Special Sunday Edition
Ethan Barton, Pastoral Resident, Tallowood Baptist Church
What in the world is going on in this chapter? Why is David going to Israel’s bitterest enemies, the Philistines? Is the Lord okay with this? What are we even supposed to do with this story?
It’s hard to dissect what sort of attitude the Bible is telling this story with. On the one hand, God is not mentioned in the whole chapter. David consistently lies to everyone around him. Plus, we have no record of any psalms David wrote during his sixteen months in Philistia. But at the same time, David is going out to conquer other enemy nations that were residing in the Holy Land. Back in Moses’ day, God had commanded Israel to wipe out these people groups, but until David, the job had been left unfinished. So is David following the Lord in this chapter or not?
In some ways, this duality is often just our reality. Are we following the Lord, or are we maintaining sinful habits? For most of the time, both are true. Jesus is constantly working to sanctify us, and we’re growing to always look more like him… and yet sin persists. The ways of the world still win us over sometimes.
Look at David, for example. He was called a man after God’s own heart, and for good reason. Plenty of stories of his might and character easily merit that title. But then there’s his affair with Bathsheba, his prideful administration, his poor fathering skills toward Absalom, and, of course, his association with the Philistines. The story of this man after God’s own heart is mostly a dark one.
This passage is a good reminder of who we are as human beings. We are sinners who have been redeemed to righteousness, and yet the flesh is weak, and we remain imperfect. Christ has freed us from the punishment of sin and has promised to one day free us from the presence of sin, but in the meantime, he is freeing us from the power of sin. For now, our world is rife with spiritual warfare. All we can do is continue to run the race well and eagerly await the victory of the Lord.
