Not All Philistines Are Philistines

The Philistines have not fared well, historically speaking. The name which once applied to a people group now is a pejorative term for someone who lacks culture and/or is guided by more base impulses.

Back in biblical times the Philistines were mortal enemies of the Israelites. A Philistine was someone you met in pitched battle. The giant Goliath was a Philistine.

So whether the word is used today or is taken out of the ancient scriptures, it's not a nice word.

It's our natural inclination as humans, I think, to avoid nuanced views on peoples and perspectives. Nowhere is this seen more starkly than in Washington, D.C., where our nation's leaders fight for supremacy, and where partisan politics now runs absolutely rampant. Democrats? Republicans? Much of the nation now despises either one group or the other.

And I am inclined to despise both. I don't trust either group, to be quite frank. I don't trust their motives and I don't trust their purposes. I, too, have become rather polarized in my political views.

Which is why I found it a good reminder to discover that not all Philistines are Philistines.

I had read the passages before, but for the first time it sank in during recent readings of 1 Samuel that among the Philistines there was a successful warlord of, to say the least, strange lineage.

Philistine warlords were the ultimate enemy of Israel, but the little Israelite boy named David... the one who killed the Philistine Goliath... the one who wrote numerous Psalms... the one who went on to be the greatest king of ancient Israel... That David, for a little while, had a very successful gig going.

As a Philistine.

For a time, David lived among the Philistines and (to all appearances) was a much-valued Philistine warlord. The Philistines themselves came within one hairbreadth of taking David along to the battle against the Israelites in which King Saul himself was killed.

How David pulled it all off is partly unknown and partly explained in the text of 1 Samuel. But for my purposes here I note only that he was quite successful in his ruse. So successful that I have to wonder how many Israelites might have thought he had truly turned his back on the Israelite people. Impossible to know.

But anyone who might have come to that conclusion would have been dead wrong. They would have been quite right, however, if they had drawn the conclusion (to use modern parlance) that he was an extremely effective power broker, mover and shaker, and negotiator.

All the skills you need in Washington? David had them. In spades. By no other means does one live among mortal enemies and leave most of them convinced that your true allegiance is to them.

But David was God's man. An upright individual. And his future was so bright, that Jesus Christ himself was and is known as the "Son of David".

So.

Before I toss the whole of D.C. down the drain.

Before I turn my back on all politicians.

Before I abandon all hope in the political process.

Before I assume I know the base motives of every scrabbling politician.

I need to remember one thing.

There are likely some Davids in Washington, D.C.

And maybe some Davids in a few other places and organizations I have given up for useless.

And since I'm not good at picking out Davids from a crowd of Philistines, I need to be careful of my words and judgments.

Not all Philistines, after all, are Philistines.