“It’ll get worse before it gets better”.  Things have “gone from bad to worse”.  “Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire.”   Life is so full of instances in which we feel like we just can’t make it, only for one more pound of pain or difficulty to be added.   1st Samuel 30 gives us a graphic picture of this expression.  David has just escaped, but by the grace of God, from his deceptive part in the Philistine army to now find that his whole Israelite village has been burned to the ground by the Amalekites.  What’s more, his men have made him the scapegoat, about to be stoned.  This sounds about as much like being put “into the fire” as possible.

Where do you turn in a suffering situation like this?  Do you hide?  Do you seek to shift the blame to someone else?  Do you fight back?  In this passage, we see that suffering leads to a solution, and the solution is a savior.   The savior shows up in various ways, but as Christians, we know that we have our one and only true Savior.  He provides grace upon grace.  The same grace that rescues David from the Philistine army is the same grace that rescues him from his own men is the same grace that grants victory over the Amalekites and is the same grace that gives back all their families.

But notice David’s men respond to that grace.  Some go the route of feeling that they deserve it, evidenced by their selfishness with the plunder.  What do we do upon receiving “grace upon grace”?  Do we forget about it after a few days?  Do we hoard it for ourselves?  Or do we seek to share it with others, as David did?  May we be a people who love to receive grace so that we can be part of giving it away to others through Christ.

Rev. Darol Timberlake, Assistant Pastor