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Then David inquired of the LORD again. And the LORD answered him, “Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand.”
1 Samuel 23:4
This was David’s habit. What should I do here? Where should I go? What should I do next? He inquired of the Lord. He asked God. At a later point, he stops these questions. Stops asking what and where. No more inquiring of the Lord. His lust and pride blind him to his own awful destructive manipulations. But that’s not yet. Here it’s just wonderful. Now David had some advantages. He had a priest who could find God’s will for him. Before some of you say, that must have made it easier for him, need I remind you how little we listen to men of God today? But the priest had the advantage to help him. He could throw dice to discover God’s will. That sounds primitive and crude because it is. If it looks like an easy way to live, it isn’t. It takes a whole lot of faith to throw a seven and run into danger with confidence.
But the truth is we have an advantage over David! David was limited with a small Bible (one he was actually writing!) and priest shooting dice. I have the Son Himself, and I have the Holy Spirit, and I have scriptures – rich, full, and complete! He really was flying blind compared to us, so why is his faith so much stronger? He had a habit. Go and ask our God what to do.
But I think he also had something else. We could compare scars with David (we’d lose) and compare how much we know versus how much he knew (we’d win,) and it just wouldn’t matter. God isn’t fairer now than He was then. You’re responsible for what you know, so it’s all essentially equal in the end. But what David had was surrender. He never went to God and asked about what to do and then thought about it. Never. He went to God with a heart that was already committed to doing whatever he was asked. That’s the difference. Whether you have a ton of info or just a little isn’t the issue. We usually go to God and ask Him to tell us to what He wants, so we can figure out if we’re going to do it. I can tell you one thing. You’ll never discover any of His wisdom for your life with that attitude. And I see it everywhere, even in myself. The deeper habit of David was not that He asked God what to do, is it? The deeper habit of faith that David understood was a heart surrendered. So when God said “Get up and go down to Keilah,” David’s only response was “How long till we get there?” A habit of the soul that I believe sees every answer. Amen.