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Jun 6, 2006

David Recovered All


Background:Now that David had spared Saul's life a second time, he decided to move outside the country so that Saul would not follow him any more. He shifted to Gath, a Philistine territory. Here he stayed for 1 year and 4 months and had very good rapport with the Philistine king. One day the king decided to attack Israel and wanted David and his men to be on his side. But the other Philistine leaders did not want David to go. They didn't trust David like their king did. They convinced the king, that David might just change sides in the middle of the battle and the Israelites would win. So the king sent David and his men back to Ziklag where they had been given place to stay. 3 When David and his men came to Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. 4 So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. "(1 Samuel 30:3-4). In the midst of all this " 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. But David found strength in the LORD his God. "(1 Samuel 30:6)
David does not sit in this sorrow for long, "7 Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, "Bring me the ephod." Abiathar brought it to him, 8 and David inquired of the LORD, "Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?" "Pursue them," he answered. "You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue." "(1 Samuel 30:7-8) We see David went to the One he knew as a Very Present Help in the times of trouble, and he got an answer for his situation and then David took action on whatever God had told him.

Lessons:How many of us would be so glad to go somewhere, summoned by someone, travelling 3 days with them and being sent back without making much of all that travel.Only to travel back another 3 days and then finding that your house, your family is all gone as someone attacked it. This is devastating, it is a time for bitterness, blaming someone for all that harm. Thats what all the other men who went with David did. They prepared to stone David for all that damage. Now, I think about David, what would he have thought, "God , since the day you anointed me, people have been trying to kill me. I don't have a stable place to stay." It could have been easy for David to blame God for all this. But David knew, what he had to do. He took strength in the Lord. He went to God, he prayed about it, he took the priestly position God had given him and got his answer.Too many times in life when we're struck by situations we never would have wanted to be in, we find someone to blame, if we find no one, we blame God. I'd like to establish a few points here as I have learnt from this episode from David's life.

  1. Know where your answer comes from- David knew his relation with the Lord, nothing could shake him off of that connection, no wonder he is the "man after God's own heart"(Acts 13:22). He took strength in the Lord. Once and for all, lets establish, secure, fasten, embed in our hearts, who we are in our Lord Jesus Christ and Who Jesus Christ is to us, we will always be a victor, like David.
  2. Know to differentiate/respond-David knew, his fight was not against the people who were trying to kill him, he was thinking higher than that...he was thinking of God's enemies not his own. He knows who could help him find out the solution to the problem.He got the ephod, took his priestly position and found the answer straight from the source of his strength.He didn't wait to try to pacify the people, or to fight them and justify himself.
  3. Take your position-David wore the ephod and took the priestly position and inquired of God. In my life too, I've learnt to depend more on God recently, more now than ever. There is no other go. I would have depended on my own strength and abilities earlier, but now no more. David showed me, that under dire circumstances, with no way out, just when things were looking up everything goes down, He trusted God. He runs to Him. He finds the answer, in God, the Ever Present Help.
  4. Get your answer from the Ever Present Help- "v8 The Lord answered him, Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all." David got the answer and did what was needed of him, he went after the Amalekites and recovered ALL. When God speaks and calls us overcomers, we are! Our answer to situations are in the Word of God. The Word of God has it all, if only we look it up prayerfully, with an expectation that God only can answer. From my experience I can tell, I have never , ever not found an answer I needed for a situation. God is amazing. He solves problems right from the roots not superficially.
  5. Follow through with the answer you got-God told David that he could go and fight the Amalekites and that He would be successful. David went ahead and did just that. If he would have stayed doing nothing, I think he would end up fighting his followers, but because he took the step of calling out to the Ever Present Help. He is a winner. God never shows you answers that will not work. There is no situation too hard for the Lord, nothing too difficult for the Lord.Nothing impossible for the Lord. The only point of failures are us, when we fail to act upon God's Word for our situation.
Conclusion:Let's turn our life towards victory. Only our obedience and the depth of relationship with our Living God can achieve that. David was faced with a gruesome experience right here, but he went to God and got it all turned out for victory. The Bible records as saying "18 David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives. 19 Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken. David brought everything back. 20 He took all the flocks and herds, and his men drove them ahead of the other livestock, saying, "This is David's plunder." (1 Samuel 30:18-20). Do you have someone stolen by the enemy that belongs to you and our Living God. (Psalm 24:1) The earth and everything in it belongs to our God. Hey people of God, strengthen yourselves in the strength of the Lord and take back what satan took from you. I am reminded of the Sunday School song.
"I am going to the enemy's camp, I'm gonna take back what he took from me" he's under my feet, he's under my feet, he's under my feet, the devil is under my feet."
God's people, take back, IT IS YOUR PLUNDER...like it was David's Plunder" DAVID RECOVERED ALL and SO CAN YOU. Lets get on our knees, wear our ephod (like wearing Jesus Christ our Lord) and ask of God the key, the answer, to get back what is ours. Unlike David's our battle is not against flesh and blood, but like David 'We will recover all'.

3 comments :

Kwagala said...

It's so encouraging to know that when we look for strength in the Lord our God like David did we never get disappointed.
Nice lesson- God bless you!!

Unknown said...

It is a blessoing to know that the battle was already won even before david went to revover, it was won when God gave him the word YOU SHALL WItHOUT FAIL RECOVER ALL

Karuna said...

That is so true jefferson james! I must add that on the post too, what encouraging words!

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