Do you wonder if David ever wanted to just give up and stop fighting? What motivated him to continue? God, of course. God had a plan and David followed it no matter how difficult it became. David’s path even goes to the Philistines army at this point. The same Philistines that are enemies of the Israelites. Goliath’s Philistines. But he was strong and had a mighty army with him, so the Philistines wanted him with them until they didn’t. He and his mighty forces return home to devastation. Here is another example of God’s using a stranger to carry out his will. The left-behind slave gives David the necessary information to go retrieve the families of his men. 

This slave could have been ignored and left to die but David saw to it that he was fed and given water. The Egyptian slave showed the way and David’s army was able to save their families. God uses all kinds of people to do his bidding. We should always treat people with dignity and respect as God might be using them in our lives. David showed obedience to God and was blessed.

David chose to be obedient and not kill Saul. Do you wonder if David knew that God would take care of Saul and allow Saul to determine his own fate? It is hard to leave our enemies in God’s hands. Our nature is to solve our problems with others before looking toward God for his guidance. We see that again Saul takes matters into his own hands and kills himself before he could be taken captive by the Philistines. The lives of these two men show the difference between trusting in God’s plans and only trusting oneself.

My Bible commentary says this – “Heroic spiritual lives are built by stacking days of obedience one on top the other. Like a brick each obedient act is small in itself, but in time the acts will pile up, and a huge wall of strong character will be built – a great defense against temptation. We should strive for consistent obedience each day.”

Thank you, God for reminding us the absolute truth of what obedience to you can do in our lives. Thank you for the promise you have made and the people you provide in our path to do your will. Amen.

Karen E. Lawson