THE VERY RELATABLE LIFE OF KING DAVID
THAT ONE SERMON ABOUT COMPASSION
1 Samuel 30:18-31
#kingdavid
STORY PART 1
Once upon a time, there was a woman whose job it was to carry rocks from the rock pile outside of her village all the way into her hometown. She had a large basket on her back that she would fill at the rock pile and then walk into town. She did this over and over as long as it was light. It was hard work and sweaty work and heavy work, but it was her job and it was how she paid the bills to help feed her family. She wasn’t good at cooking or gardening or mending clothes or music or teaching or selling in the market or any of the normal jobs women did for a living in town. So, she carried rocks. Big rocks. Little rocks. Muddy rocks. Brown rocks. Lots of rocks.
One particular day the woman was filling up her basket at the pile of rocks outside of town and she hefted a pretty good-sized rock up from the pile and thought she got it into her basket, but she did not. Instead of dropping into her basket, the pretty good-sized rock dropped onto her foot. She hooted and hollered as the pain in her toes let the rest of her body know something was wrong. Her shabby shoes had not protected her feet at all. She hurt herself. Bad.
Just about then, a skinny young man on a horse was riding by heading out of town. He saw her hopping around on one foot in obvious pain. She was yelling and carrying on and definitely looked like she was hurt. The skinny young man noticed the pretty good-sized rock on the ground and guessed what had happened. The skinny young man rode on choosing not to see.
The woman knows she has to head back to town with her basket full of rocks or she would not get paid. Her foot hurt. The tough lady hefted the large basket on her back and started to limp into town. This was not a slight limp or a little limp, but a dreadful noticeable painful limp.
As she was heading into town, the local bodybuilding champion named Mariusz happened to be walking the same way as her. He noticed her dreadful painful limp, but didn’t say anything. He noticed her limp made her almost spill rocks out of her basket. He didn’t say anything. They talked about the weather and how the price of rocks just kept going up and up and up. Mariusz bought lots of rocks for lifting. She stumbled. The bodybuilding champion noticed her stumble and felt so sorry for her. He pitied her. She had to lug those rocks all the way into town with a limp and his heart felt so sad for her. The two walked until they came to the outskirts of town and the bodybuilder waved goodbye and went into the gym.
LIFE OF DAVID: 1 SAMUEL 30
We are continuing our sermon series on ‘The Very Relatable Life of King David’ in the Bible from 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel. We are looking into David because we get to see his life with its ups and downs unlike anyone else in all of Scripture. His life is very relatable and teaches us much about life, spiritual truths, relationships, and so much more. Again, you can find his story in 1 & 2 Samuel in the Old Testament in the Bible.
1 Samuel 30 (where we are today) concludes a season in David’s life when he is keeping God at arm’s length. We do not see him praying or even mentioning God. His heart is weighed down by anxiety and depression and he physically and spiritually separates himself from God (1 Samuel 27:1-12). We talked about this last week as David zigzagged in Ziklag.
God gets David’s attention at the beginning of 1 Samuel 30 in that He allows a disaster to befall David and his men and all their families. When David and his fighting men are away, enemies come and burn Ziklag and carry off everyone. This was a traumatic event for everyone involved.
READ 1 SAMUEL 30:3-4 (ESV)
And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. 4 Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep.
Disaster has struck and yet there is hope for David in the midst of all this. God gets David’s attention in the midst of this tragedy and that is why I say there is hope. Tragedy or trials or tests that do not drive us closer to God are empty. By the way, yes, God still uses tragedy and hardships and trials and natural consequences and supernatural consequences to shake us out of our sin and to grow and complete our faith. This is why James says what he says in James 1:2-4 and Peter says what he says in 1 Peter 1:6-7.
READ JAMES 1:2-4 (ESV)
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
READ 1 PETER 1:6-7 (ESV)
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
We know that God gets David’s attention because verse 6 (chapter 30) shares with us a shift in David’s heart and in his thinking. David comes back to his relationship with God and draws strength from the only source he ever needs. 1 Samuel 30:6 says very clearly:
READ 1 SAMUEL 30:6 (ESV)
And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.
I can imagine David’s heart filled with words that focused on God’s strength when he was weak. David writes about God and strength in the Psalms.
READ PSALM 28:7-8 (ESV)
The LORD is my strength and my shield; in Him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to Him. The LORD is the strength of His people; He is the saving refuge of His anointed.
READ PSALM 29:11 (ESV)
May the LORD give strength to His people! May the LORD bless His people with peace!
READ PSALM 59:16 (ESV)
But I will sing of Your strength; I will sing aloud of Your steadfast love in the morning. For You have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.
The middle portion of 1 Samuel 30 records for us how David prays and gets permission from God to go after those who attacked and pillaged Ziklag and to recover anyone still alive. He finds an informant who leads him right to his enemies. It is a tiring chase and not all his fighting men make it to the battle. He had to leave some behind, but in the end, God gives the enemies into David’s hands and he is successful.
READ 1 SAMUEL 30:18-31 (ESV)
18 David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and David rescued his two wives. 19 Nothing was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken. David brought back all. 20 David also captured all the flocks and herds, and the people drove the livestock before him, and said, “This is David's spoil.” 21 Then David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow David, and who had been left at the brook Besor. And they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. And when David came near to the people he greeted them. 22 Then all the wicked and worthless fellows among the men who had gone with David said, “Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except that each man may lead away his wife and children, and depart.” 23 But David said, “You shall not do so, my brothers, with what the LORD has given us. He has preserved us and given into our hand the band that came against us. 24 Who would listen to you in this matter? For as his share is who goes down into the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage. They shall share alike.” 25 And he made it a statute and a rule for Israel from that day forward to this day. 26 When David came to Ziklag, he sent part of the spoil to his friends, the elders of Judah, saying, “Here is a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of the LORD.” 27 It was for those in Bethel, in Ramoth of the Negeb, in Jattir, 28 in Aroer, in Siphmoth, in Eshtemoa, 29 in Racal, in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, in the cities of the Kenites, 30 in Hormah, in Bor-ashan, in Athach, 31 in Hebron, for all the places where David and his men had roamed.
PROBLEM AT THE BROOK IN 1 SAMUEL 30
We come upon a problem in this passage even as we think the peak of the story has ended. We might be inclined to think that David rescuing his family and everyone else’s family is the end of the story. It is not. Verse 22 shares a problem. The men who continued with David the whole way wanted to keep all the spoil for themselves and leave out the men who were exhausted and left behind at the brook midway through the chase. There are differing opinions. On one hand, those who work hard should be paid for their hard work and on the other, the men at the brook are part of the greater whole.
David understands the issues and steps in and solves the problem. David ruled that everyone at the brook that day was part of his band of warriors and everyone would not only get their families back safe and sound but would share in the extra plunder they won. David tells the men that everything they have came from the hand of God. God gave them victory. God gave them the ability to get the extra plunder. Not only that, but once he got back to Ziklag, David sent some of the plunder to people who did no work to get it and lived in Israel. He sent gifts to his friends in Judah and shared with them from the spoils of the enemies of the Lord (verse 26).
Why did David decide what he decided and do what he did?
What kind of action do we call what David did?
What was going on inside David that would make him act and speak this way?
STORY PART 2
The woman with the dreadful noticeable painful limp carrying rocks on her back waved goodbye to her friend Mariusz and continued on into town. She passed the local general store and men and women pointed and noticed her, but no one came up to her to help. She walked and walked. The women at the beauty salon called out to her and told her how sorry they were for her pain, but none helped carry any of her load. She walked and walked. A politician giving a speech in the town square noticed her and decided to use her as an example of the economic hardships injuries place on physical laborers and how local laws would help such people once he was elected.
It was not until she passed the local elementary school that something amazing happened. All of the children were at recess when the woman carrying the rocks limped by. One by one the children broke from their hopscotch and jump ropes and kickball games and ran to the hard-working limping woman. As the woman walked, a child would come up behind her and take a stone from her basket and carry it alongside her. One by one children came. The woman limped along now with an empty basket as a gaggle of kids behind her each carried her load. It was not long past the school when the woman came upon her rock pile in town. One by one the children tossed their rocks and stones on the pile, smiled, waved, and ran back to the schoolyard. The woman herself had a big smile on her face, but her foot still hurt because she dropped a pretty good-sized rock on it and probably broke something.
TRANSITION
Why did David decide what he decided and do what he did?
What kind of action do we call what David did?
What was going on inside David that would make him act and speak this way?
I think it all comes down to one word: Compassion.
What is compassion?
How and why did David have compassion for some of his warriors?
How and why should we have compassion for others in our lives?
COMPASSION
‘Compassion’ is a unique word in that it has many synonyms which mean pretty much the same thing, but there is also no word quite like it. Pity and sympathy are close and so are empathy and care and soft-heartedness. Leniency is a good word but falls short as do tolerance, concern, consideration, and humaneness. Compassion is all of those words wrapped up in one word and so much more. Compassion is sympathy and empathy for distress or suffering and the action to help. True compassion is a feeling. True compassion is more than a feeling. True compassion is an action. True compassion is more than an action.
I want you to know that David’s compassion came from one place… or rather… One Person. Starting in chapter 27, David takes a vacation from God. We see him make bad decisions and around create a problem for himself and those around him. God shakes him with a tragedy and David comes back to his spiritual senses. It is only after God is in the mix with his mind and heart and emotions and will that David is able to be compassionate. David is able to be compassionate because of God.
In verse 6, David relies on God’s strength and that strength leads him to be compassionate.
In verse 23, David confesses thankfulness for God’s blessings and that leads him to compassion. In verse 24, David rejects selfish wicked worthless thinking and that leads him to be compassionate.
In verse 26, David establishes a pattern of giving so that he will remain compassionate.
Let’s not miss what David thinks, feels, and motivates himself with because David’s life is very relatable to ours.
David relies on God’s strength to be compassionate. We need to do that.
David confesses thankfulness for God’s blessings. We can do that.
David rejects selfish wicked worthless thinking. We must to do that.
David establishes a pattern of giving so that he will remain compassionate. We should do that.
TRANSITION
Compassion is not an ideal just for the Old Testament. Compassion is not an old-fashioned or outdated way to live. Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, has much to say on the subject.
COMPASSION IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
Jesus teaches and commands in Matthew 5 that compassion is love and help and assistance and gifts not only for those we like but for those we cannot stand that we might consider an enemy. The strength to have compassion comes from God Who shows us by His compassion for us that we can love those who are lovely and we can love those who are unlovable. Compassion comes to all if you are a believer in Jesus because, for the Christian, compassion is contagious. We get compassion from God and we give compassion to others. Again, we are not just talking about theory or nice ideas or feelings here, but rather sympathy and empathy for distress or suffering and the action to help.
READ Matthew 5:44-48 (ESV)
44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father Who is in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Jesus also teaches and commands us in Matthew 25. Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 25 about the final judgment and how people will be separated into two groups. One group is the sheep who believe in Him. The other group is the goats who do not believe in Him. In the parable, as the Savior King speaks to these two groups, He welcomes them into the Kingdom. The righteous are grateful but also puzzled.
READ Matthew 25:37-40
Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 And when did we see You a stranger and welcome You, or naked and clothe You? 39 And when did we see You sick or in prison and visit You?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me.’
APPLICATION
David is teaching us to be compassionate. Jesus Christ commands His followers to be compassionate. Left to ourselves we have selfish wicked worthless thinking and apart from God, we haven’t the strength to be compassionate. In order to be steadily compassionate people, we will need to rely on our relationship with Christ to strengthen us to form our hearts towards compassion. Another part of compassion is understanding that everything we have comes from God and He may use us and whatever we have in any manner He chooses. This is a Godly attitude that also leads us to be people who consistently give and give and then give some more. That’s compassion.
STORY PART 3
The next day the woman with the dreadful noticeable painful limp whose job it was to carry rocks on her back went back to work. Her limp was not as noticeable after an evening of propping her foot up with an icepack. Her foot was hurt, but she had rocks to move and so off to work she went. When the woman arrived at her rock pile outside of town, she saw a distressing sight. Sitting on her rock pile was the skinny young man who had ridden out of town on a horse the day before and had noticed her plight, but rode on without helping. He sat in obvious pain. She approached him and he mentioned to her that a good distance after leaving town, he sneezed the loudest sneeze anyone had ever sneezed and scared his horse. His horse bucked him off and ran away. In the process of landing on the ground, he hurt both his feet. It had taken him all night to drag himself back to the spot of the rock pile.
This particular story can end in several ways as the woman who carries rocks responds to the young skinny man who has hurt both feet.
* She could fill up her basket with rocks and then put the basket on her back and make her way into town leaving the young skinny man to drag himself into town. We might call that normal fair behavior or natural consequences for the young man.
* She could just start laughing hysterically because a person who refused to help her the day before needs her help now. She could point. She could reenact the accident all the while making fun of him for being so stupid and also heartless. We might call that ironic justice.
* She could sit and listen to him tell his story of woe and empathize and share with him words of pity and sorrow. She could share her experience the day before with pain and anguish and also then blame him for not helping her and share that he’s in the spot he’s in because he’s a terrible person. We might call that correcting his behavior.
* She could sit and listen to him tell his story of woe and empathize and then pick up the skinny young man and stuff him in her basket and carry him back to town because a skinny young man weighs much less than a basket full of rocks. We might call that compassion.
I think it all comes down to one word: Compassion.
PRAYER
INVITATION
I want to invite you today to accept the compassion of the Lord Jesus. Jesus Christ lived a perfect life and died a cruel death and rose victorious over the grave so that He might show us compassion. Jesus wants us to come to Him because in compassion He has already made a way for us to lay our sin burdens down before Him and He will take care of them. Jesus in compassion offers us rest for our souls from guilt and sin oppression and lostness.
READ MATTHEW 11:28-30 (ESV)
Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
Jesus is all about compassion. Will you come today and accept the compassion of God the Father provided by Jesus Christ and confirmed in the Holy Spirit? Please make a decision today to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and accept His compassion. Don’t wait.
