Happy New Year to each of you!
May our Lord Jesus Christ fill you, lead you, keep you and use you like never before in 2018, by His grace, through faith!
Today, we will continue to look at David’s challenge in 1 Samuel 30. You might want to read that chapter again to refresh your memory.
When You Are Not Aware of God’s Workings Behind The Scenes
It took God to protect everyone and everything while they were in the enemy’s claws. The fact that there was no loss is an undisputable miracle. God was taking good care of the warriors’ dear ones and belongings although they seemed lost to them. His invisible work doesn’t cease because you don’t see it. Circumstances can block out the truth, but the light of the God of justice and love still shines!
The captured women and children were cast down. They had lost all hope or were about to give up. They didn’t understand why they had been attacked and were now captive. There was nothing they could do to set themselves free. They needed a savior. But how, when, who? Would it be too late? What would happen of them as slaves to a pagan violent people? What horrible death or sufferings would they have to endure?
They wept a lot and probably thought that the God David talked about so much had forsaken them. They felt betrayed by the One their tradition taught them to fear and revere. How could their lives end like that? Oh, the vanity and cruelty of life! Little did they know that God was about to send deliverance. Little did they know that at every moment of their ordeal in captivity He was jealously watching over them.
The Amalekites believed they had finally taken revenge over David and His God. They had stolen what was most precious to them and could now do whatever they wanted with it. They mocked, taunted the prisoners, ridiculing their faith in God and in their warriors, trying to break their morale. They got distracted, dancing and feasting, celebrating a spoil that would soon be ripped out of their hands.
So David inquired of the Lord, 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.’
1 Samuel 30:7-8
Some things in God’s Word and workings require interpretation and ample explanation, but not this one: all means ALL! So, until you get all that was promised, don’t stop! Pursue all the way. Moreover, David and his men didn’t look to recover what was theirs individually. They did fight with and for each other. All wouldn’t have been all if even one of them didn’t get back what belonged to him. Everybody was entitled to the promise and it was everybody’s responsibility to ensure that nobody was left out.
What contrast with the mindset of the world! The Egyptian slave’s master left him to die when he became a burden, seemed useless.
Along the way they found an Egyptian man in a field and brought him to David. They gave him some bread to eat and water to drink. They also gave him part of a fig cake and two clusters of raisins, for he hadn’t had anything to eat or drink for three days and nights. Before long his strength returned.
“To whom do you belong, and where do you come from?” David asked him. “I am an Egyptian—the slave of an Amalekite,” he replied. “My master abandoned me three days ago because I was sick.”
~1 Samuel 30:11-13
The Amalekite didn’t want to embarrass himself with his sickness and weakness. The slave was throw away like a broken tool. That is not how we should behave as disciples of Jesus Christ. Love and every other aspect of the fruit of the Spirit should be our trademark!
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
~Galatians 5:22-23
We should imitate David who chose to “waste time” in his pursuit to care for that guy – a slave, a stranger, a foreigner, an enemy. He showed him kindness others didn’t, which testified of God’s deep work in the heart of that shepherd boy turned leader of men.
As we close, remember what David had learned throughout the years: Although evil’s control and dominion seems total and unshakable, God is at work behind the scenes! If He promised to never leave us nor forsake us, He meant it and He does it! And when He does something, it bears His mark: it is perfect and complete. No partial victory over the enemy in our lives!
So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.
~ Deuteronomy 31:6
Dear believer, you are not a victim and you are not alone. Get on your knees, have confidence in what God tells you, then get up to fight in spite of all odds and RECOVER ALL He has for you in 2018!
