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David stayed in the wilderness strongholds and in the hills of the Desert of Ziph. Day after day Saul searched for him, but God did not give David into his hands.\xa0 While David was at Horesh in the Desert of Ziph, he [was afraid because] Saul had come out to take his life.\xa0And Saul\u2019s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God.\xa0 \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid,\u201d he said. \u201cMy father Saul will not lay a hand on you. You will be king over Israel, and I will be second to you. Even my father Saul knows this.\u201d\xa0 The two of them made a covenant before the LORD.\xa0 Then Jonathan went home, but David remained at Horesh. (1 Samuel 23:14-18)

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This is the story that introduces the cat and mouse game of David evading Saul in the wilderness.\xa0 It happens at \u201cHoresh,\u201d which is a word that can take two different meanings.\xa0 It can refer to a sort of silence, or to the work of human hands.\xa0 The same word shows up earlier in the chapter in Saul\u2019s \u201cplotting\u201d against David.\xa0 Here in this wilderness place of Horesh where he is faced with God\u2019s silence and his own fear at the threat of Saul, will David trust his fear and so rely on the work of his own hands to solve it, as Saul has?\xa0 Or will he trust in this God he cannot see nor hear?

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It is here in this wilderness that David must begin to learn a more mature fear of the Lord.\xa0 This is not the battle of David and Goliath where the battle lines are clear, the army and King stand behind him and the Lord before him.\xa0 No, now David is a fugitive from the State, driven from his home, searching in deserts and foreign countries for refuge, clinging to the promise of God while facing down God\u2019s silence.\xa0 Will David continue to fear the Lord\u2014trust this God who he cannot see nor hear in this wilderness of fear?\xa0

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It is not unlike so many wilderness moments in our own life.\xa0 Something happens that unsettles us, leaves us feeling threatened.\xa0 A medical scare, a financial jolt, a shifting landscape underfoot in the society or institutions we thought were secure\u2014even the church.\xa0 Faced with God\u2019s relative silence and a threat looming overhead do we choose to fear the Lord or the threat?\xa0

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It is at this moment that Saul\u2019s son Jonathan suddenly appears.\xa0 No one knew where David was. \xa0Yet somehow Jonathan appears.\xa0 His name means \u201cgift of God.\u201d\xa0 Nathan being the Hebrew word for \u201cgift,\u201d and \u201cJo\u201d being a prefix that refers to God.\xa0

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The text says that God did not \u201cNathan\u201d/give David into Saul\u2019s hands.\xa0 But God\u2019s hand does offer a Jo-\u201dNathan\u201d/gift to David.\xa0 What is this gift of God?\xa0 A friend who appears in a silent, wilderness moment to help David re-find his strength in God.\xa0 \u201cDo not be afraid\u201d Jonathan says.\xa0 They then reaffirm their love and commitment to one another and Jonathan leaves.\xa0 David remains in Horesh, this wilderness place of silence.\xa0 But now, somehow, David is no longer quite so alone or afraid.\xa0 God may be silent, but by his gifts of friendship and encouragement, David can once again recognize God\u2019s hand on the move.

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As the story continues, Saul really does find out where David is and comes down in pursuit of him.\xa0 However, we discover that David is no longer in \u201cHoresh.\u201d\xa0 Now he is in the Desert of \u201cMaon,\u201d a word which means \u201chelp\u201d or \u201crefuge.\u201d\xa0 Here David goes down to \u201cthe rock,\u201d and at that rock, though \u201cSaul and his forces were closing in on David to capture them,\u201d God suddenly intervenes to force Saul to turn away. \xa0David and his men are saved, not by what their hands have done, but by the one in whom they have taken refuge.\xa0

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One can hear Psalms begin to percolate as David grows a little more to maturity.\xa0 The Lord who is my rock, my salvation, my refuge and strength in times of trouble.\xa0 Through loving friends, David learns to entrust his life to the hand of God even when God seems silent.\xa0

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How might you entrust yourself to God today against the silence and the threats that face you?\xa0 Are there \u201cgifts of God\u201d that show God\u2019s hand to you in this moment?\xa0 How might you be a gift-of-God friend to someone in such a place?

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