Feigned and True Alliance

1 Samuel 27:1-12
    1 And David said in his heart, “Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me anymore in any part of Israel. So I shall escape out of his hand.” 2 Then David arose and went over with the six hundred men who were with him to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 3 So David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's widow. 4 And it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath; so he sought him no more. 5 Then David said to Achish, “If I have now found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?” 6 So Achish gave him Ziklag that day. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. 7 Now the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was one full year and four months.
    8 And David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. For those nations were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as you go to Shur, even as far as the land of Egypt. 9 Whenever David attacked the land, he left neither man nor woman alive, but took away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the apparel, and returned and came to Achish. 10 Then Achish would say, “Where have you made a raid today?” And David would say, “Against the southern area of Judah, or against the southern area of the Jerahmeelites, or against the southern area of the Kenites.” 11 David would save neither man nor woman alive, to bring news to Gath, saying, “Lest they should inform on us, saying, ‘Thus David did.’ ” And thus was his behavior all the time he dwelt in the country of the Philistines. 12 So Achish believed David, saying, “He has made his people Israel utterly abhor him; therefore he will be my servant forever.”

After David escaped Saul’s pursuit with a temporary truce, he feigned an alliance with the enemy Philistines in Gath where Saul would not find him.  He took his six hundred men and was given a remote town called Ziklag to base his covert operations from.  David and his small army would attack the people which the LORD originally commanded Israel to wipe out to inhabit the promised land, namely the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites (Joshua 13:1-7).  David’s band of brothers and utterly wiped out each town and city of Israel’s enemies to both fulfill the original command as well as to keep the Philistines from knowing that he was not allied on their side as it seemed; his alliance was solidly with God’s people, and he fought God’s battles safely without Saul’s threats.  The enemy king in Gath praised David for the hidden false accounts of attacks in Judah, remaining hidden in plain sight while doing the work given to Israel by the hand of Joshua through Moses as commanded by the LORD (Joshua 23:4-5).  David was actually held in high regard by his enemy while hiding from the enemy ruler of his own people whom God had rejected.  This feigned alliance worked the purposes of the LORD well.  We should not seek to imitate this approach, yet who knows if the Lord will call us to live hidden in a land opposed to Christ such as in the Middle East or China, enabling us to spread the gospel?  This could be as a business man or woman who delivers God’s word while appearing to be a friend of the oppressive government as has been done by many missionaries.  We must carefully use but not misuse these things for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 7:31).  Our alliances in this world may be feigned, but our true alliance with the Lord Christ cannot be hidden from Him.