I've always found it extremely interesting. So David went over to this mountain and he called back, "Abner." Abner said, "Who is it that's crying unto the king?"

And David cried to the people and to Abner, saying, Don't you answer Abner? And David said to Abner, Are you not a valiant man? and who is like unto you in Israel? and why have you not kept the lord the king? for there came one of the people in to destroy the king thy lord. It's not good what you have done. As the Lord liveth, you ought to be put to death, because you have not kept your master, the Lord's anointed. And now look where the king's spear is, and the cruse of water that was there at his bolster ( 1 Samuel 26:14-16 ).

So David is sort of chiding Abner the chief general of Saul, saying, "Hey you know your job is to guard the king, and you aren't doing a good job. You ought to be put to death. Someone came in to destroy the king, and you were just sound asleep. Look where the king's spear is, and the cruse of water."

Saul [of course waking out of his sleep] said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And David said, It's my voice, my lord, O king. And he said, Why does my lord pursue after his servant? what have I done? for what evil is in my hand ( 1 Samuel 26:17-18 )?

Now David, I think one of the phrases of David all the way through was, "What have I done?" Always saying, "What have I done?" He seemed to always be getting in trouble, you know, and always really for not very much, but, "What have I done?" So when he went down to the camp where his brothers were fighting against the Philistines, and Goliath came out, and David began to say, "Hey, why you guys hiding? Why doesn't one of you fight him?" His brother started getting on his case, and he said, "Hey, what have I done? I only asked a few questions." And here with Saul, "What have I done that you would pursue me like this?"

Now therefore, I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If the Lord has stirred you up against me, then let the Lord receive an offering: ["Let's offer a sacrifice and let's get it over with.] but if it's the children of men, that has stirred you up against me then let them be cursed; for they have driven me out from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord. Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the Lord: for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, and as a partridge you've chased me in these mountains. Then said Saul, I have sinned: return, my son David: for I will no more do thee harm, because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day: behold, I have played the fool, and erred exceedingly ( 1 Samuel 26:19-21 ).

Now here is a confession of Saul, and Saul, if David's phrase was "What have I done?" Saul's phrase was, "I have sinned." But he never repented. He only declared a fact. This is sort of tragic. So many people do that today. They say, "Oh, I have sinned." but they don't change. It's more than just the confession of guilt that is necessary. It's the turning from the sin, which is important. "Except thou repent," Jesus said, "you're gonna perish." Repent means to turn. So it isn't just saying, "Oh, I have sinned." It's turning from your sin, which is so important to the Lord.

Here is Saul again, and many times on many occasions whenever he was faced by Samuel the prophet, he'd say, "Oh, I have sinned." But there wasn't any sign of repentance. "I have sinned, I have played the fool, I have erred exceedingly." This is Saul's confession. Of course it's a very tragic confession. It's the truth, he did play the fool all through his life he played the fool. He was a man who was endowed by God with many natural talents and abilities. He was a man who was given every opportunity by God, but yet a man who blew his opportunities of really being a servant of God. He is a man who failed to do the work of God, though he had all that he needed to be a marvelous king over Israel, he became exalted and lifted up with pride, and played the fool, and erred exceedingly. So his autobiography, "I have sinned, I've played the fool, I've erred exceedingly."

So David answered and said, Behold the king's spear. let one of your young men come over and get it. And the Lord render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness: for the Lord delivered you into my hand today, but I would not stretch forth my hand against the Lord's anointed. And, behold, as thy life was much set this day in my eyes, so let my life be much set by [in your eyes, or] in the eyes of the Lord, and let him deliver me out of all tribulations. Then Saul said to David, Blessed be thou, my son David: thou shalt both do great things, and thou shalt still prevail ( 1 Samuel 26:22-25 ).

Saul underneath knew that someday David was gonna take the throne. He was trying to protect the throne and to pass it onto his own children. But yet in his heart, he knew that God had anointed David, and that David was God's anointed king. "Then Saul said to David, Blessed be thou, my son David: thou shalt both do great things, and still prevail."

So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place ( 1 Samuel 26:25 ).

"

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

David’s appeal to Saul 26:17-20

Evidently the realization that David or Abishai again could have killed him but did not, led Saul to respond to David tenderly, calling him his son (1 Samuel 26:17; cf. 1 Samuel 26:21; 1 Samuel 26:25). Indeed, David had behaved as a loyal son toward Saul. David, however, did not now address Saul as his father, as he had previously (cf. 1 Samuel 24:11). He had come to view Saul less affectionately since he continued to hound David without cause after repeated promises to stop doing so. Moreover Saul was no longer David’s father-in-law (cf. 1 Samuel 25:44).

David said that if violation of the Mosaic Law had prompted Saul to hunt him down, he was ready to offer the sacrifice the Law prescribed to atone for it (1 Samuel 26:19). However, if David’s enemies had stirred up Saul’s hostility without cause, David prayed that God would judge them for that. Saul’s attacks had resulted in David’s separation from the Lord’s inheritance (i.e., the blessings God had given Israel, especially rest in the Promised Land) since he had to live as a fugitive. David’s enemies had in effect encouraged him to abandon Yahweh by driving him out of his home territory (1 Samuel 26:19). [Note: On the possibility that God had incited Saul to seek David’s life, and the larger issue of God’s use of deception to judge sinners, see Chisholm, "Does God Deceive?" pp. 11-12, 19-21.] The common conception in the ancient Near East was that gods ruled areas. Evidently some people were saying that because David had departed from his area the Lord would not protect him. David appeared to be seeking the protection of other gods by living in areas that they supposedly controlled (e.g., Philistia and Moab). [Note: See Youngblood, Faith of Our Fathers, p. 84; and Daniel Isaac Block, The Gods of the Nations: Studies in Ancient Near Eastern National Theology.] This looked like David was violating the first commandment (Exodus 20:3). Nevertheless David wanted to live and die in the center of God’s will and presence (1 Samuel 26:20).

David again compared himself to a mere flea, essentially harmless but annoying to Saul (1 Samuel 26:20; cf. 1 Samuel 24:14). He was making a word play on Abner’s question, "Who are you who calls (Heb. qarata) to the king?" (1 Samuel 26:14) by referring to himself as a "partridge" (1 Samuel 26:20, Heb. haqqore, lit. caller-bird). The partridge darts from one bush to another when a hunter pursues it, as David had been doing, though it tires fairly quickly and then can be caught easily. [Note: Youngblood, "1, 2 Samuel," p. 771.] David’s point in comparing himself to a partridge and a flea was that Saul’s search for such an insignificant person as David was beneath the king’s dignity.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Now therefore let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the Lord,.... For should it be spilled, God, who is omniscient, will see it, and take notice of it; and being righteous, and to whom vengeance belongs, he will avenge it: some render it, "my blood shall not fall to the earth before the face of the Lord" r; I am continually under his eye and care, and he will protect and defend me; and in vain is it for thee to pursue after me; I shall never fall into thine hands, though I may be obliged to quit my country, and go into an idolatrous nation, against my will:

for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea; which leaps from place to place and is not easily taken: or this may denote what a mean, poor, weak, insignificant person David was; and how much it was below Saul to come out with an army of chosen men in pursuit of him; so the Targum,

"the king of Israel is come out to seek one that is weak or feeble:''

as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains; as kings for their delight used to do, as Abarbinel observes; but this being a business of pleasure, and this a bird of worth, some other is thought to be here intended. Indeed the is represented as worth no more than an "obolus", or five farthings, though fifty drachmas or drachms were ordered to be paid for one s; the Septuagint renders the word an "owl": the word is "kore", and from the etymology of it one would think it was the raven or crow. Jarchi on Jeremiah 17:11 takes it to be the cuckoo, though here the partridge as others; Bochart t will have it to be the woodcock, snipe, or snite u. Some choose to read the words,

"as the kore or partridge on the mountains hunts;''

which, it is said, hunts and seeks after the nests of other birds, and sits on their eggs v: see Jeremiah 17:11; so Saul hunted after David, though he could not take him; several naturalists w observe, that the partridge is very difficult to be taken by the hunter.

r אל יפל דמו "non effundetur", Martyr. and to this sense are Syr. Ar. vers. s Laert. l. 2. in Vita Aristippi. t Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 1. c. 12. col. 81. u (A snite is like a snipe, yet a different species of lark-like bird. Oxford English Dictionary. Editor) v T. Bab. Cholin, fol. 140. 2. Jarchi & Abarbinel in loc. w Aristot. Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 8. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 33. Aelian. Hist. Animal. l. 3. c. 16.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      13 Then David went over to the other side, and stood on the top of a hill afar off; a great space being between them:   14 And David cried to the people, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, Answerest thou not, Abner? Then Abner answered and said, Who art thou that criest to the king?   15 And David said to Abner, Art not thou a valiant man? and who is like to thee in Israel? wherefore then hast thou not kept thy lord the king? for there came one of the people in to destroy the king thy lord.   16 This thing is not good that thou hast done. As the LORD liveth, ye are worthy to die, because ye have not kept your master, the LORD's anointed. And now see where the king's spear is, and the cruse of water that was at his bolster.   17 And Saul knew David's voice, and said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And David said, It is my voice, my lord, O king.   18 And he said, Wherefore doth my lord thus pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in mine hand?   19 Now therefore, I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If the LORD have stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering: but if they be the children of men, cursed be they before the LORD; for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the LORD, saying, Go, serve other gods.   20 Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the LORD: for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains.

      David having got safely from Saul's camp himself, and having brought with him proofs sufficient that he had been there, posts himself conveniently, so that they might hear him and yet not reach him (1 Samuel 26:13; 1 Samuel 26:13), and then begins to reason with them upon what had passed.

      I. He reasons ironically with Abner, and keenly banters him. David knew well that it was from the mighty power of God that Abner and the rest of the guards were cast into so deep a sleep, and that God's immediate hand was in it; but he reproaches Abner as unworthy to be captain of the lifeguards, since he could sleep when the king his master lay so much exposed. By this it appears that the hand of God locked them up in this deep sleep that, as soon as ever David had got out of danger, a very little thing awakened them, even David's voice at a great distance roused them, 1 Samuel 26:14; 1 Samuel 26:14. Abner got up (we may suppose it early in a summer's morning) and enquired who called, and disturbed the king's repose. "It is I," says David, and then he upbraids him with his sleeping when he should have been upon his guard. Perhaps Abner, looking upon David as a despicable enemy and one that there was no danger from, had neglected to set a watch; however, he himself ought to have been more wakeful. David, to put him into confusion, told him, 1. That he had lost his honour (1 Samuel 26:15; 1 Samuel 26:15): "Art not thou a man? (so the word is), a man in office, that art bound, by the duty of thy place, to inspect the soldiery? Art not thou in reputation for a valiant man? So thou wouldst be esteemed, a man of such courage and conduct that there is none like thee; but now thou art shamed for ever. Thou a general! Thou, a sluggard!" 2. That he deserved to lose his head (1 Samuel 26:16; 1 Samuel 26:16): "You are all worthy to die, by martial law, for being off your guard, when you had the king himself asleep in the midst of you. Ecce signum--Behold this token. See where the king's spear is, in the hand of him whom the king himself is pleased to count his enemy. Those that took away this might as easily and safely have taken away his life. Now see who are the king's best friends, you that neglected him and left him exposed or I that protected him when he was exposed. You pursue me as worthy to die, and irritate Saul against me; but who is worthy to die now?" Note, Sometimes those that unjustly condemn others are justly left to fall into condemnation themselves.

      II. He reasons seriously and affectionately with Saul. By this time he was so well awake as to hear what was said, and to discern who said it (1 Samuel 26:17; 1 Samuel 26:17): Is this thy voice, my son David? In the same manner he had expressed his relentings, 1 Samuel 24:16; 1 Samuel 24:16. He had given his wife to another and yet calls him son, thirsted after his blood and yet is glad to hear his voice. Those are bad indeed that have never any convictions of good, nor ever sincerely utter good expressions. And now David has as fair an opportunity of reaching Saul's conscience as he had just now of taking away his life. This he lays hold on, though not of that, and enters into a close argument with him, concerning the trouble he still continued to give him, endeavouring to persuade him to let fall the prosecution and be reconciled.

      1. He complains of the very melancholy condition he was brought into by the enmity of Saul against him. Two things he laments:-- (1.) That he was driven from his master and from his business: "My lord pursues after his servant,1 Samuel 26:18; 1 Samuel 26:18. How gladly would I serve thee as formerly if my service might be accepted! but, instead of being owned as a servant, I am pursued as a rebel, and my lord is my enemy, and he whom I would follow with respect compels me to flee from him." (2.) That he was driven from his God and from his religion; and this was a much greater grievance than the former (1 Samuel 26:19; 1 Samuel 26:19): "They have driven me out from the inheritance of the Lord, have made Canaan too hot for me, at least the inhabited parts of it, have forced me into the deserts and mountains, and will, ere long, oblige me entirely to quit the country." And that which troubled him was not so much that he was driven out from his own inheritance as that he was driven out from the inheritance of the Lord, the holy land. It should be more comfortable to us to think of God's title to our estates and his interest in them then of our own, and that with them we may honour him then that with them we may maintain ourselves. Nor was it so much his trouble that he was constrained to live among strangers as that he was constrained to live among the worshippers of strange gods and was thereby thrust into temptation to join with them in their idolatrous worship. His enemies did, in effect, send him to go and serve other gods, and perhaps he had heard that some of them had spoken to that purport of him. Those that forbid our attendance on God's ordinances do what in them lies to estrange us from God and to make us heathens. If David had not been a man of extraordinary grace, and firmness to his religion, the ill usage he met with from his own prince and people, who were Israelites and worshippers of the true God, would have prejudiced him against the religion they professed and have driven him to communicate with idolaters. "If these be Israelites," he might have said, "let me live and die with Philistines;" and no thanks to them that their conduct had not that effect. We are to reckon that the greatest injury that can be done us which exposes us to sin. Of those who thus led David into temptation he here says, Cursed be they before the Lord. Those fall under a curse that thrust out those whom God receives, and send those to the devil who are dear to God.

      2. He insists upon his own innocency: What have I done or what evil is in my hand?1 Samuel 26:18; 1 Samuel 26:18. He had the testimony of his conscience for him that he had never done nor ever designed any mischief to the person, honour, or government, of his prince, nor to any of the interests of his country. He had lately had Saul's own testimony concerning him (1 Samuel 24:17; 1 Samuel 24:17): Thou art more righteous than I. It was very unreasonable and wicked for Saul to pursue him as a criminal, when he could not charge him with any crime.

      3. He endeavours to convince Saul that his pursuit of him is not only wrong, but mean, and much below him: "The king of Israel, whose dignity is great, and who has so much other work to do, has come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains," 1 Samuel 26:20; 1 Samuel 26:20--a poor game for the king of Israel to pursue. He compares himself to a partridge, a very innocent harmless bird, which, when attempts are made upon its life, flies if it can, but makes no resistance. And would Saul bring the flower of his army into the field only to hunt one poor partridge? What a disparagement was this to his honour! What a stain would it be on his memory to trample upon so weak and patient as well as so innocent an enemy! James 5:6, You have killed the just, and he doth not resist you.

      4. He desires that the core of the controversy may be searched into and some proper method taken to bring it to an end, 1 Samuel 26:19; 1 Samuel 26:19. Saul himself could not say that justice put him on thus to persecute David, or that he was obliged to do it for the public safety. David was not willing to say (though it was very true) that Saul's own envy and malice put him on to do it; and therefore he concludes it must be attributed either to the righteous judgment of God or to the unrighteous designs of evil men. Now, (1.) "If the Lord have stirred thee up against me, either in displeasure to me (taking this way to punish me for my sins against him, though, as to thee, I am guiltless) or in displeasure to thee, if it be the effect of that evil spirit from the Lord which troubles thee, let him accept an offering from us both--let us join in making our peace with God, reconciling ourselves to him, which may be done, by sacrifice; and then I hope the sin will be pardoned, whatever it is, and the trouble, which is so great a vexation both to thee and me, will come to an end." See the right method of peace-making; let us first make God our friend by Christ the great Sacrifice, and then all other enmities shall be slain, Ephesians 2:16; Proverbs 16:7. But, (2.) "If thou art incited to it by wicked men, that incense thee against me, cursed be they before the Lord," that is, they are very wicked people, and it is fit that they should be abandoned as such, and excluded from the king's court and councils. He decently lays the blame upon the evil counsellors who advised the king to that which was dishonourable and dishonest, and insists upon it that they be removed from about him and forbidden his presence, as men cursed before the Lord, and then he hoped he should gain his petition, which is (1 Samuel 26:20; 1 Samuel 26:20), "Let not my blood fall to the earth, as thou threatenest, for it is before the face of the Lord, who will take cognizance of the wrong and avenge it." Thus pathetically does David plead with Saul for his life, and, in order to that, for his favourable opinion of him.

Kelly Commentary on Books of the Bible

We enter now on a portion of David's history sensibly different from what we have already had, which closed with the efforts of Jonathan to restore matters and to attach Saul to him at least openly. Jonathan himself was convinced that this was vain; and as he went unto the city, David more and more is found in the desert, in the place of the pilgrim and the stranger, yea, of the outcast increasingly the object of the jealousy and hatred of king Saul. This it is that leads him into a path where his history becomes more definitely typical. Here above all the Spirit of Christ has the work of foreshadowing the life of our Lord Jesus as rejected of men; and now were occasions given too for those wonderful compositions, the Psalms, or for very many of them at least, in which that Spirit anticipates the feelings, ways, and earthly glory of Christ.

The present occasion, however, calls for an observation often applicable to circumstances which called out those outpourings of the heart in trial. Who can rightly glory in man? None who understands but what can see the vast gap between David and Christ; and this we may the more remark (though it may be quite as particularly on more than one occasion), as this is the opening scene. We shall find it almost to the last. If God was going to put forth His power, and to establish David at the head of Israel, He would make it most evident both to David and every one else who has an ear to hear that it was of His pure grace. Man deserved it not in any sort. The time was not yet come for one whose ways were the expression of God Himself whose ways brought glory to the Father at every step. David was beloved, and great were the things in store for him; yet he was but a man, and a sinful man. Grace might make him a type, but he was only a type.

So on this striking occasion, where grace asserts itself in a decisive manner (and the Lord Jesus Himself refers to it, and draws out the analogy between the position of David and Himself when growingly rejected in Israel), it is impossible to overlook that David is introduced to us with a story in his mouth which was far from true. But the priest was struck by the circumstances with a great anxiety; for he too had little understanding of the mind of God. He was troubled about David. He suspected that something was wrong. But God moves above all clouds; and this is the only just ground of confidence.

Thus, whether we look at David or consider the priest, there was no ground for boasting. Nevertheless, in these very circumstances there was that which Christ turns to everlasting profit. Very likely we might have passed by this story without edification; we might have seen in it nothing to guide our souls in a dark day. But Jesus is the light, and in His light alone can we see light; and so He for us draws out of the precious word of God this astonishing fact (for truly it is so), that the rejection of the beloved of God in the midst of God's own people profanes what was most hallowed. How could anything needed by David be viewed any longer as holy in the eyes of God where I)avid was rejected, the anointed of Jehovah?

Therefore had priests' bread become for his wants nothing more than common bread. Did he want? From that store must he be supplied as much as from any other. Ceremonial restrictions of the law are all well enough where things go truly according to the law; but what of Him who is the central object to which all its ordinances turn, if He be cast out for God's sake, and He and His be thus in want? Would God sustain those forms against the man of his own heart? Impossible! And therefore the priest gives him the hallowed bread; for there was no bread there except the show-bread taken from before Jehovah to be the food of the priests.

But here, as everywhere, how ineffably superior is the Lord Jesus, holy, harmless, and undefiled! We do find in His history that the restrictions of the law and its regulations lose their force as He passes on rejected to the cross. It is beautifully brought out in the case of the Samaritan leper; not that strictly speaking he could be supposed to be under the law as a Jew was, but that his case made plain the supremacy of the person of the Lord ,Jesus and of the power of God that wrought by Him. It was proved then as against all such demands, whereas a Jew must wait till the cross proved it for him. The Samaritan, ignorant as he was, was the more open to learn the glory of the Lord Jesus; and he learnt it first of all, as we all must if we learn it aright, by his abject need supplied in divine grace. We ought to begin there. We are mere theorists if we do not, and it is dangerous for the soul where the conscience awakened to its wants before God is not the hinge of first approach to God. But then ought we to remain always there, always at the door? Certainly not. A door is to enter in by, and it is both impossible and wrong to limit the God of all grace to the supply of our first wants as sinners even though essential for the soul. Let those supplies too be ever so rich and blessed there is God Himself to know in Christ and to enjoy. This was what, substantially at least, the Lord Jesus was showing, the faith that came back to Him instead of going on to the priests. Thus, while He left those that were under the law in their place for the moment, He did assert in principle, where it could be and in answer to faith, that very grace which was afterwards to shine perfectly when the cross had made it a righteous thing for all.

After this another scene opens; for David, having now received the bread once hallowed for himself and his company, asks for more for all that he wanted. He could be bold in this; for all that he wanted was for God's glory. The sword of Goliath was not so much in view of any personal consideration. He had brought neither weapons nor munitions of war. The priest's answer was, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here." A strange place, perhaps we might think, to find it; but not so in truth. As David said, "There is none like that: give it me." It was the emblem of a great day for Israel, a great defeat for the Philistine; but it was the sword which death supplied in order to victory. Was it the power or skill of David that was in the truest sense the means of victory? Was it not his faith that overcame, as it alone overcomes the world now? To conquer thus, the weapon taken out of death must be wielded by the Spirit in the power of life in Christ. It is useless otherwise, as Goliath proved.

But a day of honour may be followed at once by one of shame, and none is exempt from the need of dependence on God or His guidance. How humiliating to see David fleeing "that day" for fear of Saul to Achish the king of Gath! Even the memorial of God's early use of him, here recalled by the lips of the Philistines, awakens not trust in Him, but the more terror of Achish. "And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me? Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?" But grace knows how to turn to its own account the low estate of the believer; as we may learn in what follows.

For in the next chapter (1 Samuel 22:1-23) we see David become the attractive centre to all that could value what was of God and discern what grace was doing in Israel. Was it merely this? Was he not also for those that were in debt and wretchedness, who could find no comfort, nor even eye to pity elsewhere? The same Christ our Lord gathers both to Himself, and let us bless Him for it. We are often apt to have narrower thoughts of the Lord than suit Him, my brethren; but Christ is none the less high and glorious because He can afford to look on the least and call the lowest, and thus form them after Himself. It was so even in its measure here; and in truth there is scarce anything that more brings out the infinite value of the Lord Jesus than that He is not crowning what is good apart from Him, nor looking to discover its germs. All that is excellent, all that is of God, will surely range itself round the Lord Jesus; but then He Himself creates, He forms, not finds merely. It is He who gives, and can give out of His own fulness. And in its little measure we see that this was true of David; for out of this group, so despicable in man's eyes, what did not that man of God fashion? and this too more truly because it was in the path of rejection and scorn.

Here then we find David, as we are told, in the cave of Adullam; "and when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him." But not they only. These might be supposed to have a claim; they certainly had a relationship already; but there were others there who gathered to him because as yet they had none, having lost all. "And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him." It is a poor thing to be a contented optimist where the things we are sanctioning are contrary to God. And those are not to be envied who, being in evil case condemned by the word of God, boast because they are not given to change. Happier, far happier, they who prove all things, and hold fast that which is good. There were souls who groaned in Israel. But were they discontented when they surrounded David? I grant you most entirely it was a paltry-looking set to gather, and in the obscurest of places; but what was David to them? and what did he make them? All the world felt and bore witness in the day of his and their glory, after they had been fashioned in the day of trial and sorrow and reproach by the mighty action of the same grace that shone in David.

But even now, as we are afterwards told, it was not merely this: the prophet Gad is there, and again, as we know, the priest. More particularly was it marked when the hand of Saul was lifted up to destroy through an evident instrument of Satan. For the king condescended nay, was blinded by the power of Satan, to employ his herdsman Doeg, an Edomite, against the priests of Jehovah! A sad story is his declension. Hear the taunts of the king, his affected contempt for the son of Jesse. If he who had the power feared David in earlier days, his deadly persecution attested the importance attached to him now. Words of wrath and scorn do not tell out save to the intelligent how he really regarded him in his heart. Where was self-judgment for the sin which had forfeited the kingdom? Where was the sense of the honour God had put upon him, and of his own misuse of it? Only the rankling of deadly enmity burns within, which now breaks out, not against the man whom most of all he desired to destroy, but against those that had shown him kindness, priests of Jehovah though they were. But it has for its effect, that this holy point of connection and means of sustaining relationship with Jehovah is now found with David. "And one of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David." Doeg at Saul's command had smitten Nob, the city of the priests, with the edge of the sword, men and women, children and sucklings. The man who spared the Amalekites thus mercilessly destroyed the priests of the Lord. The priest and the prophet were now with God's destined king.

The next chapter (1 Samuel 23:1-29) lets us see some fresh features of David's distressed and dangerous condition, and what and how God was acting there. "Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they rob the threshing-floors." Surely it had been more natural that they had told king Saul. It was what one might call his business; it was due to him who was raised up and responsible to be the protector of Israel as well as their leader in the battles of Jehovah against the Philistines. But no! heart and conscience told Israel that there was no hope in the king. The outcast man he pursued was the one to whom all hearts turned and thoughts tended. It was to David, himself hunted for the very life, that they looked for whatever protection God might give them against the enemy. And another feature here remark. It is not only that God was morally preparing the people for David, but further David himself is being trained in a deepening dependence on God. "David enquired of Jehovah, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And Jehovah said unto David, Go, and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah." David then clearly is not the mere favourite, as he had been the champion, of the people, but the one that God hears, answers, and uses to His own praise. Saul is ignored in what ought specially to have been his work. "And David's men said unto him, Behold, we be afraid here in Judah: how much more then if we come to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?" David enquires again, "And Jehovah answered him and said, Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand." Obediently he went, fought the Philistines, "brought away their cattle, and smote them with a great slaughter." "So," as the Spirit of God sums it up, "David saved the inhabitants of Keilah." Next we find it recorded that, when Abiathar the son of Abimelech fled to David to Keilah, he came down with (not "an," but the) ephod in his hand: on the death of his fellows he succeeded to the highest place.

Saul, utterly infatuated and without divine guidance, regards David's position at Keilah, shut up among those he could influence, as God's intervention to deliver his enemy into 09 hand. So often is malice thus thoroughly blinded; and God permits when will thus works that circumstances should appear to favour it, only to give another and a fuller proof how far opposed to His will is all such vindictive rancour. "And Saul said, God hath delivered him into mine hand; for he is shut in, by entering into a town that hath gates and bars. And Saul called all the people together to war, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men. And David knew that Saul secretly practised mischief against him." Again therefore he has recourse to Jehovah. "Bring hither the ephod," says he to the priest. "Then said David, O Jehovah God of Israel, thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake. Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? will Saul come down, as thy servant hath heard? O Jehovah God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy servant. And Jehovah said, He will come down. Then said David, Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And Jehovah said, They will deliver thee up." God prompts the question He only can answer. David might naturally distrust the men of Keilah. Whatever led him so to enquire, it was of God to preserve him from the imminent snare then surrounding him. For the meek will He guide in judgment, and to the meek will He teach His way. But we may remark that the intercourse, the familiarity (if one may so venture to call it), of Jehovah with David, and of David with Jehovah, is extremely striking in this incident. He was long a man of faith; but he pleads his suit in a way beyond anything we have had before. He is the evident type of one that walked in perfect dependence on God. "Then David and his men, which were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go. And it was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah; and he forbare to go forth." Subsequently he is found in the wilderness of Ziph "And Saul sought him every day, but God delivered him not into his hand."

And here we read of a deeply touching account of love to David in Saul's own house at this crisis. Alas! it was the last meeting between David and Jonathan; for there follows the sorrowful disclosure that Jonathan's faith proves unequal to the trial, the bitter consequences of which he reaps in due time. Nevertheless, as there was a real affection, so one is far from insinuating that there was not real faith; but things were come now to a pass so critical that even for safety, not to speak of the honour of God or the love of man, there must be a clean and an effectual breach of the outward order that stands up, the no longer secret but open and determined enemy of God's purposes. And so it constantly is. God at first deals tenderly and pitifully with men who are ignorantly wrong. He gives many an opportunity to exercise faith before sin is risen to such a pitch as this; but, that point reached, we must either turn the corner or go back, if not perish. Whether this was not solemnly shown in the future of Jonathan, I must leave to yourselves to consider. Nevertheless, whatever be our judgment as to this, the tender love of Jonathan to David on this last occasion is most affecting, and the mingling too of what was truly of God with what showed the weakness of the earthen vessel. "And Jonathan Saul's son arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God." "Fear not," said he: "for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee." In this certainly he was right; he spoke almost as a prophet of Jehovah. "Thou shalt be king over Israel." Right again. "And I shall be next unto thee." Not so, Jonathan! He was wrong there. Jonathan never lived to be anything to David. This was to be their last interview. But he adds, "And that also Saul my father knoweth." Thus, I think, the mixture of what was true and what was mistaken precisely marks the mingled condition of Jonathan's soul at this very point. It was not faith in its purity with singleness of object and character. Faith there was; but there was wrong anticipation, as there was unbelief. And so he soon proved. Nevertheless, "they two made a covenant before Jehovah: and David abode in the wood, and Jonathan went to his house."

Now we may turn briefly to a sorrowful piece of treachery, pleasant to the king then, whatever he might have felt once. "Then came up the Ziphites to Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself with us in strong holds in the wood, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon? Now therefore, O king, come down according to all the desire of thy soul to come down; and our part shall be to deliver him into the king's hand. And Saul said, Blessed be ye of Jehovah; for ye have compassion on me. Go, I pray you, prepare yet, and know and see his place where his haunt is, and who hath seen him there: for it is told me that he dealeth very subtilly. See therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking places where he hideth himself, and come ye again to me with the certainty, and I will go with you: and it shall come to pass, if he be in the land, that I will search him out throughout all the thousands of Judah." The unhappy king blesses these men for their readiness to betray David; but it was all in vain. They took their measures with skill. "They arose, and went to Ziph before Saul: but David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the plain on the south of Jeshimon. Saul also and his men went to seek him." It seemed as if it was impossible to escape, especially when David came down and abode in the wilderness of Maon. When Saul heard the exact position, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon. "And Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain: and David made haste to get away for fear of Saul; for Saul and his men compassed David and his men round about to take them." At the very crisis, when it seemed all over with David, a messenger comes to Saul saying, "Haste thee, and come; for the Philistines have invaded the land." God is always superior to the difficulty. Saul is obliged to return, and David was delivered.

But the unhappy king, in no way ashamed of himself, or heeding the lesson of the Lord, as soon as possible returns to the pursuit of his dutiful son-in-law and faithful subject, David. This one object characterizes his life henceforth. The more evident indeed that God had interposed to deliver, the greater his desire to seize and slay him whom his evil mind conjures into an enemy; and so he takes three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, when he hears of David being in the wilderness of Engedi, and goes in quest of him there. (1 Samuel 24:1-22)

But a very different issue soon appears. The tables are turned in God's providence, and Saul falls manifestly into the power of David; but, oh, how different was his feeling and use of the opportunity! so plain was it that even Saul himself has the springs of his natural affection touched, and owns how much more true David was to the king than the king to himself. "And David said to Saul, Wherefore hearest thou men's words, saying, Behold, David seeketh thy hurt? Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how that Jehovah had delivered thee today into mine hand in the cave: and some bade me kill thee: but mine eyes spared thee; and I said, I will not put forth mine hand against my lord; for he is Jehovah's anointed. Moreover, my father, see, yea, see the skirt of thy robe in my hand: for in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe, and killed thee not, know thou and see that there is neither evil nor transgression in mine hand, and I have not sinned against thee; yet thou huntest my soul to take it. Jehovah judge between me and thee, and Jehovah avenge me of thee: but mine hand shall not be upon thee. As saith the proverb of the ancients, Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked: but mine hand shall not be upon thee." The consequence was that "Saul lifted up his voice, and wept. And he said to David, Thou art more righteous than I: for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil. And thou hast showed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me: forasmuch as when Jehovah had delivered me into thine hand, thou killedst me not." And then he calls on David to swear; for it was no question now of David begging an oath from Saul to spare him, but of Saul manifestly wrong, and yet afraid of his vengeance whom he sought to slay. "Swear now therefore unto me by Jehovah, that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me, and that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father's house. And David sware unto Saul." What a sight of king and subject, and what a victory, my brethren, for faith and grace! The flesh which fights against God owns its defeat virtually, and this in the very hour in which it had sought destruction for the object of its dislike. It dreads the judgment, but that judgment comes not from the grace it ignores and hates, but from the retributive government of God. "And Saul went home; but David and his men get them up unto the hold."

1 Samuel 25:1-44. But here again we have in brief words another change. It is not now a question of Jonathan; but Samuel dies; and this surely was an event of no small consequence, little as he may have been named for a long time. We are approaching the end when it is no question of prophecy, but still we are not yet arrived at it. The power of God does not interfere; but the end approaches, when the witness of it is gone.

Before that, however, a new character of faith is found or formed in a new witness, and this too where it could have been least expected not in a man who was to pass :away, but in a woman not in Jonathan, but in Abigail, who abides and is blessed indeed. A very striking difference too in the character of her faith will be apparent to any one who reads the chapter with simplicity, and before the Lord.

David goes to a man of estate called Nabal, seeking there in his distress some refreshment for his young men, and David sent ten young men with a respectful message to these Israelites. "And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be both to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast. And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them,. all the while they were in Carmel. Ask thy young men, and they will show thee. Wherefore let the young men find favour in thine eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David. And when David's young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased." This no doubt was a great trial to David. It requires, I need not say, much grace to ask a favour, especially of such a man as Nabal; but, even little known as he might be and David well knew what some men were in Israel it was no small humiliation for the anointed of Jehovah. But Nabal appreciated nothing of God, and hated every thought of grace, as the natural man does; and hence answers with the utmost rudeness, "Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master. Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be? So David's young men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all those sayings." David was deeply irritated, and "said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff."

But the Lord had a better path and counsels for His servant. For "one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them. But the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing, as long as we were conversant with them, when we were in the fields: they were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his household: for he is such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him." The pathway of faith sometimes looks suspicious, and what Abigail did might have seemed to one who looked from outside to be a matter censurable enough whether one thinks of David or of her husband; but Abigail saw the will and glory of God, and where faith sees what He is doing, all questions are settled. Whatever it might seem, whatever it might cost, her mind was made up: and God vindicated her, and judged Nabal. "Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses. And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal."

"And it was so, as she rode on the ass, that she came down by the covert of the hill, and, behold, David and his men came down against her; and she met them." Condign punishment was hanging in the balance, for all were ready to rush on Nabal and his household. "Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness." "So," he says, "and more also do God unto the enemies of David," if he left any male of them alive by the morning light. "And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid. Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send. Now therefore, my lord, as Jehovah liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing Jehovah hath withholder thee from coming to shed blood." What a fine witness to the power of the Spirit of grace, where the execution of judgment was so richly deserved! She had the instinctive spiritual conviction that it was best in the hands of Him who would deal solemnly with her guilty husband.

It is good not to avenge ourselves. "Seeing Jehovah hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal." There is no indecision here, and without claiming for her a prophetic spirit, we can see and she is not the only one too that God not only hearkens and hears, but suggests too, when He sees fit, and verifies perhaps far beyond anything that she herself anticipated. And it is as true now as ever it was, my brethren; for the path of faith is not wholly deserted yet, and the living God has those that He guides and forms still, and yet more manifestly according to His no longer promised but revealed Son, the Lord Jesus. "And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord. I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: for Jehovah will certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles of Jehovah, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days. Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul."

All is judged to faith; and nothing can be more striking than this. Do you suppose that Abigail in her ordinary life had lacked love for her husband? I am far from conceiving so injurious a thought of one whose moral judgment in word and deed expresses itself with such delicacy and truth. Do you suppose that Abigail had hitherto lacked respect for king Saul? Far from it; but now, whether it was husband or king, if they set themselves in direct antagonism to God, what were they? One was but "a man," the other "a son of Belial." Yet I am sure that in her own sphere she had still been dutiful to them both in their just claims. But it was a question now that had arrived at the point where one must be thoroughly decided either for or against the Lord. Here she could not hesitate for a moment. She was right; "and it shall come to pass," says she in the power of the Spirit, "the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with Jehovah thy God." She sees him taken up by God intimately and for ever: this alone explains and justifies her conduct. "And the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling. And it shall come to pass, when Jehovah shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel, that this shall be no grief unto thee."

How sweet to see in the dark and cloudy day a matron of Israel whom faith gives to discern clearly and to feel such jealousy, not merely for the unstained honour of the future king of Israel, but also for his soul to be kept simply and to the end of the trial from that which was contrary to the grace of the Lord. "That this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offence of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself: but when Jehovah shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid." Faith even here, while tried, is not without a present answer from God where we can bear it. "And David said to Abigail, Blessed be Jehovah God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me." It was a singular thing for David to find a faith that surpassed his own; and yet who can doubt that in this at least there was no such faith seen in Israel as Abigail's that day? "And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand. For in very deed, as Jehovah God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light a single soul. So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person."

The rest of the chapter sets out the judgment that immediately befell Nabal; and there is no judgment so solemn as when a man falls into the hand of the living God. David thereon takes Abigail to be his wife.

In the next chapter (1 Samuel 26:1-25) we have Saul again, still unrepentant, still bent on his bloody mission. He seems once more to be on the point of catching David; but in truth "David sends out spies, and understood that Saul was come in very deed "before Saul knew aught for certain as to David; "and David arose, and came to the place where Saul had pitched." How striking the quiet confidence of faith the sense of security from God which gave the hunted man courage to draw near his pursuer. "And David beheld the place where Saul lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the captain of his host: and Saul lay in the trench, and the people pitched round about him." That very night, as we are told, David and Abishai came while Saul was sleeping within the trench. Then his companion says to David, "God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day." No one knew better that David was always indisposed to deal with Saul. Who did not know the grace that filled his heart just recently? "Now therefore let me smite him," says he, "I pray thee, with the spear even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him the second time. And David said to Abishai, Destroy him not: for who can stretch forth his hand against Jehovah's anointed, and be guiltless?" It is clear therefore that David has grown in the sense of the grace of God. Not only he will not do the deed himself, but he will not allow it in another of his company.

"But David took the spear and the cruse of water from Saul's bolster; and they get them away, and no man saw it, nor knew it, neither awaked: for they were all asleep; because a deep sleep from Jehovah was fallen upon them. Then David went over to the other side, and stood on the top of an hill afar off; a great space being between them: and David cried to the people, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, Answerest thou not, Abner? Then Abner answered and said, Who art thou that criest to the king?" He taunts them with the wretched watch they had set that night. "And David said to Abner, Art not thou a valiant man? and who is like to thee in Israel? wherefore then hast thou not kept thy lord the king? for there came one of the people in to destroy the king thy lord. This thing is not good that thou hast done. As Jehovah liveth, ye are worthy to die, because ye have not kept your master, Jehovah's anointed. And now see where the king's spear is, and the cruse of water that was at his bolster." Saul was once more touched, and says, "Is this thy voice, my son David?"

But David does not merely acknowledge now; he remonstrates. "Wherefore doth my lord thus pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in mine hand? Now therefore, I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If Jehovah have stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering: but if they be the children of men, cursed be they before Jehovah; for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of Jehovah, saying, Go, serve other gods. Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of Jehovah: for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains." Saul confessed his sin, but there was no conscience towards God. And David answered and said, "Behold the king's spear! and let one of the young men come over and fetch it. Jehovah render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness: for Jehovah delivered thee into my hand today, but I would not stretch forth mine hand against Jehovah's anointed. And, behold, as thy life was much set by this day in mine eyes, so let my life be much set by in the eyes of Jehovah, and let him deliver me out of all tribulation." He has no confidence in Saul, though he may say as his present feeling, "Blessed be thou, my son David: thou shalt both do great things, and also shalt still prevail"

Nevertheless what is man to be accounted of? what David? All flesh is grass, and its glory as the flower of grass. For this triumph over self, this victory of grace, is followed by one of the most painful passages in David's life. Wearied at last of his continual exposure to the king's malice, he says in his heart, "I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul," and this exactly when, as it would appear, the danger was over. Alas! what are we? Christ is for us the wisdom and the power of God. "There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines." Can it be David who thus feels and speaks? The man of faith deserts the ground of God, and deliberately seeks a shelter in the country of the enemy. David arises, passing over to the enemy he had so often conquered. "And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's wife. And it was told Saul that David was feed to Gath: and he sought no more again for him." Can one wonder that so evil a step led to others? that David carries on a course of deception of the most painful and pitiable kind, especially in a servant of Jehovah once so true and simple and transparent as he? (1 Samuel 27:1-12)

But soon the Philistines gather their armies to fight with Israel, and then is shown the tender mercy of God in repairing or at least overruling at this stage the mischief of His servant. "And Achish said unto David, Know thou assuredly, that thou shalt go out with me to battle, thou and thy men. And David said to Achish, Surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do;" and so it remained for the present. As far as arrangement was concerned, David was to fight with the Philistines against Israel! (1 Samuel 28:1-25) God only is faithful. And hence another phase opens to us; for truly things were at the lowest ebb of the tide in Israel morally: David arming himself against God's people among the Philistines; and Saul, not only forsaken of God as he had forsaken Him, but himself now abandoning the one point of an Israelite's integrity which he had hitherto maintained, whatever else broke down; for he really had up to this, as far as the history makes known, been unswerving in his hatred of all seeking divination or allowance of witchcraft in Israel. But there is no good thing in the flesh, and the one thing that seemed good in the king as completely fails now, as he had failed already on every other ground on which he had been tried by God.

"Now Samuel was dead," as we are here reminded (in verse 3), "and Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land." He now saw the host of the Philistines mustering, and his heart trembles. Where was the champion of Israel? and why? Had he himself nothing to do with enfeebling the kingdom? Unable to learn of Jehovah, Saul says to his servants, "Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her." Accordingly the servants tell him of one at Endor. "And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment." Every shred of honesty and truth was manifestly gone. "And he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee. And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die?" She was afraid that he might be an informer on her to the king!

"And Saul sware to her by Jehovah, saying, As Jehovah liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing. Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice: and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul." What is the connection? Why should she augur from the sight of Samuel that this must be Saul? We have no reason to believe that Samuel said it was Saul, but she drew unhesitatingly the inference that Saul it must be. And why? Because it was not the familiar spirit she expected, but Samuel whom God alone could send. Why so if not for the king? She only looked for the spirit that she was used to the demon in New Testament language which personated whosoever was named. When she saw that it was the true Samuel who came, she could not but feel the reality of the case, and gathered, as I suppose from this, that the present was altogether out of her own and Satan's line of falsehood to delude man. It was God Himself who took all up. Hence it was that Saul, in his desperation, wishing to consult a witch and her familiar spirit, was caught in his own trap, and heard his doom from the departed prophet.

Thus I have little doubt that it was the keen inference of a woman who was accustomed, it is true, to the power of Satan, but who on the failure of that power at once felt in her way, as Balaam similarly once before in his, the truth of things before God. And suppose you, my brethren, that there is no such reality as the power of evil working in unseen ways, and by demons with and in man? You are mistaken. Only there is no reason for a believer who walks with God, and far from all tampering or meddling or curiosity, to be in the smallest degree alarmed as to such a transaction as we find here. The fact that it was not a mere evil spirit that appeared, but the real spirit of Samuel, she owns by this very circumstance to be altogether unusual. This it was that occasioned the greatest possible surprise to her soul. It is not in the power of the devil to bring up the spirits either of the lost or of the blest. Only God can do it; and He, I need scarcely say, never does so except under circumstances known to be adequate before Him for stepping entirely out of His ordinary ways. Such an occasion was the present; but we must not lightly imagine conjunctures of the kind.

And how then? Can there be no such thing as the appearance of this or that person after death? Not so infrequently as men think in these wise lands. Only it may be well to add what they are in my judgment. The real spirits of the departed just or unjust? Neither one nor other, but demons or evil spirits which pretend to be either, if God permit, and it suits the enemy's purpose in deceiving. This seems to me a matter of; simple faith in what God has written for us to learn. I hold that it is as clearly revealed as possible that evil spirits may so work if it please God to allow it, and may deceive many. I cannot doubt that this has never been absent from the earth, that all the alleged oracles of old were connected with and flowed from the power of evil spirits, that the same thing disguised under other names has wrought more particularly in dark lands, and that even now it may be at work from time to time, of course disguised so as the better to deceive even in the very centre of light.

But there is all the difference possible between this and what was seen here. Here, I repeat, it was not an evil spirit, it was the spirit of Samuel; and only God has the control of the dead. Those that are lost are kept, as we know, in safe custody. They are not allowed to leave. They are what are called "the spirits in prison," as we know from1 Peter 3:1-22; 1 Peter 3:1-22. This shows us the condition in which the lost are. There they are kept waiting for the day of judgment. No power of Satan can bring them now out of that prison. They are under the power of God.

Still less can Satan govern the movements of the blest. These are never said to be in prison, or anything of the sort. There is no ground at all to suppose that the righteous are or can be in prison in any sense since their justification by the grace of God. A part of their blessedness even in this world where Satan reigns consists of their being brought out of bondage of one kind or another; and certainly those that are with Christ are in Paradise, which is in no sense a prison or place of custody. If Satan cannot rule the wicked dead, if he has no power beyond this life, if death closes all, still less can he touch the saints, or cause them to appear at his will, or convey any such power to man.

I allow myself to make these general remarks because they may tend to suggest, as I trust, the simple truth as to this subject, and may hinder the young more particularly, and indeed others who may not have fully considered the matter, from being a prey to the thoughts of men. Our wisdom here, as everywhere, is to be wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil; to believe, not to imagine.

In this case then God was intervening contrary to the witch's thoughts. She had only to do with an evil personage called a "familiar spirit" the one that attached itself to her iniquitous life as a witch. She expected this evil spirit to pretend to be Samuel; but when she found it was not her familiar but the real person the spirit of him that was gone, she judged at once, and rightly, that it must be God who was interfering for the king. Therefore her great alarm, and her conviction that he who consulted her could be no other than Saul. She right well knew that for good or ill the king was the great person in Israel. Thenceforward, as we said, not the priest, but the king was the new and principal link with God. Once indeed it had been in grace, typically at least while the law subsisted; now it was in government. And he who took the "mad prophet" by surprise, and compelled him to foretell good and glorious things of Israel, now surprised both the king and the witch by sending Samuel to announce the speedy and shameful end of the king of man's choice. Nor need we wonder at the one more than the other; least of all at God sending Samuel now to Saul in his exceptional position and relationship, and under circumstances so critical both to the people and to the king of Israel.

"And the king said unto her, Be not afraid: for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth. And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground and bowed himself." Samuel, now recognised, speaks to Saul. "Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams." Terrible but true confession! "Therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do." He was at his wit's end, powerless before man, and forsaken by Jehovah. Oh, what an end of the first and favoured king of Israel! "Then said Samuel Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing Jehovah is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy? And Jehovah hath done to him, as he spake by me: for Jehovah hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David: because thou obeyedst not the voice of Jehovah, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath Jehovah done this thing unto thee this day. Moreover Jehovah will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me." That is, they should have departed this life. "And Jehovah also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. Then Saul fell straightway all along on the earth, and was sore afraid, because of the words of Samuel: and there was no strength in him." The very witch has to comfort him as best she can.

The next chapter (1 Samuel 29:1-11) follows up the more public course of things which had been interrupted by the melancholy episode of the forlorn, and one may say apostate, king Saul. Here the Philistines are seen mustering in thousands, while the Israelites pitch by a fountain in Jezreel. Now it becomes a question of David. What was he about? "And the lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds, and by thousands: but David and his men passed on in the rereward with Achish. Then said the princes of the Philistines, What do these Hebrews here? And Achish said unto the princes of the Philistines, Is not this David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, which hath been with me these days, or these years, and I have found no fault in him since he fell unto me unto this day?" But God overruled the matter, and solved the difficulty into which David's unbelief had plunged him. Nor was it a dilemma only, but indeed a horrible sin. What must have been the result to his own spirit, had it not been completely cut short by that grace which held him in by bit and bridle, and, one might almost say, expelled him by the spears of the Philistines. In deep distrust and jealousy they say to Achish, "Make this fellow return, that he may go again to his place which thou hast appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle. he be an adversary to us: for wherewith should he reconcile himself unto his master? should it not be with the heads of these men? Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands?" Powerless before his princes, Achish could only beg David to go in peace, that he might not to his own peril displease the Philistine lords past all power of healing. David sinks to the degradation of entreaty, indeed with somewhat of upbraiding in his tone addressed to Achish, because they did not allow him to go forth against Israel and the king he had so often spared. But Achish stands firm. "So David and his men rose up early to depart in the morning, to return into the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel."

Deeply interesting as1 Samuel 30:1-31; 1 Samuel 30:1-31 is, at present I must content myself with but few words of comment. It is a scene happily familiar to most Christian readers, a turning-point in the dealings of God with the soul of David, who had slipped far from him. How could it suffice His heart to overrule and keep David back? He loved him too well to leave him as he was. The Amalekites become the instruments of discipline by making a raid on Ziklag, carrying off the wives of David and his men, their sons and their daughters, and everything belonging to them. "So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. And David's two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in Jehovah his God."

The man of faith turns to Him whom he had so deeply dishonoured. It was the point of recovery, when deserted and on the point of destruction by his own men, after all else was lost and in Amalek's hands. The last lesson of needed chastening had fallen on his heart. The blow of the Amalekites did not effect it; but that David's men who loved him and whom he so loved should be on the point of stoning him, broke up the great deep, and the mighty pent-up waters flowed, not in judgment, but in grace. His soul was restored. He encouraged himself in Jehovah his God. What would have been despair to a man of the world wrought repentance not to be repented of in David, and turned him simply and completely to the Lord. It was the leper white all over now pronounced clean.

"And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod." Can he not now enquire of Jehovah? It was long since he had done so. He had been far from God. "And David enquired at Jehovah, saying, shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them?" And if David encourages himself in Jehovah, Jehovah surely encourages David. "Pursue," says he; "for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all." This he does by the help of an Egyptian servant who had been left behind sick. The Amalekites were discovered; David and his men pounced on them; and every one of those that they loved, as well as all they possessed, were recovered safe and sound, with a great deal more.

But further, the exceeding grace of God gave occasion to two things it is well to note here: the breaking out of hateful selfishness on the part of those who had no appreciation of the Lord (for the presence and activity of grace always bring out the evil of the heart where there is no faith); on the other hand, the single-eyed devotedness of one that no longer sought his own things shone once more with undiminished brightness. David was truly and fully restored. Grace had thus achieved not merely a great victory for David, but a greater victory in him.

In the spirit of love the chapter closes with the loving remembrances of David to the elders of Judah and his friends.

But the last chapter (1 Samuel 31:1-13) unveils a far different sight: the lamentable signs of the Philistines' victory over Saul and his sons, who fell down smitten on mount Gilboa. "And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Melchishua, Saul's sons. And the battle went sore against Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was sore wounded of the archers. Then said Saul unto his armour-bearer, Draw thy sword, and thrust me through therewith; lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armourbearer would not; for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword, and fell upon it. And when his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword, and died with him. So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armourbearer, and all his men, that same day together." How truly had the prophet warned, how punctually was every word verified! Thus fell Saul and his house. The circumstances of the enemy's triumph need not he dwelt on, nor the comely act of the men of Jabesh who recovered the bodies of Saul and his sons exposed on the walls of Beth-shan, burnt them, buried their bones, and gave themselves to a fast for seven days. All this is doubtless familiar to most.

We shall see in the next book the commencement of an entirely new line of things for David, who reigns gradually rising to full and undisputed sway over all Israel, and there passing according to the ways of God through another kind of trial. In all this the wisdom of the Lord is apparent the failure of man unquestionably, but the grace of God triumphant everywhere.