Three times In a single event, Saul said to Samuel, Your God, your God, your God. This is crazy. You're a churchgoer. You've claimed to be, you know, a child of Israel. It's supposed to be your God, too.
When you bring an offering to the temple, Saul, who do you bring it to? It's our God. Why are you talking this your God, not our God? I kind of cringe when someone's been coming to church for years and they still say, you all. When is it gonna be us?
You're listening to Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of 1 Samuel. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick in 1 Samuel chapter 29 as he continues teaching on this edition of Cross-Reference Radio.
There was much to be thankful for. All right, Zig Lag is burned to the ground, as typical in those days. But there was no blood and no bodies. The people were alive. Because there were only women and children here.
And so the violence was unnecessary on the side of the Amalekites. Nobody stood up to resist them, at least, not enough for them to kill them. And so they just captured them to enslave them. Verse 3. I don't know.
I don't want slaves, but I would like servants. I mean, who wouldn't? You would have to mow. Empty the dishwasher. Deal with maggots in the trash can in the summer.
I mean, it's just a lot of benefits to having servants. We call them employees now. But anyway. Yeah. Yeah.
I'm simplifying it, of course. There's life's tough for all of us. Verse three.
So. It's tougher for some than others, in case you're thinking. Verse 3: So David and his men came to the city. And there it was, burned with fire. And their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive.
And David, verse 4: Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept until they had no more power to weep. You want to say save some of that energy for the fight. Don't use up your fight in the gym. Uh it's um This is horrible. They just, you know, there are these 600 men.
This had to be loud. Imagine if you're up on a hill about a mile away with binoculars and you can see this happening. Look at this. It's a very horrific experience. Things went from bad to.
Worse. Just like that. In the three days that they it had taken them to come from Aphex, Their families are gone. And verse 5, and David's two wives, Ehinoem, The Jezreelites and Abigail. Oh, stop right there.
Now I'm in the fight now. I'm messing with Abigail. And Abigail, the widow of Nabal, the Carmelite. Had been taken captive.
Well now I'm in it now. If I was n dragging before, I know. Anyway, This uh dread that they have. We we face perverted devils. I mean, they're all over the place insisting that we conform.
I don't know how I could handle that. If somebody came up to the church and said, you have to stop preaching that. I would be so ready to get in the flesh. And say, look, boom. I mean, shoes untied, clunk.
I don't, you know, I just. I don't have an orthodox style with dealing with these people. You know how some people are very polished and they want to exchange ideas. I want to call his mama names and start doing really, you know. I'm just telling you.
I don't have that.
Well, our opinion is So I say to myself, how would I handle this? And God just says, I'll take care of it. Don't you worry about it. If it happens, and I'm not telling you if it is or it is. But if it is, I'll take care of it.
So I'm good with that. But still, I fret over it just a little bit. I don't care for the orthodox style of debate when you're dealing with devils. I think a demon a demonic person should be called demonic. to their face.
You've got to be ready to deal with them, because they're demonic after all. All right, you're not with me on this, but that's your fault. Anyway. Uh we face these perverted devils in our age, and they're facing these violent ones in theirs. Which would you rather?
None. I don't I want to go to heaven. I don't want to deal with any of this. Verse six Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in Yahweh his God.
Now it's starting to heat up for us as believers. Who says we live by the Word of God? We take lessons from this Scripture and we apply it to our lives, and that's why the Bible is relative to me. Because it has something to do with my life directly. And for those who don't believe it and claim Christ, that's their problem.
But that, as for me and my house, it's the Word of God. Discouragement can move from weakness to defeat to bitterness very quickly. Very fast. Discouragement is so powerful, it kept an entire nation out of their land. Numbers 13 and 14.
It wouldn't let the Jews, God said, that's it, you're not going in. Only, you know, the only two that stood up to everybody, they wanted to kill them for doing it. And nothing's changed in all that time.
Some people seem to enjoy discouragement and depression. They're so happy they're depressed. Burump. Yeah. It's true.
I mean you can sometimes just see it on their faces. They have no desire to break free. They've learned to embrace their depression or their discouragement. And they want to let you know they're depressed, and they want to let you know they're discouraged, and they wear on their face its somber look. How do I escape that?
I don't want to be that way. What if you're that way? How do you get out of this?
Well, you have to believe the things that are in the Word of God. Or chase your tail. And you don't even have one, so you're not gonna catch it. It's like waiting for the cows to come home. I don't have any cows.
That's a long wait. Philippians 1. Paul, speaking of himself, and applying it to his audience. Being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. You've got to believe this everything is going somewhere and is going to Jesus Christ.
He writes Timothy. On death row. Paul on death row, for this reason I also suffer these things. I hate suffering. I mean, humidity makes me just.
Who thought of humidity? Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed. I love this. Paul is like, I suffer, and I'm not ashamed. He says, I know for whom I have believed, and am persuaded he is able to keep that which I have committed to him until that day.
That's courage. This man Saul was just extraordinary when it came to faith. There are others that are, Daniel, of course, and others. John writes this about Jesus: In him was life. And the life was the light of men.
We're not supposed to walk around somber. It's a contradiction to our faith. We're supposed to fight back. You might feel it on the inside, but you don't have to put up a placard. Faith is action based on knowledge.
Faith is action based on, I know something. No, I know, I really know it. I don't know about it. I have experienced it. Being born again is an experience, it's not a theory.
If you have been born again, you have heard the voice of Christ. And nobody can take that from you. But if you want to trash it, you can, but. Not ill-advised. No matter what others do, faith is based on knowledge.
And again, some think biblical faith. This failed them. It's failed them because it hasn't given them what they wanted. Maybe they didn't get the job they wanted. Maybe their marriage is not as happy as they want it to be.
So now they think they have a right to not trust the Bible. Because the Bible promises joy. Look, Jesus said, in the world, you're going to have a lot of trouble. In the world you will have much tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world.
And that means. It ain't gonna last forever. Because he put that cherubim at the end of the garden to make sure Adam and Eve didn't eat of the wrong tree. and live forever in their sin. God has taken countermeasures to sin, and we just got to get through it.
He said, So, what are you telling me, Pastor? I got to get through life. Do I sound gentle? A little carried away. over the top a little bit.
Okay, I'll welcome her back.
Well I think I can't That's not me! Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
This is me. Your rifle got rust on it, you're going to jail. You're going to the brig. That's it. I applauded that kind of treatment, but I'm the civilians don't live that way.
They want to see gentle and kind, and I do too when I'm in trouble. But anyway. So David was greatly distressed. Let's close in prayer. That's where the story ends.
Of course, it does not. And it's not supposed to end for us there either. We get distressed, we come under this hurricane, they wept until they had no more energy. He says here at verse 6: for the people spoke of stoning him. It got worse again.
What do you mean? I lost my family.
Now you're gonna kill me? Still practiced in the best of churches. How vicious followers can be. The emotions have hijacked the ship. They wanted to kill Moses.
Exodus 17, verse 4.
So Moses cried to Yahweh, saying, What shall I do with this people? They're almost ready to stone me. And so, of course, God helped them out of that mess. But this is a big part of what I'm talking about here.
Now David was greatly distressed for the first time In the Bible We read of David being friendless. I mean, it's just nobody's with him now. He's always had somebody. Jonathan was out there somewhere, you know, in touch, not too far. He's got nobody.
Until now He has not suffered alone, but he's suffering alone now. David strengthened himself. In Yahweh his God. That was his response as I read of Paul and John writing in first in John's Gospel 1:4, and him was the life. And the life was the light of men.
And David has just turned the light on. is taking countermeasures. Against this From bad to worse distress Instead of Diving into a fit of depression. He goes to God. And when we are at our wits' end, We have no right.
to go to our faith's end. Just because your wits have taken you as far as they can doesn't mean your faith needs to stop, too. That continues going. This is what Paul, you know, the famous verse from Job: He slayed me, I will still trust in him. My faith is not going to stop.
This is resolve. It's not a New Year's resolution. This is resolve. I'm drawing a line here, and by God's help, I'll not. move away from it.
Here, Yahweh is called David's God. David strengthened himself in Yahweh his God. This the historian is purposely drawing A stark contrast between righteous David and evil Saul. Three times In a single event, Saul said to Samuel, Your God, your God, your God. They're like, Well, this is crazy.
You're a churchgoer. You've claimed to be, you know, a child of Israel. It's supposed to be your God, too. When you bring an offering to the temple, Saul, who do you bring it to? It's our God.
Why are you talking as your God, not our God? I kind of cringe when someone's been coming to church for years and they still say, you all. When is it going to be us? When when do you line up on the wall with us in the same uniform?
Well This book of Samuel has some final comparisons between righteous David and wicked Saul. Saul disregarded the law. Always moved around it, always found a way to excuse himself. He had a criminal mind. When it came to God.
How can I get around it and not get caught by men? David obeyed.
Now, again, it's not saying David's perfect. But the contrasts are intentional by the Holy Spirit through the historian. Samuel didn't write this. Samuel's dead. He's not, you know, sending us text from.
She owed inquired of a dead prophet, Well, David inquired of Yahweh himself.
So David doesn't go, quick, bring the ephod here, I want to contact Samuel. He talks to Yahweh directly. Saul consulted the medium, the witch at Endor, the world's counselor, while David consulted a man of God. He called the high priest and he said, Bring me the ephod. When we get to all of this.
And Saul's message that he received was one of death. And David received a message of victory, and we're going to see that in the next few verses. These things are not little, they're not to be dismissed, they have everything to do with man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Verse seven, and David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son. Please bring the ephod here to me.
And Abiathah brought the ephod to David.
Now the ephod is that pouch that the priest wore, and in within it were the urim and the thunim that they discerned the will of God was a yes or a no. They're you know, they figured if, you know, We don't know exactly what it looked like. We can just theorize that You know, two sides up of the same color meant yes. You know, just we. Like lots.
But anyway, it worked. It was very effective for David. And so he turns to Yahweh, through Yahweh's appointed man, he's within the system of faith, he's not outside of it, as Saul would have done. Verse 8.
So David inquired of Yahweh, saying, Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him, pursue, for you shall surely overtake them, and without fail recover all. It's quite profound. I don't know how he got all of that out of the ephod, but he got it.
And I guess God says, you know, if I had let you know how they did this, you wouldn't be praying to me in the spirit. You'd be doubt trying to. pulls things out of a pouch. To find direction, and I don't want you to do that. I want a personal relationship with you now.
Because there's enough of the record in Scripture. for you to have faith. And so through the priest, Otherwise, so David asks for the Ephard, David's not doing this, the priest is doing this. Otherwise, who needs the priest? God, you know, later we're going to read of King Uzziah, a good king.
who got too big for his britches. And decided that he was going to be a priest too and offer incense on the altar. And God struck him with leprosy on the spot. The priests were ready to die. Repelling him from the temple.
So that was a showdown that the Lord interfered with. Anyway, To withdraw and to withhold God when you're under in distress. or depressed discouraged or defeated? It's to exclude God. To give up on praying, you can't.
Now there's a believer, you gotta push forward. I know you can get really close to this. You can get to the place where I'm just prayed out. I've just prayed out. I still believe in the Lord.
I still love God, but I just. You can't ask for any more. That's okay. God understands that. That's not excluding God.
And replacing him with self-sufficiency and a self-will. That's what Saul did. We read about it in 1 Samuel 14.
Now, it happened while Saul talked to the priest that the noise which was in the camp of the Philistines continued to increase.
So Saul said to the priest, Withdraw your hand. I don't want the word of God. I don't need the ephod answer. I can go without God. I got this.
That's what Saul did. Then, in the same chapter, in verse 37, 1 Samuel 14, we then read: So Saul asked counsel of God: Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you deliver them into the hand of Israel? But he did not answer him that day. Yeah, because they walked away, disrespected God.
Imagine going up to somebody and saying hello, and walking away before they can even respond. It's some manners. and the great difference between the two men. And as we look at this, we say, well, who am I in this picture? Am I more drawn to Saul?
Or am I more drawn to David? There are a lot of people drawn to Saul. Who needs to pray? Who needs to wait for God? We know what we want to do.
It says here in verse 8, without fail recover all. That's what God says to David. The Bible we love so dearly. is largely built on the lives of those who failed. It's just another one right here.
David failed, but God says without fail. And so those who have blundered and failed. and feel unjustly unjustly treated by people. God has not given up on you. You can lose your standing in life.
such as Joseph and Job and David and Paul And still You are remembered by God, your faith remains, you remain faithful and trust God. And Scripture blows the trumpet for you. The scripture says you are right. This is where you well done. You can, you know, there are some well-dones now.
You can get a well-done, good, and faithful servant in this life. You get a bunch of them. We get the grand one, is that's what we're after. the grand prize, but there are others in the meantime. God adds to this.
David didn't ask this question, but God says, without fail, All of it. You didn't get it all back. Boy, I gotta love that. And God is saying I'm not exhausted. I can give it all back.
Verse 9.
So David went. He and six hundred men who were with him, and came to the brook Bezor, Where those stayed who were left behind. Not all the 600 could make it. They got tired. Fainting happens in God's army.
You get believers who just Get worn out. Can't go anymore until they've rested. And they had been traveling continuously for three days. And then there's that whole episode of bawling. Crying and weeping before the Lord.
Again, many of them are likely traveling on foot and carrying equipment and supplies. Because later we're going to read about them giving food to somebody they catch wandering out in the wilderness. And well, who's carrying that food? They have their gear with them.
So this is going to be very painful to them because they're going to be left there and that is going to be a great trial because these kind of men want to fight with their comrades and not be left behind too weak to carry on.
So these brave men had to deal with that kind of guilt. Must have been revolting to them. Verse 10, but David pursued.
So read verse 9 again.
So David went, he and 600 men who were with him. and came to the brook Besor, whose uh where those stayed Who were left behind, but David pursued, he and four hundred men, verse ten. For two hundred stayed behind, who were so weary they could not cross the brook Bezor. David loses, he loses a third of his fighting force. The Amalekite forces are significantly larger.
400 get away. David has four hundred men. And he said, a long day of the slaughtering takes a good part of the day.
So here he loses a significant part of his force again from bad to worse. This is a major setback, but he's in the path of obedience, is he not? God told him, pursue them. You're going to take them. He's in the path of obedience.
He gets this setback. And instead of saying, oh, I'm doomed as doomed can be. My goose is cooked. That's the best way to eat it. Gideon knew some of this.
He knew about losing substantial part of this force. Fact of life. We cannot all keep the same pace. in pursuit of God's will.
Some Christians are just not as strong as other Christians. It's okay. You still loved. And we need to be gentle with each other. And not expect others look at it because there have been people, you know, I do it, you need to do it.
That works in some places in life. But not in the church and not in Christianity. Not like that. Verse 11: Then they found an Egyptian in the field.
Now, how often does that happen? Hey, mom, look what I found. An Egyptian in the field.
Okay. zip it because it could get out of hand. For me. Anyway, they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David. And they gave him bread, and he ate.
And they let him drink water. Verse twelve. See? You get these pictures in your head. 'Cause you just see him in the field with a hat, just the whole thing.
Fanning himself. Verse twelve. There's gotta be an antidote for this.
Somebody should do so. My daughter should get up and I can yell at her: hey, you sit down, you know better than that, and I'll snap out of it.
Okay, verse 12. And they gave him a piece of cake of figs and two clusters of raisins.
So when he had eaten, his strength came back to him, for he had eaten no bread or drunk water for three days and three nights.
So before they interrogate him, they restore his health. He's with nicer people now. It's been three days since they raided the camp. Verse 13. Then David said to him, To whom do you belong, and where are you from?
And he said, I am a young man from Egypt, servant of an Amalekite, and my master left me behind because three days ago I fell sick. Verse 14. We made an invasion of the southern area of the Kirathites. in the territory which belongs to Judah. and on the southern area of Caleb.
And we burned Ziklag with fire.
Well, that's what David wanted. No. Incidentally, when David becomes king, these Keratites, they're going to make a part of his personal bodyguard. We get that in 2 Samuel and 1 Kings. Yeah.
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