“David saw that Sha’ul had mounted another expedition to seek his life. David was then at Horesh in the Zif Desert.” -1 Samuel 23:15
Saul kept in hot pursuit of David…
Yet the Lord made sure David was able to slip away unharmed.
This made sense.
Because there was no way God was going to let His anointed messiah come to harm at the hands of the anti-King.
Notice in verse 15 where it says David was in Horesh in the area of Zif.
That’s a mistranslation.
The way it reads now, it sounds like Horesh is the name of a town or something.
However, the original Hebrew is HA-HORESH.
This means “in the woods.”
So David was hiding in a forested area.
When Jonathan caught wind of David’s location, he rushed to meet him.
Jonathan was reaffirming the covenant he had made with David earlier.
Jonathan told David to be of good courage and not fear.
David may have been anointed and under God’s protection…
But he was still a human with all the weaknesses and worries common to mankind.
David had been a fugitive for months now.
He didn’t want to become a hero who died for his cause.
Like any normal man, he wanted to live.
However, there was no place in Canaan where he was truly safe.
See, here’s the thing.
His prophet, Gad, told him that God had set the limits of David’s escape to the areas controlled by the 12 tribes, especially the southern areas controlled by the tribe of Judah.
In other words, David had to stay in the Promised Land territory.
David had been thrust into a situation where he had to trust the Lord completely…
And move forward with faith.
When we read the Psalms that David wrote, we can see a man pleading with God that his life would be saved from Saul…
Yet at the same time, David accepted that his desired outcome might not be God’s Will for him…
He could end up losing his life.
There’s a huge takeaway here.
Actually, there are two takeaways.
The first one is that God may bring you to a place or put you in a situation where you will be forced to rely and trust 100% in Him for your salvation.
He did it with Abraham and Sarah when He told them to trust Him that they would bear a child in their old age and not have to rely on human measures.
He did it with Gideon when He reduced his army from 32,000 soldiers to 300 soldiers.
And He will do it with you.
He does not want you relying on your human flesh.
He wants to manifest His supernatural power through you.
So let Him.
Stop getting in your own way.
Your fleshly efforts will never be as good as God’s plan for you.
The second takeaway is that God’s Will for you will always be aligned with His Torah.
Notice that David was to stay in Hebrew territory even though from a human perspective, it made perfect sense to get the hell out of Canaan.
Yet, God said NO.
In what other ways could this apply to your life?
You may get fired for refusing to work on Shabbat…which means you gotta rely on the Lord to get you that next job.
You may lose that girlfriend or boyfriend by refusing to have sex because you want to keep yourself pure for your future marriage partner.
You may be accused of legalism by the Christian crowd because you refuse to eat unclean foods…
The list could go on forever.
Ya feel me?
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