Blinded by rage, Saul was fanatical about getting David. But God’s unseen hand was helping David who had already eluded Saul many times. If Saul was more discerning, he would have realized that it’s was all a futile pursuit. But then how could a person so blinded by incense see? So he relentlessly hounded David. This incident of some Ziphites showing up to at Gibeah and released information to Saul concerning David’s whereabout once again reveals how God was at David’s back.
We read here how some Ziphites came to Saul in Gibeah saying to him Is David not hiding with us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon?” It would not be unreasonable to conclude that they could have heard about what he did to the priests at Nob and decided that they had better not trifle with the enraged king. So they sent him news that David was hiding among them. They even gave him the exact location where David could be located. Helpfully, they even goaded him to on. Obviously, they were doing this for self-preservation. And verses 21 tells us that the king was pleased with them for providing the information to him.
Saul had become so paranoid that he was so totally out of perspective. We can’t help but get the impression that he was seeing himself as the victim when it was David who was the one who was running for his dear life. So desperate was Saul to get David and he wanted detail information from the Ziphites that leaked the information to him. He ordered them saying, “Go now, make more sure, and investigate and see his place where his haunt is, and who has seen him there; for I am told that he is very cunning. So look, and learn about all the hiding places where he hides himself and return to me with certainty, and I will go with you; and if he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.” So those Ziphites went ahead of Saul.
Verse 24 also brings us back to the scene where David was. He and his men were “in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshimon.” They were located where the Ziphites had told Saul. So the obsessed king went there in search of him. Notice here that David also got wind that Saul was lurking. Of course, he had a far more superior and accurate source of intelligence and help from above. We can imagine that the two groups, they and their men, were both at the mountain. Saul’s group was closing in and David’s group was hurriedly trying to get away. And as God’s sovereignty would have it, at that exact point news came to Saul that the Philistines were raiding his land. He was forced to turn back to deal with the Philistines. So once again the hand of God was at work to deliver David and he went and stayed in the stronghold of Engedi.
How David was rescued shows us that God never let his own down. He will never leave his without a way of escape. His rescue is always timely and precise. And He uses unexpected means to recuse his own. Who would have thought that at such a precise moment that the Philistines would invade the land causing Saul to turn back? Just imagine he was just a hair’s breadth of seizing David. What a divine co-incident. God cares for His own. Take heart, He will always be on time to rescue us.
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