Follow God Beyond
Yourself
1 Samuel 23
David seeks the Lord
and is successful, even at great risk.
David and
his men seem to only barely stay one step ahead of Saul as they roam through
the wilderness, hiding from the kind that seeks his life. In the midst of this
cat and mouse game David gets word that a Judean city is under attack by the Philistines,
the current greatest enemies to Israel. His heart tells him to intervene for
the people he loves but his head knows that it would be incredibly risky, exposing
him and his men to King Saul. He does the right thing and seeks the Lord’s
direction in the matter. Remember David now has a priest tagging along with his
band of misfits. The Lord says go and they save the city.
Of course
Saul finds out and jumps at the opportunity to pin David in to a fortified city
where he can’t escape. David again does the right thing and seeks the Lord for
weather to stay for flee. They flee at God’s direction and continue to live a
life on the run.
Jonathan encourages David
Even though
David knows that he is the promised next king of Israel, his mediate desperate
circumstances must have been exhausting and discouraging. The current king was literally
pursuing him to kill him and he never knew from day to day how desperately he
would need to run. Enter Jonathan once again perhaps his only trusted friend.
Jonathan is an amazing friend once again for at least 3 reason. First, he risks
his own life by committing an act of treason against his father to seek out
David and encourage him. Second, this is literally the son of the King, and by
all rights the next legitimate heir to the throne, who loves his friend and his
God more than the riches and power that could be his. Lastly he goes to his
friend not just to encourage him and renew their friendship, but he strengthens
his hand in God. He knows that what David needs more than anything else is the
hand of God at work in his life and this is what he seeks to encourage David
with.
God is faithful to
his promises
Shortly after this
the men in the wilderness that David and his men are staying in rat him out and
they are once again on the run from Saul. This time Saul is literally on the
opposite side of a hill from David and closing in quickly when all of a sudden
Saul gets a report that Philistines are attacking the borderlands. David is
saved by a hairs breathe. He lives another day by God’s direction, the God who
is faithful and will keep His promises.
Lessons:
The safest
place we can ever be is in the will of God. David’s story has proven this to us
over and over again and we need to hear it and live it out. God might call you
to something risky, at least by your perception but really the riskiest thing
you could do is ignore our outright deny the voice of God in your life.
We all need
godly friends who will be there to encourage us to do the will of God even in
the midst of what seems to be a hopeless situation. We also need to be that
selfless, loving friend to others. Who can you be a Jonathan to?
God keeps
his promises even if we have a hard time knowing how He is going to accomplish them.
He often will put us in situations where we are forced to trust him because He
knows that we wouldn't otherwise. When we trust God and do what he says, even
in the midst of scary or difficult circumstances and we see Him deliver us, our
faith can be strengthened in ways that it never would be otherwise.
