Discover how David’s specific prayers lead to direct answers from God, offering a powerful template for our own prayer lives. Through a careful examination of David’s experiences in Keilah, this episode encourages us to strengthen our connection to God, understanding the importance of specific prayers and God’s sovereignty. We’ll reflect on practical lessons from Job, underscoring the value of relying solely on God’s wisdom, even amidst life’s uncertainties.
Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. We join Allen J. Huth as he shares Bible passages and comments from over 30 years of his personal Bible reading journals.
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Today we are in 1 Samuel chapter 23, David still on the run. Let’s listen in to the 29 verses of 1 Samuel chapter 23. 1 Samuel 23
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Now they told David, Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are robbing the threshing floors.
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Therefore David inquired of the Lord, Shall I go and attack these Philistines?
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And the Lord said to David, Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah.
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But David’s men said to him, Behold, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?
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Then David inquired of the Lord again, and the Lord answered him, Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand.
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And David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines and brought away their livestock and struck them with a great blow. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah. When Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, had fled to David to Keilah, he had come down with an ephod in his hand. Now it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah.
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And Saul said, God has given him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars.
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And Saul summoned all the people to war to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men. David knew that Saul was plotting harm against him, and he said to Abiathar the priest, Bring the ephod here.
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Then said David, O Lord, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah to destroy the city on my account. Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O Lord, the God of Israel, please tell your servant. And the Lord said, He will come down. Then David said, Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?
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And the Lord said, They will surrender you. Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the expedition. And David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hand. David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh, and Jonathan, Saul’s son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God.
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And he said to him, Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Saul my father also knows this.
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And the two of them made a covenant before the Lord. David remained at Horesh, and Jonathan went home.
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Then the Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hekilah, which is south of Jeshimon? Now come down, O king, according to all your heart’s desire to come down, and our part shall be to surrender him into the king’s hand.
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And Saul said, May you be blessed by the Lord, for you have had compassion on me. Go, make yet more sure. Know and see the place where his foot is, and who has seen him there, for it is told me that he is very cunning. See therefore and take note of all the lurking places where he hides, and come back to me with sure information. Then I will go with you. And if he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.
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And they arose and went to Ziph, ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Ereba to the south of Jeshimon. And Saul and his men went to seek him. And David was told, So he went down to the rock and lived in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon. Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain. And David was hurrying to get away from Saul. As Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them, a messenger came to Saul, saying, Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid against the land. So Saul returned from pursuing after David and went against the Philistines. Therefore, that place was called the Rock of Escape. And David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of Angedi.
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As we look into chapter 23, I’ve got one of those great one-liners from my 1983 journal, David’s Prayer Life, Specific Prayer, Specific Answers. Now that is a powerful, short summary of this chapter, which we’re going to come back to in a minute. In 2002, I wrote, David seeks God’s counsel and divine intervention before he acts, not after. Saul is chasing David around without regard to what God wants. Jonathan can get to David and reassures him, Saul will not find you, and you, not me, will be king of Israel. Jonathan, an amazing man. Well, that’s what I wrote in 2002, and it is certainly true. Jonathan is really somebody to look up to, isn’t he? In 2007, I wrote, David inquired of the Lord. He asked God what to do in his daily life, the challenges he was facing. And God answered him with specific direction. God cares about what is going on in our daily lives too. Ask Him for direction. Listen for His voice and act. This chapter is really an insight into David’s prayer life, so let’s check out a few verses. Notice David’s specific prayers and God’s specific answers. Let’s start in verse 2. Therefore David inquired of the Lord, Shall I go and attack these Philistines? And the Lord said to David, Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah. David has a specific prayer and God gives him a very specific answer. But the men with David are afraid. So David inquires of the Lord again in verse 4. Then David inquired of the Lord again, and the Lord answered him, Arise, go down to Kelia, and I will give the Philistines into your hand. So once again, David asks specifically, and God answers specifically. And by the way, that’s exactly what happened. David went down and was victorious in the battle. Let’s go down to verse 10. David again inquiring of the Lord. Then David said, So again, this is a very specific prayer, and God gives a very specific answer. David’s prayer continues in verse 12. David is praying about specific things happening in his life, and God is giving him specific answers. Now, I can’t say that I hear the voice of God as clearly as we just heard it on this podcast. But I can say that I have prayed many, many times for very specific things, and God has answered me specifically, just like he did David, and just like he can do for you. How specific are your prayers? I think sometimes Christians don’t want to pray specifically because we think we’re going to put God in a box. Really? So we might pray something like this. Lord, give me a job. And then we get a job. Do we know that that job came from the Lord? If we had a little more courage in our prayer life, we’d probably pray a little bit more specifically. Lord, I would like to have this kind of job in this kind of place, making this amount of money. And then when God answers that specifically, we know it’s from the Lord and he gets all the glory. So may I encourage you today. to strengthen your prayer life by modeling David and praying more specifically, listening to God’s specific answers, and then of course giving him all the glory. We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen. Thanks for listening to AdBible today. Why did this happen to Job? No fault of his own, right? And what is happening to you may not be your fault either. You may not understand what is happening to you like when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I said, why me, Lord? Then I thought, why not me? The question is not why is this happening to me? The question is where do you go for help? Do you go to your friends, like Job’s friends? They did not know the whole story. They give advice without knowledge, but they are doing the best they can with what they know. Regardless of what you’re going through, there are three things you can do. One, understand God’s sovereignty. He works behind the scenes, as we will see in the book of Ruth. I understood God’s sovereignty after a car accident at age 15 could have taken my life. 2. Be careful who you get advice from. Your friends don’t know what God knows, so keep going to God like Job did. He continued to plead his case to the Lord.
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Hold fast as Job does. He does not waver or curse God or blame God.
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Keep going. There is an answer. Job got his. You will too. To get a written record of these recordings, visit EzraProject.net and order a copy of the Day by Day Through the Bible book, The Writings of the Old Testament Historical Books. There you will find the text of these programs, so you can refer back or study the material again. That’s EzraProject.net. Order your copy today. Thanks for listening to Ad Bible today. 2025 is an amazing year on Ad Bible as we cover 44 books of the Bible. That’s two-thirds of the 66 books of the Bible in just one year. If you’ve never read all the books of the Bible, 2025 is an exciting year for you. We are covering Old and New Testament books going back and forth throughout the year. On January 1, we started with the writings of the Old Testament historical books. And we started in the book of Job in January. Then we are going on to Ruth. Then we will look at the journey through 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and conclude with 1 and 2 Chronicles. You won’t want to miss any of these dramatic historical writings in the first quarter of 2025. In the second quarter of 2025, we jump into the New Testament with the writings of Mark, Peter, James, Jude, and Hebrews. This summer, we go back to the Old Testament, diving into the writings of all 13 of the minor prophets, like Daniel, Hosea, Joel, and some of the most obscure minor prophets, like Obadiah, Nahum, and Zephaniah. It will be easy to keep up with these short, powerful books in the busy summer months. In the fall and winter, we will cover all the New Testament writings of Paul, Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, and his personal letters to Timothy and Titus. You will get all of Paul at the end of 2025. 44 books on AdBible in 2025. To order the day-by-day through the Bible books we are using in 2025, visit azraproject.net and find the 2025 plan. All four books are sold separately would come up to about $85, but the set is on sale for only $59. That’s a savings of 30% plus free shipping. Go to EzraProject.net today and order your set so you can get more out of your Bible reading in 2025. I know you’re going to enjoy it and want to share it with others.
