Lessons from Ziklag
Hello friends:
This was a very interesting and different week for me in my morning Bible reading and reflection time. For the first time that I can recall, two days of my journaling connected with each other. The first insight from the Holy Spirit on Wednesday morning seemed to be completed on Friday morning. Every morning, I pray two prayers before reading the Bible. “Lord, astonish me anew” is a prayer of quickening, inviting the Holy Spirit to surprise me with what I call “fresh bread” or insight for my life. The second prayer is a prayer of self-examination. “Lord, show me ‘me.’” This prayer acknowledges my propensity to self-deceive or at least self-justify. I know that God can and will tinker in my life as I read and reflect on scripture. I need God show me the real “me,” not the me I want, hope or even dream of being. My mentor in S.O.A.P. journaling, Wayne Cordero, taught me, “Listening is the highest form of prayer.” Below are two journal entries of my listening to the Holy Spirit’s whisper.
This weeks reading was the continuing saga of David living in the liminal space of having been anointed to be the next king of Israel while the reigning king, King Saul, was still in office and to add insult to injury, was psychotically jealous of the popular young David. Things got so bad, he and his army had to move to Ziklag, a city belonging to the arch rivals of Israel, the Philistines. On Wednesday and Friday, God gave me two words. I pray they bless you especially those of you living in Ziklag.
Jorge
Living in Ziklag
Scripture
So on that day Achish gave him Ziklag, and it has belonged to the kings of Judah ever since. David lived in Philistine territory a year and four months.
1 Samuel 27:6-7 (NIV)
Observation
In 1 Samuel 16, we read the story of the anointing of David as the next king of Israel while Saul was the seated and reigning king. In this story, David was the unnumbered son of Jesse. His Dad did not have him appear before the prophet Samuel until Samuel asked if he had any more sons. He was also the unnamed son of Jesse. When Jesse responded to this question about any more sons, Jesse didn’t say, “Oh yes, there’s David.” Instead he said, “There is still the youngest. He is tending sheep.” The Hebrew word for “youngest” is “quaton” and it literally means the “insignificant” one. Being unnumbered and unnamed by his own father had to deeply wound the soul of the soon-to-be king and revealed his family dysfunction. One could argue that all the way from Abraham to David and beyond, family dysfunction is the major “sin” of God’s chosen people. Deceit, favoritism, theft, attempted murder, and rape are just a few of the vices illustrated in the children of Abraham. From the moment that David defeated the Philistine giant Goliath, King Saul saw David as a rival and not a partner. To quote Chris Brown, “Saul did not make room in his chariot for David.” I’m not sure how many years have gone by since Samuel anointed David to be king, but it had to be a while. David to this point in 1 Samuel has been view suspiciously since 1 Samuel 18 and Saul attempted to kill David for the first time in 1 Samuel 19. The bottom line is that David was anointed and told he would be the king of Israel and ever since has walked a hard, painful and slow journey fearing and running for his life. By 1 Samuel 27, it’s gotten so bad that David is living among the Philistine’s whose giant he killed in battle. Living among his hated rivals was safer than living among his own people. That’s bad and it got worse before it got better. Now David is living in Ziklag. This is Jeff Manion’s “land between” or what John Ortberg called last week on Holy Week, the silence of Easter Saturday. And it wasn’t a short time. It was one year and four months added to the years he has already lived on the run in the land of Israel. I have to believe he wondered if Samuel’s prediction that he would reign as king was wrong waiting all those days, weeks, months, and years.
Application
Right now, so many people I know and love are living in the “land between.” They know the promises of God are good and point to flourishing, but so many are languishing emotionally, vocationally, spiritually, financially and relationally right now. Divorce, disease, debt, death and division seem to be winning the day. But rising above the root causes for these circumstances, it’s another “d” word that might be the biggest heartache…delay! It’s living in Ziklag when the promise of God is to live in Jerusalem that’s painful. One of the gifts of the raw, unadulterated stories of biblical characters is that it fosters empathy for the suffering reader. David’s sojourn in the land between, in Ziklag, helps my suffering friends know that they are not alone. Solidarity is essential for making it in the land between. In my conversation with a very close loved one about their Ziklag existence, I reminded him that most of life is not the suffering of Egypt or the ecstasy of the Promised Land. It’s trudging through the wilderness, the land between. The gift is that God is not blind and deaf to pilgrims in this liminal space. Jesus actually spent time in the wilderness and not just being tempted by the devil. Luke 2 tells us that at 12 year old Jesus knew he needed to be about “the things of his Father” (2:49). Jesus was conscious of his calling yet, he waited until he was 30 to go public. He lived in Ziklag. Thinking theologically, it could be argued that the triune God is living in Ziklag waiting for the redemption of his creation. Add to that Paul’s words in Romans 8:22 (NIV), “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” The creation groans as it waits to “be liberated from its bondage of decay.” The whole creation is in Ziklag. We are not alone in this painful place of in between. There are other fellow sojourners, the entire creation and God himself as residents of Ziklag too.
Prayer
Thank you God for your solidarity with so many that I love who are living in the land between. Grant them a heart of courage and endurance as they live in Ziklag. Mold and teach them in this place and space. Stir trust in you as they take up residency in Ziklag. Amen.
Press In
Scripture
David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God.
1 Samuel 30:6 (NIV)
Observation
Things got worse before they got better in Ziklag for David. Anointed by the Prophet Samuel to be the next King of Israel, his time since has been anything but regal and royal. Instead, David has “enjoyed” life on the run as Israel’s most wanted criminal despite not having harmed the insanely jealous King Saul one bit. The Amalekite’s raided Ziklag while David and his army had joined the Philistine’s for battle. Sent home to Ziklag by the insecure Philistine commanders, they discovered their plundered home. All the women, sons and daughter’s had been captured. This turned David’s men against him. A conspiracy to stone the shepherd-turned-general arose among the ranks. This was no doubt a tense moment for David. This is one of those moments when leadership is profoundly lonely. The second line of 1 Samuel 30:6 is what stirred in me this morning. “But David found strength in the Lord his God.” The Hebrew word is “way·yiṯ·ḥaz·zêq” and can be translated “strengthen” (NIV) or “encouraged” (KJV). This can be added to the list of what made David “a man after God’s own heart.” When the bullets were flying, David intentionally pressed into God and found strength. His impulse was not to lean into his military prowess or his charismatic relational gifts. He didn’t “fake it til you make it.” Instead, he leaned hard into Yahweh’s presence and found strength.
Application
As I wrote the day before yesterday, I have so many dear friends living in Ziklag, the land between. They are living between the future promise of God’s good purposes and the past reality of dashed hopes. Goodness and mercy are following them all the days of their lives (Psalm 23:6), but it has not completely caught up with them. It’s still lagging behind. Like their fellow sojourner David, a promise has been spoken over their life in Christ, but their present reality challenges the sensibility of trusting that promise. David helps us here. It’s the simple yet profoundly counter intuitive impulse to press into God when the heat gets turned up. I have to believe part of what made David “a man after God’s own heart” was his muscle memory to run to God’s presence when chaos knocked at his door. This is about as bad as it gets. The rag tag group of distressed, indebted and discontented men from the cave of Adullam (1 Samuel 22:1-2) who gathered around David and made him their commander, are now whispering words of murder. Yesterday’s victories were not enough for today’s defeat for these men. What I noticed when I looked at the different translations of this verse is that there are basically two ways of translating this phrase. One is that David “found strength in the Lord” and the other is that David “strengthen himself in the Lord.” I like the latter. It echoes Dallas Willard’s bold contention that “Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning.“ This counter intuitive impulse to press into God for strength is about effort. It’s about taking my one and only life that God has made me “ridiculously in charge of” (Henry Cloud) and choosing to pursue God. This is the challenge and the choice for me and my dear friends living in Ziklag.
Prayer
Lord, thank you for this simple yet profound witness of David. I confess my propensity to lean into self-reliance when bullets are flying. David models not just a better way, but the best way. Build my spiritual muscle memory to encourage myself in your presence. Teach me the way of practicing your presence. To the glory and fame of your name. Amen.