ZIKLAG- Pressed down
1 Samuel 30:1
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,
We come to a time when the great David was backslid and discouraged. How many of you know that even great men can fall or succumb to depression. Martin Luther suffered from depression and used to be in a black mood for some time. One day his wife, Katrina dressed in black clothes and a veil and went into his room. What is wrong, is someone dead asked Martin? Yes, God is dead she replied Martin said what are you saying? She answered that God must be dead because of the way you are acting- get up and do your work and he did!
God had anointed David to be king when he was young, but years of hardship and persecution had led to David losing his way, fleeing for his life, and finally living with the enemies of God. How many of you have had Words from God and how many of you have lost your way. How many of you have become discouraged and have fallen away? How many are lost right now?
The theologians say that during this period David wrote no Psalms. He went over to the Philistines and joined the enemy. He sought shelter from the enemy –don’t we do the same thing we run from God and seek shelter with the world! David behaved badly and cruelly. He and his men used to raid the local tribes and kill everything in the camps - these were not works sanctioned by God.
10 years of hardship, 10 years of discouragement had led David to where he was now! This was a guy anointed to be king- who defeated Goliath, defeated armies, Had, done many great works, now totally discouraged. A great man broken by fear and discouragement, does this sound familiar to you personally?
If you allow discouragement to fester in your heart, it will lead to backsliding and there are consequences to backsliding.
Maybe you are discouraged, life happened and threw you on the ground. David still had the High Priest with him, but he was not consulting God. He had a telephone to glory right there -the Priest, but he did not use him.
He was going through the motions - still religious, but his heart was not in it. Maybe you are there today – coming to church, to cell group – but you are just going through the motions. Like David, discouragement has led to backsliding – and when we are backslid we are in the greatest danger!
Charles Finney the great revivalist lists the consequences of backsliding:
The backslider is full of his own works, but they are dead works, not works of faith and love acceptable to God.
He is full of his own feelings. Instead of sweet peace, rest and joy in the Holy Spirit, he finds himself rocked by unrest, dissatisfied with himself and everyone else.
It is often a trial to live with a backslider. They have forsaken God and in their feelings, there is more of hell than of heaven.
Backsliders are full of prejudice. Their willingness to know and do the truth has left them. The backslider is full of hatred – he holds grudges against all with whom he comes into conflict.
The backslider is full of mistakes. He doesn’t walk with God. He has left the divine order. Mistakes in business, mistakes in forming relationships, mistakes in using his time, his tongue, his money, his influence – everything goes wrong for him as long as he runs from God.
Lust fills the backslider. His appetites he once kept under, now resume control. Sex; drink and unrestrained sin fill their lives.
His own words fill the backslider – he can’t control his tongue.
Trouble fills his life – instead of keeping clear of temptation, he runs right into it.
Foolishness fills the backslider.Having rejected God’s guidance, he does stupid things.
The backslider in heart, bloats with troubles. God is against him and he is against himself.
Care ladens the backslider. He has returned to selfishness, counting himself and his possessions as his own.
The backslider is confused. He walks contrary to God, and God walks contrary to him. Spurgeon says: Without Christ you have no shepherd to tend you, no king to help you – you cannot call in the day of trouble upon One who is strong to deliver. The angels of God, who are the standing army of King Jesus, are your enemies and not your friends.
Anxiety fills the backslider – about himself, his business, his reputation – about everything.
The backslider will dwell in disappointment, having abandoned God and embraced self-determination. God will inevitably disappoint him as he pursues his selfishness.
A sense of loss fills the backslider. He loses peace, prosperity, time, his Christian reputation and testimony – and if he persists, he loses his soul.
The backslider will be burdened with crosses. Every spiritual duty is irksome, a cross to him. He can dash himself against the everlasting rocks of God’s will, but breakthrough or overcome them, he cannot. He will be crossed, re-crossed and crossed again until he submits to God’s order and sinks into God’s will. In fact he finds that God Himself is against him.
Temper will overcome the backslider. Without God much will irritate him.
The backslider in heart disgraces himself. He blows his testimony in front of the world.
The backslider is deluded, having an evil eye, his whole body is dark – he easily falls into false doctrine and practices.
The backslider will be in chains. His profession of Christ binds him to the church. He has no heart for building the church, yet he is bound by covenant to do so - so the work of God is done with reluctance and not with a willing heart.
Friend, if one, or all or any of these things apply to you, you are backslidden - but now is the time to recognize it and repent.
David is in Ziklag: Ziklag means pressed down or winding. Ziklag was given to the tribe of Simeon when the land was first divided. Then the Philistines won it over and kind of left it deserted. David was given this deserted city, when he went over to the Philistines, which was on the border of the Negev, the south country, and it was just what he wanted.
Down below the south country were wandering bedouin tribes who lived by plunder and had big herds. They wandered back and forth across the top of the Sinai Peninsula from Arabia all the way to Egypt. They didn't live in villages, towns or walled cities and could be destroyed without a trace. No one would know. What a resource! David didn't ask for Ziklag; it was given to him by Achish the Philistine and was a perfect setup for raiding.
We need to remember here that Achish was a feudal lord. As a feudal lord he could demand to know and had a right to know, and approve, every action David took. He also had a right to share in the spoils. The city of Ziklag was the perfect location for David to get far enough away from Achish to trick him. David was raiding and killing everyone they encountered in the region and stealing all their gold.
David is not now the beautiful singer in Israel. He is not having fellowship with his Lord. In fact, there is no place to worship. He cannot make altars outside of Jerusalem, or where the Ark of the Covenant happens to be at the moment. He cannot sacrifice any place but with the Ark of the Covenant. He can hardly talk to his children about Yahweh and the attributes of truth and love, when he is out slaughtering babies. His men cannot either. There is a sizable spiritual void right through this period of his life. He is no longer the sweet singer of Israel. He is the butcher of the south country.
But one day! How many of you know there will be a one day in a backsliders life? Some of you here have had that one day! When the bottom drops out of your life and now everything collapses around you!
David and his men are coming back from a meeting with the Philistines. They are arrogant and confident. He has left no one to protect the camp. He’s making a backslider’s mistakes. There is a gap in his life. He has not consulted God. He has not walked with God and God is not walking with him. And the enemy sees it and takes advantage.
With no Godly protection, hell attacks. David comes back and his city is burned with fire, all the women and children have been taken – it’s an absolute disaster. How many of you know it will be an absolute disaster to backslide? I can safely prophesy to the backslider that it will be an absolute disaster to leave the Lord.
1 Samuel 30:1-5
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, 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.
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.
Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices
and wept, until they had no more power to weep. And David's two
wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had been taken captive.
Many of us when we backslide, cry until we have no more power to weep!
They had been away 3 days and the enemy was long gone. There must have been signs of who had been there – maybe an arrow head or a piece of clothing, but David knew it was Amalek - Israel’s age old enemies. How many of you know that we have an age old enemy –the Devil and Amalek belonged to the devil.
God hated Amalek and had decreed that the entire nation of Amalek be destroyed. They were a cruel and dangerous people who hated Israel. The devil had sent his best troops to do his bidding.
Read 1 Samuel 30:6
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.
Everybody was shattered – imagine your wife and children in the hands of the most vicious serial killers and murderers. David and his men wept till they could weep no more. Having no enemy to fight, the soldiers then turned on David. “See where you have brought us!” Having forsaken God, David lost everything – even his men’s respect. He is alone and afraid and in utter sorrow.
In his darkest hour, David turns back to God – backslidden, broken, and lost everything. Backslider God is waiting for you even in your darkest hour.
1 Samuel 30:6(b)
But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.
David strengthened himself in the Lord. David wept before the Lord, he’s making right - not making deals - with God. NOT: “I will serve you if you save my wife and children” – NO! He’s ready to do what God wants him to do.
Read 1 Samuel 30:7-8
Then David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, "Please
bring the ephod here to me." And Abiathar brought the ephod to
David.
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”.
Amalek is far away, but David knew that with God all things are possible. Maybe your backsliding has cost you everything and brought you to ruin. But David now seeks God. And God says “Go get ‘em”! To us He might say go get your life back! But coming back to God will not be easy, it will take effort. The road back can be filled with many dangers and hardships.
Read 1 Samuel 30:9-10
So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the Brook Besor, where those stayed who were left behind.
But David pursued, he and four hundred men; for two hundred stayed behind, who were so weary that they could not cross the Brook Besor.
They don’t just recover all the things they have lost so easily. It’s an almost impossible journey – some could not make it. It was so hard to get back what they had lost, that 200 men could not do it, they gave up. Some cannot make the journey back its too hard they give up!
And so it is with us when we return to the Lord from backsliding – it will take huge effort on our part to recover what was lost. It will take discipline to read the Word, it will take time put aside to pray. It will take courage to stop doing the things that displease God. It will take a huge effort on our part to believe God for deliverance and recovery of all that was lost! But it CAN be done! They find an Egyptian slave who had been abused and left for dead by the Amelakites and he leads them to the camp.
Read 1 Samuel 30:16-19
And when he had brought him down, there they were, spread out overall 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.
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.
So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and
David rescued his two wives. 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.
God had mercy on David; but it really cost him something to get everything back-he had to work really hard.
I want to close with Charles Finney’s note on recovering from backsliding:
1. Remember where you have fallen from. Think about how it was when you walked with God.
2. Understand your exact condition with God
3. Repent at once. Do you first work again.
4. Don’t try and change the way you behave – begin with your heart – get right with God.
5. Don’t think you must reform and make yourself better before you can come to Christ. Rather understand that coming to Christ - and that alone - can make you better. Until you throw yourself on God’s sovereign mercy and in that way return to God, He will accept nothing from you
6. Don’t fool yourself that you are in a justified state, because you know you are not. Your conscience condemns you and you know that God should condemn you too. Come then to Christ at once, like a guilty condemned sinner. Come as you are, owning up, taking all the shame and blame on yourself. Believe that despite your wanderings from God, He still loves you. He has loved you with an everlasting love and is drawing you today with His loving-kindness.
At Ziklag, David faced the lowest point in his life, for he lost his entire family in one day. After this tragedy, even his best friends were ready to stone him. Because he found strength in the Lord, however, God turned the whole situation around. "David got back everything the Amalekites had taken, and he rescued his two wives. Nothing was missing: small or great, son or daughter, nor anything else that had been taken. David brought everything back" (1 Samuel 30:18-19).
Someone has pointed out that at Ziklag David was only seventy-two hours away from a miracle. Unknown to him, all the years of his running from Saul were about to come to an end. The test was almost over, but the final part of the test was the hardest. But afterward, not only did David recover everything, but he also gained a tremendous amount of wealth. He used that wealth to spread goodwill throughout Judah, and this initiated the process of his becoming king of Judah. What a turnabout from the deep depression of Ziklag!
You may think you have waited forever, but you may be only seventy-two hours from your miracle. "When Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes. In fact, the Lord gave him twice as much as before" (Job 42:10). Wait for God to turn your darkness into glorious light!
Jer 3:22 "Return, you backsliding children, And I will heal your backslidings." "Indeed we do come to You, For You are the LORD our God.
Isa 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.
GIVE CHALLENGE
