July 30, 2025
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in 1 Samuel and Mark? Here’s today’s reading:
1 Samuel 27 (NIV)
David Among the Philistines
1 But David thought to himself, “One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.”….Continue Reading
Acting out of proper reasoning/strategy, as David does here, that does not compromise morality or the will of God, is acceptable. But it would have been good to see some consultation with God to verify his approval of this move to live with the Philistines. But God does bless it as if He had approved. And David maintains his character even as he is connected to Israel’s enemy and recognizes Achish’s authority over him. We just need to be careful in situations like this with unbelievers that they will usually misunderstand the way and reason we are acting and will presume it is about them rather than being about what is right in God’s eyes. And we then always act in a way that is right in God’s eyes rather then the unbeliever’s eyes.
For all intensive purposes David does seem to be in a slightly backslidden place in this chapter. Seems to be taking things into his own hands in finding a hiding spot amongst the Philistines and even becoming a bit of a pirate just pillaging ans plundering seemingly wthout God’s direction. God does seem to allow this time for David and he is safe and even gaining wealth and favor with Achish. This chapter feels like another time in David’s life that we can so easily identify with, a time when we think we can go it on our own and it does seem to work….until it doesn’t 😉
1 Samuel 27
1 Samuel 27
1 Samuel 27; Jerimiah 29; Philippians 4; John 10
But David thought to himself…David’s thought that Saul would one day destroy him was not in line with God’s plan and purpose. His thinking led him to live in enemy territory, engage in deceitfulness and lie so his actions would not be revealed. It would have been better for him to trust in God and live in a place that the Lord guided and directed him to be.
“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Most of us have a strong will not to engage in sinful acts, but when we allow our fleshly desires take control of us, we will fail to do so. Paying careful attention to our thinking, praying we don’t fall into temptation and resisting the devil are ways to combat it. “Then everyone deserted him and fled.” That very night the disciples “emphatically insisted” they would die with him but they let fear take over, and they left him to deal with imminent death – alone. When we are deserted by family and friends, know that Jesus experienced abandonment to the point of death, he understands how it feels, and he will never leave us or forsake us.
I imagine this was intended for Mark 14. But good words, Shelly!
”And David said in his heart, “Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me anymore in any part of Israel. So I shall escape out of his hand.”“
I Samuel 27:1 NKJV
David is more afraid of Saul than the Philistines. David says he is attacking Judah (Israelites), but he is actually attacking other enemies of Israel while in Philistine territory (and killing them all so it doesn’t get back to Achish.)