Let us turn Then to our text, page 320, and most of the Bibles under the seats, 1 Samuel chapter 30. And as you're turning there, I'll just say a couple of things. about the chapters before that lead up to this, that we've seen the Amalekites before, that in chapter 27 we saw that David was raiding them, which was a righteous raid, but with the wrong kind of motivation. And that was what he was doing for the 16 months that he was in Ziklag. And we also saw them, this is going back some time, but for those who were here, we may yet remember chapter 15, that Saul had the direct call to wipe out the Amalekites, who in chapter 27 were reminded our inhabitants of the land from of old, And so Joshua failed to do it. Saul failed to do it. And that is the last straw where at the end of chapter 15, Saul was told the kingdom would be taken from him. Now the Amalekites come up again, but it's a different circumstance. They're not in their own cities with Saul called to wipe them out. They're going through the cities of Judah and they're picking up plunder from the people of Judah. And with those few reminders and with that understanding that David will be called to do something different than what Saul was called to do. David is not going into Amalek, but David is going to be called to a rescue mission. With that being said, let us come to chapter 30 and we'll read and consider the chapter in its entirety this morning. Now, when 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. And 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. And David's two wives also had 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? And he answered him, pursue, for you shall surely overtake and shall surely rescue. So David set out, and the 600 men who were with him. And they came to the brook Bezor, which those who were left behind, where those who were left behind stayed. But David pursued the he and 400 men. 200 stayed behind who were too exhausted to cross the brook Bezor. 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 a 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 to me, swear 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 over all 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 of the next day, and not a man of them escaped except four hundred 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 two hundred 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 when David came near the people, 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 statute and a rule for Israel from that day forward to this day. Then David came to Ziklag, 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 those in Bethel, in Ramoth, of the Negev, in Jatir, in Arior, in Siphamoth, in Eshdomoah, in Rakhal, in the cities of the Jeremelites, in the cities of the Kenites, in Hormah, in Borashan, in Atak, in Hebron for all the places where David and his men had roamed. The grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our Lord endures forever. Dear congregation, we have a chapter that begins with dire and deep distress and ends with triumphant prosperity the immediate circumstances of David's life are taking dramatic turns in these few days and both on the side of despair and on the side of prosperity. there will be temptations for David to look away from God. But we will see that throughout this narrative, David is, by God's grace, he's able to think beyond himself. He's able to think beyond his immediate circumstances. And despite these widely different circumstances, In both despair and prosperity, David is able to think of things in the Lord's terms. He's able to think in terms of the Lord's battle. He's able to think in terms of the Lord's care. It's turbulent days, but it's days where David is given grace for a clear understanding of himself as the Lord's servant and of others, the Lord's people or the Lord's enemies. David is not thinking in his own personal terms here. He is thinking of where God draws the line. That's our theme this morning. God calls for a clear and a gracious battle line. And we might say it this way, our first two points We're going to see a clear line against God's enemies. And then our second two points, we're going to see a gracious line for including all of God's people. We can think of it in those terms. And so our first point is going to be seeking the Lord's command, and then pursuing the Lord's enemy, and then third, considering the Lord's soldiers, and fourth, recognizing the Lord's friends. Well, the immediate circumstances as David returns to Ziklag are dire. They are distressing. The city has been plundered. All their families have been taken away. All that remains is burned. I remember a time when a family member of mine, an extended family member, was driving home, right, and the road is blocked. because there's flames, there's smoke, there's a city on the street that is going up in flames, right? And she knows her son is home, right? So what kind of distress is there going to be at that moment? Let me through. Let me see which house is on fire, right? Well, here, David and his men come home. This is a moment of despair. This is a moment of distress. Thankfully, at that time, nobody was hurt. but it speaks to the distress of flames, of burning, of charred wood. This is the circumstance. All their families have been taken away. All their homes are burned to a crisp. This is what they come home to. And when the situation looks bad, leaders often take the blame. Now, in this case, there may be some blame due against David. We spoke about how David's marching with the enemy, but who ultimately is the one who did this plundering and burning? Not David, it was the Amalekites. And so how will David respond to his burned home and his angry men? Right away at the beginning portion of our narrative, we come to something which which might be the most important thing of this whole sermon. Look at the end of verse six. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. And then remember and see that verse six comes before verse seven and verse eight. Because what is verse seven and verse eight? Verse seven and verse eight is David finally going to the high priest again, which he hasn't done for many chapters. And receiving a great promise from the Lord that you're going to be restored, you're going to receive back, you're going to rescue. But David strengthened himself in the Lord before that. David strengthened himself in the Lord in the circumstances of verses one to six. It is dire distress. It is everyone captured, home burned to a crisp. His men who have been with him now for probably at least two years, calling for his own death by stoning. In that circumstance, he's taking strength in the Lord. We have seen in the last chapters that this is a time of wavering in David's life. We've seen him at times show great mercy and wisdom. We've seen him at other times fall into a fear-driven panic with sin. Most recently, he's just coming back from marching with the enemy, which God providentially preserved him from. But what do we also know? And we know this, especially from the Psalms. We know that David is a man of repentance. He's a man of God. He's a man who's able to see beyond his own immediate circumstances. Consider Psalm 25, which we sang. And I encourage you to perhaps read Psalm 25 because we're not going to read through it. We sang through parts of it. But there's a number of things that are going on at the same time in Psalm 25. At the same time, he talks about all these external troubles and circumstances and people slandering him, hating him, speaking violence against him. That could have been. That could be other circumstances in David's life as well, but that could have been this, right? They're speaking of stoning him. At the same time, David's not just thinking about others, but there's words of the confession of sin, personal sin, worked through the Psalm as well. Psalm 25, verse 18, consider my affliction and my trouble and forgive all my sins. So David's not so caught up in the troubles around him that he forgets that he's a sinner himself. And then throughout the psalm, what is he doing? He's taking strength in the Lord. Preserve me, for I wait for you. Verse 21 of Psalm 25. Well, that may have even been written about this time. And certainly we see the same kind of thing going on. David has all these external things around him. His men want to stone him. His house is burned. But he's going to come to the Lord in faith. And while we don't read explicitly of repentance here, we know that David was a man of repentance and that he's seeking the Lord in a way that Saul did not seek the Lord in chapter 28. He's seeking the Lord in faith, which includes repentance, as we know from the context of God's word. David's faith is imperfect. He was just marching with the enemy, but here David is again seeking in faith. He comes before the promise of verse eight. As he comes, he will receive the promise of verse eight. This is as he strengthened in the Lord, he finally goes to Abiathar again. We might ask ourselves, why have we not seen him do this since all the way back in chapter 23? The high priest has been with him. He could have inquired of the Lord all these times between now and then. The Scottish Presbyterian William Blakey spoke about it this way, quote, at first one wonders how David could have discontinued so precious a means of hearing the will of God and the path of duty for all these previous chapters. But the truth is when a man is left to himself, he cares for no advice or direction. but his own. He is not desirous to be led. He wishes only to go comfortably." End of quote. Well, David, as he's been wavering in his faith in these recent chapters, by God's grace, he's coming out of that self-centered thinking. And he's now seeking strength in the Lord. And he's now inquiring of the Lord through the high priest who is with him. And then the word that he receives is a great promise. you will overtake. Pursue, you shall surely overtake, and you shall surely rescue. Brothers and sisters, when we think about where we are called to be, we do inquire of the Lord in not exactly the same way. We don't have a high priest with an ephod anymore, but we know who we stand with and who we are to stand against based on the Word of God. That principle has not changed. That Word of God which is now given to us from Genesis to Revelation, knowing where we stand begins with knowing God's Word. And so David strengthens himself in the Lord. He comes to inquire of the Lord And he knows where he is called to stand and even receives a promise of victory from the Lord. And so the pursuit begins. This takes us to our second point, pursuing the Lord's enemy. And an important verse to understand how God is working in David in verses 9 to 20. is to see the summary of David in verse 26. Please look at verse 26 with me. What does David say? He says, here is a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of the Lord. Remember, David is now coming in faith. He's being led out of self-centered thinking. It would have been tempting to say this, here's the spoil we took from the Amalekites who burned our homes and are taking away our families and our possessions. That's how we would usually think. But David is in faith. He is thinking in the Lord's terms here. He's being strengthened in the Lord and he's thinking in terms of of the God of the universe and the Lord over his covenant people. And so he doesn't talk about, here's the spoil of the people who burned our homes. He says, here's the spoil of the Lord's enemies. And so David is going out and he knows that he's going with the Lord's army, men of Israel, men under the command of the anointed Prince of Israel himself. He knows he's going forth in the Lord's name with the Lord's command to fight the Lord's battles against the Lord's enemies. And the Amalekites, again, they are inhabitants from the land of old. They are the Lord's enemies. They have been in deep rebellion and iniquity against God for nearly a millennium, even from the word that God spoke to Abraham all the way back in Genesis 15. And so David takes his men and he goes in pursuit of the Lord's enemies. This is going to be a difficult pursuit though. Remember verse one, they came back to Ziklag on the third day. What is that talking about? That's the third day after marching back when Achish said, you know, the elders of the Philistines aren't going to let you fight with us. You have to go back. So what does that mean? That means they probably marched up with the Philistines for three days. Now they've had a three-day march back to Ziklag. This is almost a full week of marching with all their military equipment and supplies and all these things. And after nearly a week, now they need to go pursue an enemy that they don't know where it is, they don't know how much of a head start they have. This is going to be This is going to be a difficult rescue mission, a difficult pursuit. And indeed, we see in verses nine and 10, there's 200 men who are too exhausted to cross the brook Besor. Now, the word brook probably implies something too small in our minds. It's not really a brook, it's a wadi. This is almost certainly the modern day wadi Geza. We don't really use the word wadi. I had to look it up. I didn't remember at all what that meant. Basically think something between a ravine and a brook. It's too big to be a brook. It's too small to be a ravine. It's something that in, you know, if they're strong and fit, they'd be able to cross it no problem. But after a week of marching, some men are too exhausted to cross. But 400 do go across. And God's then going to providentially give them direction, right? They're looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack. How are they even going to find these Amalekites? Well, God provides for them in his providence one who will be able to tell them exactly where to go. They don't know this when they first find him. They just know it's a man who needs to be fed because he's famished. But upon stopping their march and giving this man kindness and giving him bread and water, after he has some strength, they ask him, David says, to whom do you belong? In verse 13. Let's just note the graciousness of that, right? You're on a march, you're on a pursuit, you stop to feed, to give food and water to an Egyptian, not even, They don't know that he's gonna be able to help them. David didn't know where he was from, right? But they stopped. They were gracious to this starving Egyptian. And in God's providence, he's been placed there as one who can lead them exactly to where they wanna go because it's the Amalekites who he was with who have abandoned him. And so he says, If you swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver me into the hands of my master, I will take you down to this band, verse 15. And so they go, verse 16, they see the Amalekites indulging, overindulging in their spoils of war. And then verse 17, it implies that they wait until twilight, the early morning, and then they strike them down until the next day, The Hebrew day begins after sunset. So thinking in terms of the Hebrew day, this basically just means they started at twilight, they waited till first light, and they struck them down until just after the sunset and the next day started. This is a rescue mission. So they would have wanted to fight in daylight so that they could see their families, that they could rescue that which they were after. This is a daylight attack. And so God has not only provided them direction, but he's also given them success and victory. Look at the detail of who escapes in verse 17. They struck down everyone except for 400 young men. Well, what does that imply? That implies that there was a much larger force than that. And David's force is only 400 men. And yet God gave them complete victory through a whole day of fighting. In fact, verse 22 may imply that not a single man of David's was lost. This is a victory from the Lord. This was a miraculous victory. Now, some of the men, right, they could think in human terms. They could say, oh, well, it's because of our great fighting powers and because they were all drunk and so we were able to defeat them all. And indeed, they are thinking in human terms, because they say in verse 20, this is David's spoil. This is for David, right? And so the people who wanted to stone him in verse six are now ready to praise him, glorify him. But what does David do? David thinks in the Lord's terms. So he's not only after the Lord's enemies, but now that he has all these spoils, all these gifts, he's going to share them with the Lord's people because it's all from the Lord. That's our transition into our second and third points. That's our transition into points two and three, considering the Lord's soldiers. Let us see how David's theology impacts David's generosity. Look at verse 22 with me. David's response to the men, the 400 men who don't, or the wicked and worthless among the 400, who do not want to share with the 200 who are too exhausted to go with them. Listen to the theology of David's response in the end of verse 22. David's response is in the following verse. They're speaking in verse 22 and then David said in verse 23, you shall not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us. He has preserved us and given into our hand the band that came against us. Contrast verse 23 with verse 20. This is David's spoil. This is our victory. David is not thinking in human terms. He's thinking in terms of God's providence, in terms of God's provision. And it's his theology, knowing that the Lord has given him the victory, that leads to his generosity. We will share with all the men including those who are too exhausted to come with us. Brothers and sisters, these are important principles for God's people. It's true we're no longer called to be soldiers of war. The Lord's host is no longer the army of the nation of Israel as it once was. But what are we still called to be? We are still called to be soldiers of the message of the truth. With the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, there is still much service we are called to as God's people to be united together under him. And so what happens when it seems that we're not all pulling the same weight? What happens when there's insults, grumbling, when somebody has offended us greatly? That's a little bit of an understatement in terms of David, right? He's been offended in verse six, the men wanted to stone him, okay? I've never been offended that badly. I've never had anybody say they wanted to stone me, right? But David's response to all these things and all this turbulent despair turned to victory is through it all to be thinking in the Lord's terms and through it all to be gracious with God's people. To call those who wanted to stone him, who now want to throw the 200 that couldn't march with them under the bus, what does he call them? He says, do not do so, my brothers. He's speaking affectionately to those who are not able to show mercy, who are struggling to show godly attitudes. To them, David's giving mercy, saying, my brothers, do not do this. And to those who are too exhausted, who couldn't pull the same weight, if we want to put it that way, who couldn't march the same distance, David says, they will share the spoils as well. We are all the Lord's people. This is all His gift to us anyway. People of God, these are principles for drawing the line graciously as we, our first two points, yes, there's the Lord's enemy, and we still have the Lord's enemies. There's still enmity between God's people and the world. But as we consider God's imperfect people, sometimes rumbling and complaining against each other often where there's need for us to forgive one another and were commanded to forgive one another more than once in the New Testament think of Colossians 313 and other places as well it's it's not always easy for us all to get along and and maybe we're not always pulling the same weight in the same way for for various reasons but but what is the line the line is we are God's people we have God's spoil what is the greatest gift that we all share what is it that when we come together as God's people we all share together we all share the gift of salvation together let us be gracious with each other let us be considerate of one another because sometimes if somebody's not pulling exactly the same way that we think they should it might be because they really were too weak to cross the brook or maybe it's just because that wasn't the gift that they were given we are the body of Christ with all different gifts and we all need each other that is what the Apostle Paul says in first Corinthians there are principles of of a gracious and loving understanding and embracing of God's people in this chapter, which are, it's difficult for them to sink in, actually, because you kind of need to have this whole chapter in order for it to sink in, but this whole chapter is a really big bite to chew on. But let the application come to us and sink into us. We must see things in God's terms. We must understand that we are all those who have received the great gift of salvation. That's what we share together. We are to be considerate of one another. We are to share in the Lord's spoils together as his people. It's not anything any one of us does. It is all of the Lord This is God's people. We have a firm line against the Lord's enemies, but we also have a wonderful, gracious line together as God's people. And this is true going into our fourth point in verses 26 to 30 as well. individuals and whole groups of people are to be embraced as we would share faith in God together. God's plan for redemption in the Old Testament always included salvation for individuals who would repent and join the people of God. Rahab of Jericho, Ruth of Moab, Uriah the Hittite, of course Uriah the Hittite was not treated well, by David, to put it mildly. But you can think of the words of Nathan, the prophet, when he confronted David. Nathan the prophet makes this clear distinction between someone like Uriah and the rest of the Canaanites. Uriah is one of God's people because he came to be part of God's people in a fight in the Lord's army. And it's not only individuals, but it's also whole groups. We know the New Testament call is clear. Bring the gospel to all nations. We are to celebrate the faith that we share with people all over the globe. But that message of grace to all people, it was already true in the Old Testament. Now you were called to come into the one nation of Israel, but the nation of Israel is not just ethnic Jews. It's all kinds of those who are brought in. Not only individuals like a Rahab and a Ruth and a Uriah, but the whole group of Egyptians who joined the Exodus, which was a mixed multitude. We read in Exodus 12, 38. And there's other examples. including one which is a little bit difficult to see in verse 29 of our text. Now look at the list of cities. There's the spoils that David's going to share, because it's all from the Lord. It's all taken from the Lord's enemy, so David's going to share it with the Lord's people. And he begins by speaking to the elders of Judah. And then a number of cities of Judah are listed. But then there's two people groups that are listed in verse 29. See how the pattern breaks. We're no longer talking about one city from the next, in Erior, in Siphomoth, in Eshdomoah, in Rakhal. Now we're speaking about the cities of a group of people. The cities of a group of people. Okay, so the pattern breaks in verse 29. And we have two that stand out. The cities of the Jeromelites and the cities of the Kenites. The Kenites appear a number of times throughout the Old Testament. We spoke about them all the way back in chapter 15. They're not ethnic Jews, except through intermarriage sometimes. They're the descendants of Jethro, Moses' father-in-law. But they are almost always mentioned in a positive context. They believed in God. The Jeromelites are not mentioned as often. It seems odd that they would be listed in a separate way, like the Canites. because they actually are descendants of Judah. And so this seems very strange, but commentators such as David Sumora, an excellent Reformed Old Testament theologian from Japan, he talks about how this is implying that somehow the Jeromelites were seen as being on the edge or outside the people of Judah for a time. So who are the Jeromelites, who are the Kenites? They're on the edge geographically. They're not quite part of the tribe of Judah in the same way. Certainly for the Kenites, they're not even ethnically Jews. But David is including them both. David is including the people of God who are on the edge. So, what's an application that we would have from this? Well, there's all these places and names, but the application is quite simple, people of God. Let's graciously look to include those who we might think of as being on the edge of God's people. Let's graciously look to draw in those who, like their Jeromelites, are in some way drifting away. In some way, they're not part of the tribe of Judah as the rest of these cities. And David is saying, I want to draw you back in. I'm going to include you in the Lord's spoils. Let's include those whole people groups like the Kenites who worship God, but they seem a little different from us because they're not ethnic Jews. Now I'm kind of mixing up my Old Testament and my New Testament terminology, but do you see the application, brothers and sisters? Let us be as gracious as we possibly can. Let us draw the line as wide as we possibly can. Yes, we must stand strong against the Lord's enemy, and God's word tells us to stand strong and to call out false teaching and all those things, but let us graciously as possible draw the line and bring in those who are on the edge, like the Jeromelites and the Kenites, like those who are drifting away, like those who believe in God but but are still their own distinct group because they're not descendants of Abraham, they're descendants of Jethro. Now, I'm gonna take this one step further because there's something very beautiful which happens in something that we don't usually think of as beautiful. The last genealogy of the tribe of Judah is written in First Chronicles. Now, we think of First Chronicles as kind of being in the middle of our Old Testament, but it's really one of the last, if not the last, books of the Old Testament written. It's written after the exile. In Jesus' and the disciples' Old Testament, First and Second Chronicles were the last book. So there's one last genealogy for the people of God written in the Book of Chronicles. Do you know who is included as full members of the tribe of Judah in the last genealogy? Both the Jeromelites and the Kenites. David is graciously drawing a line. He's saying, you're on the edge, but you believe in God. You're drifting away, but you're still Jeromelites. You're still part of the tribe of Judah. I want to draw you in. I want to draw the line as graciously as possible. You have God's spoils to come into or come back into the people of God. This is the kind of gracious attitude that we are called to have and so much more now with the call to bring the gospel out to all the nations. But that kind of attitude existed with those after God's own heart already in the Old Testament. David saying, come back in, or to the Kenites, come in. And we see they did. They both become a full part of the tribe of Judah in the end. People of God, let us be as gracious, as generous, as God is. When we come to our conclusion, let's think of the words of how Jesus said it in the parable of the laborers of the vineyard in Matthew chapter 20. Do you remember? It's the parable of what the kingdom of heaven is like, and there's the laborers who work for the whole day, and there's the laborers who work for the half day, but then God represented as the vineyard owner gives them all the same gift what is the gift the greatest gift we receive from god the gift of salvation the forgiveness of sins we repent and turn to him and and it doesn't matter god wants us to turn now to repent now but if we come Whenever we come, God gives all of his people the same great gift of the blood of Jesus Christ. And what is the language at the end of that parable? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to the last worker as I gave to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity? People of God, let us draw firm lines against God's enemy, but let us pray for, and let us seek to be as gracious as possible, and let us pray for God's generosity to be poured out, to bring in all of the laborers of His vineyard, and to see them in that way, in that light, as fellow people of God. Not to think in our own terms, but to think of all things, in all circumstances, high and low, in the Lord's terms. Amen. Let us pray. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, teach us to see as you see. Teach us by your word where to stand firm. Teach us by your word