David
Failing Successfully
Those whom God loves he sends failure early.
—Peter Drucker
Jack Staddon of Great Bend, Kansas, won the National Geographic spelling bee several years ago and a $25,000 college scholarship for his efforts. He alone could spell the "flat intermountain area located at 10,000 feet in the Andes" (Altoplano).
"It's nice to win," Jack remarked later, "but even if I lost, I'd thank the Lord anyway. It gives you practice in knowing how to fail."
When failing and succeeding are at issue, an incident in David's life comes to mind. It took place during a period when he and Saul were playing a deadly game of hide and seek. Saul, pursuing David and his band of men in the Judean wilderness, was bent on running him into the ground.
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Saul was familiar with all David's haunts and hiding places. David could run but he could not hide. He was weary and worn out. There seemed to be no end to his troubles.
The songs that are assigned to this period of David's life are sad songs. The overriding mood is one of dreary depression and despair.
Why, O LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (Psalm 10:1).
How long, O LORD? Will you forget me for ever? How long will you hide your face from me? (Psalm 13:1).
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? (Psalm 22:1).
David had reached the end of his rope. He just couldn't take it any more.
[He] thought to himself, "One of these days I shall 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" (1 Samuel 27:1).
In the past David talked to Gad or other of his counselors, or better yet, he "inquired of the Lord," but on this occasion David didn't ask the Lord or anyone else. He looked at his circumstances, took counsel of his fears, and fled to Philistia. Under the circumstances, he believed that was the best thing for him to do.
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God had instructed David to take a stand in Judah and set up his standard there (22:5). He was safe in the land. David had God's assurance that his destiny was fixed — an assurance confirmed by Samuel, Jonathan, Saul, and the young woman, Abigail:
The LORD will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my master, because he fights the LORD's battles . . . Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my master will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the LORD your God. But the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling (25:28-29).
It's impossible for God to lie or forget his covenant. "By immutable pledges his [David's] Almighty Friend had bound himself, seeking to give his much-tried friend strong consolation, if only he would remain within the sheltering walls of the refuge-harbor which these assurances constituted; and it was easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one jot or tittle of the Divine promises to become invalid," F.B. Meyer wrote.
But David panicked and fled to Philistia.
Haste makes waste
The phrase translated "I shall escape" is put in a way that suggests great haste: "I shall immediately escape." I will do it now!
Decisions made when we're down in the dumps or emotionally distraught are exceedingly perilous. We're most vulnerable to bad choices when we're in that state of mind — choices we would never make if we were on top of things. When we're down we inevitably stumble into bad judgment.
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I can't help but wonder how many single people have decided in a moment of weariness they can't handle the thought of perpetual loneliness and have saddled themselves with a mate who has made life for them even more miserable? I wonder how many men have walked away from good jobs in a fit of momentary frustration and rage and now find themselves hopelessly out of work or working in situations far less desirable? I wonder how many have given up on their marriages when they are at low ebb and have lived to regret that decision? I wonder how many men have walked away from fruitful ministries because of weariness and discouragement?
I read recently an excerpt from the work by Ignatius of Loyola, a sixteenth-century Basque Christian, entitled The Spiritual Exercises. He pointed out that there are two conditions in the Christian life. One is consolation, "when the soul is aroused to a love for its Creator and Lord. When faith, hope and charity, and interior joy inspire the soul to peace and quiet in our Lord." The other is desolation, "when there is darkness of soul, turmoil of mind, a strong inclination to earthly things, restlessness resulting from disturbances and temptations leading to loss of faith. We find ourselves apathetic, tepid, sad and separated, as it were, from our Lord."
"In time of desolation," he wrote, "one should never make a change, but stand firm and constant in the resolution and decision which guided him the day before the desolation, or to the decision which he observed in the preceding consolation. For just as the good spirit guides and consoles us in consolation, so in desolation the evil spirit guides and counsels. Following the counsel of this latter spirit, one can never find the correct way to a right decision."
He continues: "Although in desolation we should not change our earlier resolutions, it will be very advantageous to intensify our activity against desolation. This can be done by insisting more on prayer, meditation, examination, and
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confession." Sometimes the simple things are the holiest things of all. Once again we should listen to F.B. Meyer:
Never act in a panic; nor allow man to dictate to thee, calm thyself and be still; force thyself into the quiet of thy closet until the pulse beats normally and the scare has ceased to perturb. When thou art most eager to act is the time when thou wilt make the most pitiable mistakes. Do not say in thine heart what thou wilt or wilt not do; but wait upon God until He makes known his way. So long as that way is hidden, it is clear that there is no need of action, and that He accounts Himself responsible for all the results keeping thee where thou art.
And so, we should wait and pray. David eventually learned "to wait for [God] all day long" (Psalm 25:5). He should have waited on this occasion, but he had made up his mind. Given his circumstances, Philistia looked better than the shadow of God's invisible wings.
So David and the six hundred men with him left and went over to Achish son of Maoch king of Gath. David and his men settled in Gath with Achish. Each man had his family with him, and David had his two wives: Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, the widow of Nabal. When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him (1 Samuel 27:2-4).
David hied himself to Philistia and put himself and his army in the service of King Achish. Saul gave up his pursuit, hoping perhaps that David would fall by Philistine hands (1 Samuel 18).
This was the Achish before whom he had embarrassed himself some months before (21:10-15). Now, however,
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David was not a solitary refugee but the master of a formidable band of fighting men. David's men were welcome mercenaries. David sold himself into the hands of the Philistines — made himself useful to God's enemies.
Achish no doubt gave David solemn promise of protection, and David and his entourage moved into the royal city.
Ziklag
David was safe in Gath, though increasingly uneasy. His movements were restricted. He had to give up his autonomy and independence. He felt the need to get away from the royal city and so asked Achish for another place to live. It was a modest request:
Then David said to Achish, "If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be assigned to me in one of the country towns, that I may live there. Why should your servant live in the royal city with you?"
So on that day Achish gave him Ziklag, and it has belonged to the kings of Judah ever since. David lived in Philistine territory a year and four months (27:5-7).
Achish had the feudal right to bestow land, and his choice for David was Ziklag. Ziklag lay close to the southern border of the land of Israel — well situated for David's purposes. It had the advantage of being away from Saul's territory and isolated from Gath and other centers of Philistine population.
Ziklag was an Israelite city that had fallen into Philistine hands. It was originally a Canaanite city at first given to the tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:31) and then to Simeon (Joshua 19:5; 1 Chronicles 4:30). The Philistines had seized it, but apparently never inhabited it. It was now abandoned. David and his people moved in bag and baggage.
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At last David and his band could settle down. For months their lives had been full of alarm and flight. Now they had a little corner of peace. Their children could play in safety; old men and women could sit in the sun and chat; men could work the fields instead of sustaining themselves by raiding and looting.
David and his people lived in Ziklag unmolested for a time, and everything seemed to be going well outwardly, but this was a barren time in David's walk with God. He wrote no poetry and sang no songs in Ziklag; Israel's sweet singer was mute. David drifted steadily away from the Lord.
But David's drifting did not result in personal failure alone; he also placed his friends in spiritual jeopardy. Philistia lay outside the inheritance of the Lord, the abiding place of the Most High. It was full of idols (2 Samuel 5:21).
Philistine carries with it an entrenched negative image. A philistine is someone who is crude, crass, deficient in esthetic sensitivity. But the image is undeserved. The Philistines came from the Aegean Sea and had roots in Greek culture. They were a sophisticated and attractive people.
While in Philistia, David and his followers gained familiarity with Philistine culture and religion. This was a perilous time for those with weaker faith. They were defiled by what they saw.
David's actions tainted Israel for centuries. Israelite men were still attracted to Philistine women, and their children spoke "the language of Ashdod" (Nehemiah 13:24). They bought into a pagan culture. David was, at least in part, the trendsetter for that declension.
As David drifted away from God he became increasingly restless, a state of mind that always gets us in deep trouble.
Blaise Pascal, a seventeenth-century philosopher, had this to say: "When I have set myself now and then to consider the various distractions of men, the toils and dangers to which
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they expose themselves in the court or in the camp, whence arise so many quarrels and passions, such daring and often such evil exploits, etc., I have discovered that all these misfortunes of men arise from one thing only, that they are unable to stay quietly in their own chamber . . . Hence it comes that play, the society of women, war and offices of State are sought after . . . Hence it comes that men so love noise and movement."
Ah yes. We know.
David's sorties
Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites and the Amalekites. (From ancient times these peoples had lived in the land extending to Shur and Egypt.) Whenever David attacked an area, he did not leave a man or woman alive, but took sheep and cattle, donkeys and camels and clothes. Then he returned to Achish.
When Achish asked, "Where did you go raiding today?" David would say, "Against the Negev of Judah" or "Against the Negev of Jerahmeel" or "Against the Negev of the Kenites." He did not leave a man or woman alive to be brought to Gath, for he thought, "They might inform on us and say, 'This is what David did.'" And such was his practice as long as he lived in Philistine territory. Achish trusted David and said to himself, "He has become so odious to his people, the Israelites, that he will be my servant for ever" (1 Samuel 27:8-12).
David wasn't content with the quiet life. He was a man of passion and action; he had to mix it up with his enemies.
First Chronicles tells us that men from all the tribes of Israel began to defect from Saul and emigrate to Ziklag and
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identify with David's cause. "All of them were brave warriors," the chronicler says, "and they were commanders in his army. Day after day men came to help David, until he had a great army, like the army of God" (see 1 Chronicles 12:20-21).
David couldn't waste such resources. From his base in Philistia David began to make sorties into the southern desert against some of Judah's ancient enemies: the Geshurites, Girzites, and the Amalekites. These were aboriginal tribes — Canaanites — who retained control of the land south of Judah, between Judah and Egypt and who were constantly harassing the Israeli settlers in the south. They were allies of the Philistines.
David plundered and looted village after village and distributed the spoils to his kinsmen in Judah: "He sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah, who were his friends, saying, "Here is a present for you from the plunder of the LORD's enemies" (1 Samuel 30:26).
But there is a jarring note in the narrative; David adopted a policy of extermination — killing men, women, and children, lest they inform on him. The verbs attacked, leave, and took are what grammarians call "frequentative verbs" describing habitual action. Extermination was his "policy," as the Hebrew text described it, "as long as he lived in Philistine territory." David ran in the fast lane for a year and four months.
A pack of lies
As the king's liege, David was obliged to report on his battles and share some of the booty from his victories. Achish would ask him, "Where did you go raiding today?" David would lie: "I've been raiding Israelites and their allies — the Jerahmeelites and the Kenites."
David embarked on a course that demanded perpetual deceit. He had to keep lying to Achish, a deception utterly unworthy of his character.
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Achish accepted David's reports as evidence of his hatred for Israel, thinking David had alienated himself from his countrymen and was now wholly in his service. "He has become odious to his people," he said, "now he will be in my service forever."
Interesting phrase: "He will be in my service forever." David, God's free spirit had sold himself to serve a pagan king. "From wrong to wrong the exasperated spirit proceeds," T.S. Eliot said, "unless restored by that refining fire."
The refining fire
The Philistines gathered their forces at Aphek to go to war against Israel. They were aware of the disintegration of Saul's kingdom and had noted with great satisfaction the growing number of mighty men who were abandoning Saul and identifying themselves with David and, presumably, with themselves.
The Philistines decided to strike a final blow, and so they gathered all their forces — along with David and his mercenaries — with the intent of assaulting Israel across the plain of Esdraelon. David was obliged to follow his king into battle, though he did so with a sinking heart. He knew it meant he must go into battle against his countrymen, against Saul his king and Jonathan his beloved friend.
It may be that at this point David's heart began to turn to God, asking him to extricate him from the mess he had contrived for himself. If so the Lord heard him.
F.B. Meyer has written, "If by your mistakes and sins you have reduced yourself into a false position like this, do not despair; hope still in God. Confess and put away your sin, and humble yourself before Him and he will arise to deliver you. You may have destroyed yourself, but in Him will be your help."
A door of hope was opened. On the eve of the encounter God intervened: the Philistines themselves insisted that David
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and his men have no part in the battle, and they turned with relief to their homes in Ziklag.
David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it, and had taken captive the women and all who were in it, both young and old. They killed none of them, but carried them off as they went on their way.
When David and his men came to Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep (30:1-4).
David and his men had been on the road for three days and were exhausted, eagerly anticipating seeing their wives and children.
As they neared Ziklag they saw a plume of smoke on the horizon and ran the last few miles to Ziklag to find the city torched, their women and little ones kidnapped.
Instead of happy reunion there was eerie silence and desolation. There were only a few elderly men and women left to tell the story. David and his men wept until they could weep no more.
David's troops turned and glared at him in angry silence. There was talk of lynching him. David was personally responsible for their loss, and he knew it. He should have left a few men to guard the city. He should have known. He had let his men down. You can imagine his terrible sense of isolation.
And then there was his own personal loss. There was no hope; no human prospect of redeeming the situation. He could never catch the Amalekites. They were mounted on camels and long gone. When you have hope you can endure. When you are robbed of hope, life loses all its meaning.
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David sensed the righteous judgment of God. His conscience awoke and began to speak. David had been leading a double life — betraying Achish, raiding Philistine allies. He had massacred whole villages and then had lied. Now his village and family were gone.
This was one of the blackest moments in David's life.
David's reaction
David wept in misery and despair. He wept until he could weep no more. A perfectly natural reaction. But the natural is fatal. "By sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken" the proverb says (Proverbs 15:3).
David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God (1 Samuel 30:6).
"David was greatly distressed," but he "found strength in the LORD his God." The Hebrew text reads, "he strengthened himself in the LORD." That is one of the greatest lines in the Bible.
Once again, David refers to God as his God! Doubtless David's men had heard him say repeatedly, "The Lord is my shepherd, my rock, my salvation." Though David had seriously compromised God's name by his failure of faith and by his torturous and treacherous policies, yet the Lord was still his God and in the present crises he could flee to the shelter of his wings.
God never refuses his help, even when we have brought ruin upon ourselves. Regardless of what we have done, we must run to him and take his strong hand. The man who can come to God with the weight of failure on his mind and say to him, "You are my refuge," is the man who understands the gracious heart of God.
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Some old saint has said, "Let us make haste — let us not linger to put on any garment, but rush at once in our nakedness, a true child, for shelter from our own mistakes into the salvation of the Father's strong arms."
Then we're told that David "strengthened himself in the LORD." He must have gone back to God's promises of forgiveness and restoration, which so often cheered him at other dark periods of his life. He must have recalled the poems he wrote on other dark days like this that reflected God's faithfulness. He must have remembered that he had been in worse situations than this and that God had greatly helped him in those times. Though his faith had been sorely tested, it had not been disappointed. In this way he encouraged himself.
All around David there was frustration and fear, but God was at hand, "an ever-present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1). David took strength from God and became a center of peace. Remember Paul's words, "Be a man; be made strong" (1 Corinthians 16:13).
David, in the end, recovered everything the Amalekites had stolen, including his family (1 Samuel 30:18), but I must say not all our failures will turn out that way. There are no guarantees in this life that we will get back the family, the business, the reputation we have lost through our foolishness.
We may reach the end of our years a long way from our goals. We may be known more for our failures than for our successes. We may not be powerful or prosperous, but if we accept the disappointment and let it draw us close to God we will find in time that our failure has given us a deeper understanding of his love and grace, and that is by far the better thing.
It requires enormous faith to believe that our failures are for the greater good, but it is true. We learn far more from disappointment than we do from success. We come to know God and his ways. The man who has never failed has never made that discovery.
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"Disappointment — His appointment,"
Change one letter, then I see
That the Thwarting of my purpose
Is God's better choice for me.
His appointment must be blessing,
Though it may come in disguise,
For the end from the beginning
Open to His wisdom lies.
"Disappointment — His appointment,"
Whose? The Lord's, Who loves me best
Understands and knows me fully,
Who my faith and love would test;
For, like loving earthly parent,
He rejoices when He knows
That His child accepts, unquestioned,
All that from His wisdom flows.
"Disappointment — His appointment,"
"No good thing will He withhold,"
From denials oft we gather
Treasures of His love untold.
Well He knows each broken purpose
Leads to fuller, deeper trust,
And the end of all his dealings
Proves our God is wise and just.
—Annie Johnson Flint
