In Times of Distress
By Chad Dixon
David and his men arrived to a scene of horror and disaster in Ziklag. Their worst nightmare lay before them. King Saul had declared David and his men an enemy of the state. David sought and found safety among the Philistines and had been given the town of Ziklag for his men. When King Saul came up against the Philistines David and his men felt compelled to offer assistance to their new allies. The Philistines, however, denied their help fearing their loyalty to their brethren of Israel would have proven stronger in the heat of battle than their newly formed alliance. When David and his men returned to Ziklag all that remained were heaps of ashes and smoldering fires. All that they owned was scorched or taken captive including their wives and children.
David's men, his mighty warriors were furious. They demanded action. They turned against David in that moment of deep distress. They were ready to stone him (1 Sam. 30:6). How did David respond? He could have fled for his life. He could have pleaded with them for his life and tried to talk them with reason. He could have grabbed his weapons and started lashing out against the leaders of the mutiny or tried to direct the mob's anger in a campaign of immediate retrieval and revenge. But David did none of this.
David's family had also been taken captive and now his life was being threatened by the very men that had sworn allegiance to him. There was probably no one in that camp of 600 plus men that was in deeper distress than him. But David's response shows where his heart was. David "inquired of the Lord." (1 Sam. 30:8)
He asked the priest to bring him the ephod and he asks the Lord what his next action should be. David is told by the Lord to go on a retrieval and revenge campaign, I'm sure to the delight of David's followers. But what they didn't understand that David did is that this would not be a quick and easy campaign. In fact around 200 of them would be too weak to complete the campaign. If David had not first inquired of the Lord, I'm not sure the other 400 would have had the confidence to keep following him beyond their exhaustion. When the 400 came up on the camp of Amalekites and saw that they were outnumbered, would they have had the confidence to go on the attack if David had not inquired of the Lord or if he as their leader displayed a sign of uncertainty? I'm not sure they would have.
The point is that we can all proceed more confidently in times of distress when we inquire of the Lord and make our decisions according to His will rather than our own. In times of distress we must first inquire of the Lord in order to receive the full confidence of His blessings.