DAVID ENCOURAGED HIMSELF ROSS SMITH
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1 Samuel 30:6 David was greatly distressed, for the men spoke of stoning him because the souls of them all were bitterly grieved, each man for his sons and daughters. BUT DAVID ENCOURAGED AND STRENGTHENED HIMSELF IN THE LORD HIS GOD.
- David was greatly distressed
- He was under the threat of death
- He encouraged and strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
The scene is set in Ziklag, but the origin of this event started sometime earlier when David became anxious about Saul’s ambition to kill him.
So, he takes 600 men and heads to Philistine territory, a town called Gath, on the eastern border of the Gaza Strip. Goliath came from there, and so David would have been well known as to his fighting prowess. David colluded with the king there, and as a consequence, his men and their families joined David and his wives and set up residence there.
Back in 1 Samuel 27:1 is where the rot set in and is a graphic reminder for us to reflect on this damning habit. “David said in his heart”, or as we understand, he engaged in “SILENT DEBATE”.
This habit so undermines and destroys our “Adherence, Trust and Reliance”, and David is a great lesson for us. Because of his “SILENT DEBATE”, he defected to the enemy and infected 600 families by joining with the Philistine’s and spent 16 months collaborating with king Ashish.
Ziklag was quite near Gath, where the king resided, so no doubt the inappropriate liaison continued when David set up his living arrangements.
In his inimitable fashion, David reverts to his warlike character and further deviates from God by lying to Achish about his raids and his ruthless extermination of some of the enemies of Israel. He has not only defected, but he has also declined.
Eventually, the liaison with the Philistine king leads to David and his men joining with this foreign army. As the Philistine army is preparing to go to war, including David and his men, the Philistine hierarchy of Lords found out about David and his 600 and promptly kicked them out. Now probably with his tail between his legs, David takes three days to get back home to Ziklag.
It was a very discouraging day for David, for when he returned from the battlefield with his men, they discovered that in their absence, the city had been raided and ransacked by a group of terrorists, their families were missing, and the city had been looted and burned. In some sort of convoluted way, the men held David responsible for what had happened and were suggesting that they should stone him. Ziklag no longer existed; the Amalekites had burnt the whole town down and made prisoners of the inhabitants, mainly wives and children of the 600 men. It also included, however, David’s two wives.
In 1 Samuel 30:6, David faces an “INSURMOUNTABLE” or a “SANCTIFIED EXPERIENCE”, “he was greatly distressed”. Father uses events, circumstances, trials and temptations in His quest to conform us to His image and likeness, but do we recognise God at work?
To his credit, David began to see God at work. He had wept bitterly, not only for his family but realised in his backslidden state he was the one responsible for all this, the destruction of the city and the capture of the people.
Now comes the lovely lesson, one we have been superficially nibbling around the edges, that is, God is at work even when it looks like a disaster.
Many people in such circumstances rush off to the doctor for some “antidepressants” or get referred to a shrink to try and adjust their head, but the problem is about 30 cm lower, in their heart.
“DAVID ENCOURAGED AND STRENGTHENED HIMSELF IN THE LORD”.
HOW DO YOU DO THAT? Do you know how to encourage yourself, or are you always looking for encouragement from an external source? David probably did some deep soul-searching and realised it was God’s intervention, using the Philistine hierarchy to send him and his men home at a critical time, immediately after the disaster, even while the smoke is still rising. He probably reflected what he had written in one of his Psalms,
Psalm 43:5 Why are you cast down, O my inner self? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, Who is the help of my [SAD] countenance, and my God.
Through prayer, he received directions from the Lord. “You are to pursue after them.”
Through prayer, he received the promise of the Lord. “You will overtake them and recover everything that was taken.”
What if God had said, “No, David, your wives and your possessions are gone”? It would have been hard, but I think David would have submitted.
We cannot write our own terms when we come to the Lord. We can’t say, “Lord, I’ll come back if You will do what I want.” He is the Lord, which means He does what He wants, which doesn’t always fit with what I want.
Submission means that I let Him call the shots. Whether He says, “It’s all gone,” or whether He graciously gives it back, I must submit.
There is a place for “ENCOURAGEMENT”, but the qualifications of those seeking men’s assistance identify a less than an attractive scene. Paul’s exhortation to the Thessalonians starts out with the rabble, includes the “timid and fainthearted”, and lumps them into the same group as “WEAK SOULS”.
1 Thessalonians 5:14 And we earnestly beseech you, brethren, admonish (warn and seriously advise) those who are out of line [the loafers, the disorderly, and the unruly]; ENCOURAGE the timid and fainthearted, help and give your support to the weak souls, [and] be very patient with everybody [always keeping your temper]
If it were not for this “PROVIDENTIAL PREPARATION” of God, David could have been away for an extended period of time as was usual in war, and who knows where or what would have been the fate of the families. As it was, the raid was so recent that the smoke was still lingering over the debris, so the Amalekites and the captives were probably not far away.
David has been in tight spots before; we all know well his exploits, and it is the “EXPERIENCE” he has gone through that now at this critical juncture, jogs him to realise, “I NEED TO ADHERE, TRUST AND RELY”, and so he set about it because there was no one else to do it, the 600 men held him responsible and as a consequence, sought to stone him.
Faith is taking God at His Word, often in the face of overwhelming circumstances to the contrary, and then obediently ACTING upon that Word until what is promised is reality. That is ACTIVE “Adhere, trust and rely.”
What got David into this mess, it was his “SILENT DEBATE”, as recorded in verse one
Isaiah gives us good counsel,
Isaiah 40:31 But THOSE who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.
If you read the previous verses, 15 to 30, the futility of man without that awareness of God’s “INCONCEIVABLE GREATNESS” is graphic, but verse 31 puts the onus right back on us. It starts out, “THEY”, meaning those who are facing the educational and providential hand of God in our current or next circumstance.
Isaiah doesn’t give any quarter, no second or third party coming to the aid of the “THEY”, but squarely stating that it is up to us to defer to the Lord, and so, how do we do that?
Paul gives some direction,
1 Corinthians 10:13 For no temptation (no trial regarded as enticing to sin), [NO MATTER HOW IT COMES OR WHERE IT LEADS] has overtaken you and laid hold on you that is not common to man [that is, no temptation or trial has come to you that is beyond human resistance and that is not adjusted and adapted and belonging to human experience, and such as man can bear]. But God is faithful [to His Word and to His compassionate nature], and He [can be trusted] not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance and power to endure, but with the temptation He will [always] also provide the way out (the means of escape to a landing place), THAT YOU MAY BE CAPABLE AND STRONG AND POWERFUL TO BEAR UP UNDER IT PATIENTLY.
God is faithful to His Word; that’s where we head, that’s where we find our directions to locate the escape route or the landing place. We don’t escape the lesson, but if we respond positively, we escape the consequences.
If we choose to dismiss, or ignore, or gloss over seemingly insignificant events, such as being sent home by the Philistine’s, we will not have the experience to “ENCOURAGE OURSELVES”. David’s previous encounters and experiences come flooding back to his mind where God had “ENABLED” him in his deeds of renown.
This disaster is about to achieve its purpose, to arrest David’s full attention, same as happens in our circumstance under God’s “COMPASSIONATE COMPULSION.”
David didn’t have the benefit of the Word of God, such as we have today but reverted to the Old Testament method of finding God’s will. This great warrior, now wifeless and responsible for 600 widowers, goes to the priest, not for the priest’s counsel but in search of the God he has neglected.
Have we not had an experience where in hindsight, we can see Father was trying to reform us but did we learn the lesson, or did we complain? The test is when we get direction, viz “EXPERIENCE”, it should change our behaviour. If we continue to do what David did in verse one that is “SILENTLY DEBATE”, then we have learned nothing, no appreciation that the Word is my encouragement and direction as I earnestly seek it like gold, spelt out in Isaiah 40:31 above.
The method David used to “ENCOURAGE HIMSELF IN THE LORD” was that which Jeremiah recommends and is appropriate for us today.
Jeremiah 33:3 Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, fenced in and hidden, which you do not know (do not distinguish and recognise, have knowledge of and UNDERSTAND).
These “THINGS” Jeremiah refers to often constitute the “INSURMOUNTABLES” of life’s exigencies, sometimes sickness, sometimes a disaster, sometimes crushing defeats. Still, if we are submissive to God, we will come to “UNDERSTAND”, which results from “EXPERIENCE”.
Isaiah 48:10-11 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried and chosen you in the furnace of affliction. (V11) FOR MY OWN SAKE, FOR MY OWN SAKE, I DO IT [I refrain and do not utterly destroy you]; for why should I permit My name to be polluted and profaned [which it would be if the Lord completely destroyed His chosen people]? And I will not give My glory to another [by permitting the worshipers of idols to triumph over you].
The result of David’s repentance, acceptance, and recognition of God in this event, his “AWARENESS” was not only effective for David, but the Council of God was also so profound that it convinced his army, those who just some short time before, the 600 men, were organising to stone him, now they join him.
How remarkable an encounter with God can change the attitude, behaviour, and destiny of hundreds.
2 Corinthians 6:1 LABORING TOGETHER (Collaboration with God is always the assurance of victory, “despite outward conditions” .. comments mine) [as God’s fellow workers] with Him then, we beg of you not to receive the grace of God in vain [that merciful kindness by which GOD EXERTS HIS HOLY INFLUENCE ON SOULS AND TURNS THEM TO CHRIST, keeping and strengthening them–do not receive it to no purpose]. (God’s COMPASSIONATE COMPULSION)
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Ross Smith 