1 Samuel 19: 8-17

“Then Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch, in order to put him to death in the morning….So Michal let David down through a window, and he went out and fled and escaped.”

1 Samuel 19:11,12

The line between faith and presumption is often a matter of choosing our battles.

The line between faith and presumption is very thin, and often it is exceedingly difficult to discern. We read of mighty acts of faith in the Scriptures and we truly believe that nothing is too difficult for God. Yet, we also hear highly presumptuous claims made in the name of faith that seem to far exceed Biblical warrant and perhaps even common decency. How can we know the difference? How can we prudently discern what God would have us do? In this passage, David provides us with an example of believing prudence and demonstrates that faith sometimes chooses NOT to fight.

In his irrational determination to kill David, Saul had become increasing desperate. God had thwarted Saul’s every scheme to this point, turning them to David’s advantage. Despite his destructive intent, David was now his son-in-law and continued to win great victories for Israel. Saul then returned to direct action, seeking first to kill David himself and, when that failed, sending his henchmen to watch David’s house with instructions to kill him in the morning. For David, the situation was desperate, and the threat to his life was real. So David fled for his life in the middle of the night, sneaking out a back window with the help of his wife. No doubt he expected to return after Saul’s mood changed. But Saul’s mood did not change this time and this flight was the beginning of a seven-year ordeal for David: living on the run, obsessively hunted by Saul, under constant threat of death.

Why didn’t David just stand up and fight? After all, God had miraculously given Goliath into his hand. Certainly God could have delivered David from this situation also, had David chosen to fight. Perhaps if he had stood his ground and seen the Lord’s deliverance, Saul would have cancelled the death sentence and the long exile could have been avoided. But instead, David ran. Was this a result of unbelief? No. This situation was entirely different from the one with Goliath and David understood that. And despite the fact that his decision resulted in great hardship and struggle, David made the correct choice. It would have been presumption to stand and fight; it was an exercise of faith to flee.

In this case, the line between faith and presumption was as simple as the difference between fighting God’s enemies and fighting God’s people. In an earlier devotional (on 1 Samuel 17:45-47), we discovered that David was clearly aware that faith focused on the glory of God, God’s testimony in the world and the strengthening of God’s people. Fighting Goliath met each of these criteria and so a step of faith was warranted. However, had David chosen to fight in this present situation, he would have dishonored God, destroyed His testimony in the world and discouraged God’s people. Knowing this, David trusted God to provide for him in some other way. Although he had been hurt and betrayed, in all his years of fleeing from Saul, David never fought against God’s people. Twice, Saul fell into his hand, and David refused to harm the man he still called “the Lord’s anointed.” And the one time he seemed poised to fight against Israel (1 Samuel 29:1ff), God intervened and prevented him from doing so. The last thing David wanted to do was to harm Israel in any way.

In the press of painful events, it is difficult to discern between faith and presumption. It’s especially difficult because we often confuse God’s plan with our desires, His promises with our goals and His glory with our victory. But faith shifts our focus from self to God. David demonstrates that faith chooses its battles, and will willingly choose personal loss to avoid bringing harm to Christ’s Church. This is the path our Savior walked – choosing betrayal and death for the sake of His Church. Sometimes, even when we are in the right, it is better for us and for the Church to avoid the fight. How much damage to God’s people could be avoided - how much destruction of the testimony of God before a watching world – if God’s people would entrust themselves to a God of justice and allow themselves to be wronged and defrauded for the sake of Christ! (see 1 Corinthians 6:7) David realized that not every opponent is a Goliath and that faith fights at times and flees at others. May God grant us the grace to choose our battles wisely, acting in faith and not in presumption.