Halfway Up the Mountain
Notes
Transcript
Then David said in his heart, “Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of seeking me any longer within the borders of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand.” So David arose and went over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. And David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal’s widow. And when it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, he no longer sought him. Then David said to Achish, “If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be given me in one of the country towns, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?” So that day Achish gave him Ziklag. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. And the number of the days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months. Now David and his men went up and made raids against the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites, for these were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as far as Shur, to the land of Egypt. And David would strike the land and would leave neither man nor woman alive, but would take away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the garments, and come back to Achish. When Achish asked, “Where have you made a raid today?” David would say, “Against the Negeb of Judah,” or, “Against the Negeb of the Jerahmeelites,” or, “Against the Negeb of the Kenites.” And David would leave neither man nor woman alive to bring news to Gath, thinking, “lest they should tell about us and say, ‘So David has done.’ ” Such was his custom all the while he lived in the country of the Philistines. And Achish trusted David, thinking, “He has made himself an utter stench to his people Israel; therefore he shall always be my servant.” In those days the Philistines gathered their forces for war, to fight against Israel. And Achish said to David, “Understand that you and your men are to go out with me in the army.” David said to Achish, “Very well, you shall know what your servant can do.” And Achish said to David, “Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life.”
Sometimes history is just history - God works out His redemption in history
Our passage today is just that - history. It simply tells us what happened.
The Bible records the imperfections of the heroes of the faith - the failures, the times they act impetuously or out of emotion - and their sin
Today, we are going to see a historical event and we are going to have to determine together what this event reveals about David. Because we are not told what’s good and what’s bad here. We’re just told what happens.
Though the chapter/verse not inspired this is one of only two chapters in both the books of Samuel where God is not mentioned - no YHWH, no Elohim, no Adonai.
Like the book of judges - there is no commentary, just history. The Bible doesn’t say one way or the other - it doesn't tell us whether or not what happens here is good or bad.
What happens here:
David again runs from Saul
He goes to the land of the Philistines knowing Saul won’t come after him there
While there, he makes friends with the king of Gath and he is allowed to stay in a city called Ziklag all the way to the south of Philistia
While staying in Ziklag - for a year and four months, mind you - David makes attacks on the inhabitants of the land to the south, including the Amalekites, while he makes the king of Gath believe he is really attacking southern Israel to the north
Through it all, David earns the trust of the king, and finally the the king trusts him so much that he asks David to help attack Israel
Map: note all the Philistine territory (we can miss how bad things really were in Israel at this time - such a focus on Saul and David), note where Gath and Ziklag are, Shur (and Egypt) and the Negeb (southland) of Israel
I find that knowing where these things actually happened help make them more real to us.
So now we know where this all happened.
So what happened?
Then David said in his heart, “Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of seeking me any longer within the borders of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand.”
History repeats itself… again.
Because again, we see that David doesn’t believe Saul.
Saul again swore he wouldn’t hurt David. He said he was wrong for trying in the first place and even blessed David and told him he would do great things. Then Saul went home and left David alone.
And David is still sure Saul will kill him if he stays in Israel.
I mean, this is what we read in the last chapter. This is what Saul says:
Then Saul said, “I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have acted foolishly, and have made a great mistake.”
And the chapter ends with:
Then Saul said to David, “Blessed be you, my son David! You will do many things and will succeed in them.” So David went his way, and Saul returned to his place.
And David’ reaction to the whole exchange in the very next verse?
Then David said in his heart, “Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of seeking me any longer within the borders of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand.”
Clearly, David didn’t believe Saul’s change of heart was going to last very long.
And he was right, because we are told in verse 4 that once Saul found out David was in Gath, he stopped seeking him. That means he was seeking him. In other words, the pursuit continued despite what Saul said.
So David decides that he is going to escape - of all places - to the land of the Philistines.
Note that phrase: “Borders of Israel” - territory or boundary - it is used in the Old Testament often to refer to the inheritance of Israel. It is used to describe the total of the Promised Land given by God.
And we have already seen, the land of the Philistines - the five cities that we hear about throughout the book of 1 Samuel - they were supposed to be part of the inheritance of Israel as laid out in the book of Joshua. And control of these lands goes back and forth between Israel and the Philistines for hundreds of years.
And as we saw on our map, the Philistines controlled a substantial part of the land at this time.
Much of the land was not currently part of the nation of Israel. And David figures that Saul is going to continue to hunt him, but that he won’t look beyond the current borders of Israel.
Now, why is any of this important? Because we will see that this portion of the history is very concerned with land. Our passage today, in part, brings to the fore the fight for the Promised Land.
And the one fighting for the land isn’t Saul, but David. David was doing what God said to do.
But we will see that it is being done in a way contrary to God’s prescription. David did what God said to do, but he didn’t do it why God said our how God said to do it.
In other words, we see that David here kinda does what God wants, but he does it his own way, and for his own reasons.
And this is something I think we have all done at points in our life. Like this account just tells us what, we sometimes get stuck on the what of our faith.
God tells us to read our Bible, so we do. We check it off our list and feel like we’ve been obedient.
God tells us to go to church, so we do. It is, after all, what Christians do.
We so focus on the “what” sometimes that we forget the “why” and the “how” of what we do.
And that’s the problem for David in our passage.
OK, I want us to think about the way the writer - a great writer whoever it is - presents the story of David throughout the book so far.
We have David secretly anointed king, and then the Goliath incident happens. And David’s on top of the world.
But Saul now wants David dead, and makes him a commander of the army of Israel hoping he gets killed. He sends him off to kill the Philistines thinking they’ll kill him.
But David has great success because he believes God will fight the battles for his people.
But then things then turn bad for David. Really bad. He is scared for his life and he has to go on the run.
Now note, Saul had already tried killing David multiple times. He tried to do it himself twice, he tried to do it in battle multiple times, but David stayed the course, did what was right, trusted God, and believed God would fight for him and for Israel.
It’s only when David starts to take matters into his own hands that things turn bad.
Now here is where I want you to notice how the story goes.
David is fighting God’s battles and doing great. And then he decides to go on the run.
The first thing David does when he goes on the run is take the bread from Ahimelech the priest. He does that without prayer or consulting God. He just acts. And that winds up almost wiping out the priesthood. Not a good moment for David.
Then, David saves the people of Keilah after consulting God, and flees the city only at God’s word, and he winds up in a cave where he has the chance to kill Saul, and he doesn’t. He relies on God and His Word. He trusts God, and shows Saul mercy. Great moment for David.
Then we have the Nabal incident. David gets insulted that Nabal didn’t pay him what he was owed, and David decides to slaughter a whole family. And we know God stopped him through Abigail. But a bad moment for David.
Then, David has another opportunity to kill Saul. That’s what we saw last week. And David shows Saul mercy. David trusts God and does things God’s way. Another great moment for David.
Do we see a pattern?
Up, down, up, down, up, down.
And this happens for his whole life, as we’ll see.
As I said, the Bible doesn’t hide anything. Even the giants of the faith are shown for what they are. They are people of great faith who still struggle with sin. People who trust God in their hearts, but often trust themselves more in their practice.
And this is good in that we can relate to them. Have you ever felt like your life is like David’s here? Up, down, up, down, up, down.
Mountaintop, valley.
Faith, doubt.
I trust God, I trust myself.
Obedience, sin.
Can you relate?
Well, that is all part of our walk. It is all part of our sanctification. But if we have repented and believed in Jesus Christ, the Bible tells us that we will start to have more obedience than sin. We will trust God a little more and a little more and ourselves a little less and a little less.
Our faith will grow and overcome our doubt day by day.
But we will still fail. Even though the mountaintops are higher and more regular, the valleys are still there.
But, there is another danger we have to watch out for. And that’s when we aren’t in the valley, and we aren’t at the mountaintop. And if we’re honest, this is probably where we spend most of our time.
We live halfway up the mountain more than not.
And this is where we aren’t feeling particularly far from God. We know God is good. We are seeking Him and spending time with Him the Bible and in prayer, most days and mostly for the right reasons.
We are involved at church - ministering and being ministered to.
And then there is that other part of our life. When we aren’t at church. And after we have read our Bibles and prayed. And we are just living our lives. At work. At school. With our friends. Meeting obligations. Enjoying our hobbies. Finding some down time.
It isn’t a valley, but God isn’t on our minds, necessarily. It isn’t the mountaintop, but we’re not falling into sin, necessarily.
We’re just halfway up the mountain.
We do our best to live lives pleasing to God. We try to avoid blatant sin. We read our Bibles when we can and pray most days.
We do. We try. Not God, us.
It’s not mountaintop “God I trust you have Your way in me.” It’s not valley “God why are you so far from me.”
It’s “God, You’re there, and I’m here and I’m doing my best.”
That’s where David is here. And it’s a dangerous place to be, because we know what God wants, but we are still tempted to do things our way.
Is that pleasing to God? Is it sin?
Well, let’s continue on. As I said, David here kinda does what God wants, but he does it his own way for his own reasons.
First, after trusting God and having that mountaintop moment of showing such mercy to Saul, David immediately decides to run again. Does he still trust God? Sure. But sometimes it’s easier to trust God when we’re taking our own steps to take care of things.
And this isn’t necessarily bad. I trust God to preserve me, but I still look both ways before crossing the street. I trust God to provide for me, but I still go to work everyday so I can buy food.
But does that describe what David is doing here?
He trusts God in one moment. He told Abishai not to kill Saul, because God would take care of it if He wants him dead. But then David decides it will be easier to trust God with his own life if there was some more distance between him and Saul. Because David is all of a sudden sure that Saul is going to kill him if he stays in Israel.
So it seems like he kinda believes God’s promise, but believes them a little more if he can have a say in how it plays out.
Sound familiar to anyone?
And we see that up and down here. David trusts God enough not to kill Saul, but decides that Saul is going to kill him if he doesn’t run. Trust God, then trust myself.
And where does David go?
So David arose and went over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. And David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal’s widow.
This is history repeating itself yet again. It tends to when we rely on ourselves.
When David first fled from Saul, and then took the holy bread from the priests, where did he first go to hide from Saul?
Let’s go back to chapter 21:
And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances, ‘Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?” And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard. Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”
Close call here. David decides to run, take the bread, and go to Gath - all on his own - but the Philistines knew who he was and what he did to Goliath and against them.
But luckily he was smart enough to get himself out of it when his plan didn’t work.
Praise God for that. David made a mistake, realized it, and in God’s providence he was able to escape unscathed. Close call.
So, lesson learned, right?
Nope.
David is sure Saul is going to kill him once again.
1 Samuel 27:2–3 (ESV)
So David arose and went over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. And David lived with Achish at Gath.
Now understand that the name “Achish” is now believed to be a title. It is the title of a Philistine king. Like “Pharaoh” is the title of the Egyptian king. That’s why this Achish is differentiated from the Achish of chapter 21 with that “son of Maoch.”
But that’s the only difference here. David is doing what he already did once, and it didn't work out the first time. And we see at the end of this passage, this actually works out even worse.
Now, it seems kind of foolish, doesn’t it? To try something our way, realize it’s a failure, then later on try the same thing again thinking it will work out.
I think someone once defined insanity that way.
But we don’t do that, right? We don’t repeat mistakes, right?
And I’m not talking about that word you always misspell even though you know you always misspell it but still looks right when you do.
hang out with a group of friends that we realize brings us down - drink too much or get us using less than sanctified language, maybe laugh at things we’d be embarrassed to admit to. We don’t realize that and then do it again thinking it will be different, do we?
we don’t neglecting our Bible reading, or prayer, or not come to church, then realize it leaves us feeling far from God and more prone to sin, and then after recommitting to all of it, let it happen again, do we?
we don’t go to the same kinds of places, watch the same kinds of movies, or look at the same kinds of websites that tend to tempt us into sin over and over again, do we?
It’s amazing: no matter how many times doing things our way turns out poorly for us, we still try to do it again. As I said, history tends to repeat itself when we rely on ourselves.
When we do things our way we tend to do what Paul warns us against and we make provision for the flesh.
When we do things our way, like David, we put ourselves in a bad position.
Even when that’s not our intention.
In fact, we may even think we are doing good. We may convince ourselves that we need to be a presence with that friend group because they need to see Christ and we’re the only Christian they know. We may just run out of time for prayer because we are doing things like working and spending time with our family.
The what we do is often good on the surface.
And we may start out actually doing some good.
David, actually does some good here.
Then David said to Achish, “If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be given me in one of the country towns, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?” So that day Achish gave him Ziklag. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day.
Look at what happens. David takes part of the land back for Israel. He takes back Ziklag from the Philistines. And it remained part of Israel until at least the writing of the book.
And remember, the Philistine territories were supposed to be part of Israel. And now that the last judge was dead, the king was responsible for the whole nation. So David here is doing the job of the king yet again and expanding the territory of Israel.
He is doing what God said to do.
He is even doing what Saul refused to do:
Now David and his men went up and made raids against the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites, for these were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as far as Shur, to the land of Egypt. And David would strike the land and would leave neither man nor woman alive, but would take away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the garments, and come back to Achish.
David is doing what Saul was told to do with the Amalekites but didn’t do. That’s the reason God took the kingdom from him, if you’ll remember. Even though Saul rationalized what he did as good. Go back and read chapter 15.
But David here is destroying the Amalekites. David is destroying the pagans from off the land.
Now, when we look at what David was doing, we might think this is a good thing. He is doing what God told Israel to do when they took the land, which they had yet to do. They were to destroy the people off the land and they were to take the entire territory promised to them.
And David was doing that little by little while he stayed in Ziklag.
So what David was doing wasn’t in and of itself bad. It was good.
But God isn’t only interested in the what, is He?
Remember, God doesn’t look at the outside. God sees the heart. He sees our intentions. He knows our reasons for everything we do.
And God cares about what we do - God cares very much about the what. But He also cares about the why and the how. And so should we.
We should care about what we do, why we do it, and how we do it.
If all three of these are done according to God’s will, then we are not only powerful instruments in the hands of God - like David has been before - but we are also going to grow from the experience.
Our faith will grow. We will learn to trust God. We will be moving steadily toward the mountaintop and experiencing true communion with God and real spiritual growth.
But if any of the three are done according to our will, we are really only learning to trust ourselves.
And the obvious one here is the what, right? If what we do is contrary to God’s Word, we’ve already lost. But the what is really the easy part.
And even when what we do aligns with God, we still need the why and the how. Because if we don’t have all three, while we may not be moving down the mountain, we also aren’t moving up the mountain.
We just stay where we are, halfway up the mountain.
That’s where David was here.
Because the what was good. Taking the land - good. Destroying the inhabitants of the land - good. That’s what God commanded.
But why?
Well, first of all, David was only here in the land of the Philistines because he was still afraid for his life. Why is he here? Self-preservation. But let’s even overlook that for a moment.
David is destroying the inhabitants of the land. God commanded that. But David isn’t doing it because God commanded it. We’re told why David is doing it:
And David would leave neither man nor woman alive to bring news to Gath, thinking, “lest they should tell about us and say, ‘So David has done.’ ” Such was his custom all the while he lived in the country of the Philistines.
David is destroying the inhabitants of the land like God commanded. But he isn’t doing it because God commanded it.
David is doing this to protect himself. So that the king of Gath will let him stay.
Which leads us right to the how. How is David doing what under many other circumstances would be good?
He is doing it deceitfully.
Now David and his men went up and made raids against the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites, for these were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as far as Shur, to the land of Egypt. And David would strike the land and would leave neither man nor woman alive, but would take away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the garments, and come back to Achish. When Achish asked, “Where have you made a raid today?” David would say, “Against the Negeb of Judah,” or, “Against the Negeb of the Jerahmeelites,” or, “Against the Negeb of the Kenites.”
David would go south and attack the pagan lands, but he would tell the king he went north to attack Israel.
David was outright lying to the guy that gave him protection from Saul.
And I’m sure it was easy to rationalize for him, because look at the good he was doing. God’s will was being carried out, right? Lying to people - and the Philistines of all people - are no big deal if what happens turns out for good, right?
At least we would never lie like that, right? Even a little white lie. We wouldn’t convince ourselves the ends justify the means. “Look, it all ended up going well, so holding back a little of the truth was okay.”
“Sure, I rearranged some facts, but look, I’m now reconciled to my brother in Christ, so it’s all good.”
I won’t ask you to raise your hands if you’ve done things like that, because I don’t want you to have to lie.
But that’s what David did here. He deceived the king of Gath. And even though the what seemed good in a vacuum, we don’t do anything in a vacuum.
Yes, David was doing what the king of Israel should, but not how he should do it. Not why he should do it.
And what happens?
And Achish trusted David, thinking, “He has made himself an utter stench to his people Israel; therefore he shall always be my servant.”
David lied to get the king to trust him so he could stay and be safe from Saul. And even though what he did was according to God’s revealed will, why and how he did it were not.
And what’s more, David is doing this for political reasons, too.
We will read this in a few weeks when we get to the end of the book. David has a big battle against the Amalekites, takes a bunch of spoil, gives some to his men, and then:
When David came to Ziklag, he sent part of the spoil to his friends, the elders of Judah, saying, “Here is a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of the Lord.” It was for those in Bethel, in Ramoth of the Negeb, in Jattir, in Aroer, in Siphmoth, in Eshtemoa, in Racal, in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, in the cities of the Kenites, in Hormah, in Bor-ashan, in Athach, in Hebron, for all the places where David and his men had roamed.
David is garnering favor with the people of the south of Judah - including Hebron where we already saw he will be anointed king. He is making “friends” by giving them of his spoils from this battle.
And while we aren’t told explicitly, it seems to me that it is likely he was doing that all along. These elders of Judah were already his friends.
So let’s review.
So what’s the what?
David took back parts of the Promised Land and destroyed the inhabitants of the land. Both of these were commanded by God.
What’s the why?
Self-preservation and political self-interest.
What’s the how?
Through deceit.
So what do we think? Good moment for David or not so good moment for David?
Now let’s turn these same questions on ourselves.
Let’s first talk about what we do as God’s people.
I think that in American evangelical circles we have bought in to a way of thinking that is dangerous. That keeps us circling the mountain halfway up.
We have bought into slogans that in a sense are true but when emphasized become very dangerous. They actually take away the “what” of Christianity.
Like, have you ever heard someone say Christianity is “a relationship, not a religion.” This goes right along with that whole “personal relationship with Christ” evangelicals talk so much about. Do we have a relationship with Christ? Yes.
This has somehow evolved into how many define us and our faith. And we say that as long as I am in relationship with Jesus, I’m good. That’s all I need.
That’s not what the Bible says. Is that how the New Testament even describes our relationship with Christ? Or is our relationship with Christ one of Lord and servant? One of husband and submissive wife? One of head and body that carries out the will of the head?
Or, how about one of the battle cries of the Reformed faith: “grace alone through faith alone.”
Do I believe that this defines our salvation in a sense? Yes. This is how we are justified.
But to stop there is to squander the grace given to us. To stop there and have faith without works means we don’t really have that faith at all.
And the Bible - even in the New Testament - does not shy away from the what.
The Bible - for all of the wonderful grace it teaches, for the amazing union with Christ it describes - it tells us more “what” than anything else.
It tells us very clearly what we should and must do as Christians, and what we should not and must not do as Christians.
The “do” part is why we’re here.
So like I said, the what is the easy part, because it’s so clear.
Do we have the easy part down?
Because what’s not so easy are the why and the how.
And we can easily fall into doing the what with the wrong why.
Why?
Go to church (be with my family in Christ, worship God, hear Him speak) or because I feel like I am meeting my minimum requirement to be in the Christian club
Give to the ministry (because I want the ministry of my church to be supported and even to grow) - or because I feel guilty if I don’t or because I want people to see me give
Read my Bible and pray - (because I want to talk to God and hear from God) - or because I hadn’t done it in a few days and I really had to get them off my to-do list
Serve in ministry - (because that’s what God says makes a church - the saints serving each other and the world) - or so people think I’m a good Christian or to try to “make up” for some habitual sin or so I can have some say over something in the church
We can easily fall into doing the what with the wrong how.
Do I serve, give, or even come to church begrudgingly? Do I sigh on Saturday night when I realize what tomorrow morning is?
Do I ever put on a smile and pretend to care when my brother or sister is talking to me when I just want the conversation to be done?
Do I ask if there is anything I can do just so I can feel good that I made the offer but then when I am actually asked to do something, I get upset and feel put upon?
Do I come and take part in all the church does, and then complain about everything the church does?
Look, there are a million ways to do the what wrong. We need to make sure we know why we do what we do and do it how God calls us to.
Why do we come here? What are we expecting when we walk through those doors on a Sunday morning? How do we worship while we’re here?
I have known many a worshipper who finds something to complain about every week. I have known many a Christian who only comes to church when it’s their turn in the rotation in this or that ministry because that’s what they enjoy - the whole corporate worship thing they can do without.
I have known far too many Christians who have something to say about others who have poured their hearts and their time into making ministries run just because “I wouldn’t do it that way.”
And if any of that describes you, I’m glad you come. You have the what down. But why?
How do we love others? Do we offer “unconditional love” to people the entire time they are meeting our unspoken conditions? Are we happy to love in action only when it’s easy or convenient?
If you’re married: How do we love our spouse? Do you say the same things about them that you say to them?
Look, we can go through the motions on just about anything. And we can do all the right “whats”.
But we put ourselves in a very bad position when we do that without the right why and how.
Like David did - again. Look at where all of this got him:
In those days the Philistines gathered their forces for war, to fight against Israel. And Achish said to David, “Understand that you and your men are to go out with me in the army.” David said to Achish, “Very well, you shall know what your servant can do.” And Achish said to David, “Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life.”
This is like the season finale of your favorite drama series. The hero in an impossible position. What will he do? He now either needs to turn on his own people, or reveal that he has been lying this whole time.
Well, we’ll find out.
For now, I want to ask you a question.
How did he get here? How did David wind up in such a bad position? Was it the wrong what? No. It was the why and the how.
So I want to encourage you to keep doing the right whats. In fact, let’s all start doing more of the right whats according to God’s Word.
But let’s carefully consider why we do them.
And then be careful how we do them.
Because the what is important. Here, David was doing what God wanted done. And it benefited God’s people. Even though David did it for the wrong reasons and the wrong way, Israel still gained from it.
But David didn’t. In fact, it made things worse for him.
And when we do the what for the wrong reasons or the wrong way, God will still use it. He will still work it for good for His people.
But for those that do the what for the wrong reasons, it’s going to make things worse.
Now, it isn’t necessarily a valley kind of moment. But it sure isn’t a mountaintop moment either.
In fact, the what will only get us halfway up that mountain. Without the right why and how, we can’t go any further.
And when you’re halfway up the mountain, there are only three directions to go.
You can go up, you can go down, or you can just go in circles around the mountain.
Which describes you right now?
Well, I’ll give you a spoiler here. When we resume this narrative, David is spared by God from having to make the tough decision. He doesn’t have to go against Israel, and he isn’t exposed before the king of Gath.
God takes care of it.
And I want to give you another spoiler so you aren’t left wondering. A marvelous, glorious spoiler.
If you are here and you are struggling with the what of your walk. If you turn to God, He will take care of it.
If you struggle with the why of your walk - with doing what God calls us to for the right reasons - if you turn to God, He will take care of it.
If you struggle with the how of it all - and you just can’t help but do things your own way - if you turn to God, He will take care of it.
No matter where we are - deep in the valley, just beginning our ascent, stuck halfway up, or even moving in the wrong direction - there is only one way to get to where God wants us - up on the mountain top.
Turn, and look up.
Repent - for the first time or for the hundredth
Turn your eyes upon Jesus - Who did all the what* (descended the mountain to come get us - descended all the way into the grave - resurrection - ascension back to where He belongs) - why* (His great love) - how* (perfectly obedience - God’s way)
Turn to Jesus with Whom we have been raised not just to new life so we could have to the what, why, and how - but with Whom we have been raised to the heavenlies by grace through faith so we would have the what, why, and how
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.