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1 Samuel
Chapter Twenty-nine
1 Samuel 29
Chapter Contents
David objected to by the Philistines. (1-5) He is
dismissed by Achish. (6-11)
Commentary on 1 Samuel 29:1-5
(Read 1 Samuel 29:1-5)
David waited with a secret hope that the Lord would help
him out of his difficulty. But he seems to have been influenced too much by the
fear of man, in consenting to attend Achish. It is hard to come near to the
brink of sin, and not to fall in. God inclined the princes of the Philistines
to oppose David's being employed in the battle. Thus their dislike befriended
him, when no friend could do him such a kindness.
Commentary on 1 Samuel 29:6-11
(Read 1 Samuel 29:6-11)
David scarcely ever had a greater deliverance than when
dismissed from such insnaring service. God's people should always behave
themselves so, as, if possible, to get the good word of all they have dealings
with: and it is due to those who have acted well, to speak well of them.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 1 Samuel》
1 Samuel 29
Verse 2
[2] And
the lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds, and by thousands: but David
and his men passed on in the rereward with Achish.
With Achish — As
the life-guard of Achish. Achish being, as it seems, the general of the army.
Verse 3
[3] Then said the princes of the Philistines, What do these Hebrews here? And
Achish said unto the princes of the Philistines, Is not this David, the servant
of Saul the king of Israel, which hath been with me these days, or these years,
and I have found no fault in him since he fell unto me unto this day?
The princes —
The Lords of the other eminent cities, who were confederate with him in this
expedition.
These days or years —
That is, did I say days? I might have said years. He hath now been with me a
full year and four months, chap. 27:7, and he was with me some years ago, 1 Samuel 21:10, and since their time hath been
known to me. And it is not improbable, but David, after his escape from thence,
might hold some correspondence with Achish, as finding him to be a man of a
more generous temper than the rest of the Philistines, and supposing that he
might have need of him for a refuge, in case Saul continued to seek his life.
Since he fell —
Revolted, or left his own king to turn to me.
Verse 4
[4] And
the princes of the Philistines were wroth with him; and the princes of the
Philistines said unto him, Make this fellow return, that he may go again to his
place which thou hast appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle,
lest in the battle he be an adversary to us: for wherewith should he reconcile
himself unto his master? should it not be with the heads of these men?
Make this fellow —
Herein the wise and gracious providence of God appeared, both in helping him
out of these difficulties, out of which no human wit could have extricated him,
but he must have been, an ungrateful person either to the one or the other
side, and moreover in giving him the happy opportunity of recovering his own,
and his all from the Amalekites, which had been irrecoverably lost, if he had
gone into this battle. And the kindness of God to David was the greater, because
it had been most just for God to have left David in those distresses into which
his own sinful counsel had brought him.
These men —
That is, of these our soldiers, they speak according to the rules of true
policy; for by this very course, great enemies have sometimes been reconciled
together.
Verse 8
[8] And
David said unto Achish, But what have I done? and what hast thou found in thy
servant so long as I have been with thee unto this day, that I may not go fight
against the enemies of my lord the king?
David said … —
This was deep dissimulation and flattery, no way to be justified. None knows,
how strong a temptation they are in to compliment and dissemble, which they are
in who attend great men.
Verse 9
[9] And Achish answered and said to David, I know that thou art good in my
sight, as an angel of God: notwithstanding the princes of the Philistines have
said, He shall not go up with us to the battle.
Angel of God — In
whom nothing is blame-worthy. The Heathens acknowledged good spirits, which
also they worshipped as an inferior sort of deities, who were messengers and
ministers to the supreme God; Achish had learned the title of angels, from the
Israelites his neighbours, and especially from David's conversation.
Verse 11
[11] So
David and his men rose up early to depart in the morning, to return into the
land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.
Rose up early —
David did not then know, how necessary this was, for the relief of his own
city. But God knew it well, and sent him thither accordingly. On how many
occasions may he say, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know
hereafter?
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 1 Samuel》
29 Chapter 29
Verses 1-11
Verse 3
What do these Hebrews here?
One question with two meanings
David was almost at the lowest point of his fortunes when he fled
into foreign territory. The Philistine commanders, very naturally, were
suspicious of these allies, just as Englishmen would have been if, the night
before Waterloo, a brigade of Frenchmen had deserted and offered their help to
fight, Napoleon. So the question, “What, do these Hebrews here?”--amongst our
ranks--was an extremely natural one, and it was answered in the only possible
way, by the subsequent departure of David and his men from the unnatural and
ill-omened alliance. Now, that suggests to us that Christian people are out of
their places, even in the eyes of worldly people, when they are fighting shoulder
to shoulder with them in certain causes; and it suggests the propriety of
keeping apart. “Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the
Lord.” “What do these Hebrews here?” is a question that, Philistia often asks.
But now turn to the other question. Elijah had fallen into the mood of
depression which so often follows great nervous tension. The usually undaunted
prophet, in the reaction after the great effort, was fearful for his life, and
deserted his work, and flung himself into solitude, and shook the dust off his
feet against Israel. Was that not just doing what I have been saying that
Christian people ought to do--separating himself from the world? In a sense
yes, and the voice came, “What dost thou here, Elijah?” “Go back to your work;
to Ahab, to Jezebel.” “Go back to death if need be. Do not shirk your duty on
the pretence of separating yourself from the world.” So we put the two
questions together. They limit one another, and they suggest the via media, the
course between, and lead me to say one or two plain things about that duty of
Christian separation from an evil world.
I. The first thing
I would suggest to you is the inevitable intermingling, which is the law of
God, and therefore can never be broken with impunity. Christ’s parable about
the Kingdom of Heaven in the world being like a man that sowed good seed in his
field, which sprung up intermingled with tares, contains the lesson, not so
much of the purity or non-purity of the Church as of the inseparable
intertwining in the world of Christian people with others. Society at present,
and the earthly form of the Kingdom of God, are not organised on the basis of
religious affinity, but upon a great many other things, such as family,
kindred, business, a thousand ties of all sorts. There are types of Christian
life today unwholesomely self-engrossed, and too much occupied with their own
spiritual condition, to realize and discharge the duty of witnessing, in the
world. Wherever you find a Christian man that tries more to keep himself apart,
in the enjoyment and cultivation of his own religious life, than to fling
himself into the midst of the world’s worst evil, in order to fight and to cure
it, you get a man who is sharing in Elijah’s transgression, and needs Elijah’s
rebuke. The intermingling is inevitable in the present state of things.
II. And now let me
say a word about the second thing, and that is--the imperative separation.
“What do these Israelites here?” is the question. What do we do when we are
left to do as we like? Where do we go? When the half-cwt fastened by the bit of
string is taken off the sapling it starts back to its original uprightedness.
Is that what, your Christianity does? Let us look at the spirit. Where do I
turn to? What do I like to do? Where are my chosen companions? What are my
recreations? Is my life of such a sort as that the world will turn to ms and
say, “What! you here!” “A man is known by the company he keeps,” says an old
Latin proverb, and I am bound to say that I do not think it is a good sign of
the depth of a Christian professor’s religion if he feels himself more at home
in the company of the people that do not share his religion than in the company
of those that do. There are two questions which every Christian professor ought
to ask himself about such subjects. One is, Can I ask God to bless this, and my
doing it? And the other is, Does this help or hinder my religion?
III. Now there is
one last suggestion that I wish to make, and that is the double questioning
that we shall have to stand. The lords of the Philistines said, “What do these
Hebrews here?” They saw the inconsistency, if David and his men did not. They
were sharp to detect it, and David and his band did not rise in their opinion.
So let me tell you, you will neither recommend your religion nor yourselves to
men of the world, by inconsistently trying to identify yourselves with them.
The world respects an out-and-out Christian; and neither God nor the world
respects an inconsistent one. But there is another question, and another questioner--“What
dost, thou hers, Elijah?” That question is put to us all in the moment when we
are truest to our professions and ourselves. What do you think you would say
if, in some of these moments of unnecessary intermingling with questionable
things and doubtful people, you were brought suddenly to this, that you had to
formulate into some kind of plausibility your reason for being there? Let us
cleave to Christ, and that will separate us from the world. If we cleave to the
world, that will separate us from Christ. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》