PROCLAMATION
“David recovered
everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives.” 1 Samuel 30:18 (NIV)
EXPLANATION
While David and his men
were away from Ziklag living with the Philistines, the Amalekites raided Ziklag,
looted it, burned it, and took all the women and children captive. (1 Samuel
30:1-2) David and his men wept when they
returned and found the town destroyed and their wives and children missing. (1 Samuel
30:3-4) After David prayed, he and his
men pursued the Amalekites. (1 Samuel 30:9-10)
When he found them, defeated them, and took back all that they had taken
from them plus and all that the Amalekites had including their livestock. (1
Samuel 30:17-20)
APPLICATION
When material things are stolen
from us, sometimes we are blessed to have them recovered, and sometimes we are
not. When non-material things are taken
from us, like joy, peace, and happiness, we need the help of The Lord God to
get them back. I am reminded of the song
that says, “I’m taking back everything that the devil stole from me.” While it is not Biblically correct, and it is
not completely relevant to this text, it does help to make several points. 1. The Amalekites took things from David, not
the devil, because David was not were The Lord wanted him to be. 2. The devil does not need to take our
material things; he uses material things to lure us away from God. 3. The devil may be bad, but he is not a
thief. He doesn’t steal from us; he
wants to steal us from God. 4. We don’t
have the power to take anything from the devil, only The Lord God can do that. 5. If the devil has our joy, peace, and
happiness, we probably gave it to him by the sinful choices that we made. Only The Lord God can restore unto us the joy
of our salvation, (Psalm 51:12) or grant us His perfect peace. (Isaiah 26:3) Happy is the man who has The Lord God for his
help and whose hope is in The Lord God. (Psalm 146:5) What we have, the world didn’t give it to us,
and the world cannot take it away. (John 14:27)
