Feature 3 for March 2022: “Addiction: Everybody Is At Risk” (G. H. B.)

ADDICTION: Everybody Is At Risk

Dictionary.com defines “addiction” as “the state of being compulsively committed to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming.” Is anyone immune to an addiction? Could any of us become a slave to such a force? This should probably be asked considering the verse:

“Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12 NKJV).

If David, the “man after His [the LORD’s] own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14), could be engaged in a sinful addiction, then each of us must take his experience as a warning. No one is immune, especially when not trusting in or walking closely with the Lord. “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mk. 14:38) is an admonition to all. No matter how young or old, weak or strong, moral or immoral, everybody is at risk of falling into an addiction.

It is easy to get into an addiction even when at the onset an action goes against one’s conscience. However, once that specific act becomes habitual, it is difficult to stop, and to do so may require outside help.

The case of David may come as a surprise to you. After all, in addition to the statement we read about him in 1 Samuel 13, he was called “the man of God” (Neh. 12:24). To examine the circumstances of his addiction, it may be appropriate to first set the scene according to history, geography, theology and circumstances.

• History. When the first king of Israel, Saul, began to rule, David was a young shepherd boy writing his early psalms. In disobedience to the Lord’s commands (Dt. 7:1-5), the Israelites, since coming into the Promised Land 350 years earlier, had failed to destroy the ungodly inhabitants in Canaan. Therefore, the Lord allowed several idol-worshiping nations to become snares and traps to Israel (Josh. 23:13).

One such people was the Philistines, a habitual enemy to the Israelites, warring with them during all of King Saul’s reign. Following the battle with Goliath (1 Sam. 17), David became the king’s armor bearer, and as the captain of the army David was victorious at every turn. His success occasioned the king to become envious of David, which motivated Saul, for the rest of his life, to try to kill David.

• Geography. The Philistines lived along the southwestern coast of Canaan, mainly in five city-states which included the royal capital of Gath. There was no fixed border to their east, which was inhabited by the tribe of Judah – hardly 30 miles (50 km) from Jerusalem. The king of the Philistines gave Ziklag to David (27:6) during a time when David fled from Saul. This town was close to other Israelite villages as well as the dwelling places of several tribes that were Israel’s enemies.

• Theology. In the days of a failing priesthood, God judged His wayward people, allowing the idolatrous Philistines to defeat the armies of Israel. They even captured the ark of the covenant (4:10-11), which was then absent from the tabernacle during the days of David’s youth. David loved the Lord his God with a steadfast confidence as a shepherd boy, when serving the king, and while first fleeing for his life from Saul. During these times he wrote Psalm 23 – probably while being a shepherd – and Psalms 7, 27 and 31 when persecuted by Saul. In short, David lived among a people who were generally apathetic – showing little or no interest – to the ways of the Lord, while surrounded by a culture controlled by the enemy of God’s people.

• Circumstances. David grew weary of his pursuer after fleeing from him for seven years. He came to feel that there would be, in the end, no escape from death at the hand of the King Saul. This led to a time of David’s lapse of faith in God and the circumstance which may have aroused his addiction.

David’s Addiction

We see in 1 Samuel 27:1-2 the beginnings of the problem: “And David said in his heart, ‘Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me anymore in any part of Israel. So I shall escape out of his hand.’ Then David arose and went over with the six hundred men who were with him to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath.”

This was the lapse of dependence on the LORD that appears to have reopened the door to David’s leaning on his own devises (read Prov. 3:5), allowing the use of deceit and lying to be rekindled. He had found deception profitable the first time he fled from Saul and went to Achish, king of Gath (see 1 Sam. 21:10-15). At that time, when it was reported to the Philistine monarch that David was the mighty warrior who had slain “his ten thousands” (v.11), he feigned himself mad, and his lie allowed him to escape.

Later, it appears that he must have come to his senses and seen that the LORD had allowed – though not condoned or approved – his actions. This may be noted from David’s confession in Psalm 34:18, where he penned:

“The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.”

The introduction of the poem says, “A Psalm of David; when he changed his behavior before Abimelech,* who drove him away, and he departed” (JND).

Had that been the only time he used a lying deception, we would not call his action an addiction. But it became a habit over a 16-month period – a practice he employed to fool the king of Gath on his second digression to the land of the Philistines. What we see is that bad actions which lead to addictions are most likely to start when leaning on one’s own understanding and immersed in the country of the enemy – meaning Satan’s domain.

While living at Ziklag, David and his men slaughtered some of the surrounding peoples, looting the towns of those who were the enemies of Israel. However, to make the Philistine king admire and appreciate him, David used lying and deception – for those 16 months – in reporting that he had attacked villages belonging to the adversaries of Achish. This is reported in 1 Samuel 27:9-12 (NKJV):

“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.”

Where did this addiction get him? Achish, believing David, said, “He has made his people Israel utterly abhor him; therefore, he will be my servant forever” (v.12). David’s addiction, like all addictions, equaled slavery and led to trouble. David was made the bodyguard of an enemy king and was invited to fight against his own people – truly, God’s people – Israel. His addiction to lying and deceit got him into a most precarious situation that could have had dire consequences.

Thankfully, the Lord was in control – as He always is. God used the other kings of the Philistines to force Achish to remove David and his men from their ranks. David was rescued from the predicament into which his addiction brought him.

It may be reasonable to say that the only way anyone can escape an addiction is to be released from that burden of slavery by the Lord. Overcoming such an obsession cannot be accomplished in one’s own strength. David was spared any immediate consequences of his actions, but as you can see, he is an example that everybody is at risk of falling to an addiction.

ENDNOTE

* The title of Psalm 34 mentions the name of Abimelech, who in all probability is the same as Achish king of Gath. It appears from this that Abimelech was the royal title and not the personal name of the Philistine kings (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia).

By G. H. B.