The Walk of Enoch

“The LORD is my Rock and my Fortress and my Deliverer, my God, my Rock, in Whom I take refuge, my Shield and the Horn of my salvation, my Stronghold. I call upon the LORD, Who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.” Psalm 18:2-3

The Lord continues to draw my attention to the subject of salvation. Specifically, not saving ourselves but trusting in Him instead. I talked about this in the previous article but I feel moved to stay on this subject for a little while longer.

Taking Refuge

There are many verses throughout scripture that refer to God as a refuge, just like the one above. Many of the saints of old clearly sought God as such, but I wonder if most of us today in our independent-living culture truly grasp and live out what they were talking about. I talked about in the previous article about how salvation comes from God and not from the strength of our own hands. And the examples I gave clearly exemplified the point: Gideon fighting Median, Joshua fighting five kingdoms at once, and Joshua’s name change and his battle against the Amalekites. However, all three of these examples have to do with men fighting in actual warfare. And the fact is that most of us are not facing actually combat situations or even life or death situations in the same manner as they were.

So I felt a need to talk about this in a way that is more relatable and practical. The Lord has been teaching me this over the last couple of months. My life lately has been full of all sorts of conflicts and issues and just bad experiences in general. God has brought my attention during this time to a few different moments in scripture. The one I would like to talk about today is the story of David and Nabal.

So I was reading the story of David and Nabal in 1 Samuel 25. A wealthy man by the name Nabal,  which means “foolish”, refused to help David’s men and spoke insultingly of David. David’s response was to call all of his men to arms and march on Nabal’s land and kill him and everyone within his household.! I know what Nabal said and did was wrong but David’s response in this situation seems very extreme. He didn’t just want to kill Nabal but every male that Nabal had in his family.

At no point does it say that David consulted God about this. Instead, he responded out of his anger and pride. He was insulted and he moved to vindicate his hurt pride. But Nabal’s wife Abigail came out to David and convinced him not to kill Nabal and blessed him with a gift for his men. After pointing out that her husband is a fool she says this: “Now then, my lord, as the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, because the LORD has restrained you from bloodguilt and from saving with your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal.” (1 Sam 25:26) Abigail shows through her words that she understood the importance of not saving oneself and credit’s God as being the one who prevented David from doing this thing. In other words, the Savior saved David from himself!

She goes on to say: “And when the LORD has done to my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you and has appointed you prince over Israel, my lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause or for my lord working salvation himself.”(1 Sam 25:30-31)

This discourse shows us that there was no need for violence and bloodshed and that David was in the wrong for trying to fix his problem with his own wisdom and strength. He hadn’t consulted God on what to do, he didn’t approach God at all! Yet, in verse 38 it says: “And about ten days later the LORD struck Nabal, and he died.” David could have gone to the Lord and received guidance on what would come of Nabal. But more importantly, he could have approached God and found peace and emotional stability so that he could handle the situation with wisdom.

Everyone these days seems to behave as David did. We are reactive. Were I work, we have a chemical that is called a ‘reactive agent’. You wouldn’t know by looking at it that the chemical is dangerous. But if you cause it to come into contact with another chemical or other substance, this ‘reactive agent’ catches fire. That is what happened with David and that is whats happening too often with us as well.

David reacted with murderous rage and maybe some of us share that struggle with him. But for many others it’s not necessarily anger. When things are going badly for us; when we’re falsely accused, betrayed by friends, fired from work, get insulted, made fun of or robbed in some way, we respond. Poorly. There are so many things, too many things, for me to list out here, that go wrong in our lives. And they go wrong all the time. Our responses can often take the form of anger, depression, entertainment to distract ourselves such as watching TV, playing video games, or social media. It can look like surrounding ourselves with as many ‘friends’ as possible, burying ourselves in work, or living in a fantasy world so we don’t have to face what is happening. Sometimes we react in a way so that we may forget what is happening, such as with drinking and drugs. We smoke weed or cigarettes or resort to sexual gratification so we don’t feel the pain that has been brought into our lives.

Regardless of the problem and regardless of our reaction, all of these are stemming from the same root issue. We read the psalm’s and quote the phrases “God is my refuge” but we don’t actually go to Him for refuge. We go to others. We go to drugs. We go to porn and sex. We go to entertainment. We seek refuge in the false salvation of worldliness. Nabal means ‘fool’ and we keep reacting to the foolishness of this fallen sinful world. Refuge is the condition of being safe from pursuit, danger, or trouble. When we turn to these things we seek refuge in lies, which is foolish. We fight the foolishness that opposes us with foolishness of our own. And then get upset when the exact same problems rise up against us once more!

We need to learn as David did that our refuge is in God. For in ten days, David’s issue with Nabal was resolved. God struck down the foolish, and it never got up again. How many of our problems would we never have to suffer from, never react to again if we would only learn to seek God as our refuge. If we could only stay our hands and resist the urge to work salvation ourselves. It is imperative that we learn to rest in the Presence of God so that we might dwell in His peace. In His Presence we can take our eyes off of the problem and put them back on God, and in doing so we find rest from our troubled thoughts and disturbed emotions. I know in our society that refusing to defend yourself or to confront things immediately looks like cowardice. But as it says in 1 Corinthians 2:14 “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”

Next time you need salvation turn to the Lord. Retreat within the Presence of God, submit your problems to Him and then trust Him to work out your salvation. Trust Him enough to relinquish your troubles so that you may be calm and unmoved, just as our Savior was as He slept on the boat in the midst of the storm. Always go to God first. Train yourself in it. So that in time, your reaction to trouble is to go rest in the Savior.

God, teach us how to rest in You in the midst of conflicts. Open our eyes to Your faithfulness, so we might see that You are trustworthy and able to save. For You are and always have been able to save but our doubt has gotten in the way. Help us so that we may let go of control over our issues and sit back in rest as we confidently watch You work out our salvation. Amen.