Would you turn with me to 1 Samuel
chapter 30? I want to read this chapter. It's kind of a lengthy chapter,
but I want to read it. 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 was smitten. and burned it with
fire, and taken the women captive were therein, and 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 captive. I tried to think about what would
that be like to come home and find all your family taken captive,
and you don't know what's going to happen to them. You can imagine
how devastated they were. Verse four, then David and the
people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until
they had power to weep no more. 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. There's a double whammy.
He has lost all his family, and all his friends now want to stone
him. They want to put him to death. They're blaming him for
what had taken place. 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 hither the ephod,
And Bithyr brought hither the ephod to David, and David inquired
of 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. So David went, he and the six
hundred men that were with him, and came to 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 that they couldn't go over the brook Thesaur. And they
found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and
gave him bread. And he did eat, 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 three days and
three nights. And David said unto him, to whom
belongest thou? Whence art thou? And he said,
I'm a young man of Egypt, servant to Amalekite, and my master left
me because three days ago I fell sick. We made an invasion in
the south of the Cherithites and upon the coast with the,
belongeth to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb, and we burned
Ziklag with fire. And David said to him, canst
thou bring me down to this company? And he said, swear unto me, my
God, that thou will not kill me, nor deliver me into the hands
of my master, and I'll bring thee down to this company. And
when he brought him down, behold, 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. These are the people who, the
Amalekites, had burned Ziklag to fire and taken David and his
men's families. And David smoked them from the
twilight even to the evening of the next day. And there escaped
not a man of them, save 400 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 spoiled nor anything that he had taken to them. David
recovered all. And David took all the flocks
and herds which they had draved before those other cattle and
said, this is David's spoil. And David came to the two hundred
men, which were so famed that they couldn't follow David, whom
they had made also to abide at the brook Besor. And they went
forth to meet David, and to meet the people that were with him.
And when David came near to the people, he saluted them. Then
answered all the wicked men, and men of Belial, of those that
went with David, and said, Because they went not with us, we will
not give them out of the spoil that we have recovered, save
to every man his wife and his children, that they may leave
them away and depart. Then said David, you shall not
do so, my brethren, with that which the Lord hath given us,
who hath preserved us and delivered the company that came against
us into our hand, for who will hearken unto you in this matter?
But as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall
his part be that teareth by the stuff. They shall part alike.
And it was so from that day forward that he made it a statute and
an ordinance for Israel unto this day. And when David came
to Ziklag, he sent of the spoil unto the elders of Judah. even
to his friends, saying, Behold, a present for you of the spoil
of the enemies of the Lord. To them which were in Bethel,
and to them which were in south Ramoth, and to them which were
at Jeter, and to them which were at Eroder, and to them which
were at Sithmoth, and to them which were in Eshtimoah, and
to them which were in Rakhi, and to them which were in the
cities of the Jehoramalites, and to them which were in the
cities of the Kenites, and to them which were in Hormon, and
to them which were in Korashen, and to them which were in Atak,
these were all cities of Judah, and to them which were in Hebron,
to all the places where David himself and his men were wont
to haunt. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name, and we ask that you would be pleased to
meet with us, to make yourself known to us, to reveal thy gospel
to us and thy son, and give us the grace to sit at his feet
and hear his word. Lord, deliver us from merely
hearing from a man. We don't want that, but we want
to hear from thee, the living God. Lord, we confess our sins. We pray for forgiveness and cleansing. Be with all your people wherever
they meet together. In Christ's name we pray, amen. And this
is one of my favorite Old Testament stories. The gospel set forth
so beautifully in this passage of scripture, and I would say
it's the equivalent to the parable of the workers of the vineyard
in Matthew chapter 20 in the New Testament. It's teaching
the precise same thing, and it's teaching a glorious lesson. Now
David is returning to Ziklag, Now you will remember he's been
out of Israel for 16 months in some kind of hardened condition
and now Everybody in Israel's mad at
him, and then he's getting ready to fight with the Philistines
against Israel, and they won't let him fight. They send him
away, and he's going back to Ziklag, I think feeling very
isolated. The Israelites don't want to
have anything to do with him, and the Philistines don't want
to have anything to do with him now. So he's feeling pretty bad,
and he's feeling pretty down, and he comes back to Ziklag,
and he finds Ziklag burned with fire. While he was gone, the
Amalekites had come in and raided the place, and it was burned
with fire, and all their belongings and all the people were taken.
You can imagine how they must have felt. Now, beginning in
verse three, 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." These are David's mighty men that were
his friends. Now they said, let's put him
to death. Look at the trouble he's brought us into. Because
the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons
and for his daughters. Now David's at the bottom. That's
a good place to be. That's a good place to be. Because
what does David do now? David encouraged himself in the
Lord, his God. Now here's something I can always
be encouraged about. The Lord, my God. Whether everything else is bad,
God's still on the throne. And he's still good. And he's
still holy. And he's still sovereign. And
whatever he does with me is right. And because of that, I always
have reason to be encouraged. You know, the Lord put it this
way. In John chapter 16, verse 33, he said, in the world, you'll
have tribulation. You'll have trial. You'll have
trouble. but be of good cheer. I have
overcome the world." Now there's my encouragement. There's always
reason to be encouraged in the Lord God. You believe that? Yes, you do. Let's go on reading. Now, David did something that
he hadn't done in the last 16 months. 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. In other
words, he's asking the priest now. He's coming to the priest.
Remember when he got into this trouble. Turn back to chapter
27. Here's where it began. And David said in his heart,
I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul, even though
God had made these promises. He said, it's not going to work.
I'm going to perish. He didn't ask the Lord anything. He just
spoke in his own heart. He said, there's nothing better
for me to do than I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines.
And Saul shall despair of me to seek me anymore in any coast
of Israel. So shall I escape out of his hand. Now, he didn't
seek the Lord on this. He just thought this is the thing
to do. And that's what he did. And he was in the land for 16
months like that. But now he inquires of the Lord. You know, when the Lord revived
somebody, he was in a backslidden condition of some kind. I've
heard preachers say, you shouldn't talk about people being backslidden
because that'll give everybody an excuse to be backslidden.
Well, the Bible talks about it. So if the Bible talks about it,
me and you can talk about it. He was in a backslidden condition
in the land of the Philistines amongst all this idolatry, and
him not saying a word about it. He just kept his mouth closed
while all this idolatry was going on. He had kind of blended in
with the Philistines, and he was in this backslidden condition,
but now the Lord revives him, and he seeks the Lord once again
by the priest. Now, when you see your need of
Christ, When you see your need of His priesthood, when you see
your need of Him representing you before the Father, that means
the Lord's speaking to you. The Lord is once again speaking
to David. And how does it manifest itself?
David goes to the priest. Now let's go on reading. And
David said to Abiathar, the priest, to Himalek's son, I pray thee,
bring me hither the ephod, that Abiathar brought thither the
ephod to David. And David inquired of 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. Now that's exactly what
the Lord Jesus knew that he was going to do on Calvary's tree.
He was going to pursue and He was going to, without fail, recover
everything. He was going to save everybody
the Father gave Him. And David's such a beautiful
type of this. Verse 9, 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 200 men abode, which were
so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor. They
were so weakened by hunger and sickness, they couldn't make
it over the brook. And so they stayed behind, and
this is very significant, that only 400 men pursued the Amalekites. Very significant, and we're gonna
come back to that in a minute. Verse 11, now this is when the 400
men had gone to look for the Amalekites, and they found an
Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and gave him bread,
and he did eat, 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 they had
eaten no bread, nor drunk any water three days and three nights.
And David said unto him, To whom belongest thou, and whence art
thou? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt. servant to an Amalekite. This is just what they wanted
to hear. This is an Amalekite. He can give us the information
we need. Now look at the cruelty of the Amalekites. He said, my
master left me because three days ago I fell sick and he just
left me to die. And he tells David and the men
what they had done. We made an invasion upon the
south of the Cherithites and upon the coast which belongeth
to Judah and upon the south of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with
fire. And David said to him, Canst thou bring me down to this
company? And he said, swearing to me by God that thou will neither
kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I'll
bring thee down to this company. And when he brought him down,
behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating and
drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil they had
taken out of the land of the Philistines and out of the land
of Judah. They were having a party and they didn't have any idea
what was getting ready to take place. They were so happy with
all the spoils they'd taken, and this is including David's
wives and children. And so now what's gonna take
place? Verse 17, and David smote them
from the twilight, even to the evening of the next day. And
there escaped not a man of them, say 400 young men, which rode
upon camels and fled." Now, for 24 hours, 400 men, supernaturally
enabled by God, smoked them. I mean, they killed them all.
And this is a battle that lasted 24 hours. Now, it's so significant
that the scripture points out that 400 escaped. Amalek, as we've seen throughout
this book, represents the flesh. 400 men came in and smoked who
knows how many thousands and destroyed them, but 400 escaped. Now, what that lets me know is
I'm always going to have my flesh. It's always going to be here
against me, dealing with it, and I'll have it until I die. I love the way the scriptures
point things out like that, in these fine details. 400 escaped. Verse 18, 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 draved before those cattle and said,
this is David's spoil. David recovered everything. So
that there was absolutely nothing lacking to anybody, great or
small. Now what's the New Testament
commentary on this? In him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body and you are complete. You are lacking nothing. David, the greater David, recovered
all for you by his glorious achievements on Calvary Street. You lack nothing. I tell you what, if we believe
that, it's gonna make us in our hearts dance for joy. We are
complete in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our great David recovered all,
and truly these are David's spoils. Me and you are Christ's spoils. We're the trophies of the Lord
Jesus Christ, trophies of his grace. Now let's go on reading,
verse 21. And David came to the 200 men, which were so faint
that they could not follow David, whom they had made also to abide
at the brook, Besor. And they went forth to meet David
when he's coming back with all these spoils, and to meet the
people that were with him. And when David came near to them,
he saluted them. He treated them with kindness,
with respect, I mean, he didn't say, you bunch of weaklings that
stayed back behind and didn't help us. He came to these people
who were unable to help and he saluted them. He treated them
with kindness and respect. Verse 22, then answered, now
I want you to notice the language of this. Then answered all, A-double-L
all, the wicked men. and men of Belial, worthless
men, of those that went with David. Now this is the response
of every wicked man. That's very significant. This
is the response of every wicked man. And here's their response. Because they went not with us,
this 200, We will not give them aught of the spoil that we have
recovered, save to every man his wife and his children, that
they may lead them away and depart." And here's what they're saying.
These guys did nothing. We did everything. We put our
lives on the line. We're the ones who did the fighting.
So we ought to get extra spoil. These guys didn't do anything.
They should get nothing. Now, that is the response of
the wicked men. Now, I can kind of understand
their response. I mean, I would have a tendency to think, I did
it, they didn't. I get more than they did. Wouldn't
you think that way? It's kind of like the workers in the vineyard who work
12 hours and the other guys only worked one hour. And when they
find out they get the same thing that the guys that worked one
hour, they said, how's this fair? How's this fair? We've wrought
12 hours in the heat of the day and they've only worked an hour
and you're making them equal to us? How's that fair? That's
exactly what these fellas are saying. Now let me tell you three
things about these fellas. These sons of Belial. All the
wicked men. And I think it's interesting
that the scripture uses this language. All the wicked men
said this. All the wicked men. All the sons of Belial. Three
things about these fellas. Number one, they believed in
works. They thought we've worked, we
ought to get a bigger share. Look what David said in verse
23. Then said David, you shall not do so my brethren with that
which the Lord hath given us, who hath preserved us and delivered
the company that came against us into our hand. Who does he
give all the credit to? He said, the Lord did this. He
gave them to us. He preserved us. He delivered
all this into our hand. Now these fellas didn't believe
this, did they? They said, we fought, we earned this, it's
coming to us. They believed in works. The second thing I would notice
about these fellas is they had the religion of comparing themselves
to other men. That's what most men's religion's
about. At least I'm better than so-and-so. I did more than them.
of religion of comparison. I feel good about myself because
I might not be here, but at least I'm not down there. That's a
summary of human religion. We did more than them. And thirdly,
these fellas had no true love for their brethren. If you love
somebody, you want them to have the same. You want them to be
in the same place. You really do. Can you imagine?
You don't love somebody if you think, I want more than they
do. I want to have a higher reward in heaven than they have. You
know, this whole idea of higher rewards in heaven is so contrary
to the gospel, and it's so contrary to the spirit of love. I want
a mansion, and I want you to have a shack. I've done more
than you. I ought to have a higher place. I thought about this. It's awful
when you can think of some believer that seemingly is so inconsistent
in their life and contrary in their life, and they profess
to be a believer, and you think, they're going to have the same
place as everybody else. If they're believers, they will. They surely
will. They surely will. Because our
standing in heaven is the righteousness of Christ only. And as far as
that goes, if you've been enabled by divine grace to live any different
than the one that's having such a hard time, it's only the grace
of God that's made you to differ. You know that. You're the one
who's blessed. You're blessed in this. So David wouldn't have
anything to do with this. Look at David's response. Then
said David, you shall not do so, my brethren, with that which
the Lord hath given us, who hath preserved us and delivered the
company that came against us into our hand." Now this was
a supernatural victory. Supernatural. And David knew
this. David said, the Lord did all
this. We didn't do any of it. The Lord did it. You're not going
to be this way. He says, and I love it in verse
24 where he says, for who will hearken to you in this matter?
indignant. Who's going to hearken to you
in something this foolish, this contrary to the gospel, this
contrary to grace? Who's going to hearken to you
in something like this? But as his part is that goeth
down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by
the stuff they shall part alike. And it was so from that day forward
that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto
this day. It's the same way. You see, believers
are saved the same way. Saved the same way. Saved by
the same grace. Saved by the same blood. Saved
by the same righteousness. Saved by the same Savior. Saved
the same way. Now, if I'm saved, and I go to
heaven, There's only one reason why I'll be in heaven and why
I'm saved. It's because Christ died for
my sins and because He gave me His very righteousness. And there's
nothing you can add to that righteousness to improve it and make you have
a higher reward in heaven. What's higher than Christ's righteousness?
Would you dare add something you've done to what He's done? and think, that makes it better
for me. And now I'm better off than this person who wasn't as
obedient as I am and wasn't as faithful as I am. That whole
idea is offensive, isn't it? It's offensive. It's contrary
to the gospel. If we're saved, we're saved the
same way. And this is an ordinance forever. Can you imagine in heaven, this hierarchy. There's
Christ, and then there's the really good believers, the ones
who were real faithful, and then the less faithful, and then there's
the bad ones down here in the slums. That whole thought pattern
is offensive. It's offensive to the gospel.
And it was offensive to David. And David let it be known. It's
not going to be that way. You see, David really did believe
grace. He didn't believe in works. He
believed grace. And he wasn't about comparing
himself to somebody else. And he loved his brethren and
he wanted them to have the same as him. And that's what every
believer wants for every other believer. There's a true and
genuine love there that you want. We all, we all want to be saved
the same way, have the same Christ. Now, what I think is interesting
about this passage of scriptures, you remember, you go on reading,
David has all this extra spoil. and he starts sending it to all
the people in Judah. Remember, the scripture says
he stunk in the eyes of Israel because he'd left, and even the
king of Achish said he's made himself to stink in the eyes
of Israel. He'll be faithful to me. So he did. I mean, Israel
didn't like David at this time. He'd been gone for 16 months,
and he was with the king Achish, Joining up with the Philistines,
they were upset. The Philistines sent him back
to Ziklag. They didn't want to have anything
to do with him. David was a man alone, but through this horrible,
terrible thing of Ziklag being burned with fire and all their
wives and children were carried away. They spake of stoning David
and he was crying and miserable and, oh, this is a bad thing.
Through that, David was given all this spoil. And when David
did, he sent it all into Judah. And all of a sudden, Judah likes
David again. And all of a sudden, he's in good graces with Israel
again. And in the next chapter, King
Saul is gonna die, and David is going to become what God said
he was going to become, the king of all Israel. So you see, every
event, my beloved friends, every painful event, we can't see it
now, but every painful event, God is using it for our good
and his glory. What a gospel we believe. Okay.