1 Samuel 27:1
“But David thought to himself, ‘One of these days I will be destroyed by the hands of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.”
The scientific method is a process of experimentation that is used to explore observations and answer questions. It is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, according to Wikipedia, the method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical, measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning. To be objective as possible, scientists archive and share all data and methodology so they are available for careful scrutiny by other scientists. This allows statistical measures of the reliability of the data to be established.
After the seeming déjà vu of sparing Saul’s life and receiving a promised return favor, David still never went home. His king has the reputation of not keeping his word and so he might as well maintain their distance. After a long, stressful day, in the stillness of the night, he did some self-talk. In a nutshell, his line of thought was, ‘Saul can kill me here. Here is fatal. Out there is my only chance.’ The problem with this intrapersonal relationship is that the process of message exchange, sending-receiving-feedback, revolves around one person alone. He may have done well in data gathering to its analysis, but how could he make a decision based on a drawn conclusion that is unsifted thereby unreliable? How could he expose his six hundred men and their families to pagan danger by calling it a solution when in fact it was not even tested yet? And how dare he use logical thinking as answer to faith questions? God has given man the ability to think and lo! We were able to discover processes to recreate great things. But it was not intended for us to work independently from Him. A scientific process without His hand in every step can never be the best process. Apart from His will, it will always be wanting and sadly, end up in waste.
Decision making begins and ends with God. We get our concepts and cues from Him, be daily guided by His Word, empowered by His Spirit, and bring all glory to Him. Trouble comes when we self-talk, instead of God-talk. When we run instead of just resting. When we try instead of fully trusting. His methodology may be unobservable, immeasurable, and beyond human reasoning, but statistics show a hundred percent reliability. Any more questions?
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