And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire… So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. And David’s two wives were taken captives…and David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God. (I Sam. 30:1-6)
The city of Ziklag was David’s last refuge as he fled from Saul in the wilderness. Everything that David owned, and everyone he loved, was at Ziklag. But one day while David and his men were away, Ziklag was destroyed. All of his possessions and all of his loved ones were carried away captive. What made matters worse was that David’s own people turned on him and spoke of stoning him. Truly, at Ziklag that day David hit rock bottom. There was nothing and no one left for him.
This passage says, “And David was greatly distressed…but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” How was that possible? It is possible for us to be emotionally distressed over life, but to nevertheless believe God. That is because emotions may be reacting to life, but emotions cannot be relied on to be telling the Truth about life, and certainly cannot be trusted to tell the Truth about God. Indeed, if we are not careful, our emotions can create for us a completely FALSE perception — an emotional lie that will distort everything else we see and feel. Thus, even if our situation is a terrible one, we can nevertheless step outside of our emotions — not necessarily fight them or try to make them go away — but step outside of them, put them aside, and BELIEVE GOD. We can disregard our emotions and even if we continue to FEEL distressed, we can nevertheless BELIEVE GOD. This is what David did. You will note that NOTHING changed about his situation — and he was greatly distressed — BUT he encouraged his heart in God.
David was able to do this because he knew God was greater than both the circumstances and his emotions — so he believed God was in charge, and not the circumstances or emotions. David knew God was faithful despite what was happening. He knew that circumstances do not tell the Truth about God, but rather, God tells the Truth about circumstances. Emotions do not tell the Truth about God. But God is greater than any emotions. Faith is like that — faith does not deny the facts. Faith doesn’t make us to be without emotions of hurt and distress. But faith relies upon God despite both the circumstances and the emotions.
At this point in David’s life, he had already been told he would be king of Israel. Things certainly had not been going that way. Now, it looked more impossible than ever. How could God allow such a thing to happen?
David looked past what had happened and trusted God. What David did not know was that in the next THREE DAYS, he would recover everything lost at Ziklag — not one of his loved ones, or those of his men, had been harmed. He would also recover all of his property. But in addition, in the next three days, Saul would be dead, and David would finally take his place as king of Israel as God promised.
We see here a lesson that speaks of life in Jesus Christ. God will often allow things to become humanly impossible. He will even allow circumstances to suggest that HE, HIMSELF, is unfaithful or indifferent. Why? This is not a game. God allows these things so that we might be exposed as weak, without hope in ourselves, and as those who have NOTHING. That is the Truth about us and God needs to expose it. He needs to expose it so that when we finally come to the end of our resources — to the end of anything in ourselves upon which we can call for strength — He needs to bring us to this place of weakness in ourselves so that we might turn to Christ.
God is not going to make us strong. He is going to make us weak so that we will turn to Christ as our strength.
The encouragement in this is that if it seems as if God is bringing everything in life down into hopelessness, it is only so that God can then build us up in Jesus Christ. We LOSE everything by faith into His hands, and then we find Jesus Christ as our life and our all. And once Christ is our life and Jesus is our Lord — then God will be free to bring the circumstances into line with His purposes as well.
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