The Rock of Escape

Thoughts of Ukraine

I Samuel 23:26-29 (NLT)

26Saul and David were now on opposite sides of a mountain. Just as Saul and his men began to close in on David and his men, 27an urgent message reached Saul that the Philistines were raiding Israel again. 28So Saul quit chasing David and returned to fight the Philistines. Ever since that time, the place where David was camped has been called the Rock of Escape. 29David then went to live in the strongholds of En-gedi.

I guess I should first explain what is happening in these verses before going into why they are important about the Rock of Escape. Saul was the first king of Israel but after awhile he quit following the Lord and became ineffective as king. At that time the Lord told Samuel, who was a wise judge in Israel, to anoint David as the next king. David was just a young man, perhaps even a teenager when this happened. A few years later Saul became depressed and angry and decided to put all his efforts into killing David. 13So David and his men—about 600 of them now—left Keilah and began roaming the countryside. Word soon reached Saul that David had escaped, so he didn’t go to Keilah after all. 14David now stayed in the strongholds of the wilderness and in the hill country of Ziph. Saul hunted him day after day, but God didn’t let Saul find him. God was with David even though I am sure there were times when David was afraid. Many of the Psalms talk about David being pursued by his enemies and how God is David’s Rock.

This is the only place where I have found the term “Rock of Escape”. Other translations of the Bible call it Sela Hammahlekoth or the rock of parting. Yet, in these times of war I feel the Rock of Escape is more appropriate. But why is it important? The Rock of Escape to me is Christ Jesus. We can escape to Him with all our troubles. He will help us escape our enemies, our worries, and He is our escape to comfort us and make us feel loved.

Most of us reading this live in the USA where we are at peace. We have safe homes with food and water. We take for granted having lights on when it is dark and electricity to charge our devices. Most of us can get into our cars and drive to any where we want, even if it is to work. We complain about gas prices and the costs of goods and services going up. Yet the people of Ukraine do not have any of these things. Today at church one of the men of the church is friends with a guy in a church in the Ukraine and he said earlier in the week the city he was living in had neither running water or electricity. Today we learned electricity was restored but the still had no water. They were melting snow for water to drink and cook.

Tonight, my church had a special prayer meeting for the people of Ukraine. I could not help but to think of how God caused the Philistine army to attack just at the time Saul was about to capture David to distract Saul. David escaped being killed by Saul. As we prayed for a miracle for Ukraine I wonder if God has something to distract the Russian army away from Ukraine and no more harm will come to them. It is my prayer the Lord will end this soon. It is also my prayer I will no longer take my American blessing for granted.

Jesus, the Rock of Escape is there for us as well as I am sure He is there in Ukraine. He is our rock of escape for our worries. In one way you can think of the Rock of Escape, Jesus, as a vacation. How many ads to exotic places say escape to our island…? Well, Jesus our Rock of Escape can be that momentary vacation in our lives if we give our worries to Him and gain His peace in our lives. It does not have to be momentary either it could be day by day. He loves us and is there for us. He is our Rock of Escape!