June 11 – 1 Samuel 23:1-14
Dear Father, we come before You in praise and with thanksgiving for You give us our, ‘But God’ moments. You orchestrate our lives for Your glory. May we in our quiet time recognize You for who You are: our Lord God, the God of Israel.
First, do your own quiet time and 4R journaling. When you are completed, come back here for the lesson.
Request God’s help
Read 1 Samuel 23:1-14
Record a verse that stands out to you
Respond to God
But God did not give him into his hand
How many times has God refused to give us into the hand of our enemies? I think if we knew the answer we’d be utterly speechless. But there He is, thwarting the enemy at every turn, refusing to give us up. And it is not for lack of satan’s trying, because he surely is relentless in his pursuits of us. But God is even MORE relentless!!!!
As determined as Saul was, he was no match for God’s determination. God will do as He pleases, when it pleases him. And all the while when Saul was being so persistently relentless, it was all for naught; for Saul anyways. For David, it was an opportunity time and time again to see how God protected him. When the odds appeared to be stacked again David, those odd were no match for the God who saves.
Long before this relentless pursuit of David, David had inquired of God. He sought God’s will and even when his people raised concerns and doubts, he brought those before the Lord. So respectful of his people, that David. David was given an answer by God, highly likely trusted that answer, but still allowed his people to see it for themselves, allowed them to experience that trust as well. And again, God told him what to do, with a bit more clarity, and David and his men went ahead and obeyed.
Note that David had been going out according to God’s will even though he had an assurance. The assurance that he was the line from which Jesus would come. God promised that. Yet David still inquired of God what God’s will was and still told God he wanted that protection. He did not take advantage of that knowledge and promise and just go headlong into the situation without conversing with God.
At every turn it would seem that it was all in Saul’s favor. He had more men than David. David was apparently trapped within the city as there was only one way in or out and when David fled, Saul pursued him relentlessly. Yet, God refused to hand David over to Saul. Thus, His covenant remained intact.
David did not take the weight of being in the line to Jesus lightly. His devotion to God was evident, His desire to walk in God’s will was clear. May we have the same zest for a life pleasing to God. May we in our grace covering not willfully walk in sin knowing that we will be forgiven when we ask for it. And may we continually ask for God’s will for our life so that we may bring glory and all honor to God.
“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
Psalm 18:2
(Further Reading: Psalm 18; Psalm 63 )
Dear Heavenly Father, we praise You for You are in total control. We thank You that despite this sinful world in which we live, You are still working, even when we cannot see it. While we travel through our darkest times, lean so close to us, let us know for certain that You are there. And let us know for certain You see us.
What’s next?
As the Spirit leads, in the comment section below, share what He has laid on your heart.
Then join us again tomorrow for the next commentary.
My Verse: 1 Samuel 23:14, “And David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hand.”
3 Comments. Leave new
1 Samuel 23:12 “Again David asked, ‘Will the leaders of Keilah betray me and the men to Saul?’ And the LORD replied, ‘Yes, they will betray you.'”
How sad that David has to discover that the town he and his men just rescued … would still betray him!! Yet, he doesn’t hurt anyone in that town. Instead he leaves with his men, thus protecting the town from Saul’s wrath. Father, help me to seek You and trust You like David did! Help me to stay kind, even when people around me are not.
I’m not sure that we will be forgiven when we willfully walk in sin just because we ask. In fact, I don’t believe we will! I know the Bible says if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, but it also says “Do not put the Lord your God to the test,” (Matthew 4:7), and “Shall we continue sinning that grace may increase? May it NEVER, EVER be! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?. . .What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not! God forbid!” (Romans 6:1, 2 & 15) and “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no sacrifice left for us.” (Hebrews 10:26). And lastly (of the verses coming to my mind now), “If you do not forgive other people their sins, your Father in Heaven will not forgive you your sins.” Actually, one more thing: Jesus tells us we must repent and believe to be saved. Repenting doesn’t mean saying we’re sorry, it means turning away from our sin. Not that we’re perfect, but we don’t deliberately keep going back to it. We choose to avoid it, walk in the other direction. I don’t say this to criticize you or with an “I’m holier or a better Christian than you”, and overall this was a good devotion! Thank you for it! I just couldn’t not say something. It’s too important—I say it out of love and concern!
Hello Megan, we are so thankful you are here with us and digging into God’s word. I can see a fire was lit and you dove in and studied and researched, what a testament to your faith walk. Thank you for sharing that with us here. We are to keep each other sharp and we should question everything on our own, no matter who is the writer or speaker. Well done!
We are in agreement with you that we should confess our sins and seek (ask) for forgiveness. God is so good that He forgives us over and over again, and then some more; that is who He is. One of my favorite verses is, 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” It is so beautiful to know that God cannot not forgive us!
But, at the same time, we are not to use that grace covering as an ‘excuse’ or wiggle room to ‘bend the rules.’ As in Romans 6:1-2, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” We are to live according to His will while under that covering of grace. Knowing that if we do sin, He will forgive us when we go to Him about it. Because He knows we will sin, He knows we will do things out of step with Him. And He made a way to cleanse our hearts. Oh, what a God He is!
Thank you for pointing out that how I wrote that one sentence could be unclear, there was too much nuance and tying back to what was written earlier. I trust as you continue through all things Sweet Selah that you will see, we strive to write and speak as closely to ‘correct’ as possible. That we seek God in all we do, say, write and we ask for Him to help us write and speak the words He wants us to. And, like here, our humanness shows through and there is confusion. We want to ensure that all our words are Biblically sound. And we so cherish those who catch the bits where we get it wrong, or something was just not written clearly. Thank you for coming to us first and thank you so much for sharing what was on your heart to share.
May your quiet time with God be so blessed and may the Spirit continue to bless you with discernment.