{"id":4601,"date":"2023-03-02T01:03:47","date_gmt":"2023-03-02T07:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4601"},"modified":"2023-03-02T01:03:47","modified_gmt":"2023-03-02T07:03:47","slug":"devotional-on-1-samuel-49","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-1-samuel-49\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on 1 Samuel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-omk1KSjzPXY\/Xf0lYR5YJvI\/AAAAAAABDDc\/AziT2W9IPk884i4R4Q5A9xzrEteDcWFmQCKgBGAsYHg\/s1600\/P8129853.JPG\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2015 &#8211; Miners Falls -Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore &#8211;  Munising, MI<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nHopefully, David wasn\u2019t trustworthy<br \/>\n1 Samuel 29: He&#8217;s not going into battle with us.<br \/>\nHow about that, wisdom from the Philistines! Fleeing from Saul (maybe said better: &#8220;getting away from Saul so he won&#8217;t have to kill him&#8221;) David&#8217;s living in Philistine territory, the town of Ziklag. Now the Philistines are uniting to take on Saul and the army of Israel in a major, decisive battle. Amazingly, David\u2019s with the Philistines! King Achish, who mistakenly thinks that David has already been attacking his fellow countrymen in Judah, is confident that David has completely betrayed Israel. However, the other warlords of the Philistines aren\u2019t convinced. They don&#8217;t know David, but they know his reputation. They think that in the heat of the battle he\u2019ll turn on them. Achish reluctantly sends David and his men home. Are the other warlords right? I hope so. David has no business living in the land of the Philistines in the first place much less fighting on their side. I think this event is crucial to David&#8217;s future as king of Israel. In the story of Abraham and Lot, it\u2019s Lot who mistakenly decides to live in the wicked city of Sodom. That decision changes his life. Had he not made this crucial mistake he might have gone down in history as a great man who walked in faith with his uncle, Abraham. Instead, his story is a mere footnote in the history of God&#8217;s people. In this incident, David\u2019s at a similar crossroads. If he joins the Philistines in this battle he\u2019ll never lead Israel. Instead, he\u2019ll only be a minor player in the story of redemption. I hope these warlords are right and that David would have turned on them. If not that, I wish that it had been David, himself who decided to leave the battlefield. Instead, it\u2019s the enemies of God and his people who wisely send him away. Is it possible that we can see the hand of God in this decision of the Philistine warlords?<br \/>\nTake Away: The Lord is sovereign and can use whoever he wants to accomplish his will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hopefully, David wasn\u2019t trustworthy 1 Samuel 29: He&#8217;s not going into battle with us. How about that, wisdom from the Philistines! Fleeing from Saul (maybe said better: &#8220;getting away from Saul so he won&#8217;t have to kill him&#8221;) David&#8217;s living in Philistine territory, the town of Ziklag. Now the Philistines are uniting to take on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1473,7],"tags":[114,245,439,651,654],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4601"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4601"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14297,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4601\/revisions\/14297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}