God's Provicence

God’s protection in the trials will be there though it may not look like what we think.

We have been going through the story of David, in the next two chapters we read that Saul is continuing to try and kill David. David knew He had been called by God to be the future king of Israel and in the meantime life was not looking so good. What does the protection and guidance of the Lord look like?

Corrie ten Boom tells the story of visiting a lady in Russia by night to visit on older women. They got to the house ot find a woman lying on a small couch propped up by pillows. Her body was twisted by multiple sclerosis. When Corrie arrived next to the lady, she could not even morve her head to look up at her, but rather turn her eyes upwards and smile. Her husband was getting older but he was devoted to her care.

The only part she could move was her right index finger. Beside her couch was a battered typewriter Each morning her faithful husband would rise, praising the Lordd. After caring for his wifes needs and feeding her a simple breakfast he would prop her up int a sitting position on the couch. He then would move the ancient black typewriter in front of her on a small wooden table. all day and far into the night she would type.

and with that one finger she slowly translated Christian books and portions of Scripture into Russian, pecking out page after page. Because she was known to be sick and ignored by the secret police, she could work undisturbed. Corrie says she went there simply to kiss that single typing finger.

corrie wondered in anguish why the Lord wouldnt heal this saint. But the Husband sensing the anguish of her soul gave her an answer. He said “God has a purpose in her sickness. Every other Christian inthe city is watched by the secret police. But because she has been sick so long, no one ever looks in on her. They leave us alone and she is the only person in all the city who can type quietly, undecteted by the police.” What a humble way of looking at what other people would see as an evil that had befallen her.

God uses what little we have. (Scripture: 2 Cor 12:9–10) → The woman’s tiny, exhausted finger became a tool to get God’s Word into hungry hands.

Suffering can become a hidden ministry. (Scripture: Matthew 6:4 / Acts 20:24) → Because she was sick, she was overlooked — and that very invisibility let her work go on undetected. (Then close with a challenge: “What do you have — however small — that God could use?”)

She could have said, ‘I’m useless,’ but instead she said, ‘Here’s my one finger.’ God multiplied it. That is how God often works—through a small, faithful offering.” (Link to loaves & fishes / the widow’s mite.)

We may go through adversity but through it all God provides for and protects His children. We are protected through our reminder of eternity and through the temporary blessings on earth which point to eternity.

We start out by remembering a few things. the son of the king, Jonathan, was good friends with David, the future king that Saul wanted dead. One of the daughters of Saul was married to David as well, and she loved him more then she loved her father it would appear, things where not going well for Saul, But David had the blessing of the Lord.

Saul orders everone to kill David

Military plans do not go well if you tell the enemy of the plans. Operational secrecy is important. so when Saul told everyone that he wanted Davi dead it was not the wisest idea that Jonathan went and told Saul’s enemy.

1 Samuel 19:1–2 CSB

Saul ordered his son Jonathan and all his servants to kill David. But Saul’s son Jonathan liked David very much, so he told him, “My father, Saul, intends to kill you. Be on your guard in the morning and hide in a secret place and stay there.

It seems kind of funny that Saul is trying to get people to conspire against a young man that they loved very much.

since we are covering two chapters we are going to paraphrase a bit here. Jonathan acted as a bit of an intermediary between his dad the king and his best friend the shepherd boy future king.

1 Samuel 19:4 CSB

Jonathan spoke well of David to his father, Saul. He said to him, “The king should not sin against his servant David. He hasn’t sinned against you; in fact, his actions have been a great advantage to you.

David has done nothing but good things for the king, whats the big deal here? pride I think was the problem. Someone who the people loved, that was protecting the kingdom, why would he have a problem with it?

after the careful reasoning of Jonathan, Saul abstained from killing David.

An Evil Spirit

1 Samuel 19:8 CSB

When war broke out again, David went out and fought against the Philistines. He defeated them with such great force that they fled from him.

The problem was that the war had broke out again and David was called on to fight against the Philistines and he routed them yet again. a good thing you would think, right? Saul was angered and when the two where together again

God allowed an evil spirit to bother Saul. He had the choice to allow the evil to turn him to God or allow him to fester on His pride. He chose the latter.

God’s protection is seen here in a few ways.

allowing David to escape - David escaped the spear of Saul yet again.

The help of Davids wife - They tried to come to David’s house and use his wife to get him while he slept.

one thing I find inyteresting is the paganism that had infiltrated Saul’s house that is seen in his daughter bringin it into David’s house.

1 Samuel 19:13 CSB

Then Michal took the household idol and put it on the bed, placed some goat hair on its head, and covered it with a garment.

It seems like the only thing the idol was good for was being a decoy for David. Also Not much is said about the idol, like whether David worshipped it or not.

Saul was disappointed that his daughter would decieve him like this.

Think about the protection and providence of God in the life of David for a second so far. David almost gets pinend to a wall with a spear, He has to run. Sure he has his life but he has to run for his life. After all he did for the king it would have been easy to get mad at him. Like How dare you try to kill me after all I did for you. David could have gone after Saul and likely won. But instead he ran away.

same thing with the dummy in the bed. The protection and providence of God meant that David’s wife, Saul’s daughter, went against the kings wishes she took her life into her hands by obeying the will of God. Aagin David had to run.

The providence of God does not always look like what we would think that it does. Like the lady that Corrie met who could move nothing but her finger, how on earth can you see that as the protection and providence of God? If you are looking to God for all things then you can. If you are asking God to be glorified in all areas of your life then you begin to look at things differently.

1 Samuel 19:18 CSB

So David fled and escaped and went to Samuel at Ramah and told him everything Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel left and stayed at Naioth.

David fleeing and God’s protection. We are promisd that this life may be tough, but the Lord will provide for us. lstley we are going to go through another time we see the protection of the Lord on David.

1 Samuel 19:20 CSB

he sent agents to seize David. However, when they saw the group of prophets prophesying with Samuel leading them, the Spirit of God came on Saul’s agents, and they also started prophesying.

There was nothing that they did to bring on this state of prophecy, nor do we know what it is they said, the point is that the Lord God used this idea of them prophesying to stop them from apprehending David. The idea is they could do nothing to stop God, they found out that God had full control of them whether they like it or not. God’s providence works in interesting ways.

Another thing to note on this is that the is not prescriptive of how the Lord always works but descriptive of How God worked in this circumstance.

Three times this happened. Again the focus is not on the fact that they prophesied but that God used this to render them useless. So Saul took matters into His own hands.

1 Samuel 19:23–24 CSB

So he went to Naioth in Ramah. The Spirit of God also came on him, and as he walked along, he prophesied until he entered Naioth in Ramah. Saul then removed his clothes and also prophesied before Samuel; he collapsed and lay naked all that day and all that night. That is why they say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”

Like those that arrived before him, Saul prophesied, but this time with no clothes on. This seems to symbolize that the rule of Saul is soon going to be gone (removal of royal robes)He is not now fit company for the rest of the priesthood that is there.

So What?

What does the bible say about the Lord’s providence in our lives?

Our Protection in this life is for our eternity with Him

The protection we have now is for eternity with Jesus. The providence, God’s providing for us is for our eternity with Him. We must keep this in mind. David is a good example of this as He was chased around by an angry king with a spear. The NT echoes this idea as well. so we look into that to get a better glimpe into this idea.

Matthew 7:24–25 CSB

“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock.

Build my life on the rock - This parable was dealing with salvation. The book of Isaiah also mentions this idea. But Jesus traught us to build our lives upon the rock, which we know is the messiah. The passage in Isaiash mentions the coming chief cornerstone. What this means is that our life needs to be aligned and built on the word of God.

Jesus tells us in order to do this we must hear the word of God, we must be preaching and telling the message of salvation to the world around us. When we rep[ent of our sin and turn our lives to Jesus we must then act upon the wrod of God. Though we are not saved by what we do wehn we are saved what we do should start to change.

But to build our lives upon the rock we are p[romised protection from the storms that assail us, but this is talking with eternity in mind. Because we are told the storms are going to assail us, the wind will blow. But the promsie of protection is that if we are hearing the word of God, and acting on the word of God. If we have done this and built our life upon Jesus alone then we will one day be in eternity with Him. I do believe that we can not lose our salvation if we are taking the steps outlined in scripture. That is part of what it means to be protected by God and provdied for by God. It all points to eternity with Him.

Our Protection in this life is for His Glory

Voddie Baucham died recently, he said something that rings true with this theme. “Sometimes God is glorified when sick saints get well. But more often than not, God is glorified when sick saints die well.” That is the thing about the providence and protection of God, it doesnt always look like what we think it should. We need to remember that it is all about the glory of God.

God does provide for us with temporary blessings on this earth as well, after all he does love his children. God has provided for our family many times. He has even used you guys to do it, your guys gifts have been a blessing from God to us, same with the gift of your friendships.

God does bless us, God does give us miracles, God still heals the sick

Forrest Frank is a Christian pop/hip-hop/lo-fi artist. He came up making music, struggled with faith and anxiety phases, but eventually committed to Christian-centered artistry. Accident, Injury, & Healing On July 19, 2025, Forrest Frank fell while skateboarding with his son. He fractured his L3 and L4 vertebrae (lower back). He was in severe pain, bed-ridden, wearing a brace, and dependent on others for mobility. Despite the pain and limitation, Forrest wrote and recorded a song titled “God’s Got My Back” from his hospital bed / during bed rest. He shared updates publicly, showing vulnerability—sharing pain, fear, and faith. His honesty connected with many of his listeners. Miraculous Healing Two weeks after the injury, Forrest woke up one day, didn’t put on his brace, moved, and eventually realized: “no fractures remain” according to follow-up X-rays / CT scans. He called it miraculous, attributing the healing to God.

God odes still heal, and sometimes he does not. Like the lady Corrie ten boom met, God still used her inmighty ways for His glory. But that is what we need to remember. God does bless us, God does protect us and provide for us in tangible ways now but it is always for the glory of God. It still all looks forward to eternity when we are one day, as children of God, going to never have to deal with the pain again. always looks towards what awaits us in eternity. the miracle is never more important then the message. Healings, blessings. Always we are told the temporary we are given charge over as stewards.

Mark 16:20 CSB

And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word by the accompanying signs.

Acts 14:3 CSB

So they stayed there a long time and spoke boldly for the Lord, who testified to the message of his grace by enabling them to do signs and wonders.

So then what we must be focused on is this. Build your life upon the word of Jesus and lie for Him. Then when the hard times come, we will see the protection of God not on what we can get out of it but how we can glorify the Lord God. Trust in him by giving your life to Him knowing that we can have peace in the promise of the coming of ternity.