Sunday School | David - 1 Samuel 29

So we're doing a study in the life of David, working our way through First Samuel, and we're like two chapters away from finishing the first half. So that's something, right? We're in First Samuel chapter 29, and it's short. It's a little tiny mini chapter. So we're going to read it all. I'm going to read you the whole thing first, and then we'll kind of take it apart as we go.

Now, this may seem a little bit strange because we're really studying David, but David may not seem to be merely the focus here, similar to last week. So here it is, First Samuel chapter 29, verse one:

The Philistines gathered all their forces at Aphek, and Israel camped by the spring in Jezreel. As the Philistine rulers marched with their units of hundreds and thousands, David and his men were marching at the rear with Achish. The commanders of the Philistines asked, "What about these Hebrews?" And Achish replied, "Is this not David, who was an officer of Saul, king of Israel? He's already been with me over a year, from the day he left Saul until now. I have found no fault in him."

High praise. But the Philistine commanders were angry with Achish, and they said:

"Send the man back that he may return to the place you assigned him. He must not go with us into battle or he will turn against us during the fighting. How better could he regain his master's favor than by taking the heads of our own men? Isn't this the David they sang about in their dances? 'Saul has slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands.'"

So Achish called David and said to him:

"As surely as the Lord lives, you have been reliable, and I would be pleased to have you serve with me in the army. From the day you came to me until now, I found no fault in you, but the rulers don't approve of you. Turn back and go in peace. Do nothing to displease the Philistine rulers."

"What have I done?" asked David. "What have you found against your servant from the day I came to you until now? Why can't I go and fight against the enemies of my lord, the king?"

Achish answered:

"I know that you have been as pleasing in my eyes as an angel of God. Nevertheless, the Philistine commanders have said he must not go with us into battle. Now get up early along with your master's servants who have come with you, and leave in the morning as soon as it is light."

So David and his men got up early in the morning to go back to the land of the Philistines, and the Philistines went to Jezreel.

Understanding the Timeline

Here's what's going on. We're not really intending to do a study of First Samuel. We're really trying to do a study of the life of David. It just so happens that the life of David is recorded in First Samuel and Second Samuel and a bunch of other places besides. Lots of Psalms, and as we've said, he's the most broadly attested character in the Bible except Jesus. Tons and tons of material about him.

We've gotten to a point in the story, though, where there's multiple things going on simultaneously. So when we read this, we have an inclination to read things as if it's like a sequence of events—A, then B, then C, then D. But what's going down right now is we spent a whole week with who? Do you remember? Saul. This week we're going to be really with Achish, although David is here with Achish. And these things are happening essentially concurrently. What's happening now is going to be concurrent with what's about to be happening in a war with Saul. It's just hard to be in two places at once. So the narrator is kind of jumping back and forth.

We've been studying David, but we've also spent a lot of time with Saul because he's a big deal. And now we've to take a look at this other character, Achish, trying to kind of watch this thing. The story of Saul with Achish was interrupted with the story of the witch of Endor. So you remember he goes to the Philistines, he hangs out with Achish, and then that story breaks. We do the whole Saul with Endor thing, and now we're picking back up to what we had looked at earlier.

If you want to see the real context of this, it's not so much chapter 28 as much as it's chapter 27. Chapter 27 was David going to Achish, then 28 is the Witch of Endor, and then now we're back to it. So kind of creating a sandwich to help us realize these are happening at the same time. These are interspersed.

Go back then to look at the very beginning of chapter 28, which was kind of the tail end of 27, and it says this:

David said to Achish, "Then you will see yourself what your servant can do." And Achish replied, "Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life."

And then we're off to Saul and the Witch of Endor, and then now we're finally back to pick up this story. What's the impression you get from that little short statement—28:2? "Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life." What are we meant to obtain from that?

Achish has got full trust in David. Completely. He's absolutely locked in, has total trust in David. And should he? Nope. He's lying every day. Right? And Achish has bought it hook, line, and sinker.

I mean, what has David actually been doing? Training other people. Right. And what is he claiming that he's doing? Training theology. Right. David is telling, "Hey, I'm going off and I'm fighting the Israelites and I'm bringing all this stuff back." But in fact, he's not going after the Israelites at all. He's completely—but Achish believes every word. Okay?

Why do you think Achish believes him? What's going on that makes him so susceptible to being duped? Saul's after him all the time, so there's a common enemy there. Okay, for sure. So he knows that Saul hates him. Saul's the king of Israel. It seems perhaps unreasonable to assume that David is doing things that are going to be to the benefit of the kingdom of Saul. That would totally make sense.

What advantage is there to Achish as David is off on these raiding parties? Ever consider this here? Maybe you could give him information. Okay, maybe information. But what does David do on every one of these when he goes off to these raiding parties? He brings some stuff back. Loads and loads of plunder are coming back. Everywhere he goes, he kills everybody and then takes all the livestock and brings it back. And I doubt he's just keeping it for himself. So he is really highly profitable to the king, right? Whatever Achish every day, Achish gets more sheep, more camels, more whatever it is they're doing, and he just believes it, which is really kind of funny because in the previous time we saw Achish several chapters ago, he thought David was a lunatic. So by some means, and maybe the grace of God among them, Achish comes to complete trust in David that is altogether unfounded.

The Narrator's Purpose

Here is the game we're going to play today. I want you to try to figure out what is the narrator's point. You've got to remember, this is a history, but it's a narrative history that has an agenda. What is the author of 1 Samuel's ultimate purpose? And then we're going to try to figure out how does this fit into it. What is the big picture that the author is trying to show us?

The big picture is that David was the anointed king. Yes. This is the purpose. This whole book, the anointed king—this whole book, all of 1 Samuel, is meant to show us why David is the man. Okay? That David is the chosen one, that David is the one that God has chosen to be the king of Israel, and everything else, this whole thing is a defense of that, a preparation for that.

And then secondarily, or maybe I should say ultimately, that David is not only the king of Israel for this moment, but he's the archetype of the great king of Israel. He's laying the foundation for what Messiah will be. So everything else that happens, in some way, we've got to ask the question: Why does the narrator include this? Why does he frame it as he does? What's going on here? How does it serve the purpose of the establishment of the Davidic Kingdom through whom will come Messiah? That's what the whole game is all about. Okay? So we're going to watch that. We're going to try to figure out what does the Achish story have to do with that? How does it contribute to his ultimate end? That's kind of as we're learning to read narrative, that's where we're asking the questions about. Like, what are you trying to do here?

Another big thing about this is that it shows how God rescued David from a very tight situation that he had gotten himself into.

A hundred percent. Right? Over and over and over again, we're going to see God as David's rescuer. And that, how does that claim? How does the fact that God keeps rescuing David contribute to the ultimate end of saying that David is the chosen king? God had a purpose for David. God has a purpose for David? Excellent. Would you add anything to that? All roads lead to the same place in this book.

Yes, that's right. God has determined that this man will be king.

I have anointed my king, have placed him in Zion. — Psalm 2

And though that's ultimately looking at Messiah, it's coming again through the agency of David. And whatever God determines to come to pass for his king will come to pass. We've seen it. We've seen the echo of this in Jesus' life, where the crowds come after Jesus and they're going to throw him off a cliff, and somehow he just ducks through it and they miss him. Right? That same thing that, though a thousand have fallen on my side, nothing's going to harm me. Right? That is what's going on with David.

So every time we see David slip the noose, what we're supposed to recognize in that is like, okay, God will accomplish his purposes no matter what armies are aligned against him. This is going to fit into that.

There's gonna be a little bit more to it, and we'll see it as we go. So let's do which part do we want to start?

Oh, I already said this to you guys, but I put it in my notes, I'll say it again. First Samuel 27:9, if you go back just a bit, listen to this. This is kind of the answer to the question.

Whenever David attacked an area, he did not leave a man or woman alive, but took sheep, cattle, donkeys, camels, clothes. Then he returned to Achish. — 1 Samuel 27:9

One of the reasons that I think Achish is so hooked in here is because David is so profitable to him. Achish is partly blinded by the fact that David is returning with all these goods. Right? Be aware of that. Sometimes the guy that's greasing your palms might be doing more than you realize. That's what's happening with Achish.

I hope this isn't too much of a tangent, but how does it seem possible that Achish has not gotten word of his own people being destroyed, whereas for some reason throughout this entire land, the word of Saul and David seems to be—

Right, okay. It's a great question. How has David gotten away with this so many times and word hasn't gotten back? What do you guys think? How is he so duped?

Kat, first.

Because he killed everybody. I think that's the bottom line, right? Because he killed everybody. So when you kill everybody, there's just fewer people that can report the news. No suspicion that you've never heard from your people.

I know, I agree with you. There's some craziness to that. Ray, did you want to say anything?

Verse 11 says exactly that. He killed everybody so that nobody could bring news back. — 1 Samuel 27:11

That's right. And I think that—but you still gotta wonder, like, does no one ever stumble across a village where everyone's dead and the sheep are all gone? But I think that's the part of the strategy is there's simply no informants.

Now, I don't think he could have gotten away with it forever, and I think in all things, this whole narrative—Zach, when you read it, you're supposed to think, wow, that was really lucky that they're coming around the mountain and at the last second Saul gets pulled away. That they go into the cave and it just happens to be the cave where Saul is. Thing after thing after thing. So I think part of what's supposed to happen is, okay, David is a strategist and he's gonna do so many things well, and yet nobody's that good. Nobody's that good. Which is meant to—all of these things that seem implausible and yet are—what do you do with that gap right there?

Exactly right. At the end of the day, you're like, okay, and the favor of the Lord was upon him, that no matter what he does, it just ends up working out. So you're supposed to have that sense of like, man, there's got to be more than meets the eye here.

Okay, good. Tommy?

I think it's also important to remember that these are nations that—even aside from war, there's no peace. And so the raid goes back and forth. They don't have clear boundaries or delineations. And so if a village is raided, you know, the Hebrews just came and raided that village again, instead of maybe that was David. And so this is probably happening in a lot of places, not just the places where David's gone.

That's a great point. Tommy's comment, if you couldn't hear it, was that we've got to recognize that this is a culture that's constantly at war. So whenever you study the Bible, you've always got to recognize that there are what we would call continuities and discontinuities between our time and the time of this. Continuities like, hey, look, there's men and there's women, there's sheep—we don't have a lot of sheep in our lives. There's things that we could be like, this makes sense, this makes sense. But you have never lived your life in a time of perpetual, endless raiding and war, at least not in the context in which you live. There's always war in the world, but not always where we are. And so if David raided Salem and wiped it out, that would be noteworthy to us. That would be a big deal, right? So that's one of those things. They're constantly at it.

And by the way, that little note, I'm gonna just file this away. We're gonna have to, at some point, before we get done with the life of David, we're gonna have to contend with the polygamy of this, which is so strange. This is miserably difficult to make sense of. Like, how does God permit? Does He permit? How does He not intervene? Why does He never speak up against? How does this work with men having multiple wives? It's such a strange thing. And while I don't have a full answer for that, I do wonder if part of the answer lies in the fact that we're constantly wiping out the men.

War is just blowing up the men, and it may be that one man having multiple wives is because the ratios of men to women will get so askew in a constantly warring society, and that that was an attempt to provide for women. I'm not sure if that's right, and I'm not sure that it's satisfied.

[Technical interruption with microphone batteries]

So as I was saying, God hates polygamy in every circumstance. There's all sorts of imagery about the king—not a lot of wives, not a lot of gold, not a lot of horses. We're going to have to talk about polygamy more before we're done with this thing. So I just want to lay out there the continuities and discontinuities are part of the things we've got to grapple with as we make sense of what we see in the text.

Achish and His Men

So Achish loves David, trusts David. And how do his men feel about him? Hate him. One of the things that's surprising is that Achish is so beholden to his men, right? Normally, you'd think the king would just be like, "So you're all dead." The king does not submit to his advisers, but Achish does, which is odd.

One of the things happening here is that he's getting financial gain. If you appeal to my sense of greed or my sense of pride, you're probably going to win. He's making money off of David, but he's also got Saul's guy that hates Saul to come on to his team. It's like having the opposite team's star quarterback playing for you. Achish is getting some pleasure out of that. He's just foolish that he's so dumb to not realize how he's getting hammered by it, but I think it's got to be part of God bringing about a blindness in his life.

The men are not having it. "Get rid of this guy. He's going to kill us all. It's bad news." Look at verse four:

Send the man back that he may return to the place you assigned him. He must not go with us into battle, or he will turn against us during the fighting. — 1 Samuel 29:4

It reminds me of my favorite movie, Braveheart, right? When they were all in the battle and then they meet at the line and then the Irish turn around and shake hands with all the Scots and then go fight England together? That's what they're expecting is going to happen. But it's not going to. They're going to prevent it from playing out.

David's Clever Words

Look at verse eight:

What have I done? David asked. What have you found against your servant from the day I came to you until now? Why can't I go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king? — 1 Samuel 29:8

What is David saying? When he says, "Why can't I go fight against the enemies of my lord the king?" It's another one of these half-truths. He's referring to Saul, and it's hard probably because that's his king. David is fond of the phrase "my Lord the King," and it's always about Saul.

Then David went out of the cave and he called out to Saul, "My lord, the king." And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. — 1 Samuel 24:8

Saul recognized David's voice and said, "Is that your voice, David, my son?" And David replied, "Yes, it is, my Lord, the king." — 1 Samuel 26:17

When he says back in our text, "Why can't I go out and fight against the enemies of my lord king?" I strongly suspect that David is saying one thing, knowing that Achish will hear a different thing. Achish is altogether happy to write himself into the role of "my lord the king." But really, it's a half-truth or just a tricky statement—I said one thing, but I really said something else, right? And so Achish takes the bait and doesn't understand it, and it all works out.

Do you think David wanted to go fight and pull an Irish in Braveheart? Was David simply bluffing and hoping, "Dear God, let me get out of this?" What do you think David's ploy was there?

Given that I don't know, maybe you know, maybe there's a clue that I haven't seen. What do you guys think, John?

Personally, I think he's blubbering without probably thinking, "How am I going to get out of this?" Yeah, that's certainly an option. Anybody on the other side of that think that he was hoping to get in there and flip around and just wipe out the Philistines?

What did John say? I couldn't hear him. John thinks he was bluffing and just praying that God would somehow get him out of this.

Stewart? I think he would just keep going and just wherever God leads. I mean, I don't know. It's impossible to know. But he seems to be connected to God's will at this point in his life.

Yeah. So I'm thinking he's figuring God will deliver through, whether it's they send me away or I go into battle, something's gonna happen. That he won't raise his hand to Saul because he could have already done it.

And I think that's as good of an answer as any—that we see he's following the Lord. He can't; he has to continue the bluff. He's basically painted himself into a corner, and his only hope is that God would intervene and pull him out of it, which he does.

Suzanne, what was your vote?

I mean, he's a leader, and I think his normal mode of operation is to go forward. Like Stewart said, go forward to the next thing, and the Lord will provide direction. And so he's just kinda like, well, they're gonna go into battle with these guys and actually slaughter them all—great for Israel. Or I'm gonna hang back here and not get stuck in this.

So it may literally be at this moment David doesn't know what he's gonna do. It might be that he's gonna get his men because you notice it's not just David. Did you notice that it's not only David that the Achish's men have a problem with? In fact, do they refer to David as in their lament? Go back to where they were complaining. What do they say? These Hebrews. These Hebrews, plural.

Remember, David's got a whole slew of dudes that have been following him, so it's not just the one guy. So David may have very well been saying, we'll just play this thing out as it goes. Then he's making it up as he goes along. He's highly improvisational, and he's just waiting for the Lord to act. Well, we gotta kill them all. We gotta do this, or maybe he's gonna get an escape. And I think he's probably relieved at this point that there's an answer. But we don't exactly know.

Okay, couple more hands. Jump here, yeah.

I guess going back, what was his original intent? I mean, was to take refuge from Saul from the beginning. That's right, yeah. So Michael is saying that David's intent was to take refuge from Saul. So what about that? I was wondering, did he have forethought of doing something?

I don't think that's his primary goal. Remember, because he went here because he finally sort of gives up. Like, "One of these days, Saul's gonna kill me," and then he kinda takes this, he's a little more fearful than he'd been. But then it seems like he rallies there and trusts the Lord again.

Zach?

So to support what you've been saying, so far from the entire story of Samuel when David's in a minor moment of conflict with somebody, he's had a rebuttal—he's rebuked it to a degree at least once. And then the review of the reviews is kind of like he provides him more information and then he went with it. So in regards to his character, it seems like he's been very consistent, which then tells me that he probably didn't know what he was looking for—a sign. And may have had something in his mind of what he kind of wanted to do, but ultimately still looking for direction.

I really think so. And it's like his best friend, Jonathan. You guys remember when Jonathan goes up and he wants to go fight—I think it's Philistines. They climb up a cliff to go pick a fight with these Philistines, and there's this great statement. He's like, "Let's go, and perhaps the Lord will fight for us." He doesn't know how it's going to go, maybe, but let's see.

So David's in this place. He's gonna play this thing out. I don't think he knows where it's going to go, but he trusts the Lord's going to work it out, and it does.

The Purpose of Achish in David's Story

Now let's keep going because I want you to see something else here. This thing here is a story about David. We're studying the life of David. That's where the author's ultimate point is. But we have just spent a ton of time comparing, looking at Saul's life and then now Achish's life. And the question is why.

This is kind of what we opened with. Why the story of Achish? What is going on here? What does the author want us to learn about Achish, and how does it contribute to the total purpose to basically glorify David? Alright? What is going on here?

What we're going to see, I think it's next week, is Saul is finally going to die. Right? David has had—let me ask you this. What is David's fundamental desire concerning Saul's death? There are two things actually.

Two things that David wants to be true about Saul's death. What are they?

He didn't do it.

Okay. That he didn't do it? That's number two—that he doesn't do it. And what's number one?

That God does.

That it happens, right? That's—I mean, these are the two things. He's longing for Saul to die by somebody else's hand, okay? And this has been going on for chapters and chapters and chapters waiting for Saul to finally get killed in battle or succumb to dropsy or something. But David's not going to be about it.

Well, while this whole thing is happening, Saul is someplace else dying at somebody else's hand, okay? So we don't know it yet in the story. We're going to see it next week. But the Lord is working it out. He's over here with Achish, 100 miles away from where the thing that he longs for is happening, and his alibi is bright and clean. He's not there, right, which is great.

Now, I want you to see this. This is a story about David, and we get all this time given to Saul, all this time to Achish. What is Achish's job in the narrative? I want to give you guys some clues, and we'll see if we can unpack this in the next fifteen minutes.

Listen to this line. David says—this is back in chapter 20—David says this to Achish:

Then you will see for yourself what your servant can do.

And Achish replied:

Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life.

Now you gotta go back. The narrator likes to lay things into the story. He puts details in here that he wants you to remember. Does that ring a bell for anybody? What is it?

Saul.

Saul what, Lily?

He did the same. Saul did the exact same thing. Take a look. If you go back to 1 Samuel 22:14:

Ahimelech answered King Saul, "Who of all your servants is as loyal as David, the king's son-in-law, captain of your bodyguard and highly respected in your household?"

That's 1 Samuel 22:14. One Samuel 22:14 parallels 1 Samuel 28:2. So when we meet this Achish story, and we're going through the Achish story, and Achish says, "Hey, you know what? You're the best. I want to make you my bodyguard." What the narrator wants you to see is like, "Oh, that's weird, because David was another king's bodyguard." And your mind makes this connection from this point to that point. Okay? That's why it's valuable to kind of pay attention to these details.

Alright? How about this? Not only—oh yeah, Kelly Sue?

Exactly right. That's exactly right. Okay. So we're building towards that. We're building the case, but there's going to be some very stunning comparisons between David's relationship to Achish and David's relationship to Saul, but then some very significant, perfect inversions that are all part of the literary structure here of the story.

One Samuel 29:3—Achish replied:

Is this not David, who was an officer of Saul, king of Israel? He's already been with me over a year from the day he left Saul until now, and I have found no fault in him.

Where's the parallel to that in Saul's life? Or in David's life regarding his relationship with Saul? Do you remember this? Achish is like, "Man, this guy is a beast. He's a fantastic fighter. We've seen it. We've seen it. You gotta dig to find it, but that's exactly what Saul thought of David."

Go back, chapter 18, verse 5:

Whatever Saul sent him to do, David did it so successfully that Saul gave him a high rank in the army, and this pleased all the people and Saul's officers as well.

We have for so long been waiting, watching Saul hate David, throw spears at David, chase David around. But don't forget, before all that happened, Saul adored David. David was good for Saul. David was good for the kingdom. David won every battle, so Saul gave him a high rank in the army. "Marry my daughter. Marry my other daughter." There's a great deal of goodwill.

And so Achish says, "You're incredible. I want you to be my bodyguard." Achish says, "You're amazing. I'll give you a high rank in the army." Saul says, "You're amazing. I want you to be my bodyguard. You're amazing. Let's rule the army." The same relationship that happened out here is now happening here.

How about this? This one's a little bit more obscure. Take a look at this, 1 Samuel 29:6:

So Achish called David and said to him, "As surely as the Lord lives, right? He's a non-Israelite making an oath in the name of Yahweh. You have been reliable, and I will be pleased to have you serve with me in the army. From the day until now, I have found no fault in you, but the rulers don't approve of you."

He's making an oath in the name of Yahweh that is completely wrong, right?

He's exactly backward, and he's making this foolish oath in the name of Yahweh. We've talked about this one. Do you remember when it happened for Saul? Saul takes an oath in the name of Yahweh. Go back to 1 Samuel 14:39. He actually had done this a handful of times. The first one I could find:

"As surely as the Lord who rescues Israel lives, even if it lies with my son Jonathan, he must die." — 1 Samuel 14:39

But not one of the men said that was wrong. That whole thing where he almost killed Jonathan was just completely ridiculous. Both of these men are very given to making foolish oaths in the name of Yahweh, even though neither one of them knows him. Right? On the one hand, Saul is a Jewish king, but he doesn't really know the Lord, and the Philistine doesn't even know him at all. But they're both fond of invoking his name, and I think it suits their purposes. Beginning to see the pattern here? We're supposed to see Achish and Saul are like the same guy, except, Kelly, there's a vast difference between them. Take a look at this.

"Achish trusted David and said to himself, 'He has become so odious to his people, the Israelites, that he will be my servant forever.'" — 1 Samuel 27:12

And he's exactly wrong. And Saul says in chapter 18, verse 28:

"When Saul realized that the Lord was with David and that his daughter Michal loved David, he became more afraid of him, and he remained his enemy the rest of his days." — 1 Samuel 18:28

And we see it play out over and over again. Both of these men—both of them, right down the line—they're incredibly impressed by David's fighting abilities. They make him bodyguard, they make foolish oaths in his name, and they ragingly misjudge David, albeit in opposite directions. Okay? So now, with all that kind of laid out before you, what is the purpose of Achish in this narrative? Why does a story meant to exalt David give us time here and then lay out all these very specific parallels to remind us of Saul? What would the author be trying to convey to us in that? That's the big question I want you to get.

Chris, I could see it as David is a sort of script of what the Messiah will be. Yes, being tied to the fact that he's misunderstood from all perspectives. Even his own disciples—Christ will come and have no idea what serving, what trusting, what loving means. Great. And the enemies of him also have no idea. He's not actually gonna come with a sword, he's gonna come with love, and it just flips it no matter which way you look at him.

Okay. That's great. So we're gonna build a list of these things. One of these things is that David confounds everyone. Right? Like, Saul cannot make sense of him, Achish cannot make sense of him. He just doesn't fit into their boxes. And when the Messiah comes, he too is gonna be a bewildering figure to everyone. They can't make sense of him. So this is absolutely true.

Gary? Maybe the writer of this narrative wants people to know that even an enemy king, an arch enemy Philistine, can see the excellence of David.

Oh, this is true. Yeah. There are things because there are things that he gets exactly right. His supremacy. Right? Not only seen by Achish, but I would say contrasted to Achish. We'll unpack that more in a minute. So yes.

Dan? Well, I think a piece of it too is that the author is showing this is what kingship looks like when God is not behind them. Yes. Whereas this is what kingship looks like when God is with them. David versus the other two kings. Yes. Yes.

Okay. So to put this in a little bit more painful terms, you could pick your—it doesn't matter—we'll pick President Biden because he's the current president. But if we made a list, right, of the leader of the United States of America and the leader of Russia and said they're similar here, here, here, here, and here, that would be a discouraging moment, right? Saul and Achish are enemy kings. They're our arch nemesis, right? And yet, my goodness, click, click, click, click. When it comes to the most pressing question, the deepest thing that this book is concerned with—the understanding of David and what the king ought to be like and what the king will be like—there's not a nickel's worth of difference between Saul and Achish. Right? And in the sense that we would be insulted or embarrassed to find out that, whatever it is that you happen to lead, if your nemesis was just like you, that would be a drag. And that's exactly where we're going with this. There's no difference between Saul and Achish. But there is a difference between Saul and Achish and one other guy. You're meant to see this triangle of these kings, and David's set at the apex of it.

Yeah, please. Did David go to God before he goes to Achish? And the answer is no, he didn't.

Now he has, over and over again, turned to the Lord, trusted in the Lord. But what gets him here is he's like, "Man, God has rescued me 47 times, but who knows about 48, right?" And then he flees. So David goes here in a place of weakness and loneliness and fear, and he's going to start making some bad decisions. We've been waiting for it—it's going to start getting worse as we go. But even despite the fact that David is in a moment of fear, God persists in rescuing him, persists in his kindness to him, even though he's blowing it, right?

So David is not merely the archetype of the one who gets it all right, but he is the one who experiences radical grace when he blows it. But he gets a lot of stuff right in contrast to Achish and Saul.

On David's Respect for Authority

Tommy: I think it's interesting that though he's a warrior, he has sort of like a hand of peace when it comes to kings. So with Saul, he doesn't seek to kill Saul though he has a myriad of opportunities. And the same thing with Achish. He's so close to him, like his bodyguard forever, and yet he never raises his hand directly against Achish himself.

That's right. And so similar to Christ with the rulers that were over him. At any point, he could have called down angels, destroyed everyone around him, but instead he submitted himself to the authorities that God put over him. Godly people in authority have a high view of the authorities whom they serve under. Ungodly people merely like their own authority, but David is profoundly respectful of all authority, which I think is part of the seat and ground of his own—one of the reasons that God enables him to do that.

Terry: I just think that would be a horrible job. What?

King of Israel? He had a conscience about this, about killing all of those people—men, women, and children—just over and over. Yeah. I mean, David is a man of war, which is why—what's going to be the consequence of that in David's life? He doesn't get to build the temple. He wants to build the temple; God's like, "You know what? We're gonna have some less bloody hands than yours build this temple." Right? There are ways where God uses him in that end, but there's no question it has a deleterious effect on his soul, and God limits his access to things because of it. Right? So we can at the right moment be grateful for people that are willing to stand against enemies, right? As we see today, we maybe forgot for a little while, but the world is ruled by the disciplined use of force, right? And there's a place for that. But it impacts those that are wielding the sword, to be sure.

Catherine: It just shows how even leaders who are well, David—just listening to God, walking with him, consulting him—even they have moments of weakness. Even they can be easily swayed, or maybe they get tired.

Oh, for sure. And just "I'm gonna do it on my own." And that's what David is—this double character, right? He is, on the one hand, the type of the Messiah, but he cannot be the Messiah. He cannot fulfill his own promise. We've seen it over and over again.

David as the High Watermark

So here's where it lands. There are all these similarities between Achish and Saul, and the point, I think, is to say that Saul is a king like any other. He is the king of Israel, but there's not a nickel's worth of difference between him and their greatest enemy, Achish, the king of the Philistines. Saul hated and feared the one that he should have loved and trusted. Achish loved and trusted the one he should have feared and mistrusted. Saul misses it all. Saul is enamored by the same things. Saul makes the same kind of decisions, and then he gets it terribly, terribly wrong.

And when you compare David to both of these guys, he stands above them both. He is the only one—the narrator he wants to see—do you get it yet? It's David. He's the only one worthy to be the real king. David is actually unlike any of these other guys. Not unlike them enough to meet your deepest needs, but he is unlike them enough to be the temple from which the Messiah will come. The Messiah will be born of the line of this man, which is really pretty exceptional.

We had heard like a thousand new things: "It'll be from Abraham, it'll be from Isaac, it'll be from Jacob," but there's been no winnowing of the line until today, until now. Now it will be of this guy, David, who is a king above all the rest. He is very much in the Old Testament narrative the king of all the kings, the high watermark, and it is from him will come the one who outreigns not just Achish and Saul, but is better than anyone who's ever lived. David is setting us up for that, okay?

So next week, David's gonna finally get what he longs for, right? We're moving—well, maybe not quite. We're moving into this climactic moment of the death of Saul. And then, what's going to come after the death of Saul? What is it?

The enthronement of David. He was anointed king like a hundred years ago, like forever ago. What is it, literally? It's like thirty years or something? It's like '16—what is it? Do you remember? 1617. It's a long time, right? From November to January is like, that's a long time here, okay? And he's been anointing that he won't become king. Saul's got to die. So we're moving there.

And there'll be some great things, but strap in because it's also still gonna unwind a little bit for him. Okay? So go to the next chapter. We'll talk it again next week.