July 21, 2012
But after a while the Philistines returned and again spread out across the valley of Rephaim. And again David asked the Lord what to do. "Do not attack them straight on," the Lord replied. "Instead, circle around behind and attack them near the poplar trees. When you hear a sound like marching feet in the tops of the poplar trees, be on the alert! That will be the signal that the Lord is moving ahead of you to strike down the Philistine army." So David did what the Lord commanded, and he struck down the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Gezer. -- 2Samuel 5: 22-25 (NLT)
These days are so uncertain as the news from Colorado reminds us this week. Those who walk in the darkness of this world have good reason to fear and be confused. Those who walk with the Lord however should feel more secure in whom they have believed. Yet we see more and more Christians who do not seek the Lord as they should and have difficulty staying within His will. The Lord's will is not as elusive as we can make it out to be sometimes. We can try to fit our own agendas into His will and then proceed to seek confirmations for something the Lord does not actually intend for our lives.
King David however was always the opposite of this. The man after the very heart of God would repeatedly seek His divine guidance before proceeding with any strategy. This was more often than not seen on the battle field where David faced many enemies; most notably the Philistines. Likewise, our lives and walk through this world is a battle field and we face many enemies throughout each day. In the fifth chapter of the Book of 2Samuel, we see some of the victories the Lord gave David over his arch nemesis; the Philistines. Within the key verses above we see some important teachings we can learn from in how David approached God and how we need to when seeking what His will is for us in our battles.
The first lesson we see is that the obvious answer is not always the right answer. God specifically says to David -- "do not attack them straight on." So often in this life we can think that attacking our problems head on is the only way. We can rush into things without giving proper consideration to prayer and fasting to seek the will of the Lord. Sometimes the most obvious answer is simply not the right answer. It is not the answer that will lead to glory for God or even success for us. Sometimes the easy answer is not right because we are not yet right. In the early stages of the nation of Israel God had delivered unto them a great victory over the mighty city of Jericho. The walls of Jericho were considered impenetrable yet with God all things are always possible and they fell. The next enemy was Ai:
Joshua sent some of his men from Jericho to spy out the town of Ai, east of Bethel, near Beth-aven. When they returned, they told Joshua, "There's no need for all of us to go up there; it won't take more than two or three thousand men to attack Ai. Since there are so few of them, don't make all our people struggle to go up there." So approximately 3,000 warriors were sent, but they were soundly defeated. The men of Ai chased the Israelites from the town gate as far as the quarries, and they killed about thirty-six who were retreating down the slope. The Israelites were paralyzed with fear at this turn of events, and their courage melted away. -- Joshua 7: 2-5 (NLT)
The easy and obvious answer was that compared to Jericho -- Ai would be a walk in the park. No need to send everyone, just send a small force and we can take them! The truth however was that God knew that one of the Israelites had taken some of the devoted items they were expressly forbidden to take and buried it under his tent. Until the sin was removed -- God's favor would be removed. Sometimes when things are not going our way we need to look under our own tent and see what God is telling us we need to remove before the successes will come. The course of attacking head on may look right, but God knows what will bring the victory.
Second from the key verses we see if we pay close attention to the details of God, then He will go before us into the battle. We can get into trouble when we focus on ourselves and our problems and not on God. That is the scheme of the enemy. The mighty fighting men of Israel all cowered in fear before Goliath because they only focused on how big he was instead of how big God is. The shepherd boy David however focused on his God and the giant was slain. The three Hebrew boys did not concentrate on their problem of the fiery furnace -- they focused on their problem solver. In the key verses we see God instruct David to circle around back and wait until he hears what sounds like marching feet on top of the poplar trees. This will be the sign that God has already gone ahead of him into the battle. Do the poplar trees matter? Does the position of circling around back matter? I do not think so. It is the obedience of David to wait when his instincts are to attack that matters. Simply put, this lesson is that if we expect victory in our battles then we need to wait on the Lord. Everyone loves the verses when God tells Jehoshaphat that the battle is not his but the Lords but realize that we only get to that point because the king had called for a fast, inquired of the Lord, and prayed. The hard reality for us today is that sometimes we wonder where God was in our defeat when we never bothered to wait for Him before rushing in. We did not inquire of the Lord. We did not fast and pray. Yet there we can complain after the defeat, wondering where He was.
Lastly from the key verses we see that David did what the Lord commanded and he struck down the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Gezer. It is one thing to not rush in when our flesh wants to. It is one thing to seek the Lord and wait for His timing for our battle so He will go before us. But sometimes the hardest lesson is actually doing what the Lord commands. I have seen people stay in relationships the Lord has already said no to. I have seen people stay in churches the Lord has already said to leave. I have seen people strain against the will of God for long periods of time. Living in sin. Living outside of His will. Trying to make it work. Trying to turn our fleshly desires into His perfect will and I can tell you from experience it will never work. God is not man that He will change His mind. Do you think Gideon wanted to go to war against 120,000 men with only 300? Do you think Joshua wanted to attack Jericho by marching around the walls seven times and yelling? These things went against their worldly knowledge, experience and expertise. They only followed because they had faith in the God they served. The harsh truth we might have to face today is that what we consider seeking the will of the Lord is actually seeking approval for our own pre-determined choices. Seeking permission is not the same thing as seeking the will of God.
In these uncertain times it is even more important that we not rush into our own pre-conceived plans and instead seek the true will of God in everything. That we keep our focus on above and allow God to go ahead of us into every situation. That we truly seek His will and not his permission and that when we hear that will -- that we follow it precisely. Amen.
Rev. Anthony
