Wednesday, April 23, 2014

David, Ziklag, and Amalekites: 1 Samuel 30

Tonight at Almyra First Baptist, we’re going to look at David and 1 Samuel 30. We may drop back and cover a few other issues, but this is our focus.

First, we need to see where David is at the beginning. He’s been off serving the king of the Philistines, Achish. Achish is headed at this point to fight with Saul, King of Israel, and David is sent away from the Philistines.

Second, we look at what occurred. The Amalekites, long-time enemies of God’s people, sacked the area David’s family (and his men’s families) dwelt in. The families were home in Ziklag while David was lining up to help the Philistine Army invade Israel.

What do we take from this?

These items:

1. David’s men are ready to stone him, because he has failed. End of story, he’s blown it here.

2. David, though, takes his strength from YHWH.

Where do you turn when it all goes wrong? Do you turn to God? Or do you set out to stone those who failed you?

Godly people fail, and often it is worse than when ungodly people fail. After all, one does not expect the venomous snake to be nice. Yet the one we thought trustworthy? That’s another matter entirely.

David’s men thought they could trust him, and when he failed, they lost heart. There was nothing for them.

We often mistakenly put our trust in people. We think they are worthy, they can carry the strain. Yet these people should only be part of drawing near to God, not the substitute.

David draws his strength from God here. We need to learn the same thing: our own failed leaders are not going to fix it. We need a move of God, not of us. Let’s call out to him.

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