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New children’s message audio link.

At the end of our time last Sunday we heard that the Philistines were attacking and stealing the grain so David had asked the Lord if he should go attack the Philistines and the Lord said to go. The place the Philistines were attacking was called Keilah. But David’s men were afraid to go attack the Philistines and save Keilah. So David asked the Lord again. He was like, “So I just want to make sure I’ve got this right, I am supposed to go to save Keilah and kill the evil Philistines?” And the Lord said, “Get up and go down to Keilah and I will give you the victory over the Philistines.” So David obeyed the revelation God had given him and he and his men went to Keilah and fought the Philistines and won. He had saved the people of Keilah.

Word that David had come to Keilah came to King Saul and Saul thought, ‘What a great opportunity – God has given David into my hand because David has shut himself in by going into a city with gates and bars.’ So King Saul called for all the people to go down to Keilah to lay siege to David and his men. David knew that Saul would try to take advantage of the situation so he asked Abiathar the priest to bring the ephod, which was a thing that they used to ask the Lord what to do. So David asked the Lord saying, “Lord, the God of Israel, I your humble servant have heard that Saul is coming to Keilah to destroy this city because of me. Will the people of Keilah give me up to Saul? Will Saul even come here like I’ve heard? Please tell me, Lord, the God of Israel.” And the Lord said, “Yes, they will surrender you to Saul.” So David and his men left Keilah and went wherever they could go. When Saul heard that David had escaped he gave up that attempt and David hid in the wilderness – in the hills – and Saul tried to find him every day but God didn’t give him up.

And they went about like this for a while with some of the people living in the wilderness offering to give David up to Saul. David would hear that Saul and his men were nearby to catch him so he would move to another place. And eventually when Saul was closing in on David and his men then a messenger came to Saul to tell him that the Philistines had just raided the land and so at the last minute Saul had to stop going after David and go fight the Philistines. But after he had finished chasing off the raiding Philistines he came back to looking for David in the wilderness. He chose the best 3,000 soldiers he had and they went to find David and his men in front of a place called the Wildgoat’s Rocks and he came to the sheepfolds where there was a cave and Saul went into the cave to go to the bathroom. What Saul didn’t know was that David and his men were sitting deep in that cave and David’s men told David, ‘Now is the time to strike – while Saul is going to the bathroom.’