What good can God possibly bring out of this mess? A tornado with 200 mph winds smashed into Rolling Fork back on March 24, killing 13 people, and destroying some 300 homes and businesses. How can things like that possibly be part of God’s plan?

David had to be wondering the same thing. After all, the prophet Samuel had anointed him with oil, predicting that he would be king (I Samuel 16:13). And King Saul’s own son Jonathan believed in the prophecy (I Samuel 20:15), giving David his own armor and weapons in a sign of friendship and loyalty (I Samuel 18:4).

But Saul also feared this prophecy was true, and so he set out to kill David. David had to leave home and was constantly on the run. But even when he and his men tried to do the right thing and save one of the Israelite towns from Philistine attacks (I Samuel 23:5), the people of that town intended to betray him to King Saul (I Samuel 23:12). He had nowhere to hide, and Saul was gaining on him. At one point, only one mountain separated the two of them (I Samuel 23:26).

But that’s when Saul got word of yet another disaster, another Philistine raid on the people of Israel. And so Saul had to stop chasing after David and get busy doing his real job of protecting the people (I Samuel 23:27-28). God thus used the Philistines’ wicked actions to put a stop to Saul’s wicked plans to kill David.

And what did we celebrate just last week? Like David, Jesus wasn’t trying to seize worldly power for himself. And yet the religious and political authorities of the day put Him to death anyway, afraid of the obvious power He possessed. But God used that greatest of all injustices to conquer sin once for all. Because Jesus paid the penalty all our sins deserve, all who trust in Him can be free from fear, free from death itself.

And God is still in the business of bringing great good out of great evil – even fires and floods, even storms and plagues can serve to draw us closer to Him in faith and can spur us to demonstrate His love to those in need. May He receive all the glory, no matter what may come our way today.

I Samuel 23:24-29 (NASB)

24 Then they arose and went to Ziph before Saul. Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshimon.
25 When Saul and his men went to seek him, they told David, and he came down to the rock and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard it, he pursued David in the wilderness of Maon.
26 And Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain; and David was hurrying to get away from Saul, for Saul and his men were surrounding David and his men to seize them.
27 But a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid on the land.”
28 So Saul returned from pursuing David, and went to meet the Philistines; therefore they called that place the Rock of Escape.
29 And David went up from there and stayed in the strongholds of Engedi.