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afterwards. On learning it he marched still further southeast, where "the Jeshimon,"
or desert, shelves down into the Arabah, or low table-land.^214 Maon itself is about
two hours south-east from Ziph; and amidst the mountains between Maon and the
Dead Sea on the west, we must follow the track of David's further flight and
adventures. But meantime the plan which Saul had suggested was being only too
faithfully carried out. Slowly and surely the men of Saul, guided by the Ziphites,
were reaching David, and drawing the net around him closer and closer. Informed of
his danger, David hastily "came down the rock,"^215 - perhaps the round mountain-top
near Maon. It was high time, for already Saul and his men had reached and occupied
one side of it, while David and his men retreated to the other.
The object of the king now was to surround David, when he must have succumbed
to superior numbers. We are told that "David was anxiously endeavoring to go away
from before Saul; and Saul and his men were surrounding David and his men to
seize them."^216 Almost had they succeeded - but that "almost," which as so often in
the history of God's people, calls out earnest faith and prayer, only proves the real
impotence of this world's might as against the Lord. How David in this danger cried
unto the Lord, we learn from Psalm 54.^217
How God "delivered him out of all trouble," appears from the sacred narrative. Once
more all is in the natural succession of events; but surely it was in the wonder-
working Providence of God that, just when David seemed in the power of his
enemies, tidings of an incursion by the Philistines reached Saul, which obliged him
hastily to turn against them. And ever afterwards, as David or others passed through
that "wilderness," and looked up the face of that cliff, they would remember that
God is "the Helper" of His people - for to all time it bore the name "Cliff of Escape."
And so we also may in our wanderings have our "cliff of escape," to which ever
afterwards we attach this precious remembrance, "Behold, God is thine Helper."
(^)