Where to turn when you are under fire

There’s an account from the life of David (of Goliath fame), that always makes me want to jump up and shout – like when I watch the New England Patriot’s execute an amazing play with perfection and strike terror in the hearts of their opponents. lol

This account is found in 2 Samuel 5:17-25.  David has just become king over the united territories of Judah and Israel.

Most people think that when David became king after the death of Saul that he immediately began to reign over Israel.  But that wasn’t the case. Saul’s son, Ish-Bosheth was reigning in Israel after his father’s death.  So David reigned over Judah for 7 years until the Lord removed Ish-Bosheth and the people of Israel came to him at Hebron and asked him to rule over them as well.

So why is that interesting – at all??

It’s interesting because David had already waited over 14 years for his promised destiny to materialize.  He had defeated Goliath, become a military hero in Israel, been hunted through the desert by Saul, refused to murder Saul and take the crown by force, and had waited for the Lord to put him on the throne the right way.  He refused to make his destiny happen through unrighteous means.  And now that Saul is dead and the throne is just a few miles away, he STILL refuses to take it by force.  It’s not until after Ish-Bosheth’s murder (through no scheming of David), that the people of Israel come to David at his palace in Hebron and ask him to be there their king in Jerusalem.

This backstory is important for this reason: David wasn’t seen as a threat to the Philistines, the arch-enemies of the Israelites who had encroached unopposed on Israelite territory for years, until David united both Judah and Israel under his crown.  Now, all of a sudden, the Philistines felt the urgent need to crush David, put him in his place and maintain their territory.  David’s enlargement threatened the enemy and they set out to intimidate and defeat David right out of the gate.

It wasn’t until David stepped into the fullness of his destiny that the battle came to his doorstep.  Until that point, while David ruled in Judah for 7 years, the Philistines were happy to leave him alone.  But now that David was increasing the power and footprint of Israel and now that there was unity in Israel, the enemy was terrified and rushed in to crush this before it could grow.  The enemy knows more about the power of unity and of obedience to the Lord than we do.  And he will do anything he can to derail us at those pivotal moments in our lives when we are about to take a step forward.  We all have a purpose and the closer we get to fully walking in it, the more the enemy will run at us like a scene from the movie Braveheart.

Here’s a clip from the scene in 2 Samuel (paraphrased):

Verse 18:  Now the Philistines had come and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim.

David to God: “Shall I go and attack the Philistines? Will you hand them over to me?”

God to David: “Go, for I will surely hand the Philistines over to you.”

So David went to Baal Perazim and he defeated the Philistines there.

Here is my favorite part and why this account makes me jump up and down.  The Hebrew words Baal Perazim translated mean “Your Husband-man/ Lord breaks out, breaks over, breaks through, and increases”

What the heck does that mean, you might be thinking? Well, this is the interpretation: God is telling us that He is our Husband in the most righteous, protective and tender sense of the word.  He is our provider, defender, strong refuge, and warrior.  And when we are under attack, He breaks out over the enemy like raging flood waters breaking over the containment of river banks. When the enemy comes in to take territory in our lives that belongs to us, God goes to battle as our Husband and Lord to break out over the enemy, to bring breakthrough for us from the limitations that are squeezing us and to bring increase into our lives.  As God’s precious people, we are not called to be pummeled and bullied by the enemy. We are called to rule and reign in life for our God’s glory.

What are the areas of your life that you feel are under attack?  Is the battle raging with the fiery arrows of intimidation, pressure, and threats?  Are you so concerned about the future and the losses you feel you will incur that you can’t concentrate on anything else?

If so, I have good news for you!  The same God that told David, ‘Go for I will surely hand the Philistines over to you’, is the same God who is fighting for you.  He doesn’t have favorites.  If your destiny and your peace are in jeopardy, He is not happy.  The enemy has a plan to take you out and put you on the sidelines.  But God has a plan to take you over and through your circumstances.

I love the fact that my Mighty God is the One who breaks out over my enemies.  In verse 24,the Lord tells David to wait until he hears the sound of marching in the tops of the poplar trees.  This sounds bizarre! What army was David hearing that marches in the air?  You guessed it: the heavenly host of angelic warriors was going BEFORE David.  David was following after the army of the Lord right into his victory.

Don’t read this account as just a nice little Bible story.  If you do you will miss the opportunity to appreciate the Lord on a really cool level.  But most importantly, you will hijack your ability to tap into the power that is accessible to every child of God. The LORD wants to fight for you and He will give you strategies and wisdom you could never have concocted on your own.  He will also vindicate you in ways you could not imagine.

(To be continued…)

Now you:

• Are you facing a situation that looks overwhelming, intimidating or hopeless?
• Do you need a miracle of supernatural intervention?

Let me encourage you, that while God never promises to answer every prayer the way we think it should be answered according to our assessment of what is best for us, He does promise that we will not be destroyed, that He will fight for us and that He is our strong tower of defense (Prov. 18:10).  He has promised that we are more than conquerors through Christ.  More than a conqueror means that we are declared victors in a battle we didn’t fight.

I encourage you to use a search tool like Bible Gateway to plug in words like Strength, Defense, Victory and Salvation to find Scriptures that will strengthen your faith and make you stalwart as you wait on the Lord’s deliverance.

I hope that you are encouraged to pray – and keep praying – about your situations.  God loves you and like any GOOD father, He is protective of you.  He is still the God who breaks out, breaks over and breaks through every attack and obstacle of the enemy that is coming against you!

Isaiah 12:2

Surely, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.”