A Day of Calamity

 It would be a day that David would not forget. A day when the rug got pulled out from under him. A day where his whole world was turned upside down. A day when grief and despair swept over him like a tidal wave. 

Let me set the backdrop. King Saul hated David and put a hit on his life. David tried to hide in different places in Israel, but sooner or later Saul got wind of it and chased David down like a criminal. David eventually decided the safest thing to do was to find refuge in the Philistine territory. King Achish gave David asylum in a town called Ziklag. 

David was two faced during this period. Pretending to be loyal to Achish David never raided Israelite territories. He only invaded enemy territories of the Israelites and then lied about it. One day all the Philistine armies and their Lords assembled for battle against Israel. David came along with Achish. The other Philistine Lords did not trust David. They even cited David's former reputation for being a fierce warrior. Those leaders believed David would turn on them in battle. Achish was forced to send David away. 

I have often wondered what David would have done if he had been allowed to battle. We know he would not have attacked Israel. His cover would have been blown. He would have been a man caught in the middle. A man with no country. Still hunted as a fugitive by Saul and he would have been exposed to the Philistines. 

David and his band of men returned home. This is where the calamity began. While David and the men were away some Amalekites came and raided Ziklag. They burned the town and stole all the wives and children of David and his soldiers. Not one person was left. All of them were kidnapped. 

We learn that David and his men wept. That does not do it justice. They wept loudly and for such a long time they had no strength to weep anymore. The valiant men were reduced to puddles of tears. They must have felt helpless. They had no idea who had stolen their loved ones. They did not know which direction to go in pursuit. Grief evolved into seething anger. 

Here is where the calamity gets worse for David. Read it for yourself. 

1 Samuel 30:5-6 (NASB)
⁵  Now David's two wives had been taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite.
⁶  Moreover David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.

David grieved just like the rest of his men. He suffered the same loss they did. He wept right along with them. Things were bad. They were about to get worse. The men turned on him. They talked openly about stoning David. Incredible. What did David do wrong? 

Just a little historical rewind. When David fled to Philistine from Saul and hid in the cave of Adullam, all these men came attached themselves to David. David did not recruit them. They wanted to follow David. Now they wanted to kill him. You think you can trust some people and then they turn on you when things go south. 

David was greatly distressed. In other words, he was anguished, troubled, and under a great deal of affliction. He had not fully processed what happened to his wives when he had to be concerned for his own well-being. The men were embittered against David. They were filled with pain and rage, and when they could not turn that anger toward the invading raiders, they turned on David.  

What David did next is the lesson for today. David turned to God. He postured himself toward the Holy One of Israel. David strengthened himself in the LORD. David took hold of Yahweh in the day of his calamity with a grip like a man dangling from a cliff clutching for safety. David was outnumbered 600:1. His past exploit with Goliath would do him no good on this day. He had no other hope but Yahweh. 

In Yahweh David found both courage, counsel, and firm footing on the solid foundation of a God who owns days of calamity. God was not surprised by any of the events of that day. He was not caught off guard. He was not unaware. Nor was He bewildered by the events and exasperated about what to do next. 

David turned to God when his men turned against him. David fully relied on God when those he loved most were snatched from him. 

I am going to make a bold prediction. In 2024 you will also face a day of calamity. A day when the waters of trouble will rise dangerously close over your head, and you will feel like you might drown in all your troubles and sorrows. A day when you cannot think your way out it, spend your way out of it, or work your connections to get out of it. You will have two choices. You can turn to toxic things like alcohol, drugs, sex, or unbridled spending to try and cope. On the other hand, you can turn to God for strength like David did. 

David turned to God when his world crumbled. He found refuge in the Almighty. He found God to be both available and a help to him when he felt most helpless. David could write from experience that God was his refuge, strength and a present help in times of trouble. [Ps 46:1]

Like one of my sons told me recently, life is hard. It will hit you hard. On some day in 2024 life will punch us in the gut. Our smooth seas will swirl with tempest winds and engulfing waves. In those moments we come to know what we really believe about God. Some may become embittered against God just like David's men got embittered against him. Some who read this right now may be enraged at God. Questions of why God allowed such calamity to happen in the first place will try to shove every thought of faith far from you. 

Bitter tears may subside, but bitterness may take root at the same time. Ticked off at the very God you trusted for protection for yourself and the ones you love.  Many pew dwellers have not worshiped in years. They are so mad at God for their calamity they cannot sing from a pure heart, pray with sincere faith, or love with adoration. People get stuck here. Never able to get out of the miry clay of calamity and able to move forward. You can choose this path. 

You can also choose to strengthen yourself in the Lord. You can choose belief over bitterness. Trust over trepidation. Courage over cowardice. I am not suggesting for one moment that days of calamity may not bring crushing grief and disorienting fog of confusion. What I am exhorting is that God can still be trusted when everything is going wrong. I mean everything. 

At this time a year ago, I sat in an ICU waiting room for hours on end with a grieving wife and her three adult children as we prayerfully fought for their husband and father to be rescued from his sick hospital bed. The days were long, and the nights were longer. That devoted wife stood her post near her husband. He did not survive. I have observed her navigating a new life without her best friend. 

Daily, hourly, I have watched her lean hard into God for support. Day by day, moment by moment God has sustained her. She has wept buckets of tears. Bravely she pushes forward. She keeps getting out of bed. She keeps breathing. She keeps loving the rest of her family. She keeps serving at church. She keeps smiling even though her whole world is shattered. She is not shattered. She finds strength in God. She is a great example to all of us how to find strength from God in the day of our calamity. 

I see it in others. When one decision, one bit of bad news can destroy everything you worked for decades to build. Dreams come tumbling down. I have watched how viciously people you once thought were your friends, people you could count on when everything went wrong, can turn against you to attack. On that day of calamity God does not abandon. God is the only firm foundation on which to stand when everything else underneath feels like sheets of ice causing you to slip and fall. 

I repeat myself. There will come a day in 2024 when your world could crumble. Terminated from a job. Financial crisis. Unforeseen car caput. Divorce papers served. Death of those you love. Where the clear blue skies turn traumatically and ominously black without warning. God will still be there. He will comfort broken grieving hearts. He will encourage and pull you up when you are not strong enough to get up on your own. He will be there. He is already there on the worst days you can imagine. 

I cannot answer all your questions as to why God allows calamity to happen. God never wanted calamity for planet earth. We chose to sin and rebel against him. It started with Adam and Eve and has flowed down to us. That sinful rebellion introduced pain, calamity, catastrophes, disease and death into our world. That was not God's original plan. His plan was perfect. People preferred imperfect plans over His way. We have suffered the consequences ever since. 

Just like a parent who raised their children to love and serve the Lord wants their child to prosper. Sometimes children rebel. They choose unwisely. They open the door to pandoras box and unleash unintended consequences they never could have imagined. No matter how much the parent tries to steer in the right direction, children make their own choices. That must be how God feels, but infinitely more multiplied by 8 billion people on the planet. 

Even then, we can still find strength in God. We can experience the faithfulness of God even on days of calamity.  Turn to Him like David did. Strengthen yourself in Him. Find encouragement in Him. Wait for His wise counsel.