Eoghan
Puritan Board Senior
A few more weeks and my attention will switch to 1 Corinthians. In the mean time...
...as I read through Samuel I am struck by the way that David returns to Hachilah and as it were sets himself up for betrayal by the Ziphites. One commentator reflecting on this suggests that there were not that many places to hide 600 men (women and children). What if that was not David's intent? After the Nabal incident David has had an object lesson in God avenging him. There is a new confidence in David as he enters the camp of Saul and restrains Abishai from blood guilt.
Looking very closely at verse 19 we see that David has some intelligence (from Jonathan?) that there are some who stir up Saul against David. In doing so they seem to have a deliberate strategy of driving David from the land and causing him to serve other gods. Note that they use the plural and refer to "other" as in of the same nature. They have no concept of God as the Creator God who brought them out of Egypt. Their world view seems to be of local deities and this seems to be their view of the God of Israel. This is not David's theology but theirs. In leaving the land he remains firm in his devotion to the God, despite outward appearances.
If this is indeed a test of Saul's intentions, David concludes that he has failed. Rather than trust in man (Saul) David chooses to trusts in God and departs for Philista and Gath.
Now I know that this is seen as a backsliding and lack of faith but is it. David walks not into a sleeping Israelite army of 3,000 but into a nation of enemies. He does so knowing that he will be put in situations that will test him, yet he seems to have anticipated this and asks to live at some distance from the king of Gath to allow some freedom in his actions and that he not be watched too closely.
Where David's departure for Gath in chapter 21 might be called a leap of faith (which faltered in it's execution) now he not only looks before he leaps but makes preparations.
Q1. What I would be interested in is if I have convinced you of David's set purpose in removing himself for a season keeping faith with God. (Taken in isolation chapter 27 might suggest David's backsliding. The ESV heading steers us in this direction with it's heading "David Flee's to the Philistines" yet a different direction might be given by "David's sojourn amongst the Philistines")
Q2. Is there evidence to contradict this interpretation that I have overlooked?
...as I read through Samuel I am struck by the way that David returns to Hachilah and as it were sets himself up for betrayal by the Ziphites. One commentator reflecting on this suggests that there were not that many places to hide 600 men (women and children). What if that was not David's intent? After the Nabal incident David has had an object lesson in God avenging him. There is a new confidence in David as he enters the camp of Saul and restrains Abishai from blood guilt.
Looking very closely at verse 19 we see that David has some intelligence (from Jonathan?) that there are some who stir up Saul against David. In doing so they seem to have a deliberate strategy of driving David from the land and causing him to serve other gods. Note that they use the plural and refer to "other" as in of the same nature. They have no concept of God as the Creator God who brought them out of Egypt. Their world view seems to be of local deities and this seems to be their view of the God of Israel. This is not David's theology but theirs. In leaving the land he remains firm in his devotion to the God, despite outward appearances.
If this is indeed a test of Saul's intentions, David concludes that he has failed. Rather than trust in man (Saul) David chooses to trusts in God and departs for Philista and Gath.
Now I know that this is seen as a backsliding and lack of faith but is it. David walks not into a sleeping Israelite army of 3,000 but into a nation of enemies. He does so knowing that he will be put in situations that will test him, yet he seems to have anticipated this and asks to live at some distance from the king of Gath to allow some freedom in his actions and that he not be watched too closely.
Where David's departure for Gath in chapter 21 might be called a leap of faith (which faltered in it's execution) now he not only looks before he leaps but makes preparations.
Q1. What I would be interested in is if I have convinced you of David's set purpose in removing himself for a season keeping faith with God. (Taken in isolation chapter 27 might suggest David's backsliding. The ESV heading steers us in this direction with it's heading "David Flee's to the Philistines" yet a different direction might be given by "David's sojourn amongst the Philistines")
Q2. Is there evidence to contradict this interpretation that I have overlooked?