Surviving the Wilderness
David did not go from the Hero Giant-Killer to King immediately. There was a wilderness chapter of about 10-12 years. David had immediately become hero, army leader, married to king’s daughter, best friends with king’s son. But there was one problem. King Saul, already mentally sick who became crazy with jealousy over David. David continued to become more popular, Saul more jealous. The cheer was “Saul has killed his thousands but David has killed his ten thousands.” So Saul planned to kill David. Though he did not know of it, he sensed God was on David’s side. The time had come that David must flee to stay alive. He must flee into the wilderness, the area around their land occupied by other tribes, Philistines and Amalekites.
Wilderness living is a familiar part of Bible stories, usually in a desert area. Moses, adopted by the king of Egypt’s daughter, fled to the wilderness after he killed a man. He spent many years herding sheep and raising a family in the desert. Moses encountered God in the wilderness at a burning bush that was not consumed. God called him to go from the wilderness to Egypt and lead his enslaved nation into freedom. He led his people through a wilderness, a desert, to their freedom. Much of the desert he led them through had been his home in the past. Israel, led by Moses, came to the edge of the Promise Land and, because they feared the fight needed to occupy the land, they wandered in that wilderness for 40 years.
Jesus began His ministry with baptism and His wilderness temptations. Paul, after his conversion, went back to Taurus and spent 3 years in his wilderness preparation to serve God.
You and I know something about “wilderness living.” Most of us have had those chapters in our lives. Some have watched a child or parent endure a long illness and die. Some have lost their jobs, have no place else to go to work, and suffer unemployment. Some have experienced a marriage break-up and divorce or a home loss. Some are experiencing the limitations of old age. Some have endured a self imposed wilderness with alcohol or drug abuse, personal attitudes, mental issues or moral conflicts. The wilderness is where you find people fearful, lost, defeated, hiding, wanting only to survive but don’t know how to. We know about wildernesses. How do we survive the wilderness days of life? Perhaps we can learn from David.
Read I Samuel 20:1
David fled the king’s palace, taking only the clothes on his back. He went from famous to fugitive, hero to hunted, well-fed to hungry, and an armored soldier to an unarmed, hunted man. There was one constant in his life – King Saul, who had a large army and information system to find out very quickly where he was. And the king wanted only one thing – his death.
Where do you go to escape your problems, avoid your enemies and calm your fears? There is a place called “no man’s land.” For David, it was this land beyond his country’s border. There was one problem there. His beliefs were that God and geography are connected so when you are out of your land, you are outside of God’s help. We have those places where you believe God is not present and cannot help us. Out of church, away from family, in the foggy land of alcohol or drugs, in the company of other’s living badly.
The wilderness journey is always a downward path. David had lost everything – his palace home, his wife Michal who helped him to escape, his best friend Jonathan who could not believe that his father Saul would kill David, his weapons and his confidence. His downward path included:
Desperation: He knew no place else to go or anyone who could save him from the crazy king.
Deceit: To get food, he lied to a friendly priest and caused the death of this priest and 84 other priests.
Deception: He on one occasion had to act like an insane man having a seizure to escape an enemy king.
Danger: He fled from cave to cave, hiding from the obsessed king who wanted to kill him.
And he was alone. Separated from his father and mother, wife and best friend, he had
escaped into isolation.
The wilderness is a lonely place, a place where we replay our mistakes, nurse our anger,
and always look for a safer, darker place. David spent 10-12 years in his wilderness.
Perhaps they matured him, prepared him to be king and brought him to a personal
relationship with God. That was the boot camp for him to be called “a man after God’s
own heart.”
There are always places we can call “turning points” in the wilderness journeys. As a
pastor I have listened to many stories about “turning points,” some taken to return to God
and the good life and some missed and seen in the rearview mirror of a person’s
bad memories.
David had a turning point in I Samuel 22: 1-5. He found a “stronghold,” a place of
safety and retreat. It was a cave, the cave of Adullam. David found security there and he
would later use it as a place of retreat even after becoming king.
His family joined him there. His family had also suffered because of Saul’s anger for
David. Forced from the farm, his parents and brother came to join him. At this point,
David began to assume responsibility for others, his parent. Earlier he was thinking only
for himself and his safety. Healing comes when we leave our self-absorption and begin
to become responsible for others.
He organized an army: David was truly a gifted warrior. Beginning with his brothers, he enlisted others to join him. They were all fugitives from Saul; criminals, debtors, discontents. David must have felt stronger, more himself, with his army. However, he also takes responsibility for the provisions of them and often their families.
He began to talk and listen to God. He began with the prophet Gad, who advised him to move into the territory of Judah. That was the land of his own tribe, the tribe of Benjamin. He would soon become the king of that land. Later he began direct conversations with God about strategy and he began to obey God. You cannot dress up those times of attacking villages, killing all the residents and carrying off the loot.
David’s direction was back to God, back to service of God, back to where God wanted him to be. His journey in and out of the wilderness would take 10-12 years, the days of his young adulthood. They would be marked by lawless living, oppression of others and ruthless values. But he was going back. He would first be king of the small territory of Judah and 8 ½ years later king of all of the tribes and their territory. He would unify the people, restore their practices of worship, bring his country to the height of world power and begin the planning for a magnificent temple to honor God. He would write praises to God in the Psalms. He would experience sin and forgiveness and severe family problems. That’s life, back living with God. He was becoming “the man after God’s own heart.”
Later in the history of his country, Israel would be conquered, their brightest and best people moved to Babylon to become slaves, and the mighty city left in ruins. Dividing the slaves in Babylon and their homeland of Israel was a wilderness, a huge desert. Isaiah, seeking to encourage his people, prophesied about that wilderness:
18 “Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
20 The wild animals honor me,
the jackals and the owls,
because I provide water in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland,
to give drink to my people, my chosen,
21 the people I formed for myself
that they may proclaim my praise.
Isaiah 43:18-21
What is the lesson to be learned here?
“Only God offers lasting security and blessings.”
