A Study of the Life Of David
Sermon # 10
“David Encouraged Himself in the Lord”
1 Samuel 30: 1-25 key verse-6
We all need encouragement from time to time. All of us at sometime or other face a crisis when everything seems to fall apart. There are times of discouragement, when things go wrong even when we are trying to do right. At such times, people may even say, “That’s what you get for trying to do right.” There are times of uncertainty, when don’t know how things are going to turn out. There are times of stress, when our load seems heavier than we can bear. The task is more than we can handle. There can also be times of fear when our very sense of security is threatened. In all of those kinds of situations we need to be encouraged in the Lord.
In the midst of a time of great distress it says of David in our text in verse six, “…But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.” That sounds great doesn’t it? But what does it really mean that David encouraged himself in the Lord? I would like to have that ability wouldn’t you? So let’s see if we can examine this passage to understand his secret.
David and his company of six hundred men had been off serving in the military of Kind Achish of Gath (that’s right Gath the enemies of Israel) and in the process had left their wives and children in Ziklag unprotect-ed. A raiding band of Amalekites the persis-tent and longtime enemies of Israel, came down on the village, capturing the women and children for slaves, looting the place and carried of everything of value, leaving behind nothing but a smoking pile of rubble.
“Now it happened, when David and his men came to Ziklag, on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, (2) and had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great; they did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way. (3) So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire; and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive.” When David and his men arrived home all that remained was heap of smoking ruins. Everything was gone; wives, children, cattle and all their property. What do you do when life falls apart? Many follow the adage, “When in trouble, when in doubt, run in circles and scream and shout!”
It is interesting to note how David’s men reacted when they discovered their terrible loss. Verse four, “Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep.’
Some of them sat down and wept until they has no more tears to shed. But others complained and blamed David. Verse six,
“Now 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 his daughters….” Some went so far as to suggest that they stone David. It is always easy in a crisis to blame somebody else or to look for a scapegoat.
What does that have to do with encouraging your self in God? A lot of times when your life gets hairy you’re tempted to do what David’s troops did. You’re tempted to take it out on someone else. Misery loves company. You’re in the pit of despair and instead of spending time with God and asking Him what to do you do the stupid thing. You’re hurting so you hurt someone else. Hurt people hurt people.
So what happens after the crisis passes and you have time to reflect on having behaved badly toward someone else because you were in pain? Now you have another problem. You have to mend the fences you took down in your anger and your pain. So do yourself a favor, when troubles come be aware of yourself and behave yourself.
Think of what must have been going through David’s mind as he stood over the ruins of his home not knowing whether his family was dead or alive. He must have asked himself some questions. Like, “Why, if God is with me, is Saul trying to kill me? Why is Saul so insanely jealous of me? Why, if I am anointed do I have hide myself in the wilderness? Is this the reward I get for being a man after God’s own heart?”
Is it not possible that God intended that a crisis be allowed in David’s life that would force him to seek some answers from deep within? David had a choice. He could either, as a great many of us do, just stand there and continue to look, and see nothing but the disaster or he could look beyond them and see God. David looked deep within himself and there he met God and found the strength and direction to carry one. Then verse six continues with “…But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.”
It is now, here in the book of 1 Samuel 30:6 we find one of the most eloquent “but” in the Bible. David had lost just as much as any of the rest of the men. David’s only worldly possession at that moment was the clothes wore. Everything else was gone; his property was carried off by raiders, his home was a mass of smoldering embers. But they was one thing that the Amalekites had not and could not take from him, they could not take his relationship with God. Although he could no longer say, “My house, my city, my possessions,” he could say, “My God.”
You cannot know God if you do not know him personally. You can know about God but you do not know God. You may be able to use all the correct religious term-inology and you may even attend worship services but you do not know God. David was able to strengthen himself in the Lord because he had a personal relationship with God.
Alexander Maclaren states it this way, “Whatever else we lose, as long as we have Him we are rich; and whatever else we possess, we are poor as long as we have Him. God is enough; whatever else may go.”
David Strengthened Himself in the Lord.
We know from our earlier studies that it is possible for others to strengthen us in the Lord. That is what Jonathan did when he visited David earlier (1 Sam 23:16). What did Jonathan do? The account tells us Jonathan had encouraged David by remind him of God’s promises, “Do not fear, for the hand of Saul shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel…” (1 Sam. 23:17)
Therefore to strengthen ourselves in God means we remind ourselves of what Scripture says about God and his promises and then we apply those truths to our current situation.
Strengthening yourself in the Lord is an intentional act, it is not something that just happens. When it says, David “strengthened himself” the Hebrew verb implies persistent and continuous effort. There is nothing passive about seeking out the Lord in times of despair. Sometimes we almost have to grab ourselves by the labels and give ourselves a stern talking to as the Psalmist does in (43:5) “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God: For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.”
This story in the life of David points out three principles to guide us as we seek to “strengthen ourselves in the Lord.”
A Resource That Should Always Be Used: Seek Guidance And Direction From God. (vv. 7-10)
“Then David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, “Please bring the ephod here to me.” And Abiathar brought the ephod to David. (8) So David inquired of the LORD, saying, “Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?” And He answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.”
It seems obvious that David had not sought the Lord’s leadership in his decision to attach himself and his men to Achish, king of Gath. In fact in so doing he had violated God’s explicit instructions not to form alliances with the pagan peoples who had inhabited the land prior to Israel arrival.
This time before making any move, he first sought to determine what the will of God was! This time David deliberately stopped to ask the Lord if he should pursue this band of raiders and try to recover what had been taken. In verse eight he received clear instructions from the Lord, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.” God told David that he would recover everything they had lost and David took God at his word. From that point on David could look back and boast in the Lord, “In the day that I cried out, You answered me, And made me bold with strength in my soul.” (Psalm 138:3)
He believed God and acted upon that belief in pursuing the band of Amalekite raiders and fighting to take back what they had lost. It would have done no good for David to sit around in the ruins of Ziklag and say, “Well I Am Just Trusting the Lord.” Real trust in the Lord is seen in David’s willingness to act on what God had said.
David’s six hundred man army was ill-prepared to hunt down the Amalekite raiders.
They had just returned from a long march back from the Philistine stronghold of King Achish. They were fatigued and battle weary. They were demoralized by being expelled from the army of Achish. And they were less than unenthusiastic about David leadership. David’s plan to run down the Amalekites did not seem at all promising.
Nevertheless when David said go, they went! David roused his men to action and led them in a forced march south. Pushing hard for fifteen miles they reached the Brook Besor (30:9). At that point two hundred of the men were too exhausted to go on (v. 10).They said in effect, “We can’t go another step, We don’t have the strength and we don’t have the spirit.” And so they were left at the Brook Besor, “with the stuff” (KJV, v. 24).
A Truth That Must Be Acknowledged: Where the Lord Leads He Provides (vv. 11-19)
David and the remaining four hundred men crossed over the brook and pushed on into the desolate desert badlands pursuing the Amalekites. But they were not able to find any trace of their passing. With each passing hour it seemed more and more hopeless. God’s sovereignty is seen in small incident in the story. They just “happen” upon a sick Egyptian captive who had been left behind by the Amalekites.
In verse eleven we read, “Then they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David; and they gave him bread and he ate, and they let him drink water. (12) And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. So when he had eaten, his strength came back to him; for he had eaten no bread nor drunk water for three days and three nights. (13) Then David said to him, “To whom do you belong, and where are you from?” And he said, “I am a young man from Egypt, servant of an Amalekite; and my master left me behind, because three days ago I fell sick. (14) We made an invasion of the southern area of the Chere-thites, in the territory which belongs to Judah, and of the southern area of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.” (15) And David said to him, “Can you take me down to this troop?” So he said, “Swear to me by God that you will neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will take you down to this troop.”
It turned out that the Egyptian had been the servant of one of the Amalekite rulers, but when he became sick he was abandoned as too much trouble to bother with and left behind in the desert to die. That pretty much killed any sense of loyalty that the Egyptian might have had for the Amalekites. It is important to realize that if David had not been kind and generous to this hurting man he would have missed God’s provision.
The Egyptian once revived realizing that he had been saved told David that he knew where the Amalekites could be found. They were on their way to a victory celebration when the poor Egyptian had been left behind so he could tell David exactly where to find them.
(vv. 16-19) “And when he had brought him down, there they were, spread out over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil which they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. (17) Then David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled. (18) So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. (19) And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them; David recovered all.”
When David and his men came upon the Amalekites the party was already in full swing – eating, drinking and dancing. The Amalekite’s were spread out before them feasting on the food and drink they had looted from Ziklag and other places they had pillaged on their raid. They felt they were far from any place of danger and therefore did not even post a guard. Consumed with their carousing they were sitting ducks for David and his men and soon they were dead ducks! The recovery was complete, they recovered everything they had lost plus extensive booty from Amalekites other raids.
David and his men return in triumph.
That may sound like the climax to the story but it is not. David and his men return to the Brook Besor and another challenge rears its head.
A Principle By Which We Should Operate: Be A Channel of God’s Grace (vv. 20-25)
The crisis was over but it was replaced by another. Two hundred of David’s men had been left behind because they were so weary they could go no further. When it came time for a division of the spoils there was dissension.
In verse twenty we read, “Then David took all the flocks and herds they had driven before those other livestock, and said, “This is David’s spoil.” (21) Now David came to the two hundred men who had been so weary that they could not follow David, whom they also had made to stay at the Brook Besor. So they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. And when David came near the people, he greeted them. (22) Then all the wicked and worthless men of those who went with David answered and said, “Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except for every man’s wife and children, that they may lead them away and depart.” (23) But David said, “My brethren, you shall not do so with what the LORD has given us, who has preserved us and delivered into our hand the troop that came against us. (24) For who will heed you in this matter? But as his part is who goes down to the battle, so shall his part be who stays by the supplies; they shall share alike.” (25) So it was, from that day forward; he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day.”
Some of those who had gone on to the battle insisted that those who had stayed behind not share in the spoils (v. 22). David reminds them that everything they had was a gift from the hands of God (v. 23). The victory they had just experienced was sheer grace. What right did they have to talk about dividing things fairly? God had treated them with marvelous and generous grace. David would see to it that they treated one another with the same grace. It became a principle that would govern Israel from then on, those who stayed behind to guard the supplies would share just as much as they who had fought in the battle.
Conclusion
From this story we learn the invaluable truth that we do not have to be able to see God’s hand for to know that it is there and we do not have to understand how some-thing can be for our good in order for it to be so. Even while David was reaping the consequences of his sin and is at the lowest point in his entire life, God is graciously acting on his behalf to give David the throne of Israel just as he had promised. Just three days after this near revolt by his followers there came a fugitive into the camp with the news that Saul was dead and the way was now open for David to become king (2 Sam. 1:2-4). So it was not in vain that he had “strengthened himself in his Lord.”
Even the loss of Ziklag was God’s gracious action in his behalf, because it’s destruction was the end of his roots in the land of the Philistines and it opened the way for him to move to Hebron where he would begin his rule over Israel. Often God must destroy our links to the world so that we will open to receive his best.
