Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negeb and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire. They had taken captive the women and all[a] who were in it, both small and great. They killed no one, but carried them off and went their way.
And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep. David’s two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, as all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
1 Sam. 30:1-6
When I was first in vocational ministry, I was a young associate pastor. During that time, I was connected to a retired pastor who had been in vocational ministry for something like 50 plus years. This meant that in that time, he had really seen it all. As I was connected to this retired pastor, we met a handful of times together to talk through various aspects of ministries that can and will come up in church life. One of the conversations we had that I have continued to reflect on, especially over the course of our study of 1 Samuel that we have been in for about a year and a half.
There was a conversation around picking your battles, which we know is not just an easy thing to do in ministry but life as a whole. Picking our battles is not an easy thing to know how and when to do.
Now the reason why I have thought about that conversation throughout our study of 1 Samuel is because this pastor used David and Saul to help illustrate some of the things he wanted to impress upon me. With Saul, as we have continued to learn, he was so twisted around in his desire to keep his control and power that he kept fighting the wrong battles with the wrong motives.
Time and time again in our study of 1 Samuel, we read about battles against David, who was his most trusted, loyal, and faithful servant. Yet over and over again throughout 1 Samuel, we have read about Saul on an obsessive quest to take out David’s life, to fight battle after battle against David. Over time, this helped lead to Saul’s complete and utter demise, which we read about in chapter 28 as Saul sought a witch for counsel.
Wrong battles and wrong motives behind the battles played a part in Saul destroying himself. But then with David and his example, we see a mix of good and bad with his model. At times in 1 Samuel, when David was seeking the Lord, he was fighting the right battles with the right motives. Think of the story of Goliath when David engaged in battle with the giant. That was the right thing for him to do. David fought the right battle for the right reasons, doing so for the glory of God.
There was a conversation around picking your battles, which we know is not just an easy thing to do in ministry but life as a whole. Picking our battles is not an easy thing to know how and when to do.
Now the reason why I have thought about that conversation throughout our study of 1 Samuel is because this pastor used David and Saul to help illustrate some of the things he wanted to impress upon me. With Saul, as we have continued to learn, he was so twisted around in his desire to keep his control and power that he kept fighting the wrong battles with the wrong motives.
Time and time again in our study of 1 Samuel, we read about battles against David, who was his most trusted, loyal, and faithful servant. Yet over and over again throughout 1 Samuel, we have read about Saul on an obsessive quest to take out David’s life, to fight battle after battle against David. Over time, this helped lead to Saul’s complete and utter demise, which we read about in chapter 28 as Saul sought a witch for counsel.
Wrong battles, wrong motives behind the battles, in part led to Saul destroying himself. But then with David and his example, we see a bit of a mix of good and bad with his model. At times in 1 Samuel, when David was seeking the Lord, he was fighting the right battles with the right motives. Think of the story of Goliath when David engaged in battle with the giant. That was the right thing for him to do. David fought the right battle for the right reasons, in that he was doing so for the glory of God.
And by the way, I should mention here something I also mentioned in the past, that really should have been Saul’s fight against Goliath, but he didn’t. In the model of David, it wasn’t just how he fought the right battles that was a good model for us. But there were also moments when David could have fought but he didn’t.
Think about the two times in our study when David didn’t engage in battle when he spared Saul. This was in chapter 24 and 26. David could easily have killed Saul, but he trusted in the Lord and spared Saul’s life, even instructing others around him to do the same. Even in our text last week, David could have engaged in battle against Saul and his armies. But providentially, God removed him from that battle because it wasn’t one for him to engage in.
So at times, what we can see in the life of David, the right and best thing to do was to not engage in battle, to not pick a fight. However, if we were to keep going in the story of David into 2 Samuel or if we read 1 Kings or 1 Chronicles, we see that as great as David was, he was not perfect when it came to knowing what battles to fight.
As you may remember, nearing the end of his life and reign as king, David desired to build for the Lord a permanent temple. However, the Lord prevented David from doing so by telling him that he had too much blood on his hands. This, I think in part, implies that at times David probably engaged in the wrong battles, fighting the wrong fights.
Then on the other side, arguably David’s greatest failure, and the story of Bathsheba. That story took place during a time when the kings were supposed to be at war, but as you may remember, David wasn’t there. He didn’t go and engage in battle like he should have. Rather, he was at home, engaging in sinful behavior that the prophet Nathan confronted him with, which led to David penning the words in Psalm 51.
So really, some of David’s biggest triumphs were when he was trusting in the Lord in ways that he properly understood what battles he was to fight and what battles he was not to engage in. But then in David’s biggest failures, it was when he was trusting in himself, and he got those realities wrong. So even for David, it wasn’t always easy for him to fight the battle.
Now, I say all of that this morning to set us up for our text today, which was a text that details a battle that we will see David was supposed to fight, something the Lord desired for him to do. This battle came on the heels of our passage last week, where David was providentially spared by God from fighting a battle he was not supposed to fight. Hopefully, as we work through this passage, we can find some insights when it comes to our own battles.
So with that as our intro, look back with me at the text starting in verse 1, where we read that David and his men arrived at Ziklag on the 3rd day.
As a refresher, Ziklag was the area of the Philistines that David planted roots in, which we read about in chapter 27. The three days is a reference to how long it took David and his men to make their way home, on about a 50-mile journey from where David was located in our text last week, which was in the war camp of the Philistines, who were about to go on the attack against Israel, a battle that seemingly David wanted to participate in. To mention again, a battle that God providently kept him from.
The Lord did this by working through some false accusations the rest of the war camp was making towards David. Through those accusations, the Philistines sent David and his 600 men from the war camp back home to Ziklag, which was a 3-day journey.
In our text, as David and his men got back home, we read that they were not coming to a place of rest and comfort, where David and his men could process and unwind from what just took place in the previous chapter. Because we read that David and his men came home, they arrived at a place that was just raided by the Amalekites as the Amalekites raided both Negeb and Ziklag.
Now, the Amalekites, a people that we meet in chapter 15, as we learned that they were such a ruthless and evil people that God commanded Saul to wipe them out, to fight that battle to the fullest extent, which he failed to do.
Which is a reminder that past disobedience can come back to bring about great hurt and harm down the road. In our text, such great hurt and harm that at the end of verse 1, we read that the ruthless Amalekites raided Ziklag with such destruction that they burned down the town with fire. Not only that, but the Amalekites took captive the women and all who were in the area, whether they were small or great. Everyone in Ziklag was led off into captivity, and perhaps surprisingly, in our text, the Amalekites did all of this without killing anyone. This probably indicates a desire the Amalekites had to put Ziklag’s residents into their service as slaves.
In verse 3, we read that as David and his men came back to a burned-down and empty hometown with their wives, sons, and daughters all taken captive, understandably, they raised their voices in lament, in sorrow, in pain, in anguish. The men of David began to weep with such forceful and heavy tears that they wept until they physically could weep no more, having no more strength in them. Their tear ducts were completely emptied. They were distraught with heartbreak and devastation.
Scripture instructs us that there are times to weep, to mourn, and this here fits into that instruction. This was awful. In verse 5, which is there to help us see how personally devastating this was to David, we read that David’s two wives were also among those who were captured and taken captive. So in this text, there is a lot of personal pain for David, where no doubt David himself wept heavy tears.
In verse 6, we read that David was greatly distressed, and not simply because his wives were captured, which no doubt was enough to cause great distress. But to add to the difficulty for him, we read that the people who were with David started to blame him for what had taken place.
Really, after all, David was the one who first led them to Ziklag in chapter 27. Then David was the one who led them to march with the Philistine army in chapter 29 before they were sent back home. So if it was not for David and how David was leading, their wives, sons, and daughters would be safe, they would be with them. So in the text, for the people around David, this was his fault, he was the one to blame. In their overwhelming grief, the people were bitter in their soul for what had taken place, looking for someone to blame, someone to take their anger out on.
And for them, the Amalekites were not presently there for them to take their anger out on, but David was. He was the target of their frustration. So in the text, the people started to speak among themselves if they should stone David. I think this here we might categorize this as hurting people hurt people, as the hurting people sought to take out their hurt on David.
What we see in the text is that this situation where David was greatly distressed was what the Lord used to finally bring David to his senses.
As the fog of burnout that he was fighting through for the past few weeks, that he was in for the past few chapters, finally fully lifted because we read that through this awful travesty, David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
Now, for those who might be new to our study of 1 Samuel or were not with us when we went through chapter 27, which, as mentioned, is where we see how David ended up in Ziklag in the first place. In that passage, David seemed like he just burnt out from being on the run from Saul. So in his burnout, David began to take counsel in his own heart, which is never a good idea.
In the counsel of his own heart, he fled Israel to go into the land of the Philistines, who were the ongoing enemies for God’s people in 1 Samuel. As David fled Israel, we learned that he hired himself and his men to be soldiers of fortune for a Philistine leader named Achish.
As we worked through chapter 27, about halfway through the passage, it felt like David started to come to his senses as the fog of burnout was lifting a bit. It seemed like David started to understand the predicament he had put himself in. So, in the back half of chapter 27, at least to me, it felt like David was trying to get himself out of the jam he had put himself in, leaving Israel and working for the enemy.
But how he tried to get out of the jam was by trusting in his own strength, his own cunning, and clever ability. He played a bit of a game of deception with Achish, where David would attack one area, which at times included attacks against the Amalekites, who no doubt in this scene were exacting revenge on David.
Yet when Achish asked for reports on what David was up to, David would falsify what actually took place. This led to David being able to deceive Achish into believing that he was a trustworthy and loyal servant. So, in chapter 27, even though the fog started to lift a bit for David, he was still not right because we get no indication that David was resting in the strength of the Lord.
Then in the beginning of chapter 28, all of chapter 29, same thing, no indication that David was setting his heart to trust in the Lord. Seemingly, he was still trusting in himself, his own strength, his own cunning ability to work his way out of the jam he was in.
But now, finally, in our text, in the midst of this great and awful tragedy where he was in an ever deeper jam with people on the verge of stoning him, we read that the fog had finally and fully lifted. As David stopped trusting in himself to get himself out of the bind, and as our text tells us, he strengthened himself in the Lord his God. This, by the way, is the first time we read something along those lines for David since sparing Saul the second time in chapter 26.
In the text, as David found his trust and strength in the Lord, we see that his actions followed, which they always do when our hearts are right towards God. We bear fruit in ways that display our trust with our actions.
So in Verse 7, with his strength in the Lord, we read that David called over Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech because David desired that Ahimelech would help him seek the Lord through the ephod. Now, the ephod is something that has come up on multiple occasions in 1 Samuel. The ephod was almost like an apron that the priest would wear, and through the ephod, the Lord would help His people determine His will in given situations. In our text, this is exactly what David is doing; he is looking for insight from the Lord on what he was to do from there.
In Verse 8, as David inquired of the Lord, we see the insight that he was looking for, namely, should he or should he not fight the battle. In the text, he asks, “Lord, shall I pursue after this band? Shall I fight this battle? And if so, shall I overtake them?”
This is a great model from David. He is not making assumptions on either end of fight or not fight. Rather, he was humbling himself before the Lord to do whatever it was the Lord would have him do.
The back half of verse 8, the Lord responded to David’s humble request for wisdom and insight by telling David, “Yes, David, this is a battle you must fight. This is my will for you. Indeed, you are to pursue the Amalekites. And as you pursue them, David, take heart, my strength will continue to be with you. In my strength, surely you shall overtake them and rescue those who have been captured.”
As David got that confirmation from the Lord, you can just feel his confidence grow. For me, this week in my notes, I wrote, “He’s back.” And as David got back to where he was in terms of his trust in God, rather than in self, we see that somehow he was able to quiet the crowd who was entertaining the idea of stoning him. Then, somehow, through the Lord’s strength, David was able to rally the people back on his side.
As we read, David set out from the ashes of Ziklag with his 600 men to engage in battle, to get their families back. As David and his men traveled in the general direction where they assumed the Amalekites were holding up, we see in our text they traveled 12-13 miles from Ziklag to the brook of Besor.
There, they stopped not only to refresh themselves with a cool drink but also to figure out how to best cross the brook. As David and his men sat by the riverbank, we read in verse 10 that David and 400 out of the 600 men were able to forge the brook to keep going in pursuit of the Amalekites.
But the remaining 200, we read, stayed behind simply because they were too exhausted to keep going. Now, for us, perhaps we can be a bit critical of these men who stayed behind. In fact, in our text next week, we will read that the 400 who kept going certainly were critical of the 200. But let’s remember that before the 12-13 mile march to get to this point of the pursuit, David and his men had just finished the 3-day, 50-mile journey back from the Philistine camp. They arrived back home simply to find their home in ashes and with their wives and children captured, where they wept until they had no more strength.
So here at the brook, understandably, 200 of the 600 were completely exhausted, with no strength in them to cross the brook, let alone continue on in the pursuit. So even though we might have some criticism of them, we ought to be gracious towards them. To go back to our text next week, David was absolutely gracious towards them.
Continuing in the text, in Verse 11, as David and his 400 continued on their pursuit of the Amalekites, we read that providentially, they came across a man from Egypt out in the open country. This man was also physically exhausted. As the men of David came across this man, we read that they brought the man of Egypt to David, I am sure to see what he might know about the Amalekites and their current whereabouts.
So in the text, as David started to connect with this man, we read that graciously David gave the man a good meal to enjoy. In the text, it was bread, water, a piece of cake of figs, and a couple of clusters of raisins. A very gracious act by David. As this man ate and drank, we see that his spirit was revived, and he regained his strength, which our text informs us was taken from him. It had been a long three days and three nights since he last ate or drank anything of substance.
In Verse 13, as the man started to regain his strength, we see that David began to quiz him a bit to see what he might know. So in the text, he asks, “Man of Egypt, to whom do you belong? Where are you from?” I am sure with the underlying question, “How did you get out here all alone without food and water? Tell me, what is your story?”
To which the man responded back to David, “Well, David, I am a young man of Egypt, and I am a servant of an Amalekite.” This piece of information no doubt caused David’s ears to really perk up.
And David, to answer your question, you find me out here alone without food and water because three days back, I fell sick. So, my master decided to just leave me where I was rather than continuing to bring me along with him. Now, perhaps the master did this not wanting to risk sickness spreading to others in the traveling party. Maybe the master was concerned that this sick man would slow the rest of the travelers down. Or perhaps the master was thinking to himself, “We have all of these new slaves that we just captured in Ziklag, so who cares about this man? We don’t need him anymore; we can just leave him for dead. He is of no real value to us.”
But in our passage, we see that this man certainly became a person of real value to David because of further information he was about to give. In Verse 14, he tells David, “You see, David, the group I was with had just made a raid against Negeb of the Cherethites, against that which belongs to Sudan, and against the Negeb of Caleb.” These were tribes scattered throughout the region, primarily in the southern part of Philistine territory.
And David, not only did we raid those places just a few days back, but we also raided Ziklag and burned it down to the ground with fire. With this information, David is fully invested in this conversation.
For us, we might label this information given to David as evidence of God’s good and providential grace. David and his 400 men just so happened to be traveling along the exact path where this man was, who just so happened to get sick three days prior, and who just so happened to know the exact information that they were looking for.
In Verse 15, which is where we are going to end today before picking up the rest of the story next week, we read David’s response to the man. He says, “Man of Egypt, this is all very important information you just gave me. In fact, this was the exact information that I was looking for. Will you take me down to this band?”
As David made this request of the man of Egypt for him to take him to the location of his master, it feels a bit like the Egyptian just realized that he put himself in a bind. Up to this point, it doesn’t feel like he fully knew who just gave him food and drink and was getting information from him. But now, the Egyptian understood who he was talking to, and basically, he just confessed to David that he was part of the group that burned down David’s home in Ziklag, capturing all of the wives, sons, and daughters.
So, in the text, you can feel this man realizing what he did and immediately trying to figure his way out of the jam he just put himself in. He responded back to David with a request of his own.
“Okay, David, I will do that,” said the man. “I will honor your request, and I will take you down to where the Amalekites are currently located. But as I do that, please swear to me by God that you will not kill me. And not only that, please swear that you won’t deliver me back into the hand of my master, who surely will kill me for leading you to him. So, David, if you can promise me those things, then yes, I will take you down to this band. I will show you where the Amalekites are located, where you can find your family.”
And as mentioned, that is where we are going to hit pause in our text for today. David got the information he needed to engage in the battle the Lord was leading him to fight. Now, for this time here, as usual, I wanted to circle back to where this time here started, which was me talking about a conversation I had many years back with a retired pastor on picking your battles. As mentioned at the start, I think some of the best examples for us to follow from the life of David are right here—examples of when he fought the right battles and examples when he shied away from the wrong battles.
Now, before I give you some thoughts on this from our text that can come as an application to us, let me simply point out the obvious: the battles that David fought or didn’t fight in 1 Samuel were physical battles, physical war. And perhaps at some point, that might be an area where we too might have to try to discern if a physical altercation is the right or the wrong avenue for us to engage in.
The great church father Augustine referred to a just war. So even though as Christians we long for peace, at times in the broken world that we live in, peace can only come by way of war, of fighting to stop tyrants, to stop evil from oppressing others. This was true of our text today and the other examples in 1 Samuel. When David rightfully engaged in physical war, physical battle, it was to stop evil and bring about peace. And to say it again, perhaps a time might come where we will have to discern whether or not we might have to engage in a physical battle, physical conflict.
However, for our time here, by far the most common reality we will face when it comes to battles that we need to discern whether to engage or not are relational in nature, which are not easy to discern what we are to do. We all know that we can’t fight every relational battle, and in fact, if we are always battling, always fighting, always quarreling, there most likely are some kind of heart issues going on that need to be addressed. But at the same time, there are some relational battles worth fighting. So likewise, if we never are willing to battle, to take a stand, to engage in conflict, there most likely are also some heart issues going on.
So how do we know what battles we are to fight and how are we to engage in these battles if we find ourselves in one? From our text, I think there are actually a handful of things we can glean that are some principles to help guide us.
When picking our battles, first, pick battles with humility. At my kids’ school, one of the themes they have for the year is to “take thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ,” found in 2 Corinthians 10. As that theme was given out at the start of school, I have been working through that passage in my own heart. It’s a text where Paul was engaged in a relational battle with false teachers who were causing the church in Corinth to doubt Paul and his ministry as they were making false accusations about him. And as Paul engaged in this relational battle, verse 1 tells us that he was seeking to do so with the meekness and gentleness of Christ.
Now, this didn’t mean he was meek to the point of being weak in this battle, which is what the false teachers were accusing him of. In fact, Paul was bold with them, but he had a humble boldness. And that ought to be true of us when there is a battle that we are engaged in; we ought to be Christ-like in how we approach it, filled with humility.
In our text, I think David gave us some good examples of how to be humble. To start, he was humble about the situation, where he was met with brokenness when he saw what happened to Ziklag, to his family, and to the families of his men. This was not good; this was awful, painful, and David was humble about the gravity of the situation. He didn’t dismiss or downplay it; he humbly understood how awful this was.
In our text, as David was greatly distressed, he was also humble before his men, even when his men started to point the finger at him, as he became the target of their hurt and frustration. In the text, I don’t think we get the sense that David engaged in some kind of bickering back and forth with his men or chastising them. Rather, the sense we are given is that David humbly understood that the men were broken; they were overcome with hurt, grief, and pain. I think the sense we get is that he was gentle with them.
In our text, ultimately, David was humble before the Lord, which is his greatest example for us to follow. In our text, David humbled himself to the point that he strengthened himself in the Lord. To say it again, unlike what he has been doing in the past couple of chapters, where David was trusting in his own strength, here today, in our text, David was resting in the strength of the Lord, trusting that the Lord is the one who will fight the battle for him. In the text, he was humble before the Lord as he prayed to the Lord, seeking the Lord’s wisdom on what he was to do—engage or not engage. He had no quick assumptions on either end, so he prayed and sought the Lord’s wisdom, the Lord’s direction. Let’s not underestimate how important this is when we are deciding to pick our battles. To step back, to humbly pray to God for wisdom.
Now, as mentioned, for us, we don’t have the ephod like David did to help determine God’s will.
But we do have God’s written Word, which is there to instruct us. For those who are Christians, we do have the Spirit of God who leads us to all truth, and we do have each other to help discern decisions, including if we are to engage or not engage in a fight. Proverbs 20:18 says, “Plans are established by counsel; by wise guidance wage war.” Proverbs 24:6 adds, “For by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in the abundance of counselors there is victory.” Friends, this is yet another of the many reasons why we ought to have people in our lives to humbly seek counsel on decisions that are not always easy to make.
Lastly, let me mention here that in the text, David was also humble in that he personally engaged in the battle. What I mean here is that David didn’t tell his men to do something that he himself was unwilling to do. We all know it’s easy to coach others from the stands to do things that we ourselves would never do. Friends, when it comes to picking our battles, whatever we choose to do or not do, humility must be present.
2nd – Pick battles tied to your proximity. Meaning, the closer our proximity, the more likely we are to engage. Now, this is just a general rule of thumb, and like everything in life, there are exceptions to the rule. But battles we are to fight most often are the ones that personally involve us, where we have personal relationships, personal stakes, where we have personal influence. If none of those things are present, there is a real risk that we are fighting battles that are not ours to fight.
In the text, obviously, David had a lot of personal involvement in this situation. He was close in proximity to the situation. It was his wives who were among the captured; it was the men he was in charge of, who he was entrusted with, who likewise had their wives, their sons, and daughters captured. The town of Ziklag was where David lived—close, close proximity to the situation. So for us, as a general rule of thumb, if there is a situation where we have a lot of personal ties and responsibility to it, it is going to be a lot more likely that we have to engage in the battle.
But on the other side, if there is a situation that you are not close to, you have no real responsibility, no personal involvement, it is going to be more likely that this just isn’t a battle for you to fight.
3rd – Pick battles by trusting in God’s good providence. As mentioned earlier, in the providence of God, He directed David away from a battle that was not for him to fight in our chapter last week, to lead him into a battle he was to fight in our text today. And then as God was providentially leading David into the battle against the Amalakites, providentially the Lord put the man of Egypt right in David’s path to give David and his men the exact information that they needed. The providential hand of God was all over this scene. And friends, for us, this must be something we are trusting in and looking for—the providential hand of God—to see how He might be leading us in the given situation we are in. Or in the language we often use as a church family, looking for the evidence of God’s grace, even when it comes to picking our battles. To look to see where His providential hand is leading.
4th – Pick your battles by being wise as a serpent but harmless as a dove. And I do think that at least in part, this is David’s model for us with the man of Egypt who was providentially brought his way. Now perhaps David gave this man food and water to revive his spirit simply out of the goodness of his heart. That is very possible. But at least to me and a few commentators that I read this week, it kind of feels like David was seeking to win this man to his side just in case he had information. Which he clearly did.
To back up what if, when meeting this man, David quickly moved into some kind of interrogation without building the relationship. I don’t think it would have been likely for the man of Egypt to cough up all of the information he did if David didn’t first wisely approach him by being harmless as a dove, who showed the man that he cared for him.
So, friends, if we feel led to engage in a battle, most often we can’t just go into it with both guns blazing. Rather, most often, we have to engage in the battle wise as a serpent yet harmless as a dove.
5th – Pick your battle with a spirit of graciousness, which is tied to the meekness and gentleness of Christ. Now we see a bit of this in our text with the man of Egypt, whom David was gracious towards. But as mentioned earlier, where we really see this will be in our text next week, where David is really incredibly gracious to the 200 who were too tired to move forward from the brook.
I won’t share too much here just because we will be spending time on this next week. But the 400 who engaged in battle really wanted to stick it to the guys who stayed behind. But what we will see next week is just how gracious David was to these men. He didn’t beat these men down; rather, what we will see is that he graciously built them back up.
And friends, may that be true of us as well, that we are seeking to always graciously build others up in the Lord. Which at times means we will engage in battle to lovingly confront issues with the hope that the confrontation will be used by the Lord to graciously address issues that need to be addressed. But at other times, it might mean that we step away from the battle to graciously bear one another’s burdens in love. Whatever we feel we need to do, may we do it with a spirit of graciousness.
One more point: 6th, pick your battles by focusing on the truth that Christ has won the war. This is always true for us, no matter the situation we are in or the difficult decisions we might have to make. We have to set our sights on the Lord Jesus, who, unlike David or us, was perfect in every way, including fighting the right battles, including the battle against sin, which he did on our behalf in his death and resurrection from the dead. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus Christ won the war against sin, death, and the devil. He stood in the place of sinners as our representative, fighting that battle for us. On the cross, Jesus humbly, willingly, and graciously laid down his life to take on the judgment of God that burns over sin, including the sins of making the wrong decisions when it comes to picking our battles. Only for Jesus, on the 3rd day, to pick his life back up.
And because Jesus died and rose again, He promises to all who, by faith, turn from sin and turn to Him forgiveness of sin, the hope of eternal life, and a relationship with Him that will never be severed. So, friends, as you try to discern whether or not to pick a battle, do so by looking to Jesus to see that He is the one who is the great victor, who indeed won the war and is bringing about His eternal peace.
So, to go back to my conversation with the retired pastor that I had when I was a young associate pastor, no, it is not always easy to discern what battles we are to fight. But, friends, this morning, the one thing we must discern and continue to discern is our need for Jesus, what He did for us, and the victory that He won. We must get that right.
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