Gain Strength in the Lord (1 Sam. 30:1-7)

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Gain Strength in the Lord (1 Sam. 30:1-7)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, February 15, 2026

We have been focusing on prayer.

General Patton prayed.

Patton prays:

Sir, this is Patton speaking. The last fourteen days have been straight from hell. Rain, snow, more rain, more snow – and I’m beginning to wonder what’s going on in Your headquarters.  Whose side are You on, anyway?      

For three years my chaplains have been explaining that this is a religious war.  Patton goes on and on asking the Lord’s helping hand.

Then he responded days later:

His follow-up prayer a few days later:

Sir, this is Patton again, and I beg to report complete progress. Sir, it seems to me that you have been much better informed about the situation than I was, because it was that awful weather which I cursed so much which made it possible for the German army to commit suicide. That, Sir, was a brilliant military move, and I bow humbly to a supreme military genius.[1]

I don’t believe Patton is an example of how we are to pray.

Today my theme is:

Gain Strength in the Lord

  1. Context
    1. Let’s begin by talking about the context.
    2. This passage happens towards the end of 1 Samuel.
    3. David has been fleeing from Saul.
    4. David is the anointed king of Israel.
    5. He was anointed by Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:12-13.
    6. David kills Goliath in 1 Samuel 17.
    7. Beginning in 1 Samuel 18:10, Saul is jealous of David.
    8. So, David is the anointed king, but he is not on the throne yet.
    9. He is fleeing Saul.
    10. So, in 1 Samuel 27, David flees to the Philistines.
    11. The Philistines were the constant enemies of Israel.
    12. David would fake like he was leading a small army to attack the Israelites, but he was actually attacking the Philistines. This was David and his 600 mighty men (1 Samuel 27:2).
    13. Then, the Philistine leaders do not trust him.
    14. In 1 Samuel 30, he and his men return to Ziklag.
  2. The Amalekites raid against David’s men and their families (1 Sam. 30:1-2).
    1. 1 Samuel 30:1–2 (ESV)
    2. 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 2 and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great. They killed no one, but carried them off and went their way.
    3. They, David and his men, arrive at Ziklak.
    4. This is the third day after they left the Philistines.
    5. Serving as a temporary place of residence for David and his 600 men, Ziklag was located in the Negev and given to David by Achish the king of Gath (27:6). David used it as the base from which he would make raids on the neighboring tribes (27:8–11). [2]
    6. The Negev was a certain, dry, desert area.
    7. Reaping the consequences of Saul’s failure to utterly destroy the Amalekites (1Sa 15) and David’s raids against them (27:8), David and his men were the victims of a successful raid in which the Amalekites took all of their wives and livestock captive before burning Ziklag, their city.[3]
    8. Saul was commanded to destroy the Amalekites but did not complete it (see 1 Sam. 15). So, David has been raiding against them (1 Sam. 27:8).
    9. It was about 50 miles (81 km) from Aphek to Ziklag. The Amalekites surely knew that the bulk of the armies of Philistia and Judah (v. 14) had gone to the battle in the north, and they took advantage of that fact.[4]
    10. One of the curiosities of the Amalekites is that they always seem to be present to cause trouble no matter how many times the Israelites defeat them (see Ex 17:8–16; 1 Sam 15:1–9). In this case the Amalekites respond to David’s raiding of their villages (1 Sam 27:8), taking advantage of David’s presence at Aphek.
    11. [There is an important extra detail of information here]: The raid is immediately followed up by David’s devastating defeat of the Amalekites and the rescue of his family and property. In this way the narrative demonstrates that David was nowhere nearby when Saul was killed. He is acting the role of hero, defeating Israel’s enemies and saving his people from harm, while Saul is being defeated by the Philistines at Gilboa.[5]
    12. Did you catch that? That source shares that this chapter shows that David was nowhere near Saul when he died.
    13. David did not take the throne by force.
    14. But that is a sermon for another day.
    15. So, the Amalekites destroyed this city and took the women, and all who were in the city, children, seniors, women, everyone.
    16. They did not kill them.
    17. What did they do with them?
    18. They probably took them as slaves. That is what they did back then.
    19. Don’t miss this.
    20. This would be devastating.
    21. Recently, I read an article in The Atlantic that argued that people may have experienced different emotions throughout history. Various factors develop our emotions.[6]
    22. That may be true; however, this would be devastating.
    23. Imagine that you are one of David’s 600 men. Your wife has been taken, your daughter taken.
    24. Your son, or sons, will be slaves. They may be military slaves. Your daughters may be forced to be temple prostitutes to one of their gods. Your child, or children, may become child sacrifices to one of their gods.
  3. David’s men find the city burned and their loved ones gone.
    1. 1 Samuel 30:3–5 (ESV)
    2. 3 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. 4 Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep. 5 David’s two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel.
    3. David and his men find the city, they see that their family members are gone.
    4. In my mind, I picture a scene from the movie, The Patriot. In that movie, Mel Gibson plays a militia leader during the Revolutionary War. There is a scene in which the British burn a church with the family, loved ones, and friends of that militia locked inside. Mel Gibson’s militia finds the church burned and the bodies of their loved ones smoldering.
    5. They get angry and immediately leave to seek revenge. The man who plays Mel Gibson’s son, Heath Ledger, leaves first, and the others follow.
    6. They don’t stop. They fight. They do weep, but they fight.
    7. In this case, notice that David’s men don’t fight right away.
    8. They pause.
    9. In 1 Sam. 30:4 it says they wept.
    10. Did they weep a little? No, they wept until they had no strength to weep.
    11. I would fight. If it were me, I would fight and weep later.
    12. There is a lesson here.
    13. It is important to pause.
    14. We are task-driven people, but we should pause.
    15. We should grieve. Ecc. 3:4- a time to weep… a time to mourn…
    16. We mustn’t ignore our emotions.
    17. Verse 5 shares that David’s two wives were also taken and tells who they were.
    18. David is affected as well.
  4. David strengthened himself in the Lord (1 Sam. 30:6).
    1. 1 Samuel 30:6 (ESV)
    2. 6 And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
    3. This is a “wow” verse.
    4. David is a mighty warrior. They are loyal to him, but they are talking about stoning him.
    5. What does David do?
    6. He strengthens himself in the Lord.
    7. Swindoll shares: For the first time in sixteen months, David looks up, and he says, “Oh, God, help me.” And He does. He always will. He is “a very present help” when needed.[7]
    8. One source shares: …meaning that David drew strength from knowing that he was doing God’s will and obeying God’s Word.[8]
  5. David inquires of the Lord (1 Sam. 30:7-8).
    1. 1 Samuel 30:7–8 (ESV)
    2. 7 And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, “Bring me the ephod.” So Abiathar brought the ephod to David. 8 And David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I pursue after this band? Shall I overtake them?” He answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake and shall surely rescue.”
    3. Now, David goes to the Lord.
    4. It seems like, at first, David gains strength from the Lord.
    5. Then, David goes through the priest to inquire of the Lord.
  6.  Applications:
    1. I see three parts to the applications: 1) Pause; 2) Receive your strength from the Lord; then, 3) inquire of the Lord.
    2. Pause- Notice in 1 Sam. 30:4: David and his men wept. We talked about that already. We must take time to process. When you are going through something, grab a journal and write down what you are thinking, feeling, and going through. Call a friend. Talk to me, or a Christian counselor. They could have gone straight to battle, but they didn’t.
    3. Secondly, receive strength from the Lord. Listen, prayer is not just asking the Lord for things. David has not yet asked the Lord. We don’t know how, but somehow David gains strength from the Lord. I know how we can gain strength from the Lord. Put the promises of God at the forefront of your mind. Meditate on Scripture. Take a few moments and go through Psalm 139:1-5. Write each verse, make some observations, then resolve, and write a prayer. Do that with many other passages.
    4. Thirdly, ask the Lord for guidance.
    5. We are focusing on prayer all year.
    6. I encourage you: Pause, gain strength from the Lord, and seek the Lord.

[1] Website accessed on 01.05.2026

Patton’s Prayer

[2] John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), 1 Sa 30:1.

[3] John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), 1 Sa 30:1.

[4] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 538.

[5] Victor Harold Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, and John H. Walton, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament, electronic ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 1 Sa 30:1.

[6] Gal Beckerman. What If Our Ancestors Didn’t Feel Anything Like We Do? The Atlantic; December 5, 2025. Accessed on December 31, 2025.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/01/human-ancestors-emotion-history/684959/

[7] Charles R. Swindoll, Great Lives: David: A Man of Passion and Destiny (Discover More About the Real King David of the Bible. Perfect for Fans of House of David) (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1997), 118.

[8] Winfred O. Neely, “1 Samuel,” in The Moody Bible Commentary, ed. Michael A. Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2014), 439.

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