Daily <

Topic: Safety is of the Lord 8

Reading: 1Sam 23:7-14

Scripture: And it was told Saul that David was come to Keilah. And Saul said, God hath delivered him into my hand; for he is shut in, by entering into a town that hath gates and bars. (1Sam 23:7)

Note: David knew the price that awaited him before he engaged in combat with Goliath. Killing the giant would bring freedom from war to his father’s household. He would most importantly become a son-in-law to the king. Against all odds he succeeded in killing the giant, paving the way for him to fame and wealth. However, David was but a youth, a teenager, at the time that he conquered Goliath.

Whether David’s age was the reason why Saul couldn’t fulfill his side of the pledge, we cannot tell. What we do know however, was that the singing party of the dancing women that welcomed the victorious warriors from the battle with the Philistines were greeted with a characteristic song that seemed to rightly give more recognition to David than the king. This didn’t go down well with Saul, and from that day forward, his attitude towards David changed.

Saul couldn’t bear the situation in which one of his immediate subjects is deemed more famous than him. He resolved from that day that David ought to die if he was to save his throne. Every move he ever made where David was concerned was geared towards eliminating the young man. David came to live in the palace ostensibly to be closely monitored, even though he never harboured any ulterior motive of laying his hands on the Lord’s anointed. He also served a useful purpose of playing the lyre for the king anytime he was under attack from evil spirits, as God had rejected his authority as king.

This close service provided Saul with the easy access to be able to terminate David’s life as an option, and this he attempted on two occasions but failed. When it came to honouring his side of the pledge, Saul began to demonstrate his ambivalent self. He wasn’t trustworthy to his own words as he began to shift the goalposts. Instead of being freed from wars, he made David to be captain over 1000 troops, with very busy and dangerous commission that often saw David go out to war against their bitterest enemies, the Philistines. Saul made this disingenuous arrangement, hoping that in one of his several battles, David might get killed at the hands of the Philistines. That way, he would be absolved of David’s death as purely accidental.

Food for thought: Unfortunately for Saul, David’s several victorious battles against the Philistines only served to increase his respect among the troops and simultaneously increased the affection the general populace had for him.

Declaration: And Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him, and he was departed from Saul. (1Sam 18:12)

©Author: Rev Fred Aboe