1 Samuel 27:8–12

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. 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. 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.” 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. So Achish believed David, saying, “He has made his people Israel utterly abhor him; therefore he will be my servant forever.”

David’s deception works. Achish believed David. But is such deception okay?

This passage doesn’t weigh in on that; it simply reports what happened accurately. Since this is about war and about people that Saul was commanded by God to destroy, one can make arguments in favor of what David is doing here.

However, there are plenty of places where God condemns lying—e.g., the Ten Commandments—and David will eventually become totally repentant about this nasty habit of his.

Remove from me the way of lying
And grant me Your law graciously. — Psalm 119:29

But for now, he gets away with it and is even blessed in the process.

This sounds ridiculous until we remember Romans 5:6–8.

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The gospel hinges on the concept of rewarding people who don’t deserve it. That’s what grace is all about. Yes, David is lying and lying is wrong. This could be an example of extenuating circumstances, but that’s not certain.

And that’s not necessary. God blessing David in this situation is appropriate as part of a larger plan to get him to the throne and to get him to write Psalm 119.

People often commit terrible wrongs in the course of coming to salvation and service to the Lord. Nothing tops Peter’s triple denial of Christ—which comes perilously close to blasphemy.

Yet, not only did the Lord forgive Peter, his sin was a big part of the plan.

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These weekday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. The Saturday ones are written by Matt Richardson. To subscribe to the DEEP click here: https://www.ailbe.org/resources/community

The weekly study guides, which include questions for discussion or meditation, can be downloaded here: https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.