War has changed..... Small desperate countries hire desperate men.
In the meantime, Saul’s affection for David was unabated and he kept promoting him. First he was appointed royal armor-bearer and “whatever Saul sent him to do, David did it so successfully that Saul gave him a high rank in the army. This pleased all the people and Saul’s officers as well.”[8] Eventually, those same officers mutinied against their king, in favor of David.
It took a long while for Saul to realize that it was David and his tribe that was plotting to take over the throne and when he found out, David fled to the wilderness south of Jerusalem.
During the first months that he was hiding out from Saul he roamed the area around the Dead Sea. There were other fugitives hiding out in that desolate region. The Bible describes them as “those who were oppressed, those in distress, all those in debt, anyone who had a grievance.”[9] It goes on to say that David gathered these men together and as the leader of this small army of hirelings,[10] he offered their services to Aschich, the Philistine king. So while Saul was busy fighting off Israel’s enemies, David went to work for them as a mercenary.
Like everyone else with whom David wanted to ingratiate himself, King Aschich succumbed to the young man’s charm. He accepted David’s offer of service, knowing he had been a favorite son of Israel: the same one who was reported to have killed the Philistine giant, Goliath. And David proved his loyalty to the Philistine king.
“David and his men went out on raids . . . David laid the countryside waste and left neither man nor woman alive but took the sheep and oxen, camels and garments and came back bringing them to Aschich . . . David never brought a man or woman back alive ‘in case’ as he thought ‘they inform against us’ . . . This was David’s practice all the time he stayed in Philistine territory. Aschich trusted David”[11]
Once he had established his credibility with King Aschich, David reverted to his usual method of operation: he began to feather his own nest. He ingratiated himself with the elders of his tribe of Judah by giving them some of the spoils of his battles.
