Living in Ziklag - Part 6 - Bitter Weeping

By John Dubois - February 06, 2012

I’ve come to regard the phrase “Living in Ziklag” as a symbolic reference to living a dark and deceptive two-faced life. 

Even after God rescues us – the can be bitter weeping.

David and his men have just escaped the exposure of their duplicity.  And, God has worked to spare them from a greater evil of having to enter battle against their homeland.  Sheepishly, perhaps, but certainly relieved, they return home to Ziklag.  On the third day, they arrive.

Smoke.  All there was was smoke, and everyone, their wives and children – they were all gone.

Their enemies had come and destroyed and/or taken it all.  The very same act of war that they had done to their enemies had not come full circle on to them.  There was little reason for hope – certainly they recalled the images of all the men, women, and children that they had destroyed in order to cover their deceptions.  Now the faces of the lost and killed ones – the collateral damage – were the faces of their own families and loved ones.

1 Samuel 30:4 says, “So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep.”

As if that wasn’t enough, the text goes on to say, “David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters…”

Make no mistake about it, we can get away with duplicity for a while – maybe even a long time.  But, it is as certain a principle of life as it is a character attribute of God Himself – we will reap what we have sown. 

God is a God of justice, and many times he will begin to execute that justice here in this life, but always certainly in the life to come. 

Jesus calls it “weeping and gnashing of teeth”. 

There is but one hope.