Daily Manna 18-Aug-2016

Topic: Safety is of the Lord 27

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: For all the bizarre, unfortunate incidents and raging confusion generated by Saul, it wasn’t lost on him that God was with David. This powerful truth about God’s favour and covering over David’s life, was the source of Saul’s fear of David. Saul was also aware of the implications of his rejection by God as king of Israel. The combination of these two factors influenced Saul’s growing apprehension over the future kingship of Israel. David becoming the obvious puzzle that must be sorted out to protect his kingdom.

For a man that had missed his moment with God, Saul only had his drawing board to turn to, after each failure in his fruitless pursuit of David. Pathetic as Saul was, he was willing to use his two daughters as baits and pawns in his desperate use of guile to trap David into a mirage of a marriage. Saul’s drawing board strategy involved using repetition of the same methods, sometimes with some variations to try to confuse his prey.

As a king with little or no respect for integrity, David was made to pay his bride price on three different occasions to Saul before the promised marriage to the king’s daughter finally became a reality. Firstly, he only had to conquer the fearsome Goliath and the king’s daughter becomes his wife. This promise wasn’t honoured by Saul. Secondly, David was made to valiantly fight dangerous and reckless battles against the Philistines to have Merab. David was successful. Yet Merab was given to another man. Thirdly, David was asked to present one hundred foreskins from the Philistines as dowry to be given Michal in marriage.

David fought a raging war against the Philistines and succeeded in killing two hundred men; presented the foreskins to Saul before he was finally rewarded with Michal as wife. In all his battles against the Philistines, the prayer and expectation of Saul was that David would eventually die at the hands of the Philistines. Saul was waiting to jubilate over David’s death, not the least bothered that he would have been toying with the heart of his daughter, Michal, who was head over heels in love with David, waiting for her husband to be.

Food for thought: Only a heartless despot, without conscience and without fear of God, could have the audacity to vary a dowry three times.

Declaration: A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is his delight. (Proverbs 11:1)

©Author: Rev Fred Aboe