Ziklag Moments

Have you experienced a “Ziklag” moment? A time when you felt you not only lost everything, but even your family and friends seemed absent in your struggle? When everything you held dear was now gone and everywhere you turned your life seemed to be going up in flames? 

David did.

In I Samuel 30 it recounts that tumultuous time in David’s life. “Now it happened, when David and his men came to Ziklag, on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, ² and had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great; they did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way. ³ So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire; and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. ⁴ Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep. ⁵ And David’s two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had been taken captive. ⁶ Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters.

David and his men returned from war only to find their homes ransacked, their goods stolen and their wives and children missing. All they valued was gone. But if that wasn’t devastating enough, in the midst of this deep distress, David’s men blamed him for what happened and spoke of killing him.

David not only had to bear the grief alone, but he also feared for his own life in the midst of such great loss. It had to have been devastating. But you’ve had a devastating moment as well.

Maybe you are in a day that you feel all has been stolen from you and even those who you have turned to for comfort have turned their backs. And so you have wept alone.

If you find you are in a Ziglag moment, be encouraged for just as David’s story didn’t end there, neither does yours.

The first thing to remember is to inquire of the Lord. This is not a time to lament your state, but to seek Him for answers. As David chose to keep his eyes on the Lord and not the circumstances, his turnaround was in progress.

I Sam. 30:8 “So David inquired of the Lord, saying, ‘Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?”

“And He answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.”

David heeded this word and chose to set out. He had no idea where he was going or how he would recover all. And that wasn’t the point. The point was he chose to trust God to deliver. As you read the story, David not only recovers all, but what had been a devastating loss of EVERYTHING, was now turned into a recovery of all that was lost PLUS MORE.

“So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. ¹⁹ And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them; David recovered all.”

Not only did David recover all that had been stolen, but he took the spoil of the Amalekites. There was such abundance that he sent gifts to the elders of the land to give testimony of all God had done to restore and recover.There is a power in Ziklag moments when we take hold of God and allow Him to guide us out of them when we choose to begin to once again follow Him through the desert.

Are you in a Ziglag moment? Do you feel abandoned and hopeless in the circumstances you now find yourself? Don’t despair. Continue to inquire of the Lord and follow His leading for God will restore as you follow Him to the place that He leads and you will not only recover all that was lost, but an abundance so that you can bless others. 

Karen Hardin 

lightandremnant.com

 

 

 

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