Daily Manna 26-July-2016

Topic: Safety is of the Lord 7

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: Saul’s fear of David was obsessive. However, being the king and by convention the commander-in-chief of the Israeli forces, he was as well a master tactician in strategies. His reasons for keeping David in the palace were basically to serve the personal interest of the king.

This afforded Saul the opportunity to keep a close eye on his number one threat. Saul knew that continued loyalty by David to his throne was a natural precondition to his stay in the palace. David was bound to behave himself in the palace because he was within the purview of well-informed watching eyes whose loyalty and livelihood were totally owned to the king. David wouldn’t dare put any false foot forward even if he ever harboured the remotest of ideas to usurp power from Saul through a coup d’etat. He would have stood no chance in hell fighting alone against the mastery of General Abner and his well-oiled fighting machine.

David needed Saul alive to fulfill one of the key motivating reasons that galvanized him into taking a crazy risk in confronting the giant, Goliath. In the moment of desperation at a time that Goliath was virtually breathing fire on the neck of Israel and with the prospect of Israel losing the war and Saul losing his life and throne as well, Saul knew that he had to make the prize for confronting and overpowering Goliath very attractive in order to be able to induce any man or soldier into attempting to fight Goliath. The prize was a royal wife (Saul giving out a daughter in marriage) and wealth to go with it. There will be no need to pay for dowry as the price for venturing to fight was hefty enough, death seemed the obvious to be expected, looking at things from the logical viewpoint.

David was the sacrifice that Saul offered to confront the brute giant on behalf of Israel. In confronting Goliath and killing him, David was able to deliver Israel from the intimidation of Goliath and the sword of the Philistines, thereby bringing redemption to Israel. David was a prototype of Jesus Christ who freely offered himself to die for helpless humanity, that he would bring deliverance to the human race who faced the wrath of God and obvious death as a result of the disobedience of Adam.

Food for thought: Just as in Adam we all died through sin, in Christ we all come alive again through his sacrificial death on the cross.

Declaration: And as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (1Cor 15:45)

©Author: Rev Fred Aboe