Daily Devotional – June 23, 2020

Faith Baptist Church

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depressing if you let it be. I mean, we've just passed the summer solstice.

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The longest day of daylight is behind us for another year. So the daylight hours, as of starting yesterday,

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I guess, are just going to gradually wane for the next six months.

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Sorry, I really shouldn't have mentioned that, should I? Well, anyway, we enjoy the daylight hours that we have, and we'll have an abundance of them for quite a while.

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So just enjoy your terrific Tuesday. Well, we began this week of devotionals in the wilderness.

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Scott Stillman in the hot, dry Arizona desert, desperately longing for water.

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And then there was David in the wilderness, but for God. Remember how

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Psalm 63 begins, Oh God, you are my God. He says, earnestly, I seek you.

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My soul thirsts for you. My flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

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So of all the things that might top the longing list out in the wilderness, why

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God? Why God? Well, because as we mentioned yesterday,

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I believe that David understood, and I hope that you do too, that to have water without God is still to die of thirst, of thirst in the inner soul.

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But to have God, particularly through Jesus, even though parched under the desert sun, you can find the soul's thirst quenched.

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Remember, that's exactly what Jesus promised the woman at the Samaritan well, right? Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.

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The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life,

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Jesus promised. But more happens in the wilderness than just getting thirsty.

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Yesterday I mentioned Scott Stillman's book, Wilderness, the Gateway to the Soul, and I shared an episode of thirst that he experienced in the

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Arizona desert. But if his book was only about being thirsty when he was out on backpacking trips or something, that'd be a pretty boring book.

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I mean, the book's 200 pages long, and he writes about excursions in nearly 200 different wilderness places.

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If all it was about, well, I went to this place and I got thirsty, and I didn't have water until I found water.

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I mean, you can do that once, but you're not going to get two dozen chapters on that subject.

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I'm sure I wouldn't have read it. So if he did that, he'd probably have to change the title of the book to something like,

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Wilderness, How I Quenched Insatiable Thirst. Well, having been on a couple of solo backpacking trips myself,

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I've discovered what author Stillman and king -in -waiting David have also found.

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And that is, there's plenty of time to reflect, to remember. And apparently it's

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David's remembering that parched his soul and drained him of energy that drove him to seek after God, to long for him, to thirst for him as deeply as Scott Stillman longed for a refreshing drink of water.

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Now, what came to mind as David hunkered down in this wilderness refuge, hiding from his vengeful, vindictive father -in -law,

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King Saul? What came to mind? What bubbled up to the surface of his mind as he had plenty of time to reflect?

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What? Church. Church? Say what?

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Well, not exactly church, but sort of. Listen to what David says right after that expression of longing.

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He said, So have I looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.

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So here he is out in the wilderness, and David's recalling an experience in the past when he went to church, if I can use it that way.

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Now, a couple of things here. First of all, when did he do this?

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And secondly, where? Now, as far as the first question goes, the where goes, we have to remember that at this point there was no temple erected in Israel.

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You remember Solomon, David's son, he's the one that built the temple in Jerusalem, and that's not going to get done for about 50 years from this experience in the wilderness.

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So it's not the temple in Jerusalem that David is talking about. And the sanctuary where the

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Ark of the Covenant was kept and the altars for various offerings was placed, the house where David had actually taken the

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Ark of the Covenant, and Jerusalem wasn't even fully in Israel's occupation at this point.

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So probably the best answer to our questions where and when is found in 1

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Samuel 21. Now, at the end of 1 Samuel 20, David had just learned that indeed

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King Saul was fully intending to kill David and get rid of him.

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So naturally, David fled for his life. So as 1 Samuel 21 opens,

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David went to Nob, and there at Nob was Ahimelech the priest.

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And there at Nob, a sanctuary was erected, and at that sanctuary the holy bread was set out.

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This was the bread of the presence that King James talks about as the show bread.

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This was a holy bread dedicated, set on an altar to the Lord. And it was also at this sanctuary, it was also the place where Goliath's sword was kept.

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And you remember that account, right? And that sword was kept there as a souvenir of God's great deliverance from the

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Philistines. You remember that story? And how David played a key role in that victory?

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The sword was wrapped up and stored behind the priest's ephod. That was that garment worn only at key times in the

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Lord's presence. And Ahimelech gave

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David some of the holy bread and also gave him Goliath's sword.

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And that's the last time David was in the sanctuary. From there he fled to Gath, where he had to pretend he was crazy lest the king of Gath kill him.

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And from there he fled to the cave of Adullam. And his family came, as well as a bunch of social misfits found him at this cave of Adullam, joined him in hiding and fleeing from Saul.

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And from the cave of Adullam he fled to Moab to try to secure safety for his family.

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And while he was in Moab, the prophet came to David and told him to flee to the

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Jordan wilderness. Which brings us to Psalm 63 and to David's reflection.

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And notice his focus, beholding your power and glory.

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I can see David resting on an outcropping one evening, looking out over the landscape as his hand rests on the hilt of Goliath's sword, strapped to his waist.

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And his mind wanders back to the sanctuary, back to that battle with the

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Philistines, the giants' fearsome threats, the army of Israel's quaking in response.

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And David, as he walks to the stream and picks up those five stones, and then the first one of those stones, led by divine course to find its mark in the giant's forehead.

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And the resounding victory gained not by David's slingshot, but by God's great power unto

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God's great glory. David, in his wilderness, remembers looking upon the

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Lord in his sanctuary, beholding his power and his glory. I wonder today, when you're in the wilderness, what do you reflect on?

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What do you reflect on? Let's pray and ask God to give us a mind to reflect upon him and upon his glory.

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Our Father and our God, we are reminded and challenged by David's example to reflect on the sanctuary, to reflect on your power and on your glory, and to take our eyes and our hearts and our minds off of ourselves, reflecting on you.

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May we do so, we pray in the name of Jesus, our Savior. Amen. All right, well, have a good rest of your