10 ¶And
David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of
Gath.
11 And
the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land?
did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his
thousands, and David his ten thousands?
12 And
David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king
of Gath.
13 And he
changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and
scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his
beard.
14 Then
said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have
ye brought him to me?
15 Have I
need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my
presence? shall this fellow come into my house? (1 Sam 21:10-15)
As context for this,
David goes to Gath after he has collected Goliath’s sword and the shewbread
from Ahimelech the priest, and before that, he took his leave from Jonathan, since
it was plain that Saul was evil-disposed to him.
It’s pretty startling
he goes to Gath, considering Goliath the Philistine was from there. Maybe David hoped that Gath would be
the last place Saul would look for him and hoped he would be safe there. He evidently trusted that no one from
Gath would have a clue who he was.
Sadly, he was
wrong. Achish’s servants somehow
recognize David and connect him with the song the Israelite women had sung of
him about how Saul killed thousands and David ten thousands. It is interesting that they know enough
to have heard the song, but not enough to realize it was an exaggeration. Instead, they interpret it to mean that
David has to have become king or
succeeded to the throne on the grounds that he is 10 times better a warrior
than Saul.
We see from this that
the song has some legs to have spread so far. The only other way the servants could have known about it is
if they had been in Israel at the time.
But if they had, they probably would have learned the correct context
and true status of David.
So the servants
inform their king about David, presumably while David is standing there, and
David gets very worried because now he doesn’t know what to expect. Any hopes of blending in are gone. But it is unclear what Achish will
decide to do. If he thinks David
is king of Israel, he may kill him or enslave him or torture him or deliver him
to Goliath’s family for their revenge, or whatever.
The other problem
David has is that if he tries to explain the song and argue that he’s not king,
he may be disbelieved anyway on the grounds that he is being cowardly out of
self-preservation.
What to do?
David pretends
madness to demonstrate his
harmlessness. We don’t get a full
recitation what all he did, but the text tells us he scrabbled at the gates
(which would have seemed really crazy if he pretended he was desperate to get
out when he was already out and the gates were wide open) and he let his
spittle fall on his beard (essentially drooling). These two actions show us he pretended histrionic delusions
and loss of control of his bodily functions, which would excite both pity and
disgust.
They finally are
convinced of his harmlessness and he leaves.
What can we learn
from this story to help us today?
I think it shows how exaggerated statements about people spread and can
eventually cause unintended harm.
The women who sang that song probably never imagined that the lyrics
would put David at risk among his enemies. They would have been horrified if they knew. Ironic that even exaggerated praise (as
well as insults or gossip) can harm.
Another lesson from
David’s experience might be from the fear that David had. It is clear from the story that he
wanted to stay anonymous among the Philistines and having his cover blown made
him fear what they would do to him.
But suppose he had made an offer like Ammon made in the Book of Mormon,
to dwell among them and serve the king perhaps until his death? In this way, he could have made his
notoriety into an asset for service instead of a point of fear. It is worth noting that later David
comes back to Gath with an army of 600 men and offers his services to this same
king, so it is possible that he needed a chance to do this over.
How has trying to be of
service helped you overcome fear?
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