I Samuel 29 (2026)

[music] >> Well, happy Tuesday morning everybody. Pastor Steve [music] here and as always, thank you so much for being with me for our devotion today. We are in 1 Samuel 29.

It's a short chapter and really it simply sets up chapter 30. So, there's not a lot in it. It just kind of sets the table, if you will, for what is to come.

Um the the lords you have you have Akish, the king of the Philistines. And you have these different territories, different villages that were all part of the Philistine area. And they each had their own lords.

And uh they come together to create one big army and they're going to do battle against the Jewish people, the Hebrews, under King Saul. And these various lords over their parts of the army be like generals today, so to speak. They come to the king and and say, "We don't want David and his soldiers, these Hebrews, going into battle with us against the Hebrews because we don't trust him." He he may get in the right now you say and he says he's going to fight with us, but he may get out there in the heat of the battle and start fighting against us, fighting on behalf of his actual people, the Hebrews, and we don't trust him and we don't want to take that risk.

Akish blindly trusts David, but he listens to his lords and asks David to go back to to Ziklag, the the village where David and his people were living there in the area of the Philistine Philistines. And David agrees to do that. Now, as I mentioned, that's really all this chapter is.

But it sets up what comes tomorrow in chapter 30. But I do want to say a couple things real quickly from this chapter. What would have actually happened?

Now think about this. What would have actually happened if David had gone into battle against the Hebrews with the Philistines? Would he have turned on the Philistines?

Or would he fought against the Hebrews? I don't know. We're not told.

He was in a pickle so to speak, right? His decision to stop trusting God because he was tired and and and and afraid and to flee to the Philistine territory for protection from Saul um and his subsequent actions to curry favor with Achish and the Philistines has put him in a tough spot. He's He has to make a decision.

Either he's going to fight with the Philistines against his own people or in the midst of the battle he's going to have to turn and start fighting against the Philistines. He's He's put himself between a rock and a hard place so to speak. Um we can only guess what he would have done.

We don't know. We're not told. So therefore it really doesn't matter.

Uh I I have a hard time thinking David would ever have fought against his own people. But anyway. But these lords who didn't trust David and they were right not to trust him.

I think they were wise. They were wiser than Achish. Um they actually they actually rescued David from himself.

Rescued David from this predicament he'd gotten himself in. Rescued David from this pickle so to speak. And that's my devotional thought is that sometimes God rescues us at the last minute whether we deserve it or not.

Sometimes God has this way of showing up and helping us. Um I've had that experience in my life. I imagine some of you have as well.

That we need to be faithful and trust God completely and live godly and do what's right and God shows up and makes a way. Sometimes at the last minute. But he shows up and makes a way.

Well, that's my devotional thought from [music] these 11 verses. I'll see you tomorrow as we look at chapter 30. God bless you.

Have a beautiful day, everybody.