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Topic: Beware Of Their Evil Tactics!
[DCLM Daily Manna 3 January 2020 Daily Devotional by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi]
Text: 1 Samuel 18:22-30
22 And Saul commanded his servants, saying, Commune with David secretly, and say, Behold, the king hath delight in thee, and all his servants love thee: now therefore be the king’s son in law.
23 And Saul’s servants spake those words in the ears of David. And David said, Seemeth it to you a light thing to be a king’s son in law, seeing that I am a poor man, and lightly esteemed?
24 And the servants of Saul told him, saying, On this manner spake David.
25 And Saul said, Thus shall ye say to David, The king desireth not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king’s enemies. But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.
26 And when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king’s son in law: and the days were not expired.
27 Wherefore David arose and went, he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full tale to the king, that he might be the king’s son in law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter to wife.
28 And Saul saw and knew that the LORD was with David, and that Michal Saul’s daughter loved him.
29 And Saul was yet the more afraid of David; and Saul became David’s enemy continually.
30 Then the princes of the Philistines went forth: and it came to pass, after they went forth, that David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul; so that his name was much set by.
Key Verse: “And Saul said, Thus shall ye say to David, The king desireth not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king’s enemies. But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.” – 1 Samuel 18:25
MESSAGE:
Christopher Columbus kept two records of the distances travelled on his first voyage to the New World in the Santa Maria. One was true, but he deliberately faked the other. To alleviate his crew’s fear that they were getting too far from home on an unknown sea, Columbus gave them a reduced mileage estimate. When, for example, he told them on September 11, 1492, that they had covered 16 leagues, he recorded 20 in his secret log. Though he didn’t know it, Columbus’ “true” distance records were overestimated by 9 percent on the average. His faked distances came out closer to the actual distances travelled. When the crew found out about his deception, they threatened mutiny. Before they did, however, land — and a New World — appeared.
King Saul in our text was so envious about David’s success that he plotted to kill him. Not to appear too obvious that he wanted David dead, he decided to employ some deceptions in his tactics. In his belated attempt to fulfil the promise about giving out his daughter in marriage to the hero who killed Goliath, Saul asked for a hundred foreskins of the Philistines as dowry in hope that David would be killed while securing them. David met the requirement and married his daughter. This was very disappointing to Saul and made him fear David the more.
Someone said: “it takes so much energy to lie. I wish people could grasp the sense of the freedom and liberation that comes with being honest and genuine.” Saul’s many attempts to kill David failed because he was very wise and did not fall into fall the traps set by the king.
We must be wise as serpents and harmless as doves while crossing the murky waters of this world.We must walk carefully and prayerfully under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: be careful while in the presence of evil people.
BIBLE READING IN ONE YEAR: Genesis 7-10.
