Are you in a situation that has you way in over your head?
Maybe you have a mountain of debt to deal with and have no idea how you’re going to pay it back.
Maybe you’re in a broken marriage that’s teetering on the edge of divorce.
Maybe you’re dealing with ugly office politics and false accusations at work that’s gonna cause you to lose your job.
Or maybe it’s a combination of all of the above.
Well, this was the type of situation David was in.
Due to his association with the Philistine King Achish and the fact he had plundered his own people, David was considered a traitor by his tribe Judah, and by his country Israel.
At the same time, he was relying on a gentile power, the Philistines to keep him safe from King Saul.
David was at a serious crossroads.
Should he fight against Saul, the man who through persistent deed and action he had acknowledged as God’s anointed king?
Or should he betray Achish despite the kindness and hospitality he had received from him?
No matter which path he took, it was a no-win situation.
We can only speculate how David would have reacted once the fighting against his countrymen began.
I doubt all of David’s men would have joined him to spill the blood of their extended family members to satisfy Philistine desires to conquer Israel.
Raiding Judean villages for livestock, food, and other valuables was one thing…
Going to war against your home country on behalf of an enemy nation…
Well, that was an entirely different matter altogether.
Had God not intervened, David would’ve ended up with blood on his hands regardless of which path he chose.
Of course, it’s important to recognize David was in his current predicament because of his disobedience in the first place.
He never should’ve left Israel and sought refuge from a gentile power (a big lesson for modern Israel as well!).
And we’ve already witnessed David’s less-than-admirable behavior on many levels: His tendency to lie and deceive when it served him best.
Yet the Lord had great plans for David.
So He intervened and miraculously rescued David from the no-win situation of having to either fight his Hebrew brethren or betray Achish.
And that’s your takeaway for today.
If you are one of His, God also has great plans for your life.
Be confident that God can and will rescue you from a seemingly impossible-to-solve situation.
But at the same time, realize there are consequences for the actions you took.
You were the one who went nuts with the credit card debt and purchased a bunch of online courses.
You were the one focused so much on work that you neglected your wife and now you wonder why your family situation is a disaster.
You were the one who ignored the tell-tale signs that your work environment was toxic and didn’t take steps to get the heck outta there before the brown stuff hit the fan.
Anyway, let me end this post on a positive note.
Our Father in Heaven is a master at making lemonade out of lemons.
So if you’re overwhelmed with juggling a bunch of lemons in your life…
Surrender the situation to your Father in Heaven who loves you…
And expect to be delivered!
Done.
NEXT TIME WE BEGIN FIRST SAMUEL CHAPTER THIRTY
You state that David attacked his own people, but when I read I Samuel 27:7-11, it says that David attacked the G’shuri, the Girizi, and the Amalaki, but told Akhish that he attacked the Y’hudi in the Negev (which is where the Patriarchs had lived) or other tribes in the Negev.
I don’t see anywhere that says David attacked Jews while living with Akhish, but rather that he attacked the enemies of the Jews, then told Akhish a lie to make it seem he was on the side of the enemies of Judea.
This is confirmed by the fact that it also says David left no one alive from those raids so that there would be no witnesses as to who David really raided.
Can you show me where you see that David actually did raid or attack his own people?
I wouldn’t 100% disagree with you. But I think on some level, I’m correct too. Lemme dig into this deeper.