1 Samuel 23:17 - The Biblical Illustrator

Reader Related Verse
Bible Comments

Arise, go down to Keilah.

The training in the wilderness

The contrast between David at Nob or Gath and at Hareth and Keilah is most marked.

1. It is God’s will he desires to know (1 Samuel 23:4). Truly David at this time waited only upon God, and his expectation was from Jehovah (Psalms 62:1-12). Hunger for Divine guidance is a gracious sign! The Master blessed such (Matthew 5:6). Such a state of heart is preparation surely for larger blessing.

2. Obedience and humble reliance upon God may not lessen difficulties? David’s own people oppose his advance upon Keilah. So he and his enter Keilah. All now is well surely! Yes, all is well, but it looked not so. Strange that in obeying God he found more difficulties! Not so if we understand he is in training for the crown. Is this not so of all those who are unto God a nation of priestly kings? Not a murmur escapes David’s lips. Into Ziph, a small place at the edge of the Southern desert, David enters, concealing himself in the ravines there. The time spent in Ziph was a time of separation and solitariness.

3. Obedience leading to apparently hopeless disaster. To seek the favour of the king the Ziphites send word to him of David. Deceit generally sets its face toward power. It is well to be on the side which looks like winning at any rate. From their point of view their “part” might be justified. What can we say, however, concerning Soul’s reception of these Ziphites? What a whimpering, hypocritical utterance: “Blessed be ye of the Lord, for ye have compassion on me!” How horrid the “forms” of piety when the thing itself is gone! A benediction in the name of God from Saul! Success is with these plotters! They track their prey. Before Saul and his men David flees down the face of the rock into the wilderness. Here truly they are enclosing him in the net they have spread. Strangers had risen up against him, and the oppressor sought for his soul. (Psalms 54:3). Hope began to droop her wings. (1 Samuel 23:27). Times of deepest distress are hours of God’s deliverances. Have we no record indelibly written of God’s delivering mercy?--no place called Sela-hammahlekoth (1 Samuel 23:28), or Rock of Divisions, to which memory leads? Psalms 54:1-7, ascribed to this period, tells of calmness of heart during this exciting time, “Behold, God is mine helper” (verse 4). (H. E. Stone.)

Related Commentaries of 1 Samuel 23:4

1 Samuel 23:4-26

4 Then David enquired of the LORD yet again. And the LORD answered him and said, Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand.

5 So David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and smote them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.

6 And it came to pass, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand.

7 And it was told Saul that David was come to Keilah. And Saul said, God hath delivered him into mine hand; for he is shut in, by entering into a town that hath gates and bars.

8 And Saul called all the people together to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men.

9 And David knew that Saul secretly practised mischief against him; and he said to Abiathar the priest, Bring hither the ephod.

10 Then said David, O LORD God of Israel, thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake.

11 Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? will Saul come down, as thy servant hath heard? O LORD God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy servant. And the LORD said, He will come down.

12 Then said David, Will the men of Keilah delivera me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the LORD said, They will deliver thee up.

13 Then David and his men, which were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go. And it was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah; and he forbare to go forth.

14 And David abode in the wilderness in strong holds, and remained in a mountain in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God delivered him not into his hand.

15 And David saw that Saul was come out to seek his life: and David was in the wilderness of Ziph in a wood.

16 And Jonathan Saul's son arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God.

17 And he said unto him, Fear not: for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee; and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that also Saul my father knoweth.

18 And they two made a covenant before the LORD: and David abode in the wood, and Jonathan went to his house.

19 Then came up the Ziphites to Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself with us in strong holds in the wood, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon?

20 Now therefore, O king, come down according to all the desire of thy soul to come down; and our part shall be to deliver him into the king's hand.

21 And Saul said, Blessed be ye of the LORD; for ye have compassion on me

22 Go, I pray you, prepare yet, and know and see his place where his hauntb is, and who hath seen him there: for it is told me that he dealeth very subtilly.

23 See therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking places where he hideth himself, and come ye again to me with the certainty, and I will go with you: and it shall come to pass, if he be in the land, that I will search him out throughout all the thousands of Judah.

24 And they arose, and went to Ziph before Saul: but David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the plain on the south of Jeshimon.

25 Saul also and his men went to seek him. And they told David: wherefore he came down into a rock, and abode in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon.

26 And Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain: and David made haste to get away for fear of Saul; for Saul and his men compassed David and his men round about to take them.