We had been through some tough stuff leading up to the Keilah incident. In fact, we’d been navigating formidable stuff our whole lives. We were the like people who came from Nazareth! We were the public school kids! We were a society of distressed, indebted, bitter souls. There were approx. 600 of us. And at that particular point in time, the political climate was hostile (e.g. 3,000 SF soldiers were on regular patrol looking for us). We were a ragtag bunch of refugees!

Then the distress call from Keilah came through. They were under attack. I don’t think any of us had even the slightest notion of running to rescue them from a foreign invasion! Certainly we felt bad for them, but we all got problems and we were in no position to help them! This wasn’t a Dunkirk situation; the Dunkirk folks were wealthy, and they had resources. We were under-resourced and running for our lives already, there was no way we could be of any assistance to the people of Keilah. But our leader asked The Boss if we should go help, and The Boss said “Yes.” But we said, “We’re already fragile and afraid in our current situation; how much more if we go to Keilah!?” So our leader asked The Boss again, and again The Boss said “Go to Keilah.” So we went, and we won!

We rescued Keilah! It felt great!

In the wake of our heroic victory, we wondered what the people of Keilah would do to commemorate our bravery and benevolence. We felt sure that our joy would be the joy of the people of Keilah! So you can imagine how much it anguished us to learn that the people of Keilah reported us! Honestly, many of us couldn’t believe it when we were first told. After saving the people of Keilah, they had determined to surrender us to our adversaries. So after all our efforts we were right back where we started …running for our lives, hunted by hostile forces every day, hiding in caves, and living hand to mouth.

*Check out 1 Samuel 23 and 2 Corinthians 2:1-4