1 Samuel 24:1

"And David went up and lived in the strongholds of En-gedi." Saul pursues him there, after following the Philistines. He is more occupied with his jealousy of the king whom God had chosen than with the enemies of his people. But this expedition does him no credit.

Saul's campaign against the Philistines, like all his work, was only partial. In fact, we are not told any details here, or whether there was a real clash of arms. As soon as he can turn away from the Philistines, he takes up again the more congenial task he had set himself — seeking David's life.

Saul, back from his campaign against the Philistines, gathers three thousand chosen men to seize David. So in the same pursuit he includes Israel's enemies and her savior. An outward zeal for safeguarding the people of God can very well team up with a real hatred for Christ.

With 600 men with him, David could not easily stay hidden, and Saul gets the report that he is in the wilderness of En-gedi. Saul was not exactly a brave man himself. He needed 3000 chosen men of Israel — five times as many as were with David — to go with him and seek David and his men. So the people of Israel pay for the army, and their king uses it not for Israel's benefit but for his own wicked project! He would let nothing stand in the way of killing David.

Saul is away meeting the Philistines. That gives David the opportunity to move from the threatened hiding place of Ziph to a new refuge among the strongholds of En-gedi. When we remember that all of this took place in the wilderness of Judah, David's own tribe, it deepens the pathos of his position. In a certain sense he had come to his own, and his own had not received him.

His refuge now is En-gedi, "the fountain of the goat." The high hills are a refuge for wild goats. This rugged mountain country no doubt sheltered many of these climbers... But here, among the frowning crags with their many caves, the fountain is still there. He is not cut off from the refreshment this suggests. How wonderful that the child of God never needs to leave that up-springing well which is his! It is there in all his conflicts and in all his efforts to escape the attacks of the flesh.

David at this time no doubt wrote some of his sweetest psalms. We can think of Psalm 63 as the expression of his soul: "O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water." No water for nature, but, as we have just seen, a refreshing spring for faith.

David must endure this pressure. But in the end he will learn something: the greater the violence aimed at him, the simpler and more effective are the means God uses to deliver him. David defeated Saul at Keilah by abandoning the town. The Philistine invasion foiled him at the Rock of Division. Most disgracefully of all, David's moderation and loyalty defeat him at En-gedi, for he owes David his life. Little did he know, in the malice of his heart, how by entering the cave he was thrusting himself into the grasp of his intended victim.