Daily Manna 23-Aug-2016

Topic: Safety is of the Lord 31

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: Saul was counting on the wisdom and reliability of the age-old maxim that says that “blood is thicker than water” to destroy David. After all, his passionate and desperate fight against David was all in the sole interest of protecting a family dynasty. Saul wasn’t just fighting for his personal interest. He was fighting for the interest of Jonathan, who was his designated successor.

Saul’s crusade for the preservation of the throne should ordinarily have received a unanimous verdict within the family. It was supposed to be a no-brainer to the rest of the children, that David ought to be totally deleted from the scene. It was true that David did a yeoman’s job in taking care of the threat and nuisance of Goliath to the whole of Israel. It was equally true that David had now become a national hero, an asset and inspirer to everyone in Israel, both young and old.

But most importantly and unfortunately for Saul, he foolishly assumed that having the support and consensus of the family was enough armoury to fight against the interest of God in the fight for the throne. Saul grossly discounted the capabilities of God to infiltrate the inner circle of his own family to create disaffection, discordance and division on a matter that he had concluded to be as clear as daylight. Saul had completely lost his way, forgetting that Jehovah is a man of war. That Jehovah remained the greatest strategist, both in heaven and on the earth. He had lost touch with God and in the knowledge of His word, as being the One who holds the hearts of kings in His hands and turns them wherever He wills.

The discordance and disaffection from Jonathan and Michal to the grand scheme of Saul, to obliterate the memory of David, was a sad reflection of a wayward king who had wholly trusted in the arm of the flesh for his defence. God exposed the frailty of Saul’s human weakness, wisdom, strategies and grand pursuit of self glory in his capacity as king, to be an exercise in futility and plain foolishness.

Food for thought: Without God, where will I be?

Declaration: The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will. (Proverbs 21:1)

©Author: Rev Fred Aboe