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The solution to Saul's bad precedent, part 16

After David spared King Saul’s life a second time, and after Saul repented again for persecuting David, David still did not trust Saul. When Saul returned to his home in Gibeah, David decided to escape to the land of the Philistines. We read in 1 Samuel 27:1, 2,

¹ Then David said to himself, “Now I will perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape into the land of the Philistines. Saul then will despair of searching for me anymore in all the territory of Israel, and I will escape from his hand. ² So David arose and crossed over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath.

Recall that David had already gone to the city of Gath earlier (1 Samuel 21:10), but because he did not feel safe there, he feigned insanity and soon returned to the land of Judah. Therefore, to return to Gath shows that David felt much too vulnerable in the land of Judah and even far away in the land of Ziph.

This time David made some kind of an arrangement with the king of Gath so that he was granted asylum as a political refugee. Perhaps the king of Gath had heard how Saul was trying to kill David, so he believed that David was no longer a threat to the Philistines. David and his men were able to send for their families to live with them in the town of Ziklag, a town about 30 miles from Gath. It was located in the Negev near the southern border of Judah. 1 Samuel 27:3, 6 says,

³ And David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s widow… ⁶ So Achish gave him Ziklag that day; therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day.

The Prophetic Type

David was a prophetic type of Christ; David’s 600 men and their families formed a prophetic type of the early church when many were scattered because of Saul’s persecution (Acts 8:1).

The number 600 itself signifies “the world,” because the Greek word cosmos (“world” or “world order”) has a numeric value of 600. Years later, when David was king, he bought the threshing floor of Ornan (or Arunah) with a downpayment of 50 shekels of silver (2 Samuel 24:24) and later paid the full amount of 600 shekels of gold (1 Chronicles 21:25). The number 50 is a Pentecostal number, and 600 is a world number.

This threshing floor became the site of Solomon’s temple, which was said to be “a house of prayer for all the peoples” (Isaiah 56:7; 1 Kings 8:41, 42). It was never meant to be a house of prayer for Israelites alone. Neither was this temple ever supposed to have a dividing wall that separated Israelites from foreigners.

The two purchase prices signify that the House of God was not only for Pentecostal believers but also for the entire world. The temple in Jesus’ day had not allowed foreigners to draw near to God, restricting them to the outer court along with the women; but the prophetic pattern of David shows the true Temple of God (Ephesians 2:20-22) gives all people equal rights to approach God.

David’s 600 men is a reflection of this. Not only did they settle their families outside the border of Judah in a foreign country, but also the number 600 pointed to the gospel of Christ going out beyond the borders of Judah (and Israel). This was brought about by Saul’s persecution in David’s time, and again by Saul’s persecution in Acts 8:1.

After Saul’s conversion, and after Saul took his New Covenant name (Paul), God told him, “I will send you far away to the Gentiles” (Acts 22:21). We see, then, how God used Saul’s persecution to break through the borders and to bring the gospel to the world. During Old Testament times, the truth of the word was largely confined to the small territory of Israel, which was a type and shadow of the “better country”) that Abraham foresaw (Hebrews 11:16).

Philistines Loyal to David

David must have preached the gospel to the Philistines during his sojourn in Ziklag. We know this because many years later, when Absalom usurped the throne of David, there were 600 Philistines who remained loyal to him. As David withdrew from Jerusalem, he was accompanied by 600 Philistines who were David’s trusted bodyguards. 2 Samuel 15:18-21 says,

¹⁸ Now all his servants passed on beside him, all the Cherethites [literally, “executioners”], all the Pelethites [“couriers”], and all the Gittites, six hundred men who had come with him from Gath, passed on before the king. ¹⁹ Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why will you also go with us? Return and remain with the king, for you are a foreigner and also an exile; return to your own place. ²⁰ You came only yesterday, and shall I today make you wander with us, while I go where I will? Return and take back your brothers; mercy and truth be with you.” ²¹ But Ittai answered the king and said, “As the Lord lives, and as my lord the king lives, surely wherever my lord the king may be, whether for death or for life, there also your servant will be.”

From a prophetic standpoint, these 600 men from Gath represented the church, those who were loyal to Jesus Christ when Caiaphas, playing the role of Absalom, usurped the throne of Christ. How did these 600 Gittites become so loyal to David? We are not told in Scripture, but when David said, “you came only yesterday,” this is not to be taken literally. It emphasizes the fact that these Gittites were recent immigrants to Israel, apparently exiled by the king of Gath for their apostasy from Dagon, the main god of Gath.

So while there is a long historical gap between David’s exile and refugee status in Ziklag to the 600 Philistines who had been exiled to Jerusalem, we can say for sure that this prophesied how the gospel was preached to foreigners who were loyal to Jesus Christ. Ittai’s name means “with me,” implying either that Ittai was “with” (loyal to) David or that “Yahweh is with me.” Certainly, he was loyal to David, but it may be that his name refers to his loyalty to the God of Israel.

Time Spent in Ziklag

1 Samuel 27:7 says,

⁷ The number of days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months.

Then David decided to attack certain tribes in the Negev to increase the territory of the Philistines. This confirmed to King Achish that David could be trusted, for we read in 1 Samuel 27:12,

¹² So Achish believed David, saying, “He has surely made himself odious among his people Israel; therefore he will become my servant forever.”

Achish was either unaware or did not believe that David was to succeed Saul as king of Israel. So he thought that David would remain in Philistia and serve him forever. Yet the end of Saul’s reign was rapidly approaching. By this time David had recruited 600 loyal Philistines, who probably assisted his own 600 men in the battles in the Negev.

The next chapter tells the story of Saul consulting the witch of En-dor the night before he was killed in battle. So we may assume that David’s exile in Philistia was soon to end and that he had reached the age of thirty.

Urdu Translation