Bible Reflections From Scripture Union Volume OneSample

Desperate and Dangerous Read 1 Samuel 21:1–22:23 Then the king ordered the guards at his side: "Turn and kill the priests of the LORD, because they too have sided with David. They knew he was fleeing, yet they did not tell me." But the king's officials were not willing to raise a hand to strike the priests of the LORD. 1 Samuel 22:17 Desperate people are dangerous people. They tend to forget that God exists and they try to get out of difficult situations their own way. In the process they do dangerous things that not only endanger their lives but also that of others. Today we’ll witness the actions of two desperate people – David and Saul. David was so desperate that he told a whole lot of lies to Ahimelech to protect himself (21:2, 5, 8). In his desperation to get food and weapons he chose to overlook the danger to Ahimelech posed by the presence of Saul’s servant, Doeg (22:22). Then he resorted to more desperate measures – he fled to the Philistines, of all people, for protection (21:10-15). If he had not feigned insanity, also a desperate measure, he who was the Philistines’ greatest enemy would have most certainly been killed! But David who had one time trusted God completely, finally came to his senses. He returned to God, did right by his family and accepted responsibility for the massacre of Ahimelech and his family (22:1-4, 22-23). Saul, however, did not turn from his desperate ways. He made wild accusations, desperate to find a scapegoat to take the blame for David’s escape. Ahimelech was innocent for it was David who deceived him. But the crooked Doeg made it seem otherwise. Desperate to remove all supporters of David, Saul went on a murderous rampage that resulted in the massacre of the innocent Ahimelech and the whole town of Nob (vs 17-19). Desperate people are dangerous people! We become desperate usually when we think we are losing control of our lives. That would not happen, if in the first place, we had handed over the control of our lives to God. Pray that day by day we will surrender more and more of our lives to God.