Okay. Well, it's good to be here. I looked last week and the week
before, we spent some time looking in 1 Samuel 23 at the story of
David and Abigail. And Abigail, of course, as we
saw, who became a wife of David, she exemplifies, she pictures
in so many ways what it is to be a Christian. And she's someone
who was bound in marriage to Nabal. Nabal means folly or fool. And it was threatening destruction
that caused her to seek David as she fled to him. And the thing
that's remarkable is she fled to him who was perceived to be
the one bringing the destruction, didn't she? You would think the
safest path would be to run away unless you had good reason to
come to Him. She had good reason. The Lord
drew her to Him. She came down and she met Him
as He came down to her and she took her place in the dust at
His feet. She confessed herself a sinner
and she sought forgiveness and mercy and she was persuaded of
David's goodness, and she was persuaded of David's covenant
promised blessings from God. And she owned that, didn't she?
And she begged to be remembered. And then David granted her a
request, accepted her person, told her to go in peace. And
rather than him dealing with Nabal, In a very short time,
God dealt with Nabal and she, free of the fool, free of folly,
was free to marry David. But as we see later on in this
remarkable section of scripture, her marriage to David, her freedom
from Nabal, is not the end of her struggles. And as a Christian
she typifies the fact that we never rise above the status of
needy sinners, of vulnerable sinners, liable to be taken captive,
even if only for a season. In this world, God's children
are promised troubles. And those troubles are made more
serious. The more serious the work of
the Lord is in us and amongst us. But her life, as we saw in
that remarkable verse in verse 29 of chapter 23, is bound in
the bundle of life with the Lord thy God. And the Lord thy God
has promised to sling out the enemies. But in chapter 30 we
come to a situation, and I can read some of the verses, we won't
try and read all of it, we'll try and look at it in the context,
but chapter 30 begins with those remarkable words that we see
so often in the scriptures, and it came to pass. What came to pass? It's always
the same, isn't it? Throughout the scriptures, it's
God's purpose came to pass. When David and those others came
back to Ziglag, They found that the Amalekites had invaded and
Ziklag and smitten Ziklag and burned it with fire and had taken
the women captives that were therein. So here we find just
a couple of chapters on, maybe not a lot of time in history
on, we find David's wife. that wife who typifies a believer
is now taken captive by the Amalekites. We have for what little time
to look at it, but if you turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter
17, you will find that the Amalekites
come on the scene and they typify what happens in a believer and
they are expressive in many ways of the battles that we have between
the flesh and the spirit. The story is of course that the
people of Israel had come out and Moses struck the rock And
he stood before that rock, and he smoked the rock, and water
came out of the people drinking, verse 6. And of course, then
Amalek fought with Israel, and we find that story in Exodus
17, where Moses, who represents the law, is unable to hold up
his hand. And on either side of him, Aaron
and Hur come up to the top of the hill. And whenever they hold
up Moses' hands, Israel prevailed and when he let down his hand,
verse 11, Amalek prevailed and it was Joshua, verse 13, who
went out and thrashed the living daylights out of the Amalekites. And the Lord made a promise in
verse 14. He says to Moses, write this
for a memorial in a book and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua
for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under
heaven. And Moses built an altar and
called the name of it Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our banner, the
Lord my banner. And God said, because the Lord
says, has sworn, that the Lord will have war with Amalek from
generation to generation. And here are these Amaleks in
1 Samuel 25 who have taken captive David's wife, in fact both of
David's wives. As we go through the scriptures
we see again and again that every action of sin is a reflection
of our sin. And we sin because we are sinners
in Adam and we are sinners in ourselves. As Paul said, in my
flesh dwells no good thing. Then we see in the scriptures
every act of mercy and grace is a reflection of the character
of our Almighty God and Him revealing His sovereign rule over all things
for the glory of His name in the saving of His own treasured
possession. both His gift to and the delight
of His Son. That is what holds the Scriptures
all together. And we see in 1 Samuel the remarkable
providential dealings of God with His servants. In chapter
25 we saw the providential dealings of David being rescued from sin
and David rescuing them. the wife who was married to a
fool. In chapter 26 we see Saul, despite
all of David's goodness, being wicked and wicked again and again. And even in this situation, Saul
says in verse 21, I have sinned. And he says to David, return,
for I will no more do you harm. And he says, Verse 25, Saul acknowledges,
he says to David, Blessed be thou, my son David. Thou shalt
both do great things, and thou shalt still prevail. Saul knew the promises of God. that the promises of God impacted
his word but not his heart. And here in verse 27 we find
David in a situation that he shouldn't have been in again.
David, his first act, his first public act was to slay the Philistine,
Goliath. and then caused that war against
the Philistines and had them thrashed in that war. Saul knew
that David was going to be king and that David said in his heart,
I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. Look what he says, there is nothing
better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land
of the Philistines. What a remarkable thing for God's
anointed King to say. It's unbelief, isn't it? Whenever
we see David sin, we can say, that's me. See, the thing is
that David had, maybe for 10 years or more now, suffered relentless
pressure. Relentless pressure and carnal
fear can lead even the best of men into places of compromise. We are weak, brothers and sisters. But in that situation, God's
sovereign hand was remarkable. The king, in verse 6, king Akish,
gave him Ziklag, That day he gave David a place. If David
was going to live with the Philistines and fight with the Philistines,
the king gave him a place. But what place did he give him?
He gave him a city that was the city of Judah. He gave him back
what was rightfully his. And David was there in the country
of the Philistines for a full year and four months. And during that time, David went
to war. He went to war against the Amalekites
and the Gerashites and the Gezrites and others. And it came to pass,
verse 28, in those days that the Philistines gathered their
armies together for warfare to fight with Israel. And Achish
said to David, No, thou assured me, thou shalt go out with me
to battle, thou and thy men. We turn over to chapter 29, we
find that the Philistines are gathered together. I'm trying
to sort of paint the picture of how David ended up in a situation
where his wife and all of His possessions, all of what
belongs to him other than his fighting men, were in a situation
where they were taken captive. The Philistines gathered together
and the Israelites pitched by the fountain which is in Jezreel. David was now in an extraordinarily
difficult situation. He shouldn't have gone there
in the first place. He had no reason to run to the Philistines.
God had protected him all the way through this time. But David
now ends up with the Philistines and he's asked to stand there
with the king of the Philistines in this war against Israel. So
look at David's situation. There he is to stand alongside
Akish. And if he leaves, if he leaves
the war, he's threatened with cowardice, isn't he? with treachery
against someone who's protected him for a year and a half nearly,
and he could be charged with ingratitude. And if he fights
Israel, he then becomes an enemy of God's people. and a traitor,
and if in this battle Saul is killed, then it could be said
that David's hand was involved in the killing of Saul." It is
remarkable how often the people of God are put to a place where
there is nowhere to go, isn't it? Red sea type experiences. There's no way forward and behind
there are enemies. The providence of God is remarkable. What happens is that God moves
the hearts, in verse 4, of the princes of the Philistines, and
they say, make him return. They say to David, say to Achish,
we're not going to fight with this guy on our side. They talk
about, they know his history, in verse 5, David of whom they sang, Saul
flew thousands and David his 10,000. He's talking about his
battle against the Philistines. They don't want to have him there.
They say, no, this guy is too dangerous. So they send David
back and David takes He's told to go. He's actually rescued
out of an impossible situation by the sovereign hand of God,
moving the hearts of the enemies of God's people. And so that's
why, when it says it came to pass in chapter 30, David was
in this situation. He had to then go back, back
to his people, back to his city. And in that time, in that time
that he was away, maybe in that time when the Amalekites knew
that the Philistines and the Israelites were all busy doing
their thing, this was time for them to attack and to pay David
back for what he had done to them. And so he came, they came,
they invaded and smit Ziklag and burned it with fire and took
these women captive. But none of them were touched. I want you to think about all
of this as we go through. The hand of God, the sovereign
hand of God fulfilling His covenant purposes. It is remarkable. None
of them were slain, neither great nor small. They were carried
away and they went on their way. And David comes back with his
men. His wives are gone, the wives of all of his 600 men are
gone, their children are gone, their possessions are gone, nothing
left and their town is burnt down. And David was greatly distressed. For the people spoke of stoning
him, because the soul of all the people was grieved. Every
man for his sons and for his daughters. David was a man who
was distressed. He had led his men away to be
with the Philistines and to be involved in a conflict with nation
Israel. They were providentially rescued,
but his wives now are taken away and he's personally grieving. Not only does he have to suffer
his personal grief, he has to suffer that his men are distressed
and they hold him responsible because David had provoked the
Amalekites. They had expected What a remarkable
journey they had in those three days, away from war, providentially
by the hand of God, rescued from war, to go home to the comforts
of their wives and their families. And now their homecoming is turned
to grief and the question is, who do you follow? Who do you
follow? It doesn't look like much of
a man to follow. And where does David go? I love
the butts of scripture. But David encouraged himself
in the Lord his God. I love the way David and the
people in the scriptures own God as their God, my God. And he comes back and he inquires
of God. And in the remarkable providence
of the Lord, you can read earlier on in chapter 22, only one priest
of all the priests of Israel had survived. Saul had slain
all of them because of David's presence there and their assistance
to him. They fed him and they gave him
the sword that he'd taken from Goliath. And one of Saul's servants
was there and saw it. And they came and Saul slew them
all, all the priests. But this one man, this one man,
Abiathar the priest, escaped, Ahimelech's son. And David says,
bring the ephod. We need to hear what God says. David, in so many of his other
situations, had followed his own heart, like we do so often. But here, in this situation,
he follows and asks God. And God's answer in verse 8. David inquired at the Lord, saying,
Shall I pursue after this troop, shall I overtake them? And he
answered him, Pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them, and
without fail recover all. God's answer, Pursue, you shall
win, and you shall recover all. Matthew Henry says, when things
are often at their worst for the people of God, things are
often at their worst for the people of God before they begin
to mend. Great faith must expect such
severe trials and exercises. The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord, and God delights in the way of His people. David
again and again in the psalm says, I will trust Him. I will
trust Him. When I'm afraid, Psalm 56b, I'm
going to trust Him. David had a command. He had a promise from God that
God was the enemy of the Amalekites. He had a command that was given
to Saul, that it was right to pursue the Amalekites and it
was right, of course, for him to recover that which was his
and was stolen by them. Yet here we find David seeking
God's direction and God's guidance. It's a beautiful picture of dependence
and submission. It's also a beautiful picture
of David as the type of the Lord Jesus leading his own in the
time of despairing. When there's a possibility of
mutiny, what seems like hopelessness is turned into action. They were
caused by David's action and God's promises to look ahead
in faith and to not look back and to not look around. And David
has to continue. He went, verse 9, and 600 men
that were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those
that were left behind stayed. But David pursued. He and 400
men. So God had reduced his numbers,
just like he'd reduced Gideon's numbers. 20,000 is too many. 10,000 is too many. Let's reduce
them. Reduce them down to such a stage
where you and everyone else will see that there's a Lord who fights
the battles of his people. and the Lord wins. But these
men, these 200, stayed behind at this brook and they were so
faint that they couldn't go over the brook, they saw. They may
have been faint from their activities with David, they may have been
faint from the despair that they saw when they came back to their
town. They may have been faint from
the prospect of what lay ahead of them. There they were, a small
band of weary men against a mighty army." But David goes on, and
in the providence of the Lord, they find an Egyptian who gives
them direction. And this Egyptian has been cast
out. Because he was sick, he was cast
out and he hadn't drunk any water, verse 12, eaten any bread for
three days and three nights. Such is the care of the enemies
of God for their fellow man. Whatever they pretend, they do. Their actions are selfish. treats him with kindness and
he finds direction for him. David knows the Egyptian in a
sense like he knows those that he left at the brook. He doesn't
say a thing about them. He understands their frames.
He knows that we are but dust. And this Egyptian seeks and receives
a word of promise. He says in verse 15, Swear unto
me by God that you will neither kill me nor deliver me into the
hands of my enemy, my master, and I will bring you down to
this company. I will show you where they are. An enemy is turned into a friend. The Amalekites, when they come
down in verse 16, they come to the Amalekites. There they were,
spread abroad upon all the earth, eating and drinking and dancing,
because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the
land of the Philistines and out of the land of Judah. So often
in Scripture we saw it with Nabal, didn't we? Nabal was there feasting,
feasting and drunk. So often in Scriptures we find
the rich man, don't we? I've looked at my harvests, I'm
going to build big barns, I've laid it all up for myself, I'm
right. I can eat, drink and be merry
for the rest of my days, and what does God say? Thou fool. This night, this night, your
soul will be asked of you. You see, neighbour like Belshazzar
are brought down in the midst of their feasting. what they
thought was a feast, was turned into a disaster. In verse 17,
David rescued his two wives. He smote them from twilight unto
evening the next day, and there escaped not a man of them, save
four hundred young men which rode upon camels and fled. And David recovered all that
the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. There was nothing lacking to
them, neither great, small, nor great, neither sons, nor daughter,
neither spoil, nor anything. When our great Redeemer comes
to rescue, He will fulfill what God promises. He will recover
all. David recovered all. He rescued
his two wives, rescued everything. David recovered all. And David took all the flocks
and herds which they had drove before the other cattle. And
this is David's spoil. He rescued his two wives. He
rescued everything that was his and belonged to the other people.
You see, these Amalekites like Nabal and other people in this
world, have no acknowledgment of God, no acknowledgment of
his presence, his providence, his word, his promise. These
men who came back with David are called the same name that
Abigail called her husband. She said he is a son of Belial. a son, this man of Belial. David finds, as we so often do,
that the enemy within the camp can be just as difficult as those
outside, in fact, is worse. These men, these men of Belial,
it says. See, David came back to the 200.
He knew that they were faint. They knew that they couldn't
follow him, verse 21. He made them stay at that brook
and they looked after all the goods that were there. And David
came back and he saluted them, verse 21. He asked them of peace,
it says. Then answered all the wicked
men. I'm sorry, I got mixed up here
a minute ago. But all the wicked men in the men of Belial, those
that went with David and said, because they went not with us,
we will not give them of the spoil that we have recovered,
save every man, his wife and his children, that they may lead
them away and depart. You see the difference. the difference
of self-righteousness, isn't it? As I said, these men, like
Nabal and like Saul, had no acknowledgement of God's promises, God's providence. How did they get what they got? God had made a promise. These
men were involved in religion. But religion without God's work
in the heart is full of self-righteousness. It's just there. The Lord Jesus
and His grace and His mercy and those things are props for the
self-righteousness of wicked men. And not only are they self-righteous,
They judge others, always they are judging others through the
eyes of what they have achieved. Look how they say, what we have
recovered, we will not share it with them. And yet they have
no acknowledgement of what God has done. What were they before
they came to David? according to chapter 22, there
were people in distress, there were people in debt, there were
people that were discontented. They'd come to Him, debtors,
in distress. And these men had stood with
Him when He had been opposed. But now They are acting as enemies,
men of Belial. What a statement. David says some remarkable things
in return, doesn't he? David speaks of grace. See, great sinners like David
much of grace and talk much of grace." What does he say in verse
23? He says, that which the Lord
has given us. Don't do this, he says, my brothers,
that which the Lord has given us. And how do they get to have
it given to them? Because He has preserved us and
He has delivered the company of them that came against us.
He's delivered them into our hand. All the blessings of grace come
freely. For those that mix works of any
sort with grace, all they end up with is works and self-righteousness. David rebukes these men in a
sense in a similar way to that rebuke that Peter received when
he said to the Lord Jesus at that mountain, he said, you don't
have to go to the cross. You don't have to go to the cross.
And what does the Lord Jesus say to Peter? He says, Get behind
me, Satan. The men may not have been sons
of the devil, but they were just acting like it at this time. But David is a man of generosity. Compared to their greed and compared
to their self-righteousness, he says these men will receive
exactly the same as everyone else. They will receive exactly,
verse 24, they shall take a part alike with us. And from that
day forward he made it a statute and an ordinance in Israel and
to this day that when they come back from war, I share the bounty
with everyone else, because it is God who has fought for them,
and God who has preserved them, and God who has protected them,
and God who has handed them over. And Abel was more interested
in enriching his country than himself. And he's grateful to
those who supported him in those next five verses. He hands out
this bounty, so much bounty. Think of how greedy these men
were. There was enough for all of the men that were with David.
There was enough for the 200 that stayed behind. There was
enough then to give to all of these towns in Israel. Bethel
and Ramoth and Jetir and Aror and Sipmoth. and Rakhal, and
the Jeremielites, and the Kenites, and Horma, and Khorasan, and
Hebron. He had enough to give to all
of the men, plus all of those people in those towns. There was a bounty. And it's remarkable to think
that while these events were happening, These remarkable events
that typify our Lord Jesus' rescue of His people. It's probably
at exactly this time that Saul was out in battle with the Philistines
and dying. These are in a sense the last
acts of David before he becomes king. David triumphed. David recovered all, all that
the Amalekites had. And he's so typical of our Lord
Jesus, isn't it? He says, I restored that which
I took not our way. The Lord Jesus is our great David's
great son. And he will come to recover all
his captives, isn't it? For those who are weak and faint
and unable to go on, unable to help themselves anymore, he will
come. He will come. He will come and
recover all. And like Abigail, and those other
wives, and those other children, it must have seemed like desperate
times. Where is our Redeemer? Where is our Rescuer? How come we, who are in covenant
relationship with Him, find ourselves again in the hands of enemies
and under distress? He will come again. He will come
again to the weak and the faint. He comes again to those who are
captives. He will come. He will recover
all. As he said, when they were leaving
Egypt, not a hoof will be left behind. God will recover all. Our great Lord Jesus will recover
all. And when He comes again, all
those who are weak and faint, all those who feel as if they
haven't laboured as others, as if they haven't been as valiant
and victorious as the others, what do they receive? They receive
exactly the same. Inheritance. Inheritance because
we are sons. They receive exactly the same.
We're joint heirs. Heirs of God. And the inheritance is an abundant
inheritance. It lasts forever. The riches
are extraordinary. The riches are amazing in grace,
isn't it? What does John say? What manner
of love is this? What manner? Behold, he says,
look at it. He says, take a hold of this
with your eyes, the eyes of faith. Behold what manner of love the
Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God. The world doesn't know us because
it didn't know Him. Beloved, now we are the sons
of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall
see Him as He is." That's an inheritance, brothers and sisters.
See, the Lord says, He will pursue them. He will
overtake them and without fail He will recover all. He's not going to lose one of
His. So how do we then walk as Christians? As we have received Him Receive
Christ Jesus so you walk in him. What were these men? They were
men that were in distress. They were men that were in debt.
They were men that were discontented. They were women who were weak
and taken captive. What a great description of us.
We're poor wretches. We're bankrupt. We're good for
nothing. Worthless. the captives, enslaved. God knows what we are. He knows
that we are but dust. But our Lord Jesus, our great
David, is touched with the feeling of our infirmities and he says
to us, needy sinners. He says, you come boldly to the
throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace in time
of need. Is there any moment when we're
not in need? Is there any moment that that
promise is going to be unfulfilled? It just takes His time, and the
time it takes is a time of His choosing, and the time it takes
is a time, as we saw at the beginning, it must come to pass. In the midst of all of this,
all of this seemingly messed up story, we find God perfectly
faithful, God fulfilling His promises, protecting His own,
rescuing His own, and at the very same time, and with the
very same action, bringing judgement on those who are His enemies. But we remain needy. Are you needy? You see, it's
not our merit, but our sinfulness. It's not our merits but our need
that qualifies us for mercy. It's not our independence but
our dependence. Come needy sinners, come to the
throne of grace. What a throne it is. What an
enthroned one is there right now. Let's pray.