Monday, 2019-10-21

Bible Reference: 1 Samuel 26:9-12
Translation: The Voice (VOICE)

Bible Text: David: ⁹ No. Don’t kill him. Who can legitimately strike the Eternal’s anointed king without consequences? ¹⁰ As the Eternal One lives, his time will come. The Eternal will strike him down; either he will die, or he will go into battle one day and be slain. ¹¹ God forbid that I would be the one to harm the Eternal’s anointed king. But please, take his spear next to his head and that water jug, and let’s go.
¹² So David took the spear and the water jug from right beside Saul’s head and crept back through the camp. No one saw or knew they were there. No one woke up because the Eternal had caused the entire camp to fall into a deep sleep.

OBSERVATION: David, a man after God’s own heart – according to the Word of God, demonstrated to his soldiers and continues to demonstrate to us what it means to be totally sold out to God. Because of David’s relationship with God, we are blessed to witness how God provided for him in some amazing ways. This provides encouragement to us that our God, the same awesome God of David, will provide for those of us that are totally sold out to Him! Meditate with me as we think deeper about this today!

APPLICATION: To truly understand the depth of this study today, let me remind you that David attacked towns and totally wiped out its inhabitants, including men, women, children, and livestock in some cases. So he had no fear of human life when he knew that God had ordered total eradication. After just defeating a few towns, that Joshua spared when he first brought the Israelites into the Promised Land, we can see where David got the news of his primary advisory being nearby as Saul continued pursuit after David. So many times already David communicated with Saul that he had done nothing to harm the king, and that he could have killed him on several occasions, if he wanted to. I believe that David’s men could easily have concluded that David may have been afraid of Saul, or like we would say today, perhaps Saul was holding something over David. But for those men who learned from David’s Godly obedience, surely they must have seen time after time that David always chose to do God’s will above his own. So yes, I believe that we could learn an awful lot from David about His faithfulness to God. But in our verses today, I want to particularly draw your attention to the words that I bolded, for there we are reminded that God will work miraculously for the good of His people. David was bold enough to take a volunteer from his camp with him, to enter into the middle of Saul’s best 3,000 men who accompanied him for protection. Many of us might conclude that the move was more of a ‘stupid’ one, versus a brave one, but I found it so amazing to read how God took David into this daring picture, and He took a very vital part in protecting Him while he was there. For He caused a deep sleep to come over this first-class army, so that David and his assistant could actually get right up to the head of Saul. I recently read about Jesus preparing to feed the 5,000 and He tested Philip by asking him where would they find food enough to feed the crowd. Could God have been testing David to see if he would humanly go to the head of Saul and remove his sword, without using it on Saul? What about us, are we strong enough in our faith to truly trust God, even when situations are presented right at our fingertips where we could seemingly take care of the situation ourselves? However, imagine the testimony to Abishai when David trusted God as he chose peace and a Godly witness versus the murder a man called by God to lead a nation. Now notice how God took care of David and his partner while in Saul’s camp – He caused a deep sleep to come over them so that they never even knew that David and Abishai entered their midst! Wow! Perhaps you are facing ‘giants’ in your life today where the obvious solution, or the world’s way of doing things, are totally different to what you feel God would have you do. How will you respond? Doing it God’s way may sound almost foolish to the world’s way of thinking, but is your faith in God strong enough to believe that if He brought you to it, He will lead, and protect you through it? God’s ways are not our ways, so we will never understand why His ways are ordered so differently to our simple humanly thinking ways. Please be encouraged to always follow God, my friend, for He has promised to take care of us right to the very end. If you believe in God, trust in Him alone in every circumstance of life, no matter what others may say. Be boldly about His work dear one, for He cares for His own and will protect us to the end.

PRAYER: Precious Lord, we are mere mortals here in this land where men of God are looked down on, and discounted as nobodies. This turns out to be more truthful than any man will realize, for we are nothing, and we are powerless without our awesome God. Help us Lord to stand firm in our faith and to always look to You for all things. Oh that we may be so sold out to You, that others will see and hear nothing but Jesus when they look on us. May You be glorified in everything that we attempt to do in Your name, and may we always walk in faith knowing that You are all-powerful and all-knowing. AMEN!