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2001
25th March (am) - David and the Amalekites
1 Samuel 30

As the Foot and Mouth crisis continued, unabated, this week, your heart goes out to the farmers directly affected - for in ways that are far more than merely financial, it must be absolutely crushing to watch your animals being destroyed - some of them apparently completely healthy - the devastating distress of that experience can hardly be put into words, and maybe never properly understood unless you have at least some connections with farming life.

One of the other apparent developments in the crisis this week, was the dangerous and damaging tendency for some people to fall into the trap of the blame game.

It has been most apparent among the politicians - government and opposition parties blaming each other for what has or has not been done. Maybe, in their distressing fear and frustration, even some of the farming leaders have come close to this trap - we can understand how it is, we can see that there needs to be strong discussion and right decisions so that everything that can be done, is done - but blame for blame's sake never achieves very much! When there is a big problem to be faced, everyone concerned needs to be as united as possible.

The same kind of distress and frustration was evident in today's episode in the life of David

- the damaging tendency to fall into the trap of blame, rather than concentrating on what could be done

- and David, himself, was getting most of the blame.

You remember, David and his men returned to the Philistine town they were living in as exiles from Saul - Ziklag - only to find that, in their absence, the town had been burned to the ground in an attack by the Amalekites, who had taken their wives and families captive. David's own wives, Ahinoam and Abigail, were gone, too!

You can imagine the distress that they felt - this Philistine town wasn't really home for David's men; they were living here because of their loyalty to him, over against Saul; they had been through so much with David in the past few years - the loss of their families was just more than they could take, and the story does not try to cover up the depth of their grief and despair:

vs.4 David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep.'

This was truly a disaster of monstrous proportions - 'a bridge too far' for them - their grief was close to utter hopelessness.

We can understand that ...... and maybe we can also understand how it was that their distress began to turn into anger, and how they began to direct that anger at David: vs.6 David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters.

So now we see a situation, not only of devastating distress, but also of division and the danger that David and his men would tear themselves apart, and threaten the possibility of David becoming king - we can probably understand what was going on in that situation, only too well.

It is at this point in today's chapter that, I think we should pick out our first main point - it's a very important one indeed - summed up like this:

Finding strength in his weakness. That is precisely what the end of vs. 6 says about David: But David found strength in the Lord his God.

Notice that it definitely doesn't say that he found strength because the Lord his God quickly brought back all the wives and children!

No indeed, it says that in the depths of his despair and hopelessness, David found strength in his weakness; in the midst of all the hard questions that this situation made David wonder about, David found strength in his weakness.

At one and the same time, David felt as if he was 'going under' never to come back up, and yet he found strength in the Lord his God.

At one and the same time, David felt as if the awful sorrow and the angry criticisms were too much to bear, and yet he found strength in the Lord his God.

And I have a feeling that this is how it is, sometimes.

Those of us who have not had to bear such terrible burdens need to be immensely careful about speaking of what it is like.

But I think that we need to say that God does not always or often bring miraculous / instantaneous deliverance from distress, rather he brings strength to cling on by the fingertips in the midst of the trouble - to persevere as the tears trip us and the bewilderment baffles us - to trust, somehow, even when the our feelings say 'what's the point?'

I think that it has been like that for the people of God in every age. Let me gently and fearfully remind us of:

Job, whose whole family was taken from him, and who was struck down with terrible disease himself, who told himself and his friends: I am nothing but skin and bones .... (yet) I know that my redeemer lives ..... and after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh will see God (Job 19) - persevering faith in terrible weakness and distress.

Paul, the apostle, in 2 Cor. 4 hard pressed on every side ....perplexed .....struck down but not destroyed ...... because we know that the one who raised Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus. Or as he wrote in ch.12: My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness ..'

Or our Lord Jesus Christ, himself, of whom we read he cried out: My God, my God why have you forsaken me .... and yet he also felt able to say, Father into your hands I commit my spirit.

 

Isn't this the picture of faith that we must get into our heads and hearts - not that it will always be desperation and distress, but sometimes it may be - and then we need to know that we can cling on to faith- or better that our God will hold unto us - that there is strength to be found in the Lord our God - his mighty strength in our brokenness and weakness.

Even though we say it with an awareness of how awful life can be, this is a word of very real strength and help - the words that we need to remind ourselves of again and again are surely 'promise' from Christ, our Lord, and perseverance from us, his people of poor faith and struggling lives.

Maybe, too, it's good to notice how it puts this word of promise and perseverance in 1 Sam.30:6 - David found strength in the Lord, his God - David's persevering, holding on faith, was a personal faith - he didn't just think of God as the Lord - he thought of him as his Lord; not the shepherd, but his shepherd.

Our strength and hope in the midst of devastation and distress needs to come from a deep, personal faith - as Dale Ralph Davis puts, not just Jesus, the Son of God, but Jesus the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Maybe, if life is going all right for us, now is the time to make that faith personal and sure.

So David found strength in his weakness.

He also found guidance in his uncertainty. Although the enormity of what had happened left David and his men stunned, David did not allow himself to remain helplessly paralysed, floundering about uncertain of what to do.

Immediately after that verse which tells us that he found strength in the Lord his God, we are told that David sent for the priest, Abiathar and through him sought God's wisdom for what he should do - would it be wise to try to go after this raiding party who had burned the town and taken the families?

And David felt that the Lord was encouraging him to do so - not to sit back and give up, but to do something very definite.

Somehow he felt that he had found God's guidance.

And as he set out, minus 200 of his 600 men who just felt that they were too exhausted to face any more battles, that word 'found' comes again - they found an Egyptian - a slave, abandoned by the Amalekite raiders because he had fallen sick, and after David's men had revived him with some food, he was able to show them where they would find the raiders ...... and, of course, the rest is history, as they say. David and his men attacked the Amalekites who were relaxing and celebrating their victory ..... they were taken unawares, and David recovered everything that had been lost, especially the wives and families.

Now, it's the way in which God gave David the guidance that he needed, that I want us to notice. Notice that God guided David in two very distinctive ways that were both essential:

there was the inner spiritual guidance which came to David when he sought God through the priest, Abiathar. David knew that he dare not go forward without God's leading, and he earnestly and sincerely sought that guidance through the religious/spiritual channels open to him in his day. And we, too, need to be people who know our need of God's inner spiritual guidance - we dare not think that we can live our daily lives or serve in his church's life without the guidance that comes when we seek God through his Word and by praying, whether together in church and in small groups, or by ourselves in the privacy of our own lives. We deceive ourselves and deprive ourselves, very dangerously, if we do not give high priority to these channels of his grace and help - and maybe sometimes, some of us, all of us, do just that, or try to get by on the bare minimum.

What a vital lesson to learn - maybe sometimes only learnable in the tough times of life - that we need to learn to depend on God's enabling and God's guiding.

but, alongside this inner guidance, came God's outward guidance - they found an Egyptian - he didn't just turn up by accident - this was part of how God was working things out and providing guidance and help - and when they used their common decency to give him much needed food, and their common sense to question him about the whereabouts of the Amalekites, David and his men were well on their way to a successful counter attack.

 

God's guidance for us will also usually come in practical ways, as in his providence he opens and closes the doors of opportunity and guidance - especially when we use our common decency and common sense to recognise and benefit from such opportunities. We must never discount such very practical guidance and providence.

Some of us perhaps tend to emphasise the inner spiritual guidance of God - rightly so, because Jesus Christ taught his disciples to be people of inner spirituality that goes beyond what the rest of the world can really understand - people guided by the promised Holy Spirit whom the world neither sees nor understands. John.14:16

Others of us, probably tend to see ourselves as practical people who feel more comfortable with practical decisions - they are very essential, for God does not intend us to suspend practical common sense in our decisions.

Maybe this episode in the life of David, where he found the guidance he needed for his uncertainty, reminds us that these 2 aspects go hand in hand - we need to be people who are deeply spiritual and desperately down-to-earth.

David found strength in his weakness; he found guidance for his uncertainty, and finally:

David found generosity in his decisions. You remember how they had left 200 men behind because they were exhausted. After the counter attack went so successfully, we discover David giving the very clearest possible lead in terms of generosity of spirit towards those men.

Some of David's men who had been involved in the whole attack felt that they should get the bonus of all that they had plundered - and that the 200 men were due nothing additional, apart from getting their wives and families back.

However David was not prepared to consider that suggestion for a moment! vs.24 The share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All shall share alike.

Now David was maybe actually being fairly kind to the 200 men who had stayed behind, for earlier on there was no mention that they were guarding the supplies - it simply said that they were too exhausted. But whatever the truth of the matter, David was determined that everyone should have equal share, and it goes on to tell us that this principle of generosity became enshrined in Israelite law from that time.

Among God's people, everyone mattered, everyone shared, everyone counted, even if at times, it looked as if some deserved more than others.

What was it that made David so strong on this point? Well. vs.23 makes it very clear: (The Lord) has protected us and handed over to us the forces that came against us.

It was the Lord's victory - therefore it wasn't their plunder to grasp, but rather his goodness to share.

It was by the Lord's doing that they had new joy and hope in their lives, not by their own doing, no matter how much any of them thought differently and selfishly.

There is surely a reminder here for us - our everyday lives, full of good things, are ours not because we have achieved them by ourselves - no matter how hard we think we have worked to get what we have - but rather because he has given a good quality of life to us and he has given us a responsibility to share them generously for them - shouldn't the same spirit of generosity mark our attitudes? There may be those who haven't been able to do what we have been able to do, who need and should receive their share of God's generous provision - not least as we give proper support to the work of organisations like Christian Aid and Tear Fund.

And there is also a reminder here about Church life - that we ought not to think about church life primarily in terms of what we deserve, have a right to, have worked for - but rather in terms of the needs and the good and well-being of all who are part of the church - just as David generously guarded the needs of all his men.

- so in church life it is important to recognise the part played by the people in the background, whose role is not as obvious as those in the 'up-front' roles - the quiet, unnoticed people who do so much in every church ....... the people who are no longer fit and able enough to be active in the weekly worship and work, but who may be faithful people of prayer at home ....... the people who may not say so much but who have their needs and preferences.

In every church there is a need for a strong spirit of generosity, so that as with David's men, 'all share alike' in what God has provided for us out of his amazing grace and goodness. Come to think about it, that is a fundamental Presbyterian principle - that 'the strong should help the weak' - that's why some of our financial contributions each week are used centrally to support very small and struggling congregations, so that they can have ministers, buildings etc - the whole point of the central assessments that each congregation pays and the United Appeal contributions that are so vital for the wider work of the Church - that it's not just us and our church, but rather that we are part of the Church of Christ in which there are others who are not as strong or self-sufficient as we can and should be.

This principle was built into OT practice from the days of David, and it is good that it is part of Presbyterian practice as well.

So David found strength in his weakness; guidance in his uncertainty, and generosity in his decisions. .......not bad lessons for us from this story about the desert skirmish between David and the Amalekites.

We're now moving rapidly towards the time when Davis wilderness wanderings will be over and he will become king - The victorious skirmish with the Amalekites, brought David one step closer and probably helped him to feel that bit more sure that God would fulfil his purposes - as Dale Ralph Davis puts it, parodying a well known children's hymn:

Yahweh will rule, this I know, for the Amalekites tell me so!