To Encourage You

2 Samuel 17:27-29 “When David came to Mahanaim, Shobi the son of Nahash from Rabbah of the Ammonites, and Machir the son of Ammiel from Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim, brought beds, basins, and earthen vessels, wheat, barley, flour, parched grain, beans and lentils, honey and curds and sheep and cheese from the herd, for David and the people with him to eat, for they said, ‘The people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness.’”

How attuned are you to the unseen realm?  If you are not a Christian, the answer is likely “Not much.” But if you are a believer, are your eyes just as closed?  Are you walking by sight, or by faith like the Bible says that Christians are supposed to be doing (2 Corinthians 5:7)? When you are in trouble, what are you looking at – your circumstances, or the unseen realm in which you say you believe?  Psalm 121:1-2 says this: “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Notice that the psalmist says that although he looks to the hills in his distress, he’s not just looking at the hills, i.e., the creation itself, for his help. No, he’s looking beyond them to the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. 

You see, God is the unseen One who lives in an unseen (to us) realm, but that unseen place existed before us, and the unseen God has created everything our eyes can see, our ears can hear, and our fingers can touch. He’s MORE real, He’s MORE certain, than any of these things are. 

Which brings us to the place in the passage above called Mahanaim.  It’s a word that means “two camps.”  This place was named by the patriarch Jacob for it was at this place where two angels had met him, two of the hosts of God.  He had come to this place in the midst of two very difficult events in his life. He had just left his time with Laban who had mistreated him and from whom he had fled, and he was headed into Edom, a land controlled by his brother Esau who he feared was waiting to kill him for the way Jacob had earlier cheated HIM.  It was a chaotic time for Jacob – a time of uncertainty and a time of fear as he found himself “between a rock and a hard place,” so to speak.  But in the midst of all this came two angels, and it was a reminder to Jacob that there was more going on than met his physical eyes.  God saw all that was going on in Jacob’s life, and He was very present in all of it, no matter how things might have looked.  There was the physical realm, the natural, the world that Jacob could see, and there was also the supernatural spiritual world.  In other words, he was living in two worlds, “two camps,” at the very same time. 

There are many other accounts in the Scriptures that point to this. One is the account of Job, whose world was falling apart all around him, all the while there was more than he could see going on as pertained to his life in the supernatural world that he couldn’t see. There is the account of Elisha in 2 Kings 6 where he and his servant were surrounded by the Syrian army. As his servant quaked in fear, Elisha prayed that his servant’s eyes would be opened, “So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”  There was the physical that the servant could see, but at the same moment there was a spiritual realm that took the eyes of faith to believe.  And then there is the account of David in the passage above. Here David is running for his life from the rebellion of his own son, Absalom.  As he fled, and as Absalom pursued, David came to this place that Jacob had named Mahanaim.  And what happened there? Three men came, seemingly out of nowhere, and showered David and his men with all manner of wonderful gifts. At just the right time they received provisions to meet their needs of hunger, thirst, and weariness.  So where did this help really come from? Did it just come from these three men?  Not really, for David’s help (and ours as well) ultimately “comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” 

So, is that how you see such things? Do you realize where your help comes from? Do you realize that when you are provided with just the right thing at just the right time that it’s coming from the God Who sees you every moment of every day and has an infinite means at His disposal by which to help you? Sometimes it comes by way of  a word someone says – perhaps in person or by a letter or card. Sometimes it may be a financial gift, or a helping hand of a friend. Sometimes it comes from an unexpected place – seemingly “out of the blue” but to our great relief. But do you understand that the source of that help is ultimately the Lord, the Creator and Sustainer of all things?  And while you may be thankful to those helpers that you can see, do your eyes likewise go beyond it all to the unseen but ever-present God? 

Praise God for the truth that He will never leave us nor forsake us. Praise Him that He is with us, even to the end of the age. May He give us the eyes to see Him with a gaze of faith that looks beyond what we can physically see.