SortingBeans

This post will focus primarily
on the geographical situation and places David had fled from Saul. And likewise, Saul pursuing David. I was debating whether or not this would be beneficial to include and have determined it is. You will see my reasoning in my closing comments.

This is the geographical flee of David from Saul, in numerical order: (sorry, no pictures!)
As he is situated in Gibeah (1); he fled to Samuel in Ramah (2 [1 Sam. 19:18]); headed back south to Gibeah where he hid behind the “stone heap” (3 [20:1]); traveled south again to Nob (4 [21:1]) where he visited Ahimelech the priest; then went west to Gath (5 [21:10]) as he crossed over the Judean Shephelah; east to the cave of Adullam (6 [22:1]) where he met his family and won the hearts of the people there who were “distressed” and “bitter in soul”, which gained him “about four hundred men” (1 Sam. 22:1-3). After this, he traveled an extreme distance through the Judean wilderness, probably across the Lisan and into the land of Moab (7 [22:3]) where he left his parents in the care of the King of Mizpeh (1 Sam. 22:3); headed back east to the Stronghold (8 [22:4]), which in this case would pose a little difficulty on David and his men; was told by a prophet of Gad to leave, so he fled to the forest of Hereth in the land of Judah – which had to be west, the Judean wilderness, since he was at that time in the stronghold – (9 [22:5]) which is apparently not where he and his men wanted to be (23:3); moved west back into the Shephelah to Keilah (10 [23:5]) where he and his men defeated the Philistines and plundered them (23:5).

Now, Saul heard of their location there and said,
“God has given him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars” (23:7). This is a city with one road crossing through it that travels from Azekah, to Adullam, to Keilah, to Nezib, and south toward Beer-sheba. Along with the mountainous terrain, Keilah had the Shephelah to its west (which is also where the Philistines and the King of Gath were, whom David did not get along well with either of them), no roads leading to the north, so David and his men (about 600) went “wherever they could go” (23:13) to flee from Saul and remained in the wilderness of Ziph (11 [23:14]). David and his men ended up in the wilderness of Maon “in the Arabah, south of Jeshimon” (12 [23:24]). It was here where Saul had nearly enclosed David and his men (23:26), but as it turned out, a messenger had informed Saul, “the Philistines have made a raid against the land” (23:27). In this event, God had spared David. David then went to the strongholds of Engedi (13 [23:29]). This is here where David had an opportunity to kill Saul (which will be discussed later). Rather, David spared Saul’s life and they departed, with David going to the stronghold (14 [24:22]). David then went to wilderness of Paran (15[25:1]), which was probably due west of Carmel since he was near Carmel (25:5) and had just left the Stronghold. It was here that David, once again, spared Saul’s life (26:11). Saul and David departed from this place and David then went to Gath (16 [27:3]), where Saul’s pursuit of David ends (27:4).

Why did David flee to the places he did?
Maybe it was because he was already familiar with the land of the wilderness, as he was once a shepherd boy. One thing that could be confidently believed is that both David and Saul’s motivation for pursuing and fleeing is that of fear. However, the dynamics of how each of them responded to their fear is quite a different outcome. When Saul is consumed by his jealousy and fear of David taking over the Kingdom, he reacted in evil and violent ways. 1 Samuel 19 shows Saul’s anger toward his son Jonathan as Saul learns that Jonathan had relieved David from having to appear before Saul at the special meal. And this, we will look at next post!

I know there has been a lot of geographical context here, but once we learn all the places David fled to – and Saul pursuing – we learn that whatever was motivating them was a pretty strong force. In short, fear can act as a great motivator. This however, I am not suggesting that fear was the entire motivator, but it played a central role and it is this concept we are drawing our lesson from.

See you on the other side of the next post as we explore some behavior traits of both David and Saul!