Action Without Counsel

 DEVOTION

1^ST SAMUEL

ACTION WITHOUT COUNSEL

1 Samuel 27

27:1 But David thought to himself, "One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand." 2 So David and the six hundred men with him left and went over to Achish son of Maoch king of Gath. 3 David and his men settled in Gath with Achish. Each man had his family with him, and David had his two wives: Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, the widow of Nabal. 4 When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him. 5 Then David said to Achish, "If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be assigned to me in one of the country towns, that I may live there. Why should your servant live in the royal city with you?" 6 So on that day Achish gave him Ziklag, and it has belonged to the kings of Judah ever since. 7 David lived in Philistine territory a year and four months. 8 Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites and the Amalekites. (From ancient times these peoples had lived in the land extending to Shur and Egypt.) 9 Whenever David attacked an area, he did not leave a man or woman alive, but took sheep and cattle, donkeys and camels, and clothes. Then he returned to Achish. 10 When Achish asked, "Where did you go raiding today?" David would say, "Against the Negev of Judah" or "Against the Negev of Jerahmeel" or "Against the Negev of the Kenites." 11 He did not leave a man or woman alive to be brought to Gath, for he thought, "They might inform on us and say, 'This is what David did.'" And such was his practice as long as he lived in Philistine territory. 12 Achish trusted David and said to himself, "He has become so odious to his people, the Israelites, that he will be my servant forever."

NIV

Why did David flee to the enemy of Israel? We are told the reason was that he thought Saul would not pursue him in the territory of the enemy of Israel. But David’s conduct is not proper. Seeking the protection of Achish, a Philistine king, but then he raids the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites and lies about it, telling Achish that he raided places in Israel. We cannot condone the actions of David, for he killed every last man and woman, leaving none alive, for the expressed reason that they could not be a witness against him. How can this be part of the word of God? Why would the Lord want us to know this unacceptable behavior of David, a man God testified was a man after his own heart? David was not acting like he was a man after God’s heart, but rather acting from his own heart, which at this moment was not righteous. We do not see God vindicating David or giving any approval, yet for some reason, this inspired writer put this in the record. What can we learn from this? We believe the first course of any action should be to consult the Lord. We are not told that David asked the LORD what he was to do, but acted purely on his own heart’s desire. We can take the lesson from this narrative that we must first seek the counsel of the Lord, and we must always speak the truth. David did neither, yet we should endeavor to do both. We know that we live under a little different circumstances than David did, as our lives are governed by the laws of our land, and raiding and taking plunder is just not our way of life. However, we still should not make decisions about anything important without consulting our Lord. This should include those major areas of our life, like where we live, work, and worship. We should also be asking the Lord about the smaller things of life; in fact, we would be wise to simply look for the light that illuminates our path. How can we make any decision based on human understanding when we are so flawed? We understand many, if not most, of those who live in the world base all their decisions and choices on human understanding, but we believers must be different. We should base all our decisions and choices on the wisdom of God, and the only way we can do that is to seek his advice on every matter. We cannot afford to take action without counsel.