Articles
Hope From the Ashes of Ziklag
Good afternoon.
Well, this morning I spoke to a full auditorium and tonight it's half full.
I don't know if it was something I said or not, but I won't take it personally.
Now, we know that several of our members are out of town with camp starting today, with Camp Kennessy, and so again, we know that they're going to have a great week and we wish them the best.
This morning we talked about an aspect of the life of David.
I want to continue kind of that theme tonight of thinking about David.
This morning we talked about David as a father and his message that he left to his son Solomon.
So we talked about this morning, King David had his share of trouble in his life.
We didn't mention all those this morning, but among other things, he was pursued by King Saul and barely escaped several assassination attempts.
He spent a lot of time hiding in the wilderness.
So we'll look at tonight, his family was kidnapped, his friends turned against him.
He carried the shame of committing adultery with Bathsheba and having her husband killed to cover it up and experienced the death of a child as a consequence.
We referred to his family problems that he had this morning with his children, Absalom and Amnon.
While David had great successes as a king and even as a hero before becoming a king, when he defeated Goliath, he still was a man who experienced a lot of problems throughout his life.
David was, though, able to survive all those problems and we know him as the scriptures tell us, he was a man after God's own heart.
How did he do it? How was he able to overcome all of the hardship that he faced throughout his life and those terrible things that happened to him? A particular low point for David is found in 1 Samuel chapter 30, but it also reveals to us how David was able to overcome all the hardships in his life.
In 1 Samuel chapter 30, beginning reading with me in verse 1, it says, it happened when David and the men came to Ziklag.
On the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negev and on Ziklag and had overthrown Ziklag and burned it with fire and they took captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great, without killing anyone and carried them off and went their way.
When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire and their wives and 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 there was no strength in them to weep.
Now David's two wives had been taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite.
Moreover, David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters.
But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
David was living in Ziklag, having fled, as we said, from King Saul who was trying to kill him.
He had aligned with the Philistines and taken his men to join the battle with them against Saul.
The Philistines didn't really trust him though, so they sent him back to Ziklag.
And when he returns with the men that were with him, they find that the Amlekites in the meantime had come and burnt the city.
And not only that, they had taken captive the women and the children that were there, the families not only of David but the men that were with him.
And as you can imagine, David and his men are deeply distressed.
And even added to the distress that David is feeling over the loss of his own family, having been taken captive, is the fact that these men that were with him now had turned on him and wanted to kill him.
I want you to imagine for a moment.
We talked about a compass this morning.
Let's go up in technology a little bit.
Imagine you're driving through unfamiliar territory and you're only relying on your GPS on your phone.
Sounds familiar maybe.
But you're out in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden, the signal drops.
The map freezes up.
You're lost.
Maybe your kids are in the backseat hungry.
And oh, by the way, the fuel light just came on that says low fuel.
Now, what are you going to do? Well, you may try some predictable things.
Maybe you just pretend that you still know where you're going and keep on driving.
That's one way to handle it.
Maybe we think, well, I'm going to drive just a little further and maybe, you know, everything's going to figure itself out and everything's going to fix itself and work out.
Eventually, though, probably what you're going to have to do is pull over and maybe sigh and mutter, I need help.
I'm going to have to ask for directions.
Now imagine David in 1 Samuel 30.
He's lost everything.
His family is gone.
His city is burned.
His men are turning on him.
There's no GPS that's going to fix this.
There's no army.
There's no encouragement.
There's no Wi-Fi.
He can't Google the answer to this one.
Just despair.
But in David we see, instead of panicking or pretending that nothing's wrong, he pulls over and he asks for help.
He asked God for help.
He strengthened himself and the Lord is God.
How do we, like David, strengthen ourselves in the Lord when we have our zig-zag moments in our life? I'd like to look at this story with that in mind and see about how we can find encouragement from what David found encouragement from in this moment of his life.
The first thing I think it's important for us to realize is that there are the reality of trials and hardships in our life.
They're going to be there.
And as we look at this, it impresses me that David wasn't exempt from those things.
We already talked about all the problems that he experienced in his life in addition to this particular one that we're looking at specifically tonight.
He was not exempt and he was God's anointed.
But he still faced devastation.
Trials are part of life.
They're part of life even for God's people.
In John chapter 16 and verse 33, Jesus says, these things I have spoken to you so that you that in me you may have peace.
He said, in the world you will have tribulation, but take courage.
I have overcome the world.
The message to Jesus to his disciples was that you're going to have some problems.
There is going to be tribulation.
There's going to be persecutions.
And then as we read through the Gospels and we read through into the book of Acts, we see that indeed they had problems.
They had persecutions.
They had tribulations.
They had tough times.
Even though they were serving God and doing it faithfully and trying to spread the message of the gospel, they were not exempt from hardships in this life.
Neither will we be.
But also we see in James chapter 1 that James explains to us concerning the trials that we go through that there are benefits to those and that we can actually grow from those.
And for that reason, he says in James 1 and verse 2, to consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Paul reminds us in 2nd Timothy 3 verse 12 that all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus, he doesn't say you may be persecuted, but he says if you desire to live godly, you will be persecuted.
Now I'm thankful that we don't experience the persecution to the extent that Paul did, or many of the other apostles, but there are going to be times where because we stand for what's right and because of our faith that we will be persecuted in some way.
It's going to happen, and that's what Paul tells Timothy.
Young Timothy, as Paul was trying to prepare him for what was going to lie ahead for him, he says you will be persecuted.
Now we can't avoid the hardships in our life, but here's the good news, we can overcome those.
We can overcome those through faith.
In Romans the 8th chapter in verse 28, we see this great promise that God gives us, that when we are on his side, when he's on our side, that in the end it's all going to work out.
He says we know that God causes all things to work together for good, for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
So you see, we face some hardships in this life, but in the end, God's going to make sure everything's going to work out for our good.
It may not be in this life, but we know if we stay faithful to God, it's going to work out for good, because we'll spend an eternity with him.
So understanding this idea that there are going to be trials, to prepare for those, to know that they're going to come, that's important as we deal with, as I said before, our Ziklag moments.
But not only that, as we continue to look, something else that I'm impressed on this story is, we shouldn't rely on human strength to overcome the problems that we have.
We should encourage one another, yes, and hopefully we have our brethren that's going to be there for us, and going to help us during those hardships, and going to help us through those times.
But let me tell you something, people can let you down.
People can disappoint you sometimes.
And so David's men, as we see, they turned against him.
They wanted to kill him because they were blaming him for what had happened.
And so he couldn't depend on them to help him through this time of sorrow, even for him, because remember, he had lost his family too.
He had grief over his family being kidnapped and taken captive as well.
But he couldn't rely on the men that were with him to help get him through that.
They turned against him and wanted to kill him.
So what does David do? David turned to God.
He turned to the one who he knew would be there for him.
He turned to the one that he knew could help him, and strengthen him, and get him through the difficult time in his life.
He turned to God.
In Psalm 118 and verse 8, it says, it is better to take refuge in the Lord than the trust in man.
Something David learned from experience.
It's only the Lord who you can really completely, 100% depend upon.
We also see in Psalm 59 that David asked for deliverance, and on this occasion was when he was being pursued by Saul, and Saul was trying to kill him.
In Psalm 59 and verse 1, it says, deliver me from my enemies, O God.
Set me securely on high away from those who rise up against me.
Deliver me from those who do iniquity, and save me from men of bloodshed.
For behold, they have set an ambush for my life.
Fierce men launch an attack against me, not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord.
When David felt threatened, he went to God, and he asked for God to protect him, and to be there, and to deliver him in those times.
David placed his trust in God to help him.
If you go on down there in verse 9, he says, because of his strength, I will watch for you, O God, for God is my stronghold.
My God is his loving, and his loving kindness will meet me.
God will let me look triumphantly upon my foes.
The confidence that we see in David that God would be with him, and help him through the difficult times.
And again, he knew he couldn't rely on man or anyone else to do that, but he could rely on God.
When it comes to our times and our hardships, yes, it's great to have friends, and brethren, and family to help us through those things.
But God is the one that we truly need to look to, because we know he will never let us down.
As we think about that, then, we understand that strength comes from having that relationship with God.
That's what David understood also.
In Psalm 63, when in the wilderness, David overcame his problem of loneliness, but he was only able to overcome that by seeking God.
Notice in the first two verses of Psalm 63, if you'll flip over there, he says, O God, you are my God.
I shall seek you earnestly.
My soul thirsts for you.
My flesh yearns for you.
In a dry and weary land, where there is no water, thus I have seen you in the sanctuary, to see your power and glory.
David overcome the loneliness by seeking God.
But he doesn't stop there just seeking God.
Notice what it goes on to say in verse 3.
He praises God, and he prays to God.
He speaks to God.
In verse 3, because your loving-kindness is better than life, my lips will praise you, so I will bless you as long as I live.
I will lift up my hands in your name.
We seek God, and we praise God.
We pray to him in those difficult times to help get us through the hardships that we face.
And then in verse 6, he talks about how he meditated on the Lord.
When I remember you on my bed, I meditate on you in the night watches, for you have been my help in the shadow of your wings.
I sing for joy.
This Psalm describes to us when we're facing those times of life like David had faced, either when he was being pursued by Saul, or as lonely in the wilderness, or in this case as we read tonight, being devastated by finding a burned city and his family gone.
David overcame those situations because he sought after God.
Even in the bad times, he praised God and prayed to him, and he meditated and thought about the Lord and the goodness of God.
David had a habit of seeking God.
From our scripture reading tonight in Psalm 27, that Psalm, much of it was about David seeking God.
Psalm 18, Psalm 23, we could go on and on about Psalms where David speaks of this same thing, of seeking God.
And in those Psalms, David's basically saying the same thing.
In times of trouble, put your faith and your trust in God.
Stay close to him.
Through prayer, through praise, stay close to him.
Draw near to him.
Think about and meditate on God and his word.
In 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, well-known scripture that tells us about scripture.
It says that all scripture is given by God is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate equipped for every good work.
What that scripture tells us is God's word gives us everything we need.
We don't need anything else.
God's scriptures, God's word is adequate.
It is all that we need to equip us for all good works.
It's also all that we need to help us in the hardships that we face in our life.
Meditate on God's word.
And if we do these things, it will make us strong, strong in the Lord.
Psalm 63 and verse 8, my soul clings to you, your right hand upholds me.
Another message of David, he understood God was there for him, that God would lift him up, that God would hold him in those difficult times, and God will uphold us, too.
We find strength through a relationship with God, through Bible study, through prayer, through obeying God.
Having that relationship with him, that's where the strength come from.
David gives us a great example as he prayed in 1 Samuel 30 and verse 8.
It tells us he inquired of God.
We must seek God's guidance.
Now sometimes I think we, in those difficult times, we may be guilty of just venting frustrations.
Instead of actually listening to God and asking for his guidance through those things.
Instead of just venting our frustrations, which is good for us to do sometimes, but to listen to God, seek him through his word to come to the decision on how to overcome the things that we face.
Not only that, David gives us an example of one who acted in faith.
James 2 and verse 17 reminds us that faith without works is dead, so we must act and obey God.
David, even in difficult times, continued to obey what God would tell him to do, and that's how we find strength in the Lord.
So what about us when we face our zig-lag moments? What about us when we find these times of hardship in our life? Because we face problems today.
It could be family problems, maybe it's personal concerns.
It could be something that is job related.
It may be financial problems.
We all face temptations.
There's persecutions that we face, as we looked at earlier, as Christians from time to time.
Those are things that we're all dealing with in life.
Those could be our zig-lag moments to a certain extent, the way that David experienced this time of devastation in his life.
And we see that despite the terrible thing that happened, that David was able to overcome it because he found strength in God.
So, how do we do the same? Well, some will try to tackle problems alone.
They leave God completely out of the picture, and they forsake him completely and refuse to praise him and refuse to pray to him, and maybe they neglect assembling with brethren to worship and be edified.
And because of all that, they're not gaining the strength that they could from God.
I've heard people say, well let me get my life in order, then I'll be able to serve God and live for him.
But the reality is, you can't get your life in order without God.
God's displeased with us when we try to solve our own problems without him.
An example of God's displeasure when people fail to look to him is found in Isaiah the 30th chapter.
And over there, I'd like to look at that, it shows us that when people try to go it alone and forget God, they're not going to solve their problems, they're not going to find strength, and the problems of life will overcome them.
In Isaiah 30 verse 1 and 2, we see when attacked by the Assyrians, Israel placed its trust not in God, but in Egypt.
In verse 1, woe to the rebellious children, declares the Lord, who execute a plan, but not mine, and make an alliance, but not of my spirit, in order to add sin to sin, who proceed down to Egypt without consulting me, to take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh, and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt.
In verse 3, because of this, God promises to hinder their efforts to solve their problems by themselves.
He says there in verse 3, therefore the safety of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt, your humiliation.
If you look over to chapter 31 in verse 1, he says, woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many, and in horsemen, because they are strong, but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord.
Yet he also is wise, and will bring disaster, and does not retract his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of the workers of iniquity.
Now the Egyptians are men, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit.
So the Lord will stretch out his hand, and he who helps will stumble, and he who is helped will fail, and all of them will come to an end together.
Now if you go back to chapter 30, and look at verse 15, we see that God wanted Israel to trust in him, not in themselves, not in the Egyptians and the power that they had, but to trust in God.
He says in verse 15, for thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said, in repentance and rest you will be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you were not willing, and you said no, for we will flee on horses, therefore you shall flee, and we will ride on swift horses, therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.
Because they did not go to God for their help, God says you're not going to be successful, and God made sure that they would not be successful.
It's a great lesson to us, because God wants the same from us today.
God doesn't want us trusting in ourselves to overcome our hardships.
He doesn't want us trusting in other people, mighty people that we maybe think can help us.
He says no, I want you to trust in me.
We read this verse this morning, but I'll read it again from James 4 and verse 8.
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, your centers, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
God says come to me, draw near to me.
He promises he will help us.
There in James 4 and verse 10, he goes on to say humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and he will exalt you.
It takes us humbling ourselves to understand I can't fix all the problems myself.
Understanding that I need God, and I rely on him, and I depend on him.
And when we are able to humble ourselves to come to that knowledge, and come to that understanding, that we will look to God for our help in those zigzag moments.
Peter says in 1 Peter 5 as well, to humble yourselves into the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at the proper time.
And then he adds, casting your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Humble yourself to admit I can't deal with this myself, I need God, and when we do that we cast those problems on him, our anxieties, our worries, and our problems, and know that God cares for us, and that God's gonna take care of us.
It's been said that God helps those who help themselves, and that's not an accurate statement.
In Proverbs chapter 3 verse 5, it tells us trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths right.
You see, God helps those who trust in him with all their hearts.
He helps those who acknowledge him.
He helps those who look to him.
When we leave God out of the picture in solving our problems and facing trouble in our life, he's gonna leave us to just deal with it ourselves, and the problems on our own, and that's when we struggle.
We have a great power source willing to help us in the Lord, the Almighty God.
Why not go to him, humbling ourselves, and ask him to help us in those times? Hardships will come.
We can overcome when we strengthen ourselves in the Lord, our God.
When your life's GPS goes out, don't fake it.
Don't panic.
Do what David did.
Pause and plug into the real source of direction and strength, and strengthen yourself in the Lord, your God.
If there's any here tonight who, as you look at your relationship with God, understand that you need to make some changes in your life.
If there's one who has never obeyed the gospel, you have that opportunity tonight to render that obedience to God.
If you've done that in the past and, as a child of God, have not been faithful to him, you need to make changes in your life, and if we can help you in any way, we stand ready to encourage you, and be with you, and pray with you tonight.
We invite you to come, while we stand and sing.
