7th.: King David and the Mulberry Trees
Sometimes, God does a change-up.
We see this with one battle, which King David had to fight.
After King David beat the Philistines at the battle at Baalperazim,
they regrouped to fight again (see 2nd Sam. 5:22).
King David saw this.
When he saw the Philistines coming again, he again asked the Lord what to do.
The Lord answered,
‘Thou shalt not go up, but fetch a compass behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees.
And let it be, when thou hears the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees,
that then thou shalt bestir thyself. For then shall the Lord go out before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines.’” (2nd Sam. 5:23-24).
In the last battle, God delivered the Philistines into David’s hands via a frontal assault.
But David did not presume that God would deliver them in the same way a second time.
So, David asked the Lord for this new development. It was good that David asked.
God could have delivered the Philistines into David’s hands in the same way as before.
This time, God wanted David to do something else.
This time, David had to attack the Philistines ‘from behind’.
Each new situation may have to be handled differently.
It takes time to get specific directions for each new situation.
But then we handle each situation as God wants us to handle it.
This makes putting in the time with the Lord, well worth the extra amount of time that it takes.
“Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teaches my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.” (Ps 144:1)