God's Sabbath

AD EEPER L ESSON

227

David’s men had been marvelously delivered, so probably cherished the expectation that from now on everything would go well with them. They may even have imagined that God owed them a smooth pathway because of their repentance, when they were suddenly confronted with this entirely unexpected turn of events. It was unfortunate that in their hour of extremity, Da vid’s men lost confidence in God’s leadership. The only possible option left to them was to turn again to their own works. To have reacted in this way, as David’s men did, was to dis play a sad ignorance of the outworking of natural law. Their ruthless attacks on the Amalekites had stirred a bitter spirit of revenge in those warlike people who watched for the opportuni ty to vent their fury on their attackers. When, in their self-con fidence, David and his men left the city unguarded, they were openly inviting the trouble that was so quick in coming. To blame the outcome on a seemingly unpredictable God, instead of taking responsibility themselves, would only worsen their plight, and they would have been speedily delivered into Satan’s hands if David had not manifested a very different attitude. In their spiritual blindness they did not recognize this, but made David their scapegoat. “Here again David was chastened for the lack of faith that had led him to place himself among the Philistines. He had op portunity to see how much safety could be found among the foes of God and His people. David’s followers turned upon him as the cause of their calamities. He had provoked the vengeance of the Amalekites by his attack upon them; yet, too confident of secu rity in the midst of his enemies, he had left the city unguarded. Maddened with grief and rage, his soldiers were now ready for any desperate measures, and they threatened even to stone their leader.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 692.3. Their only safe course would have been to admit that they were threatened with a harvest of their own sowing. If they had chosen such an honest attitude, they could then have strength ened their faith by recalling the fact that God had never failed them in the past. They could have reminded themselves that whenever they had brought calamities upon themselves, as in this instance, as long as they had given the problem to the Lord, He had faithfully fulfilled His role as Problem Solver.