God's Sabbath

AD EEPER L ESSON

231

“David fought them from dusk until the evening of the next day, and none of them got away, except four hundred young men who rode off on camels and fled. David recovered everything the Amal ekites had taken, including his two wives.” 1Samuel 30:17, 18. In self-distrust David had turned away from himself as the problem solver and had trustingly placed the responsibility into God’s hands. With the matter completely in His care, God was able to reveal His plan for the deliverance of His servant unim peded by human interference. Knowing all the factors in volved—where the Amalekites had gone, the degree of their self confidence, their false sense of security, and when and where they would become beclouded and off-guard as they abandoned themselves to riotous feasting and drinking—God was able to arrange the recovery so successfully that David and his men re gained everything. If we learn, as David did, to turn away from ourselves as prob lem solvers and give this responsibility entirely to God, we will be blessed as he was, with total deliverance from the problems which confront us. No matter how black and hopeless our situation may be, God still has a thousand ways to resolve the difficulties of which we know nothing. All we have to do is give Him our prob lem, trust Him completely, and do exactly as He directs. The out come can be nothing short of successful if this course is followed. One thing David must have feared more than anything else was the molestation of his wives and children. They were com pletely in the Amalekites’ power for several days, which gave the enemy every opportunity to treat the Israelites as they wished. When David had invaded their territory, he had killed all the in habitants of the cities he attacked. Not one was left to carry the news to Achish. Even though they could prove nothing to the Phi listine king, the Amalekites knew that David was the culprit, and had sworn revenge. Surely they had promised themselves that if ever David’s people came under their power, they would summa rily execute them all. Yet the amazing thing is that when the op portunity arose, these intentions were not carried out. Why not? Escaping Fate?