Scripture

So Saul quit chasing David and returned to fight the Philistines.

Observation

David hears that the Philistines are stealing grain at Keilah. David asks the Lord if he should go and defend Keilah, and the Lord says to go.

When Saul hears that David is at Keilah, he mobilises the army to go and capture him. The Lord warns David that the man of Keilah will hand him over to Saul, so he and his men flee to the hill country. Although Saul hnts him day after day, the Lord protects David.

On one occasion, Saul and his man begin closing in on David, but Saul receives word that the Philistines are attacking Israel again. He quits chasing David to fight the Philistines.

Application

It is clear that while Saul should have been fighting the Philistines and removing them as a threat to the nation, he instead engaged in a time-consuming hunt for David. He was obsessed with the wrong enemy.

There are many Christians who are in the same category. The heresy hunters go over every word written or spoken by their self declared enemies in order to prove how wrong they are. They don’t fight satan or the enemies of christians. No, they are obsessed with the wrong enemy.

Rather than fighting christian brothers and sisters, we all need to spend our time and energy taking the battle to satan. We do this by sharing the gospel with friends, by loving those who are hurting, by fighting for justice for those whom the system neglects.

Make sure you are fighting the right battles.

Prayer

Lord, please show me how to fight your battles and how to defeat your enemies in the Spirit. Amen.