"A Step between Me and Death"

"And David... said,...but truly as the Lord liveth, there is but a step between me and death." (1 Samuel 20: 3)


David, son of Jesse, former shepherd boy anointed by the prophet Samuel to become the next king of Israel had no illusions about his predicament in life. Saul, the present king of Israel, was out to get him. Fatally. Terminally. Permanently.

Some background: The near cataclysmic event that brought young David into the limelight was his unprecedented slaughter of the the giant Goliath. But a much less obvious occurrence had previously brought the shepherd boy to the attention of King Saul. Unbeknownst to the king, David had just been anointed by Samuel as the one chosen by God to become the next king, and with that anointing, Scripture tells us that "the Spirit of the Lord came upon David." Awesome. Unfortunately for Saul, at that time, God's spirit departed from him. Even worse, we read in 1 Samuel 16:14 that an evil spirit came along to trouble King Saul. Seeking relief from his suffering, Saul requested music. David was known for his skill as a harpist, and was summoned to play for the king. Voila! We read in verse 23 that the evil spirit departed.

So David begins his relationship with Saul on a high note, right? He brings deliverance from torment, yet, as we shall see, again and again Saul tried to kill him. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!

Before King Saul went ballistic! against David, this future king of Israel braved other life-threatening circumstances as well. While tending a flock of sheep, "there came a lion and a bear", one of which had the audacity and ignorance to snatch a lamb from the flock. (Now, I'm thinkin', get outta Dodge!) Not David. Scripture tells us he went out after them and "slew both the lion and the bear," recovering the terrified lamb. David credits his God for this amazing feat.

"David said...The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear..." (1 Samuel 17: 37)

Then, of course, there is the Goliath incident. Now Goliath was a pretty big dude. I read, about 9 3/4 feet tall. His armor alone weighed about 180 lbs., and that was only the coat of mail! I get that alot of people may dismiss this account as myth, but if you believe it as fact, how could you NOT see how easily David could have been literally crushed. But a) David knew that the same God who accomplished the above victory for him would also "deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine" and b) he had a mission and calling from God. His destiny was to reign over Israel, the people of God.

Following his slaughter of Goliath, David's popularity exploded throughout all Israel, to the point that Saul definitely began to feel like a second-class citizen. Yep, that ol' green-eyed monster, folks...Saul became "very wroth", and he "eyed David from that day and forward." (We are talking evil eye here, by the way.) If I have my timeline straight, as soon as the day after the defeat of Goliath, Saul's jealousy of the young hero prompted him to cast a javelin at David in an attempt to murder him....TWICE.

When that failed, Saul plotted. Once again, his plans were foiled. He offered his daughter in marriage to David, but first David had to acquire one hundred Philistine foreskins as a sort of dowry. You see where I'm goin' with this, right? Death by Philistines? Well, it should come as no surprise that David shows up with the foreskins. And not only does he show up with them, he shows up with not the required one but rather two hundred foreskins, and bingo! he's now the king's son-in-law.

By now Saul "saw and knew that the Lord was with David." On top of that, Saul's daughter Michal really loved David. Saul must have been pulling his hair out at this point. So he tells his servants and his son Jonathan to kill David. However, Jonathan and David had already become fast friends. Jonathan, shall we say, 'put in a good word' for David, and Saul changed his mind.

Temporarily.

Eventually Saul pulled the javelin routine again. David escaped.
So Saul staked out David's house, planning to have David slain next morning, but David's wife assisted in his escape that night through a window.
David left the immediate area and stayed with the prophet Samuel. Three times Saul sent men to apprehend David, but it just wasn't happenin'...I could go on, but I'm hoping the point has been made that David could not have been killed. His destiny had not yet come to pass in its fullness.

"Saul sought him every day, but God delivered him not into his hand." (1 Samuel 23: 14)

While it is true that David was on the run for awhile, lived in wilderness caves and strongholds, had to feign insanity at one point to escape yet another life-threatening situation, and at times was "sore afraid", still, we see that he lived to rule and reign as king of Israel for forty years. (1 Kings 2: 11)


Thank you for stopping by and reading my post, and for giving me a reason and opportunity to share this, my greatest joy.

Christina

Whew! That Was Close!

"I now exist and appear in the land of the living by the miraculous care of Providence"
-George Washington, in a letter to John Augustine Washington, 1755


My personal belief is that, if you have been designed by God to fulfill a specific mission, neither heaven, nor hell, nor anyone or anything in between will be able to remove you from the earth until you have done so. You will get there and you will do it.

The Old Testament man 'after God's own heart', David, the shepherd boy who became king of Israel, had a few close calls. Further down in this article, we'll get to that. Right now, though, let me tell you about some of George Washington's escapes from death.

1} In Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington (published in 1860), Martha Washington's grandson, (basing his articles on information gleaned from two of Washington's childhood cousins), relates an account of a teen-aged George's perhaps foolhardy encounter with a horse so vicious that no one could even bridle, let alone ride it. Deciding to test his stamina and skill against the steed, George let his friends struggle to tie it up and force a bit into it's mouth, then managed to mount the animal. Once released, the horse went berserk. The grandson's account indicates that George's young friends began to regret their actions and fear that his clash with the violent animal was "likely to be fatal..."

And it was, but not to George...

The horse "summoning all his powers...reared, and plunged with tremendous violence, burst his noble heart, and died in an instant."

(Note: While I realize that this story cannot be proven to be absolutely true 1} the actual point of the author's account had to do with George Washington's honesty; falsifying facts seems unlikely and 2] there has been medical corroboration that such sudden equine death is possible.)

2} The 1750's saw the struggle between the French and the British (colonists) for the control of the Ohio Valley river system located in western Pennsylvania and Virginia. Washington, at that time having been appointed as Adjutant to the Virginia militia (link), became involved in diplomatic and military efforts to prevent the French from gaining possession of the Valley. In an ongoing attempt to thwart a French victory, in the spring of 1755, General Braddock, with Washington as his aide, led 1,700 British and colonial troops against the French forces at Fort Duquesne. In Washington's own words, the British were "scandalously beaten." He tells us, as well, in a letter to his brother recorded in Papers of George Washington (Colonial Series, Vol.1) that during the fray, he took four bullets through his coat, and two horses were shot out from under him.

General Braddock, however, was killed.

3} About a week before the Declaration of Independence was signed, an American soldier named Thomas Hickey was hanged for his part in a mutinous scheme against the Revolutionary cause. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American Revolution cites Hickey as conspiring to deliver General Washington to the British. Possibly an exaggeration. However the following link does indicate the possibility of such an intention, at least. (This man was a sentinel in the Commander-in-Chief's Guard, a unit formed to protect General Washington, his papers, and the Continental Army's cash funds.)
Sergeant Thomas Hickey Court-Martial: 1776 - Suggestions For Further Reading

In my own life, I sometimes wonder if I'm wasting time, investing my energy and effort in one area when perhaps I should be directing it into another. Am I prioritizing properly? Am I even in God's will? Will I die before I've accomplished the things that matter? What, in fact, are some of those things, for me? When I stop and think about events and patterns such as the ones listed above, however, I am reminded that the God in Whom I believe "gets you there". He protects you from that which would steal your destiny. He protects you from yourself! if necessary. In Psalm 138, the aforementioned David wrote that the Lord would accomplish (or complete) what concerned him. That same principle held true for George Washington. He "got there". Perhaps it will hold true for you, as well...

Speaking of David, in Part 2 of this post I'll be examining some of his brushes with death, also. I hope you'll return for the conclusion.