To Encourage You

1 Samuel 23:19-20 “Then the Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, ‘Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah, which is south of Jeshimon? Now come down, O king, according to all your heart’s desire to come down, and our part shall be to surrender him into the king’s hand.’”

Have you ever considered what an exercise in futility is opposition to the ways of God?  It’s a dead end – always has been and always will be, no matter how things might look at any given moment in time.  One of the reasons God has given us His Word is to drive that point home to us in a thousand different ways. We see one such example in the account from which the verses above are taken. Here we have David running for his life as King Saul pursues him throughout the wilderness.  David was “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14), a savior of Israel who had slain the mighty Goliath, and a servant who had only done good to Saul and his kingdom.  Saul had all the power of Israel at his disposal. He had many more than willing to help him, like the Ziphites in the verses above.  He has an army, servants, and many other advantages. Nevertheless, despite his relentless scheming and never-ending pursuit, his efforts end in frustration over and over again.     

So why doesn’t he just give up? Why not acquiesce to the knowledge that David was anointed of God? Why not repent from his efforts and turn back to acknowledge God’s ways rather than oppose them? It’s the delusion of sin.  Apparently, Saul must have actually believed he would eventually be successful. He must have held out the hope that he would be victorious in the end. But he was sadly mistaken, and tragically so. As Saul continues in his madness, his end will be suicide.  His efforts, all of them, will come to a tragic end.  And that’s the way it always is for those who reject God, no matter how things might appear at any moment in time. 

In Psalm 73 the psalmist writes, “I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth. Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them.  And they say, ‘How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?’  Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.  All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.”

Surely that’s how things looked to the psalmist, and surely that’s how they looked as well to David as he ran for his life. But what was really going on?  Listen again to the psalmist as he comes to his senses and sees the truth of God which will always prevail: “But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.”

You see, to follow God and walk in His ways is always the way to victory, no matter the difficulties one might face in the here and now.  But for those who oppose God’s ways, who arrogantly disregard His Word, who may exalt in their prosperity and think that that prosperity will never end, be sure that it will end, for the accomplishments and possessions of the unbeliever will always be like “chaff that the wind drives away” (Psalm 1:4) in the end.  

So, on which path are you? Your own way with its inevitable dead end, or the path that leads to life everlasting, no matter the difficulties you may face along the way?  May God help us to choose wisely by listening closely to what He has said. May God give us the wisdom to believe every word of it, and obey.