That One Sermon About Compassion Series

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.