We live with a very short-term focus. It is inevitable given our limited number of years and our limited knowledge. We make decisions based on the best information we have to hand, and hope that things work out. The implications of our decisions we may never fully recognise.
But God does. God has a plan, and knows how things will plan out – he orders it that way. In these verses we see God’s long hand of providence working out, once again in goodness towards David and his family. God’s goodness to David reminds us that this is part of a greater plan. One where God rescues his people from their sins through Jesus.
With Saul’s murderous intent clear, David had desperately fled Saul’s immediate reach. He had acquired food and weapons, and fled outside of King Saul’s realm looking for sanctuary. Unfortunately there he was recognised and had to pretend madness to escape Philistine vengeance. In these acts, we see a man acting out of desperation and not dependence, yet at the same time God’s goodness toward David.
After escaping Philistine lands, David fled back into Saul’s domain to hide in “the cave of Adullam” (v.1). This cave was near a town in the low hills in the west of Judah’s tribal lands. Lands that would be more inclined to keep a fellow tribesman safe from a vengeful Benjaminite king.
Word of David’s whereabouts eventually quietly made its way to David’s family, who themselves went down to him (v.1). David’s parents would have been getting on, and the entire family would have been at risk from King Saul, because they would be tempting hostages to coax David out of hiding (if not to kill since they could not get at him).
But David’s family were not the only ones who came. Saul’s madness meant that many would have found themselves his enemies, whether warranted or not. It seems many of those who were “in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him” (v.2).
David may have been in exile, but he had already begun to gather around himself the core of a new kingdom, made up of rejects and undesirables. He “became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men” (v.2). A relatively small but still effective group. God’s hand of providence, at work.
After that, “David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab” (v.3). There, he asked the king, “Please let my father and my mother stay with you, till I know what God will do for me” (v.3). David was looking out for his parents, to ensure they were kept safe out of Saul’s reach.
No doubt David was relieved to find somewhere his parents would be safe, and they stayed there a considerable time (v.4).
While the choice of Moab seems odd, and the Moabite king’s willingness to boot, we must not forget that David was part Moabite. David was descended from Ruth, who was his great-grandmother. Family ties ran thicker then than now, but essentially David was flashing his Moabite passport to ensure his family were protected. God’s providential hand at work, again.
Finally, God’s providential hand spoke by sending Gad the prophet (perhaps from Samuel) to tell David “Do not remain in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah” (v.5). David was not to hide away in another country, but to return to his tribal lands, the lands he would one day rule.
“So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth” (v.5). David listened to God’s guidance, providentially provided through a prophet. Providential guidance that was not provided to his now foe, King Saul.
Who would have thought that David’s great-grandfather would be a providential means of God to show goodness to David and his family? God did. God knew what would happen as part of his plan, and part of his ordering of affairs ensured this moment of provision for David, on the run from Saul.
But it was part of something bigger than just David. A long time in the days yet to come from David’s perspective, another king would be despised and rejected, marked for execution.
He too would gather a motley crew of followers. Fishermen, tax collectors, revolutionaries (“zealots”), and women (who were not highly esteemed in his day), and form them into the core of a new kingdom.
That man was Jesus. A descendant of David, and of Ruth. Those motley rejects were his disciples, and became the core of the Church, representing God’s Kingdom here on earth. All part of God’s plan. His long arm of providence.
That is the God we serve. Who looks out for us and cares for us. Who secured our salvation not through sanctuary in another country, but through Jesus’ death on the Cross for our sins. Whose long providential plan was set out all along, with even the minor details worked out.
That is a God who is good. That is a God we can trust.
