Scripture Daily

Context No. 1576 of 4322 · 1 Samuel

Context · Reflection

1 Samuel 23:24-29: in context

24They arose, and went to Ziph before Saul; but David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah on the south of the desert. 25Saul and his men went to seek him. When David was told, he went down to the rock, and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. When Saul heard that, he pursued David in the wilderness of Maon. 26Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain; and David hurried to get away for fear of Saul, for Saul and his men surrounded David and his men to take them. 27But a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid on the land!” 28So Saul returned from pursuing David, and went against the Philistines. Therefore they called that place Sela Hammahlekoth. 29David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of En Gedi.

Saul is closing in on David in the wilderness of Maon. The two are on opposite sides of a mountain, Saul and his men circling around to trap David, David hurrying to escape but nearly surrounded, about to be caught at last. And then, at the very moment of David's peril, a messenger reaches Saul: come quickly, the Philistines have raided the land. Saul breaks off the pursuit and turns to face the Philistines, and David slips away. They name the place the Rock of Escape, and David goes up to the strongholds of En-gedi.

The deliverance here comes at the last possible moment and from an entirely unexpected direction. David was nearly in Saul's hands, surrounded, his escape all but cut off; there was nothing he could do to save himself. And the rescue came not from anything David arranged but from an event happening far away, a Philistine raid that pulled Saul off just in time. David could not have planned it, could not have foreseen it; God provided the escape through a circumstance David had nothing to do with, arriving at the exact moment it was needed. There is encouragement in this for the times we are cornered, when our own efforts to escape a trouble have run out and we can see no way through. God's deliverances often come like this, at the last moment, from a direction we never expected, through events we could not have arranged. David's rescue depended not on his own cleverness but on God's timing of a distant event, and it came just as the net was closing. When we are surrounded and out of options, this passage reminds us that God is not out of options; he can send deliverance from a quarter we are not even watching, at the last possible moment, through means entirely beyond our control. The Rock of Escape was not something David built; it was God's timely provision when David could do nothing more. To trust God in a corner is to trust that he can bring the escape we cannot arrange, from a direction we cannot foresee, at the moment it is needed.

When I am cornered and my own efforts to escape have run out, can I trust that God, who rescued David at the last moment through a distant event he could not have arranged, is able to send my deliverance from a direction I do not expect, at the moment it is needed?

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