David was fearless in the presence of his enemies, even as they sought to destroy his life. Entire armies encamped around David in order to kill him, yet he remained confident in God’s ability to preserve his life. David’s confidence did not lie solely in God’s ability to preserve his flesh. Rather, his confidence lied in God’s promise to preserve his life. Though David had confidence in God’s ability to preserve his body through life’s circumstances, David was confident in something much deeper. He was confident in that even if his enemies did destroy his body nothing of man can separate him of his union with God, which was through faith. Nothing of man could do this, yea nothing of the created order has this power.
Romans 8.35, 37-39 – Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
David’s confidence stretched beyond God’s mere ability to control the circumstances of his natural life. His confidence entered into another realm which few men touch, and from that place he received power. Should God have chosen to hand David over to his enemies he would have continued to remain steadfast in his confidence. Why? Because David had an outlook on life that embraced all from an eternal perspective. He had an eternally minded paradigm. It was one that acknowledged all flesh being as grass, quickly deteriorating away as nothing. David understood the eternity of God, and David understood his eternal position before Him, as 1) a man forgiven by grace, and not justified by the works of the Law. And 2) a friend of God. Ultimately, David’s confidence rested upon the union he experienced with God, not only in God’s ability to preserve his natural life in everyday, or even extreme, circumstances.
Men are entrusted with power that can destroy our bodies but their authority ends there. In the end it is God and God alone who has control over the eternal destination and condition of our souls and spirits. When the revelation of this is imparted to our spirits we are emboldened in love. When this revelation is comprehended in our minds we tremble before God’s power and authority.
Only when we have this perspective of our lives can we experience the courage and bravery that David experienced. Without it we can only muster up a facade at best, however, when our confidence is rooted and grounded in God can we experience true boldness and courage in the face of death and martyrdom.
The anticipation of martyrdom is not some far-fetched, romantic contemplation, but a realistic apprehension of what will likely be the consequence of this kind of consecration in the last days. – Art Katz
Filed under: Other, Themes in Scripture
