Don't panic. There are only three.
The first one is historical...but from a different perspective. It's 4:8, but for context, I'm going to start in verse 6b:
When they learned that the ark of the LORD had come into the camp, the Philistines were afraid. "A god has come into the camp," they said "We're in trouble! Nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? They are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the desert."
A very rough ballpark estimate is that this was something like 300 years since the Exodus. So, even in that time, it would be pretty distant history.
But the remarkable thing that hits me here..every other place we've seen 'desert' mentioned as history, it's the Israelites reminding themselves of what happened there. This time...it's the Philistines, Israel's rather constant enemy in those days. THEY are the ones who bring up what the God of Israel did in the desert. Of course, they have lots of details wrong...it wasn't a conglomeration of gods, it was one God; the plagues hit the Egyptians in their homes, not in the desert; the ark wasn't actually even a deity at all...but still. They knew that the Israelites worshiped someone who was truly powerful and if that Someone took action against them...they were toast.
What they didn't know was that the Israelites were acting on their own,as they had at Ai, when they first entered the land, which guaranteed the Philistines were going to whoop their collective tail. In fact, God had already prophesied such through the youngster Samuel. It was a lesson the Israelites were about to learn all over again: They only succeed when God is with them. Or, rather, they only succeed when they are with God. Because God wasn't going to be manipulated. The priests took the Ark to battle, without even consulting God , and that's all they took. They did not take God's presence or his blessing. And the Philistines did, indeed, whoop their collective tail...and they took the Ark to Ashdod in Philistia as plunder. THAT started a whole 'nuther chain of events in which God acted to protect the symbol of his covenant with Israel, but 'desert' doesn't come into that bit of the story.
The next reference of desert is in 13:18...and it is simply geographical. Starting in verse 17 for context again (because it hurts my head to start a quote in the middle of a sentence)...
Raiding parties went out from the Philistine camp in three detachments. One turned toward Ophrah in the vicinity of Shual, another toward Beth Horon, and the third toward the borderland overlooking the Valley of Zeboin facing the desert.
This is just a description of where the enemy Saul and the Israelites were up against...yes, still the same bad guys, the Philistines...attacked the people.
The third reference to 'desert' in the first 22 chapters of 1 Samuel shows up in 17:28 -
When Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, "Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle."
This time, the reference is meant to scorn David, reminding him that his place is in the desert with the sheep. But Eliab had forgotten that coming out of the desert means one is positioned for victory.
Ok, true confession time. That sentence just came out of my fingers without me really thinking about it and smacked me in the face.
Coming out of the desert, one is positioned for victory.
That may be a concept that we'll watch over as we continue along here. So far...Moses came out of the desert to take on Pharaoh and release the people; Joshua led the people out of the desert into the land of promise...now, David came out of the desert to show a loud-mouthed giant that he was no match for a kid with a slingshot and the blessing of Israel's God.
We already know that the purpose of going through the desert is to learn to rely on God for everything One who learns that is certainly poised for success.
I will be pondering this for a bit.
Wow. Some friends and I are doing online Bible studies together since we can’t physically get together and a recurring them is Spiritual maturity, but for many of us, this time feels like we are in a desert. Like we are alone but what you’ve written about coming out of the desert poised for victory smacked me upside the head! Amen amen amen!
ReplyDeleteI had the same reaction! I was just typing in the flow, so to speak, and when that showed up I straight up sat there and just looked at it for a minute or two. Selah. LOL.
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