Our text tonight is First Samuel 30, be found on page 251 of your Bible on the rack in front of you will be reading the whole chapter. While you turn there, you do not have a reason for requesting that hymn, I do not have a tie in. Lucy wanted me to request the hymn. It's actually Ellie's hymn. We sing it to her every night when we put her to bed. And I guess Lucy loves to hear it as well. So. First Samuel 30. You notice this text is divided in two section. One says David's wives are captured. Another David defeats the Amalekites. Two sections, but I believe it's perfectly tied into one as we see in this in this chapter, the picture of David as a king. We see a lot of David in the first or in the second half of this book and all of these chapters we've been studying. We see David in a lot of circumstances. And I believe here, finally, David is starting. He's learned a lot and he's starting to act. a little bit more like a king. This chapter, this story of David, is the last story of David in 1 Samuel. The next chapter is all about Saul. Remember, the chapters are kind of going back and forth. I believe it's meant that way as we prepare for Saul's death and as we prepare for 2 Samuel, the story about David's rise to be king and David ruling as a king. This is the last glimpse we get of David. before Saul dies and before the need for the next king arises. And so I think what we learn here about David is strategic and it tells us what we need to hear as readers and what the original readers need to hear looking forward to the death of Saul and the need for a new king. So as I read this text, look for certain things that David does, certain kingly things David does. And that's what we'll then discuss in our sermon. for Samuel chapter 30, beginning with the first verse. Now 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. Now 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 have 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 you 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. They gave him water to drink and they gave him a piece of cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit revived. for he had not eaten bread or 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 hands 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 on 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 David came near the people, and 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 statue 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 these, excuse me, for those, in Bethel, in Rameth of the Negev, in Jatir, in Arur, in Sifmeth, in Eshtimoah, in Rakol, in the cities of the Jeramilites, in the cities of the Kenites, in Hormah, in Boreshin, in Athak, in Hebron, and all the places where David and his men had roamed. Thus ends the reading of God's word, may he apply its truth to our hearts. Let's go to our God in prayer. Lord, we do pray in this story, the end of first Samuel, that you would open its truth to us. You would unlock this text and you would indeed teach us more about you. That you would show us how David is indeed a king and how he points to Christ, our true king, a king who fights the enemies and a king who loves his friends. And I pray that the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart would be acceptable in your sight. Oh, Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. Amen. When I first read this text, when I was preparing for this sermon, my thought when I read it was, finally, finally, we see a picture of David, the king. A lot's going on with David since we first met him back in 16. He's done a lot of things. He's been the slayer of the giant and he fought him with the bodyguard and saw his armor and saw his army, excuse me. Then he was running from Saul and saw Chasen. He was David the Fleer. And then he's raiding against these other tribes in the desert and he's raiding them for food and lying about it. And all of a sudden David's in the army of the Philistines. David's kind of all over the place. He's been a lot of things. But finally, here we see a little bit of David the king. Finally, he's done some good things and he's done some bad things. But finally, we see here a king. We see the work of a king in this passage. This is a simple sermon, a two-point sermon about a king. The first point is that the king fights his enemies. The second point is that the king loves his friends. The king fights his enemies and the king loves his friends. And we'll see those two parts. But before we get there, I want to look at an introduction to see where we are. Remember, we ended last week, David was with the Philistines, but they realized we can't really trust this guy and his 600 men. And so they throw him out and he goes home. Well, it's a three day journey to get home. And he gets home with his men from a long journey. What does he find? Nothing. No wives, no children, no livestock, no homes. It's all burned. We take for granted as the reader, we read this and the narrator tells us what's happened. He tells us in the first two verses, the Amalekites have come, but David comes and he finds nothing. There's no sign who did it. There's no one left behind to tell him where they went. Not only is his wife and livestock and children and everything gone, he doesn't know where it is. He doesn't know where to go. David and his men are in a destitute position. Y'all know that. My wife and I just came back from a long journey. And you all know when you come back from a long journey, you want to come home and you want to kiss your wife and hug your kids and put your feet up and enjoy your house, knowing that everything is fine. You worry when you're away that everything's going to go bad. David didn't have, I guess, Homer to mow his lawn and play choo choo with his kids at church. But David gets home from a long journey and he finds nothing. And you see what happens in verse four. He and the people, the men who are with them, they raised their voices and they wept. That's all they could do. They raised their voices and they wept. Look at that verse goes on. They wept until they had no more strength to weep. Have you ever wept until you have no more strength to weep? I know some of you have. They wept until they had no more strength to weep. David is at the bottom of the pit. A horrible situation. And then you know that saying, when you say someone is in, they've reached rock bottom and then someone throws them a shovel. Someone throws David a shovel. Not only is his family gone and his kids gone and his livestock and his home burned, but look at verse five. He turns around and his men are ready to stone him. His very men have turned against him. David has wept until he has no more strength to weep. And then it says, add on top of that in verse six, David was greatly distressed for the people spoke of stoning him. They were bitter in soul. They wanted someone to blame. They wanted something to do. And they turn on David. I'm sure David didn't take any solace in this, but lots of godly leaders in the Old Testament have been threatened with stoning. They almost stoned Moses in the desert. They almost stoned Caleb And Joshua, they came back from the report of the promised land. They were almost stoned. They almost stoned Jesus. And here's David, the leader of God's people on the verge of being stoned. This is the lowest of the low point for David. And here at the end, excuse me, halfway through verse six, the thought I have when reading this is these people are in desperate need of a king. They are in desperate need of a savior. They are in desperate need of a rescuer. The situation, it really couldn't get any worse. People are gone. They have no idea where they are. David's men want to stone him. This is the lowest of the lowest point he has been. But here we see the king emerge. And here's where we start with the first point that David fights his enemies. Beginning here, halfway through verse six, David fights his enemies. Look how that verse ends or really how this second part begins. But David strengthened himself in the Lord, his God. First step, David strengthened himself in the Lord, his God. What does that mean to strengthen himself? I think there's a clue here in this verse. It says in the Lord, his God. Yes, He is the Lord. Yes, He is Yahweh, the Covenant God of Israel. Yes, He is the Creator God of the whole world. But David calls out to Him from the pit and calls Him, My God. David calls on His God. He strengthens Himself. He turns to the God who is, yes, the transcendent God of the universe, but also the eminent, personal, loving and caring God. And David calls on Him to be strengthened and calls Him, My God. There's a parallel here. I believe, with I think it was 1st Samuel 23, that story of David and and we get the names wrong here, but he's fleeing. He goes to Kiela. Remember, he's betrayed by the men of Kiela. Then he's about to go and the Ziphites are about to betray him. And there's these two scenes of betrayal. And in the midst of it, Saul is chasing him. He's hiding in the wilderness. And Jonathan, his faithful friend, comes to him and they see each other for the last time. And Jonathan comes to him and says, Jonathan strengthened David. And he does it, if you remember the story, by telling David of God's promises. David is strengthened by being reminded of God's promises to him. And I think that lesson that David learned that Jonathan came to strengthen him and now David doesn't have Jonathan to strengthen him, but he still has his God and he still has God's promises. I believe that strengthens him here in this time of desperation. I want to read You can stay here, but I'm just going to flip over and read from one of the Psalms that David wrote, Psalm 56. Just read two verses. David writes, When I am afraid, I put my trust in you, in God whose word I praise. In God I trust. I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? Following the storyline of David through this book, we see over and over again that God is sovereign. The response of man in the face of a sovereign God is to trust in him. And as we feeble men trust in our sovereign and powerful God, it drives out fear in our lives. David said it so beautifully in these two verses, when I am afraid, I trust in God. Why? Because he is sovereign and powerful. And when I trust in that God, what happens? What he says, what can flesh do to me? What can the men who've taken my wives do to me? What can the men behind me trying to stone me do to me if I trust in my sovereign God? David strengthens himself. In the next verse, after David has weeped till he can weep no more and he's strengthened himself in God, the first thing out of his mouth is, bring me the ephod. Bring me the access to my God. He turns to his God in prayer. Bring me the ephod. Again, we see the contrast, this constant contrast with Saul. Saul, just a couple of chapters ago, he wanted to know what was going to happen. And does he go to the ephod? Does he go to God? No, he goes to that medium in Endor who conjures up the dead. Where does David go? David goes straight to the throne room of God Most High through the ephod. And he goes to him and he has a simple question. Shall I pursue this band? Shall I overtake them? God answers, pursue. For you shall surely overtake and she'll surely rescue. She'll surely rescue. This is interesting. This is David's mission, is to rescue his people. The king is sent on a mission to rescue, not to enact judgment on the people, not to kill them all. There'll be a time, most likely, for judgment. Here, the mission that the king is sent on is a mission of rescue. A rescue plan to go and rescue the people. And what does David do? He takes off. He gets his 600 men and they take off. And they get to the spring and already, of these warriors, 200 of them are too tired to go on. And they said, we can't go on. And David said, I'm not stopping for you. I'm going for my wives. I am going for my children. I am going for my people. I love this picture of the king who pursues without ceasing, without flinching, without eating or drinking or pausing. David pursues ceaselessly for his people. We know that this band is much greater than 400 because they only lost 400 men who sat later on, so they must have been bigger. Now, David's men are down to 400. He doesn't stop. He doesn't blink an eye. He goes. And he is chasing and pursuing. Then essentially what happens next? They meet an Egyptian, and they have apparently a picnic out in the desert. David's on the warpath, then all of a sudden we stop for this Egyptian. This wouldn't be a sermon from 1 Samuel if we didn't talk about God's providence. And here we see front and center God's providence in David's life. He is pursuing, he is on the run, he is chasing, but who is he chasing? He doesn't know it's the Amalekites. He is running, he's pursuing, but he doesn't know who he's chasing or where he's going. And so they meet this Egyptian on the verge of death in the desert, and they feed him. And he tells them exactly where his family is. Isn't that amazing? The Amalekites had made a raid. They're going back through the land. This mere slave gets sick. This Egyptian slave is sick. The king needs him no more. He casts them off. For three days and three nights, he survives with no drinking and no water. David, with only 400 men, happens to meet this Egyptian slave in the desert, who tells them exactly where to go. What a picture of God's providence. What a picture of God's guiding hand for David. He says, go and pursue, and he shows them exactly where to go. So David, he chases them there. They get there, beginning of verse 16, the story continues. And when he's taken them, it says, behold, they were spread abroad all over the land. What are they doing? They're eating and they're drinking and they're dancing. They think David is far off. They think David doesn't know where they are. David can't catch them. And so they're having a party. They have all this spoil. They have stuff to eat and stuff to drink. And so they're having a party in the desert. They have no guard. They have no defense up. And David swoops in and defeats them all. The text says, amazingly, in verse 17, David struck them down from twilight until the evening on the next day. Now that's kind of confusing. Why does he use twilight and evening to refer to the same time period? Well, it seems like he's saying that twilight one night and then through the night and through the day until the next evening, he fights for 24 hours. Some commentators say twilight really can be interpreted as the dawn. And so David actually attacks at the dawn and fights for until the evening of that same day. Either way, it doesn't change the point of the passage, whether he fights for 12 hours or 24 hours, David goes to rescue his people. And he fights for a long time with his near 400 men. And if you'll notice before, when David was fighting, when he was making raids in the desert on these tribes, he killed everyone. Remember the stories, no one got away. Man, woman or child, no one escaped because David had to keep up the secret of what he was doing. Here it says immediately 400 men escaped on their camels. But that doesn't that doesn't matter to the story. This isn't a story of vengeance and judgment. This is a story of rescue. And that's where the emphasis is here is on rescue. Notice the men. Escape in verse 17 and then and then run with me through verses 18 on down. David recovered all of the Amalekites had taken. Verse 19, nothing was missing. Nothing was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken. Verse 20, David captured also the flocks and the herds. The people drove before and they shouted out, this is David's spoil. The king was sent. by divine commission on a rescue plan, and he rescued every single thing he set out to get. Whether big or small, man or child, the livestock, he rescued it all. Not a single thing he was set to get escaped. It reminds me of the words of Jesus in John chapter 10 when he says, all that the Father had given to me will come to me. All that the Father had given to me will come to me. This picture, the shadow of the King to come seeks out his people on a rescue plan and not a single one is lost. He saves and he rescues them all on these verses over and over again. David, David, David is done. It's David's victory. David to David is the spoil and they are celebrating and they are cheering. The rescue is complete. The king has rescued all he set out to get. He has defeated the enemies. He has rescued his people. That is the work of the king. That's the first. Thing I think we see in this text, not David, the king. But the story doesn't end here. And there's a greater ending. David not only fights his enemies. The second point is that David loves his friends. Firstly, David fights his enemies. Secondly, David loves his friends. Twenty one down through the end. We talk about this second point. What happens here, David and his 200 men, the wives and the kids and the livestock and the spoil, they walk, they're back and they're cheering and they're coming back. And those 200 men who were too exhausted to follow from the brook. They come up and David greets them and they they greet each other, probably celebrating here. Within in verse 22, the wicked and worthless fellows among the men don't fail to miss the power of those words, wicked and worthless. Those are not those words are not used sparingly in Scripture. These men are wicked and worthless. They say, let those guys who are too tired and too weak, they can have their wives and their kids, but that's it. We get the spoil. We fought for it. We worked for it. We earned it. The spoil is ours, David. The spoil stays with us. Before we see David's response, I think we can sympathize a bit with those men, can't we? We can sympathize a bit if we have worked and fought and risked for something. Why would we share it for those who are too weak, who are stuck at the brook watching the baggage? This comes up. And the parable that Jesus tells doesn't about the laborers in the vineyard. You know, the story of the man had a vineyard and he went to get laborers and he got some men who came in at the beginning of the day and promised them a wage. And then later in the day, he got some more men and promised them a wage. And then some more men later in the day until towards the end of the day, he got some more men in who just worked maybe an hour or so and promised them a wage. At the end of the day, he gave every man the same wage. And those who started the day were grumbling and complaining. And Jesus said to them, Do you begrudge my generosity? Do you begrudge my generosity? David tells the men the same thing. I think the point here is of a generous king. He looks at them and look what he says in verse 23. So compassionate at these wicked and worthless men, he says, you shall not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us. You know, it's the text that over and over again, David won the battle. It's David's spoil. It's David's victory. David says here, the Lord has given it to us. Look at the generosity of the king, he says, he preserved us and given into our hand the band that came against us, says to the man who's going to listen to you. And then I love this, David sets a law here, he says for the story in verse 24. 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. Whether you go and fight in a battle or whether you stay with the baggage you share in the spoil alike. Those men want the spoil. They believe they've earned it. They believe they have earned a hand or a right to that spoil, and David tells them it is from God. God provides it alone. We share and share alike. This is a generous king. The king loves his friends. He loves the weak. Those he rescues, he shares the spoil with. Those who didn't fight, he shares the spoil with. And the chapter ends with he shares his spoil with the kings. You know, the end of the chapter, all those names that I struggled to pronounce, those are all the kings and Judah. And David sends them part of the spoil and he sends them gifts from the spoil. Now, a skeptic would say that's a pretty good political move, right? on David's part. He's about to go be made king. And so why not go ahead and prime the pump and warm up these guys so they come to like David. And it may be a wise move on David's part, but it shows he is a generous and loving king. Do you think Saul would have ever done anything like that? David fought. David risked. David went. It was David's victory. And he gives the spoil to all his friends and all in his kingdom. I think these two points about the king point us directly towards Christ as our king, the king who fights his enemies and the king who loves his friends. Theologians talk about Christ being a redeemer by fulfilling three offices, the office of a prophet, the office of a priest and the office of a king. The Westminster Shorter Catechism says the king rules and defends us and restrains and conquers all of his and our enemies. That's what David does here, and that's what Christ does. As a result of sin and the fall, we are all desperately in need of a king. Just as the chapter began with the men, desperately in need of a king. We, in our sin, in our brokenness, in our helpless and hopelessness, we are desperately in need of a king. Christ is that king. I think an interesting comparison here is to look at David, Oliver, so many chapters, all that we have been studying, David patiently waits, doesn't he? He's got a chance in the cave to slay Saul and become the king. He's got another chance when Saul is encamped and David goes and gets his spear. He has these chances, but he waits and he is patient and he endures until it is his turn to become the king. We see that same thing with Christ, don't we? Early on in his reign, he does healings and miracles and people want to go and tell their friends. And he says, no, wait, my time has not yet come. And he waits and he's patient and he endures. And even in his victory, when he triumphs over the grave, there is still now a period of waiting when he will come again. He will come again in judgment and bring his people home. But why is there a period of waiting? What is the mission of the king is to rescue the people. There is a period of waiting. and enduring now as the king goes and rescues his people, brings them out of slavery, brings them out of darkness into his kingdom. The work of the king is twofold, to rescue his people and defeat the enemies, and also share the spoil. Because in Christ, our king shared the spoil of his victory with us, his friends. We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in all the heavenly places. says Paul in Ephesians. We who are hopeless, we who are weak, we who, if we could put ourselves anywhere in this story, we'd either be the people who are enslaved, in need of rescue, or we'd be the guys too tired and sitting by the baggage. That's us. And yet the victorious king, as he is generous here and shares the spoil with his friends, our victorious king is generous and shares the spoil with us. That same verse in Ephesians chapter one, verse three goes on to talk about how we are adopted as God's children. As we are adopted and brought in, we are given a right to all the privileges of the sons and daughters of God. Adopted children aren't adopted children. They are children of the king. He blesses his children with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. To be a Christian, It does not mean that we will all be little Davids and we will all be victorious in all the struggles in our life. It does not mean that we will slay the Goliaths in our life, that every struggle we have, if we have enough faith and trust, we will be victorious in every struggle in our life. To be a Christian is to struggle and to endure and to be persecuted and to weep, often to weep until we have no more strength to weep. But it does mean in our weakness, We have a king who pursues us without ceasing, without pause, without stopping to eat or to drink or to sleep, a king who pursues us ceaselessly. It means that he rescues us, fighting 12 hours, 24 hours, whatever it is, fighting nonstop to rescue those he loves. And it means he blesses us with the spoil of the kingdom We have it in part now, don't we, with our relationship with Christ. We have in part the spoil of the kingdom now, but we will have it in full when he comes again in victory, when the king comes again in victory and calls his friends into his kingdom and gives us every blessing, both physical and spiritual. We have his kingdom forever. Today's been a day unplanned, but we've talked a lot about war and fighting and kings. We had some great hymns. This morning, we just sang Onward, Christian Soldier. Another hymn that I love is Oh, Worship the King. It's a hymn of victory. It's a hymn of chariots and thunder and clashing symbols and war and victory. It's a great hymn. You have to stand up, as Chris says. You have to stand to sing this hymn. But there's a great verse in it, I think it's verse five, and it goes like this. Frail children of dust. and feeble as frail in you do we trust, nor find you to fail your mercies. How tender, how firm to the end, our maker, redeemer, defender and friend. He's our defender, isn't he? The king who fights the enemies, he is our redeemer, isn't he? The king who goes out and rescues us. But he is also our friend who shares that bountiful spoil with us forever and ever. If I could address you tonight, I would address you as frail children. I hope you're not offended. We are all frail children of dust. Frail children, indeed, look to our conquering King. Hope and trust in our King alone, King who fights his enemies and loves us, his friends. Let's close in prayer. Our Lord and our God, You are indeed the King. You are the King who reigns now in heaven, but You are also the King who waited for a time. And now as Your subjects, as Your people, as Your adopted children, we wait with You. And as we yearn for eternity, as we yearn for those spoils, we endure now. And as you fight, And as you defeat the armies of darkness, would we fight along with you? But Lord, we confess and we know that at times we are the ones in need of rescue and we are the ones too tired and waiting by the baggage. What a joy it is to our souls that you rescue us. You give us that spoil for nothing in us, but only by your grace alone. And as we leave and we set our hearts on you, but our vision be pointed towards you to trust in your sovereignty to fear not and to hope in you alone. We pray this all in Christ's name. Amen. Please stand as we close the benediction. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.