Run for Your Life!
David is running for his life. But he had not done anything wrong. In fact, he had killed the giant Goliath and defeated the Philistine army. The book of I Samuel tells the whole story. First King Saul had welcomed David into his household and David even became the king’s son-in-law. But now David is running. And King Saul is his pursuer, determined to take his life.
Most of us can identify with David. Even though we have tried to do what is right and good, circumstances, people and even sometimes those we love, have turned against us. Everything seems to be going wrong. We feel pursued, forsaken, alone and sometimes even hopeless. We’re in survival mode – and we feel like we are running for our lives.
As I read chapter 23 of I Samuel today, I was encouraged. First of all, David took time to seek the Lord and His counsel in the midst of the challenges he faced. Verse 2 recounts that the Philistines were attacking Keilah and David inquired of the Lord whether to go up and fight them. The answer is that the Lord is with him and will give him victory. But David has no support. His men didn’t want to go! (verse 3) So David went back and asked the Lord again. With His confirmation, David’s men finally agreed to go.
Just a few verses later, Saul finds out where David is and word gets back to David that Saul is on his way to kill him. So once again he asks the Lord in verses 10-12, whether he should stay where he is or whether the people of Keilah – the very people he had just rescued, would deliver him into Saul’s hand. The answer is “yes.” If I was David I think I would have felt pretty sorry for myself at that point. The people he had just risked his life for are now ready to turn him in.
So David escapes to the forest and there Jonathan, his best friend and King Saul’s son, meets him and in verse 16 it says that Jonathan encourages him in the Lord. Who is your encourager, your mentor, the one who understands you and can strengthen you in the Lord when you are going through trials? If David needed someone like that, how much more do we! Having a Jonathan in your life is probably one of the most neglected, yet most vitally important principles for life success. Everyone goes through times of discouragement and needs to be encouraged.
As the story continues, King Saul is closing in on David and is about to catch him. But the Lord himself intervenes (at least that’s my interpretation)! And a messenger comes to Saul with a message to hurry and go back home to defend the land against an attack from the Philistines! And in verse 28 that place becomes known as “The Rock of Escape.” The reminds me of the verse in I Corinthians 10:13 that says, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
As we approach Christmas and everyone is busily shopping, baking and making preparations to be with family and friends, maybe you are among the many who have no money for buying Christmas presents and no family with whom to celebrate Christ’s birth. Perhaps you feel a little bit like David.
Let me encourage you to do what David did. Seek the Lord. He will answer you! Then find someone to encourage you. Maybe that will be a family member, a close friend, a pastor. If you have no one, seek out a church where you can find an encourager, a mentor. And look to the Lord for a way of escape as it says in I Corinthians 10:13. He is faithful!
All of David’s trials were part of God’s program to build character in him and a heart for God. Let Him do that in you. All of us will face trials so it isn’t a matter of “if” but “when.” As the book of James exhorts us, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (verses 2-4)
So if you’re running for your life, run into the arms of Jesus.
