May 7, 2025 - 1 Samuel 30:6 -"David, A Type of Christ"

1 Samuel 30:6

"And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God."

In this moment of deep distress, David stands as a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. Betrayed, abandoned, and facing the wrath of those he once led, David prefigures the suffering Savior Who bore the iniquity of His people. Here, the people that David had protected and led now speak of stoning him. So too, the LORD Jesus came unto His own, but His own received Him not, but cried aloud, “Away with him, crucify him” (John 19:15). If we believe that the LORD Jesus took our sin on Him and laid down His life to put it away, then these were our representatives crying, 'Crucify Him!'

David had lost all his wives, his home, his city burned with fire. But more piercing still was the loss of favor with his men, who in their grief turned upon him. Likewise, the Lord Jesus endured not only the physical agony of the cross but the deeper sorrow of being forsaken by all. “Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled” (Matthew 26:56). He stood alone in the hour of darkness, having been despised and rejected of men. He endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself, which included His elect, for whom He came into the world to save. "Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds" (Hebrews 12:3). The LORD Jesus most patiently submitted to, and perseveringly bore up under such opposition and contradiction by the words and works of the most wicked and vilest men against Himself, Who was the most innocent and purest of men, always going about doing good to them, so as their sin and His patience were without parallel. None was ever so scorned, taunted, reviled, blasphemed, spit on, and unashamedly treated like Him; and never any so invincibly endured it (Romans 15:3) all for the salvation of wretched rebels!

Yet in this low estate, David “encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” This was no mere human resolve. David looked beyond the ashes of Ziklag, beyond the fury of men, and found strength in the covenant faithfulness of his God. This points us to Christ, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). Though surrounded by reproach and pierced with grief, Christ rested in the eternal purpose of the Father, knowing that through His suffering He would redeem His people.

David's solitary encouragement in God foreshadows the solitary obedience of Christ, Who, when all others failed, trusted wholly in the will of His Father. "Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously" (1 Peter 2:23). This moment in David’s life was sovereignly ordained to reflect the Greater David—our Lord Jesus—Who would be persecuted, stricken, and seemingly overcome, yet would triumph through unwavering confidence in the righteousness of God.

Here we see more than just a man in distress—we see the sure hand of God working through the rejection of His servant to exalt him. David was being conformed to the pattern of the true Messiah. He needed to taste this sorrow, for through it God would bring deliverance, not only for David but for all his people. So it is with Christ: “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him… He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:10–11).

Let the child of God take heart when cast down, abandoned, and overwhelmed, and encourage ourselves in the Lord our God. Christ, our Captain, has passed through deeper waters. He was rejected, despised, and slain—yet through His sufferings, He obtained eternal redemption for every sinner the Father gave Him (Hebrews 5:9). And now, having conquered, He ever lives to intercede for us (Hebrews 7:25).

Ziklag burned, friends turned, but God remained faithful to David, for Christ's sake. And so it is for us. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). Let us then, like David, and in the Spirit of Christ, look to our covenant God, in whose eternal purpose all our sorrows have resulted in triumph by the blood of the Lamb slain.