A Way Out

“And Achish answered and said to David, I know that thou art good in my sight, as an angel of God: notwithstanding the princes of the Philistines have said, He shall not go up with us to the battle.” (1Sa 29:9 AV)

A bit of background here.  This event is toward the end of David’s eight-year flight from Saul.  He was extremely exhausted from all the running he was doing and was convinced Saul would eventually kill him unless he did something drastic.  So, he and his men went to dwell among the Philistines.  This was extremely unwise.  David killed their champion fifteen years earlier and occasioned the death of tens of thousands of Philistines over the years in battles here and there.  For David to seek sanctuary in the camp of the enemy was very extreme.  And also, very compromising.  Over the ensuing months, David gained the trust of the king of the Philistines.  Achish made David the keeper of his head.  That was pretty important.  Then Saul came against the Philistines and Achish had the idea of using David to his advantage.  This put David in a very precarious position.  He was asked to go to battle against his king and country to assist his enemy.  God intervened and led the princes of the Philistines to wisely change Achish’s mind and send David away.  David, because of his weariness, placed himself in a very compromising position.  The LORD knew this and provided a way out.

This brings to mind something that happened to me in the distant past.  I had gone through a particularly hard time and there was a major life change looming in the immediate future. I was spiritually and emotionally worn out.  I had never been this weak before.   My wife and I made a major decision and it came back to haunt us for several months.  I will not get into the details, but what we chose to do wasn’t the smartest of all choices.  It was legal, ethical, and moral, but the circumstances had the potential to cause great anxiety in the process.  Over a period of about three months or so, this situation went from bad to worse to better, then to worse again.  It was a see-saw of emotions and decisions that caused me to almost lose it.  I had to call a friend to talk me out of a panic attack.  However, the LORD provided a way out!  Praise the LORD.  In hindsight, we should not have made this decision.  We simply didn’t know all the ramifications of what this decision would be.  The way out was a miracle.  I had never breathed so freely in my entire life.

God does not bring us out of every fix we put ourselves into.  In fact, most of which He does not.  He gives us a way by which we can fix it.  But there are times when we make decisions that were better if never made at all.  We do so in a moment of weakness.  We go down the wrong path because our souls are very low.  It is at these times the LORD has great compassion for us.  It reminds me of 1 Cor 10:13.  This principle gives us great hope.  We are not the brightest lightbulb in the lamp.  We don’t always see it as we should.  Sometimes we react and do something when we should not have done such.  The LORD knows our frame.  He knows we are weak.  As a loving Father would do, He picks us up, brushes us off, and leads us out of the mess we have made for ourselves.  Praise the LORD for His compassion!