Daily Devotional for Monday, August 14

David Feigns

“And David saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring tidings to Gath, saying, Lest they should tell on us, saying, So did David, and so will be his manner all the while he dwelleth in the country of the Philistines. And Achish believed David, saying, He hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant for ever,” 1 Samuel 27:11, 12.

“And David saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring tidings to Gath, saying, Lest they should tell on us, saying, So did David, and so will be his manner all the while he dwelleth in the country of the Philistines. 12 And Achish believed David, saying, He hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant for ever.” 1 Samuel 27:11,12

David’s feign was a great show, but it was not a ruse.  A ruse is a trick while, to feign, means to give a false appearance. David had already been anointed as the next king of Israel. He was living among the Philistines, but this did not change the fact that God’s people were his people.  There was war between Israel and the Philistines and tactics of war sometimes call for false appearance.    All of the safety of David’s men and their families depended on Achish believing that David was an enemy of Israel and useful to the Philistines.

There are several other places in the Bible where there are examples of when false appearance or misleading information is used against the enemy. In Exodus 1, the midwives deceive Pharaoh who had ordered the death of all the Hebrew baby boys.  God deals well with the midwives and their family for this.  In Joshua 2, Rahab deceives the king of Jericho about the whereabouts of the spies she had hidden on her rooftop. We find Rahab in the lineage of Christ.

We must be careful when we come to these situations in our own life.  David himself wrote in Psalm 15 that truth in the heart and no slander on the tongue were requisites to a close relationship with God. The apostle John reminds us that it is the truth that sets us free (John 8:32). Don’t use the Biblical examples as an excuse in your life to partner with the father of lies.

THOUGHT: Seek the Holy Spirit diligently in all your ways and think carefully before you feign.

David Thompson