The Meaning Of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/1_samuel/29.htm

We bring to an end the first half of the Book of Samuel, 1st Samuel to be exact, and the last three chapters while short, end the story of Saul; this particular Saul anyway.

So the Philistines all gather to battle Israel, and when they saw David, they were angry. And since David had been raiding the cities of Philistia all along, the princes were probably wise in their decision, and Achish was too trusting. So David did not go to battle with the Philistines, but returned to the town of Zikag, the place that Achish gave David and his army to live. And once they arrived, they found that the town had been invaded by the Amalekites while they were gone.

Imagine if the children of Israel had done what they were told in the beginning, to run all of the Canaanite tribes out of the land…the scenario would have been different. But instead, they are still battling the Amalekites, and the Philistines, and the Moabites, and all of the other Canaanite tribes they had let stay.

David, being faithful, did the right thing and asked God for guidance on whether or not to pursue the Amalekites, and God affirmed it. The only concern I have, and it’s not a grave concern, but I have a concern when I read that David had called for the ephod before he prayed. Perhaps that made David feel closer to God, and I’ll trust he wasn’t using the ephod as some type of idol in praying; God doesn’t need you to have an ephod in hand when praying to him, or a cross, or a rosary, or anything else. I am guilty, as when I was a fireman, we often referred to St. Florian, the patron saint of firefighters. But I never prayed to the spirit of St. Florian or had an idol of him or anything like that. It was more of a symbol than it was an idol, but looking back now, I probably should’ve avoided anything to do with that. The police of St. Michael and the firemen have St. Florian.

Ephod or not, David was right in praying to God rather than taking the actions he felt were right like Saul did.

In the last chapter of the book, we learn that the Philistines were victorious in battle against Israel, that many children of Israel were killed and the rest fled. Saul asked his armor bearer to kill him before the Philistines did, but the armor bearer was too afraid to kill the king, so Saul fell on his own sword and died.

Once the armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he committed suicide by falling on his own sword. And that was the end of Saul. He started off in the highest capacity, chosen by God, but he drifted away from God and became a jealous paranoid.

Life is always better with God.