April 1, 2010

Today's reading: I Samuel 29, 30, 31; Psalm 1, 31, 61, 91, 121; Proverbs 1

I Samuel 30:1-2, "And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire; And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way."

I remember in high school a young man had a very nice car. It was a Dodge Charger and it was nice. I also remember the day he came to school and told us that he did not have the car anymore. We were all deeply saddened by this fact. We all loved his car. Why did he no longer have his car? He was out for a drive and decided to see how fast it would go. Oops! The police stopped him going over one hundred (100) miles per hour. They called his father and he came to the place where he was stopped. After a scalding, one sided discussion between the student and his father the car was hooked to a wrecker and towed to a local wrecker yard. It was at this wrecker yard the car met with destiny. The car was put into the crusher and crushed into a metal cube of twistedness (pardon my english skills). You see the father of this young man was also a police officer with the same department as the officers that stopped his son. This young man never saw his prized car again. I think it became pop cans just to spite him even further. This way ever time he had a pop he could think about his car and his great transgression.

In this chapter of Scripture the men that followed David were angry with him and wanted to stone him because their possessions and wives were stolen from them. What was David's reaction?

First, David encouraged himself in the Lord. I Samuel 30:6, "And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God." Sometimes you fee like everyone has deserted you; but, there is still One who will not. The Lord will always be there for His children.

Second, David enquired of the LORD. I Samuel 30:8, "And David enquired at the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all." Notice that David's first response after being distressed was to seek the Lord. This needs to be our reaction also. I wish I could say that it has always been my first reaction. Most of the time my first reaction is poor, pitiful me. I remember a Preacher one time saying, "RRRuuun to the Lord" (run to the Lord). This needs to be our reaction every time. God help us!

Thirdly, David effected a recovery. I Samuel 30:18, "And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: and David rescued his two wives." If you notice the last phrase of verse 8 also says, "and without fail recover all." This was God's response to David when he sought God. David did things God's way and reaped a great reward. So many times in our lives we try to do things our own way and we cannot accomplish what we want. That is the problem; it is what we want and not what God wants. If we walk with God and seek His face in prayer and Bible study we will be in tune with Him and His wants will become our wants and His likes will become our likes. You see where we are going here? I hope so.

Have you lost it all? If so, how did you respond?

(Author's note: As I was typing this today the website flashed and I lost everything I had written. The post was completely done and ready to publish. Then in a flash it was gone. There was over an hour of work gone. This David did not recover all in this situation so I just started over. God is so good!)