David As A Fugitive Series

Scripture

God rejected Saul as king over Israel because of his disobedience, and chose David instead, although he was not immediately coronated. Because of David’s growing popularity with the people, Saul became extremely jealous of David, and tried to kill him. Eventually, Saul’s son Jonathan warned David that his father indeed wanted to kill David. And so David became a fugitive from Saul for many years.

Let’s read about David as a fugitive in 1 Samuel 21:1-15:

1 Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” 2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. 3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” 4 And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5 And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.

7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s herdsmen.

8 Then David said to Ahimelech, “Then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” 9 And the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me.”

10 And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances,

‘Saul has struck down his thousands,

and David his ten thousands’?”

12 And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard. 14 Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? 15 Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?” (1 Samuel 21:1-15)

Introduction

Charles Jenkins had been a good soldier for nine years. He had a Good Conduct Award and had been promoted to sergeant. But on January 5, 1965, after ten days of planning and ten beers, he tied a white tee-shirt to his rifle and defected to the North Koreans. He disappeared in that dark country for nearly forty years, until 2004, when he was able to leave North Korea to seek medical treatment in Japan. Shortly after that he turned himself in to U. S. military authorities. At his court martial, the frail, tearful 64-year-old soldier pled guilty to desertion. He told the judge, “Ma’am, I am in fact guilty.”

Why did he walk away from his unit and his country? He said he fled because he was afraid he’d be transferred to dangerous daytime patrols in the Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas, or worse, Vietnam. Jenkins wept as he described his depression, fears of death, and heavy drinking leading up to his desertion. He thought he’d be returned home, but instead he suffered under harsh conditions all his life. “I knew 100 percent what I was doing, but I did not know the consequences,” said Jenkins. It was 20 years before anyone in America even knew he was alive.

King-elect David had been a good soldier for a number of years too. He was the only one in Israel who was willing to fight Goliath, the Philistine. David prevailed over Goliath with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him (1 Samuel 17:50). Then David cut off Goliath’s head with Goliath’s own sword (17:51). Later, David had numerous successful campaigns against the Philistines, prompting the women of Israel to sing, “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands” (18:7).