But there was yet a worse day to come, so very awful that nothing could look more impossible, more unattainable and beyond all reach as David becoming king of Israel. 

Achish, the Philistine king of Gath, had given David and his men the town of Ziklag, upon David’s request, and they and their wives and children had lived there for a year and four months, when Achish gathered together his armed camps for war against Israel. David and his men joined up and were following in the rear of Achish into the battle. However, the Philistine lords remembered the song that had been sung about David, that ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.’

They therefore warned their king about David, and requested that he should not go out with them to battle against Israel. Then Achish, although not in agreement with them, sent David and his men back to Ziklag⁹⁹.

When they arrived on the third day they found Ziklag raised to the ground and burned, with their wives and children gone and all of their possessions. The Amalekites had made a raid on the Negev and came also upon Ziklag, overthrowing it. 

David and his men mourned and wept until no strength was left in them.

Then David’s men spoke of stoning David because they were greatly embittered against him because of their wives, sons and daughters. 

Never had David been as distressed in his whole life as at this moment in time, but he turned to the only One Who could help and deliver him -- and encouraged and strengthened himself in the L-ORD his G-d¹⁰⁰.

From burned down Ziklag in the land of the Philistines and the loss of absolutely everything to the throne of Israel was completely hopeless, an absolute absurdity. To believe in such a likelihood was a “bunny-trail” of bunny-trails.

Yet, the men of Judah came and anointed David king over the house of Judah, after he and his men had returned and lived in the cities of Hebron. For Saul and his three sons, among them Jonathan, David’s dearly beloved friend, had fallen in battle against the Philistines, an event David mourned greatly¹⁰¹.

For seven years and six months David reigned over Judah from Hebron, G-d raising him up from being a shepherd following after sheep, to being a shepherd of His people, going in and out before them.

And after the murder of Abner - Saul’s commander in chief of Israel’s armed forces - by Joab; and the murder of Ishboshet - Sauls’s son reigning over Israel - all the tribes of Israel came to David in Hebron and made a covenant with him before the L-RD, then anointed him king over Israel.

David was thirty years old, when he became king and he reigned forty years: seven and a half years over Judah from Hebron; and thirty-three years over all of Judah and Israel from Jerusalem¹⁰².

For ten years he had lived in caves and countless hiding places, even in the enemy’s land, a fugitive, an outcast, with no end of his trials in sight. To keep believing that one day he would be king over all of Israel surely was utter foolishness in the eyes of any common-sensed person.

He was but a youth, only a shepherd of sheep, a loser on the run for his life. This was not a walk of faith, it was but a – bunny trail?!

Was it?

David and the L-RD answer this with Psalm 89:1-4, 30-37:

‘I will sing of your steadfast love, O L-RD, forever; with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations. For your steadfast love was established forever, your faithfulness is firm as the heavens.

‘You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant: I will establish your descendants [seed] forever, and build your throne for all generations…”’

‘If his [David’s] children forsake My law, and do not walk according to My ordinances, if they violate My statutes and do not keep My commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with scourges; but I will not remove from him My steadfast love, or be false to My faithfulness.’

‘I will not violate My covenant, or alter the word that went forth from My lips. Once for all have I SWORN by My holiness; I will not lie to David. His line [offspring; seed] shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before Me. Like the moon it shall be established forever, My faithful witness in the sky.’

David’s Psalms and grave are with us until this day, and so are many of his descendants, among whom G-d has kept both the royal lineage and the lineage of Nathan, Solomon’s full brother; both of which being the lineages of Yeshua of Nazareth.

But will G-d keep the doubters and those who believe in “bunny-trails” rather than in “Nothing is too difficult for You, O L-RD?”

Let the faith of Abraham prevail and his footprints endure forever; let Joseph’s faith prevail and inspire generations yet to come; let David’s triumphant faith encourage us and make us emulate him. And let Noah’s faith, perseverance and endurance be an example to us – for the days of Noah have once again dawned upon the earth.