For centuries philosophers and theologians have wrestled with the problem of pain. Simply put, it is, “If God is both good and all-powerful, then why is there pain and suffering?” It seems that the existence of suffering either negates the love or the omnipotence of God. A decade ago, Rabbi Harold Kushner, who lost his own son in death, tried to answer the question in his best-selling book, When Bad Things Happen To Good People. His pathetic answer was that God is good, but He isn’t quite strong enough to eradicate suffering. Others have denied God’s goodness, concluding that He is a sadistic tyrant. Such a view hardly inspires trust and intimacy with God!

The problem, of course, is not merely philosophical, but deeply personal, since we all face repeated trials throughout life. It is essential, if we want to walk with God and grow in the Christian faith, that we understand and submit to God’s perspective on “why bad things happen to good people.”

While not giving a comprehensive answer, 2 Chronicles 32 addresses this problem. Consider the words of 31:20-21, summarizing the good king Hezekiah’s life: He “... did what was good, right, and true before the Lord his God. And every work which he began in the service of the house of God in law and in commandment, seeking his God, he did with all his heart and prospered.” You would expect the next verse to read, “After these acts of faithfulness, Hezekiah lived a long, happy, trouble-free life.”

But instead we read, “After these acts of faithfulness Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and besieged the fortified cities, and thought to break into them for himself” (32:1). What a strange reward for Hezekiah’s obedience! Why didn’t God intervene to prevent this good king and his people from going though this difficult trial? Where was God in all this?

The answer to that question is implicit in verse 21, which records how an angel of the Lord destroyed the Assyrian army so that they did not conquer Jerusalem. The accounts in 2 Kings 18 and Isaiah 37 report that 185,000 soldiers--more than three times the population of Flagstaff--were wiped out in one night! And to do the job, the Lord didn’t bother to get off his throne. He didn’t muster an army of 100,000 angels. He called one angel and said, “Go take care of Sennacherib’s army.” God just flicked the mighty Sennacherib out of the way like an ant. So the answer to the question, “Where was God when Sennacherib invaded Judah?” is obvious: God was sovereignly sitting upon His throne, observing every move of this proud king.

But that raises another question: Why didn’t God send His angel to polish off Sennacherib’s army before it caused all the problems for Hezekiah? If God could do it later, He just as easily could have done it sooner. Why did He allow the good king Hezekiah to experience the trauma of Sennacherib’s invasion? More personally, why does God allow us to go through trials? Our text suggests four reasons:

1. God allows trials to motivate us to strengthen our defenses against evil.

When Hezekiah saw what was coming, he got his people busy getting prepared for the trial (32:1-6). They cut off and re-routed the water supply from the spring of Gihon outside the city wall. The water tunnel which Hezekiah’s men built was discovered by archaeologists in 1880 and is an amazing engineering feat. They dug through solid limestone with hand tools, starting at opposite ends, 1700 feet apart. A plaque which was discovered describes how the workers finally were five feet from one another and could hear each others’ voices. They chipped their way toward one another until the tunnel was completed and the water from the spring flowed into the city. The workers also repaired the broken walls and got the city fortified for the attack. There are two lessons here for us:

A. The time to get ready for trials is before they hit, not after.

Proverbs 24: 10 states, “If you are slack in the day of distress, your strength is limited.” In other words, the day of distress reveals your strength, not a day of calm. So you’d better use the present to prepare for the day of distress (see also, Prov. 1:24-29). You can count on it: At some point some Sennacherib will invade your life. If you aren’t sinking down roots with God now, you won’t be able to stand against the storm.

B. Don’t trust your preparations; trust the Lord.

(See Isa. 22:9-11.) Apparently some in Judah (in light of 2 Chron. 32:7-8, I don’t think Hezekiah was included) were trusting in their water tunnel and fortifications, not in the Lord. That’s always a danger. Preparation and planning are good, but we dare not trust in such things.

We all should develop a daily habit of spending time in God’s Word and in prayer, fortifying our lives against the enemy. But we need to be on guard against trusting in our Bible knowledge or in our quiet times or in some method rather than in the Lord Himself. The enemy is subtle and will try to get us to trust in anything other than the living God. So the main goal of a daily time with God should be to walk in dependence on Him. Knowing that trials will come should motivate us to strengthen our defenses, putting on the full armor of God so that we’re ready to stand in the day of trouble.

2. God allows trials to increase our trust in Him.

Trials will either strengthen your faith in God or destroy it. You won’t stay in the same place. It’s clear that there is a battle of faith going on here: Hezekiah called the people to trust God in this crisis (32:7-8); Sennacherib sought to undermine trust in God and in Hezekiah as God’s leader (32:10-16). Scripture is clear that our main need in a time of trial is to rely on God alone and to resist the lies of the enemy.

Sennacherib and Satan have something in common: They’re both tyrants. When you rebel against a tyrant, he visits you very quickly. Some new Christians get thrown by this. They put their trust in Christ and begin to cast off Satan’s tyranny, and suddenly they have more problems than before they came to Christ. And they wail, “What happened?” It’s easy: When you rebel against a tyrant, he visits you quickly. When you face a trial, Satan whispers, “If your God is so good and powerful, then why is this happening to you? I wouldn’t call this good, would you? And your pastor tells you to trust in God? Come on! That’s a trite phrase if I ever heard one!” But resisting Satan by trusting God is precisely what the Bible tells us to do when we face trials (see 1 Pet. 5:6-11). What does trust mean?

A. Trust in God means submitting to His sovereignty over your trials.

You’ve only got two choices: Either God is sovereign over the likes of Sennacherib (or whatever your trial is named), or He was on vacation and this trial is going to alter His sovereign will. And if you conclude that God is sovereign over your trial, you’ve got two choices: Either you submit to His sovereign hand (1 Pet. 5:6-7), or you shake your fist at Him and sulk, “It’s not fair! Is this the way You treat me after all I’ve done for You?” But there is no word of that with Hezekiah. Instead of complaining, he rallied the people to trust in God (32:7-8).

B. Trust in God means acknowledging God as the source of your strength.

(See 32:7-8.) Trusting God isn’t passive and vague; it’s active and specific. Let’s say you have some overwhelming problem. Believe me, Sennacherib and company were an overwhelming problem! Some bas-relief art recovered from the ruins of Nineveh depicts Sennacherib’s siege of Lachish (32:9, about 30 miles southwest of Jerusalem). The soldiers are battering down the walls with huge war machines. A number of prisoners are impaled on poles. Others are being flayed alive, while some are bowing in obeisance before Sennacherib. If you were on this guy’s hit list, you had a problem! Let’s be honest--it’s one thing to say we trust in the Lord, but it’s altogether different thing to do it when guys like this are knocking on your door!

How do you do it? You line up your problem against the living God and every time you fear, you keep coming back to affirm your trust in God. We can’t be sure, but Psalm 46 may have been written in this situation. It’s a great affirmation of God as the source of strength:

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy dwelling place of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered; He raised His voice, the earth melted. the Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold (Ps. 46:1-7).

Thus, trust in God means submitting to His sovereignty over your trials; it means acknowledging Him as the source of your strength.

C. Trust in God means casting your cares on Him through prayer for His glory.

(See 32:20.) The other accounts (2 Kings and Isaiah) record how Hezekiah took Sennacherib’s threatening letter into the house of the Lord, spread it out before the Lord and prayed about it. The gist of his prayer wasn’t, “God help us out of this trial so that we can be happy.” Rather, it was, “Lord, deliver us so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God” (2 Kings 19: 14-19). As our text states, Sennacherib and his envoys “spoke of the God of Jerusalem as of the gods of the peoples of the earth, the work of men’s hands” (32:19). God’s honor was first in Hezekiah’s mind, not just relief from his problems.

When you pray in a time of trial--whether for yourself or for others--make sure that God’s glory is the object of your prayer. The point of prayer is not to use God to secure my happiness. I need to seek God’s glory above all else. He may be glorified by delivering me from my trial, or through my enduring the trial by His grace, or by taking me to be with Him. I need to trust Him by casting all my anxiety on Him, submitting to whatever brings Him glory (1 Pet. 5:7).

God allows trials to motivate us to strengthen our defenses against evil and to increase our trust in Him.

3. God allows trials to enrich our experience of His salvation.

(See 32:22.) Israel went to bed (if they slept at all), on the brink of annihilation, surrounded by 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. They got up the next morning surrounded by 185,000 Assyrian corpses. Can you imagine the relief and joy that must have spread through the city that morning! “Have you heard the good news? God rescued us!” Those people were thankful to God!

One reason many, especially those reared in Christian homes, have a lukewarm faith and are not grateful to God is that they have never seen what a horrible fate God rescued them from when He saved them from His certain judgment. I like the way Harry Blamires puts it in his book, Recovering the Christian Mind [IVP], pp. 16):

What is the experience of conversion like? Is it like opening a book one day and saying, “Ah, now I understand: in future I shall guide my life by these precepts”? It is not. If the men and women of true faith are to be trusted, the relief felt after conversion is the relief of someone who has been saved from drowning, spotted struggling in the sea, winched up on to a helicopter and laid panting there. The convert does not speak as though he has achieved something, mastered some difficult truth at last, solved some problem, attained some new insight. He speaks as one torn from the bowels of destruction by the watchfulness, the care, the unspeakable love of a Saviour. His emotions are of relief, gratitude, and complete self-commitment to the One to whom he owes everything.

Our problem is, our proud fallen nature makes us think that we’re capable of handling things by ourselves, whether it’s getting into heaven by our own goodness or dealing with trials by our own ingenuity. So God has to humble us, to make us despair even of life, as the apostle Paul put it, so that “we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead” (2 Cor. 1:9). Then when He delivers us, we rejoice in His salvation!

God allows trials to motivate us to strengthen our defenses against evil; to increase our trust in Him; to enrich our experience of His salvation.

4. God allows trials to humble us under His mighty hand.

The major sin of the human race is pride. It reared its head in a good man like Hezekiah when he gave “no return” when the Lord healed him from a terminal illness (32:25). Later, when some Babylonian envoys came to inquire of the miraculous sign God had performed of making the shadow go backwards on the stairs, rather than bearing witness of the great God who did such a thing, Hezekiah boastfully showed them all of his riches (32:31). If a good man like Hezekiah (31:20) fell into pride, none of us are exempt from the problem. God has to send trials to remind us that even good people are not essentially good.

When trials hit a “good” person, we’re inclined to ask, “If God is all loving and all powerful, then why does a good man like this suffer?” We begin to think that good people have some sort of claim on God due to their goodness. But we need to remember that when we talk about a good person, we’re talking only from a human perspective. Only God is truly good. God’s perspective on the human race is: “There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good; there is not even one” (Rom. 3:10-12).

When I start thinking that God owes me a trouble-free life because of my uprightness, I had better start thinking differently. God owes me nothing but hell for my sin. The question, “God, how can You allow this to happen?” is the wrong question. The right question is, “God why have You not blotted me off the face of the earth for my sins? Even though in the sight of men I may be a good person, in Your holy presence I am full of all uncleanness and deserve only Your judgment.”

That’s a healthy and helpful reminder. It humbles our pride. God allows trials to remind us that even good people are not essentially good. We all need His grace or we would rightfully perish. None can demand His blessing as a wage due.

Conclusion

So our text is telling us that ...

God allows trials to bless sinners who cast themselves on Him.

Trials motivate us to strengthen our defenses against evil. They increase our trust in God. They enrich our experience of His salvation. They humble us before Him, thus making us appreciate His abundant grace.

The following incident happened at a class in New York City called “Family Folklore: Preserving the stories of the past” (Reader’s Digest [Jan., 1984], pp. 127-128):

A small, middle-aged woman stood and began speaking somewhat nervously. “I was born in Estonia,” she said. “And I have never told anyone this story until now.” She looked about hesitantly. Then she began to describe how, when she was a child, her parents had given her a beautiful doll from France. Cherie, she had called the doll. It became her most precious possession. Her cousin Doris came to stay with her when she was 12, after Doris’s father died. Doris played with Cherie constantly, and when it was time to leave, she clutched Cherie to her. “Doris has lost her father, and she needs the doll more than you do,” the 12-year-old’s mother had said. “Let Doris have it. God will return it to you.”

“I cried and cried,” the woman said. “As time went by, and Cherie was not returned, I lost my faith in God.” It was a harrowing time. “This was when we had to flee Estonia because of the Nazis,” she said. She learned that Doris’s house had been bombed by the Luftwaffe and had burned to the ground. Doris and her family escaped from the house with only the clothes on their backs. Soon all the relatives fled Estonia. Those who did not die in the Holocaust were widely scattered and started their lives again in new lands.

Eventually, the woman said, she found her way to the United States. Years went by, but she never forgot Cherie. Then, to her surprise, she learned that Doris was alive--and also living in America. Their paths crossed once or twice. But neither cousin ever mentioned the doll.

“When my first child was born,” she said, “Doris came to visit. She brought with her a present.” The woman struggled with tears. “It was Cherie. Doris told me that when she ran from the burning house, she put Cherie in her kerchief. She carried Cherie all through the war.

“If you think I wept before,” the woman continued, “it was nothing to the tears I wept when I saw Cherie. And then my faith in God was restored. For what my mother had said was true.”

Perhaps God has given you what you consider a strange reward for your obedience to Him. Some Sennacherib has invaded your life. Will you trust Him that in His time, if not in this life then in eternity, He will work it all together for good? If you cast yourself on Him, submitting to His sovereign hand, He will use such trials to shape you into the image of His Son, who learned obedience through the things He suffered (Heb. 5:8).

Discussion Questions

1. Does God send trials or merely permit them? Does it make any difference? Can Satan cause trials apart from God’s permission?
2. One grateful reader of Rabbi Kushner’s book wrote to him, “Maybe now I can believe in a more realistic God.” How would you respond that comment?
3. Why is humility an essential part of enduring trials (see 1 Pet. 5:6-11)?
4. What is the biblical answer to the critic’s taunt, “If God loved you and is able, He would spare you from terrible trials”?

Copyright 1994, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation

Former Secretary of Education William Bennett writes about how teachers in the 1940’s were asked to identify the major problems they faced in the schools. They listed talking out of turn; chewing gum; making noise; running in halls; cutting in line; dress code infractions; and littering. When asked the same question in 1990, teachers listed drug and alcohol abuse; pregnancy; suicide; rape; robbery; and assault (cited in Liberty [Nov./Dec., 1994, p. 5).

Do you remember the story of the little Dutch boy who saved his city from destruction by sticking his finger in the hole in the dike? Do you ever feel like that little boy, except that you’re trying to plug holes with all your fingers and thumbs, but more leaks are breaking out every minute? I sometimes feel overwhelmed as I see our godless culture hurtling toward destruction.

King Josiah must have felt that way. He lived in an evil day; his culture was on the brink of God’s judgment. His grandfather, Manasseh, had been the most wicked king in Judah’s history, plunging the nation into worse sins than the Canaanites Israel had conquered centuries before. Even though Manasseh repented, he could not undo the damage he had done. It’s much easier to lead people into sin than it is to lead them out again. It’s like emptying a box of BB’s on a hardwood floor. It’s easy to scatter them, but it’s not so easy to get them all back in the box. Josiah’s father, the wicked Amon, reigned only two years before he was assassinated. He reestablished the pagan practices of his father’s earlier years. Into this wicked culture, plunging headlong toward destruction, little eight-year-old Josiah was thrust as king.

What could this boy-king do? He stuck all his fingers in the holes in the dike! He didn’t finally avert God’s judgment, but he did manage to hold it off for over 30 years. At age 16, Josiah began to seek the Lord (34:3). As a young man of 20, he started a series of reforms in an attempt to turn the nation back from destruction. But even though Josiah himself “did right in the sight of the Lord” (34:2), if we read the contemporary prophets, Jeremiah and Zephaniah, we learn that his reforms weren’t able to go deeply enough. But he did manage to keep one generation from judgment. As such, Josiah should be an example to us as we seek to make a difference in our evil culture. Like Josiah,

Though we live in an evil day, we can see God work through us if we will seek Him and obey His Word.

1. Josiah lived in an evil day; so do we.

When you read 2 Chronicles 34:3-7 and the parallel passage (2 Kings 23:4-15, 19-20) you begin to see what Josiah was up against. Although the people in his kingdom would claim to be followers of the one true God, they had incorporated all sorts of worldly practices into their worship: idolatry, sexual immorality, and even child sacrifice, all under the guise of religion! It’s amazing how people can delve into anything and everything other than God’s Word in the name of religion! These people claimed to be God’s covenant people, but they were totally corrupt in their lifestyle.

In Josiah’s day, as in ours, there was a widespread lack of understanding of God’s Word. When we read of a copy of the Law being discovered in the Temple and read to the King, we get the distinct impression that even the godly Josiah had never heard it read before (34:15-19)! We don’t know whether Manasseh and Amon had destroyed the copies used by the priests and Levites during Hezekiah’s reign. But apparently God’s Word was scarce. Whenever people do not read and understand the Bible, they have no basis for evaluating or confronting their behavior. And so they drift into the worst of sins without even knowing that they are thoroughly pagan.

I wish you all would read David Wells’ two excellent books, No Place for Truth and God in the Wasteland [both, Eerdmans], which show how worldly the American church has become because we have abandoned God’s truth and God-centered living and have replaced it with a human-centered, therapeutic approach in which human needs become sovereign. Wells argues that the church is in the business of truth, not of marketing its “feel-good” product to religious consumers. He states,

A business is in the market simply to sell its products; it doesn’t ask consumers to surrender themselves to the product. The church, on the other hand, does call for such a surrender. It is not merely marketing a product; it is declaring Christ’s sovereignty over all of life and declaring the necessity of obedient submission to him and to the truth of his Word (God in the Wasteland [Eerdmans], p. 76).

The evening before Thanksgiving I had an interesting conversation with Jim Owen, author of the excellent book, Christian Psychology’s War on God’s Word [EastGate]. He thinks that a major part of the problem in American Christianity is that we do not want to submit to authority, including the authority of Scripture that confronts our self-centered, fulfill-my-needs mentality. Thus we are abandoning the historical-grammatical-contextual approach to biblical interpretation and are accepting books in which popular authors subjectively read into the Bible the latest psychological “insights” and then claim that they are biblical. I think his analysis is correct.

The point was clearly illustrated earlier this year when Christianity Today ([5/16/94], pp. 38-40) ran a news article summarizing some of the far-out views set forth by the popular Christian writer, Karen Burton Mains, in her book, Lonely No More [Word)]. She holds to a number of Jungian psychological concepts about “the male-within-the-female and the female-within-the-male,” which she says “have always seemed exceptionally scriptural to me.” She describes a seven-year-old, emaciated “idiot child” in her mind’s eye, who turns out to be “the Christ child that is within me.” She explained to CT that this was metaphorical language representing “the repressed, malformed” part of herself with which Christ identifies.

In spite of these and many other weird things she says, which are at best a mixture of worldliness with Christianity, the article was slanted in favor of Mains and against the “self-appointed heresy hunters” who dare to criticize her! And, the subsequent letters to the editor were largely defensive of her! David Wells is correct: American Christianity has abandoned the idea that we must submit to God’s revealed, absolute truth and has moved into a subjective, therapeutic hodgepodge of worldly ideas.

But even though, like Josiah, we live in an evil day when even those claiming to be God’s people are marked by worldliness, there is a way out of the darkness. It involves seeking the Lord and obeying His Word.

2. Josiah sought the Lord and obeyed His Word; so can we.

A. Josiah sought the Lord (34:3a).

There are two lessons to note here:

1) Seek the Lord early in life if you can. Josiah was 16 when he began seeking the Lord. He was not from a godly home. He lived in an evil day. And yet he began seeking the Lord during his teen years and never turned away.

Many Christians have the erroneous notion that teenagers must go through a phase of rebellion. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, where Christian parents expect their teens to rebel! Some kids feel like they’ll never be well-adjusted if they don’t sow some wild oats. That’s baloney!

I want every young person to hear this: Even if you come from a bad home and even though we live in an evil world, you can seek the Lord. You’ll never regret avoiding drugs or drinking or sexual immorality, because sin always leaves scars. I thank God that He graciously preserved me from rebelling against Him or against my parents. I think I’m fairly well-adjusted in spite of it!

2) Keep on seeking the Lord. “He began to seek God.” Seeking the Lord is a lifelong process. You don’t just try it halfheartedly for a few months and then say that it didn’t work. Walking with the infinite God and learning His ways is a lifetime process.

You’ll go through dry times and difficult times. You’ll be tempted to turn to the world for the latest wisdom on how to deal with your problems. You’ll be tempted to give up on the Bible because “it doesn’t seem to work.” But always remember, what you need is the Lord! Let your problems drive you to depend on Him alone. Seek Him through His Word! Trust in Him and don’t lean on any other source. The renewing of our minds through Scripture isn’t a quick fix. We’ve got to run with endurance the race set before us. With Josiah we must keep seeking the Lord.

B. Josiah obeyed God’s Word (34:2).

Verse 2 summarizes Josiah’s life: “And he did right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of his father David and did not turn aside to the right or to the left.” There’s a difference between doing right in the sight of people and doing right in the sight of the Lord, isn’t there? We can only do right in the sight of the Lord when we obey His Word. Josiah had, as you will have, many opportunities to turn aside to the right or to the left, but he didn’t do that (except at the end of his life). He obeyed God’s Word.

The story of the discovery of this copy of the Law of Moses (at least Deuteronomy, but probably the first five books of the Old Testament) is a marvelous example of how God has preserved His Word down through the centuries. Tyrants have tried to eradicate it. Even clergymen have tried to keep it from the common people. During the middle ages church authorities opposed the translation of the Bible into the vernacular because they feared that if lay people read the Bible, heresy would result. William Tyndale, one of the early translators of the Bible into English, was condemned for heresy, strangled, and burned at the stake in 1536 on account of his efforts. A letter he wrote from his prison cell requests a Hebrew Bible, grammar and dictionary so that he could continue translating. We take it for granted that we have several translations of the Bible lying around the house. But it has not always been so.

But whenever God’s Word is read and obeyed, great changes begin to take place in individuals and in society. But owning several copies of the Bible or keeping one on your coffee table won’t do you any good.

1) We must read the Word. We can’t obey it if we don’t know what it says. And we must not just read our favorite sections which reinforce our prejudices. We must read it all. Read the sections that step on your toes. We don’t know for sure which portions for the Law Hilkiah read (maybe all of it). But I would guess that he read Deuteronomy 28 which spells out the grave consequences of disobedience for the nation.

2) We must respond to the Word. Josiah’s response was to tear his clothes in horror. You don’t need to tear your clothes, but sometimes the Word ought to rend your heart. When Josiah heard what God’s Word said, he said, “We’re in a heap of trouble” (paraphrase of 34:21). He had deep convictions about the truthfulness of God’s book. He knew that when God says something, He means it. He knew that sin has consequences. So Josiah responded with a tender heart and humbled himself before God (34:27).

Even though Josiah’s reforms to purge the land of idolatry (34:3-7) preceded the discovery of the Law, what he did illustrates what ought to take place when a person gets into God’s Word. It exposes things in our lives that are displeasing to God. You’ve got to take strong action against such things: chop them down, break them in pieces, grind them to powder, burn it and scatter the ashes, etc. (see 34:4-5). Jesus said that if your eye causes you to lust, tear it out; or your right hand tempts you to adultery, cut it off (Matt. 5:29-30). He meant that we need to respond to God’s Word by dealing radically with our sin.

3) We must learn the Word from mature believers. The king wanted to find out exactly what these words meant as applied to him and his kingdom. So he sent a delegation to Huldah the prophetess (34:22-28). Apparently Jeremiah and Zephaniah weren’t nearby. While God prefers to use men in positions of spiritual leadership, when obedient men are not available, He will use women (Judges 5). Clearly, a woman like Huldah is an exception in Scripture, not the rule. Those who use such exceptional cases to build a feminist theology are grasping at straws. But even so, God does use godly, faithful women.

Huldah shoots straight by telling the messengers what the Lord says (34:23). The job of a person teaching or preaching God’s Word of truth is to make plain what God says, even if it steps on some toes. The Word doesn’t always make you feel warm and fuzzy. It confronts sin and speaks of God’s judgment, as well as His love and mercy. But the Word always brings healing if we submit to and obey it.

As a hearer of the Word, Scripture warns you against shopping for teachers who tickle your ears and tell you what you want to hear rather than what you need to hear (2 Tim. 3:3). I’ve read church growth books that tell pastors if we want to build the church, we shouldn’t preach with authority or confront sin, because baby boomers don’t like that sort of thing. You can find many pastors who fall for that marketing approach. But they will turn away your ears from the truth (2 Tim. 4:4).

So, we must read the Word; respond to the Word; learn it from others.

4) We must seek to influence others with the Word. Once we have read the Word and responded to it with personal obedience and have been taught it by others, we have an obligation to influence others with the Word. Josiah didn’t keep it to himself. He got everybody together and read the Word to them and sought to help them obey it too (34:29-33). If God’s work in your life is real, you will want to bring others under its influence.

Some may say, “I wouldn’t want to offend somebody by telling them what the Bible says.” If you see someone with an illness and you’ve been cured of the same thing by taking a certain remedy, won’t you tell him what you’ve found? God’s Word gives us all that we need for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3-4). People with problems don’t need human wisdom; they need God’s Word. Every Christian should grow in being equipped with the Word so that you can help others discover its riches.

Thus even though Josiah lived in an evil day, he sought the Lord and obeyed His Word. So can we. The result?

3. God worked through Josiah; He can work through us.

Josiah purged the land of idolatry and immorality. He restored the Temple and reestablished worship in its proper place. He led the people in the greatest Passover in hundreds of years. Josiah’s Passover was greater than the one led by Hezekiah because all Israel participated and because it was observed in more accordance with the Mosaic law. He saved a generation from God’s judgment.

In our evil day God can do great things through us if we will seek Him and obey His Word. Although it seems impossible to see our nation restored to the place where school teachers complain about the kids chewing gum instead of carrying guns, God can do the impossible! We need spiritual revival!

Conclusion

Josiah’s story ends on a sad note. Pharaoh Neco passed through Judah on his way north to Carchemish where he intended to join with Assyria against Babylon (35:20). He did not intend to fight Josiah, but Josiah insisted on fighting him. It probably seemed like the sensible thing to do. But no where do we read of Josiah seeking the Lord about this battle. In fact, he disguises himself before going into battle (35:22), which reminds us of the ploy used by the wicked Ahab. Why disguise yourself if you’re in the will of God? But Josiah goes against Egypt, gets shot in battle and dies at 39. The revival stops. And in a few short years, Judah falls to Babylon.

What that says to me is, “Don’t get sidetracked from what God has called you to do.” The good is often the worst enemy of the best. We’ve got to be careful or the devil will entice us into the wrong arenas and it can nullify the eternal impact of what God has called us to do. Josiah got sidetracked from the spiritual work into political solutions. Didn’t the land need to be defended? Wasn’t that a king’s job? Yes, but he should have sought the Lord. In this case, God really was speaking through this pagan pharaoh (35:22)! Josiah should have stuck to his spiritual reforms.

Just before the 1984 election, I heard a well-known pastor speak on “The Second Most Important Day of Your Life.” He said that the most important day of your life is when you trust Christ as Savior. But the second most important day would be when you went to vote for Ronald Reagan! In my opinion, he was putting far more faith in the political system than is warranted! While I’m pleased with the recent election, I’m not optimistic that the Republican Party can solve America’s problems. Only God can solve our problems and He will do it as His people turn from sin, seek Him and obey His Word. The world’s problems are essentially spiritual, not political. The church’s primary task is to proclaim the gospel and bring people under Christ’s lordship. Let’s not get sidetracked from our main mission!

At age 12 Robert Louis Stevenson was looking out into the dark from his upstairs window, watching a man light the street lanterns. His governess came into the room and asked what he was doing. He replied, “I am watching a man cut holes in the darkness.” Though we live in a dark day, we can be used of God to cut holes in the darkness, if we will seek Him and obey His Word.

Discussion Questions

1. How can we effectively proclaim God’s absolute truth to a relativistic world?
2. What is worldliness? How has it affected the church?
3. Some would argue that the church needs to experience God, not learn doctrine or theology. Why is this a false dichotomy?
4. Should Christians be involved in politics? How much time should God’s people commit to the political process?

Copyright 1994, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation

We all like compliments. I think it was Mark Twain who said that he could live for a whole month on a good compliment. As a Christian I can think of no higher compliment than to be described as a man or woman with a heart after God’s heart. When that compliment comes from God Himself, we had better sit up and take notice! Here is a person whose life we can all profit by studying. Such was God’s description of David: “This is a man after My own heart” (Acts 13:22; 1 Sam. 13:14). Why would God put such a high affirmation on this man? How can I have a heart after God’s heart, like David had?

I trust that the study of David’s life in the next few weeks will be profitable to us all, but I hope it will be especially profitable to those who are teenagers and young adults. David was anointed as king by the prophet Samuel while he was still a teenager (although he did not assume the throne until he was 30). He was probably in his late teens when he slew the giant Goliath. Probably he wrote Psalm 23 and perhaps other psalms while he was still a teenager, watching his father’s sheep. The trials David went through at the hand of Saul occurred while David was in his twenties. So his life contains much instruction for those on the young side of life.

That’s especially important in our day when there is a common belief that teenagers are supposed to rebel. We expect it and it often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. But it’s not a biblical norm. In Scripture, there are many examples, David being foremost, of young people with a heart for God. Sure, David lacked the wisdom of experience. He needed trials to refine and mature him. There were “sins of his youth” that he later would regret (Ps. 25:7). But God began to use David in a significant way while he was still in his teens. He can still do that. It is my prayer that God would use this series of messages to lay hold of many of our young people as well as adults, to help us all to develop a heart after God’s heart.

Today I’d like to focus on four qualities that marked David as a young man with a heart after God’s heart, which we must develop if we want to be men and women after God’s heart:

To have a heart after God’s heart, we must be converted, be Spirit-filled, spend time alone with God, and be obedient in small things.

1. To have a heart after God’s heart, we must be converted.

It is most crucial at the outset to establish the fact that David was not by nature a man after God’s heart. He did not possess some inherent goodness which made God choose him. In Psalm 51:5 David declares, “I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me.” Every person who is converted recognizes that there is nothing in himself which commended him to God. By nature we all are sinners, in rebellion against God. We all are self-willed and self-seeking rather than seeking after God (Rom. 3:9-12, 23). No one deserves anything but judgment from God.

And David was not made right before God by his own good deeds. In Psalm 32:1-2, David wrote, “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity.” The Apostle Paul quotes these verses in Romans 4:7-8 in the context of arguing that no one is made right with God by their own good works. Rather, it is by faith in God’s provision. So we would be off on the wrong track from the start if we assumed that David, by his own will power and effort was a man after God’s heart and that God chose him on that basis.

Rather, conversion is God’s work, and He had performed that work in David’s heart. David didn’t choose God; God chose David and took him from the sheepfolds to shepherd His people (Ps. 78:70-71). While 1 Samuel 16 has reference to David’s anointing as king, not to his conversion, the clear point of the incident applies to God’s ways in salvation, namely, that God chooses those whom the world often overlooks or rejects. Samuel would have picked David’s older brothers, not David. David’s father didn’t consider his youngest son enough of a candidate even to bring him in from the fields. But David was God’s choice. Even so, God chooses for salvation those whom the world would reject, so that none can boast before God (1 Cor. 1:27-31).

It’s enlightening to compare David and Saul on the matter of conversion. Whether Saul was genuinely converted or not is subject to debate, and perhaps we can never know for sure. He strikes me as an example of the seed sown on the thorny ground, which got choked out and did not bear fruit unto eternal life. But even so, Saul had some sort of dramatic spiritual experience in which “God changed his heart,” the Spirit of God came on him mightily, and he prophesied (1 Sam. 10:9-10). If David had a similar dramatic experience, it is not recorded in Scripture. Perhaps, like many who are converted in childhood, David could not put his finger on a date or describe a dramatic change.

But the subsequent lives of the two men lead in opposite directions. David followed the Lord; Saul’s course was marked by self-seeking and partial obedience under a veneer of spirituality (1 Sam. 13:8-14; 15:10-35). Although David had his share of sins, he always confessed and turned from them, whereas Saul compromised and made excuses. David was honored by God, but Saul ended his life in disgrace.

Genuine conversion may or may not be accompanied by some dramatic or emotional experience. Sometimes a person comes to Christ in a dramatic encounter, such as Paul on the Damascus Road. But at other times, a person cannot put his finger on the moment at which he was converted. Rather, he comes to a gradual awareness that God has done a work in his heart. But in every case, genuine conversion is a work of God in the human heart in which He imparts new life and a right standing before Him based on the work of Christ on the cross. It is not based upon human will power, but on the sovereign, unmerited favor and choice of God (John 1:13; Rom. 9:10-18; Eph. 1:4-5; 2:8-9; James 1:18).

I ask each of you to examine yourself in light of Scripture on this most crucial point. Hear me carefully: Growing up in a Christian home, being baptized, or joining a church does not mean that you’re converted. Praying to “invite Jesus into your heart,” making a decision for Christ, or having an emotional spiritual experience does not necessarily mean that you’re converted. Satan would want nothing more than for some of you who attend this church regularly to think that you’re converted when you’re really not!

So how do you know if you’re truly converted? Paul exhorts, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!” (2 Cor. 13:5). Peter tells us, “Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble” (2 Pet. 1:10).

Scripture gives a number of tests of whether faith is genuine or spurious (e.g., the whole book of 1 John): A truly converted person will have a growing sensitivity to and turning from sin (1 John 1:5-10). He will be growing in obedience to Christ and in love for His people (1 John 2:1-11). He will have a growing knowledge of and love for God’s truth as revealed in His Word (1 John 2:21-27). In short, he will be learning to turn from self-seeking and instead to seek the things of God (Luke 9:23-24).

One further thing: A converted person will not be apathetic about the things of God. Those who are complacent do not see their great need for God. But God says that such people do not know their true condition, that they are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, and that He will spew them out of His mouth unless they repent (Rev. 3:15-19).

My former church history professor likes to ask people, “What evidence do you have that God has been merciful to your soul?” It’s a probing question! Don’t give rest to your soul until you can answer it. David was a young man after God’s heart because he had been truly converted by God. Everything else is built on this.

2. To have a heart after God’s heart, we must be Spirit-filled.

Note 1 Samuel 16:13. Before Pentecost, the Spirit of God did not permanently indwell all believers as He does in the present age of grace. Rather, He came upon certain ones to enable them to perform certain roles or tasks. He also could and did leave those who did not walk uprightly (1 Sam. 16:14; Ps. 51:11). When Samuel anointed David for the throne, the Holy Spirit came upon him mightily from that day forward. David was a markedly different young man because of the Holy Spirit.

If you are truly converted, you have the Holy Spirit indwelling you (Rom. 8:9). But if you’re tolerating sin in your life or are living to please yourself rather than God, you are quenching or grieving the Spirit. You must confess all known sin and yield consciously and continually to the Holy Spirit so that He will produce His fruit in your life (Gal. 5:16-23).

A good question to ask is, “If the Holy Spirit were to withdraw from my life, how long would it take me to miss Him?” Am I so routine, so self-dependent, that I could go on for weeks and never realize that the Spirit had departed? Also, we need to be careful to realize that the prime mark of a Spirit-filled life is not miraculous signs and wonders, but rather the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) and joyful endurance in times of trial (Col. 1:11-12). To be a man or woman after God’s heart, we must be truly converted and we must walk daily in dependence on the Holy Spirit.

3. To have a heart after God’s heart, we must spend time alone with God.

David was out in the field with his father’s sheep when a messenger, out of breath, came running up and said, “The prophet Samuel is with your family and he wants you to come!” So David went and to everyone’s bewilderment, Samuel anointed David (1 Sam. 16:1-13). I doubt if anyone except Samuel understood at that time the full significance of that act. But they knew it meant something. Then Samuel went back to Ramah (16:13). And where did David, the newly anointed king, go? Back to his sheep (16:19)! And what did he do out in the fields with those sheep? Fortunately, he didn’t have a Walkman or Watchman, or we wouldn’t have the Psalms! David used that time alone to develop his relationship with God.

Psalm 23 probably flowed out of those quiet times with God. Psalm 19 may also have been written while sitting out in the fields, meditating on God’s revelation through creation and through His written Word. David probably had a scroll of Moses’s writings which he read and thought about as he was in the fields. He also used that time to develop his skill as a musician (16:18), expressing his feelings of adoration toward God through psalms.

If you’re married with children at home, you probably will have to fight to make time to spend alone with the Lord. If you’re single, you’ll have to fight to use the time you have alone for spiritual growth rather than to yield to temptation. For most of my twenties, I was alone. I spent three months living and working in Chicago and another three months with the Coast Guard in the Oakland area. I had a lot of alone time in wicked cities where I knew almost no one else. I easily could have fallen into sin and nobody would have known.

I had to commit myself to use that time to seek the Lord. During my Coast Guard days, on my evenings off I used to take a Christian book and my Bible, drive over to a Denny’s near the base, drink coffee and read until about 10 p.m. On the way back to the base, there was a deserted section of road along the waterfront where I’d pull off and pray for a while. It was a lonely time, but I look back on it favorably because it was a time of growth in the Lord.

If we want to be men and women after God’s heart, we must spend consistent time alone with Him. Some people can’t stand to be alone. They fill every moment with noise from the radio or TV. They feel a need to be around people constantly. But you won’t grow in the things of God unless you spend time alone with Him. Let me make four practical suggestions in this regard:

Learn to read. I haven’t always been a reader. God used a friend to challenge me to start reading books to strengthen my spiritual life, and now I can’t find enough time to read. Remember, reading is a learned skill. Even if you aren’t good at it now, you can learn. Perhaps you should begin by taking a reading course at the library or by reading a book on how to read better. But once you learn to read, it opens up treasures from the greatest Christians of all time. Nothing has helped my spiritual life more than reading.

What should you read? First and foremost, read your Bible! Read it over and over again, cover to cover. The godly George Muller read his Bible over 200 times. He read through his Hebrew Old Testament seven times! As you read, don’t do it to check it off your list of things to do. Read prayerfully, asking God to reveal Himself and to show you your own heart, with a view to obedience. If you’ve never done it, 1993 would be a good time to read the entire Bible in a year.

Also, read Christian classics. Don’t waste your time on a lot of the modern junk being written. Go to authors who are solid theologically, who have a heart of devotion for God. Read Pilgrim’s Progress, by John Bunyan. Read some of Spurgeon’s sermons or the writings of J. C. Ryle. Read J. I. Packer’s A Quest for Godliness, which will open you up to the writings of the Puritans. Become a reader and your heart after God will grow! (I have a reading list available if you’re interested.)

Learn to pray. Use alone time to commune with God. Read and pray the Psalms, which reflect David’s communion with God. Study the Lord’s prayer and Paul’s prayers as models. I keep a prayer list, but I figure that God can read my list. I try to learn to commune with Him in prayer.

Learn to worship. Our public worship on Sundays should be an overflow of our private worship. Learn to adore God and marvel at His love in your time alone with Him. Express yourself by singing (you might have to be really alone to do this!). We forget sometimes that the Psalms were not just poems, they were put to music. God seeks those who worship Him.

Learn to think. You can’t think if you’re never alone with God. Learn to evaluate life in light of His Word. Think through current events, things you read, things others say, your current circumstances, your goals, and your family needs in light of God’s truth.

To have a heart after God’s heart, we must be converted; be Spirit-filled; spend time alone with God. Finally,

4. To have a heart after God’s heart, we must be obedient in small things.

When we first encounter David, he is tending his father’s sheep, a job his older brothers looked down on (1 Sam. 17:28). David’s father didn’t even consider David important enough to be included at the big event with Samuel (16:11). But God saw David’s faithfulness in this seemingly unimportant task. It was part of his apprenticeship for leading the nation (Ps. 78:70-72). He took his job seriously. When a predator attacked one of the sheep, David didn’t shrug his shoulders and say, “Oh, well, I’m not going to risk my neck for that dumb sheep!” He went after it and rescued it (17:34-35).

Later, Saul heard of David’s skill as a musician and summoned him to the palace. I’m sure that as David played his harp out in the fields, he never dreamed that it would someday open the door for him to play before King Saul. But, when it did, David served well in this more important task (1 Sam. 16:14-23).

Then came war with the Philistines. David’s older brothers joined Saul on the battlefield. But where was David? Back tending his father’s sheep again, and serving as errand boy for his father (17:14-15). When Jesse wanted David to go find out about his brothers’ welfare, he carefully made provision for his shepherding responsibilities and obeyed his father without complaint (17:20).

When David got to the battlefront and heard of Goliath’s blasphemous challenge, he began asking some questions (17:26). This threatened David’s oldest brother, who put David down with a sarcastic question (17:28). David easily could have returned insult for insult: “Some battle, you coward! Why don’t you go out after Goliath?” But instead, David held his tongue (17:29-30). He was learning obedience in his speech (16:18).

None of these things represent any big deal. But they all combine to show that as a teenager David was learning to be obedient to God in the insignificant situations where God placed him. He was already anointed by the great prophet Samuel. He could have said, “I’m not going back to those silly sheep. Get a servant to do it!” Or, “I’m not your errand boy! I’m the future king!”

Obedience in small things may not seem like much, but it’s like the small strands that are woven together to make a rope. We all tend to sit around wishing that God would use us for some important task, like slaying Goliath, not realizing that it’s obedience in the small, everyday tasks God sets before us that weave together to make the rope that enables us to bring down Goliath. The moral fiber which enables us to attack and defeat the huge problems in life is made up of the strands of obedience in the little moral choices that confront us daily: integrity, controlling wrong thoughts, guarding our speech, controlling anger, submitting to authority.

Conclusion

I once heard a pastor tell of an opportunity he had to speak to the national directors of a large mission organization. He was scheduled to speak at 1 p.m. A friend from the mission picked him up and as they drove to the conference center, the pastor asked how the morning had gone. It turned out that the directors had been divided and had some heated debates over some policy matters--not an ideal setting to minister!

The pastor began by asking the men to bow their heads and to raise their hands if they had spent time alone with God that morning. Remember, these were top mission officials! But only a few hands out of many went up. So the pastor took some time for them to spend quietly before God before he spoke. Then he insisted that they spend three hours the next morning in the Word and prayer before he came to speak at 1 p.m. At first they balked, protesting that they had too much work to do. But he stuck to his guns. He said that they were a different group of men the next day when he got up to speak!

Do you want God’s supreme compliment applied to you--that you are a person after God’s heart? Make sure you’re truly converted. Depend consciously each day on the Holy Spirit. Spend time alone with God often. And, practice obedience in the small things He gives you to do. That’s how God developed David from a shepherd boy to a great king. Every person who has a heart after God’s heart must walk the same way.

Discussion Questions

1. How can a person have assurance that he/she is genuinely converted? Use Scripture in your answer.
2. How can we be filled with the Holy Spirit? Again, use Scripture to answer.
3. How can a Christian have quality times alone with God?
4. Should we obey God even if we don’t feel like it? Isn’t this legalism or hypocrisy?

Copyright 1993, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation

A familiar legend tells how the devil had put his tools up for sale, each marked with the appropriate price. Hatred, lust, jealousy, deceit, lying and pride were all there. Apart from these and marked with a ridiculously high price was a harmless looking but well-worn tool. A buyer asked, “What tool is this?” “Discouragement,” replied the devil. “And why is it priced so high?” asked the man. “Because it is more useful to me than the others. I can pry open a man’s heart with that when I can’t get near to him with anything else. It’s so badly worn because I use it on almost everyone, since few people know it belongs to me.”

We’ve all known discouragement to varying degrees. Even the giants in the faith, such as the Apostle Paul, knew times of deep despair. He wrote, “We were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life” (2 Cor. 1:8). But perhaps the worst form of despair is when you realize that you’re reaping the consequences of your sin; that you’re responsible for the mess you’re in. Add to that the accusations of those you thought were your friends, who now are blaming you for problems they’re having because of your failure. You feel alone, rejected, and as if everything you’ve been working toward has gone up in smoke.

That’s where we find David in 1 Samuel 30:6. But it’s at this moment of utter despair and gloom that we read one of the most encouraging sentences in all the Bible. It breaks through the storm clouds like a ray of sunshine: “But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” It teaches us that

No matter how low you go, the way back to the Lord is always open.

Failure is not final. Even failure due to our sin is not the final chapter for a Christian. Even though, like the prodigal son, you find yourself in the muck of a pigsty, polluted by the corruption of the world, and even though those circumstances are the direct result of your own rebellion against the heavenly Father, His grace can still break through the gloom and find you there. Even in the pigsty you can say, “I will get up and go to my father and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned ....’” (see Luke 15:18). And you can be assured that the gracious Father will see you from afar, will feel compassion for you and will run to you and welcome you back into His presence! Note first,

1. How low can believers go?

Remember the old Chubby Checkers song, “Limbo Rock,” with the line, “How low can you go?” The answer, even for believers, is, “Pretty low!” David was in the lowest place he had ever been in his life.

As we saw last week, his problems started when he lost hope and thought (1 Sam. 27:1), “Now I will perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines. Saul will then despair of searching for me anymore in all the territory of Israel, and I will escape from his hand.” As we saw, at first things got much better for David. Saul did stop pursuing him. He was given a city and he was gaining wealth and power. Things were looking up. Sin is always that way: It snags us by making us think that it will get us where we want to go. At first, it seems like it’s delivering on its promise. But then, like buying on credit, the bills come due, and life gets very unpleasant.

As we saw, David’s sin had gotten him into a tight spot: The Philistine king wanted David and his men to go into battle with him against Israel. David seemed to have no choice. To refuse would have blown his cover on the con game he was playing. God graciously intervened through the Philistine commanders who distrusted David, so Achish was forced to send David and his men home.

It was a three day trip and as they approached Ziklag David and his men no doubt talked excitedly about how good it would feel to get home to their families, to enjoy the embrace of their wives and children, to eat a home cooked meal and to sleep in their own beds. But as they came over the hill and looked down on what they expected to be a peaceful domestic scene, they were horrified to see nothing but a pile of smoldering ashes! Their town was burned to the ground, their families were no where in sight, and everything they owned was gone. These tough warriors fell apart and wept until they had no more strength to weep (30:4).

To add to David’s despair, his own men--those who had pledged their allegiance to him, those who had gone into battle with him before--now spoke of stoning him, they were so bitter (30:6)! So in addition to David’s grieving for his wives, he felt rejected, totally alone in this world. And he realized that he was in this mess because he had acted apart from the Lord.

I want us to feel David’s utter despair and gloom because when we feel down, we all have a tendency to think that no one else has ever been in as bad a situation as we’re in. And if the enemy can make us think that our situation is uniquely bad, then we will despair of thinking that there is any way back.

But there’s always a way back! You can never go so low but that the grace of God is sufficient to bring you back. There is always hope in the Lord! The only reason He allows His children to despair, even of life itself, is so that they learn not to trust in themselves, but in God who raises the dead (2 Cor. 1:9).

Perhaps some here feel overwhelmed with discouragement. It may be due to a health problem or a family problem. Maybe you can’t find work or you’re in debt so deeply that you can’t see your way out. Maybe you’re lonely, without family or friends who seem to care about you. Perhaps you’ve sinned and you feel like God has cast you off. But to you especially God put David’s terrible situation in the Bible to say, “There is a way back! In times of deepest despair, there is hope in the Lord!”

2. The way back

David’s experience teaches us a number of things about the way back to the Lord from our deep despair:

A. The way back is an intentional way.

“But David ...” This is one of the many great “buts” in the Bible. Everything around David was gloom and doom. His property was either destroyed or stolen. His wives were gone and he didn’t know at this point if he would ever see them again. His men were talking of killing him. “But David!” He intentionally, deliberately rejected the faithless gloom and doom of his men. He intentionally looked beyond the smoldering ruins of Ziklag to the greatness of his God.

David’s strong intention is also seen in the Hebrew verb, “strengthened himself.” It implies persistent and continuous effort. There is nothing passive about coming back to the Lord at a time of despair. It doesn’t happen accidentally. Sometimes, like the psalmist, you have to grab yourself by the lapels and talk to yourself: “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, the help of my countenance, and my God” (43:5; see 42:5, 11). Like the prodigal son, you have to determine, “I will get up out of this pigsty and go back to my father!” The way back is always intentional.

B. The way back is a personal way.

“David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” David knew God in a personal way. God was not just the God of David’s country, though he lived in the covenant nation of Israel. God was not just the God of David’s father, though he was raised in a God-fearing home. God was David’s personal God. David had enjoyed personal fellowship with God as he watched his father’s sheep out in the fields as a boy. David had composed and sang many psalms, such as Psalm 23, which show that he knew the Lord as his personal shepherd who cared for his every need.

You do not know God if you do not know Him personally. You can know about God, but not know God. You can use a lot of religious language and attend worship services and even say eloquent prayers, but not know God personally. We come to know God in a personal way through personal faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins. Jesus said, “For this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).

C. The way back is a repentant way.

To repent means to turn around or change direction. As we saw last week, David hadn’t sought God’s direction in his decision to go over to Achish, king of Gath. In fact, this move violated God’s explicit prohibitions for His people not to form alliances with the pagans in the land. But now David is very careful to seek God’s direction and to obey it.

In David’s day, a person could seek God’s will through the Urim and Thummim which were contained in the ephod, a vest-like garment in the possession of the high priest. Though scholars differ in their understanding of exactly what this was, it seems to have been some sort of God-ordained system of drawing lots. David now sought God’s direction in this way. The point is, this was a change from David’s earlier self-willed decision. He repented.

The way back to the Lord always involves acknowledging that I was wrong, turning from that wrong, and doing what God wants. Just as David now called for the ephod in front of all his men, so that they could see that David was not calling the shots, but rather that he was seeking and submitting to the Lord, so repentance often needs to be acknowledged in front of others, so that those who saw us going our own way realize that now there is a change.

D. The way back is a submissive way.

Note 30:8: “Shall I pursue this band?” Many would not have bothered to ask the question: “These guys stole our families and our possessions. Let’s go get ‘em!” But David deliberately stopped to ask the Lord if he should pursue this band to try to recover what they had taken.

What if God had said, “No, David, your wives and your possessions are gone”? It would have been hard, but I think David would have submitted. You can’t write your own terms when you come to the Lord. You can’t say, “Lord, I’ll come back if You will do what I want.” He is the Lord, which means that He does what He wants, which doesn’t always fit with what I want. Submission means that I let Him call the shots. Whether He says, “It’s all gone,” or whether He graciously gives it back, I submit.

E. The way back is a trusting way.

God told David that he would recover everything and David took God at His word. He believed God and acted upon that belief in pursuing this band and fighting to take back what had been lost. It would not have done for David to sit around the ruins of Ziklag saying, “I’m just trusting the Lord.” He had to go and fight to recover what had been stolen.

Genuine faith is always active and obedient. Faith doesn’t passively sit around saying, “I believe.” Faith is taking God at His Word, often in the face of overwhelming circumstances to the contrary, and then obediently acting upon that Word until what is promised is reality. If you are recovering from a situation caused by your sin, you often have to believe what God says concerning your sins (that they are charged to Christ’s account, not to yours) and act upon it in spite of your feelings.

F. The way back is a generous way.

On the way to pursue this enemy, 200 of David’s men were too exhausted to continue, so they stayed behind with the baggage (30:9-10). After they had defeated the enemy and recovered more than they had lost, some of the 400 men who had fought didn’t want to share the spoils with those who had stayed behind (30:22). But David would not let them act in this greedy way. He gave the men who stayed behind an equal share and he sent generous gifts to his countrymen in the surrounding towns (30:23-31).

The point is, the Lord doesn’t restore you to Himself so that you can live a comfortable, happy, self-centered life, hoarding all the blessings He has graciously given. The problem with David’s greedy men was that they thought they had recovered the spoil (30:22). But David’s reply makes it clear that he knew it was the Lord who had given them what they had recovered (30:23). If the Lord has given, then we must give an account to Him as stewards for how we dispense His gifts. The Lord never gives us His blessings just to make us happy. He gives us His blessings so that we can share them with others so that He is glorified.

So believers can go pretty low when they take the path away from the Lord. But, praise God, the way back is always open, even in our deepest despair! It is an intentional, personal, repentant, submissive, trusting, and generous way. Finally, let’s look at ...

3. The God to whom we come back.

A. Our God is a sovereign God.

The Amalekite raid on Ziklag while David and his men were gone was not an accident. God wasn’t in heaven saying, “Rats! While I was worried about Saul and the armies of Israel, those dirty Amalekites sneaked in there and got one over on Me!” The God who works all things after the counsel of His will used this seeming tragedy in the lives of David and his men to teach them to seek Him and trust him when everything seems hopeless. At the moment of despair, I’m sure that David could not imagine how God could allow such a tragedy nor how He could use it.

But as he strengthened himself in the Lord his God, David saw this great disaster as a great opportunity for God to show Himself mighty. So David didn’t do what we’re being told by many Christian counselors in our day: He didn’t express his rage toward God. He didn’t shriek, “God, if You really loved me you wouldn’t have allowed this to happen!” He didn’t blame God. Rather, he submitted to the sovereign God and obeyed what God told him to do.

God’s sovereignty is also seen in a small incident in the story. They “happen” upon an Egyptian in a field who turns out to be the discarded slave of one of the Amalekites (30:11). The Egyptian had gotten sick and couldn’t keep up with the raiding party and the Amalekite probably thought, “I’ve just gotten a bunch of new slaves; who needs this kid?” So he tossed him aside like an empty Coke can.

But as so often is true, God uses the world’s discards in His sovereign plan. This slave proved to be the key in recovering what the Amalekites had taken. Note, too, that if David had not been kind and generous to this hurting man, he would have missed God’s provision! It’s of great comfort to know that however bleak our situation, our sovereign God is still on His throne and that He has ordained all things, even little details, to display His might on behalf of those who trust in Him.

B. Our God is a sufficient God.

The Amalekites had stolen David’s goods, but they could not steal David’s God. As Alexander Maclaren points out (Expositions of Holy Scripture [Baker], p. 387), “Whatever else we lose, as long as we have Him we are rich; and whatever else we possess, we are poor as long as we have not Him. God is enough; whatever else may go.” Often the Lord graciously strips us of the earthly things we so readily trust to teach us that He is the all-sufficient One. He is our all in all!

The great 19th century British preacher Charles Spurgeon was prone to depression. One day he was riding home feeling weary and down when suddenly God burst through with the verse, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Spurgeon replied, “I should think it is, Lord,” and burst out laughing. His unbelief seemed so absurd. He said, “It was as if a little fish, being very thirsty, was troubled about drinking the river dry and the river said, “My stream is sufficient for you.”

Or, it was as if a little mouse in the granaries of Egypt after seven years of plenty feared it might die of famine and Joseph said, “Cheer up, little mouse, my granaries are sufficient for you.” Or again he imagined a man fearing that he would exhaust all the oxygen in the atmosphere, but the earth saying, “Breathe away, O man, and fill your lungs forever. My atmosphere is sufficient for you.” What need do you have, no matter how desperate your situation, that the God who spoke the universe into existence is not sufficient to meet?

C. Our God is a gracious God.

God’s grace means that He does not deal with us according to our sins, but according to His great mercy shown to us in Christ, who bore our sins. God’s grace is inexhaustible toward His children. It is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance (Rom. 2:4).

Do you suppose that when David and his men saw Ziklag burned to the ground and their families and possessions gone that anyone asked the familiar question, “Where is God in all this?” Where was God? Had He abandoned David because David had gotten snagged by sin? Don’t miss this, because it’s the beautiful part of the story.

While David was reaping the consequences of his sin and at the lowest point of his entire life, God was graciously acting on David’s behalf to give David the throne of Israel. We’ve already seen how God graciously used the Philistine commanders to get David out of a compromising situation. And at the very moment that David and his men were lamenting the destruction of Ziklag, God was using the Philistines to remove Saul so that David could be king.

Even the loss of Ziklag was God’s gracious provision, because it destroyed David’s roots in Philistia and opened the way for him to move to Hebron where he began his rule over Israel. Often God must destroy our links with the world so that He can give us His best. Sometimes it may be “a severe mercy,” but God always acts in grace toward His children.

Conclusion

On one occasion, the great reformer, Martin Luther, was overwhelmed with depression. It didn’t seem to lift in spite of the appeals of family and friends. Finally, his wife, Katie, put on the black garments of a widow in mourning. When Luther noticed, he asked her who had died. She replied that God in heaven must have died, judging from Luther’s demeanor. His depression lifted instantly as he laughed and kissed his wise wife.

You may be low this morning--perhaps due to your sin, as David experienced, or perhaps due to some other hard circumstances. Just remember, no matter how low you go, the way back to our sovereign, sufficient, gracious Lord is always open. He bids you to come back to Him. Like David, you can strengthen yourself in the Lord your God!

Discussion Questions

1. Is depression sin? Cite biblical evidence pro or con.
2. Does God’s sovereignty eliminate the need for human effort? Where is the biblical balance?
3. Does a knowledge of God’s abundant grace encourage more sin or more holiness? Discuss in light of Romans 6.
4. Can there ever be a situation for a Christian in which there is no hope? Why/why not?

Copyright 1993, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation