Gods Sabbath

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E NTERING INTO G OD ’ S S ABBATH R EST

fail. He knew exactly what he must do, so in calm faith he relat ed God’s orders to his men, who went with him and gained a complete victory over the Philistines. “So David and his men went to Keilah, fought the Philistines and carried off their livestock. He inflicted heavy losses on the Philistines and saved the people of Keilah.” Verse 5. Had David followed these procedures in the encounter with the high priest and in selecting the place to which to flee, he would have enjoyed the same success gained here against the Philistines. No fault can be found with the way David went about the Lord’s business when he relieved Keilah. It showed a recovery from the period when he had lapsed into his own devisings and had been cursed with evil consequences. As soon as David turned back to the Lord in faith, God will ingly revealed His plans to him and trusted him to execute them. When David carried out those divine plans, God imbued him with the power to defeat the Philistines. Some people find this response of God’s surprising and somewhat perplexing. They feel that before God could again fully trust David and man ifest His power on his behalf, David should demonstrate, during a period of probation, that he was worthy of such blessings. This is how people usually treat each other and their children, but it is not how God deals with His children. All David had to do was recognize his sin, make contrite confession in true re pentance, restore where possible what he had taken, then trust and obey God’s correct procedures when seeking solutions to his problems. As soon as he took these steps, the Lord immediately worked for him. Such is the merciful love and compassion of our heavenly Father.

David’s Success in the Cave of Engedi

Before long, an even greater test was to come to David. On re ceiving a report that David was hiding in the wilderness of Eng edi, King Saul set out to seek his avowed enemy. “So Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats. He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was