Rev. David Holwick H Adapted from [Serm06y.pco, August 13, 2006]
Bristol Congregational Church
Bristol, Maine
June 26, 2022
1 Samuel 30:1-6
SEEING GOD IN THE DARK
I. Your world in ruins.
A. It is a familiar scene.
A strong, rugged man stands beside a pile of burnt-out rubble
that was once his home.
He is in tears.
He does not know where his family is, or even if they are
alive.
He has nowhere to turn for food or help.
We find him pitiful and pathetic, but we are glad we are not
in his shoes.
Where is this scene? Mariupol? Severodonetsk? Kabul?
No - we are in Ziklag, a small Philistine town forty miles
from Jerusalem, around the year 1015 B.C.
The man is David, who later will be Israel's king.
But here he is in his twenties - a refugee, an outlaw,
and a failed leader who seems doomed.
#16853
B. The background.
Many Christians have a limited understanding of the Old
Testament.
For David's life, you probably know he confronted Goliath
as a little boy with a sling and five smooth stones.
But what happened after that?
The boy David became part of King Saul's service.
Mostly he soothed the king with music from his harp.
But David also grew to be an effective soldier and leader.
King Saul grew increasingly erratic - he may have been
schizophrenic.
Saul began to see David as a rival and attempted to kill him
several times, so David fled for his life.
Hundreds of other men followed him, but where could they go?
David and his 600 men offered their services to King Achish,
a Philistine ruler.
The Philistines were the arch-enemies of Israel.
It would be like an Israeli going up to Lebanon and saying
he wanted to join Hezbollah or ISIS.
Achish gave them the village of Ziklag for their home base
and they and their families had settled there.
David was in a ticklish situation - he was a hired gun for
Israel's enemies, but he was really stabbing them in the
back.
He would tell them he was attacking Jews in the border area.
Instead he would attack villages of Israel's other enemies,
the desert tribes.
To cover his tracks, he killed any survivors. 27:9
This way there would be no witnesses to rat on him.
David had gotten away with it for a while, but now he and
his men had to join the Philistines for a big campaign.
Low and behold, when he got there, the other Philistines
sent him packing.
Their generals didn't trust him, no matter what Achish said.
So David and his men returned to Ziklag.
Only now it was a smoking ruin.
Desert raiders called Amalakites had attacked it when the
Jews were with the Philistines.
All the families were gone, taken captive.
(It is ironic that the Amalakites didn't slaughter everyone
like David had done to them.)
But even though their families were alive, they were
prisoners and no one knew where.
So the soldiers weep until they could weep no more.
#16853
C. David's world fell apart.
1) Loss of home; his two wives were gone.
2) He had failed his men and their families.
a) They were looking for a scapegoat and he fit the bill.
b) The men literally wanted to stone him.
3) David was totally isolated.
a) He was opposed by Saul, Philistines, even his own men.
b) His situation was hopeless.
4) Many Americans can identify with David's situation.
As rich and advanced as we are compared to past generations,
multitudes feel like their lives are coming apart.
Around ten years ago our life expectancy began to flatten,
then drop.
The last time this happened was 100 years ago, from the
First World War and the Spanish Flu.
The current drop did not start because of COVID - it
predates the pandemic.
Instead, it is because of a massive increase in overdoses
and suicide.
Experts call them the "deaths of despair."
Researchers Anne Case and Angus Deaton say the despair is
largely economic and result from diminished job prospects
and other personal disappointments.
As Case puts it, "your family life has fallen apart, you
don't know your kids anymore, all the things you expected
when you started out your life just haven't happened
at all."
But this is only part of the story.
There has been a 30-percent increase in suicides among
15-to-24 year-olds who haven't experienced these
disappointments.
And material deprivation can't explain why the suicide rate
among Blacks and Hispanics is only about a third that
of white Americans even though they tend to be poorer.
Our despair is not just from reduced finances.
It is from a loss of meaning, a loss of hope.
As the Prophet Isaiah put it, why do we labor for what does
not satisfy? (Isaiah 55:2)
So many people are running after the wrong things in life
and when crisis hits, they have nothing to fall back on.
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II. David's despair.
A. He was emotionally devastated.
1) Shock of disaster.
2) Grief at his loss.
3) Collapse of his life-strategy.
4) Sense of God's judgment.
a) "Heartache crushes the spirit" - Proverbs 15:13.
b) It was a perfectly natural reaction.
B. Disaster isn't limited to the ancient world.
A few years ago I received an email from a young woman who
had dedicated her son at my church but then dropped out.
She had intended to be faithful in attendance.
But her son became sick and doctors suspected leukemia.
His temperature went to 105 and stayed there for 26 hours.
The little boy went into seizures.
It turns out he had an auto-immune disease and could not fight
infections.
During one of his hospital tests, her mother had a heart attack.
She couldn't be there for her own mother.
Then her favorite cousin died.
A few months later the young woman started experiencing numbness.
She developed double vision.
Her own father had died of a brain aneurysm.
Tests showed that she had lesions on her brain.
Since then she has been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.
Want to hear more? She was pregnant.
And her doctors weren't sure how all the medications she was
taking would affect her baby.
C. Crisis can crush us.
1) Many people in crisis come to a standstill.
2) David couldn't afford to do this.
3) Fortunately, he had some special resources.
III. David found strength in his God.
A. David had a strong relationship with his Lord.
1) He wasn't a perfect man, but his faith was real.
2) From the beginning - his confrontation with Goliath -
David relied on God.
1 Samuel 17:45-47 --
David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword
and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name
of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel,
whom you have defied.
This day the LORD will hand you over to me... and the whole
world will know that there is a God in Israel.
... it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the
battle is the LORD'S, and he will give all of you into
our hands."
B. Pre-crisis faith is the best faith.
1) We often hear of foxhole faith or deathbed conversions.
A young soldier fighting in Italy during World War II managed
to jump into a foxhole just ahead of a spray of bullets.
He immediately attempted to deepen it for more protection.
As he was frantically scraping the dirt with his hands, he
unearthed a silver crucifix, obviously left by a previous
occupant of the foxhole.
A moment later, a leaping figure landed beside him as more
shells screamed overhead.
The first soldier turned to see that his new friend was an army
chaplain.
Holding up the crucifix, the soldier cried, "Am I glad to see
you! How do you work this thing?"
On a more serious note, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker wrote about
his World War II experience.
While flying on a special mission to the Pacific Islands, his
plane crashed in the ocean.
He and his crew were lost at sea for 21 days before being
rescued.
He said, "In the beginning many of the men were atheists or
agnostics.
But at the end of the terrible ordeal each, in his own way, had
discovered God.
Each man found salvation and strength in prayer, and a community
of feeling developed which created a liveliness of human
fellowship and worship, and a sense of gentle peace."
#30418
2) God can certainly reach people this way -- just think of
the thief on the cross.
3) But a faith that is grounded and mature and tested by time
will stand up better during crisis.
C. How would your own faith stand up under testing?
1) The concept of "faith" covers a wide range these days.
a) For some it means you accept the idea that a God exists.
1> It is appropriate to go to church and do religious
stuff on occasion.
2> But it only works when things are going well.
3> A crisis hits, and your faith offers you nothing.
b) Others have an all-consuming faith.
1> It is not as common in New England, but I have met
Christians who are hyper-religious 24/7.
2> They pray all the time, quote Scripture all the time
and are in church 4 days a week.
3> But curiously, a crisis hits and they fall apart too.
4> It is almost as if their faith is a contract with
God, where they do religious stuff and he has to
make everything good for them.
c) Others have what I consider a God-honoring faith.
1> It doesn't use religion as a scheme to succeed.
2> Instead, you recognize you are not the end-all of
the universe, but a sinner who needs to be saved.
3> You rely on Jesus to be your Savior and your Guide.
4> You trust in him when times are good, and when they
are bad.
IV. The essence of faith.
A. My God cares.
1) David's God was a personal God.
2) He created the universe, yet he knows the intimate details
of your life.
3) God loves you and wants to do good for you.
4) Even devastating crises can be worked out for your good.
B. My God saves.
1) God has the ultimate moral standards, which we have
violated.
2) But God has provided a way for us to be made clean --
he sent Jesus to pay our price.
3) We must make a commitment to God to receive this.
a) Turn our hearts toward God.
b) Turn our actions away from sin.
c) The change is so radical, Jesus called it being
born again.
4) Salvation is not the end-point of life. It is for the
living-out of life.
C. My God reigns.
1) David knew that God is sovereign.
a) He is in total control over what happens on earth.
b) God had brought David into this extreme situation,
and God could get him out.
2) God is not just in control in the good times. He is in
control in all our times.
Darlene Deibler Rose was a young American missionary in the
jungles of New Guinea in the 1940s.
During World War II she was captured by the Japanese and
spent four years in a prison camp.
She was beaten, horribly ill, suffered cruelties from her
guards, and her husband died, but she continually felt
the sense of God's loving presence sustaining her.
But toward the end of her imprisonment, something changed.
At the time, Darlene was in solitary confinement and
severely malnourished.
Her sense of inner peace evaporated.
She wrote:
"Quite suddenly and unexpectedly, I felt enveloped in a
spiritual vacuum.
'Lord, where have You gone?
Why have You withdrawn Your presence from me?'
In panic I jumped to my feet, my heart frantically searching
for a hidden sin, for a careless thought, for any reason
why my Lord should have withdrawn his presence from me.
My prayers ... seemed to go no higher than the ceiling....
I prayed for forgiveness, for the Holy Spirit to search my
heart.
To none of my petitions was there any apparent response."
Rose spent the night crying out to God, trying to figure out
why she couldn't feel his presence.
When no answer came, she prayed:
"Lord, I believe all that the Bible says.
I do walk by faith and not by sight.
I do not need to FEEL You near, because your Word says You
will never leave me nor forsake me.
Lord, I confirm my faith; I believe."
At that moment the words of Hebrews 11:1 came to her mind:
'Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,
THE EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN.'
"..Evidence not seen -- that was what I put my trust in --
not in feelings or moments of ecstasy, but in the
unchanging Person of Jesus Christ....
I felt that I understood what Job meant when he declared,
'Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him' (Job 13:15)."
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V. How David coped with his crisis.
A. David sought God's direction. 30:8
1) Through priest Abiathar and use of the ephod.
2) During crises, we often want to know what to do.
a) God can give such answers.
b) We may not have ephods anymore, but we have our Bibles.
B. David followed "the best angels" of his character.
1) He was compassionate to a slave. 30:11
a) This gave him vital information about the families.
2) He was generous in spirit. 30:24
a) He shared the spoils equally.
C. David pursued his goal relentlessly. 30:17
1) He was worn out, but kept charging till he had victory.
2) David's didn't settle for halfway measures.
D. David gave God the credit. 30:23
1) He sent presents of thanksgiving to his allies.
2) Their victory became everyone's victory.
VI. David's strength can become your strength.
A. He was not a super-hero but an ordinary man.
1) The victory that others have had, you can have, too.
2) God can give you the capacity to do and to endure.
B. God's power is not limited.
Ephesians 3:20 --
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we
ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work
within us."
Remember the young woman who wrote to me about her troubles?
Her pregnancy produced a healthy baby girl.
This year that girls turns 16.
And her son is leading a happy and productive life.
C. Do you have this divine power?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#16853 “Seeing God In the Dark,” by J. I. Packer, Discipleship Journal,
Issue 69, May/June 1992.
#30418 “No Atheists In Foxholes,” Wit And Wisdom by Richard G. Wimer,
February 1, 2006. Original source is God's Little Devotional
Book, p. 71; Chapnotes, ChapnotesMail@aol.com.
#34217 “What We Do Not Feel,” by Betsy Childs, A Slice of Infinity: Ravi
Zacharias International Ministries; http://rzim.org/a-slice-of-infinity/
February 27, 2007.
#66116 “The So-Called ‘Deaths of Despair’: Why Americans Are Dying
Younger and Younger,” by John Stonestreet with Roberto Rivera,
BreakPoint Commentary, December 27, 2018. The article quotes
from this source: “U.S. Life Expectancy Declines Again, A
Dismal Trend Not Seen Since World War I,” by Lenny Bernstein,
Washington Post, November 29, 2018;
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-Science/us-Life-Expectancy-Declines-Again-A-Dismal-Trend-Not-Seen-Since-World-War-I/2018/11/28/ae58bc8c-F28c-11e8-Bc79-68604ed88993_story.html>.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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