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Meditative Reflection
Love with Depth of Insight

“But David thought to himself, ‘one of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul'.” (1 Sam. 27:1)

The Apostle Paul prays for the church of Philippi that their “love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight” so that they may be able to discern what is best (Phil. 1:9).

In other words, Paul does not esteem “blind” love, but love that would increase more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. This, we clearly see in the life of David, especially in his dealings with Saul.

Out of his fear of the Lord in honoring God’s anointed, and his love for Saul — the kind of agape love that extends to his enemy, David spared the life of Saul at least twice. However, he was not oblivious to what kind of a person Saul was; he knew the pride of Saul would continue to drive him to pursue his life in order to maintain his own kingship. As a result, David would not “come back” to Saul as requested in 26:21. In fact, he decided to flee to a place where Saul would not continue to pursue him. I believe the intention was not just to try to save his own life, but to spare Saul from committing a sin too grave before the Lord.

However, the decision to go to hide among the Philistines had to be a controversial one:

- For one it was something that God, through the prophet Gad, had previously clearly warned him not to do (22:5); and

- His apparent switch of allegiance would cast doubt on his character in the eyes of his people, especially the people of Judah.

As we have seen so far, David always enquired of the Lord in every move he made. Although the Bible does not say so in this instant, I believe he would have enquired of the Lord before he went to the king of Gath.

Also, we can see his wisdom in asking to live away from the royal city, so that he would not be closely watched by the king and his men. This gave him the opportunity to protect the people of Judah from the constant attacks by their neighboring enemies who were the Geshurites, the Girzites and the Amalekites (27:8). This was part of the reason why whenever he “attacked an area, he did not leave a man or a woman alive” (27:9), so that news of his protection of his own people would not reach back to the Philistines.

Indeed, his heart was always with his people, his desire was always to please God, but such love was always grounded in knowledge and depth of insight — an example from which we should learn.

Meditative Reflection
Did the Spirit of Samuel appear to Saul?

“Samuel said to Saul, ‘Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?’.” (1 Sam. 28:15)

Whether the spirit summoned by the medium was really that of Samuel has been a much debated topic over the last 2,000 years of Christendom. Allow me to share with you the insight of two conservative scholars of a former generation, respected for their scholarship as well as their orthodoxy as follows:

“Nevertheless the fathers, reformers, and earlier Christian theologians, with very few exceptions, assumed that there was not a real appearance of Samuel, but only an imaginary one…a diabolical spectre, a phantasm, or diabolical spectre in the form of Samuel…in which truth is mixed with falsehood. It was not till the seventeenth century that the opinion was expressed, that the apparition of Samuel was merely a delusion produced by the witch…There is no necessity to refute this opinion at the present day. Even Fr. Boettcher…who looks upon the thing as an imposter, admits that the first recorder of the occurrence, ‘believed that Samuel appeared and prophesied, contrary to the expectation of the witch;’ and that the author of the books of Samuel was convinced that the prophet was raised up and prophesied, so that after his death he was proved to be the true prophet of Jehovah, although through the intervention of ungodly arts (cf. Ezek. 14:7, 9). But the view held by the early church does not do justice to the scriptural narrative, and hence the more modern orthodox commentators are unanimous in the opinion that the departed prophet did really appear and announce the destruction of Saul, not however, in consequence of the magical arts of the witch, but through a miracle wrought by the omnipotence of God.

“This is most decidedly favored by the fact, that the prophetic historian speaks throughout the appearance, not of a ghost, but of Samuel himself…(and) his announcement contains so distinct a prophecy of the death of Saul and his sons, that it is impossible to imagine that it can have proceeded from the mouth of an imposter, or have been an inspiration of Satan. …Shobel is therefore quite correct in saying, ‘It was not the call of the idolatrous king, nor at the command of the witch — neither of whom had the power to bring him up, or even to make him hear their voice in his rest in the grave — that Samuel came; nor was it merely by divine ‘permission’, which is much too little to say. No rather it was by the special command of God that he left his grave…’”
(Keil & Delitszch, 544-5)

Meditative Reflection
The Philistines

“The Philistines gathered all their forces at Aphek and Israel camped by the spring in Jezreel.” (1 Sam. 29:1)

Allow me to share with you some historical and geographical information concerning the Philistines, so that we may have a better idea what kind of an enemy Israel had been facing since the time of the Judges. (Israel was ruled by the Judges roughly from 1,200-1025 B.C.; then the reigns of Saul and David followed.)

“But by the 12^th century B.C.E…a shadow of death (referring to the Philistines) was stealing across the Mediterranean Basin, destroying everything in its path. Eventually, this wave reached Anatolia, obliterating the Hittite Empire (which not even Ramses II had been able to bring to heel) before turning its sights on Syria and Canaan…the main culprits of this upheaval were groups of marauding tribes that scholars group together as the Sea Peoples…

“By 1175 B.C.E., the Sea Peoples had conquered most of the coastal regions of modern Syria and Lebanon. They next turned their attention to the last great power of the region: the land of Egypt with its countless temples and treasures. As it happened, Egypt at the time was ruled by Ramses II, an able, kind and highly accomplished military commander…(as a result, the Philistines were repulsed from the Egyptian shores, and they) pointed their ships back east, probing for a safe place to land. They chose the southern coast of Canaan. Up to this point, the coastal cities here — Ashkelon, Ekron, Ashdod, Gath and Gaza — had rebuffed any Israelite infiltration attempts. The Philistines, however, conquered the cities with ease and quickly consolidated their power. They turned the five cities into a confederacy that became known as Philistia (from which the Greeks later derived the word ‘Palestine’ to denote all of Canaan)…

“It was only a matter of time before these headstrong people would come into conflict with the equally headstrong and determined Israelite settlers and it is this conflict that takes up the latter part of the Book of Judges (all the way to the time of Saul and David).”

(Jean-Pierre Isbout, National Geographic, The Biblical World, 161-164)

Therefore, the enemy that Israel faced in the Philistines was very unlike the Amalekites and other Canaanite peoples, but a well-organized and well trained people, with a naval force that was much feared even by the Egyptians. This also highlights the fact that their victories over these Sea Peoples can only be attributed to the help of the Lord.

Meditative Reflection
A Leader after God’s Own Heart

“The share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All will share alike.” (1 Sam. 30:24)

I am truly struck by the fairness demonstrated by David in the distribution of the plunder among all his men. However, as I reflect on the reason for this fairness, I can see that he was indeed a leader after God’s own heart.

The basis of his fairness was clearly grounded in these words, “No, my brothers, you must not do that with what the Lord had given us. He has protected us and handed over to us the forces that came against us.” (30:23) In other words, he truly and fully realized that it was not by their strength that they gained victory over their enemies; it was thoroughly the grace of God. Since these were the gracious gifts from God, how dare anyone lay claim to them as theirs! David truly attributed all his victories to the Lord and regarded everything he had as gifts from God!

I am sure he held no grudges against those who stayed behind at all. He knew that they had wives and children who were taken captive too (30:22). If they were strong enough, they would have gone with him. However, if they were not strong enough and forced themselves to go along, they would only turn out to be David’s liability! Indeed, everyone is differently gifted. Some are strong and some are weak physically, but each has his God-assigned role. We should not value anyone in God’s family based on outward appearance and visible contributions. David’s directive in this case shows us what a God-centered leader he was!

However, I am equally impressed with his generosity. He shared his plunder with many of the towns in Judah who likely had been raided by the Amalekites before. While some commentators saw this as a smart move by David to “buy votes” in the future for his kingship, I think David’s motive was more of expressing his gratitude to many of these towns who had been kind to him during his flight from Saul. Those were “his friends” in his time of need (30:26)! This leader after God’s own heart also had a heart of gratitude!

Meditative Reflection
A Life of Regrets

“So Saul and his three sons and his armor bearer and all his men died together that same day.” (1 Sam. 31:6)

As we come to the end of 1 Samuel, we have also come to the end of Saul’s life which ended in the most tragic fashion — he and his three sons died together on the same day. But what makes his death ever more pitiful is the fact that his life ended in a fashion very similar to that of Eli, the unfaithful high priest who honored his sons more than God.

The death of the two wicked sons of Eli was predicted by the man of God (2:34) and they died in the battle against the Philistines; Eli also died on the same day breaking his neck in the process. In a similar way, the death of Saul and his sons was also prophesied by the man of God (28:19), and Saul’s head was cut off by the Philistines. But somehow, I feel that the death of Saul was far more tragic. Consider the following:

a. He lived during a time when Israel was experiencing a spiritual transformation under Samuel: He benefited from the teaching of Samuel; he even participated in this process of reformation. His driving out of all mediums and spiritists was a case in point (28:3).

b. He experienced personally the coming upon him of the Spirit of God (10:10) and the empowering of God in gaining victory over their enemies.

c. Unlike Eli, Saul had at least a son, Jonathan, who was godly, honest and courageous enough to point out the erring way of his father (19:4-5); not to mention he had the company of the prophet, Samuel, who cared deeply about him and prayed for him (16:1).

Not that Eli had any excuse for his follies, but he was quite alone in his spiritual dark hole. On the contrary, Saul was surrounded by godly men and was given many opportunities for repentance.

Both Eli and Saul knew that they had not obeyed the Lord. When told of God’s punishment, Eli was simply resigned to accept what he thought was the inevitable result. Saul, however, continued to fight against the will of God till the very end. Both brought shame to the name of the Lord and His people! Both lived a life of great regret!