In 1 Samuel 29
we see David working for king Achish in Gath, living as a mercenary with his
men. He fully expects to take part
in a battle fighting on the side of the Philistines, but when the Philistine
leaders of other cities see David and his company, they are determined he will
not be part of their army on the grounds that he might turn into a fifth column
and attack them from behind while they fight the Israelites in front.
Achish has to break this news to David, and he says all
kinds of nice things to David about how good he’s been, but I notice he doesn’t
tell him why the Philistines don’t
want David with them. This makes
me think that Achish was worried sharing that info would give David ideas and
he would really become a fifth column
then.
This rejection must have been humiliating to David, to be
rejected and for no good reason he could see. However, we see in the next chapter (1 Samuel 30) that this turned out to be a really
good thing because when David and his army come home early, they discovered
their city Ziklag had been attacked, spoiled, and all their families had been
carried away captive!
Why is this a good thing? It looks very very
bad, but they were able to get revelation to go after them, and they eventually
recovered everyone. (I totally recommend reading about the
circumstances yourself; it is neat to see the circumstances that line up so
nicely and neatly that enable them to recover all their families and
belongings.)
See, if they had been part of the Philistine battle,
they would have fought their own people, possibly been part of those who killed
Saul and his sons, and when they returned to Ziklag much later, their city
would still have been attacked and kidnapped, but the trail would have been so
cold that they probably would have lost their families, a much greater tragedy.
The story in these two chapters teaches again that all
things work together for good to them that love God. Likely all of us have had or will have disappointments or
humiliations that seem crushing at the time and seem to close off
opportunities. However, if we can
reserve judgment and carry on as best as we can and seek revelation, we may
find that those very events are the means of preventing greater loss and open
even better opportunities. It
takes time and patience and perspective to see this. (One example that comes to mind is that of Elder Hugh B.Brown’s experience with cutting down a current bush in his yard and then being passed over for promotion because the Lord meant to make something else out of
him different from what he wanted.)
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