But David kept thinking to himself, “Someday Saul is going to get me. The best thing I can do is escape to the Philistines. Then Saul will stop hunting for me in Israelite territory, and I will finally be safe.”  So David took his 600 men and went over and joined Achish son of Maoch, the king of Gath.  (1 Samuel 27:1-2 NLT) 

We love to hear and speak about the heroes of the Bible, and rightly so. Yet, the true hero in all our Bible stories is always God.

David was a "man after God's own heart," yet we see giving up and going over to the enemy.  Subsequently, he has to feign insanity to stay alive (1 Samuel 21:13).  At the end (1 Samuel 29), King Achish forsakes David.  Unbelief always leads to disappointment.

David's experience is not an isolated story in the Bible.  Elijah, after his great victory over Baal on Mount Carmel, ran in fear from Jezebel (1 Kings 19:1-3). After saying that he would die for the Lord, Peter denied Him three times (Luke 22:54-62).  At times, the history of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their descendants reads like a trashy novel.  The Bible clearly records that even the best of us still have clay feet.

We don't like to hear things like this about our heroes, much less ourselves, yet, these stories have a message. God uses imperfect people to bring about his perfect will.  Unflattering stories about our Bible heroes can be an encouragement to us.  They remind us that the true hero in all our stories is the Lord Jesus, and if God can use the fallible characters described in the Bible, he might be able to use flawed people like you and me.

I worked for seventeen years as a missionary with Youth With A Mission.  My missionary work has taken me to Mexico, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Spain, and Ukraine.  I hold a Masters of Education in curriculum and instruction from Virginia Commonwealth University.  [email protected]