We have a copy of your Bible with you this evening. I invite you to open to 1 Samuel chapter 30. We'll be looking at the whole chapter this evening. As David returns to the town of Ziklag and finds there's a big problem, as he returns to the Lord in trust, and goes forth as the king to rescue his own people. First Samuel chapter 30, beginning in verse one, this is God's word. Let's pay attention to it. Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negev and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great. They killed no one, but carried them off and went their way. And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep. David's two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, bring me the ephod. So Abiathar brought the ephod to David, and David inquired of the Lord, shall I pursue after this band? Shall I overtake them? He answered him, pursue, for you shall surely overtake and shall surely rescue. So David set out, and the 600 men who were with him, and they came to the brook Besor, where those who were left behind stayed. But David pursued, he and 400 men, 200 stayed behind, who were too exhausted to cross the Brook Besor. They found an Egyptian in the open country and brought him to David, and they gave him bread and he ate, and they gave him water to drink, and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins, and when he had eaten, his spirit revived, for he had not eaten bread nor drunk water for three days and three nights. And David said to him, to whom do you belong, and where are you from? He said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite, and my master left me behind because I fell sick three days ago. We had made a raid against the Negev of the Karathites, and against that which belongs to Judah, and against the Negev of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire. And David said to him, will you take me down to this band? And he said, swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver me into the hand of my master and I will take you down to this band. And when he had taken him down, behold, they were spread abroad all over the land, eating and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. And David struck them down from twilight until the evening of the next day. And not a man of them escaped except 400 young men who mounted camels and fled. David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and David rescued his two wives. Nothing was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken. David brought back all. David also captured all the flocks and herds, and the people drove the livestock before him and said, this is David's spoil. Then David came to the 200 men who had been too exhausted to follow David and who had been left at the brook Besor. And they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. And when David came near to the people, he greeted them. Then all the wicked and worthless fellows among the men who had gone with David said, because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered. except that each man may lead away his wife and children and depart. But David said, you shall not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us. He has preserved us and given into our hand the ban that came against us. Who would listen to you in this matter? For as his share is who goes down into the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage. They shall share alike. And he made it a statute and a rule for Israel from that day forward to this day. When David came to Ziklag, he sent part of the spoil to his friends, the elders of Judah, saying, here is a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of the Lord. It was for those in Bethel, in Ramoth of the Negev, in Jetir, in Ereur, in Sifmoth, in Eshtimoah, in Rakal, in the cities of the Jeromelites, in the cities of the Kinnites, in Hormah, in Boreshan, in Athak, in Hebron, for all the places where David and his men had roamed. That's for the reading of God's word. Will you please join me in praying for the blessing of the preaching of the word. Lord and our God, we thank and praise you once again for the scriptures which you have given to us, which you have given that we might be thoroughly equipped for every good work, that you have given to us to direct us to Christ Jesus. We know all of the law and prophets speak of him, so we ask that as we come to this account of David, we would see also the way in which these scriptures teach us of the Lord Jesus Christ, that our faith in him might be strengthened, that he might be glorified in our midst this evening. We pray these things in his name, amen, amen. I wonder if any of you have ever given much thought to why we like particular stories or not. why particular genres of literature might appeal to us more than others, why particular themes in stories stand out to us more than others, and why we really latch on to some and take or leave others. I think one of the common themes that pop up in stories that arrest our attention are stories of rescue and redemption. There's just something about these kinds of stories that speak to us and appeal to us. And every time you read one, whether it's an historical account, something that really happened or whether it's fictional, you read about it and then when the good guys, as it were, rescue the people they're supposed to rescue, you get excited and you cheer a little bit inside. Maybe you cheer a little bit externally too and then people look at you funny. But whatever the case may be, it excites you. It gets you revved up and you think this is wonderful. I love stories like this. Have you ever considered why? We love stories like that. I think probably a large part of that appeal to us, a large part of why we like it is because deep down in our heart of hearts, it resonates with us because we understand that we need rescue. I think because any and every person on earth, believer or unbeliever, senses their need of salvation. They know in their heart of hearts that they are in a fallen condition or were in a fallen condition and needed salvation from that. They needed to be rescued. And I think we also have this sense within us that there is, in fact, a rescuer. We I don't know if naturally is the right word, but inherently, possibly because of the passing down from generation to generation of the promise of the gospel because of the Proto-Evangelion there in Genesis 3, know that there is a rescuer for people in a fallen condition. We understand we have a need And even if we don't know who he is, we understand that there should be a rescuer, and we need a rescuer, and we want a rescuer. And I think that's one of the reasons why stories of rescue are so appealing, because ultimately, it points us all to Christ. It reminds believer and unbeliever alike of the one who crushes the serpent's head, defeats the enemies, rescues his people. Here in this account of David, we're pointed to that reality once again. We see in this story of David is he rescues his people, the type, the shadow of the greater than David, David's son and David's Lord who rescues his people. We see such glorious, beautiful pictures of Christ here in this story from the life of David. And this story takes place over maybe four different scenes, if you will. Pastor Matt had a 12-point sermon this morning. I'm not that ambitious. But I went with four points this evening, which is, even that is outside of my norm. But in the first six verses, Dave and his men return to the town of Ziklag. And what they find there is shocking and very grievous to them, but this results in a reliance upon God. In verses seven through 15, David is once again evidently, openly relying upon God and following in his ways. And he does this because God is the only one upon whom David can rely. Indeed, the only one upon whom any of us can rely. And the God, the faithful God, gives David victory over the Amalekites. In verses 16 through 20, very brief, there's a total rout of the Amalekite forces that raided Ziklag. Complete and total. And then in verses 21 through 31, the victorious king gives rewards. Gifts. to all of his people and gives them abundantly and graciously. So those are the four parts of the story that we'll look at this evening, the return, reliance, route, and rewards from the king, which all ultimately points us to the Lord Jesus Christ. With that division in mind, let's jump into the text and see what goes on. David and his men returned to the town of Ziklag, the town which had been given to them to reside in there in the land of the Philistines after they had been excused from the army because none of the Philistine commanders trusted David and his men. They went home. And when most of us arrive home, we would like, I'm sure, a nice welcoming. Either wife and children saying, oh, he's home. Maybe the dog barking excitedly. That's not what David and his men receive when they get back because there's been problems while they have been gone. The Amalekites had raided Ziklag while David and his men were away. Now it seems the Amalekites were taking advantage of the upcoming war between the Philistines and the Israelites. They saw that armies were leaving towns and going and gathering at central locations, and the Amalekites seemed to have thought, well, this is an excellent time for us to enrich ourselves. In verse one, we read that they had raided the Negev and had come against Ziklag. If we jump forward to verse 14, when David and his men find that Egyptian slave who had been owned by an Amalekite. He gives a little bit more information. He says that the Amalekites had raided the Negev of the Karathites. the Negev of Caleb, the towns of Judah, and they had raided areas of the Philistines and Ziklag. So they're going around in this general area and raiding towns, defenseless towns, the places where none of the soldiers or the fighting men are left, and they're enriching themselves. And they have come against the town of David. David and his men don't have all of that information yet. All they know is Their town is burned, their belongings are stolen, and worst of all, their wives and children are all missing. Now, I hope nothing like this has ever happened to you. Hopefully the worst homecoming you have ever had is the one where you got home after a vacation and opened the refrigerator and the Tupperware was growing its own ecosystem. But you can surely imagine The grief and the shock and the devastation which awaited David and all of the men and indeed it was grievous to them. Great grief when they return home. You see once they return they find the city burned with fire, their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. David and all of his men raise their voices and they weep until they have no more strength to weep. They are so overwhelmed with grief that they cry themselves weak. Indeed, they're so overcome with grief, many of David's men, they are so bitter in their souls and the innermost depths of their being that they begin to say, we should kill David. It's his fault. He's the one who brought us into Philistia. He's the one who convinced Achish to give us the Ziklag. If he hadn't done any of this, we'd still have our wives and kids. Yeah, we might still be in dire straits in the land of Israel, but at least we'd still have our families. Maybe we should kill David. Wouldn't solve the issue, but at least it'd give us some kind of comfort. These men are grieved because they love their families Love of family is an immensely good thing. It's a gift from God. It's natural. It's right that these men should be so grief-stricken over the loss of their wives and children. Parents, would you not be utterly grief-stricken if your children were taken, carried away by the Amalekites? I think you would be. How much more so if your children were carried into captivity spiritually, so to speak? Now ultimately, the spiritual state of our children rests in God's hands. We know that, we understand that. But God has given our children to us to teach them and instruct them in the ways of God, raise them in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. Not to abandon that to Sunday school teachers and pastors. As good as Sunday school teachers and pastors on, that responsibility lies with you. And I would like to encourage you and exhort you. As you are doing, do so even more. It's very encouraging to me as a minister to see the ways in which the parents here in this congregation are raising their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, are instructing your children in godliness and in the ways of Christ. Keep that up and do so even more. At your rising and at your going to bed, speak Christ to your children. At mealtime, speak of Christ to your children. At play, speak of Christ to your children. Point them to the Savior. Act as though their spiritual state is 100% in your hands. And rest entirely on Christ, that he will hold all of those who belong to him fast in his hands. So I want to encourage you parents with that. And I want to encourage you parents, perhaps even you older parents who have children who it seems perhaps have wandered away from the Lord, who perhaps do seem to be in spiritual captivity as it were. I'm sure you pray for them. And I want to encourage you to continue to pray for them and to trust in the Lord to deliver them. He is the one who does not desire the death of the wicked. He is the one who's not willing that any should perish but the doll should come to repentance. Bring your children, the prodigal children, if you will, to him in prayer and trust in him to work his good pleasure in their lives. Giving them over completely to the Christ who loves them more than you ever could. and who loves to save sinners even more than any of us love to see sinners saved. I want to encourage all of you parents in that way. Rely upon God and proclaim the gospel as you are able. David, in light of this trouble, his family being taken, his town being burnt and his people mutinying, Seams turns his attention back to the Lord and starts to rely on God again. David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. He realized that there was no other refuge, no other help for him. The circumstances he finds himself in are so far beyond him, even further beyond his being ushered into the army of the Philistines. He can do nothing else but rely upon the Lord, and he does. There's a contrast with Saul here, I think. Saul was not relying upon the Lord at any point in his career, and whenever he inquired after the Lord, he was doing so from personal, selfish reasons. Saul, the Philistine army back in chapter 28, he panicked. He thought, this is too much for me. And so he tried to use the Lord as a means to an end. He sought God in fear, not in faith. He wasn't looking for the will of God. He was looking for God to tell him, well, you know, you're Israel, so I'll give you victory. That's how Saul was. David, on the other hand, just throws himself upon the mercy of God. He turns to God in faith here. I think David could have truly sung the words of Psalm 46, verse one, that God is his refuge and strength, the very present help in times of trouble. David strengthens himself in the Lord and then turns to the Lord for instruction, relying upon him. David calls for Abiathar to bring the ephod to him. This is the extraordinary means of instruction from God. Remember the ephod contained the Urim and Thummim by which the priest could ascertain a kind of yes or no answer from God. And so David inquires of the Lord, what am I supposed to do? Should I go after the Amalekites? And will I have the victory? Should I pursue, will I overtake them? This is humility and faith on David's part. No doubt David's desire, David's will, is to go after the Amalekites and rescue his family. But David doesn't say, I want what I want, so I'm just gonna go and do this. He holds back and he says, let me see what God wants first. He inquires of the Lord, should I pursue? I want my family back, Lord, but if I go on the chase, Will this be me opposing your will? Or is it your will for me to go rescue my people? God answers both questions in the affirmative. Yes, go, and yes, you will have victory. You will rescue your people. You see, David relies upon God. David relies upon God because God is reliable. God is faithful to us. Indeed, God is the only faithful one, and God shows himself faithful to David here. He tells David, go, pursue, and then gives David help along the way. God uses the extraordinary means of the Urim and Thummim to show David his will, and then he uses just an incredibly ordinary thing to give David more help, to confirm his word to David. David and his men set out. They have their directions from God. Fortunately, 200 of the men are so exhausted, they have to stop by a brook, they can't go any further. So David says, all right, my forces has been cut down to 2 3rds of what it was, but we'll keep going. It's a very kind of Gideon thing that happens here. God still shows himself faithful and they keep going and they find an Egyptian. Just a random Egyptian in the open country. A place where nobody is expecting to find Egyptians. And there he is. So his men bring this guy, they say, maybe he's seen something, maybe he knows something. They bring him to David, he's weak, faint with hunger and thirst, he's been sick. They give him food, they give him water, he eats a bunch. It seems that he'd gotten his appetite back and they say, do you know anything? And this Egyptian just so happened to be the slave of one of the Amalekites who had been with them the entire time they'd gone raiding. He served his master until three days ago, just so happens he got sick. And his master, apparently being a wicked master, instead of saying, well, I'll take this guy along with me and nurse him back to health, said, you're on your own. And leaves him in the middle of the wilderness And this man is able to tell David, I know exactly where they are. David has been given his instructions by God. God is faithful to David. God gives David this Egyptian guide to show him exactly where the Amalekite army is encamped. This is the providence of God in full display. This man just happened to fall sick. three days ago just happened to have been left? David's men just happened to stumble upon him? No. This is the faithful God orchestrating all events so that this man is brought to David at exactly the right time so he can lead David to the army of the Amalekites so God can show himself faithful to David again and again and again. And it's times like this in the scripture and times when we see the faithfulness of God in our own lives, which really ought to give us so much more hope and comfort in Christ. If God is faithful to David in this way, he says, yes, go ahead and go, and then works all things out. so that God's word to David is proved true, how much more all of God's word to us in Christ? And how much more does God work all things together for our good as he promised? And how much more does God use all things in our lives for our good in his glory and to conform us more to the image of Christ? Brothers and sisters, when we see the faithfulness of God from the greatest things as we might conceive of this to the least things in our life, this should cause us to Take so much heart in the Lord Jesus and rely on him because of his faithfulness to us. Because God is a faithful God, we can rely on him completely and totally. He's faithful and kind. He's faithful to David and leading him all the way to the Amalekites and he gives David victory over the Amalekites. And it is glorious. And it is brief. Four verses. concerning the route of the Amalekites. The Egyptian takes David down to the camp of the Amalekites. He and his 400 men see them. The Amalekites are scattered around. They're feasting, they're dancing. It's a big party. They say, we've raided all of these towns of Judah and Philistia. We've taken all of this spoil and all of the fighting men are away and there's no chance that anybody's gonna catch us. We're home free and we've got all this stuff. And so they were having a huge party. Little did they know that the anointed of God was sitting at the ridge of the hill looking down upon them about to bring judgment down on their heads. And he did. The brevity of the account here is striking. The author doesn't feel the need to go into any great detail. He says, David struck them down from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not a man of them escaped except 400 men. young men who mounted camels and fled. It was a long battle, but David struck them utterly. The Lord gave total victory to his anointed so that David's own people might have total rescue. David was victorious because God was true to his word. I think that one of the few details that is given to us here is meant to emphasize that fact. The only Amalekites to survive this battle are 400 young men who jump on their camels and take off. This fact is pretty shameful to the Amalekites. These are young men, they're kind of in top fighting shape. They should really be the ones who are throwing themselves into the battle. They should be the bravest, right, the most ferocious, but they're the ones who turn tail and run. But I think the point here is really the way this is framed. Not a man escaped except 400 young men. A small portion of the Amalekites escaped, 400. Well, and it just so happens that David only had 400 men with him. And so the small portion of the Amalekites that escapes is equal to the number of men that David had with him, demonstrating that it wasn't David and a massive fighting force who get this victory. It wasn't David and superior tactics or extra bravery or just sheer Israelite fighting power that brought this victory home. It was of the Lord. David and his 400 were largely outnumbered. They were as big as a small portion of the Amalekite raiding force. God gave them the victory. God promised David that he would give him the victory and then God fulfills that purpose and it's complete and total victory here. David strikes them all down, recovers everything. that the Amalekites had taken. Not one single thing is missing from all that they had taken. It's complete and total rescue. So we see here, the king's people are captive and the king rescues them completely. And if you think about that phrase and you say, well you know what? I think that sounds like Jesus. You are absolutely on the right track. Here, once again, is a type of Christ, something which points us to Jesus. This part of David's story is another clear example of the way in which David is meant to point us directly to the Lord Jesus Christ. I think it's also, excuse me, it's also another reminder to us that when we read about David throughout 1 Samuel and as we get into 2 Samuel, we're not supposed to look at the life of David and say, wow, David did really good here. I guess I'm supposed to be like David. And then when we see David do wrong things, we say, wow, David was really bad here. I guess I'm not supposed to be like David here. Those are true to an extent. But really, when we see these things, we're supposed to say, David reminds me that we need a good king. He did good here, but we need a better king than David. We need King Jesus. We need a truly good king. When we see the wrong things that David does, Supposed to say, I'm reminded that we need a king that doesn't do things like this. We need King Jesus. Either way, David, his life is supposed to point us to the fact that we need Christ the King. David is a pretty good king, as far as kings go, but he's not enough. David needed King Jesus. We need King Jesus. And so we're reminded over and over and over again of Christ to point us to him. We're pointed to him here as David is a victor and completely rescues his people, so too Christ was the victor and has completely rescued his people. David does more than just rescue his people. Christ has done more than just rescue his people. Last section of this passage, verses 21 through 31. David gives gifts. He gives gifts to all of his people. All of them. He comes back to those 200 men who had been too exhausted to follow him. They come to him, what news? And he says, We won, we got it all back. And then up speak some of those worthless fellows. We've seen worthless fellows somewhat frequently throughout 1 Samuel, haven't we? Phineas and Hophni, those men who opposed Saul when he was anointed, Nabal, These men who are sons of Belial, sons of the devil in their actions, these worthless men speak up and they say, well, we don't wanna give any of the spoils to those 200 guys, they didn't do anything. They can have their wives and kids back, yeah, sure, we don't need them, but the good stuff? The treasure? The sheep, the goats? Why should they get any of that? They didn't do anything. David, in effect, tells them to just be quiet. He says, well, what does it matter? Aren't they also my people? Sure, they were too exhausted to follow, but they stayed back with the baggage. They were our rear guard. They're still part of our army. I'll give them a share of the spoil as well. This reminds me of that parable which Christ taught in Matthew chapter 20, one of the laborers in the vineyard. You remember the owner of the vineyard hires several people throughout the day to come work, and then at the end of the day, it's time to pay them all. He pays the ones who showed up the latest first, and he gives them a day's wages, those who arrived at the 11th hour. And all of the guys who had gotten to work earlier that day think, well, this is great. We're gonna get paid more than them. They got a full day's work, they showed up late. We'll get paid more than them. And then the owner pays them the same amount. They start to grumble and complain and say, wait a second, we've been here longer. And the owner of the vineyard says, well, you agreed to a day's wages. They agreed to a day's wages. This is my vineyard. Am I not free to pay them the same amount as I pay you? Does Christ not give all of his people himself? He doesn't say, well, you know, you're just a regular Christian in the pews. You're not a deacon or an elder, so you don't get as much of me. He doesn't say, well, you know what, you're not really good at evangelism, so I'm only gonna give you a third of all of, the blessings in the heavenly places which are in me. Christ gives graciously, abundantly, fully to all of his people, to the entirety of his body. He's given us each different gifts. Some of us, perhaps we could say, are the rear guard. We stay back by the baggage. Christ still gives us the same as the advance forces, as it were. David points us to the generosity of Christ, the one who gives to all of his people, and the one who gives abundantly, liberally, generously, because David doesn't just give to those 600 men in his army. When he gets back to Ziklag, he sends spoil to all of his friends in Judah. He says, God has blessed me abundantly. He returns to the people of Judah, certainly a portion or at least all of what they had stolen from them. But the Amalekites had also raided in Philistia. And so David is able to send to Judah Philistine treasure as well. And he sends it to so many of his friends, the elders in Judah in these towns. He doesn't say God prospered me in this battle, God gave me all of this spoil so I'm gonna hold on to it because I'm the king and I deserve all of this. He says God has blessed me and so I will bless all of these people in turn. He gives them of the treasure, blesses them with goodness even though they'd not been anywhere near the battle. And this too is a picture of Christ, of the generous Christ who gives us what we do not deserve, gives us what we could never earn, who blesses his people with himself best of all, who grace upon grace gives us all the blessings in the heavenly places in himself. The anointed Lord Jesus, the King of His peoples, rescued His own and then showers them with treasure. Himself, all of the gifts and graces which we need to glorify and honor Him, He gives us the Holy Spirit. to guide us into all truth and to conform us into his image. The Lord Jesus Christ, the ultimate generous king, has bestowed so much upon those whom he has rescued. He did not hold back at all, giving us all of this and giving us himself. That is what David points us to in this text. David, a human king, is not perfect. But here in these ways, he directs our attention to the heavenly king who is perfect. Through the life of David, we are told, look to Jesus for your rescue. Look to Jesus to supply all your needs. Look to Jesus. Rely on Him. He is far more loving and generous than you could ever ask or think, and will indeed bless His people most abundantly. Praise His name. Let's go to Him in prayer. Oh, our great and glorious King Jesus, we are so joyful to be able to call you our own. We are so thankful that all of the scriptures point us to you, that all of the law and prophets speak of you. We thank you for David, for his example to us as a brother in the faith, but even more for the ways in which he points us to you, the King. who we need and the King who we have. The one who gives total and complete rescue to his people and then lavishes grace upon them. We ask our Lord and Savior that we would be ever mindful of this. That you would teach us more of yourself and the salvation which you have given to us. And we ask, Lord, We continue to read through your word, whether in the Old Testament or new, our gaze would constantly be directed to you and that we would see you in all of scripture, even as we have seen you this evening in the book of 1 Samuel. Our Lord Jesus, we ask that you would do this for your glory and the spread of your name through all of the earth. Amen. Let's take a few moments now to meditate on this passage and on the preaching of the word. before we close with our final hymn.