1 Samuel 22:1-23:29
John 10:1-21
Psalm 115:1-18
Proverbs 15:19-19
You ever get the feeling someone - Someone!!! - is trying to tell you something? And you ever wish you weren't so thick that you could hear the message clearly? A week ago the message I got from the scripture reading had to do with how explicitly God is wiling to instruct us, if we are prepared to listen and to obey. Today's readings give us more examples of the wages of attention and obedience, even when it is challenging, even when it seems crazy. After all, David had reason to be worried about Saul...and yet God tells him to leave the stronghold and protection under the King of Moab? And yet David obeys, and God provides for him, sending Ahimelek to feed and arm him. He has few men, and the Philistines are many, but David inquires of God's will, and when God sends him to battle the Philistines with his meager army, he obeys...and God gives him victory. Then after he saves the people of Keilah, Saul threatens him again - and David inquires of the Lord (do we see a pattern here?) and the Lord saves him. And when again Saul threatens, He sends distraction, in the form of reports of Philistine raids, and David once again escapes.
Why is David so readily able to hear God's voice? Perhaps it is because he developed the habit inquiring of Him, and learned to recognize His voice, just like the sheep know the shepherd's voice. David learned to distinguish between worldly guidance and the Lord's directions, between the robber and the shepherd. And so when God called out to him, he followed. He entered through the gate, and was saved.
I can't imagine it was easy for David to inquire of the Lord when Saul was in hot pursuit, as David fled to the desert, just as I find it so difficult to consistently inquire of the Lord during my day to day life - for both big and small decisions; just as I find it so difficult to wait upon His instructions when the world insists that I decide and act. Listening to the ways of the world, trying to decide things on my own - these are tantamount to taking other gods before our Lord, to taking idols of "silver and gold, made by human hands", with "mouths, but canot speak, eyes, but cannot see.." Any decisions outside God's guidance are mis-guided, useless and, quite possibly, harmful.
And so I pray that I learn the lesson He has tried to teach me these two Saturdays - that I and my family persist in our search for Him, that we continue to invest the time to get to know Him, so we can recognize our Good Shepherd's voice, and be guided by His will.
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