A Trip to the Enemy’s Camp
Intro:
Welcome back to our series on prayer! We have been spending the past few weeks in the gospels and rediscovering what Jesus has taught us on the subject of prayer.
For those who have been away or perhaps for those who are visiting, I have restated the obvious truth that prayer must be an important part of every Christian life and the highest priority for any church!
I was greatly encouraged this week as the men gathered together on Wednesday night and filled every chair in the library for prayer. I am sure there was immediate benefit to them and it won’t be long until the whole church is affected by the prayers of our men.
And I wanted to remind you of something important before we begin today and I was reminded of this fact by Charles Stanley last week. The Devil does not want a church praying and if you are going through hell just getting ready to start your journey of learning to pray again, then you are experiencing opposition that comes when someone makes their mind up to pray.
Next week we will have a guest speaker for Mother’s Day and then the week following we will get into a brief series on the Lord’s Prayer from Luke’s gospel. But today as we turn to God’s word, we are going to be looking at a message that will help us pray when we are in the “Wilderness!”
As we begin today, I trust you all remember a little chorus, “I Went to the Enemy’s Camp?” This passage is where that tune comes from.
Text: 1 Sam. 30:1-7
In all of the scripture, there is probably no better example of someone doing the right thing in a wilderness situation than David as we a look at his life today.
It is probably best that we revisit a little background information before we go forward today. If we were to flip back a few chapters in David’s story, we would learn of his beginnings as a shepherd. After all shepherding is good training for a leading God’s people isn’t it? In this day and age, pastors are under great pressure to perform in all kinds of ways, as a CEO leader type but God is still looking for shepherds and it is the godly shepherd who will have the real and lasting fruit.
David was God’s choice as we learn from Samuel’s stop at Jesse’s house. Samuel looked upon a parade of some very impressive candidates for Israel’s King from among the sons of Jesse but none were found among the first six. David was summoned and anointed to be King. And always remember Samuel’s words as David was called and chosen that God “looks not at the appearance, but rather at the heart!”
Next David went on to defeat Goliath, no easy feat in the natural. You would think that the defeat of a giant enemy before a King’s presence would earn him lifelong loyalty from the King, but this was not the case as David’s fans, and Saul’s fans sang the infamous song, “Saul has slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands.”
And this was the beginning of a wilderness time of ministry for David. David then experienced persecution, the dodging of spears, the betrayal of friends, and he spent the next season of his life evading enemies who sought to kill him!
His church consisted of what we call in English, “A motley crew!” They were made up of the distressed, those in debt and the discontented. Not the way you want to plant a church but hey, we were once those types!
In David’s wilderness season, he acted with integrity. A leader’s integrity is never up for negotiation. David spared Saul’s life on two occasions and even spared the life of a fool by the name of Nabal. I trust you remember him from an earlier chapter.
David has joined ranks with the Philistines and has been given a safe haven at Ziklag. He has marched out to battle against Israel with them but was sent home given the mistrust of some of the Philistine elders.
- An unprotected camp
We are going to look firstly at David’s unprotected camp. He makes a fatal leadership error. He has left to travel with his 600 men and failed to leave a single warrior to protect the home front.
By the way, any Christian home without parents who pray is an unprotected camp!
- Three days later
The motley crew returns after a three-day march.
- The plunder of the Amalekites
The Amalekites have attacked Ziklag, burning it to the ground and have plundered every living soul there although everyone was spared. There was probably a good reason for this. The Amalekite treasurer probably reminded them of the value of good slaves on the Egyptian slave market and perhaps some of the ladies were not so hard to look at.
It doesn’t take a whole lot of sanctified imagination to understand how they might have been feeling; many of us have had our families violated by the devil working though people in some way.
The Devil is in fact working overtime these days afflicting people with illness and all manner of his evil work can be seen in what he is sowing into the lives of our friends and families these days.
- A great tension in David’s camp
I don’t know about the rest of you but I can hardly think of a time in ministry where I was ever problem or tension free but even though despite the fact that there is a lot going well for us, we continue to see people offended and defeated because they have not been able to protect themselves from this enemy and what he does to their minds.
David’s crew is now looking at a situation of loss, of ruin and they are in great despair.
- Desperate voices
Verse 4 describes the scene. The men had lifted up their voices in desperation. A number of you today have desperate hearts; your problems are overwhelming you emotionally. You feel like you have been plundered by the Amalekites.
I hope that name caught your attention. The Amalekites represents failure to drive out a sworn enemy in disobedience to God’s instructions. (1 Sam 15)
Wilderness seasons, not of the Holy Spirit led kind, can arise from problems we create ourselves or from people who help create them for us. It is always a problem of flesh, theirs or ours. Saul was instructed to annihilate them and failed to do it. We were instructed in Galatians 5 to crucify our flesh and yet many people allow flesh to come down from the cross of its crucifixion to trouble them.
The men wept!
As a matter of fact the anguish was so great, so severe that they had no more power to weep, they were too exhausted.
Have you ever been so exhausted in life that you were too tired to cry?
- David joins in
David was among those who wept! This is a tough spot for a leader. We are continually called upon to bear someone else’s burden, lighten their load. This time, David is experiencing his own anguish.
David has lost his two wives! I think he liked them both?
Now you would think that the people would understand, let’s let David grieve with us, give him some time to mourn as well, is that what happened?
No! They talked of stoning him. This is leadership reality. There is a saying in English, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going!” In church, there is a truth, when the going gets tough, some want to stone their leaders!
David did make an error in judgment not leaving behind a guard but mostly this is simply a case of the truth that “wounded people wound people!” And more than that, wounded people become the attention of so much energy that other things don’t get the priority they need.
He had an important decision to make. He could have run, he could have gathered loyal people and silenced his critics.
“David strengthened himself in the Lord!”
You see, some of you have lost the ability to pray in your exhaustion and hurt. I have some good advice for you. It is easier to pray after you have gathered strength in the Lord. Even as you wait upon the Lord without saying much, the Holy Spirit continually fills you.
- About wilderness praying
The rest of the story, the teaching is about wilderness praying.
“Then David said to Abiathar the priest, please bring the ephod here to me.” An ephod is a priestly garment, a waist length breastplate upon which the various stones representing the 12 tribes of Israel are placed.”
As a matter of fact I am not so sure why David would be wearing it, as he was not a priest. It seemed to be his practice however.
- Prayer must come first
Now that David is strengthened, he acts very wisely in praying first. He didn’t grab a praying“how to book,” run to a “wilderness” conference or try in his own flesh to fix the problem and exit the wilderness. When it is time to pray, it is time to pray.
- Prayer must be from your own heart
I loved the fact that David could pray independently and trusted in his own ability to lay hold of God. There are times when we must bear one another’s burdens and there are times when we must bear our own. This was one of those times when it could be the priest’s prayer, nor a prophet's, nor a King, it was time for secret place praying all alone.
- Praying the problem
You know, sometimes we pray like we don’t think God understands. “God, let me give you some background, let me intercede for someone else…” I will bet God wants us to be specific and direct in order that he gets glory when He solves our ministry problems.
Pray your specific problem. Here is David’s prayer, “Shall I pursue this troop?” That’s it you might ask?
Prayer is simple! Ask the simple question! A lot of us are going to get to heaven and ask God why we were not delivered from this or that situation. He is going to answer, “You didn’t ask!”
- Praying expecting an answer
I do not know why anyone would bother praying unless they were expecting an answer at some point. It wouldn’t make much sense to waste your time or God’s.
And God answered, “Pursue, for you shall overtake them and without fail recover all.” All in the original Greek means all!
Now it is up to you to believe and believe without getting all of the details of how it is going to happen. Some will fail to trust believing that God might answer this prayer for someone else and not us. I will believe you will get your family back, but I am much too humble to ask for myself. That is really stinking thinking and a foolish kind of faith.
Conclusion:
So, what’s left? It is the song, “I Went to the Enemy’s Camp….!”
They found an informer, they went to the camp, they routed the enemy, and they got their wives back, their children back.
David got his two wives back. I wonder which one he liked better.
Some of you have lost your kids along the way, church life hurt them, and the enemy got a hold of them. You might have even lost yourself along the way. You are so tired of ministry; you just don’t know how to get off the spinning wheel. You might have even been out marching with the Philistines and left none of yourself for the homefront and that is how you got plundered?
There was a dispute about the spoil. Some thought the two hundred fatigued ones who stayed behind to be unworthy of sharing in the victory. There is a lesson here; all should share in God’s victory! The ones fatigued today might be your valiant ones the next battle.
It is time for each and every one of us to strengthen our selves in the Lord!
Let us simply as we leave this place today, pray that simple prayer.