Keep Yourself Close

“Now these are they that came to David to Ziklag, while he yet kept himself close because of Saul the son of Kish: and they were among the mighty men, helpers of the war.” (1Ch 12:1 AV)

 

Speaking of the thirteen years which David fled from Saul, he kept himself close and involved while God dealt with Saul.  He did so for two reasons.  First, regardless of his relationship with Saul, David still had obligations to the king and kingdom.  He was still responsible to fight battles on behalf of the kingdom.  This he did faithfully.  Second, David was anointed to be king in the stead of Saul.  Fleeing to a far-off land to avoid the hand of Saul would have created a leadership vacuum when God took Saul.  David has to be close by so that when the king was killed in battle, he would be right there to take leadership without any major interruptions.  If I am David, I am not sticking around as someone who hates me, sees me as a threat, and wants me dead is chasing me all over the countryside.  I am high-tailing off to the closest foreign nation where I know that Saul would not pursue after me.  David shows a great level of leadership even in his early years.  He knows his place and even though it is challenging at the moment, he continues.  He kept himself close because that is where he belonged.  What we also want to remember is David kept himself close without assuming or presuming anything.  He served his king well.  When given the opportunity to take the life and throne from his adversary, he declined.  David kept himself close but at the same time, kept himself humble.

At my beloved summer camp, our waterfront had a couple of sailfish set aside for the camper’s use.  For those who don’t know, a sailfish is a two-man sailboat a little bit bigger than a surfboard.  It can be sailed by one person, but it can also be sailed by two people.  One of the skills of sailing is to learn how to sail contrary to the wind in the direction in which you desire to travel.  This is called tacking.  Tacking is a zig-zag pattern that uses contrary winds yet can move in the general direction of the wind.  As a novice, I didn’t learn this lesson as I should have.  The only time I ever took one of these boats out, I lost control of the boat and tipped it over.  The sail beam got caught on the mud bottom of the lake.  My brother, who was a lifeguard at the time, had to row out to me and help me free the sailboat, right it, and tow it back in.  What I should have done was to pull the sail, or let the sail run so it picked up no wind, then waited for a favorable wind to resume my trip.  If I could not sail contrary to the wind and remain on course, the best thing to do was to keep close to the wind so when it changed direction, I could hoist the sail and continue on my determined course. 

There are times when circumstances are not to our liking, but we need to keep ourselves close.  There are times when we would rather flee.  Yet, we need to keep ourselves close.  There are times when life is very difficult and we think that running away from it all would be the better option.  But we need to keep ourselves close.  There are times when things are out of our control.  There is nothing we can do personally to make things better.  Decisions are not made by us.  We are at the mercy of everything or everyone around us.  But we still need to keep ourselves close.  When trouble comes and we seem to be the lightning rod that attracts all the trouble, even though we did nothing against the will of God to justify our treatment, we still need to stay close.  Staying close keeps a door open that needs to remain open.  Just because the winds are contrary at the moment does not mean they will always be.  Soon enough the winds will shift and the winds will be favorable.  However, if we’ve engaged the motor and sailed away, those winds cannot catch our sails and we will never experience the joy of being in the center of God’s will.  Remain close.  Keep yourself in the way.  And the will of God will catch up to your faithfulness.