Seasons of Isolation

1 Samuel 23:14 – 24: 22, Psalms 63, and 11 

Introduction. We could easily title this season in David’s life, “wilderness wanderings.” Of course, what makes this lesson interesting is that there are “wilderness” seasons in every person’s life. There are God ordained seasons of isolation in your life. God uses these times of loneliness to accomplish growth in you that cannot be accomplished any other way.

Some people understand the ways of God and seek to co-operate with him when he leads them into a period of spiritual isolation. Others wander in confusion for years, without understanding. They are confused, hurt, and eventually end up bitter toward God and cynical toward people.

God used Saul’s jealousy of David to lead David into his wilderness season. 1 Samuel, chapters 23 and 24, mentions the word “wilderness,” or similar words, twelve times. The Holy Spirit highlights this season in David’s life to call our attention to God’s purposes in wilderness seasons. David is not in this place of isolation by accident. God led him into the wilderness in the same way the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness (see Matthew 4:1, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil…”).

David reflected on his time in the wilderness with these words in Psalm 63:

O God, You are my God;
Early will I seek You;
My soul thirsts for You;
My flesh longs for You
In a dry and thirsty land
Where there is no water…

I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches.
Because You have been my help,
Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.

My soul follows close behind You;
Your right hand upholds me.

But those who seek my life, to destroy it,
Shall go into the lower parts of the earth.

They shall fall by the sword;

David turned to God in the wilderness season. He sought the Lord, “early” in the morning and when he lay in his bed, and in the “night watches.” He turned his longings toward God. He understood that it was the Lord himself that he thirsted for, like longing for a drink in a dry and thirsty land. David tuned his inner self, his soul, to the Lord.

Where do you turn when you feel alone, abandoned, cut off and isolated from everyone and everything that gives your life meaning?

Excerpts From This Portion of Scripture. 1 Samuel 23:14-15, 19-20, 24-28, 24:1-5, 24:6-10,

“David continued to live in desert hideouts and the backcountry wilderness hills of Ziph. Saul was out looking for him day after day, but God never turned David over to him. David kept out of the way in the wilderness of Ziph, secluded at Horesh, since it was plain that Saul was determined to hunt him down.

He said to his men, “GOD forbid that I should have done this to my master, GOD’S anointed, that I should so much as raise a finger against him. He’s GOD’S anointed!” David held his men in check with these words and wouldn’t let them pounce on Saul. Saul got up, left the cave, and went on down the road. Then David stood at the mouth of the cave and called to Saul, “My master! My king!” Saul looked back. David fell to his knees and bowed in reverence. He called out, “Why do you listen to those who say ‘David is out to get you’? This very day with your very own eyes you have seen that just now in the cave GOD put you in my hands. My men wanted me to kill you, but I wouldn’t do it. I told them that I won’t lift a finger against my master—he’s GOD’S anointed.”

Lessons From This Chapter in David’s Story 

It’s better to stay in the wilderness in God’s Will, than escape and be out of God’s will. ! Samuel 23:14 and following says David “remained” in the wilderness, and that he “stayed” in the woods, and that he “continued to live” in the desert hideouts. The greatest temptation we face at such a time of life, is to remove ourselves from a wilderness of God’s making. It’s easy to do: all we have to do is take initiative for ourselves, apply for a new job, make a plan, move on with our life, and so on. We are inventive creatures. We can make a way for ourselves, and then call it God’s will.

But removing ourselves from a season of isolation is not the same as being led by the Lord. It means that we will miss the preparation that God has for us. It means we are not properly trained, not equipped for what lies ahead.

God ordains the wilderness to hone our dependency on him.  Resist the temptation to fill a quiet season with noise and clutter. God leads us into dessert places to quieten the noise of people’s voices and other sources of spiritual static. He wants to speak. He wants to draw us aside to teach us to be alone, to listen, to hear him in “the still small voice.”

Don’t be angry with people when they leave you alone during such a season. Their quietness is a gift from God. Learn to hear God speak. Be silent with God, and with yourself.

God uses isolation to prepare us for change. He weans us off old ways of doing things and deeply ingrained patterns of dependency. He gets us ready for the new thing he wants to do in us by taking us to the true source of our security and identity. Facing our frustrations, coming to an end of our self, looking at failure and dealing with disappointment is all part of the agenda. Out of the isolation comes a new beginning that is fueled by a fresh beginning with God.

God uses isolation to challenge our inner scripts and expose the lies we believe about ourselves and about him. If we don’t trust his character, and we don’t know the source of our true self, we will live a lie. Only the truth can us free. If we don’t discover our identity and security in him, we will strive and perform and control and manipulate. We will hide behind masks. We will cover up our past and our present. We will frantically thrash about, looking for some way to find our self but without an inner compass. We will play the old games we play to protect ourselves or find ourselves - unless we come to a new place of rest at the center of our own soul. What better way for that to happen than for God to get us alone and speak truth to us?

God uses seasons of isolation to test us, and in the testing, to teach us his ways. David faced the greatest test of his life when he could have killed Saul in the cave. His men told him God delivered Saul into his hands. But he chose to not remove Saul from his life. He put the choice of his future destiny in God’s hands. He waited in silence. It seemed like he was withdrawing into a wilderness of his own making, but in truth, he was waiting for God.

What about the “Saul” in your life? Have you decided to remove him yourself?

Personal Illustration. I once spent eight years in a spiritual wilderness. It was a long season of “between.” I left a place of great fruitfulness, and waited in a wilderness for God’s direction. He told me not to rely on the old ways of doing things. He directed me away from my strengths and led me in a path of preparation that was painful.

We lived in a place of great physical beauty, but it was a relational and emotional dessert. People accused me of withdrawing, but I knew it was God’s time for spiritual and emotional preparation. I, who was most dependent of all on people. I, who loved affirmation and understanding and approval. I was alone.

It was a time of testing, that I knew for sure, but at the outset I had no idea what the test was. I just knew it was God at work on me. God was leading me. I knew that the isolation was from God. I had no doubt that I was being tested by God, in order to be taught by God. Many weaknesses in my character were exposed and old ways of doing things were revealed as simply that, a way of doing things.

Anticipation grew month by month during those eight years that God was preparing me. I was past the natural age for training for ministry, but no one told God the rules. It was hard in many ways. I was accused of abandoning people, of withdrawing, and of being super-spiritual. There were times when all of the above were true. But that didn’t change the reality of God’s fatherly intervention in my life.

God gave me language during those years that gave perspective to my journey. I relished the stories of men who were alone with God for many years. I drew strength from their examples. I studied their lives. And I waited. I waited for a sign from God that the season of aloneness was over. It came as sure as the morning follows the night. But even then I missteped. I blundered and flustered and raged and ranted.

But God…

Prayer of Response:

Thank you, Father. Thank you for leading me into the wilderness. Thank you for answering my heart’s cry to make me more like Jesus. Thank you for answering my prayer, for upholding the covenant. Thank you for saving me from myself. Thank you for dealing with my desperate need for approval, for understanding, and for recognition.

Thank you for cutting me off from people and from the adrenaline rush of ministry and leading me to the quiet place.

Thank you for a journey that is unpredictable. Thank you that every season is different from the last one. Thank you for new insights and fresh revelation of your character and your ways. You are awesome, God.

Thank you for this season of hope and creativity and new beginning. Thank you for friends and beauty and fresh life.

Thank you for your people, the community of faith, new and exciting at the end of the journey just as it was at the beginning.

You truly are just in all your ways and kind in all your doings. Amen.