1 David thought to himself, "Sooner or later, Saul's going to get me. The best thing I can do is escape to Philistine country. Saul will count me a lost cause and quit hunting me down in every nook and cranny of Israel. I'll be out of his reach for good."
2-4 So David left; he and his six hundred men went to Achish son of Maoch, king of Gath. They moved in and settled down in Gath, with Achish. Each man brought his household; David brought his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, widow of Nabal of Carmel. When Saul was told that David had escaped to Gath, he called off the hunt.
David stopped talking to God and talked to himself. He's stating that Saul's going to kill me sooner or later. I'm tired of hiding so I might as well go to the enemy's camp and he won't look for me any more. He stopped believing that God would protect him. Saul did call off the hunt but if you read the whole Chapter 27 (see I'm giving you homework now but it's just so good), you will see that it didn't work out all that well for David. He went through a whole lot more than if he would have stayed in the caves and let God work in his life. Very often we do the same thing as David. We stop listening to God and listen to ourselves and try to take control of our situation.
David was in unbelief, which is a sin and let fear take over - he stopped trusting in God. Before he went to Gath (the enemy's camp), he went to different cities in Israel and started lying and stealing to try to get a safe place to stay. He not only isn't trusting God, now he's starting to lie, cheat and steal to be safe. When he can't get guaranteed safety there, he goes to Gath. There he makes a deal with the Philistine king there - Achish (who are enemies of God). The king thinks it's a good idea to have someone who is a fugitive of Israel and who has an army to live in his kingdom. So he welcomes him and even gives David a city named Ziglag, which was south of Gath and some think that the city was about 43 miles southwest of Jerusalem (see there's a lot of history in the Bible). Anyway I'm getting wordy again. Just keep reading because the king thought that David would be a fugitive of Israel forever and therefore would be a servant of his.
David forgot about God's mercy and His promise of protection. Sometimes smart people make foolish decisions. How many times have we decided to listen to ourselves and not God when we feel like there's no other way out? Instead of trusting Him, we go into the enemy's camp and live with the enemy. David stayed in Gath a little over a year...that's a long time to be away from the Lord. Unbelief drags us down lower and lower. It sad that sometimes as God's people we follow the same road.
Anyway I love reading about David because he went through so much and he still loved God. I think we can be like David in a lot of ways.
