God will use both allies and adversaries to deliver us from adversity.   ~~~   David is a fugitive on the loose, with Goliath’s sword in hand, thinking that he would be safer in Philistine territory than in Israel. I would tend to think that there were 200 very sore Philistine men, along with 10,000 widow women who would disagree about David’s safety among the Philistines. But this is what desperation does, isn’t it? It can drive us to do some pretty strange things. David enters the town of Achish, with Goliath’s sword in tow. I’m pretty sure that thing was hard to hide in the luggage. And as soon as he enters, the people recognize him, particularly the servants of Achish, who is the ruler in Gath (Goliath’s hometown), and they start to question, “Isn’t this the great one of Israel?” So David’s cover is blown and he is very afraid now. Very concerned. And he decides the best course of action, again, is deception. He pretends to be a lunatic, a mad man, someone who has gone crazy. He drools all over himself, which was a mark of shame by the way. Wars were started over the pulling of a man’s beard. It was a shameful thing to mess with a man’s beard. How much more so to defile yourself by drooling all the way down your beard. David resorted to other antics as well, such as marking on their gates. And yet, in all of this, God is the one who delivers David from the grasp of the Philistines. David here, has a sword; David is a mighty warrior, but he is too afraid to fight. He is desperately afraid. And yet, God delivers. God uses allies to deliver David, and God uses adversaries to deliver David. God is providential and uses primary and secondary causes to accomplish His will. And he does the same thing in your life. How can I be sure? Well, like we said last week, David is just a human. A man of the dirt. He was on the run, he had no place to rest his head. He was under pressure, alone, desperate. And he stumbled a bit under that pressure. We see that happen regularly in patriarchs of the faith. Abraham did it. Jacob did it. Moses did it. And now David does. But there was a moment when Jesus was under immense pressure too. Alone. Desperate. And God brought him to this moment. But in that moment, he didn’t lie; he didn’t deceive; he didn’t stumble. He simply said, “Not my will, but thy will be done.” In Jesus’ most desperate moment, God delivered Jesus over to death. God handed Jesus over to suffer the wages of sin that he did not commit. God handed Jesus over to death, and then delivered His chosen one from the grave and death so that God could deliver His people from hell, and give life and joy and peace in the resurrected Jesus, even as we walk down desperate roads. God will not abandon His chosen ones. God will provide for His chosen ones all that they need during their times of desperation. He put Jesus in the grave and then resurrected Him from the dead to make this point abundantly clear to us!