In times of fear and uncertainty, even the strongest believers can make unexpected choices. In 1 Samuel 27, David seeks refuge in enemy territory—what can we learn from his decision? Join Pastor Marty as he unpacks this powerful chapter, revealing how God remains present even when our faith wavers. Discover hope, restoration, and the assurance that God is still at work, even in our detours.
In my early teens, my father gifted me a black .22 caliber pistol, replete with a silencer-looking device that screwed into the muzzle, a metal tin of blank ammo, and some round cylinders topped with a small amount of gunpowder. What could possibly go wrong in this situation? A lot.
At first, I wondered how the round cylinders worked with the pistol, but then I figured it out. When you slid the cartridge into the opening of the “silencer,” loaded a blank “bullet” into the ammo cylinder, and pulled the trigger, the fire from the blast ignited the gunpowder, sending the colorful, burning projectile off into the distance. Believe me, all my friends loved the gift I had received.
I remember the day I decided to get creative with the gunpowder-topped cartridges. I thought, “I don’t need this pistol to ignite this. I wonder what will happen if I just set one on the ground and lit the top of it with a match?”
I found out that this couldn’t have been a dumber idea. It’s a wonder I have eyesight today. The moment the flaming matchhead touched the gunpowder, all I saw was a flash of bright light when the cartridge exploded directly in my face. I walked away with singed eyebrows and hair and could not focus for a few minutes.
Do you think I ever did that again? Nope. I had learned my lesson from my dumb decision. What would you think if, later in my life, I went back and tried it again? You probably wouldn’t have hired me to be your shepherd.
When you make a dumb decision, if you are wise, you will learn from it and move onward and upward to safer, more peaceful living. However, who among us hasn’t done something really dumb, spiritually speaking, only to circle back later and do it again? Why do we do this? Sometimes, our arrogance gets the best of us, so we falsely conclude that we’ll get a different outcome. At other times, peer pressure motivates us to compromise and do something that didn’t prove optimal to us before. And there are those moments when a mean-spirited opponent in life wears us out emotionally and spiritually, resulting in us doing something that we should know from prior experience will not turn out well, regardless of what we’re feeling.
David was a man after God’s own heart; however, this didn’t mean he lived a perfect Christian life, far from it. He had, as we will see in chapter 27, times when he lit the gunpowder cylinder a second time, even though it had burned him badly the first time he did it. When, not if, you falter and fall like David did here, does that mean the Lord is finished with you? No. Our sinful missteps will cost us something (Hebrews 12:1-3). They always do. But God’s providential power reaches down into these less-than-stellar spiritual moments of our lives to educate and motivate us. We know this is true from what happened to David in the historical chapter before us.
With verse one, we can’t help but see a tired, worn-out, and discouraged David reaching for a match.
The Relapse (1 Sam. 27:1-3)
The opening verse is nothing short of shocking:
1 Then David said to himself, “Now I will perish one day by the hand of Saul. (1 Sam. 27)
The opening clause tells us much. After the positive and miraculous movement of God in David’s life in chapter 26, you would think the divinely inspired writer would state, “Then David spoke to God,” or “Then David read the Word of God,” or “Then David consulted with the prophet of God.” That is not what happened. Instead of going vertical, David went horizontal, spiritually speaking. I’m sure you are familiar with this drill, too. Instead of relying on the living God who had overtly gone before him in the previous chapter, David pridefully fell back on his limited power in light of the current situation with King Saul.
Take note, please. When you come off a spiritual high, beware of the temptation to spiritually falter and relapse into making a dumb decision. This is what David did here.
Despite the fact Samuel anointed him and said he’d be the king of Israel one day, Abigail prophesied he’d be the king eventually (1 Sam. 25:30), Jonathan frequently told him the throne was in his future, and that even Saul, his enemy, agreed that he’d one day wear the crown as Israel’s king (1 Sam. 24:20), David still formulated an erroneous, unfounded conclusion: “I will perish one day by the hand of Saul.” That wasn’t true. All evidence pointed to the contrary; however, the years of being hunted like a dog had taken a toll on David’s emotions, psyche, and spiritual man. Gone was the young man who marched courageously onto a battlefield to slay a giant with one stone and a slingshot. At this point, David is a shell of a spiritual man, and because he took his eyes off of God and placed them on himself, he became depressed and despondent.
Perhaps you can relate. Yes, you would agree that God has done some amazing things in your spiritual walk; however, there is a person, or an ongoing situation, that has worn you out. And instead of talking with Jesus, you have talked with your pessimistic self. That talk has now led you to make a dumb decision again. That talk has deceived you into thinking this decision will have a different outcome. It won’t, but that’s what you are convinced of.
David walked down this rough road long before you:
1 There is nothing better for me than to escape into the land of the Philistines. Saul then will despair of searching for me anymore in all the territory of Israel, and I will escape from his hand. 2 So David arose and crossed over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 3 And David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s widow. (1 Sam. 27)
He went where? Back to Goliath’s hometown of Gath in Philistia. Are you kidding me? No. He had done this before to escape Saul’s unfounded wrath (1 Sam. 21:10-15). Gath still had the same king who would recognize him on a second encounter. Question: How did his first decision to flee here go? Answer? Not well. He ended up acting like a crazy, deranged man to save his life, and then he literally ran from town to hide in a dark, dank cave of Adullam in the middle of nowheresville (1 Sam. 22).
But this time, he didn’t just bring himself to Gath. He brought his 600 soldiers along with their wives and children. The group must have numbered over 2,000 easily. A group of this size would have quickly taxed the public resources of Gath, too, so that wouldn’t tend to make the Gathites happy either.
Don’t tell me that sin is a private affair. It never is. When you make a dumb spiritual decision, don’t think it will not impact your “troops,” or those people who are closest to and rely on you for quality leadership. David’s downward spiral of moving in with Israel’s avowed enemy didn’t just negatively impact him. It would eventually singe everyone else who came with him.
Note to self: If you’ve just experienced a movement of God in your life, beware of the propensity to waver in your faith after this. Stay close to Jesus. Stay close to the Word. Stay close to godly people. This way, you will be strengthened to stand. But if you don’t follow this regimen, then you need to realize that your decision to save yourself might blow up in your face, as it were. It also might lead you to do things that will quickly become further low points in your spiritual journey. Again, we learn from David.
The Redirection (1 Sam. 27:4)
The divine author informs us next how David’s dumb decision did, in fact, work out:
4 Now it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he no longer searched for him. (1 Sam. 27)
Finally, David got Saul off his back. Finally, David had a little peace and didn’t have to look over his shoulder constantly. Finally, David had done something God hadn’t accomplished . . . that being a resolution to Saul’s jealous quest to murder David. David had much to learn, as we all do when we erroneously conclude that our sinful actions lead to supposedly positive outcomes. Here’s one scenario: “God wasn’t giving me any reprieve from the pain that’s a monkey on my back daily, so I just became addicted to a certain drug, and now I’m doing well.” But not for long because addiction will take a terrible toll on you. Here’s another: “God wasn’t sending me a life mate, and loneliness was pursuing me like King Saul, so I jumped on eHarmony.com, okcupid.com, and tinder.com and found a man/woman to share my life with. I know they aren’t a believer, but at least they are a companion.”
You need to wake up. You are in Gath, and it’s not going to go well for you there. Yes, things might seem great for the moment, but this is merely a deception. Opting for carnal, sinful choices never leads to exceptional spiritual living. On the contrary, such decisions lead to negative unintended consequences you will not want to experience.
Once more, we learn from David. I call it . . .
The Request (1 Sam. 27:5-7)
You have to hear this request to believe it:
5 Then David said to Achish, “If now I have found favor in your sight, let them give me a place in one of the cities in the country, that I may live there; for why should your servant live in the royal city with you?” (1 Sam. 27)
David, the divinely anointed and future king of Israel, labeled himself the servant of King Achish? Again, I say, are you kidding me? See how a dumb decision led him to make a wrong appraisal of who he was as God’s chosen leader? Instead of humbling himself before the throne of the living God, David stooped low by bowing before the throne of this pagan, bloodthirsty king. Permit me to get personal with a question: What will your sinful decision cause you to compromise in your life? What adversary will your sinful decision cause you to serve? It’s time to wake up and walk out of Gath. Unfortunately, David didn’t.
Achish saw David and his troops groveling before him as a jaw-dropping win-win situation. They could easily reside within the sphere of his power and serve as an armed buffer against his enemies to the southeast. So, acting on David’s request to let his large group not be a burden to Achish and Gath, we read this reply from the amused king:
6 So Achish gave him Ziklag that day; therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. 7 And the number of days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months. (1 Sam. 27)
Where was Ziklag? Scholars don’t know for sure, but it was probably either Tel esh-Shariah, which was located about twenty-three miles south-southwest of Gath, or Tel Halif, which was in Judah tribal lands about ten miles east of Tel esh-Shariah. Ziklag originally belonged to the tribe of Simeon (Josh 15:21, 31; 19:1, 5). Obviously, Achish’s forces were instrumental in seizing this divinely ordained land from the inferior forces of Simeon. The city then served to guard his south-eastern flank.
By moving his forces to Ziklag, David cunningly claimed land that rightfully belonged to Israel. And he didn’t even have to fire a shot to seize it. But he did compromise his spiritual walk to get it. I highly doubt that the end justified the means. It never does. Further, by residing in Ziklag, David would be far from the presence and power of King Achish. This would also enable him to function more freely to do what he wanted, while still having food, water, protection, and places to sleep for his troops and their wives and children. It all sounded so good, but was it worth the compromise because of what it cost David?
So, for sixteen long months, David led a compromised spiritual life, choosing to live among people who hated God and God’s people, Israel. David said and did things I’m sure he wasn’t proud of for sixteen long months. Interestingly, we have no Psalms from this period of his life. How could he write Psalms to worship God when he had chosen to walk away from that intimate relationship? Compromise always kills your worship of the Lord, leaving you with little to say to or about Him. Compromise also leads you to live contrary to your character. The following section teaches us this much.
The Raids (1 Sam. 27:8-11)
What did David do while in Ziklag? He acted like a Philistine (1 Sam. 23:27) by engaging in brutal raids on surrounding enemies:
8 Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites and the Girzites and the Amalekites; for they were the inhabitants of the land from ancient times, as you come to Shur even as far as the land of Egypt. 9 And David attacked the land and did not leave a man or a woman alive, and he took away the sheep, the cattle, the donkeys, the camels, and the clothing. Then he returned and came to Achish. (1 Sam. 27)
All of these were ancient enemies of the Philistines and Israel. Based on divine directive, Moses had placed these and other indigenous people of Israel under extermination because of their unrepentant idolatry, vile living, and violent opposition to Israel (Deut. 20:16-18). So, David was, to a degree, fulfilling what God had commanded His people. And don’t you know he could have used these acts of obedience to rationalize why he had compromised his faith and moved to Philistia. This, of course, didn’t justify his prior compromise.
Now David was not entirely free to do what he wanted in Ziklag. Verse ten informs us of this political and military reality:
10 Now Achish said, “Where have you made a raid today?” (1 Sam. 27)
This was a legitimate question from the king. If you are living in my land with 600 armed troops, and you are making raids, I think it is prudent for you to debrief me on your actions.
David’s answer is most telling:
10 And David said, “Against the Negev of Judah and against the Negev of the Jerahmeelites and against the Negev of the Kenites.” (1 Sam. 27)
In a word, David lied straight to the king’s face. Notice how vague he is. “The Negev of Judah” was a vast arid region that contained many people; however, by placing this first, David attempted to deceive the unwitting king into believing his raids were directed against fellow Israelites from his tribe. What a lie. This was not what he was doing, but if the king believed it, David appeared like a super loyal subject, despite his heritage. David was cunning, no doubt. By hatching this lie, he earned Achish’s trust. He also earned the respect of the Israelites living in the region because he and his men were wiping out their historical and brutal enemies. He must have thought this was the perfect lie, but it wasn’t.
Verse 11 pulls the curtain back on David’s real heart:
11 And David did not leave a man or a woman alive, to bring to Gath, saying, “Lest they should tell about us, saying, ‘So has David done and so has been his practice all the time he has lived in the country of the Philistines.’” (1 Sam. 27)
What motivated David to kill anyone and everyone in these Gentile areas? Was it because of his obedience to the Torah law of warfare? Not likely because of what the text notes about his motivation. Simply put, David ruthlessly killed all these people to cover his political and military tracks. He didn’t want any of them to potentially tell the king that no Israelites were dying by his hand.
This is how compromise works when you fail to follow God. It causes you to say and do things you never dreamed you’d say and do. David went from being a man of courage to fear, from being a man who sought God’s mind to being a man who sought his own mind, from being a truth-teller to an outright liar. If you are toying with compromise because life has worn you out, I encourage you to think again. Far wiser to walk closely with God, no matter what.
How did King Achish respond to David’s debrief? Read on and you’ll see:
The Result (1 Sam. 27:12-28:-2)
First result, the king thought David couldn’t be more loyal to him:
12 So Achish believed David, saying, “He has surely made himself odious among his people Israel; therefore he will become my servant forever.” (1 Sam. 27)
Achish thought, “I can’t believe this. I have Israel’s greatest warrior warring against them and he is utterly loyal to me. What more could I want?” He should have sent some men out into the region to find out what was really going on in these raids, but he didn’t. He chose to trust David. That would prove to be a tragic mistake.
The second result came a little later:
1 Now it came about in those days that the Philistines gathered their armed camps for war, to fight against Israel. And Achish said to David, “Know assuredly that you will go out with me in the camp, you and your men.” (1 Sam. 28)
It took some time, but eventually the Philistines went to war again with Israel. But this time, they had David with them. Could they have asked for a better secret weapon? How ironic this must have been in the king’s mind: the Israelite who had taken out Goliath to gain a victory for Israel is now a Philistine ally ready to take out Israelite warriors. So, Achish rightfully stresses how he knows David will be by his side in the battle.
Faced with the fact that his gunpowder cylinder was about to explode in the next battle, David devolved into deceit again:
2 And David said to Achish, “Very well, you shall know what your servant can do.” (1 Sam. 28)
Telling one lie might be difficult initially, but the second one is much easier. In his heart, David was an Israelite who loved God and his country. But his compromise and deceit had guided him to an unintended consequence he hadn’t anticipated: killing his own troops and people. The text doesn’t resolve this issue in chapter 28, which causes us to ponder the dangerous and destructive ways of compromise and deceit.
What would David do on the battlefield? We will have to wait and see. In the meantime, let’s make it personal. When your compromise, which was motivated by tough trials you faced, leads you to carnal activity, and you are eventually placed in a situation where you will be at a crossroads of faith, what will you do? Will you repent and turn to God? Or will you continue to live a life of compromise and deceit?
Back to the story.
David’s actions and words were so convincing that Achish did something outlandish toward the Israelite:
So Achish said to David, “Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life.” (1 Sam. 28)
As I’ve said earlier, are you kidding me? Achish chose to make David his personal bodyguard for life. Not a good move for the king because David inwardly and ultimately opposed this wicked king. But for now, we can’t help but wonder: Will David fight the Israelites for Philistia? How will the compromised saint extract himself from this rock and a hard place?
Please let me give you a little insight from chapter 29 (1 Sam. 29:4-11). The Lord will step in and deliver His man and people. From this future story and our current one, we learn this pivotal, life-transforming truth:
Dumb, desperate decisions don’t derail Divine direction.
Your latest decision might have singed your spiritual eyebrows and hair. You might have made that decision because of the pressure you were under. For quite some time, you stood firm, but then you suddenly, in a weak moment, pulled out a match and lit the gunpowder. Now you are living a life of compromise and deceit, but are not happy or fulfilled. I think you know the way back. It starts with getting out of Gath. Who is ready to pack their bags and get out of this Philistine stronghold by the power of the Spirit of God?
