So David left, fleeing from Saul, and went to King Achish of Gath. The king’s officials said to Achish, “Isn’t this David, the king of his country? This is the man about whom the women sang, as they danced, ‘Saul has killed thousands, but David has killed tens of thousands.’”
How word spreads fast (1 Samuel 18:7)! Interesting that the Philistines thought that David was king.
Their words made a deep impression on David, and he became very much afraid of King Achish. So whenever David was around them, he pretended to be insane and acted like a madman when they tried to restrain him; he would scribble on the city gates and let spit drool down his beard. So Achish said to his officials, “Look! The man is crazy! Why did you bring him to me? Don’t I have enough madmen already?”
David fled from the city of Gath and went to a cave near the town of Adullam.
Psalm 57. David in a cave, Jeremiah in a well (Jeremiah 38:6), the Messiah covered in rags in a barn (Luc 2:8-12), …
When his brothers and the rest of the family heard that he was there, they joined him. People who were oppressed or in debt or dissatisfied went to him, about four hundred men in all, and he became their leader.
Outcasts, misfits, marginals, undesirables – what the world rejects you accept, Father (Hebrews 11:35-38; Matthew 9:10-11; 1 Corinthiens 1:26; Matthew 11:25). How your ways and thoughts exceed our own (Isaiah 55:8-9)!
David went on from there to Mizpah in Moab and said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and mother come and stay with you until I find out what God is going to do for me.” So David left his parents with the king of Moab, and they stayed there as long as David was hiding out in the cave.
Marvelous. Intervening on behalf of others even (especially?) when our own lives are in danger (John 19:25-27; 1 Samuel 23:1-5). OTHERS.