A Sound in the Mulberry Trees

“And the Philistines came up yet again, and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.

And when David enquired of the LORD, he said, 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 hearest 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. “      - 2^nd Samuel 5:22-24

David was a pretty smart guy.  Smart enough to know that he didn’t control his own destiny.  Smart enough to know that Life is in the hands of God, and those who ignore that, do so at their own peril.

David had just been anointed king over all Israel.  He had finally come to his Bethel experience, the place of his ultimate calling in God, and Satan had gone on full alert.  The ears of his minions had picked up at the news of David’s ascension, and they knew that if they allowed David to become established on the Throne, it would be devastating for them.  They went to war.

The Philistines rushed into battle, probably assuming that they could roll over David’s forces.  After all, the kingdom had been divided.  Many of the troops of Israel had been loyal to Saul’s son, Ishbosheth, and had been chasing David for years, but now all of a sudden, their former employer was dead, and their former enemy was now their boss.  David was just now getting settled in Jerusalem, so now was time to strike while he was weak, and thrust a stake through Israel’s heart.

But they met the Lion of the Tribe of Judah on the battlefield, and it did not go well for them.  David was no pushover.  He was a warrior of God who zealously pursued the destruction of the enemies of darkness whenever he met them.

Okay, so that was last year.  Maybe this year, it would be different. 

The Philistines would set up the battle just as before to make David think it would be the same battle that he had won so easily the last time, and hope that he would be overconfident and stumble into their trap.

But David feared God. 

When a man fears God – really fears Him, not the churchy type of “awesome respect”, but the bone-chilling, soul-washing, fear and trembling that the Bible speaks about – then he discards all pretenses to his own ways, his own intelligence, and his own desires.  He relies completely upon God for his direction, and fears to step outside of His will.

Had David stumbled into the Philistine’s trap, he not only might have lost the battle, but could have destroyed God’s Plan of Redemption for the entire world.  But David knew that God wasn’t just in charge; God was in command.  Any victories would have to come through Him and Him alone.

Often, however, in our zeal to pursue what we consider to be our calling to promote the Gospel, we can get ahead of the Lord.  We already know what we want to do, and proceed at full steam, waving the flag of unfettered zeal but end up stumbling through the quicksand of our own presumption.  We confuse what we want to accomplish in God with what God wants to accomplish in us. 

We call it pursuing our “vision”. 

You’ve heard of that, haven’t you? Yup, gotta have a vision!  And so we rush out to manufacture a vision that fits the picture that we have in our mind of our calling in God, instead of waiting to find out what God’s vision for us is.  Rarely are they the same.   As it says in Proverbs 20:24, “Man's goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?” 

When we replace the fear of God with religious zeal, we are destined to fall into the trap that the enemy has set for us. 

 

Wait for that sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees.

 

Dale Garris, dale@revivalfire.org