A Searching Question
(No. 3079)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1908.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
JANUARY 29, 1865.
"To whom do you belong?" 1 Samuel 30:13.
This question was addressed by David to a young man of Egypt who was
servant to an Amalekite. He had fallen sick and his master, being in a
hurry, had left him to perish alone in the field and had gone his way.
Had the master taken his servant with him and nursed him, his own life
might have been preserved, but God avenged this poor servant, who had
been so neglected, by making him the means of revealing to David where
his master was–and David's sharp and swift sword soon overtook him and
his brother plunderers.
At the very outset we learn from this question that we cannot have
servants, or children, or friends without being compromised by them. If
we have servants, people will be sure to ask them the question, "To
whom do you belong?" Should they bear a bad character, or show a bad
training, or seem to be so wretched that they betoken a pinching,
grasping, grinding, cruel, tyrannical master, people will soon be able
to read our characters in our servants' faces! They will draw their own
conclusion as to what the master is from what the servants are. It is
more especially fair to do so in the case of a man's children. Some
children are very pert, willful, ill-mannered. Were anyone to ask
whether there was a rod kept in the house they came from, he might be
very speedily answered, "No." And if you pressed the question, "To whom
do those children belong?" it would soon be found that they belonged to
some self-indulgent parents who were too fond of themselves to take the
trouble to correct their children. You can generally read a man's
character in his boy's face and in his boy's conduct and conversation.
We should remember this and see that we send our children forth not
needing to be ashamed that they should tell to whom they belong! The
same is the case with regard to Church members. Any member whom we
receive into this Church may compromise all the rest. If any one member
is found in bad or suspicious company, the question is sure to be
asked, "To whom do you belong?" Instead of laying down his
delinquencies at his own door as being inconsistent, men are quite sure
to put them at our door. The minister is generally the horse that is
saddled with his people's sins. He would willingly bear them on his own
heart in deep humiliation before God if he knew that his people also
would bear them in penitence before God. Let every Church member
remember that he imperils the honor of the whole Church by his
inconsistency–and it may be said of him, "That man sinned not alone."
This, however, is not my main point tonight. I am going to aim at
something which directly affects our eternal position and standing
before God. I shall first open up the question in a different sense
from that in which it was asked by David. Then, secondly, I will try to
guide you in your response. And when I have done that, I will give a
few words of good advice to those who have individually and
respectively to furnish the answer.
I. First, then, "TO WHOM DO YOU BELONG?"
This is a question of universal pertinence. We may put it to any man
most fairly because there is an owner both of the Church and of the
world. As for the Church, we are Christ's. "You are not your own, for
you are bought with a price." The Church is Christ's body, "the
fullness of Him that fills all in all." And the world, too, is not
without its owner. We read of one whose name is "the prince of this
world"–"the prince of the power of the air; the spirit that now works
in the children of disobedience." While some men are the children of
God, are all other men to be regarded as orphans? Oh, no! Christ says
to them, "You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your
father you will do." There are no unowned men! We are, every one of us,
either ranked under the banner of Prince Immanuel, to serve Him and
fight His
battles, or else beneath the Black Prince, Satan–enrolled to do evil
and to perish in our sins! It is a very proper question, then, to ask
of every man and woman, "To whom do you belong?"
The question, too, is one which can be answered, because a man must
belong either to one owner or the other. It is no use troubling people
with questions which are too mysterious to be answered, but this is
plain and pointed. You either belong to God or else you belong to His
enemy. You are either bought with Jesus' precious blood or else you are
still a bond slave of Satan. Which are you? If it were possible to
dwell in an intermediate state, this might be a puzzling enquiry, but
there are no neutralities in religion. There is no such thing as being
in the valley while the two hosts are on either side on the mountains.
You are either this day standing shoulder to shoulder with Prince
Immanuel's warriors, or else, when the muster roll of the army on the
opposite side is read, you are most certainly numbered there. All
attempts to serve God and the world must end in bitter failure. Mark
Antony yoked two lions together and drove them through the streets of
Rome–but no man shall ever yoke together the Lion of the tribe of
Judah and the lion of the Pit. No man ever tries to walk on two sides
of the road at the same time unless he is intoxicated–and it argues
gross intoxication of mind and spirit when a man attempts to serve both
God and mammon–to win eternal life, and yet to live like the
spiritually dead! This is a question which you cananswer, my Brothers
and Sisters. Now do not play with your eternal interests and say,
"Well, I am sure I don't know." You do know. Do not put it off with
quibbles! Do not say you will make the enquiry by-and-by. You know
right now whether you are a child of God or not! Or else if you are
half-afraid that you are not the Lord's, and you are saying–
"'Tis a point I long to know"–
then you will never be happy until you do know–and you will not be
able, I think, to give sleep to your eyes nor slumber to your eyelids
till, in answer to my question, "To whom do you belong?" you can say,
"I belong to Christ. He has bought me with His blood and I am His in
life and shall be His in death–and His throughout eternity."
This is a question of a very practical character. We are sometimes told
that we preach upon subjects which do not concern the ordinary race of
men. Secularism comes and tells us that we are dealing with another
life, when we ought to be teaching people what is proper to be done in
thislife. Yes, but that is a mistake, for there is nothing more
practical for daily life than true religion–and this question is one
of the practical ones which true religion suggests! Remember, dear
Friends, to whomever you belong, you are quite sure to serve your
master. If you belong to Satan, I know that you will do Satan's work.
Perhaps you will do it in his uniform and there is some sort of honesty
in that. Perhaps you will curse, and swear, drink and so on–that is
serving Satan in Satan's uniform. But it is just possible that you will
do Satan's work in Christ's uniform! You may wear the cross on your arm
and yet, for all that, there may be a devil in your heart, like some of
the old inns we have read of which had the sign of an angel outside,
but they served the devil within. Doubtless there are many men of this
sort nowadays. If you are Satan's, you will serve Satan. But if you are
Christ's, you will serve Christ. You surely will, for it is written of
all Christ's servants. "The love of Christ constrains us, because we
thus judge, that if One died for all, then were all dead; and that He
died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto
themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again." Christ's
servants serve Him. Is it not written, "His servants shall serve Him"?
Your whole life on earth will be affected by your answer to the
question, "To whom do you belong?"
But then remember what a weight hangs upon this question with regard to
your eternal interest. It will all depend, at the last, as to whether
you shall enter Heaven or Hell, on this question, "To whom do you
belong?" If you belong to Christ, this shall be your reception, "Come,
you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world." But if you do not belong to Christ, what will
be the fate of the best of you? You will knock at the gate with the
piteous cry, "Lord, Lord, open to us!" And what will be the answer? "I
know you not." If you had belonged to Christ, He would have known His
own property. But in that day He will disown you, and tell you, "You
are not Mine; depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels."
"Eternal weal or endless woe" hangs, then, on this question, "To whom
do you belong?" Harps of gold, songs of celestial harmony, crowns of
eternal glory are yours if you belong to Christ! But oh, if you are not
Christ's and you live and die without an interest in Him, then groans,
cries, awful despair, looks of burning wrath and piercings of almighty
vengeance must be your everlasting doom! To sail forever across a sea
of anguish and neither founder nor reach a port. To climb forever the
burning mountain of despair and neither sit still, nor perish, nor yet
reach the summit! Forever
climbing knee-deep in grief and agony and yet never, never finding an
end to it all is your eternal reward! Be careful, then, that you answer
this question very solemnly as in the sight of God, for on this–
"Slender thread,
Hang everlasting things."
I am not afraid that you will not eventually answer the question. I am
afraid, however, that you will say, "It does not matter just now." It
will matter very soon. How soon do men come to their graves? Full many
of them stumble on them unawares! I saw a man the other day in as good
bodily health as I think I ever saw any man to be. And soon after it
was said to me, "Do you remember So-and-So?" "Yes." "He is dead!" I
drew my breath. Dead? Why the man looked as if he would certainly live
for another twenty, or thirty, or forty years. Dead? Can it really be
so? And then I met the next day with another who said, "You know Mrs.
So-and-So's husband?" "Yes." "He is dead." Sometimes I begin to wonder
that I find anybody alive! At the head of such a vast congregation as
this, there are so many journeys to the tomb for me to make that I
feel, perhaps, more than any of you, that I live in a dying world!
Standing with my foot once or twice a week on the edge of the grave and
saying, "Dust to dust, and ashes to ashes," over so many of my fellow
mortals, I dare not look upon you as living men, but only as men who
are soon to die! Would God that I could add of all of you, that I look
upon you as men and women who are going to the land of the living where
they never die!
This question will press hard upon you, dear Friends, when you have to
go upstairs to undress for your last sleep. It will press hard upon you
when they wipe the clammy sweat from your brow and death begins to
glaze your eyes. It will press hard upon you, Sinner, when the death
rattle is in your throat and you have the gloomy answer in your soul,
"I fear that I am not Christ's, but am without God and without hope."
But O, Christian, what a solace it will yield you, at the last, to be
able to feel, when the eventide has come and you are about to sleep the
last great slumber, "I am Christ's! And I go to rest upon His bosom
till the trumpet of the archangel shall startle my slumbering ashes and
shall bid them rise in the image of my dear Redeemer! I am Christ's!
And though I die, yet shall I live. I am Christ's! And though worms
destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God!"
II. Secondly, with great brevity, I WILL TRY AND HELP YOU IN MAKING A
RESPONSE.
It will go a great way towards it, dear Friends, if you will tell me
where you were born. ' 'Where I was born?" asks one, "are you desirous
to know how old I am?" Well, I do mean that though perhaps in a
different sense from what you put upon my enquiry. You were all born
once and it matters nothing where you were born that time, or very
little indeed. But were you ever born a second time? You do not know?
What? Do you not know that you were ever privileged with a new birth!
Were you born a second time, you would know it! A man cannot have
spiritual life in him and yet be unconscious of it. He may sometimes
doubt, but there are other times when he knows and feels the operation
of new faculties. Were you ever born twice? Recollect that every man
who is only born once will have to die twice–but the man who is born
twice will only have to die once–and even that once dying will be no
moribund experience, for it will only be the gate into eternal life! To
be born twice is to escape the second death, but to be born only once
is to fall into the second death forever. Are you born-again? If so,
you are Christ's.
"But," says one, "what is it to be born-again? Is it to have a few
drops of water sprinkled on my forehead by a priest? Or is it to be
immersed in floods of water?" These regenerate not the soul. It is to
have a new nature put into you by the Holy Spirit according to God's
own Covenant promise, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new
spirit will I put within you." This it is to be born-again! And if you
are not born-again, however moral or good you may be, you do not belong
to Christ–you belong to Satan–and with him you have your part.
It will help you, again, to answer this question if you will first
answer another, What company do you keep?' do not mean to ask whether
you associate with the immoral. Of course if you do that, that settles
the point at once. You who associate with persons of immoral lives
should recollect that you will be bound up with this company–and as
you have been with thieves, drunkards and harlots here, you will go
with them where they go–and be bound up with them in bundles to be
burned. But I mean, where is your chosen company? It is very hard for
some people to get the company they would wish to have. Some of you are
placed in positions in life where you are obliged to associate very
much with the ungodly, but I will put the question so as not to hurt
your mind, "When you can pick your company, where do you go?" It is
written, in the Acts of the Apostles, "And being let go, they went to
their own company." Now, when you are let go and can go where you like,
where do you go? I was sitting lately by the bedside of a poor woman
who was very ill. We
had been talking of the things of God. And among other evidences which
she was mentioning as to her reason for believing that she was going to
Heaven before long, she said, "I never could bear the company of the
wicked and I do not think that God will send me, in the next life,
where I never would go in this life. I have always loved to be with His
people and though I have been the vilest of them all, yet still I love
to bow with them in prayer and to join with them in holy song. I have
had my happiest times when I have been with the people of God and I
think He will not take me away from the people I have associated with
in my lifetime." If you belong to Satan, you know you will go with your
fellow servants. But if you belong to Christ, you will look out for
those who wear Christ's uniform and you will go with them. The old
proverb says that "Birds of a feather flock together."
There is a story told in the old legends, of a holy young man who once
went to the theater but the devil went into the theater that night–the
devil does go there occasionally–and he took this young man off with
him! A certain holy man, to whom this young man belonged, went to the
devil and he said, "You have taken away one of my disciples. He belongs
to me. He is a very excellent young man and you have no business with
him!" "Ah!" said the devil, "but I found him on my premises and I took
him." I think the devil was right for once! Let those who would be
accounted Christians and yet occasionally associate with the world in
its doubtful pleasures, think of that story and keep off the devil's
premises! You will be sure to be known by your company! A young man who
had begun to associate with bad companions told his father he did not
know that he could get any hurt by doing so. The father stooped down
and, taking the tongs in his hands, picked up a black coal and told his
son to hold it. The son said he would rather not. "It is not hot," said
the father, "it won't burn you." "No," replied the son, "but if it
won't burn me, it will blacken me." So you who wish to have an
exemplary character before God and before men, remember that if ill
company does not burn you to your hurt, it is sure to blacken you by
damaging your reputation! However, as I said before, we can tell you by
your company. Dead fish float down the stream, but live fish swim
against it. Do you swim against the stream? Have you learned to go
against the current? Do you strive to get up, up towards the great
Source of everything that is good and true or do you float along the
stream of pleasure with the mass of the world? Then you may readily
know to which side you belong.
You may judge, again, by this, What is your dialect? I suppose a person
well up in the dialects of the various counties would very soon
discover that I came from Essex. At any rate, if I meet a West-country
man, or a brother from the Midland counties and especially one from
Yorkshire, I know within a little time whereabouts he came from by his
particular twang. There is a dialect about people by which you can tell
them. Not that you can always tell a man's character in five minutes,
but give him time–let him talk his heart out and especially let him
get a little cross, or a little excited–and you will very soon find
him out by the words he uses. What is your dialect? Is it anything that
is impure, loose, low? Or do you desire to speak as Christ spoke, so
that your conversation may be seasoned with salt and may minister
edification to your hearers." It is a very bad sign when a man
professes to be religious, yet lets an oath out now and then–when he
comes to a place of worship regularly and yet says some very nasty,
ugly words sometimes. I am afraid there is death in that pot! If the
Lord does not cure you in the mouth, depend upon it, He has not cured
you down deep in the heart. There is a common saying about a man being
"good at bottom," but I do not believe in it, for if a man is not good
on the top, you may depend upon it that he is not good at bottom! If
you went to Covent Garden Market and wanted to buy some fruit, and you
found it rotten at the top of the basket, you would not believe the
salesman if he said, "My dear Sir, it is very good at bottom." "No,"
you would say, "excuse me, but you always put the best on the top." So,
when a man's talk is not what it should be–and his conduct and
conversation are contrary to those of a Christian–you may rest assured
that he does not belong to Christ, for they who are Christ's have had
their hearts washed and He who has washed their hearts will be quite
sure to wash their mouths.
Another thing by which you may judge to whom you belong is, What have
you learned to do? Servants will learn something from the masters to
whom they are apprenticed. If you have been an apprentice to the devil,
I have no doubt that you have learned his trade–you will be an enemy
to God–you will be a despiser of Divine things. But if you have been
with Christ, it will be said of you as it was of Peter and John, "They
took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus." They had
something of His boldness, His meekness, His gentleness, His holiness,
His courage, His affection, His disinterestedness, His honesty and, in
their measure, they had His virtues. If you have been looking into the
glass of God's Word and have not, in some degree, been conformed to the
image of Christ, tremble for yourselves! Christ saves sinners, but He
does not save them in their sins, but from their sins! And when Christ
once gets His hands upon a man, He
casts out the devils that once dwelt in him and makes him a new
creature in Christ Jesus, being henceforth bound to do God's will and
to walk according to God's Word!
If you tell me that you belong to Christ, I should like to ask a
witness or two. Oh, it is so easy to get into a Christian Church and
make a profession! The Lord knows that I have used my best
diligence–and I can say the same of my Brothers, the elders–we use
our best diligence to allow none to join this Church who are not
sincere Believers. But, after all, what does our vigilance amount to?
If you choose to be hypocrites, you can easily deceive such poor
creatures as we are! The best witnesses, I think, which you could bring
as to your belonging to Christ would be witnesses of this kind–you can
pray very nicely at the Prayer Meeting. You could preach a bit if you
were asked. You seem such a good man when you come among God's people.
But I would like to ask your wife about you. How does he behave to you,
Ma'am? Because if this man does not make a good husband, he is no
Christian, for Christianity makes a man the best of husbands, the best
of sons, the best of fathers, the best of brothers, the best of
servants! If you are a servant, I would like to ask your master about
you. Servants who stand about lazily, propping up walls and then talk
about being Christians, may talk a long while before their masters will
believe them! Masters and mistresses, too, who are always in bad
tempers and making much of little faults, and unkind to servants, may
talk as long as they will about being like Jesus Christ, but their
servants would need a microscope to see the likeness!
I would like to ask the man who professes to be a Christian, what the
angels see him do. There is a little room upstairs, your closet of
devotion, or perhaps you use your bedside for prayer. I would like to
know how you behave there. It is not difficult for a man who never
prays to make a fine boast of his religion. It is not enough for you to
kneel down, but do you ever have any real dealings with God? Do you
have real communion with Christ? Do you talk to Him as a man talks to
his friends? Do you pour out your heart before Him? Oh, the
heart-searching God knows how many there are who are fair trees
outside, but are rotten within–how many there are who are but painted
harlots! We sometimes read in the papers of certain people who can
enamel faces, hide blotches and make them look beautiful. I wish there
were none of this enameling in the Christian world, but I am afraid
that there is a great deal of it. People get enamelled up to a certain
pitch of piety, but what you need is a religion that will stand the
test of the hour of death, of the Day of Judgment and of the eyes of
the all-searching and all-seeing God! And if you have not this, it
matters not how delicately and daintily you may walk before men, nor
how much you have been esteemed and respected–God will pull you down
and give a dreadful answer to the question–"To whom do you belong?"
Ah, this is a question for the preacher and it is one which he may well
ask himself! There are many of you here, perhaps, who have been blessed
under my word, who think that surely, surely, the preacher cannot be
deceived. But ah, he knows what it is to search his own heart with an
awful earnestness, lest, after having preached to others, he himself
should be a castaway! My Brothers, you who are associates with me in as
deacons and elders, I charge you before the living God, do not take
your piety at second-hand. The oldest of you may well search
yourselves, for your experience, after all, may be a lie. Unless you
have closed with Christ and have really passed from death unto life,
you will not enter into Heaven because of your office! And you members
of this Church, I do pray you, on your knees ask the Master again and
again to search your hearts and see if there is any wicked way in you
and lead you in the way everlasting, for unless your heart is right
with Him, you cannot answer this question, "To whom do you belong?"
without a shudder and a fear!
III. I must soon close and as I have so little time left, I will only
spend a few minutes in GIVING YOU SOME GOOD ADVICE.
To the Christian let me speak first. You belong to Christ, Christian.
You say you do–you know you do. Well, then–what? Obey Him. If anybody
else wants to be master over you, do not allow it, for you are
Christ's. Let His Word be your law. Let His wish be your will.
You belong to Christ, then love Him. Let your heart embrace Him. Let
your lips sing of Him. Let your whole soul be filled with Him. You have
been bought with His precious blood–remember the price of your
redemption and do not give a cold heart in return for the warm heart's
blood of your Redeemer.
You belong to Christ, then trust Him. Rest nowhere but on Him. Day by
day sit beneath His Cross and view Him as your Savior.
You belong to Christ, then be decided for Him. Never halt, or raise a
question about your allegiance to Him. You are Christ's, you are
God's–then cling to Him. In the olden times, the inhabitants of the
county of Durham would never
go to the wars with our kings because they claimed an immunity granted
them by the bishop. They were called "holy workfolk." They had to
attend to the cathedral. So let it be with you, Christian–never go
into sin because you are one of the holy workfolk. You are engaged in
Christ's work and you cannot, therefore, serve Satan. Keep close to
Christ to whom you belong–so close to Him that you may grow up into
His image and become like unto He whose you are and whom you serve!
To those who cannot say that they love Christ, I have a word of advice
to give. It is clear that you belong to Satan. Friend, might I whisper
a word in your ear? I would run away from my master if I were you!He is
a bad master. He treats you shamefully. The joys he gives you are all
rotten. They look very pretty, like the apples of Sodom, but when you
have grasped them, they turn into a handful of ashes! After all, your
days of pleasure have no real pleasure in them and your mirth is poor
stuff, isn't it? You have spent your money for that which is not bread
and your labor for that which satisfies not.
Recollect that one of these days Satan will desert you. I mean when you
come to die. The pleasures which he gives you now will all fail you
then. I will tell you what I saw, this afternoon, as I came here. I
daresay you will think it a very curious thing for me to mention. I saw
half-a-dozen donkeys turned out on Clapham Common to feed, with the
snow two or three inches deep, and I thought to myself, "I daresay the
counter-mongers have been using these poor donkeys to do their work all
morning, and this is all that they get for it at last." That is very
much how the devil uses his servants–he works them as hard as ever he
can while they are alive, and then he has nothing to give them when
their life-work is done. How piteously did Hume's poor mother write to
her son when she lay a-dying! She had, at one time, made a profession
of religion, but had been induced by her son to give it up. And now she
wrote to him and said, "Come and give me some of the consolations of
your philosophy which you promised me." Poor Hume had no consolations
for her in his philosophy–it was just like being turned out to feed on
Clapham Common with all the snow fallen on it! It is a poor, dreary
thing–there is nothing there for the soul to feed upon, try as long as
it may.
Oh, think of what this master of yours will do for you when you come to
stand in the Day of Judgment! He cannot plead for you–he will be a
fellow sinner with you! He will be arraigned at the same bar to be
punished as well as you! You may look to him, but if he can do
anything, it will only be to laugh at you and increase your torment!
If I were you, I say again, I would run away from my master. I do not
read that that poor man who was sent into the fields to feed swine ever
gave his master any notice when he left him. His master "sent him into
his fields to feed swine; and he would gladly have filled his belly
with the husks that the swine ate, but no man gave unto him." Then came
the thought, "I will arise and go to my father," and away he went! And
he did not stop to give his master three months' notice, or tell him he
must get someone else! The fact is, it was such a bad place that he was
glad to get away from it directly–and he had such a bad master that he
started off at once. I would to God that some sinner here would do the
same tonight! Give your master no notice! He does not deserve any.
Leave him! You have been sailing under the black flag all these
years–thirty, forty, fifty, sixty–there is a gray-headed sinner
yonder, 70 years sailing under that black flag! Down with it, Sir!
Thank God it is not nailed to the mast! It will be when you die–if it
is there then, it will be nailed there to fly there forever! But it is
not nailed to the mast now. Down with it! Down with it! Oh, that the
Holy Spirit would pull it down and put up the blood-red Cross in its
place, that you might sail henceforth under the flag of Immanuel!
"Well," says one, "I would gladly change my master, but would Christ
have me?" Try Him! Try Him as the prodigal son tried his father. Go and
put your head on your Father's bosom and weep out such a confession as
this–"I have sinned against Heaven, and before You, and am no more
worthy to be called Your son." And before you have finished your
confession, you will hear Him saying in your soul, "I have blotted out,
as a thick cloud, your transgressions and, as a cloud, your sins." God
is far more ready to forgive you than you are to ask Him for pardon!
Only acknowledge your sin, plead the blood of Jesus, put your trust in
Him and my God, my Father, will delight to receive you! He will say,
"This, My son, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.
"He will be glad! His angels will rejoice and His saints will make
melody!
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: 1 SAMUEL 30:1-25.
David had joined the army of the Philistines, but, as the Philistine
lords suspected him, he was obliged to leave, so he went back to the
little city of Ziklag, which King Achish had given him.
Verses 1, 2. 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, and had taken the
women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or
small, but carried them away, and went on their way. They were roving
bands of marauders and, no doubt, preserved the women alive to sell
them for slaves, the main object of those robbers being gain.
3, 4. 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. Weary with
their marching, they had hoped to rest at home. But now that everything
was gone, the strong men, who were not often moved to weeping, wept
till they could weep no longer! The very sources of tears were dried up
by the exceeding heat of their grief.
5, 6. And David's two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the
Jezreelitess, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. And David
was greatly distressed; for the people spoke of stoning him. These
rough men, who had not all joined him from the best of motives, now
turned against him for having left the city defenseless.
6, Because the soul of all thepeople was grieved, every man for his
sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged
himself in the LORD his God [See Sermon #1606, Volume 27–ZIKLAG–OR,
DAVID ENCOURAGING HIMSELF IN HIS GOD] Blessed faith that finds a secure
shelter even amid the ashes of his burned home, and when even his own
followers have turned against him!
7, 8. And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray
you, bring me here the ephod. And Abiathar brought there the ephod to
David. And David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after
this troop? Shall I overtake them? And He answered him, Pursue: for you
shall surely overtake them, and without fail recover all The Hebrew
runs, "Pursue, for overtaking you shall overtake, and recovering you
shall recover." That is to say, the work shall be done perfectly–and
so it was.
9-17. So David went, he and the six-hundred men that were with him, and
came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed. But
David pursued, he and four hundred men: for two hundred stayed behind,
which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor And
they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and gave
him bread, and he did eat; and they made him drink water; and they gave
him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters ofraisins: and when he
had eaten, his spirit came again to him: for he had eaten no bread, nor
drunk any water, three days and three nights. And David said unto him,
To whom do you belong? And from where are you? And he said, Iam a young
man ofEgypt, servant to an Amalekite; andmy master left me, because
three days ago I fellsick. We made an invasion upon the south of the
Cherethites, and upon the coast which belongs to Judah, and upon the
south of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire. And David said to him,
Can you bring me down to this company? And he said, Swear unto me by
God that you will neither kill me, nor deliver me into the hands of my
master, and I will bring you down to this company. And when he had
brought him down, behold they were spread abroad upon all the earth,
eating and drinking, and dancing, because of all the great spoil that
they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land
of Judah And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening
of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred
young men, which rode upon camels, and fled. It is noteworthy that the
four hundred who escaped were equal in number to the whole of David's
attacking force, so that, manifestly, God was with these valiant men,
or else they would have been completely outnumbered.
18-20. And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away:
and David rescued his two wives. And there was nothing lacking to them,
neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor
anything that they had taken to them: David recovered all And David
took all the flocks and the herds, which they drove before those other
cattle, and said, This is David's spoil [See Sermon #2017, Volume
34–DAVID'S SPOIL] That which was over and above what had been taken
from Ziklag was very properly appropriated by David. I thought, as I
read that, "David recovered all," how truly it can be said that the
greater Son of David has recovered all. All that was lost by sin, our
glorious and victorious Captain has recovered! What, then, shall be His
spoil?
It was foretold that "He shall divide the spoil with the strong." Let
your hearts and mine, and all we are, and all we have, be yielded up to
Him–and let us say of it all, "This is Jesus' spoil, and to Him be
Glory evermore!"
21. AndDavidd came to thee two hundredmen, which were so faint that
they couldnot followDavid, whom they had made also to stay at the brook
Besor: and they went forth to meet David, and to meet the people that
were with him: and when David came near to the people, he saluted them.
There are some fainting and sick folk detained at home–I pray our
blessed Lord to salute every one of them wherever they are at this
moment.
22, 23. Then answered all the wicked men and men of Belial, of those
who went with David, and said, Because they went not with us, we will
not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, save to every
man his wife and his children, that theymaylead them away, and depart
Then saidDavid, You shallnot do so, my brethren. They were poor
brethren for David to have. They were brethren by race, but not
brethren by Grace. Yet David was wise in speaking to them as he did. It
is always well, when you are opposing people, to do it courteously. You
can often prevail with soft words if you have strong arguments. David
said, "You shall not do so, my brethren."
23-26. With that which the LORD hasgiven us, who haspreserved us, and
delivered the company that came against us into our hand. For who will
hearken unto you in this matter? But as his part is that goes down to
the battle, so shall his part be that tarries by the stuff: they shall
part alike. And it was so from that day forward, that he made it a
statute