1 Samuel chapter number 30. We're actually going to break chapter number 30 down into essentially three lessons as to how much we end up having to break the individuals down. We'll see as we go along, but what we're going to do today is we're going to read the first nine verses and see what the Lord's got for us here. 1 Samuel chapter 30. There are a couple of pages turning, so we'll hold off there on reading. Hope you all have been enjoying these lessons. I certainly have. To me, I just eat it up getting in here and seeing what all is actually in the Bible and whatnot. So 1 Samuel chapter 30, beginning of verse number 1. 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 in Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire. And had taken the women captives that were therein, they slew not any, neither great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way. So David and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burned with fire. and their wives and their daughters and, I'm sorry, their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captives. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep. And David's two wives were taken captives, Ahinomim, the Jezreelites, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal, the Carmelites. 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. And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David. And David inquired 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. So David went, he and the 600 men that were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed." Now, for this particular lesson here, I titled it Back in Ziklag. David has certainly been hanging around with the enemy for quite some time, 16 months that we're told. and just got expelled from the army for the crime of being an Israelite and sent packing. Had to make this three-day long trip down here to Ziklag and, well, found out that things just weren't going to go the way he intended them to go. And that happens to us an awful lot. We plan on things to go a certain way and they don't go that way. Leaves a scratch in our head, what in the world's going on here? And somehow, someway, it always manages to be a little bit of a surprise to us that it didn't go the way we thought it was going to go because there was something else we had no clue about whatsoever was waiting for us that we would not have been able to properly deal with if things had gone the way we anticipated. so here's David and had he gone to war with the Philistines against the Israelites or Played the the neutral card or betrayed a kiss whatever the case is By the time they did finally get back there to Ziklag for their family they wouldn't have had a clue as to where their families were and All they'd have known was Ziklag had been destroyed and everyone was taken away. Kind of like how here in America in the late 1600s, there was that Roanoke Island there in Virginia, and they'd left a bunch of people there and they had to sail back to get more supplies, and by the time they came back two years later, they were gone without a trace. That's the sort of situation that David and his men could have potentially looked at here had God not intervened, had God not saved David from himself there in chapter 29 and sent him back to Ziklag. If they'd have waited one more day, that Egyptian guy that we're going to meet later on in this chapter here could have died. So even though they got off in the right direction, they still wouldn't have known where exactly to go. They'd have had no intelligence on them whatsoever. They would have lost everything. But God sent them back at just the right time. So even though things don't go our way, God can still turn the trial into a blessing. So just be patient. Now let's look here. at verse number one. It says, and it came to pass. Now this is again, right after he got sent away there in chapter 29. When David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, let's say on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag and burned it with fire. Right off the bat there, it's kind of interesting to note, we're told that Ziklag was set on fire, but we're not told about any of the other places, you know, if they just invaded them and took what they wanted. Did they also destroy the cities there? We don't know. And the reason we don't know is because that's not important. We're not always going to get every single detail that we want. Some things, it's just a matter of, okay, it has happened. Don't panic about it. Don't sweat over it. Let's focus on what is important, what it is that God intends for us to focus on. In this particular case, it's Ziklag. Ziklag has been burned with fire. So they just made this march that would take them about 50 or so miles south of where the battle took place. Three days they get down here. It's been a long journey, roughly, if I'm remembering right, we're talking about 17, 18 miles a day they were having to march to get back down here. Not exactly fun. So the Amalekites had also learned of the great battle between the Philistines and Israel, and decided to seize the opportunity to plunder the southlands while all the armed forces were away. They looked around and said, OK, we've got no Philistines over here. We've got no Israelites over here. Man, this is like taking candy from a baby. And there's a whole bunch of babies. And I've got deep pockets. Let's go take this candy. It might be some of the good stuff. We're talking like the white chocolate Reese's peanut butter cups. Praise God. Let's go get all that we can. You know, all the good stuff there. That's what they were after. They were opportunists. blame him for being opportunist that they are Amalekites you know this doesn't mean that that David also messed up and he didn't kill all of them no David took care of the villages that he came across but the Amalekites were a huge people Saul had killed a bunch of them he still didn't get them all so there's still some Amalekites here there's gonna be another Amalekite to deal in chapter 1 of 2 Samuel, possibly another one to deal with nearly a thousand years from now over in the book of Esther, so there's always going to be Amalekites to contend with. While the Amalekites were some of the people David had previously attacked, like we started to say, We see that in chapter 27, verses 8 and 9. It's not likely that they knew David had been the one that had destroyed their fellow villages, that may have even attacked their homes while they were away plundering somebody else. They probably knew somebody had attacked. They probably did blame it on the Israelites. Maybe they blamed it on the Philistines. Maybe a third party. But I doubt they were looking for David. I doubt highly that this was some sort of revenge effort taking place here. That it's just a matter of, like we said, opportunity. And when opportunity knocks, they open the door and embrace it with arms wide open. Come here, old friend. I love you. uh... so uh... here they are uh... and again i don't think it was revenge because they carried everybody away What was David doing? David was slaughtering everybody, no prisoners, no slaves being taken out of it. They took everybody as a prisoner. They were getting slaves, they were getting wives for themselves, servants, all this good stuff there, people to sell off to other places. So yeah, it just really wasn't revenge. Verse number two. 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." So with no men left to resist the invasion, everyone was able to be taken captive without harm. This verse stands in stark contrast to David's no-witnesses policy during his raids. David, a child of God, was deep in sin, while these sinners are seen as kind and merciful. They took prisoners. That's not what David did. Though this restraint was by God's providence and not because they were the quote-unquote good guys. Okay, so we do need to make sure we keep that in mind. This is God once again intervening. His providential hand is at work here to keep these people alive. In other words, everybody kept their mouth shut, no one was busy mouthing off. Well, if David was here, he'd whoop you. They weren't bothered doing any of that stuff. Yes, sir, okay, we don't want to get hurt. And they just marched on out, lambs to the slaughter. And for their part, the Amalekites were like, hey, great. Because you know, that's one thing we don't read about here in this passage of scripture, where they went about hurting anybody who they took as a prisoner. Yeah, they started partying too hard and David was able to take advantage of it, but they weren't hurting no one. There was no, I'm trying to be nice here, there was no funny business going on. Everybody got their wives back and their kids back safe and sound. Okay, very important there. That means that it's God at work here. And again, the Amalekites weren't the good guys. Never were, never will be. An individual basis, yeah, it's possible, but as a nation, no. So, and then one more point here for verse number two, the practice of the time was to kill all the men of fighting age, spare the old people out of respect for their advanced age, so any of the older people, you know, too old to pick up the sword, okay, we'll let you live, and then take all the women and children Prisoners to become slaves because the kids will grow up to be slaves the women. All right. They're already able-bodied. We're taking you but someone like Tim's age Then I'm I might qualify but I kind of doubt at the same time. I mean just looking at me He says no, he's too old fat broken down. Forget it. Well kid. Well, we'll go and let him live but Tim Yeah, he Tim would have been killed instantly just you know, cuz they they took one look at him He's gonna put up a fight They would look at Tim and say, yeah, I know he's got guns under both sides of that jacket. He's got them on the hips. He's probably got holdouts there up his sleeves. He's got them tucked into his shoes. They know he's nothing but trouble. His tie probably sticks up and he's got a gun barrel under it. They are not going to mess with him. They're just going to go ahead and kill him right off the bat. Me, it's like, Forget him, let's go. So anyways, that is the way that they went about doing things. So the Bible is able to say that they took everyone captive. Now David and his men, I highly doubt they were traveling around with older people. I mean, David had even sent his own parents, if you remember, a number of chapters back, he sent his own parents over to Moab. So he didn't want to be dragging them along, putting them at risk. And if David did that, the rest of his men are bound to follow the same example, either lead them at home, wherever they were there in Jerusalem, or send them away, possibly to Moab as well. They probably didn't have anyone above fighting age with them. And as a result, They were either with David or they were taken captive. Verse three, so David and his men came to the city and behold, it was burned with fire and their wives and their sons and their daughters were taking captives. So there may have still been some smoke rising from the city from the remaining embers. Certainly as we get to the end of the chapter, we find that not the whole city had been burned with fire. Just a lot of damage had taken place. So, you know, you can just picture them cresting the hill there and they see off in the distance, there's smoke over there. And that's way too big to be a campfire. That is way too big for my wife to be burning the chicken again. No, little Timmy's either been playing with the matches or someone has taken our city and destroyed it. And when you got a picture at that point, they just take off running trying to get over there, crest that next hill so they can look down and see Ziklag is indeed been lit on fire. Says here that they had taken captives meant that those people were to be sold as slaves This really ain't so much of a matter of saying, okay I just feel like having you along with me My every intention is to sell you off and make some bucket change from you And like we said, there appear to be no old people in the city since they would have been spared and could have provided some details about their attackers. We're not given any details about the attackers at this point in time. It's not going to happen for us. Yeah, we know Amalekites because whoever it was, Gad or Nathan or maybe even David, sat down and wrote this out and says, yeah, the Amalekites attacked. Maybe even a Biathar, I don't know. But at this moment, first nine verses, David himself does not know who attacked. So there was no one left to say, they went that way, and there's Amalekites, and there was at least 600 of them as well. Most likely more than that, but the fact of the matter is, they didn't know. Now, I imagine that they could be looking here at the tracks. OK, these tracks are too old. These tracks are ours. There's some tracks here. They're like a day or two old. And there's a lot of them. So these would probably be the ones that we need to be following. But after a while, the wind's going to start blowing those tracks around. You're going to lose them. Rain comes through. It's going to wash out those tracks. They need information, and they need it quickly. So they were going to have to get going here and just Not quite up to that point yet, but we're getting there. Verse number four. And then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep. That word power means ability. They just simply did not have enough left in them anymore to do it. Kind of like how Simon Peter, after he Denied Jesus that third time the Bible says that he went out and he wept bitterly And those two words what bitterly means to literally have no more water to weep You know that that's how much it took out of Simon Peter to try to do this And I got a little note here in my Bible. I'm trying to zoom in so I can read it See I no more power to weep but still power to pray and get word from God as we see in verse 7a That's pretty good. I'm gonna have to write that down in my notes So verse 4, we read that, everyone was under great distress. They lost their families, their possessions, and undoubtedly Their consciousness reminded them of how they had been toward those they themselves had raided. Now they are crying until they had no more tears to shed. They are sitting there saying, yeah, I remember everything that we did to those villages we raided. And then we turned around and lied to Acoosh about where we went. We stretched the truth. We played in the gray areas. And now those chickens came home to roost. And it ain't fun. Don't like it. So, let's see, verse number five. And David's two wives were taken captives, Ahinom, the Jezreelites, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal, the Carmelites. Now, I thought this was kind of interesting as I was looking here at this verse, is we are given a quick reminder of three things in David's life. First, He had two wives. Now that, real quickly, that reminds me of something. Someone one time asked Mark Twain about the idea of if a man should have more than one wife. And Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens, whatever you want to call him there, said that the Bible's very clear on this. And he says, what do you mean? He says, the Bible says you cannot serve two masters. So, David was trying to serve two masters, he had two wives. Second, by having two wives, he is breaking God's law. Now what do I mean? Let me turn over to Deuteronomy chapter number 17 real quickly for you. And I want to read this to you, very important here. I mean, years ago we had a young adult study over at Sunrise, and the question was brought up, why is it Christians are not allowed to have more than one spouse? And I took them over here to this particular verse and reminded them that if you're saved, that means you're a child of the king, you're a king's kid, you are royalty. So you're kind of beholden to this part of the law here, and the law here in regards to kings, Moses wrote that neither shall he, talking about the king, multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away, neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. But the very first part there, neither shall he multiply wives to himself. One wife is not a multiplication. Two wives, that's a multiplication. You're getting in trouble right there. And I don't understand it anyways. I mean, that's one thing, Tim, I literally do not understand about the Muslims whatsoever. They want to do these things that'll guarantee them to get to go to heaven where they get 70 virgins. Why? Now you've got 70 women for the rest of eternity telling you, take out the trash, mow the lawn, clean the basement, clean the garage. 70 of them. No! And Solomon had how many? 300 wives and 700 concubines? The dude was nuts! So yeah, David is breaking God's law here, and his boy took it to an extreme. We're gonna move on from that one there. I could spend the rest of the night complaining about that one. Third, The third thing is that Abigail had originally been the wife of Nabal, but with his death, she had been freed to marry again and had accepted David's proposal to her. and when she accepts his proposal to marriage, they get married, it reunited the birthright for the tribe of Judah, which brought it right back down to David. David was descended from Nashon, and the whole lineage there that goes all the way to Judah comes down here to David, but Nashon hadn't actually been the one that went and spied out the land when they sent the 12 spies over into Instead, it was Caleb who went instead. So Caleb actually ended up receiving the birthright of the firstborn. Nation, and Salmon, and Boaz, and Obed, and Jesse, and David, they all had the right as far as being the firstborn, but the privileges of it had gone to Caleb, but now with him marrying the widow of Caleb, everything came right back to where it was supposed to be. So, even though we've got this problem with sin here, we're also being reminded But David is still God's man. Verse 6. And David was greatly distressed. He was pressed upon, that's what that word distress means, pressed on. For the people spake of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved, was bitter, every man for his sons and for his daughters. But David encouraged, he strengthened, see David encouraged himself, he strengthened, Conquered his fears in the Lord his God, okay David was under this great distress right now. He'd lost everything just like his men had lost everything But now suddenly we've got a problem with the buck stopping here because the buck stopped there at David And all eyes are on David This is your fault You're the one who led us over here to the Philistines. You're the one who led us in those raids. You're the one who led us to go and help out Achish. And you're the reason why the Philistines said that we had to go back. It's your fault. And all these fingers are getting pointed at him, and everybody's forgetting there's three other fingers pointing right back at themselves, because they're just as guilty. But right now, What are they doing? Acting like typical human beings looking for somebody to blame. And it's David. Because he's the leader and the buck stops here. And that's one great thing about David. The buck stopped there. He didn't try to pass it on. Which reminds me, do you all know why George Washington is the greatest president the United States has ever had? Nope. because he did not have a previous administration to blame all his problems on. All the others did, he did not. David here, he could have easily blamed Saul. Instead he says, no, I'm gonna encourage myself and the Lord. Lord, I've done messed up, I have sinned, I fully believe that while Abiathar is going and digging out the Urim and Thurim here, after David asks for it, David is down there on his hands and knees and he is asking for forgiveness of his sins, because he wants to be right before God, before he asks God what to do. Do you have something to say there? When I take a look at this, David learned one thing, everything rises and falls on leadership. He, you know, he got to, okay, there's some praise coming. But if it was going bad, he still said, it's still on me. I'm not, you know, same thing. I'm not giving it over. I'm not giving myself an escape route. I remember a preacher used to say that. Everything rises and falls on leadership. And David was a true leader here. Amen. I want to write that down real quick. I thought that was good. All right, so getting back here to verse 16. David is under great distress. He lost everything just like his men, but now they are blaming him for what happened Whether it was his idea to take all the men with him to fight in the battle or hadn't Or had been ordered by his good buddy Akish was irrelevant the buck stops here This was the same kind of mutiny that Moses and Aaron faced back in numbers 14 verse number 10 these men wanted blood and At the moment, David was an easy target, but given the choice, taking their vengeance on those who had done this would be far better. However, right now, this was a matter of convenience. David was there. David was convenient for them to lash out at. And a lot of times, too, especially between a husband and wife. And something's gone wrong, and it has nothing to do with the other person, but one will lash out at that person, blame them. The whole fight will be them attacking that person because they're there. Not because they're guilty, but because they are convenient. And that's when you need a whole lot of patience to keep from sitting there and verbally backhanding them, telling them to back off. All right, look. We'll work through this, so just go ahead, get it off your chest, and so we can go forward on this, because the last thing we need to be doing here is to be fighting. So get it, go ahead, say what you gotta say, get it all off. Because if you leave it bottled up inside, what happens? Boom! Someone's gonna blow. And while these guys are speaking about stoning David, because they're so terribly grieved, they're speaking about it. They're not actually doing it. So David's letting them go ahead and say what they got to say. Now, continuing on, on one hand, these men were ready to execute the very man who they have trusted the last 10 years or so like they were wild animals, while on the other hand, They worried over the fate of their children like any civilized parent would do. Times like this is why there are Psalms such as the 23rd Psalm. David saw that he could not place any confidence in his men, but he can in God. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. You know, there's something really great about that. You're walking through it and shadows can't hurt you. But you're walking through it means you're not sitting there planting roots. You're going forward. And David's saying, you know what? I'm going to go forward. The city had been left defenseless, but how many would it have taken to defend it? That's a good question. He's only got 600 men. How many men could he have spared to say, all right, you all stay here at Ziklag, and let's hope that you're enough? 100? 200, 300, 400, 500, 580, only got 600, 599, and just himself go with Akish. Like John just pointed out here, he goes after the Amalekites here, he's going to end up leaving 200 behind and going with just 400 against them. But there he's in the will of God. He's able to do it. But David's out of the will of God in chapter 29. He could have left everybody there in Ziklag. And there could have been two slaughters that day. Jezreel and Ziklag. So we know later on, yeah, that's actually what was my next point there. Let me skip through here, skip here, okay. There would have been even more distrust for him that he might have been setting a trap. Achish himself might have turned on David to defend the city would have been an all or nothing move. So how well guarded are our homes in the spiritual sense? So I was trying to get down there too. How well do we guard our homes? And I'm not talking about making sure we got the shotgun beside the bed. Anything that moves gets blasted in the middle of the night. Spiritually, are we making sure that we've got our defenses up? Is our spiritual alarm system primed that we went to bed having prayed up, prayed for protection from God? We got those spiritual smoke detectors on, that we have been prayed, that we have been in God's word, that we have been studying, that we have been putting forth honest effort to do as God has told us to do. Or are we going to bed each night saying, well, hey, it was a good day and that's it. And we get up in the morning, it's going to be a good day. And we don't do nothing at all all day long with God's word. The whole part of the whole business of being in service to God is that we need to know The key what we're supposed to do we have to communicate with the master Even if we we've got it all by memory. It's all in habit. Okay. I know I got to do this business But is that what he still wants you to do that day could there be a course correction any of these things here. That's why we need to be starting off our day with prayer, starting off our day with reading the Bible, starting off our day by getting some studying done, even if it's just one verse, two verses, something to get into his word and see what all is going on there and make sure we are praying throughout the course of the day. That's why it ain't possible to pray throughout the course of the day. Well, y'all need to go and start reading through the book of Nehemiah and find out how many times that guy prayed, amen. Daniel, how he prayed three times a day. Get in here and see what's going on. Make sure that we are protecting our spiritual houses, protecting our physical houses, protecting our church house here by doing things God's way. It's interesting that they were not grieved for their wives though Read it again for the people spake Estonian because the soul the people was grieved every man for his sons and for his daughters Just to go back to the joke earlier Maybe they got tired of the wife telling them all along and take out the trash. Okay again pitiful joke at this point, but It doesn't say that they were grieved for their wives. I but they were grieved for the next generation. So many of our churches today are closing because we've stopped being grieved for the next generation. We have stopped grieving over the sons and daughters that have gone out in the world. They'll figure it out eventually. Church wasn't that necessary. Right, and that's why they took it to become optional. Why the next generation took it to be unnecessary. They at least had an eye on that next generation. There's a huge proportion of a lost generation right now in our churches. Because we stopped being grieved for the sons and daughters. Same time, be great for the spouse. We need our spouses. Okay, Tim, you say amen to that? Okay, I don't like that you laughed first at the pause, and Miss Heather has looked at you about five times now like, boy, you're in trouble tonight. But yeah, make sure we're doing things right. Continuing on, note how we are told that David encouraged himself in the Lord. This tells us that in the dark times, the child of God needs to turn to God and encourage himself in God. Not in himself, not in his basketball team, not in his car, not in his bank account, not in his clothes, not even in his family, but in God. Because if you've encouraged in God, it will trickle down to everything else. But if you try for something down here, guess what? It does not rise. Gotta start with God. At this moment, David finally, fully turned back to God. The smoldering embers of his home reminded him of the ruin of his life had been for the past 16 months. His soul was flooded with dread as his loyal men now spoke of stoning him, and anxiety over the fate of his wives gripped his heart. There was clearly no way for him to turn but back to his God. Verse seven, and David said to Abiathar, the priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod, and Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David. So note the contrast here. David didn't try to force an answer from God like Saul had been doing back in chapter 28 by trying dreams and seeking prophets to tell him what to do, nor did he use a fake copy of the Urim and Thurim to help him out. Lastly, he didn't throw in the towel and seek out a witch like Saul had done. He went to God. One can easily imagine as he was waiting for a biother that he took the time to confess his sins so he would be clean when he asked God for direction. Saul never did that. David was a man after God's heart. We see that in chapter 13, verse 14. And again, that is repeated all the way over in the book of Acts, chapter 13, verse 22, that David was a man after God's own heart. What a testimony, what a wonderful thing to have inscribed on your tombstone after God's heart. This went over the priest's other garments and he would have and he would wear it when he went to the altar of prayer Only the high priest was allowed to use the Urim and Thuram. Abiathar was the new high priest after his father And the rest of the priests were murdered by Dog there at Dor This is more evidence that David is right with the Lord again. He is seeking after God and doing it God's way We haven't seen David use the Urim or Thuram to make decisions in a while and all he has and all he has seemingly done is go downhill and we think we Look back at all these chapters here Since the Urim Thuram came into his possession there and he wins Lord. Should I go? Tequila and deliver Kiela from the Philistines go you will overcome and all this other stuff there but ever since Kiela he hasn't touched it and but it's been there the whole time. And so often, we got our Bible right there. We ain't touched it in a long time. I'm not talking this type of touch where I'm carrying it in church. I'm talking this type of touch when I'm at home, when I'm at the doctor's office, when I'm on break at work, when the television could be on, but instead I want this on instead. That's the type of touch that needs to be going on here. That's the type of touch that David is going about here with the Urim and Thurim. Basically what it was, it was like an apron that he would place over the robes and he would have a central pocket where they'd be able to stuff the Urim and Thurim in. As far as the Urim and Thurim goes, the best I can tell you about that is this piece of wisdom that I heard years ago. There was this hotshot young preacher, just graduated seminary, he got all these degrees. And he went to this one town there and he started showing off just how smart he is and all this stuff there. And people started telling him, well, you know, there's this old fellow over here. He's pretty smart, too. And he's like, oh, yeah, what school did he go to? Well, he didn't go to no school. He didn't go to no school. Yeah, he just, you know, he's just a country boy. So he went over to the old man, and he's going to put the old man in his place, show him what he knows. And he asked him, he says, hey, old man, tell me what the Urim and Thurim were. Because he knows we don't have a clue what the Urim and Thurim even look like, let alone how they work. And the old man, he stopped for a moment and stroked his beard a little, and he says, well, I don't know about that, but I do know if you change a couple of letters around, you get using and a thumbing. And that's what you do with your Bible, to find out God's will. That would be that right there. The Mormons believed that the Urim and Thurim, the Urim was a type of glasses type thing, and the Thurim was gold plates with words from God on it. And they just somehow managed to end up over here in America. They said they got them in the temple over there. And the first people that came over on the Mayflower were actually the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, too. And if that wasn't them, then they were all the Indians that got over here first. It's them. So yeah, they ain't got much use for those guys. Anyways, back here to verse eight, we're almost done with today. And David inquired 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. By the way, just real quickly, going back to Keilah, David asked basically this kind of same questions at the same time, and God answered the second question first, David had to turn around and go back and ask him again, and then God gave him the answer for the first one. So he had to ask both questions twice to get the answer separately. Here, David is asking both questions at the same time, and he got the answer for both questions at the same time. So that's further proof that David was back in God's will. What do I got here probably just said the same thing David would have asked these questions and a by author would have gone to God with them and Received the answer through the use of the Urim and Thurim He didn't know yet who had attacked the town But it was safe to say it was a large group of men who had done it hence his use of the word troop Shall I pursue after this troop in other words a large body of men? God answered not only both of his questions but put to rest any concerns the men had about their loved ones. And he says, pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them. And he could have left it off right there. And now the guys are going into battle, boy, am I gonna get my wife back? Am I gonna get my kids back? What about all my property that they also took as well? Am I gonna get that back? And God, I don't want you going into battle questioning. He doesn't want us going into battle questioning. He wants us going into battle with his assurance that, yes, this is what I want you to do. And he says here, and without fail, recover some. No. Without fail, recover your wives. No. Without fail, recover all your possessions. No. Without fail, recover all. And what do we know about that word all? I've been telling you this for a year now. All means all. So, verse number nine. We are finishing up with this verse here. So David went, he and the 600 men that were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed. So this time the men didn't question the results of the Urim and Thurim like they had in regards back there at Keilah that forced David to go back and ask again. The Brook Besore was 16 miles away from Ziklag. So these guys who have marched roughly 17 miles a day for three days have had zero rest, very little food and water, and they just turned around and marched another 16 days. Or 16 miles, I'm sorry, 16 miles. It's kind of easy to see why there would be 200 guys who would just say, look, I can't go no further. That's it. I'm spent. I don't know how I'm awake right now. I am spent at the moment. And I ain't been doing all this marching that they've done. So I can easily side with those 200 guys that just said I can't go no further. All of these men made it as far as this brook, but were just too tired to go any further. It had been roughly four days of marching on top of however long they had spent searching the city and mourning the loss of their families. Some may have even been fasting and thus just didn't have the energy to go any further. To force these to keep going would have slowed them down and made those men a liability in the battle. And there are times when God is going to remove someone from our immediate circle here because they're just going to be too vexing for us, too draining. Right now, I need you to go forward. You need to just go ahead and leave them out of it at the moment. Now, I do want to read this part here from our book. It's page number 50 of the book. It says, at Ziklag, we encourage ourselves on the Lord. And I put the little question on here, what is our Ziklag? And Sexton had this to say, look at this man who is going to be the king of Israel. Look at this leader who would someday lead tens of thousands of people and be spoken of as the greatest king in all the history of Israel. Look at him. He's all alone. His family is gone. And the men now want to take his life. Where was God at that moment? His eyes were fastened upon his beloved servant. God had brought his man to the place where he had no one but God to turn to. The Bible says, but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. God will bring us to the end of ourselves and to discovery once more that he is our all in all. We need to know something about the depth of God's love that can never be plummeted and the heightened breadth of his forgiveness that can never be measured. We need to know something about how long-suffering he is, how patient he is with us. We need to know something about how sweet and precious he is. We need to know something about his comforting presence. We need to know in the depth of our soul that he will never leave us or forsake us. At Ziklag, when we are all alone and there is no one but God, then we get to know him. David encouraged himself in the Lord, and the Lord became so very real to him there. So next time we will pick up in verse number 10 and have them march off from the brook Besor. Do we have any questions or comments or concerns? No, but in chapter 31, this verse here, It's still going on today. Yep. You're very very correct. They are still fighting to this day. All right.