Good morning sir!  Welcome to day two!  Join with me in prayer: Lord, I come to You, the author and perfecter of my faith.  Bring truth to my heart and let me live today with faith in You!  Amen!

If the heart is deceitful, how will we ever know the man?

This is the age-old question!  And if we look at the behavior of David we also see that he too can be deceitful.  He too can forget God, the One who he claims to love, and for the sake of self-protection, even go over to the enemy’s side.  

Have you had this experience?  Quite some time ago, when something that I had done that was not completely honest, was about to become public, I had in my heart, just to deny that I knew anything about it.  Mercifully, God extended grace to me and I made it right, but the fact that I had planned to cover it up, shows how easy this can happen.

David, when exhausted by being pursued by King Saul, finally decided: “The best thing for me to do is to escape to Philistia.  Then Saul will give up looking for me…and I will be safe.” 1 Samuel 27:1

Yes, this was a low point in David’s life.  You could say that David virtually hired himself out, along with 600 more, to become mercenaries.

Tiredness and bitterness started to creep into David.  We have the impression that God was in the background too.  No mention of David consulting the Lord during this time.

What was the first casualty for David when he did this?  Truth!  David lies.  David does whatever he wants. The mercenaries increase their wealth by raiding, killing and stealing.  When self protection is the top goal, lies and falsehood are sure to follow!

My prayer for today: Lord, You are Truth!  “Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts!”  Psalm 51:6. Amen! 

Steve Weber