Inquiring of the Lord
Notes
Transcript
two men inquired of where they should go. One sought the Lord in every step and the other sought himsefl, the will of man you could say. One man never sought the will of God though he claimed to be following God and the other wouldnt move without following the will of God. Saul made assumptions without seeking the will of God.
The question is do we run to God and seek His will through the word of God or are we following our own wisdom. Are we measuring everything we do against the word of the Lord.
The divine means of communication has been a bit of a source of contetion over the years. How do we seek the will of God. We all have a need for divine guidance but we struggle sometimes to find out how ythat works. In the Old testament we see of judges and priests and kings who heard directly from the Lord, but then things started to shift. when we get to the prophets we see the Lord start to speek to the people through the kings and the prophets that God had in place. The ancestral narratives of Genesis have many examples of hearing and receiving messages from God—from Abram’s original call (Gen. 12:1–4) to Jacob’s stairway dream (28:10–22). Though we can never be quite certain of the exact means of God’s communication to Abram (audible voice, inner impression, writing in the sky?), we know that his “promises” became central in the Abrahamic story, and indeed in the book of Genesis.11 There were many subsequent occasions when God repeated these promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Even when we are not certain of how that ancestral “voice of God” was communicated, it is clear that God provided guidance and protection for his children.
With the provision of Moses and the Sinai covenant, God continued to offer guidance. Whether through a burning bush (Ex. 3–4), pillars of cloud and fire (13:21–22; Num. 9:15–23), or a theophany complete with thunder and lightning and trumpet blast (Ex. 19:16), God was clearly guiding his people. The covenant itself came complete with a written word from God, which included the Ten Commandments and many applications of the law (Ex. 24:4; Deut. 31:9, 24). This written expression of God’s will quickly became the primary means by which God communicated with his people. But the kingdom became increasingly divided to the sin of man and kings. ecentually God became silent for a time. Till that time God spoke directly to people and we have that down in His word here.
During and after the Babylonian exile, the Jews turned more and more to the written word as God’s divinely approved means of guidance and direction. As “the people of the book,” they were the immediate predecessors of the earliest Christians, who likewise turned to the sacred pages of the Old Testament for divine guidance. Thus, the authors of the New Testament went to great lengths to base their message on the Old Testament, as is illustrated by the New Testament’s sheer mass of quotations of or allusions to the Old Testament.13
In the New Testament two passages are especially pertinent to the question of divine guidance. The apostle Paul emphasized the transformation of the Christian’s mind in contrast to conformity to the wisdom of the world. As a result, believers can discern God’s will, which is good and pleasing and perfect (Rom. 12:2). Similarly, James promises that anyone who lacks wisdom can ask of God, who gives generously to everyone, and it will be granted (James 1:5). In the tradition of the Old Testament, “wisdom” is knowledge that deepens one’s relationship with God and makes clear the course of action that is pleasing to God and life-sustaining for the believer. Here and elsewhere in the New Testament, it is assumed that the believer can know and perform God’s will for his or her life.
I am sure that how God communicates with us has changed, but what we do know is that those who claim to speak the will of God must measure all things against the word of God, for that is our ultimate guide for the will of God. We will learn a bit more about this as we look back into the life of David.
David and the Philistines
we start out with David still in Hiding but his people facing trouble again.
It was reported to David, “Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and raiding the threshing floors.”
The townspeople reported to David that the philistines where fighting again and they wanted him to do something about it. You see David was a hero of the people, or at least they recognized him as such. Much to the dismay of King Saul. The thing is the people also told King Saul as we will see later. But the people where worried about the Philistines attacking.
The philistine people seem to be a people that came from ancient greece or in that area. the egyptians at the time called them a sea people. But their ancestry changed somewhat when they started intermarrying with caananite people.
So David inquired of the Lord: “Should I launch an attack against these Philistines?” The Lord answered David, “Launch an attack against the Philistines and rescue Keilah.”
But David’s men said to him, “Look, we’re afraid here in Judah; how much more if we go to Keilah against the Philistine forces!”
Davids reaction was to call upon the Lord for guidance, Lord what should I do He asked. Or more specifically he asked the Lord whether He should specificcaly attack the Philistines or not.
David’s approach to seek the divine guidance of God was something that is reflected in what Jesus taught His disciples that we will go over a little later, but Ask, seek, knock. He sought the Lord, He asked The Lord what His will was and then he waited for God to answer. I will delve into this more in a bit, but keep this in mind as we go on with the story. David had patience, though the Lord answered Him right away. He didnt go off and do His own thing but he waited for the Lord’s response.
The people where scared though
But David’s men said to him, “Look, we’re afraid here in Judah; how much more if we go to Keilah against the Philistine forces!”
How often do we have this response. We may not hear audibly from the Lord but we find through prayer and faith htat the Lord is leading us somewhere but there is fear, what if we are defeated? what if it really isnt the right way? God this is scary? so what did David do? He inquired of the Lord again to make sure. Ask, seek, knock, patience but also eventually stepping out.
Once again, David inquired of the Lord, and the Lord answered him, “Go at once to Keilah, for I will hand the Philistines over to you.”
He did ask again, Lord are you sure? God was patient with Him, as He is patient with us but he told Him to Go.
Verses 4-6 - God hands over the Philistines
As God had told David, he handed over the philstines into his hands. He didnt have to go, and fight them, but yet he trsuted in god and went with Hios band of heroes.
The last remaining family member of preists, the son of AHimelech, came to David with an Ephod/ The Ephod was a priestly garmet that was worn by them.
but the problem was that as we find out that the people reported the same thing to Saul, David was in trouble from Saul again.
When it was reported to Saul that David had gone to Keilah, he said, “God has handed him over to me, for he has trapped himself by entering a town with barred gates.”
He believed that God handed over David. He summoned all of His troops over to go find David. There is another thing that we can learn from all of this.
Just because people say they have heard from God does not make it so.
Just because people say they have heard from God does not make it so.
Divine guidance from God does not look the same as it did in the OT. Just because someone speaks with certainty does not ensure they speak accurately. ALways go back to the word of God, always go back to God. Yes God can speak through friends and family but that doesnt make it certain that they will always hear properly or the whole thing.
Saul said he heard from God and yet it appears he actually did not. David heard that Saul was going to attack Him and we learn what we are supposed to do in our situations as well. Saul never really sought the guidance from God but His own guidance. David heard and went straight to God and asked, what do I do in this?
When David learned that Saul was plotting evil against him, he said to the priest Abiathar, “Bring the ephod.”
Then David said, “Lord God of Israel, your servant has reliable information that Saul intends to come to Keilah and destroy the town because of me.
Will the citizens of Keilah hand me over to him? Will Saul come down as your servant has heard? Lord God of Israel, please tell your servant.” The Lord answered, “He will come down.”
God told Him all that was going to happen and He fled. We see two different ways of living this life. One sought the guidance of God above all before he moves. One sought His own will and claimed it was the guidance of God, the thrid we will see did something slightly different.
The Covenant
Then Saul’s son Jonathan came to David in Horesh and encouraged him in his faith in God,
saying, “Don’t be afraid, for my father Saul will never lay a hand on you. You yourself will be king over Israel, and I’ll be your second-in-command. Even my father Saul knows it is true.”
Then the two of them made a covenant in the Lord’s presence. Afterward, David remained in Horesh, while Jonathan went home.
They made a covenant in the presence of God, the had both sought the divine guidance of God, both faithfully followed God and yet this prophecy in a sense was not necessarily from God, though it was not wrong.
Jonathan had not received a specific revelation from the Lord concerning David, Nevertheless, he spoke with great earnestness convinced he had something to offer David. But sincerity isn’t a substitute for accuracy nor does it guarantee that someone’s word can be trusted. More often they are simply presuming too much about what God intends to do
People still fall prey to this error today believing they have received a divine revelation when it was merely optimistic encouragement. If someone simply repeats previously revealed promises of God to us, this does not make them a prophet. Jonathan and David both knew that God had said David would be king…Jonathan was merely repeating this truth. But he mixed God’s revealed word with his own assumptions and presented it as certain fact
Think of it as Godly encouragement.
Saul went on to try and get David as people where telling Him where David was. Saul continued to hand out blessings from the Lord and claim He was acting on the Lords Guidance.
“May you be blessed by the Lord,” replied Saul, “for you have shown concern for me.
Go and check again. Investigate where he goes and who has seen him there; they tell me he is extremely cunning.
They where chasing David until Saul was told the Philistines where coming to attack again so he left the pursuit. but hwere do we go from here?
So What?
So What?
The need for divine guidance is an undeniable link between believers of Bible times and today. The contrast in this text between David and Saul thus offers us timeless truths about reliance on God alone for the important decisions of life. Indeed, the Bible has much to say about receiving and acting on divine guidance.
We all Must seek God for His will
We all Must seek God for His will
We have a few different things to take note of here. Are we claiming to seek the will of God or are we actually seeking God for His guidance?
what we all know is what you could call the general will of God, that is plain in the word of God. The general will of God is the desire he has for all his people everywhere and at all times. In this sense his will has been revealed to us in Scripture and cannot be missed by thinking readers. God wants us to “be conformed to the likeness of his Son” (Rom. 8:29), to become Christlike in all our behavior. Most of us are painfully aware of our failures here, and we can only strive to allow the Holy Spirit’s work to bring to completion what he has begun in us
With the general will of God, we strive to accomplish this, we know what to do we walk forward in this will of God’s for us.
But what about when it comes to other things ,like should I go to Bible college or regular college
Most mainline denominations make unwarranted assumptions about God’s will and rely too often on human wisdom. Consequently, many churches today have ambivalent records on important moral and social issues such as poverty, abortion, ecology, violence, and homosexuality. The pressures of our age and the changing opinions of human “experts” have swayed many into changing long-held social principles of Christianity. For the most part, mainline churches do not hold Scripture in high enough esteem to refute the changing values of our society. Like Saul we seem unconcerned with seeking God’s will and more enamored with human perceptions.
Unfortunately, the record of evangelical denominations has also been more like Saul than David. In the heat of the greatest moral crisis of our generation—the civil rights movement of the 1960s—most evangelicals chose to sit on the sidelines.16 And evangelicals have not typically been at the vanguard of social change regarding poverty or matters of race relations.
so we start with seeking the general will of God, to become more and more like God seeking to know Him personally in all that we do.
As we do this it will become easier to see specifically where God is calling us. You can go to friends and family that are following Jesus but always take what they say and measure it against the word of God.
Just because someone speaks with certainty does not ensure they speak accurately
The best we can say about such speech is that is a personal demonstration of faith in God’s word
And of course it can serve as a source of encouragement
But as people make predictions of your future, take those words with a large dose of skepticism
Divine guidance is a hard thing to measure, we can trust faithful friends and family. ANd we may not always know but we may just need to step forward in faith in the end and ask God to guide us to and fro as we walk.
But in the meantime what we can know is that if you want to seek the divine guidance of God you must tsrat by seeking Him in all other areas of your life as well.
