I was reading the last three chapters of 1 Samuel today, and it struck me just how differently David (who has been anointed king of Israel but is in exile) and Saul (who is still king when this passage opens) deal with adversity. David had finally left Israel all together to pledge his service to Achish the king of the Philistines, and he is content to remain faithful (mostly faithful, anyway) to him even when Achish is headed out to fight against Israel. But the other lords of the Philistines don't trust David--noting how a strategic betrayal in that battle could put David back in the Israelites' good graces. To whit, they quote the little Hebrew ditty that has caused David so much trouble up to this point:
"Saul has slain his thousands,
And David his ten thousands." (29:5)
Saul didn't like that song much either, which is kind of why David was running from him in the first place. But the song itself was never intended to make Saul look bad, of course. David was Saul's champion, fighting for the same kingdom so Saul should have rejoiced that God had blessed David with such success and thanked God that he had so loyal and effective a captain. Instead he gets jealous and tries to kill him! Go figure.
A couple weeks ago at Crossroads camp, I was in a group of youth workers in a Bible study conducted by Matt Orth when we looked at this song (Matt was the one who coined that phrase about "fighting for the same kingdom"). It occured to me just how much I'm tempted to do the same thing in ministry. I get so self-absorbed sometimes that it's so much easier to complain to God that the church down the street has a bigger youth group or that the young preacher friend (who clearly isn't half the speaker than I am, after all! [guilty sarcasm should be noted here]) gets so many more calls to travel and speak (no doubt because he was saved from more colorful sins than I was or he has better connections than I do [same guilty sarcasm]) than it is to rejoice that God is doing His work through all of us. David just wanted to be faithful to his king both then with Saul and now with Achish. Achish does trust him but the others don't so David is rejected again.
So David goes back home to Ziklag but the Amalekites had attacked his hometown while he and the soldiers were away and took everything, even the women and children. (And you thought Saul killed them--with Samuel's "help." They're like cockroaches! Presumably these guys are from other cities of the Amalekites besides Amalek itself. And actually David attacked them previously so it's not really that much of a surprise.) Now David has it pretty bad here because BOTH of his wives (the ones Saul hadn't given to somebody else anyway) are taken away, and if that's not bad enough, the men want to stone him because of their own losses. It's funny how the tide turns quickly, huh? These guys were willing to die for David, but when their families and houses are hit because they were away with him at war now they want to kill him (when he's lost as much as they have)! Sadly, even doing your best you can't please everybody, and some of those who should be your greatest supporters wind up behind your back with the knife.
So things look pretty bad for David. But he doesn't screw it up. He could run and cry. He could make promises to his guys that "We'll get 'em, boys! Don't you worry!" and just hope he can deliver the goods (and if he fails again, then go back to the "run and cry" strategy). But instead, he takes it to God and the Lord says "You're good. Go get 'em!" (Evans paraphrase). So David wipes out more of those pesky Amalekites (although 400 get away--like cockroaches I tell ya!) and gets everything back. Then he's generous to the guys that were too tired to go to war but who stayed behind to watch the stuff, which in turn makes some of the ones who actually fought the Amalekites jealous (I wonder if these are the same guys who wanted to stone David previously when he didn't leave anybody to guard the city).
So David perserveres and he's generous, even if it still seems like he can't please anybody. Contrast that with Saul in chapter 31. Even without David's help the Philistines easily beat Saul's forces and he can't take it. His sons die in battle but he's wounded and instead of fighting on and dying like a man the way they did, he gets scared and kills himself. And we know that his failure to do things God's way (which again is so different from David who we've already seen seek God's wisdom before he took action; Saul was a little too impatient for that) is why he's in this position to begin with. So things looked so bad for David that he had even left Israel to join the Philistines, and it just seemed to keep getting worse, but as 1 Samuel ends and 2 Samuel begins, he finally is in position to inherit the kingdom he was promised, and Saul, who caused him so much trouble, is no more.
God help me to perservere and be faithful, to do the work that He's called me to in His way. I'd much rather end up like David than Saul, thank you very much!
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