September 5

1 Samuel 29-30 We were numb. Our house had burned down. We had lost most of our worldly possessions. Our two adult dogs and three puppies died of smoke inhalation in the fire. You walk into the devastation of the fire and you don’t know where to start cleaning up. Most of the stuff was covered with soot and water, and it wasn’t worth trying to restore. Large sections of walls and roof walls were gone. The furniture and electronics were ruined. Even some of the pots and pans were warped by the high heat. It hardly seemed worth sorting through the junk to see what was salvageable. We felt like the strength was sucked out of us, but fortunately no human life was lost or threatened. If there was ever a time for strength, we needed it now. “But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” How do you do that? I am convinced that that is what we are doing right now. We are not just mindlessly reading the Scripture as some sort of daily ritual. It is looking intently into the sacred word until we see something of Him, of His glory. We stay there until we see something and know what we are going to do because of what we see. David had been tremendously injured. He had been rejected by the Philistines. His wives and children had been kidnapped. Everyone in his army had their wives and children kidnapped. There was talk among the men of perhaps stoning David because he had led them in joining the Philistines to attack Israel. It was during that time away that their families were kidnapped. For more than ten years David had been on the run from Saul. He was extremely weary. Now he had lost his family and was about to lose his army. But he strengthened himself in the Lord. Aphek was more than 55 miles from Ziklag. On the third day they came to Ziklag. That means that they had covered more than 17 miles per day, for the last three days. Only to find their homes burned and looted and their families kidnapped. David enquires of the Lord on whether to pursue the captors. The Lord said pursue. They immediately took off in pursuit. The Brook of Besor is at least another 15 miles from Ziklag. Arriving there, one third were too exhausted to go any farther. They found a straggler who was able to lead them to the main camp. The Amalekites were partying and probably drank themselves to sleep. David set up his 400 for attack at twilight dawn. His army was successful. They attacked until evening. Apparently not everyone was drunk and asleep, or it wouldn’t have taken so long. But nevertheless, it was a relatively easy victory. They recouped everything because of the strength of the Lord. That is what meditating on His glory does. It gives me strength when I have lost everything and have none to continue on. I felt it in the fire. I feel it now. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today! --Pastor john