FBC Daily Devotional – October 7, 2021

The Danger of Elevating Bible Characters Too Highly

Well a good Thursday morning to you. I hope you're doing well this week and again recording this from Gulf Shores, Alabama last day wrapping up vacation and then tomorrow heading to a conference over in the Atlanta and downtown Atlanta actually before returning home on Sunday which will or Monday which will be you know a couple of days before you're seeing this so anyway I'm Recording this so I'm fighting the the mist drops.

It's kind of Raining in the background and that's why the thought that the sky is white behind me and not blue. And every once in a while a few a few stray drops come come wandering over this way and Hitting me in the side of the face but anyway.

So let's get at it so today in our reading where we're reading a passage that reminds us How important it is not to? Not to elevate Some biblical characters that we really can emulate in many ways. They're they're they're good men.

Good people, but they're not perfect people and and I think we have to be careful that we don't allow Allow ourselves to put up on a pedestal. These characters in the Bible that make them to be almost Invincible and sinless and what I'm getting at is the passage in first Samuel 27 where?

David's Faulty Conclusion and Flight to the Philistines

David flees to Gath and While he's there he's got to. While he's there he engages in some nefarious activities and Deceptive behavior as well now now here's the thing the before he heads off to before he heads off to Achish in Gath and so forth the Lord had.

The Lord had done an incredible thing in chapter 26 in bringing Saul to his knees. Remember you know David cut off the corner of Saul's cloak and and that smote him and and then David You know confronted Saul and said listen.

You don't have to chase me. I'm not I'm not out. I'm not after your I'm not after your life. I spared your life I could have taken your life and and Saul said you're right. You're more righteous than I and chapter 26 ends by Saul saying blessed are you?

My son David you will do many things and you will succeed in them and then it says so David went his way and Saul returned to his place and Then the next verse said says David said in his heart Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul is that an appropriate conclusion for him to draw I?

Mean You have if you've been reading these passages in Samuel. You know that that's not the case. Because God has promised to David you are going to succeed Saul so for him to say I know that I'm going to perish at the hand of Saul is to Is to deny the promise that God has made to him so he's already reached a faulty conclusion in his thinking and Because he's come to that conclusion He takes off and he says it's nothing there's nothing better for me than to then to escape to the land of the Philistines.

Again, if you know anything about your history here, you know that the Philistines have been Ongoing enemies of the Israelites for years in fact. It was the Philistines that David first entered into. Into the fray way he overcame Goliath the champion of the Philistines and then defeated Philistines.

So now he here he finds himself going to the land of the Philistines and expecting them to give him shelter. And sure enough when he gets there, he finds he takes his band. He gets to gath and. And he's he gets it gets into good favor with a kish Akish to a kish figures out.

Well, you know if David is the enemy of Saul then he can be my friend. And so he gives David a place of refuge ziklag. David takes his place of ziklag. But then from ziklag, he goes he goes into these different places in fill in the land of the Philistines and he He totally annihilates Those villages and everybody in them because he doesn't want word getting back to a kish what he's been up to.

And so he does this and then you know, he gets back and a kish says so where have you been today? What would you do today and David lies and he says he went to different places in Judah and he. And he attacked those places.

Leading a kish to conclude. Oh, I've surely got him in the palm of my hand. Now This is all this is all very problematic. And you can argue. Well, you know, this is war and all the rest of that kind of thing.

But really it's it's not David doesn't need to be there and he's there because he reached a really a faulty conclusion and then once there he enters into this very cruel behavior of you know, just totally destroying and killing everybody in these villages and.

Then then lying about it. This is this is very problematic. And I think we need to acknowledge that that even the best of men in these old these Old Testament Characters the best of them have their flaws and have their blind spots.

Learning From David's Weaknesses and Our Own Blind Spots

It's good for us to acknowledge that because it helps us to be a little more sensitive to our own. That on the one hand I may be very good at this part of my Christian life. But what am I neglecting? What am I overlooking?

What kind of faulty conclusions am I drawing? How am I being deceptive? Am I being deceptive in subtle ways in ways that I'm self-justifying? You see these are things for us to consider and we can consider them from the the failures of a good man.

So let's be challenged by that today. So our Father and our God I pray that today we would we would learn even from the mistakes the errors of of your chosen servant David Helps us to realize that. Even the best of men have their flaws of their weaknesses have their failings.

I pray that we would learn from that to be sensitive even to our own and this we pray in Jesus name. Amen. All right. Well, you have a good Thursday and I trust the Lord will bless you with it. God bless.