God's Sabbath

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E NTERING INTO G OD ’ S S ABBATH R EST

In a determined effort to separate us from our great Problem Solver and plunge us into still greater difficulties, Satan urges us to take matters into our own hands. He contends that God will not help us until we help ourselves, but he knows the oppo site is true. Thus he tempted David after his return to his Phi listine home in Ziklag. Like David, we have still to learn the lesson of depending on our divine Plan Maker and Problem Solver more fully, and so we need to be tested more deeply in order to be delivered from any lingering tendency of turning to our own works. “It is thus that God still tests His people. And if they fail to endure the trial, He brings them again to the same point, and the second time the trial will come closer, and be more severe than the preceding. This is continued until they bear the test, or, if they are still rebellious, God withdraws His light from them and leaves them in darkness.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 437.1. When David and his men reached Ziklag, a shocking sight greeted them. They found their city a smoking ruin, their pos sessions plundered, and their families taken captive. “David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had at tacked Ziklag and burned it, 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. When Da vid and his men came to Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. So Da vid and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep.” 1Samuel 30:1–4. These were the consequences of David’s wrong course of action and he saw in the loss of relatives and in the burning ruins, the outworking of his sin. David and his men were at that moment in great danger of reverting to their own devices, as so often happens during a crisis. Their trust in God was under severe attack, for the witness of sight and circumstances was a strong argument that He was unreliable as a Source of protection and guidance. David’s Return to Ziklag