The Rock of Separation (Sela Hammahlekoth)

People love the word “blessing.” Tell parents that their child looks as if the child will be richly blessed, and they are delighted, and they want the child to receive many blessings, whether physical or spiritual. To be blessed, people pray for blessing to stones, trees and water, and they also pray for blessing to the moon and the sun in the sky. Some set out a pig’s head and pray for blessing, and we often see people putting a human being in the place of a god and serving that person. Even living in an age when science has advanced so far that people explore space in spaceships, they still cannot make spiritually mature judgments.

Even while enjoying plenty, people will readily say they are not blessed when, comparing themselves with others, they feel they have less. There are spiritual blessings and physical blessings, and physical things can be filled to some degree by one’s own effort. But spiritual blessings are given according to God’s will rather than human will, so they can be received only by living by the Word. The blessing people want is wealth, so when they see their wealth pile up, they think they have been blessed. But the blessings God gives cannot be seen, so it is not easy to say that one has received them. Yet as the years go by, people will come to realize that without the blessing God gives, they cannot enjoy the blessings of life either.

When believers choose the wrong road in life, God turns them around; when they meet a temptation they cannot bear, he holds back the evil; and he is at work even in things we do not know. People do not know how great a blessing this is. Satan is a spirit, so human beings can never defeat him. But Satan too is a servant God commands, so God knows in advance how Satan’s forces will move, and he shields and protects believers so that they do not fall into temptation. So though the world is harsh and dangerous, believers in Christ are safe, because God supplies what they need and leads them.

The name “Sela Hammahlekoth” in verse 28 means “the rock of separation.” When David was in danger of being caught by Saul, God created an urgent matter that forced Saul to turn back, and so separated him from David. Saul is like a hardship that David cannot hold back by his own strength. David has strength enough to kill Saul, but he cannot commit the sin of murder and disappoint God, so he keeps running until the time comes.

As believers live in the world, they cannot avoid meeting a Saul who holds a king’s power. But if a believer has faith that relies on God, God, who loves that believer, will separate the believer from the world. God will help them so that they do not suffer helplessly at Satan’s hands, will separate them from death, and will separate them from poverty and sickness. Believers cannot see Satan’s work with their eyes. That is why we must believe that God will surely protect us. Only when we live wisely, by faith seeing what is unseen as though we saw it, can we escape the hardship and death that Satan brings.

While fleeing from Saul, David learned that the Philistines were attacking the city of Keilah, northwest of Hebron. Keilah was an important town of Judah, so David took the six hundred soldiers who were with him and drove off the Philistines. Since David was being hunted by Saul at the time, he was able to live in the city in return for having saved Keilah. But the comfortable life did not last. Someone told Saul that David was now staying in Keilah. For Saul, whose one wish was to catch David, it was welcome news. The world where believers stay is like that: it is full of people like Doeg, so there is no place in it to rest at ease. Satan walks around like a roaring lion, seeking to bring believers down, so trouble can arise at any time. Only when believers live knowing that there is no place in the world to settle down will they rely on God more and receive his protection.

When David heard that Saul was coming toward Keilah, he prayed to God earnestly, asking whether Saul would really come to Keilah. If Saul came, David would have to either fight or leave. God answered that Saul would come to Keilah, and that the men of Keilah, out of fear, would deliver David up to Saul. Once God’s answer came, David left Keilah without a second thought. David could have resented the men of Keilah who betrayed him, and resented God, who knew their wickedness yet did not punish them. But David left Keilah quietly, because he knew that God’s answer, which revealed the hearts of the men of Keilah, was grace. If God had not told him that the men of Keilah would betray him, David would have met Saul. So he was thankful to God for giving him the chance to escape the wicked man.

When God answered, it was up to David to judge and decide whether to live by that answer or to act on his own ideas. When David made the right decision to leave Keilah, God would do much more to protect his life; but what must come before God’s work is the obedience of believers. Of course, from David’s point of view, the men of Keilah would have seemed shamefully ungrateful. He must have been angry that they would betray him after he had driven off the Philistines under such harsh conditions. But the first thing to consider was that Saul would surely come, just as God had answered, so leaving that place came before everything else. What we must never forget as we do good is that people are thankful when they receive help, but as time passes and the gratitude fades, they can turn to betrayal. At such times we must not be shaken by hurt and resentment, but prepare for what will happen, as God has told us. Only then can we ward off hardship and find the strength and room to help even the one who betrayed us.

If David holds back his feelings and obeys now, then when God sets him on the throne he will have the chance to call the men of Keilah to account for their sin. Like David, even if we feel wronged right now, if we only hold back a moment’s anger, the chance will surely come to rebuke them with greater authority and strength. If we hold on to resentment, we have to go through the trouble of forgiving; but if we do not resent in the first place, there will be no need to forgive and no hatred to sort out. Leaving our enemies to God and living our own lives is the wisdom that wins. David did not harm their lives; he quietly left the city. One of the things God loves and approves of in David is the way he endures and obeys by faith.

Saul, who had been hurrying toward David, stopped coming as soon as he heard that David had left Keilah, and went back to his own city. There was no need to go to Keilah without David there. Anyone may meet hardship in life, but if we rely on the Word and make right judgments and decisions, we will not run into Saul, just as David did not. God’s word will surely be fulfilled. That is why we must obey it as it is spoken.

Yet something here is strange. God’s word must surely come to pass, and God had answered that Saul would come; yet Saul did not come to Keilah. God has no lie and no evil in him, so what he says must surely happen in reality. But depending on what judgments and decisions believers make, the deep will that God truly desires comes to light. If David had simply stayed in the city when God told him the men of Keilah would betray him, Saul would really have come, just as God said.

But when David believed the Word about what had not yet happened as though he had actually seen it, the faith came to him to leave, laying aside even his anger at ungrateful Keilah, and Saul no longer had any reason to come to Keilah, where David was not. If David had obeyed the pleasant word that he would defeat the Philistines but not the word that Saul would come, he would not have kept his life. If the pleasant word about defeating the Philistines was fulfilled, we must know that the hard word that Saul would come will also be fulfilled. But people make themselves the standard, so they obey the words they like to hear and do not obey the words they dislike. That is why they suffer the hardship of meeting Saul in their lives. If God has told you that you will meet Saul if you stay in Keilah, you must obey by moving from that place. Then, when Satan looks, you are not in the place of sin, and so he gives up attacking.

Whether it was a word pleasant to his ears or a word of rebuke and wrath, David believed and obeyed whatever God said. He did not want to leave a city he had won at the risk of his life, and the people who had forgotten his kindness and betrayed him galled him; but because God had said he must leave that place, he put his obedient faith into action without a second thought. So Satan either brings misfortune or gives up his evil plans, depending on whether God’s children obey or disobey. This is exactly why God said that to obey is better than sacrifice.

In verses 16-17, Jonathan arose and went to David in the woods of the wilderness of Ziph, and comforted him and gave him strength to rely on God all the more. Jonathan had come to meet David, who had fled from Saul. He comforted David, saying that because God was protecting him, the hand of Saul would not find him; that he would be king over Israel and Jonathan would be next to him; and that Saul, Jonathan’s father, knew that also.

Jonathan came to David, who was being hunted by an earthly king, and told him not to be afraid, because he would be king of Israel. Jonathan was believing in God’s unseen work as though he could see it. This is the love and faith God wants from believers. Only the believers who see, in the sacrifice of Jesus bearing the cross in misery, the King of kings who will come again will enjoy blessings like a king’s. No one can ever act as Jonathan did without being born again. Such action is possible only when one throws away greed for the world, and only with the certainty that God is alive and at work can one see a person of faith like David. They never met again after this, but these two will receive the precious blessing of living forever in God.

In verse 19, the Ziphites told Saul that David was hiding among them in the strongholds in the woods, in the hill of Hachilah, and reported that because David dealt very subtly, he would not be easy to catch. Then Saul ordered them to watch David’s movements more closely and report back until he came to catch him. Just as the Ziphites told Saul where David was hiding, there was also someone who told David that Saul was coming. God lets his people know everything, to an astonishing degree, so that they do not meet misfortune unawares. God knows everything about people, their thoughts, their plans and even their decisions, and he protects people of faith. So as long as we keep the faith as David did, God leads us on a safe road. When David heard that Saul was coming, he fled in the direction opposite to Saul.

Then why does God not quickly set David, whom he loves so much, on the comfortable throne, when David is left like this, always on the run? It is because a person’s true heart is revealed in passing through hardship. The wise can learn in hardship what God wants and what judgments they themselves must make, and every time something happens, they can break down what is wicked and lacking in themselves. That is why hardship is truly necessary.

If David had gone straight to the throne, he would not have learned the love and wisdom with which God works in him down to the finest detail. Nor would he have known that, to protect his life, God was holding back, moment by moment, attacks of Satan that David could not know about. Had he become king smoothly, David would probably have thought he became king because he was wise, and he would have sat in the seat of pride, fearing neither God nor the people.

You too, if a comfortable life without hardship went on, would think you had no real need of God. That is why God permits the hardships of the world as the way for his people to come to faith. People without hardship do not know the depth of God’s grace, so they easily fall for Satan’s enticements and become his servants. If David too had not met God in his life, he would have attacked Saul out of the proud thought that he had been anointed king. But as he endured hardship by faith, he came to realize the attentive grace of God at work, and because he knew that life, which is like a vapor, is not forever, he could live separated from the world. As a way of protecting such a David, God used the Philistines to send back Saul, who had come to catch him. The very place where Saul hurried back after hearing that Jerusalem had been attacked by the Philistines is “Sela Hammahlekoth,” that is, “the rock of separation.”

Because God held back the hardship that could have threatened David’s life, David could later become the great king who established the united kingdom. So believers need only live each day with a faith that endures and gives thanks, until the day God raises them up and brings everything to pass. God separates believers from the world, holds back Satan’s one-sided attacks even as they pass through hardship, and helps believers who live by faith to understand God’s perfect will and to live with their hope set on heaven.

You have already received the love and grace of God that David received. Your mission is to show that love and grace through your life. Then God will make your life abundant.

God separates from the world those who serve and obey him wholly, and protects them so that they do not meet anyone like Saul. May you enjoy that love of God forever.

1 Samuel 24:8-15

8David also arose afterward, and went out of the cave, and cried after Saul, saying, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth, and showed respect. 9David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to men’s words, saying, ‘Behold, David seeks to harm you?’ 10Behold, today your eyes have seen how Yahweh had delivered you today into my hand in the cave. Some urged me to kill you; but I spared you; and I said, I will not stretch out my hand against my lord; for he is Yahweh’s anointed. 11Moreover, my father, behold, yes, see the skirt of your robe in my hand; for in that I cut off the skirt of your robe, and didn’t kill you, know and see that there is neither evil nor disobedience in my hand, and I have not sinned against you, though you hunt for my life to take it. 12May Yahweh judge between me and you, and may Yahweh avenge me of you; but my hand will not be on you. 13As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Out of the wicked comes wickedness;’ but my hand will not be on you. 14Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A flea? 15May Yahweh therefore be judge, and give sentence between me and you, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver me out of your hand.”