Let us read together from the
first book of Samuel and chapter 30. The first book of Samuel
and chapter 30. Here we are picking up in the
life of David when he and his men have come back. They've not
been allowed to fight with the king of Gath against the Israelites
mercifully and they've been sent back to Ziklag and they come
and find. that Ziklag is burnt with fire
and all their wives and children have been taken captive. A very,
very low point in the life of David. 1 Samuel and chapter 30. And it came to pass when David
and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day that the Amalekites
had invaded the south and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag 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. 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, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess 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
in the Lord his God. And David said to Abiathar the
priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought hither the
ephod to David. And David inquired at the Lord,
saying, shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake
it, overtake them? And he answered him, pursue,
for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover
all. So David went, he and the six
hundred men that were with him, and came to the brook Besor,
where those that were left behind stayed. But David pursued he
and four hundred men, for two hundred men abode behind, which
were so faint they could not go over the brook Besor. I want to jump then to verse
sixteen. And the intervening verses, they
find this Egyptian that was left by the Amalekites and he tells
them where the Amalekites are. Verse 16, and when he had brought
him down, behold, they were spread aboard 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. And David smote them from the
twilight even to the evening of 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. 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. As the Lord helps me for a few
moments, I would like to consider this case of David. David, he
was very close to becoming the king of Judah at this point.
And yet it was one of the lowest points in David's life. He had
been unable to live in the land of Israel due to Saul's jealousy
and hatred and cruelty and the fact that Saul continually sought
his life. So he was living in the land
of the Philistines and then in the land of the Philistines he
then finds that the Amalekites have come now and invaded and
taken all his family away and burnt Ziklag with fire. It was
a very great trouble to David, a very low point, and all the
things that he had been living in the land of the Philistines
for more than a year, and he'd been raiding the areas, the longtime
enemies of Israel, south of Judah. And now the Amalekites came to
invade him back. And this was a very difficult
time for David. But coupled with that, all the men who had been very
loyal to David, these 600 men, now they were so upset that they
had lost all their families and goods as well. And really, they
start putting the blame on David. And so David was we read in verse
six and great David was greatly distressed. A couple of chapters
earlier, we read of Saul being greatly distressed and in that
great distress, he goes and finds the witch of Endor and seeks
counsel of one who had a familiar spirit. so sad that Saul had
no real God to go to. And yet David here in verse 6,
and David was greatly distressed, for the people spake of stoning
him. So his own 600 men who had been
very faithful to him for a long time, yet they were upset, they
were grieved at the loss, and there was this speaking of stoning
David, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every
man for his sons and for his daughters. What a difficult state
for David to be in. He had been anointed to be the
king of Israel. God had anointed him probably
something like 13 years earlier of that sort of a period of time,
13 years. And now he was not even living
in Israel, he had been And all his goods and families had been
taken. He didn't know whether he'd ever
get them back. And his prospect of ever getting to the throne,
naturally speaking, seemed extinguished. And yet, what do we see David
doing here? And surely this is a good lesson
for us as we meet together for a prayer meeting tonight. we
read, but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. think about this in our lives.
As we come into those extremities at times, David came into many
extremities. It was not an easy ride for him
to be anointed to be that king and then to actually come into
the kingdom. But of course, he was foreshadowing
a greater than David, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was coming
into a kingdom, who was going to take that kingdom. And yet,
everything seemed to stand in the way of him. And the fact
that he was a king traveling to a kingdom seemed opposite
to everything that was happening as we think of the Garden of
Gethsemane, we think of Calvary. Did he look like a king about
to receive a kingdom? He walked through these great
trials, you see. But David encouraged himself
in the Lord his God. You see, God had appointed him
to be king. And you see, that was the same with our dear Savior.
He was appointed to be king. Psalm 2 picks this up very beautifully. You see, the kings of the earth
set themselves, the rulers take counsel together against the
Lord and against his anointed. You see, Christ was God's anointed,
but David was the anointed king of Israel. And so many came against
David. Saul was his vowed enemy. And
Saul was the king of the land. He had the army behind him. He
had a lot of power. And we read in Psalm 2, let us
break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have
them in derision. You see the mighty power of God
over it all. Then shall he speak unto them
in his wrath and vex them in his short, sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my
holy hill of Zion. You see that's what ultimately
David was going to be set upon the throne of the hill of Zion.
It was going to be another seven and a half years after he became
king of Judah to become actually king in Zion. That's when he
became king of the entire land of Israel. But you see, God had
appointed it. And Saul did everything he could
to oppose it, and so many did. And yet, you see, God had appointed
that he would be king. And you see, David had that faith. to hold on to those promises,
the exceeding great and precious promises. And that's what we
have in God's word. Satan will come against us and seek to ridicule
all those things and seek to laugh and seek to say, how are
you traveling as a king to a kingdom looking like that? How can you
be a child of the king in that state? But David was traveling
to the throne. He was, indeed. But David encouraged
himself in the Lord his God. You see, that was all he had
left. The Lord his God. He'd lost his family, he'd lost
his wives, his men that had been loyal to him were speaking of
stoning him. What did he got? He had a God
to go to. And that's what a Christian has.
In their darkest times, they have a God to go to. We've just been singing that
lovely hymn. A friend there is, Christ a true friend, whose truth
and kindness are divine, whose love's a constant flame. And David went back to that God
that he, that he had trusted in. The one, he had been that
sweet psalmist of Israel, David, the man after God's own heart.
You see, David was going to walk such a difficult path and God
was using these difficult events to great effect in David's life.
David was appointed to be that sweet Psalmist of Israel. David
was the one that was going to write those Messianic Psalms,
which would show the sufferings of Christ 1,000 years before
the actual sufferings took place. David was being prepared by these
great trials. And that's a wonderful thing,
to lay hold of our enemies, the troubles that we come into. You
see, they're preparing us for future. But David encouraged
himself in the Lord, his God. And what does he do then? And
David said to Abiathar the priest, a Himalayan son, I pray thee,
bring hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought hither the
ephod to David. And in verse eight, we read,
and David inquired, at the Lord, inquired at the Lord. He prayed
to God, Lord, what shall I do? What shall I do? It's impossible.
My men are speaking of stoning me. All my family have gone and
the blame is so much on me. And also, you see, with David,
David was David was one that didn't make all his steps right.
He had lied to a Himalek when he went, when
he was fleeing, and told him that he was on business of the
king when he wasn't. And David realized that he had
occasioned the death of all the priests at Nob, some 70 souls. He had that on his conscience.
You see, and that's why Abiathar was with David, because all the
rest of the, all of the rest of his family had been slaughtered
by David, by Doeg. And really, there was some blame
on David with that. He was guilty as well. And may
that be a comfort for us. You see, Satan can come and say,
well, partly your sin has brought you where you are. So how can
you go back to God? But that's the mercy. You see,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are sinners and yet we go
back. We go back to that one that we sinned against. We go
back to God as sinners. If we have to have a perfect
track record to go and call upon God, we'd never be able to. No,
we come as sinners. We come as those that come short
of the glory of God, those who fail and falter, although David
was a very upright man. He had his faults at times. But
you see, David knew where to go in his trouble. May we tonight,
as we meet for prayer, come to that God with that living faith
that God is able to deliver from the darkest situations. You think
of what it was. He came back. All the ziklag
is burnt with fire. All his families are gone. The
families of all the men and the men that you have got are considering
and speaking of stoning you. It's pretty dire. Well, David
inquires at the Lord at that Lord saying, shall I pursue after
this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he
answered him, pursue, for thou shalt overtake them without fail. What a wonderful thing. You see,
David, when he had had his. fights with the Amalekites, you
see, the Amalekites were longtime enemies of Israel and God had
told Saul, you might remember earlier, that he was to kill
all the Amalekites and he didn't. He spared them, you see. And
when David had been fighting with them while he was with the
king of Gaa, we read specifically he killed the whole lot, women
and children, he eliminated them. yet mercifully when the Amalekites
came back and burned Ziklag with fire they didn't do that to David. Mercifully David encouraged himself
in the Lord he God and thou shalt overtake all and then we read
you see that God is faithful they found that Egyptian servant
that had been left of his master because he was ill when they
invaded it and went away and he got left just to die in the
field. David's men found him, David's men gave him food to
eat and he was able to show them where the Amalekites were and
how to find them. And so we read that David went
and smote them Just with these 400 men, it was tremendous odds
against him. We read that everybody got killed
apart from 400 that rode away with camels. So there must have
been a lot more than 400 there to start with. And David only
had 400 men. 200 of them were so weak with
what had gone on that they couldn't follow. They had to stay by the
Brook Beesaw. And David recovered all that
the Amalekites had carried away. And David rescued his two wives. And it's very emphasized, and
there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great,
neither son nor daughter, neither spoil nor anything that they
had taken to them. David recovered all. It's almost similar language
to when we read that Israel came out of Egypt. Not a hoof was
left behind. And there's something here, a
picture, isn't there, Hal, that nobody shall pluck them out of
my hands. We're in God's hands and we're
safe in his hands. And he's able to retrieve everything. And you see, and David shortly,
you see, In the next chapter after this, this is where Saul
and Jonathan die on those mountains of Gilboa, and then we have that
lamentation of David, and then we have David being anointed
king in Judah. Very shortly afterwards, he was
going to be put in that position that he had been anointed to
so many years before. And yet the darkest things just
before the dawn, as it was with our saviour, the darkness of
Gethsemane, the darkness of Calvary, how nobody thought that it was
a king going to a kingdom, nobody would have recognised that apart
from one of the youngest Christians there, the dying thief. He recognised it. He recognized
that this was a king going to a kingdom. And you see, it's
by faith. And so we are to walk by faith.
And we're to come to God in our troubles. And David, so often,
he didn't force himself upon Israel. You'll notice that. He
let God put him there. When he had ability to kill Saul
two times, he didn't. And you'll notice later on, when
it comes to his appointment of Israel, he never, as it were,
by military power overcame Saul, well, the household of Saul,
and then became their king because he beat them militarily. They
came to him in the end and said, you be our king. And you see,
that's what it is with all God's people. He conquers them with
love so that they say, you be our king. reign over us as king,
accomplish thy will, and powerfully bring us forth from all ill.
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 in the Lord his God. May we do the same tonight. Amen.