- 83-
When Abiathar reached David, he was already on his way from the forest of Hareth
to Keilah.^208 Tidings had come to David of a Philistine raid against Keilah, close on
the border - the modern Kilah, about six miles to the south-east of Adullam.
Keilah was a walled city, and therefore not itself in immediate danger. But there was
plenty of plunder to be obtained outside its walls; and henceforth no threshing-floor
on the heights above the city was safe from the Philistines. Here was a call for the
proper employment of a band like David's. But his followers had not yet learned the
lessons of trust which he had been taught. Although the expedition for the relief of
Keilah had been undertaken after "inquiry," and by direction of the Lord, his men
shrank from provoking an attack by the Philistines at the same time that they were in
constant apprehension of what might happen if Saul overtook them. So little did they
as yet understand either the source of their safety or the object of their gathering!
What happened - as we note once more in the course of ordinary events - was best
calculated to teach them all this. A second formal inquiry of the Lord by the Urim
and Thummim, and a second direction to go forward, brought them to the relief of
the city. The Philistines were driven back with great slaughter, and rich booty was
made of their cattle.
But soon the danger which David's men had apprehended seemed really at hand.
When Saul heard that David had "shut himself in by coming into a town with gates
and bars," it seemed to him almost as if judicial blindness had fallen upon him, or, as
the king put it: "Elohim has rejected him into my hand." So thinking, Saul rapidly
gathered a force to march against Keilah. But, as we learn from the course of this
narrative, each side was kept well informed of the movements and plans of the other.
Accordingly David knew his danger, and in his extremity once more appealed to the
Lord. It was not a needless question which he put through the Urim and
Thummim,^209 but one which was connected with God's faithfulness and the truth of
His promises.
With reverence be it said, God could not have given up David into the hands of Saul.
Nor did his inquiries of God resemble those by heathen oracles. Their main element
seems to have been prayer. In most earnest language David spread his case before
the Lord, and entreated His direction. The answer was not withheld, although,
significantly, each question had specially and by itself to be brought before the Lord
(23:11, 12).
Thus informed of their danger, David and his men escaped from Keilah, henceforth
to wander from one hiding-place to another. No other district could offer such
facilities for eluding pursuit as that large tract, stretching along the territory of
Judah, between the Dead Sea and the mountains of Judah. It bore the general
designation of "the wilderness of Judah," but its various parts were distinguished as
(^)