Overview
This teaching examines “Be Strong: Keeping Our Reservoirs Full” through Proverbs 24, Genesis 50, showing how david, know, going shape a believer’s relationship with God, daily choices, and service to others.
Transcript
Understanding Be Strong: Keeping Our Reservoirs Full
So it’s really wonderful to be here with you tonight. God bless you. It is it’s just such a joy to be with followers of the Lord Jesus Christ and to take some time out of our busy day and to enlighten the eyes of our understanding with light and truth and sometimes many times that light and truth will come from an Old Testament record and that’s where we’re going to go tonight.
So if you’ll take your Bibles and go to first Samuel chapter 30 first Samuel chapter 30 and the records in the Old Testament are really stories of the lives of men and women just living living in their day and time in their culture and endeavoring to be productive getting things done staying out of the enemy’s way and ducking when he comes and standing up when it’s time to fight and just live in their lives and endeavoring for the believers to be in the way of holiness and we’re going to look at a record tonight. That’s very familiar to a lot of you and it’s about David and his warrior brothers and their family in first Samuel chapter 30, but before we get there, I want to give you a little background. This section of the word is ancient history.
It’s the believers ancient history. It happened a really long time ago and at the time that this was written Saul was the king of Israel and he had lost his mind and he became very unstable and David was in with good with him one day and out the next and it was very unpredictable and David was a very accomplished warrior and he was loyal to Saul and he endeavored to be a faithful servant to the king, but Saul just became so incredibly jealous of him and began to seek his life and that’s where back in chapter 26 David, you don’t have to turn there back in chapter 26 of first Samuel David realizes that Saul is so unsound that he’s going to kill him and he had to get out of there and he along with 600 men out of the king’s army became refugees and they were a ragtag army and they cut out and away from Saul and they took their families, their wives, their children and anything that they could tie to back of a wagon or a donkey or a horse or camel or whatever they had and they fled and they hid from Saul and they had to because Saul would have killed him because every day he got up and he was obsessed and at times possessed with the mission of killing off David. So David takes off and he’s got 600 guys with them and all their families.
There’s a few thousand people and items and off they go and David in chapter 27 gets the idea. Hey, we got to have a place to land. We can’t be nomads without a place to land.
We got women and children and babies and everything else. So he gets the idea to approach the king of Gath and that guy’s name was Achish. Now, this was not a believer.
He was a Philistine and David the best idea he had at the time was to go knock on an unbeliever’s door and say, hey, can you help me? And Achish says, you know what? I’ve heard good things about you. Aren’t you the dude that killed Goliath? Goliath was from Gath, the same area of Israel and Achish is kind and favorable and generous and one thing leads to another and David says, hey, I need a place to land. You have some land for me and these 600 guys and our families and Achish says, sure.
I’ll give you Ziklag, go move over there. So they do and in exchange in this relationship David and his warriors fight for Achish. They go out and they go after the enemies of Achish and they bring back the spoils and it’s a pretty good relationship for about a year and four months and then one day a bunch of other princes come down from wherever they are.
They’re Philistines and they have this military powwow and they’re getting ready to do a bunch of sieges together and a few of the guys say to Achish, they say, hey, what’s this Hebrew doing here? Why is he with us? And Achish says, oh, don’t you know? He’s the baddest in the land. This is David. He’s like an angel of God.
He’s trustworthy. He fights like nobody else. You got nothing to worry about brothers and the princes of the Philistines say, yeah.
Well, we do because how do we know when we go out and about and chase after people really they were thinking about planning a siege against Saul which David had no idea about because he wasn’t in the military powwow. And he says what happens if he goes he turns red coat and goes back to his king and he chops off our heads in the middle of the battle. Nope, David and his guys got to go Achish and they got to go now.
So Achish in chapter 29 look at verse 7. He calls David and he says hey wherefore now verse 7 first Samuel 29 wherefore now return and go in peace that thou displease not the Lords of the Philistines and David said unto Achish. But what have I done? And what has thou found in thy servant so long as I have been with thee unto this day that I may not go fight against the armies of the Lord of my Lord the king David’s like no, I want to keep playing war games out here. We’re doing fine.
This is a great arrangement. Why are you giving me the boot? He’s not very happy about being turned out and Achish says listen David. I know that thou art good in my sight as an angel of God, but nevertheless the princes of the Philistines have said you got to go and you are not coming to battle with us.
The Biblical Foundation
And that’s the way it’s going to be David and therefore now rise up early in the morning with thy master servants. He has 600 guys that are come with thee and as soon as you be up early in the morning and you have a little bit of daylight hightail it out of here and get back to Ziklag. So David and his men rose up early to depart in the morning to return into land of the Philistines and the Philistines went up to Jezreel.
So that’s the context David and his guys are like what happened things are going so well. We were winning all these battles. We got all this great spoil.
We got our families living in Ziklag. We got a good relationship. Yeah, he’s an unbeliever, but he’s a nice unbeliever and honestly Achish provided this space of grace this temporary protection for David and 600 of his men and all of their family while Saul was on a lunatic binge, right? So it was kind of a good arrangement, but it came to a screeching halt and David wasn’t too happy about he was kind of reluctant.
So that’s the mindset of them heading back to Ziklag and they were about 70 of 50 miles away and there’s about 600 guys and what all their military gear and they travel that morning early in the morning back up back to Ziklag down south to Ziklag look at verse 1 of first Samuel 30 and it came to pass when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day. So either it took three days to get there or three days since he was told to go away. I don’t know but it’s about three days since they got the news and they were on the move.
They came to Ziklag on the third day that the Amalekites had invaded the south and Ziklag and smitten Ziklag and burned it with fire and had taken the women captives that were there in they slew not any either great or small but carried them away and went on their way which you have to remember when you read first Samuel chapter 30 verses 1 and 2. This is God’s footnote. The boys in the band don’t know this. They don’t know that they don’t know what happened at all.
They just were about to see what happens when they approach Ziklag, but God is making sure he gives us a little narrative context of what happened and the people are still alive, but the guys in the army in David’s band. They don’t know this look at verse 3. So David and his men came to the city Ziklag and behold it was burned with fire and their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captive probably a really devastating thing to see smoking smoldering stuff knowing that’s your your property over there. That’s your ranch.
What’s going on? And how fast can this camel run? Could you imagine this they’ve been on the road for a few days then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and they wept until they had no more power to weep. I don’t want to ask but I imagine sometime in your life. You might have been in a situation where you have received news that you had no more power to weep.
It just overcame them. It was devastating and they spend some time grieving and weeping and howling and what who knows what and David’s two wives were taken and the whole gang was taken. Look at verse 6 and David was greatly distressed for the people.
He was with his Warriors. They spake of stoning him because of the soul of all the people was grieved every man for his sons and for his daughters, but David this is very interesting. I don’t know how much time went by they wept with no more power to weep.
They probably circled the whole place. They probably checked every nook and cranny to see if anybody was alive and finally they come back around then they go. This is a ghost town and it’s burned to the ground and they’re beside themselves and they’re like they turned their anger and their grief against David.
It’s like you got us into this man. Saul hates you. You know, I mean everything under the sun was probably being lobbed at David at this point and David had wept till he had no more power to weep but somewhere along the line when he’s he’s doing surveillance in Ziklag, he starts to pull his head together.
He starts to pull his mind together and it says here David encouraged himself in the Lord his God Jehovah and Elohim. Somewhere along the line David mustered up the strength that was in his reservoir. I want you to keep your finger here, please and go to the right and go to Proverbs.
Examples and Spiritual Lessons
Proverbs 24, please. Proverbs 24. Just this is a verse.
I think about very often in life very often in life and remember Proverbs is attributed to being written by Solomon who was David’s firstborn if you might remember from Bathsheba and became King Solomon and he was the wisest guy. Remember him? So Proverbs 24 verse 10 if thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small. I have struggled to understand this verse for many years.
I have looked at a lot of different versions. I’ve ruminated on it in my mind thinking what what does he mean by this if you faint or falter or become weak in the day of adversity? It’s not just one day. It’s the day to day with the adversity that faces you today.
Wouldn’t it be lovely if we just had to have one adversity in our whole life and then it’s over. That’d be great. No, it’s not like that.
We don’t know when adversity is going to come. We don’t know how many adversities are going to come. We just know that they’re going to what? Come.
That’s right. If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small. So I want to read you quickly the translation from the message Bible.
It’s a little rough, but I’m going to read it to you. Anyway, I really like this one because I think it fits with 1st Samuel chapter 30 when David in verse 6 encouraged himself in the Lord his God and where would Solomon have learned that about the story of Ziklag from his dad. From his dad.
Hey son, you know what happened? These knuckleheads came and burned down our whole town and took everybody captive and we didn’t know if they were dead or alive. And this is how God pulled us out of that muck and mire. Look what the listen to what the message Bible’s translation is of Proverbs 24 10.
If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn’t much strength in you in the first place. Now that is humbling. That is humbling.
If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn’t much strength in you in the first place. That’s why we come to a fellowship. That’s why we read the word.
That’s why we pray. That’s why we seek him in the morning in the noontime and in the evening. We build strength because we know when adversity comes we can encourage ourself in the Lord our God just like our brother an example David did.
So verse 7 back to first Samuel chapter 30 verse 7 and David said to Abathar the priest. This guy was run off to they wanted to whack his head off. He’s a refugee as well.
Faith in Action
This is a motley crew David’s got so God names him. It’s a motley crew to the world and to Saul but not to God and so he gets he gets the priest and he says I pray thee bring me David says bring me hither the ephod and Abathar brought hither the ephod to David. So he dressed in his garment that would have the Urim and the Thummim and it was how in the Old Testament times in that culture, they would seek the presence of God and it wasn’t done flippantly.
It would be in a day of adversity when they really needed to know God. What do we do? What is the answer of peace show us the way that we will go will we would be victorious will we be defeated? Do we just sit here and wallow? What do we do? And that’s where we are and verse 8 and David inquired at the Lord saying this is his prayer. Shall I pursue after this troop? He didn’t even know who it is yet.
Shall I overcome overtake them? He has no idea what he has none. He doesn’t have a clue. They didn’t leave a dear David.
No, we’re the bad guys. We took everything we hate you love your enemy. No, they no clue don’t know when it happened how it happened why it happened doesn’t have any idea.
Shall I overtake them and God answered him? However, God did it with the priest and with the ephod. I have no idea but somehow if God wants to get a message to you or me guess what he’s going to figure out how to do it when we’re humble and meek and when we seek him with our whole heart and God says pursue. I like that one word answer.
No question mark there. Right go. What are you waiting for go for thou shalt surely overtake them and without fail recover all okay, that’s enough to inspire you but they’re still devastated and they have no idea what’s before them.
They have to walk out with some incredible confidence and they have to use all the skill sets that they have they have to track they have to pay attention. They got to be on their game. There’s not going to be like green lights red lights turn here make a left up front take the fork in the road.
None of that. They just got to go and be the men the warrior men that they are and pursue. I love that word.
It isn’t trot along saunter down the road. It’s pursue use everything you guys know how to do to track your enemies. You’ve done it.
You know how to do this and David went verse 9 and he and the 600 men that were with him and they came to the brook Besor where those that were left behind stayed and so verse 10 but David pursued he and 400 men for 200 abode behind which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor and they found so now they’re on their way and they’re reduced by a third. Okay, doesn’t stop David. He’s going because the Lord is with him whether he’s got 600 400 200 197 doesn’t matter.
He’s going God just gives us the details here. And so they’re on their way. There must have been a road.
Walking in Love and Confidence
They had to pick one a trail. I don’t know what they did, but they did they went their way. They had to pick which direction do we go north? Do we go South to go East? We go West and there was there’s a lot of stuff.
We don’t see in here. Isn’t there but they went and they obviously picked the right way because we got more to read and verse 11 and they they’re on their way and they found an Egyptian in the field. So it says the field they’re not going to be trotting through the field.
They’re going to go on the pathway the highway so to speak, you know, the the road whatever the road look like but somehow or another somebody saw him in the field who knows maybe one one of the guys ran into the field to relieve themselves and they stumble across this Egyptian guy doesn’t sound like it was planned. Like the guy was sitting here with an a white flag and SOS flag because we’re going to see he was next to death and he’s in the field. They what would be called randomly come across this guy.
So they find this Egyptian in the field and brought him to David and gave him bread and he did eat and they made him drink water and they gave him a piece of cake of figs and two clusters of raisins and when he had eaten his spirit again came to him for he had eaten no bread nor drunk any water three days and three nights. Now we’re getting a time frame. Okay, and David said unto the boy and to whom belongs thou and whence art thou and whence art thou he has no idea with that.
This guy was a part of the rampage of the besieging. He’s just like who are you? You know, they could have left that guy in the field. There were so many points along the way that God was saying no take this guy and bring him back.
They didn’t know that he was part of the of the siege on Ziklag. They had no idea. He’s a slave guy a little young guy and he’s dying.
He’s kind of like a liability. Why would you bring him back? But they brought him back and David inquires in him and he said I’m a young man of Egypt servant to an Amalekite and my master left me because three days ago on I fell sick and we made an invasion. Here comes the chewy caramel nugget that David was looking for.
We made an invasion upon the south of the Cherithites and upon the coast which belongeth to Judah and upon the south of Caleb and we burn Ziklag with fire. They were on like a wild Rampage. It wasn’t just Ziklag.
They were hitting every town so you can imagine the spoils the thousands of people that they have. This is like they’re not going to hide behind a tree that when these guys this is a huge entourage now because they hit all of these places and they took everything with them and David said unto him canst thou bring me down to this company and he said sure but if I do that you got to swear to God that you won’t kill me. So the raisins must have done it.
He got his brains back. He’s like this is not a good situation left or right for me this little Egyptian guy and he says you got to promise me that you’re not going to kill me and you’re not going to turn me over to my master because he’s definitely going to kill me and I will bring you down to the company. I think that’s a fair negotiation.
David was a reasonable guy and he says sure. Okay verse 16 and when he had brought him down behold they were spread abroad all the Amalekites were spread abroad all upon all the earth a huge area like you got to imagine thousands of people and animals and all kinds of stuff eating and drinking and dancing because all of the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines and out of the land of Judah. So remember the Amalekites were enemies of the Philistines and they were enemies of Saul their enemies of everybody.
They were like really a prickly bunch and David if you read earlier chapters clobbered the Amalekite camps pretty hard now whether or not this group of Amalekites knew that David had Ziklag or not. I can’t tell you it sounds like they were just on a rampage party, but maybe they knew it was David. I couldn’t tell you doesn’t say verse 7 17 and David smote them from the twilight even until the evening of the next day.
Applying the Teaching in Daily Life
These guys rode 50 miles through the desert three days then they come home they weep where there’s no more power to weep they have to leave 200 of their guys. These are warriors. These are hardened men and they can’t handle it.
They got to hang back and he goes out with 400 other guys to pursue hoping they’re going the right way and they find this Egyptian guy and before you know it they come across partying and drinking and they don’t say let’s take a little nap. Let’s get our fingernails cut. I need my beard trim.
No, it says they go right in and they went after them like like it was thus saith the Lord because it was and where did they get that energy from? Well number one they were used to being strong. If thou faintest in the day of adversity thy strength is small. They were used to being strong in their mind first of all and then in their heart and then in their body because they’re warriors and they mustered up everything they had even though they had been going for days and they fought for 24 hours.
The evening of the next day and they were and their escape not a man of them say 400 young men which rode upon camels and fled. There are only 400 of David’s warriors and they smoke way more than that like probably thousands and and 400 of them got away verse 18 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 neither spoil night anything that they had taken to them David recovered all wasn’t what that with the guidance and the answer of prayer would be but look from when he sought after seeking the Lord with the priest and and the ephod what he needed to do to be strong in the Lord all the way to the point of victory. It wasn’t just you’re going to recover all let me get it for you David and deliver it by Amazon.
No, they had to go out and they were exhausted. They had to encourage themselves. They had to build all their strength.
They had a reservoir that still had some juice left in it. Well, God bless that’s inspiring man. And David recovered all and so if you go a little further in between verse 20 and kind of to the end of the chapter, they bring everybody back and then the 200 guys that were left and the 400 guys that came back.
There were some of them got kind of greedy and dumb and they said hey, I don’t think we need to share everything with the guys that didn’t go. We were the ones that went to the battle and David said no, no. No, what’s ours is theirs was theirs is ours.
We share fully and it was an ordinance. It was a decree in the land ever since that you don’t pull that kind of shenanigans one for all and all for one. That’s how we work and that’s what David did now.
I want to show you one more thing. So David didn’t want to leave Achish. You remember that he was with him and it was an unbeliever, but the guy was a nice guy gave him out gave him a town let him live peacefully.
It was the best that was available to David because being with the king his own people Israel wasn’t working out like he was, you know on the most wanted list. So he was basically an asylum Seeker and Achish gave him asylum and now he didn’t want to leave. He had to leave they went through the whole Ziklag thing and now they’re back and they’re only back for a couple of days when they get a knock on the door on the 10th door.
They’re rebuilding Ziklag. They got all their kids back. They’re having they’re just thanking God.
They’re probably doing sacrifices giving God. Thanks to get a knock on the door from a little guy who says hey Saul and his army have been attacked by the Philistines and Saul and his three sons are dead. Now, we know how David felt about Saul.
A Life Shaped by God’s Word
We know how David felt about Jonathan Jonathan was his closest friend closer than a brother and David gets this news just a couple days after they get back to Ziklag. What a week, right? What a week remember what I told you about Proverbs 24 10 if thou faintest in the day of adversity thy strength is strong is small David encouraged himself in what the Lord his God that’s our takeaway keep your finger here and turn to Genesis chapter 50. I want to show you something.
I love this verse. I’m sure you do too Genesis chapter 50. Joseph is in Egypt.
He’s second to Pharaoh. His dad dies. His 11 brothers are there his 11 brothers are getting nervous because they think oh Joseph’s going to whack us because now dad’s dead and you remember we sold you to sell slavery and they’re really nervous because they think now’s when Joseph’s going to take revenge on him, but Joseph doesn’t do that.
So what does he say to their fear Genesis 50 verse 20, but as for you my brethren ye thought evil against me whose idea was it to sell me into slavery and throw me into a pit not such a good one. Don’t do that one again. That’s what he says.
You thought evil against me but God meant your evil for my good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive and that’s go back to first Samuel chapter 31 and that is exactly what happened. Number one God did two things for David that David never imagined when Akish gave him the boot. He didn’t want to leave Akish.
He reluctantly went back could the timing had been any closer that little Egyptian guy was about to expire in the field there. It’s a good thing. Somebody’s bladder was full and they went to the relieve themselves and they stumbled across that little kid.
Because they would have maybe they would not have gotten back in time to find the Amalekites party and being vulnerable to the attack that they were able to siege on them. How’s that for timing? What if it was one or two more days later that little boy would have been dead. They would have had no idea where they were so many pieces what they meant for evil the princes of the Philistines to give David and his Warriors the boot God used for good to save much people alive.
Not only that ladies and gentlemen had David stayed with Akish. Remember I told you they were having a war council all the princes of the Philistines had come together. Guess what they were planning to do to go after Saul.
I can’t even imagine what would have happened if David was following Akish being his rear reward. That’s how we he fought for Akish. He came up behind Akish’s army and when they came upon Saul and the three brothers and they killed them.
What kind of a mess would that have been David might have lost his life and all of the men. And God prevented him from being in that hot mess because in chapter 26 of 1st Samuel 36, I think it is or 28. It’s 28.
That’s the record where Saul goes completely nuts and seeks out the women the woman of Indore with the familiar spirits and she said to him you’re going to die in the next 24 hours. So while David was recovering everything back from the siege on Ziklag guess where all those Philistine armies went they killed Saul and his three sons. Isn’t that amazing how God’s timing is so impeccable.
If you’re wondering, where’s God in my situation? Encourage yourself in the Lord your God seek him and patiently wait because he is for you be where you are. Ladies and gentlemen see father there because he will deliver you. Amen.
Key Takeaways
- We build strength because we know when adversity comes we can encourage ourself in the Lord our God just like our brother an example David did.
- It was the best that was available to David because being with the king his own people Israel wasn’t working out like he was, you know on the most wanted list.
- We know how David felt about Jonathan Jonathan was his closest friend closer than a brother and David gets this news just a couple days after they get back to Ziklag.
- So that’s the context David and his guys are like what happened things are going so well.
- This is a ghost town and it’s burned to the ground and they’re beside themselves and they’re like they turned their anger and their grief against David.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main message of “Be Strong: Keeping Our Reservoirs Full”?
This teaching examines “Be Strong: Keeping Our Reservoirs Full” through Proverbs 24, Genesis 50, showing how david, know, going shape a believer’s relationship with God, daily choices, and service to others.
Which scriptures are central to this teaching?
The teaching draws especially from Proverbs 24, Genesis 50.
How can believers apply this teaching?
We build strength because we know when adversity comes we can encourage ourself in the Lord our God just like our brother an example David did.
Scripture References
Proverbs 24; Genesis 50
This text was prepared from the teaching audio or source document. Please verify scripture references against your own Bible.
