Tehillah Generation Chapel
Daily Manna
Saturday, August 6, 2016
Topic: Safety is of the Lord 17
Reading: 1Sam 23:7-14, 1Sam 18
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: After Saul’s rejection by God, his life witnessed a roller coaster of a rapid fall from fame and favour to the gutters of ignominy, as his thinking system and demeanour as a king, diminished to the lowest level of abject insanity, with his nemesis, David, serving as a vital temporary reprieve for a troubled king, whose sanity couldn’t reconcile the virtues of a perceived enemy with the realities on the ground.
David was not an enemy to Saul. He was never remotely one, and neither did he ever conceive in his young mind of ever usurping the throne from the king. The tension in the palace was all the creation of Saul. David was never a party to the idea of ever wrestling power forcefully from the anointed king. Forceful usurpation of power from God’s anointed had never been part of David’s plans, and in fact, it wasn’t his style to dabble in things pertaining to God and His anointed. David’s style was that once a person is anointed of God, it will take the hand of God to determine the future of that person. David’s stock in trade was to bid his time until the anointing triggered God’s timing into action.
Saul would have saved himself a lot of headache, if only he had known the heart of David. He would not have indulged in the senseless pursuit of a person whose whole life was dedicated to serving him and seeking his happiness and welfare. Saul’s mental sanity was a culprit. The intelligence unit under Saul did a very shoddy job in advising the king on his ill-fated intention of eliminating David as the source of all his woes. It seemed strange that Saul wouldn’t rather direct his anger and frustration at God or the prophet Samuel. Perhaps he felt helpless before Samuel, whose role as fatherly figure in picking Saul up from nowhere, at a time he was nobody in Israel, including his father’s house, to make him the first king of Israel. Even Saul, in his insanity, didn’t dare to cross the forbidden line of ever conceiving the idea of blaming his mentor as the cause of his dimming popularity. In fact, Saul needed Samuel to be able to clutch at the last vestiges of power in the throne.
Saul’s derailment found him spending more time thinking, planning, talking, strategizing and committing valuable time and resources into chasing after a mirage in David, a perceived enemy, than committing that valuable time to getting back to God in repentance, forgiveness and restoration. Saul’s resort to face-saving remorseful tears and display before Samuel which was not enough to touch the heart of God, not even Samuel, should have been spent seeking the face of God in repentance.
Food for thought: Remorsefulness with tearful display could never be replacement for repentance, which touches the heart of God.
Declaration: …..that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance. (Acts 26:20b)
©Author: Rev Fred Aboe
