When Terror Strikes Home: Terror and the Strong Tower (1 Samuel 30:1-6)

Where: College Baptist Church

When: October 7, 2001

Why: To turn our focus on God and find our strength in Him in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attack.

Text: 1 Samuel 30:1-6

Introduction

When everything around you collapses, where do you turn for strength? When life is confusing, uncertain, and even laced with fear, to whom do you run? When the future is uncertain and shaky, where do you find the solid stuff? When other images of permanence crumble, do you have a strong tower to which to run?

Scripture reading

Read 1 Samuel 30:1-6. David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it, ² and had taken captive the women and all who were in it, both young and old. They killed none of them, but carried them off as they went on their way.

³ When David and his men came to Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. ⁴ So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. ⁵ David's two wives had been captured- Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. ⁶ 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.

9/11- When everything around you collapses, where do you turn for strength?

On September 11, I was in the Seattle area. When I first saw the TV screen- smoke belching, intense voices, "a plane has hit the World Trade Center in New York City", I thought it was yet another bad movie. But it wasn't.

Each of us is somehow different today than we were before that day.

Nancy Gibbs writes in Time (October 1, page 16), "We are all in the third Tower now, the one built instantly from the rubble of the other two. We have been 'awakened to danger,' the President said. We have heard the planes and seen the flames and are uncertain about what to do next. We're told to go about our business; we want to head for the stairs. When millions of us all imagine in the same week what we would say in our last cell-phone call to our family and friends, something in our lives and our nation's, has changed forever."

When everything around you collapses, where do you turn for strength?

Proverbs 18:10. ¹⁰ The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.

Psalm 61:1-3. ¹ Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. ² From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. ³ For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe.

David runs to his strong tower and finds strength

David and his men saw a distant plume of smoke. Something was amiss. Weary as they were, their pass quickened. Soon their legs were churning, their muscles aching, their lungs screaming, their nostrils burning with smoke. In shock and disbelief they stumbled through the ruins of what once was home. As the tragedy overcomes them, they begin to loudly weep. Grown men. Hardened soldiers. Wailing. Their families are gone. There is no solace in the absence of bodies. Wives and children, young and old, are now slaves. They are mere objects, tools in the hands of a hateful, vengeful enemy to fulfill whatever purpose or pleasure they may have.

Their strength depleted, their emotions a raw screaming blender of dismay and anger, with an unquenchable thirst for action and revenge, David's army turns on their general. Needing to do something, needing to lash out somewhere, their bitterness is so great they begin talk of stoning David. After all, if it weren't for him, they wouldn't be here. If it weren't for Saul's jealousy and fear of David, they wouldn't be living here among the Philistines. They wouldn't have made their home among a foreign people in a foreign land. It's David's fault. Let's stone him! Let's be away with him! Someone must be punished!

Attacked by his enemies, in shock and grief, pressed by the threat of mutiny- his world utterly collapsing in smoke and dust- David demonstrates the character for which we have come to know him. A man after God's heart, he finds strength in the Lord his God. Amidst the dusty, smoky rubble of the place which had provided the comfort and security of home, David runs to his strong tower and finds strength.

Through Abiathar the high priest, God confirms to David to that he should pursue the Amalekites. Yes, the rescue will be a success. Yes, there is a responsibility to protect friends and family and nation. Yes, justice will be done. But David found his strength in the Lord his God.

How do we strengthen ourselves in the Lord when the world is crumbling around us?

1. We strengthen ourselves in the Lord through prayer.
2. 1. In shock, emotional strength spent from weeping, under intense pressure of mutiny within the ranks, David turned to God.
   2. 1. ^33:3 'Call on me in prayer and I will answer you. I will show you great and mysterious⁴ things which you still do not know about.' (Jeremiah 33:3 NET)
      2. Why this would all happen may seem like a mystery to David. Perhaps his mind is filled with the big "why" questions. Perhaps he struggles with how God could allow this. David turns to his God when things just don't make sense.
      3. We turn to our strong tower and find strength. With David, we strengthen ourselves in the Lord, for it is the Lord that sees us through a dusty, smoky, collapsing world. Our confidence remains fixed in Him.
   3. We can strengthen ourselves in the Lord by praying for wisdom and understanding. ⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. (James 1:5)
   4. 1. Express your confusion and dismay.
      2. Ask the hard questions.
      3. Pray for your enemies. (Matthew 5:43, 44)
   5. Pray with others.
   6. 1. There is something about praying with others that helps us know the strength of the Lord.
      2. It was a habit of the early church when they were in times of great distress.
      3. 1. Acts 4:23-31. In the face of perscution, the church together prayed for the power of God.
         2. Acts 12:5. Peter was imprisoned by King Herod, who intended to bring him to trial. Herod had already had James the brother of John executed. ⁵ So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
      4. We praise God that across our nations, congregations have been praying together. Football teams are kneeling in end zones to pray together at high school football games- even though just a year ago prayer at games was being contested at the highest courts of our land. Students are standing in class to lead in prayer. . . There's a new attitude about God and prayer.
3. We strengthen ourselves in the Lord by remember who God is.
4. 1. God is love.
   2. 1. John 3:16.
      2. Franklin Graham being interviewed by Catie Curick on the Today Show, Thursday, September 13: "Catie, I don't understand why this has happened, but I do know that God is a God of love. He loves each one of us and sent His Son Jesus to into the world to demonstrate that love for us. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. . ." Catie listened intently as two times during the interview as Franklin pointed out her need- everyone's need- to decide how they were going to respond to the love of God given to us through Jesus Christ. As the Today show went to a break, I felt Catie was grasping for the right transitional words. Just before they broke to the advertisment, Matt Lauer declared, Catie, there's got to be a bigger plan, there's got to be."
   3. God is sovereign.
   4. 1. It is difficult to understand the depth of the mysteries of the sovereignty of God and His workings in the world. Yet we are strengthened knowing that our strong tower is a very strong tower. He reigns over all.
      2. Ephesians 1:11 tells us that our strong tower is One who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.
      3. Proverbs 21:1 declares The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.
      4. When the Moabites and Ammonites were attacking Judah with a vast army, King Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the LORD in the front of the new courtyard ⁶ and said: "O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you" (2 Chronicles 20:5, 6).
      5. The issue of God's sovereignty and control in creation may raise some additional questions for some. It is good to wrestle with these questions because through it our faith can be strengthened. And though there is much which lies beyond our finite understanding, we find strength and reassurance that God is working His purposes throughout history to bring about His exaltation and glory which we experience through our Lord Jesus Christ.
   5. God is our strength and protection. He is our strong tower. He is our hope for tomorrow.
   6. God understands suffering; He suffered the greatest loss- an incalculable loss- that we might know His strength and salvation. Yet He did so willingly. Yes, with great pain. But it was in His eternal purposes that we might know Him. That we might have the security and hope of eternity. That we see His glory through His sacrifice.

Conclusion

David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. Amidst the smoky, dusty ruins of what once had been Ziklag, a place of love and laughter, family and friends, David ran to his strong tower.

Where do you run when the world collapses around you?

At the September 15, 2001, satellite broadcast of "America Prays," author Max Lucado read the following prayer that he wrote in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on America. Let's listen in on Lucado's prayer as he strengthens himself in the Lord.

Dear Lord, we're still hoping we'll wake up. We're still hoping we'll open a sleepy eye and think, What a horrible dream.

But we won't, will we, Father? What we saw was not a dream. Planes did gouge towers. Flames did consume our fortress. People did perish. It was no dream and, dear Father, we are sad. There is a ballet dancer who will no longer dance and a doctor who will no longer heal. A church has lost her priest, a classroom is minus a teacher. Cora ran a food pantry. Paige was a counselor, and Dana, dearest Father, Dana was only three years old. (Who held her in those final moments?)

We are sad, Father. For as the innocent are buried, our innocence is buried as well. We thought we were safe. Perhaps we should have known better. But we didn't.

And so we come to you. We don't ask you for help; we beg you for it. We don't request it; we implore it. We know what you can do. We've read the accounts. We've pondered the stories and now we plead, "Do it again, Lord. Do it again."

Remember Joseph? You rescued him from the pit. You can do the same for us. Do it again, Lord. Remember the Hebrews in Egypt? You protected their children from the angel of death. We have children, too, Lord. Do it again. And Sarah? Remember her prayers? You heard them. Joshua? Remember his fears? You inspired him. The women at the tomb? You resurrected their hope. The doubts of Thomas? You took them away. Do it again, Lord. Do it again.

You changed Daniel from a captive into a king's counselor. You took Peter the fisherman and made him Peter an apostle. Because of you, David went from leading sheep to leading armies. Do it again, Lord, for we need counselors today, Lord. We need apostles. We need leaders. Do it again, dear Lord.

Most of all, do again what you did at Calvary. What we saw here last Tuesday, you saw there that Friday. Innocence slaughtered. Goodness murdered. Mothers weeping. Evil dancing. Just as the smoke eclipsed our morning, so the darkness fell on your Son. Just as our towers were shattered, the very Tower of Eternity was pierced. And by dusk, heaven's sweetest song was silent, buried behind a rock.

But you did not waver, O Lord. You did not waver. After three days in a dark hole, you rolled the rock and rumbled the earth and turned the darkest Friday into the brightest Sunday. Do it again, Lord. Grant us a September Easter.

We thank you, dear Father, for these hours of unity. Christians are praying with Jews. Republicans are standing with Democrats. Skin colors have been covered by the ash of burning buildings. We thank you for these hours of unity.

And we thank you for these hours of prayer. The Enemy sought to bring us to our knees and succeeded. He had no idea, however, that we would kneel before you. And he has no idea what you can do.

Let your mercy be upon our President, Vice President, and their families. Grant to those who lead us wisdom beyond their years and experience. Have mercy upon the souls who have departed and the wounded who remain. Give us grace that we might forgive and faith that we might believe. And look kindly upon your church. For two thousand years you've used her to heal a hurting world. Do it again, Lord. Do it again. Through Christ, Amen.

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