Samuel chapter 30. Verse 1 says, And it came to
pass when David and his men were come to Ziglag on the third day
that the Amalekites had invaded the south, smitten Ziglag, and burned it
with fire. and had taken the women captives
that were therein. They slew not any, either great
or small, but carried them away and went on their way. So David
and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burned with
fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters were
taken captives. And David and the people that
were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had
no more power to weep. And David's two wives were taken
captives, Hinoam, the Jesualitis, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal
the Carmelite. And David was greatly distressed,
for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all
the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his
daughters. But David encouraged himself,
and the Lord is God." Now how did David get to this Terrible
place where he is sitting literally in the burning ashes of the city
of Ziglag with his wife and children taken captive. The wife and children
of the men and his wives taken captive. How did he get here?
Well, go back to 1 Samuel 27. Now David believed God. He was
a child of God, born of the Spirit of God. And Saul had pursued
David, and during that whole time that he was pursued by Saul,
David made some great statements concerning God's faith. When
he was young, David went out to that Philistine giant, Goliath,
and David made this statement. He said, the Lord that delivered
me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear,
he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And
all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with
sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give
you into our hand." When he was in the cave of Dullam, David
made this statement concerning God's faithfulness. My soul trusteth
in thee, yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge
until these calamities be overpassed. I will cry unto God most high,
unto God that performeth all things for me. He shall send
from heaven and save me from the reproach of him that would
swallow me up. And David not only had the promise
of God and saw the faithfulness of God, he had experienced the
faithfulness of God so many times. So many times. God took David
from the sheepfold and anointed him king of Israel and promised
him he would assume the throne of Israel. He would be on the
throne of Israel. He promised him that. He used
Jonathan to reaffirm that promise to David. He used Abigail to
reaffirm that promise to David. Now at this point Saul had, one
commentary said this, I didn't count these but it sounds reasonable,
that Saul had tried to kill David 16 times. And God had delivered
him out of his hand every time. Every time, God protected David
the whole way. And God, David even spoke another
word concerning God's faithfulness, and God used Saul to reaffirm
God's promise to David. Look there in 1 Samuel 26, this
was after the second time the Lord had delivered Saul to his
feet. And David didn't kill him, he showed mercy on Saul. The
second time this happened now, listen to what David said. In
verse 24, he said, Behold, as thy life, he's speaking to Saul,
he said, Behold, as thy life was much set by this day in mine
eyes, so let my life be much set by in the eyes of the Lord,
and let Him deliver me out of all tribulation. And then listen
to Saul. God uses Saul to speak His promise
to David. Then Saul said to David, Blessed
be thou, my son David. Thou shalt both do great things
and also shalt still prevail. And so David went his way and
Saul went his way. But David was overtaken by unbelief. His sin nature overtook David.
Listen to the next statement. All our sin and unbelief originates
right there. He said in his heart, he communed
with that deceitful thing called a sinful heart. He didn't go
to God, he didn't ask God, he communed with his heart. And
this is what he said, I shall now perish one day by the hand
of Saul. He just said, he just said the
Lord will deliver me, the Lord will deliver me. Now he says,
I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul. There's nothing
better for me than I should speedily escape into the land of the flisting,
into Goliath's land, into the land of the enemy. And Saul shall
despair of me to seek me any more in any coast of Israel,
so shall I escape out of his hand." Now you think about it.
Nothing better for a child of God's grace to do than to lean
to my own understanding and flee from God and flee into
the hand of the enemy and try to save myself. The truth is,
nothing better for me to do than look to Christ and rest in Him. But this is unbelief. This is
total unbelief. So David arose and he passed
over. Boy, there's a lot in that. He
passed over. He passed over all God's promises. He passed over the line of Judah. and left Judah where God told
him to stay, he passed over into the enemy's land. And he didn't
just go by himself. He took 600 men that were with
him. They all had wives. David had
two wives at this time, which in itself was sin, but he had
two wives and they had children. There was probably 2,000 people
with David. And he went to Achish. It means
only a man. It means I will blacken and terrify. That's who he went to. The son
of Mayot, the son of oppression, king of goth, king of the wine
press. And David's going to be pressed.
He's going to be pressed out of measure to where he has no
more strength. But God's going to be the one
to do it. And it says in verse 7, it says, at that time, I'm
sorry, and the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines
was a full year and four months. And in that whole full year and
four months, from this chapter to chapter 30, we don't find
David praying to God one time. This was a believer totally overtaken
by his sin nature, walking in his own strength. And this is
what he's doing here, what we do when we sin just in the thought,
when we entertain a sinful thought. It's going to the enemy. It's
leaving God and going to the enemy. Not to mention our sinful
acts, not to mention just, it's just unbelief. And we're often
here. We see ourselves here because
a believer has two natures. It's not to make us excuse our
sin, and it doesn't. But what it does do is when you
see God's grace dealing with David, it makes you so thankful. When you know yourself to be
like Paul who said, I don't do that, I would. Can you
say that believer? That's so all the time. I do
not do that I would. Why? Because in my flesh dwells
no good thing. Sin is present with me constantly. David leaned to his own understanding
rather than the Lord. Now, we can understand this.
Saul had been repeatedly coming after David. I mean, he was relentless
in coming after David. If Saul was doing something else
and he heard where David was, they come and told him where
David was, Saul would drop whatever he was doing and take his troops
and go after David. And David's weary, he's tired.
So you can understand this, but his fears and his doubts of his
sin nature overtook him. And he reasoned with his own
heart, and that's never good. The heart is deceitful above
all things, and desperately wicked who can know it. The Lord's going
to teach us when we start acting like, oh, I know what's going
to happen. This is what's going to happen. So the Lord's going
to get us to the point where we just stop doing that. We're not a seer. We don't know
the future. He's going to make our wisdom
foolishness. Whenever you go through a trial, whenever you're
weary, Seek the Lord. Go to the Lord. Look to Him. And don't lean to our own understanding. Lean to this Word right here
and believe what God's Word says and don't doubt. Even if you
don't feel like you believe Him, even if you see things going
contrary in providence, believe God's Word. Believe God's Word. Listen to what God said in Isaiah
54, 14. This is true of every believer.
In righteousness shalt thou be established. You are established
in righteousness in and by Christ. Believer, that's so. He's talking
about our soul here. He's talking about us being separated
spiritually from Christ. That will never happen. He says,
Thou shalt be far from oppression, for thou shalt not fear, and
from terror, for it shall not come near thee. Behold, they
shall surely gather together, but not by me. Whosoever shall
gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. Behold,
I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire,
and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work, and I have created
the waster to destroy. No weapon that is formed against
thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against
thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the inheritance of the
servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith
the Lord. So believe God's word, Trust God's Word and look to
Christ. Go to Christ in prayer and ask
of Him. Now, let me show you this second
thing. Even in David's unbelief, even in all this sin while he
was in the land of the Philistines, we see God's grace keeping David. We see God's grace keeping David.
Now let me show you this. God put it in the heart of Achish,
the king of Gath. He put it in the heart of Achish
to give David a city so David and his men could live in this
city in the country apart from Achish. apart from the city of
God. It says there in chapter 27 in
verse 4, it says, And David said to Achish, If I have now found
grace in thine eyes, let them give me a place in some town
in the country, that I may dwell there. For why should thy servant
dwell in the royal city with thee? Then Achish gave him Ziklag. Achish is the enemy king. He
just gave David a town. And it says, Wherefore Ziglag
pertaineth unto the kings of Judah unto this day. God turns the king's heart whether
so ever he will. This was not David making his
well laid plans come to pass, though he might have thought
that. This was God's grace. God, in spite of David's unbelief,
in spite of his sin, David is making certain, number one, that
David, God's making certain, number one, that David and his
men are separated from Achish and have a place to dwell with
somewhat security and safety. But also this is God's eternal
purpose. God's purpose from the beginning
for Ziklag to belong to Judah. And so he's overruling David's
sin and unbelief and rebellion to fulfill his purpose to give
Ziklag to Judah. And so it says he pertains to
Judah to this day. God overrules our sin. Even when we're in unbelief,
when we're sinning, He overrules the sin of His people to accomplish
His eternal purpose. From our fallen Adam, He overruled
that to accomplish His eternal purpose. When we came into this
world sinners, in total unbelief, dead in sin, He overruled that
to accomplish His eternal purpose. And even now, He's overruling
everything for His eternal purpose. And His eternal purpose is to
give His people that eternal city He's promised in Christ.
And He shall give it. He shall give it. And then we
see God's grace in this. David did the same thing as Saul
did. Even worse. And though God rejected
Saul, He spared David and kept David. Look here in verse 8.
David and his men went up and invaded the Jeshurites and the
Ezrites and the Amalekites. For those nations were of old
the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to Shur, even into
the land of Egypt. And David smote the land and
left neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and
the oxen, and the asses, the camels, and the apparel, and
returned and came to Achish. Now when God delivered the children
of Israel into Canaan, He commanded, God commanded, they slay all
these enemy nations in Canaan. And they didn't do it. They didn't
do it. That's why these Jeshurites and
these Gethrites still remain, because they didn't slay them.
And then back there when God had first anointed Saul, king
of Israel, He commanded Saul to go to the Malachites and kill
every living thing, man and beast. And Saul disobeyed. He brought
the choice's realms back to sacrifice to God and he didn't kill everything
living and he brought back the King of God. Now some will look
at this and they, I was reading different things, but some said,
David here was obeying God. He was finishing what the children
of Israel should have started, should have done, and he was
finishing what Saul should have done. No, no. No, no. David didn't inquire of God to
do this. He just went and did it. And
whatsoever is not of faith is sin. This was just murder. This was just murder. That's
all it was because God didn't command him to do it like he
did those others. And not only that, he did exactly
what Saul did. He went and he killed man and
woman and he brought the rams and the sheep and the oxen and
all that back to feed himself and to feed his men and their
families. For that, God commanded Saul to go slay them. But he did, David did what Saul
did. He brought the rams back. All this is, what Saul did and
what David did is like a man trying to save himself by the
works of his own hands. It is exactly what this is. And for that sin, God rejected
Saul from being king and took the spirit from him and left
him. And he saved David. What was
the difference? Same sin, same rebellion. What's
the difference? The grace of God. That's all. The grace of God. You and I commit
the same sin, think the same sin, commit often the same sin
that sinners do that God rejects. What's the difference? The grace
of God. That's all. The grace of God. The Lord Jesus put away the sin
of His people and He saves us by His works, not our works.
This is what we're going to get. This is what's going to make
you hate your sin and look to Christ only. And anything other
than looking to Christ only If I put the least confidence in
the fruit of the Spirit, or any good work I've done, or anything
I'm doing to save myself, it's just abhorrent, wicked, evil
sin is what David is doing right here. And so is any other sin. It's all wicked and evil. We
are saved by Christ's righteousness alone. By God's grace alone. That doesn't make His people
want to rebel and go live in the land of the Philistines.
That makes you want to flee to Christ and cling to Him, and
more importantly, beg Him to cling to you. Now, we also see
God's grace in delivering David from fighting his own people.
After David comes back from fighting the Malachites and killing them,
he comes back and he makes Achish think he was fighting Judah.
And Achish believed him. And it says in verse 12, Achish
believed David, saying, ìHe made his people Israel utterly to
abhor him. He made himself to stink in their
sight. Therefore he shall be my servant
forever.î And so Achias made David his bodyguard. Look here
in chapter 28. The armies are gathered to fight,
and it says in verse 1, Achish said to David, Know thou assuredly
that thou shalt go out with me to battle thou and thy men. And listen to what David says.
David said to Achish, Surely thou shalt know what thy servant
can do. And Achish said to David, Therefore
will I make thee keeper of mine head forever. Now go over to
chapter 29, the Philistines are gathered together in their armies
to Aphok and Israel pitched by a fountain which is in Jezreel.
Now at this time, in Chronicles it tells us that a lot of Saul's
men left Saul, they were David's countrymen, Benjamites and whatever,
they left Saul and came and joined with David at this time. But
here's David now, he's in the rear ward there with Achish,
guarding Achish with his men and they're on their way to fight
Judah, to fight David's own countrymen. David's got himself in a fix
here. But when they get to... Philistines
had more than one lord. They had more than just Achish
as a lord. They had several lords. And so
when they got to these other lords, they saw David and they
saw these men with David and they said, he can't go into war
with us. We don't trust him. And so they
made Achish send David away. Who did that? God did that. God delivered David. from this
terrible predicament he got himself into from fighting his own men. He delivered him out of it. And
he didn't let David be exposed so that David would be killed
by the enemy. He delivered him out. And then
we see God's grace here. Those things God will do while
you're in the trial to provide for His child and keep you from
falling away. To bring His will to pass. But
we're going to have to be brought to the end of self. David, as
far as David was concerned, he probably felt like everything
he was doing was prosperous. We're going to have to be brought
to the end of our wisdom, end of our strength, end of our righteousness,
our works, our will, everything. We have to be brought to the
end of self. And so that's where we come to in chapter 30. It
came to pass when David and his men would come to Ziklag on the
third day. Now you just picture David. You
picture him and his men. They leave from being delivered
from having to go fight Judah, fight their own people. And you
know their heart had to have been just, oh, so thankful they
didn't have to go do that. And they're going home to Ziklag
and they can't wait to go home and see their wives and their
children. And this was the third day. Our
Lord arose on the third day. And now our Lord, this is the
third day, our Lord is about to arise in the heart of David.
So the Malachites had invaded, burned the city to the ground.
Burned it to the ground. But now look at this, verse 2
says, they slew not any. either great or small, but carried
them away and went on their way. They get to this town. The Amalekites
were ruthless, bloodthirsty killers. And in that day, just like David
did, if you went in and invaded a city, you didn't leave anybody.
And they get to this, to Ziglag, and their houses are burned down,
their buildings are burned down, this place has been razed to
the ground, but there's no women and children around. Who did
that? God did it. God did it. Because if the Malachites left
it to themselves, they would have killed everybody there. And they
didn't. And it says, then verse 4 says, And then David and the
people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until
they had no more power to weep. And David's two wives were taken
captive, Elanaham and Abigail, and David was greatly distressed. For the people spake of stoning
him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every
man for his sons and for his daughters." And David, and literally
David now is brought to the end. He's at the end of himself. His
town is burned. He's sitting there smoldering
in ashes. His wife and children are gone.
The men he's had with him now are turned against him and they're
ready to kill him. They want to stone him. You know what's
going to save David? You know what's going to save
me and you? Because when Christ walked this
earth, it wasn't just that they wanted to stone Him. We did. We did. And by His righteousness, He's
going to save His children. Verse 6 says, He brought to this
place now, but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. First time this has happened
in over a year and four months. Before he consulted with his
own heart, that was his own sinful flesh looking to himself. This is the Spirit of God making
him look to the Lord. Notice it says, David encouraged
himself in the Lord his God. That's covenant relationship.
Those that the Lord chose by His grace and gave to Christ,
who Christ redeemed, they'll never be able to break that covenant
of God for us being able to say He's the Lord our God. It won't happen. He will always
be the Lord your God. You that He's brought to faith
in Him. Verse 7, And David said to Abiathar the priest, Elimelech's
son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought
hither the ephod to David. And David inquired at the Lord. Abiathar is the son of Elimelech
who was slain because of David. Christ is the high priest. who God's grace brings us to
inquire of, who was crucified in our room instead, that we
might be saved, those of his people. So now David inquires
of the Lord rather than his own heart. He had to be brought to
this place, he had to be brought completely to the end of himself
with nothing to turn to the Lord. This is where the Lord is going
to bring us. Now verse 8, And he asked, saying, Shall I pursue
after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he
answered him. You see the grace of God here?
God answered him. He said, Pursue, for thou shalt
surely overtake them, and without fail recover all. You mean the Lord is going to
do this for David after what David has done? This thing's
not because of any goodness in us, brethren. It's because of
God's grace. Because of Christ's righteousness.
So David went and he defeated the enemy and he recovered all.
And I just want to touch on this, but I want you to see this. Verse
18. David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away
and David rescued his two wives. Let me say this too. You know,
David went in there and he thought he killed all the Amalekites.
These Amalekites in scripture, one thing they represent is our
sin nature. And you can think you've slain
them all. You've slain all the sins. Just like when he got back
to Ziggalag, there was still some left. Come and burn the
city down. David goes now, and he recovered
all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two
wives, and there was nothing lacking to them, neither small
nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil nor anything that
they had taken to them. David recovered all, and David
took all the flocks and the herds which they drove before those
other cattle and said, this is David's spoil. Why did God spare
David through all of this? Why didn't He just do him like
He did Saul and just reject him? Why did He spare David? Because
Christ did for His people what David is typified in doing right
here. Christ is typified in David here. What did our Lord Jesus do? He
came down and as the head of His people, Christ defeated all
our enemies. He defeated sin, death, and hell
for His people by His sacrifice on the cross. And by doing so,
he rescued his bride. Just like David went and rescued
his wives, Christ came and rescued his one bride, God's elect, entrusted
to him before the world was made. And there's nothing lacking.
Christ recovered all. He recovered everything. And
Christ's people are his sheep, they're his flocks, they're his
spoil. He's led captivity captive. And
all the blessings God has for his people are the spoils that
Christ freely gives to his people. That's why He didn't destroy
David. Christ was His surety. And when God has shown us that
we're only sin, and He's brought us to the end of trusting anything
about ourselves, over and over and over again. And when He's
brought us to see Christ truly is our only righteousness, over
and over and over again. As He shows us this repeatedly,
it makes us more willing and more desirous and more apt to
do for one another what David did here. Now look back at this
Egyptian. On their way down to this fight,
to this battle, they bring to David an Egyptian. You reckon
David saw himself in this Egyptian? Reckon he saw what God had just
done for him in this Egyptian. Look here, verse 11. They found
an Egyptian in the field and they brought him to David and
gave him bread and he did eat. See there, they found him in
a field, they brought him to David, they gave him bread and
he ate and they made him drink water. And they gave him a piece
of cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten,
his spirit came again to him. For he had eaten no bread nor
drunk any water in three days and three nights. God found David
in the field, acting just like an Egyptian, just like a stranger.
It's where he found me and you too. It's where he still finds
us. And God brought David to King Jesus. And our Lord strengthened
David with the bread and the water of eternal life, and His
Spirit came again to him. In verse 13, David said to the
Egyptian, To whom do you belong? Where did you come from? He said,
I'm a young man of Egypt. I'm a servant to an Amalekite.
My master left me because three days ago I fell sick. David knows,
right at this time that he says this to him, David knows. My
master didn't leave me. I left my master. I'm not like
this Egyptian. My master didn't leave. My master
too good to leave me. He didn't leave me. I left him
and went to this land of the enemy. But David certainly fell sick.
God has done this for you. This is what you see when you
see others in the shape you're in. We're in. And God brought
David to acknowledge to whom he belonged, just like He did
this Egyptian. He brought him to acknowledge
the unbelief he had been in, just like this Egyptian said,
I belong to an Amalekite. God brought David to say, Lord,
I'm the sinner. You're my master. And notice this Egyptian was
among the band that burned Ziglag. Next verse he tells them, we
just came into this city Ziglag and burned it to the ground.
Now my master and the men are gone on and they left me here
because I'm sick. And David knows, this is the one who just burned
my town down and stole my wives and children. He was with them.
Why doesn't he just take his head off? This man's been left. This man's
been deserted by the rest of the people. Why does David have compassion
on him? David just did the exact same
thing to God. David just did the exact same
thing to Christ. David, in all his sin, it's the same as in
our sin, crucifying the Lord afresh and burning down the whole
house God's built for us. as an enemy to God. And David
sees himself in this Egyptian. And he tells this Egyptian, he
says, will you take me to these men? And it's different towards
the Malachites. They are all together down there,
hooping and dancing and laughing and having a big time. David
had compassion on this one who was left alone to die. Because
he saw himself. He said, can you lead me down
there to these men? I'm going to go down there. And
that Egyptian said, if you'll enter covenant with me and you
won't kill me, I'll take you to him. And David said, I will. And that's exactly where the
Lord, He brings you to see. When you're in your sin and unbelief,
He makes you see that because He entered into an everlasting
covenant with Christ and Christ promised to do all the work to
save His people, for that reason, our Lord does not slay us when
we're in complete unbelief in the land of Philistine running
from God. That's why He does it. Because
Christ promised, I'll bring them to you. And then we see it again in this
thing too. David gets back and he had had 200 men that were
too weak to go fight. They couldn't go fight. And so
he left them back there behind and he went into this battle
with the Amalekites and he gets back with all these spoils. And
the sons of Belial, these hard-hearted, proud men that went down there
and fought, they didn't want to give the spoils to their weak
brethren who had been back there and didn't fight. Do you think David is going to
withhold those spoils from them after what God just did for him?
After seeing the mercy of God toward him for Christ's sake
and sparing his life because he was faint and he went down
into the land of the Philistines and played the rebel against
God and was so faint and yet the Lord is still giving him
the spoils of victory that Christ won for him. Do you think David
is going to withhold the spoils from those weak brethren? Absolutely
not. David said, ìYou shall not do
so, my brethren,î verse 23, ìwith which the Lord hath given to
us.î David said, ìThe Lord gave this to us. Weíre not going to
withhold this from them. He has preserved us and delivered
the company that came against us into our hand.î Verse 24,
the second part, he said, But as his part is that goeth down
to the battle, so shall his part be that tarried by the stuff.
We're going to part everything just the same. Our Lord Jesus Christ gives His
righteousness to all His people. The weak that fight the longest
and the strong that fight the least have the same righteousness
in Christ Jesus. And He's not withholding His
spoils from us. And when He brings you to see
your sin and rebellion against Him and His mercy and His grace
to you, to save you from you, He makes you merciful to share
the spoils. You want other people to hear
about this victory. You want other people to hear about this
Savior. You want to do whatever you can to get this message to
them. And whatever you can do to help them, you want to help
them. And whatever mercy you have to show, whatever sin you
have to overlook, whatever you have to do to point them to Christ,
you're willing to do it. Why? Because I am a puddle of
vileness. Are you? If you are, you'll do
what David did right here. But you won't if you're not.
You'll be the son of Belial and say, we're not doing that for
them. But this is where God brings
His child. And He not only sent the spoils to these ones that
were faint, He sent them all to all His brethren throughout
Judah. And you just read on there, just one place after another,
He just sent spoils to all of them. And that's what our Lord's
doing from heaven. He's sending the spoils to His
people wherever He's got them scattered in every little assembly
where He's put them. He's sharing His spoils. Even
with the rebellious. You know what that means? That
doesn't mean He's sharing it with the faithful and even some that
are rebellious. That means all of us He's sharing it with are
the rebellious. Oh brethren, believe on Christ. Keep your heart by keeping its
state on Christ. Don't look to yourself. Don't
lean to your own understanding. Don't trust that you've grown
wise in your old age. Look to Christ. There's a lot
of old fools just like there's young fools. If we believe not,
though, remember this, He abides faithful. He won't deny Himself.
He'll do for His people just what He did for David right here.
Because He will not lose one. His blood is too precious. His
righteousness is perfect. His word of covenant is too certain
and sure. And He will not deny one of His
people. He will save us from us. That makes you love the grace
of God. That makes you love your Redeemer.
That's what it does. Let's go to Him. Father, we thank
You for this Word. Pray You bless it. Pray You use
it to strengthen our faith and make us look only to the shield
of faith. Lord, use it to mortify this
flesh. Don't let us trust any goodness
in us. Don't let us turn from You in
any way. And Lord, thank you for just
destroying ever false refuge and all our confidence in other
things. Keep your people looking to you,
Lord. Make us truly walk before you in faith and mercy and love.
Forgive us, Lord, when we don't. Forgive us when we're the Amalekite
and the son of Belial. Put down that wretched, vile,
unbelieving sinner in us. We ask it for Christ's sake,
for your glory, for His honor. Amen.