David Gaining Strength and Encouragement in the Lord Part 2 — Chuck Smith

Welcome to the Word for Today, the broadcast ministry of Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California. Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse venture through the entire Bible, and on today's edition of the Word for Today, we find David gaining strength and encouragement in the Lord, as we pick up in 1 Samuel 30, verse 7.

And now, with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck Smith.

And with David, God used painful processes. He came back and found out his wives had been stolen, his goods had been ripped off, and his men are ready to stone him. I mean, for a guy who's already had so much trouble, this just is it.

David Strengthens Himself in the Lord

And David encouraged himself in the Lord. He began to turn to God once again. And this is, of course, the beginning of David's coming out of this backslidden state. David said to Abiathar, who was the priest, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod.

And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David. Now he's going to begin to seek counsel from the Lord again. Had he sought counsel of the Lord in the beginning, he probably would have never gone down to the Philistine country.

Isn't it interesting how that we go our own stubborn ways and we do our own thing until we get in a jam and then we turn to the Lord and say, oh Lord, guide me, help me, get me out of this jam. Whereas if we'd been paying attention to the Lord in the beginning, we'd have never gotten into the jam.

But that's, I guess, human nature. And David inquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? Will I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue, for you will surely overtake them, and without fail you will recover everything.

David Pursues the Amalekites

So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him, and they came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed. But David continued to pursue, he and four hundred men, for two hundred of them stayed behind because they were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor.

So a third of David's army was too weak to continue to pursue the Amalekites. When they got to this river Besor, two hundred of them just said, hey, we just can't go any further. So four hundred continued the pursuit of the Amalekites with David.

The Egyptian Servant Leads David to the Amalekite Camp

And they found an Egyptian in the field. And they brought him to David, and they gave him bread, and he ate it. And they made him drink water, and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins.

And when he had eaten these, his spirit came again to him, for he had not eaten any bread or drunk any water for three days and three nights. So as they were going along, they saw this young Egyptian kid in the field.

He was very faint. They revived him, gave him bread and water, and then gave him some dried figs and raisins, quick energy, the sugar in the dried fruit. The guy began to be revived. And David said to him, who do you belong to?

Obviously, he was attired as a servant, had on a servant's garb. Who's your master? Where are you from? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt. I am a servant to an Amalekite. And my master left me because three days ago I fell sick.

And so without leaving him any food or anything else, they just figured the young kid's sick, just leave him. And they left him there to die, actually, in that wilderness. He said, we made an invasion upon the south of the Cherethites, the coast which belongs to Judah, on the south of Caleb, and we burned Ziglag with fire.

And David said to him, can you bring me down to this company? And the young man said, swear to me by God that you will not kill me, nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring thee down to this company.

Can you tell me where they are, David said. Can you lead me there? He said, well, you swear to me by God that you won't kill me after I do and that you won't turn me over to my master. You let me just be free to escape.

And when he had brought him down, behold, here were the Amalekites spread abroad upon the earth. They were eating, drinking, and dancing because of the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines and out of the land of Judah.

And David smote them from the twilight even to the evening of the next day. And there escaped not a man of them except for 400 young men who had some camels who fled on their camels. And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives.

And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, nor any of the spoil, nor anything that they had taken to them. David recovered all. None of the children were killed or injured.

All of the wives, the families were there, plus all of the goods, plus all of the extra goods that they'd ripped off from all of these other people where they had invaded. So David came out ahead. And so David took all of the flocks and the herds, which they drove before those other cattle, and he said, These are David's spoil.

Sharing the Spoil Equally

And David came to the 200 men, which were so faint that they could not follow David, who they had made also to abide by the brook Besor. And they went forth to meet David and to meet the people that were with him.

And when David came near to them, they greeted them and then answered all of the wicked men, the men of Belial, those who were with David. And they said, Because they didn't go with us, we're not going to give them anything from the spoil that we have recovered, except we'll give every man his wife and kids back.

And David said, You shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the Lord has given us, who has preserved us and delivered the company that came against us into our hand. For who will hearken unto you in this matter?

But as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff, and they shall part alike. In other words, those men who stayed back and guarded the stuff, stayed by the stuff, are to share equally in the spoil of those that go to battle.

This became a rule that David established in Israel. It's just as important that you have men staying back and guarding the stuff as it is to have men out in the front line fighting. Those that are on the front lines fighting need, really, the logistic supports from those that are back keeping the stuff.

So those that stay by the stuff share equally in the spoils of those that go to battle. I think that this does apply in missions today. I believe that they who stay by the stuff, that is, stay home and support those who go to the mission field, share equally in the rewards of the fruit of the ministry of the missionaries as those who go to the foreign field.

I believe that in God's economy, when we get to heaven, we will discover that we will be rewarded for our support of those missionaries that are out in the front lines, and we will be rewarded for the fruit of their ministries because we stayed by the stuff to support them.

And so it was from that day forward. He made it a statute and ordinance for Israel unto this day. When David came to Ziglag, he sent of the spoil unto the elders of Judah, even to his friends. It must have been a huge amount of spoil because David distributes it among his friends back in Israel.

He sends them presents of spoil of the enemies of the Lord. He sent to Bethel, and this probably isn't the Bethel up in the middle of the country, but another area towards the south. And to them which were in Ramoth and Jeter and all of these other names, which, why should I stumble through them?

But I can get Hebron. And to them which were in Hebron, verse 31, and to all of the places where David himself and his men were want to haunt. I like that phrase. It's want to haunt. That is where they were hanging out.

These various cities where David and his men would hide and hang out, they sort of sent rewards back to the chiefs of those villages and all. Now the Philistines fought against Israel. This is the battle that David was going to join but was refrained from doing so by the other lords of the Philistines.

Saul's Final Battle and Death

They fought against Israel and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and they fell down slain in Mount Gilboa. So the Philistines had gone pretty far in the country because when you get to Mount Gilboa, you're up beyond Ephraim.

You're in the area of Eshechar. You're actually in the area of Megiddo, Valley of Jezreel and Ezra 'lon. You're getting pretty far north, almost to the Sea of Galilee. So the Philistines have moved pretty far north as the men of Israel were falling in battle there near Mount Gilboa.

And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons. And the Philistines killed Jonathan and Abinadab and Melchishua, Saul's sons. And the battle went sore against Saul and the archers hit him.

And he was sore wounded from the archers. You remember the night before he had gone out to the witch of Endor that she might conjure up Samuel because he could not get any word from God. And Samuel said, why have you disturbed me?

And tomorrow you and your sons will fall in battle. And so the prophecy of Samuel is being fulfilled. Tragic, tragic. Jonathan, who really, it says David's heart was knit to Jonathan. My heart was knit to Jonathan.

I love this fellow. There's just a lot of commendable traits in Jonathan's life. He knew that David was going to be the next king. He knew that it was going to bypass him. And yet he loved David so much he was willing to just say, hey, I'll reign with you, David.

And this guy who ventured out in faith, who was so valiant in battle, looking forward to that day when David would reign and he could be there in the glory of David's kingdom. But such was not to be the case.

He fell in battle there at Gilboa. Then Saul said to his armor bearer, draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised Philistines come and thrust me through and abuse me. He was afraid of being tortured and mutilated by the Philistines.

But his armor bearer would not because he was afraid. Therefore, Saul took his sword and fell upon it, committed suicide or attempted to. When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, at least he thought that Saul was dead.

According to the Amalekite who brought word to David, he was still alive and the Amalekite finished the job. When the armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword and he died with him.

So Saul died and his three sons and his armor bearer and all of his men that same day together. Tragic day in the history of Israel as far as their military history goes. When the men of Israel that were on the other side of the valley, they that were on the other side of Jordan, over the area of Jabesh-Gilead, when they saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities and fled and the Philistines came and dwelt in them.

And it came to pass on the next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain that they found Saul and his three sons fallen in Mount Gilboa. And they cut off his head and stripped off his armor and sent it into the land of the Philistines round about to publish it in the house of their idols and among their people.

And they put his armor in the house of Ashtoreth, one of their gods, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan. Beth-shan is just at the north end of Mount Gilboa. It's just above the Jordan River and across from Jabesh-Gilead.

And when the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all of the valiant men arose and went all night and they took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan and they came to Jabesh and they burnt them there or they cremated their bodies.

Cremation, Resurrection, and the Nature of the Body

Now, I am often asked by people what my opinion is of cremation. And my usual response is, as far as I'm concerned, cremation will do in 37 minutes what nature will do in 37 years. It's only speeding up the process of nature.

It reduces your body back to dust. And the Bible says concerning the body, dust thou art, to dust you will return. And I see no problem with hastening the process. I have no problem with cremation. If a person wants to be cremated, that's a good way to go.

If that's the way they want to go, I have no problem with it from a scriptural or spiritual background. As far as I know in the scriptures, there is nothing that would speak against cremation. The body is not the real you.

The body is only the tent where you dwell for a while. Once I move out of this tent, I don't care what they do with it or what happens to it. It's probably too decrepit for science to get any value out of it, but whatever they want to do, I don't care.

Once I've moved out, it has served me well. It's served its purposes. And when my spirit moves out, then it doesn't matter to me. Because the real me is spirit. Jesus said, don't fear them who can kill your body and after that have no power.

In a sense, you might say that many of the early Christians were cremated in that they were burned at the stake. But again, once my spirit leaves the body, in what manner they want to dispose of this thing, it really doesn't matter to me, except I would be upset if they spent a lot of money for an expensive casket.

I think that's a total waste. Pine box is fine. You don't have to put it in a concrete vault. Feed the worms, I don't care. I really am looking forward to what Paul said to tell you the truth. Beloved, I'll show you a mystery.

The Resurrection Hope

We're not going to all sleep, but we're all going to be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. And I'm still holding out for that. But the Bible really doesn't say anything against cremation. Saul was cremated, but notice there's nothing spoken of in a negative sense here.

It doesn't say, oh, you know, terrible, shame, shame. It just accepts it as a matter of fact. And that's it. Without any discussion or commentary on it, it's just that they took him, burned his body. And probably the best thing that they could have done under the circumstances.

They took their bones. And they buried them under a tree at Jabesh. And they fasted for seven days. And so we come to the end of the career of Saul. And as we move now into 2 Samuel. We will come into the kingdom as it will be established under David's authority.

And we will see in 2 Samuel, David's career. The glories and also the failures of this shepherd king.

We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study through the book of 2 Samuel in our next lesson. As we follow the political triumphs of David. And we do hope you'll make plans to join us. But right now, I'd like to remind you that if you missed any part of today's message.

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That's right here on the next edition of The Word for Today. Now, once again, here's Pastor Chuck Smith.

Looking forward to a glorious week. As we wait to see what God has in store. As we seek His will. And as we open our hearts to Him. May God bless you and lead you. And guide you according to His perfect plan.

As you walk with Him. In Jesus' name.

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