Taking Someone's Position (4)

To take someone's position, you need to be specifically called by God, willing to do the lowly tasks and able to serve without resources or rewards. And if you think all that is tough, the next one is often the final stumbling block, one obstacle that many cannot clear.

Betrayal

1) Betrayal by leaders

You can say that David's journey to the throne was marked by betrayal. He was first betrayed by first by Saul, the one he looked up to, whom he saw as his mentor, as a father figure.

It began with the Saul looking at David with suspicion:

1 Samuel 18:9 (NKJV) - Saul looked at David with suspicion from that day on.

... and then he eventually became David's enemy.

1 Samuel 18:29 (NKJV) - ... then Saul was even more afraid of David. Thus Saul was David’s enemy continually.

Saul first tried to have David killed by the hand of the Philistines (1 Samuel 18:25), then tried to kill him directly (1 Samuel 19:11). And throughout it all, David kept his heart towards Saul pure.

1 Samuel 24:10-11 (NKJV) - Behold, this day your eyes have seen that the LORD had given you today into my hand in the cave, and some said to kill you, but my eye had pity on you; and I said, ‘I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the LORD’S anointed.’ Now, my father, see! Indeed, see the edge of your robe in my hand! 

2) Betrayal by those he helped

The next major betrayal David faced was from the people of Keilah. As stated in the last blog post, David had enough problems of his own with Saul seeking to kill him. And yet at the same time, God instructed him to save the people of Keilah from Philistines

1 Samuel 23:1-5 (NIV) - When David was told, “Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are looting the threshing floors,” he inquired of the LORD, saying, “Shall I go and attack these Philistines?”

The LORD answered him, “Go, attack the Philistines and save Keilah.”

But David’s men said to him, “Here in Judah we are afraid. How much more, then, if we go to Keilah against the Philistine forces!”

Once again David inquired of the LORD, and the LORD answered him, “Go down to Keilah, for I am going to give the Philistines into your hand.” So David and his men went to Keilah, fought the Philistines and carried off their livestock. He inflicted heavy losses on the Philistines and saved the people of Keilah.

 

After David saved them, it is entirely reasonable to expect some degree of gratitude in return. The Philistines were looting their threshing floors, in other words, destroying their food supplies. David saved them from dying agonizingly from starvation. And yet at the first hint of trouble from Saul, God warned David that the people of Keilah would betray him. So David fled again.

Simply put, helping others is no guarantee they will not betray you immediately after...

3) Betrayal by your own team

1 Samuel 30:3-6 (NASB) - When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him lifted their voices and wept until there was no strength in them to weep. Now David’s two wives had been taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite. Moreover David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

The backstory - David and his men were allotted the city of Ziklag as their refuge. They left their wives and families there, and finally had some peace of mind to carry out their own military campaigns. Imagine how devastated they were when they came back to discover that their home was destroyed, their possessions seized and their families were captured.

And in the midst of that, David's men spoke of stoning him. If you were raised in a society that eschews violence, you need to realize that violent people do not threaten violence unless they truly mean it. For David's men to speak of stoning him meant that David himself was in genuine danger. Never mind the battling the Amalakites, could he even save himself from his own embittered soldiers in the first place?

There are two main takeaways from the betrayals on his way to the throne

A) Betrayal is one of the job hazards of leadership.

If you are a leader like Saul; suspicious, treacherous, selfish and manipulative, you are just setting yourself up to be betrayed. Then when you meet someone like David, who bends over backward to not betray you, you know that is a miracle from God, one you entirely do NOT deserve.

Isaiah 33:1 (ESV) - Ah, you destroyer, who yourself have not been destroyed, you traitor, whom none has betrayed! When you have ceased to destroy, you will be destroyed; and when you have finished betraying, they will betray you.

But even if you have tried your best to live your life right, it is very likely you will be betrayed. Ask anyone who has already been in leadership. Maybe you're the guy patiently helping the woman of your dreams wean off her dysfunctional boyfriend, and all of a sudden she gangs up with that boyfriend against you. Or maybe you're the employee tirelessly going the extra mile for your boss, only to discover that the colleague you trusted has badmouthed you to the boss and the boss actually believes him. David was betrayed by his mentor; you could have been betrayed by your apprentice, someone you taught your trade secrets to who then left to set up a rival business and poach your customers.

You can say that if you are not ready to face betrayal on your way to the throne, you aren't ready to face betrayal when you are sitting there!

B) You need to know when to win people over.

Betrayal is not the trickiest part; the trickiest part is knowing when to stand your ground in spite of the betrayal and win people over. 

Notice David's reaction to the third betrayal. He did not flee as he did with Saul and the Keilahites. The Scripture implied that David, after hearing from the Lord, set out to win his men over to himself and rallied them to the task of rescuing their families. Anyone who has ever been betrayed before know that it is much easier to either flee or to stay and fight. To stay and win people over is a much higher, a much more difficult route. It makes you vulnerable to people who have already chosen to betray you before. One of the most difficult and dangerous things to do.

I personally suspect that was the reason why this incident was the turning point in David's journey. We are already used to David enjoying military victory wherever he went, because he obeyed God's leading in this area. But this encounter yielded different results. This battle allowed them to capture sheep and cattle (1 Samuel 30:20) and this time, he actually distributed the spoils of the battle among the various cities and regions of Israel he and his men would roam in. Was this turning point because David stayed behind to win over his men? Or because he was fulfilling the God-given assignment that Saul failed at, war on the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:2-3)?

Whatever the reason, David's experiences in dealing with betrayal before he became king helped him deal with betrayal after he ascended the throne. As soul-crushing as the rebellion of Absalom was (2 Samuel 15), David was still able to win back his nation. And even though it was soon followed by Sheba's rebellion, David did not give up in despair looking at how fractured the nation had become but continued to take the necessary steps to regain the throne to discharge his responsibilities as king. If he could not win back to himself his original team back in the ruins of Ziklag, of course he was certainly not ready to win back his nation after the rebellions of Absalom and Sheba, true?

Faithful in little...

Conclusion

I started this series of blog posts with only a vague outline of the topics and very little sense of the details. I meant it as a mere intellectual investigation into David's journey to replacing Saul as king, interesting but with little application to most of our lives, because most of us would not be ordained by God to take such an unique path. And now at this, my last post in this series, I realize the best summation is expressed by my old friend, Kenneth Koh. He said we talk glibly of being king and priest (Revelations 1:6), yet have little idea of what it means to be prepared by God to take a throne. "So you wanna be king, huh?" How many of us are willing to stay the course if we already knew in advance what price was required of us?

More importantly, if you see in my series of blog posts enough parallels to your current life and struggles, stay the course. Keep praying, keep feeding your soul with the Scriptures and stay faithful to the tasks at hand. Our God is gracious and compassionate toward us. May his grace and comfort be your strength when facing a difficult season of your journey!

Taking Someone's Position (3)

 To fully grasp the weight of David's struggle for the next part of his journey to the throne, I need to lay down a lot of background, so that you know I am not just talking off the top of my head. We have to go all the way back to the moment Israel decided to adopt a monarchy as their system of leadership.

1 Samuel 8:4-5 (NIV) - So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

From a corporate point of view, we have an organization deciding it is time to employ a CEO. They had a largely casual, family-based tribal network before, but now they want to implement a formal and fixed hierarchy. So they went to the recruiting agent, Samuel the prophet, and told him the temp staff he recommended before (his own sons) were just not up to par; so the people wanted a CEO and all the trappings that came with it. Of course, Samuel felt it was his duty to explain to the people what all that entails.

1 Samuel 8:11-17 (NIV) - “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves."

The two core parts of an employment contract: the job description and the pay and remuneration. Samuel here lists out factors such as labour to manage his lands, the right to allocate human resources toward his personal assets and to enjoy the best of the land. Some of them were common sense; for the king to be able to run a country properly, he needed to have authority and access to the necessary resources. Others were industry standard for remuneration and reward for performing that role. Did Israel want to accept the deal on those terms?

1 Samuel 8:19-20 (NIV) - "We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”

With that, the country entered into a spiritual agreement, a promise of sorts, that they would render to a king those rights and privileges in return for the king fighting for them and leading them into battle. Of course, we all know that a king's role was more complex than that. A king had to solve the nation's problems, arrange for the administration of justice and make decisions on foreign policy (whom to ally with, trade with or to declare war on). A king who only knew battle was no more than a glorified robber baron. That said, the most crucial role a king had to play was that of fighting the nation's battles. That aspect was the role that a king could not compromise on.

As for David...

It looked good for David in the beginning. He went from proving himself in his private battles (against the lion and the bear, 1 Samuel 17:34-35) to a public victory over Goliath (1 Samuel 17:50) to a crucial next step, leadership over a group of soldiers.

1 Samuel 18:13, 16 (NIV) - So he sent David away from him and gave him command over a thousand men, and David led the troops in their campaigns...  But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he led them in their campaigns.

This meant that David had to grow in his leadership and management skills. Not only did he need to have his own fighting ability, he had to ensure that the men under his charge were fighting fit also. He had to watch for their welfare and morale, as well as practice delegation, communication and coordination. We would certainly agree that these were essential skills for anyone in a position of leadership to possess. It looked like David's apprenticeship for the throne was going along nicely.

Then came the massive spanner in the works.

Saul began in jealousy of the popular acclaim David received, then progressed to believing David a threat to his throne, until Saul ended up in full enmity with David (1 Samuel 18:29). All that eventually erupted into an all-out attempt to eliminate David as a potential threat to his throne. Over the following chapters, David escaped and sought to take care of family from Saul's reprisals. Unexpectedly, he found himself sought out by a different and unexpected group of people.

1 Samuel 22:1-2 (NIV) - David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there. All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander. About four hundred men were with him.

Bear in mind, Saul was always on a military recruiting footing. He was constantly on the search for mighty or brave men to enlist into his army (1 Samuel 14:52). Those were the type of men David led in his first military command. Those were NOT the type of men David found himself leading now. The men he led now were the rejects, those that Saul would not accept into Israel's national army, or who for some reason or other had left or had been expelled. 

So now David found his leadership responsibilities much more challenging. He had:

1) Less men (from one thousand to about four hundred);

2) Poorer quality (rejects from Saul's army, who either had less talent or more character flaws, or both)

AND

3) NO access to resources to take care of his men.

And this is the HUGE difference.

How on earth do you feed four hundred men out of nowhere? You cannot settle them down to start farming; that would only make it easier for Saul and the army to track them down and finish them off. You cannot raise herds, flocks and cattle, because these men had to remain mobile and ready to flee at a moment's notice should they hear that Saul was on his way. Their only hope was to find a sympathetic community that was large enough to support them and yet be willing to hide the news of their presence.

What did God do next? Did God bring David to a safe hideout with easy access to food supplies and other resources? Or did God just expect David to continue leading his people in battle anyway, for the sake of his people Israel?

1 Samuel 23:1-5 (NIV) - When David was told, “Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are looting the threshing floors,” he inquired of the LORD, saying, “Shall I go and attack these Philistines?”

The LORD answered him, “Go, attack the Philistines and save Keilah.”

But David’s men said to him, “Here in Judah we are afraid. How much more, then, if we go to Keilah against the Philistine forces!”

Once again David inquired of the LORD, and the LORD answered him, “Go down to Keilah, for I am going to give the Philistines into your hand.” So David and his men went to Keilah, fought the Philistines and carried off their livestock. He inflicted heavy losses on the Philistines and saved the people of Keilah.

So even without resources, David still continued to serve in the most crucial responsibility of a king: protecting the nation against her enemies. He may have hoped that saving Keilah would have engendered some gratitude that could have led to them hiding his men for some time and feeding them, but that was not to be the case.

1 Samuel 23:10-13 (NIV) - David said, “LORD, God of Israel, your servant has heard definitely that Saul plans to come to Keilah and destroy the town on account of me. Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me to him? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? LORD, God of Israel, tell your servant.”

And the LORD said, “He will.”

Again David asked, “Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me and my men to Saul?” And the LORD said, “They will.” So David and his men, about six hundred in number, left Keilah and kept moving from place to place.

You cannot blame the people of Keilah. Saul had already shown himself willing to kill the priests of the Lord because he thought they were in cahoots with David. Of course he would show the people of Keilah not even a smidgen of mercy. Thus David and his men had to leave Keilah even before Saul arrived. You don't have to be a genius to figure out David and his men were sorely disappointed; firstly, at the lack of gratitude, and secondly at not having a place from where they could find the supplies they needed.

This was the difficulty David was in - he was doing the job he was called to do, fulfilling the responsibilities of the role he was anointed for, but WITHOUT the rewards or resources that would go with it. It is easy to fulfill the tasks and responsibilities of kingship when you have access to the resources and the manpower. The real test of a person's calling is whether he or she remains faithful to the task, devoted to the people, even without immediately receiving the rewards and resources that accompany the role.

David's only gain from saving Keilah? Getting another two hundred followers. That meant at least two hundred mouths to feed. Not as if he was doing very well in feeding the four hundred he already had in the first place, right?

1 Samuel 23:13 (NIV) - So David and his men, about six hundred in number, left Keilah and kept moving from place to place.

When you are in David's position, leading a troop of armed men and with no access to food and other necessary supplies, you only have a few options.

1) Become a raider/robber of God's people - essentially, turn his army into a group of bandits.

2) Run an extortion/protection racket - a step up from being bandits, true, but still wrong. You cannot justify threatening God's people with death and destruction just to get food for yourself.

3) Find some rich community or landowner, protect his possessions and his land for free, and hope that later he would, out of goodwill, voluntarily share some of his bounty with you and your followers. 

1 Samuel 25:4-8 (NIV) -  While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep. So he sent ten young men and said to them, “Go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in my name. Say to him: ‘Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours!

“‘Now I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was missing. Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favorable toward my men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them.’”

Was it entirely by chance that David happened to be in the vicinity of Nabal and his holdings? Or maybe David decided that looking for a town to take shelter in was too risky; because the larger population and the volume of human traffic meant that Saul would get word of his location easily. Nabal fit David's desired demographic perfectly: he was wealthy enough to support David's army, for at least a while, and there were fewer people in Nabal's vicinity to bring word to King Saul.

It is obvious that David would be quite pressurized by now. He was running low on options and time. I wonder at times what David told his men to discourage them from turning to banditry and preying on the rest of the Israelites. In any case, David was to be disappointed again.

1 Samuel 25:10-11 (NIV) -  Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days.  Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?”

And that was why David was so provoked by Nabal that he wanted to slaughter an entire household (1 Samuel 25:22) over the insult. Firstly the insult was totally uncalled for. David was not threatening to Nabal and his household in anyway. Secondly David's men were an assuring protection to Nabal's holdings. Consider:

1 Samuel 25:15-16 (NIV) - Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing. Night and day they were a wall around us the whole time we were herding our sheep near them.

I'm skipping past how Abigail resolved the situation with words of honour (in place of insult) and with provision (in place of ingratitude). My point is, until David took refuge with Achish, King of Gath (which I am very uncomfortable with), he was struggling to feed his men. He was still trying to live as a king ought to, and without the necessary resources and attendant rewards.

The point is...

I firmly believe this is a core part of the process, a key aspect of David's journey to his destiny. He had to fulfill his responsibilities as a king without the necessary resources, and while resisting the temptation to extort the resources from the people of God. And, should you be called in some way to walk the same path as David, that would be your journey also.

You could be a worship leader, called to full-time ministry, but because the doors are not yet open you are forced to work a day-job while volunteering your gifts and abilities in church. You could be a bible teacher by calling, and you spend hours and hours preparing your lesson plans and teaching materials at your own expense. And in spite of getting little or no recognition you keep seeing opportunities to serve AND God's hand of blessing upon your work. You see people blessed through you and yet you yourself are not reaping the rewards of your labour.

Don't misunderstand me

It is God's plan and purpose that work be rewarded and recompensed.

1 Corinthians 9:7-10 (NKJV) - Who ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock? Do I say these things as a mere man? Or does not the law say the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it oxen God is concerned about? Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope.

Should you ever be in a position where your work is not rewarded, your first response should be to examine yourself to see what you are doing wrong. Are you in the wrong industry or company? Or have you yet to learn how to draw boundaries and enforce them? For most people, looking into these aspects is enough to show them the cause and solution of the problem.

But should you find all this happening when you are growing into your calling, and you find yourself struggling to take care of yourself even while you are effectively blessing others, then take it to the Lord. Are you in the same position as David, trying to fulfill the responsibilities without the resources and the rewards?

If so, you need to stay the course. You need to seek God for wisdom day by day, week by week and even hour by hour. You need to guard your heart; bitterness will be your worst enemy masquerading as a warm friend. And of course NEVER walk this path without godly counsel; people whom you can trust to pull you back on track should you ever begin to veer off into error, self-righteousness or resentment.

I am NOT saying working without reward will automatically cause God to open doors to the position you want and bring you there. A situation like this is VERY rare. It is much more likely that someone would be deceived into thinking working without reward is the way to get you the position you desire. And that is setting yourself up for disappointment and resentment when God does not give you what you have demanded for and presumed you have earned.

But if you are one of the rare few, a man or woman after God's heart, whom God has been patiently cultivating and raising for the opportunity, then maybe this prophecy in Isaiah also applies to you in your journey?

Isaiah 49:4 (NASB) - But I said, “I have toiled in vain,
I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity;
Yet surely the justice due to Me is with the Lord,
And My reward with My God.”

 Conclusion - And if you think all this is heavy, wait till you check out the last obstacle to clear on the way to the throne. That is even harder to clear than what I talked about here. Will get on with it as soon as I can. In the meantime, chew on this one and let me know what you think?