”Then they told David, saying, “Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and they are robbing the threshing floors.” Therefore David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I go and attack these Philistines?” And the Lord said to David, “Go and attack the Philistines, and save Keilah.” But David’s men said to him, “Look, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?” Then David inquired of the Lord once again. And the Lord answered him and said, “Arise, go down to Keilah. For I will deliver the Philistines into your hand.”“ I Samuel 23:1-4 NKJV
a. The Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and they are robbing the threshing floors: They brought this plea for help to David and not to King Saul because Saul was not fulfilling his role as king over Israel. It was Saul’s job to protect Keilah and it was Saul’s job to fight the Philistines, but Saul wasn’t doing his job and the Lord called David to do it.
i. God loved His people too much to let them suffer under an unfaithful king. If Saul wasn’t up to the task, God would raise up a man who was, and David was the one. God directed David to act like a king even if he was not the king yet.
b. Therefore David inquired of the Lord: This showed David’s wisdom and godliness. Some might have immediately said, “This isn’t my responsibility, let Saul deal with it.” Others might have immediately said, “Let’s go! I can fix this problem!” Either course was foolish, but David was wise because he inquired of the Lord.
c. Go, and attack the Philistines, and save Keilah: By all outward appearance, this was a crazy thing to do. First, David had 400 men with thin resumes and bad credit reports (1 Samuel 22:2) – not exactly a regular army. Second, David had enough trouble with Saul and he didn’t need to add trouble from the Philistines – one enemy is usually enough. Third, this would bring David wide open out before King Saul. This was a dangerous course of action.
i. David did this for two reasons. He had the command of God and the need of the people. David was willing to endanger himself to obey the command of God and to meet the need of the people.
d. But David’s men said to him, “Look, we are afraid here in Judah”: David’s men counseled him to not go to Keilah. We can understand their counsel, but we should not agree with it. It was good that David became captain over them (1 Samuel 22:2) and that this wasn’t a democracy.
e. David inquired of the Lord once again: Wisely, David took the words from his men into great account. He wrestled with their advice and saw that in many ways it made a lot of sense. At the same time, he knew this was an issue that had to be decided before the Lord.
f. Arise, go down to Keilah. For I will deliver the Philistines into your hand: God likes to confirm His word, especially when He directs us to do something hard or unusual. This time the Lord not only confirmed His previous command, but He also gave a promise with the confirmation: I will deliver the Philistines into your hand. (Guzik)
Inquired of the Lord
There are times in life that we need to make difficult decisions and when we are at this crossroad is when we, inquired of the Lord.
We lift it up in prayer, we open the Bible randomly and begin to look for the Lord to speak to us and in His timing, He will give you the answer. We may not like the answer but it is in faith that we accept it just as David did.
If God is for us, who can be against us?
”What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.“
Romans 8:31-39 NKJV
Blessings
No comments:
Post a Comment