What to Do When the Bottom Drops Out

Tonight, you can open your Bibles to the 30th chapter of 1 Samuel.

Go back to the beginning of chapter 30 and go all the way through to the end of that chapter.

And then that will leave us one more chapter to go, and then we'll be done. Sadly, I guess we could say that the final chapter of 1 Samuel does not end on a very positive note, though we knew it was coming.

I think I'll go ahead and read the chapter so that we can, once again, get the whole story kind of together rather than piecing it together as I go along, since it is a narration.

It would be good to begin with that. And I will go ahead and tell you there are parts of the end of the chapter that I'm really not planning on delving into very much, though I could, if I may say, a few words about it.

So let me begin then. Verse 1, chapter 30. Now it happened when David and his men came to Ziklag. You remember that's the city in Philistia.

That was given to David and his men. It's in Philistia. I may have explained this last time or the time before that.

Very close to the border of Israel. And as a matter of fact, throughout history, and you can find examples of this in the Old Testament, sometimes Ziklag is considered part of Israel's territory.

Sometimes it's part of Philistia. Probably the borders did change from time to time. But at this time, Ziklag is part of Philistia, part of the territory of the Philistines.

If you could name a group of people who were the arch enemies of Israel, it would be the Philistines. I mean, they're mentioned more than any other.

The Amalekites may be a close second and a few others. All right, so Ziklag. Men came to Ziklag on the third day that the Amalekites had invaded the south and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag, and burned it with fire, and had taken captive the women, those who were there, from small to great.

They did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way. So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire.

And their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept until they had no more power to weep.

And David's two wives, Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess, and Abigail, the widow of Nabal, the Carmelite, had been taken captive.

Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters, I would imagine for their wives too, ladies.

But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. Then David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, Please bring the ephod here to me.

And Abiathar brought the ephod to David. So David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him, God answered him, Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.

So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the brook Basor, where those stayed who were left behind. But David pursued, he and four hundred men, for two hundred stayed behind, who were so weary that they could not cross the brook Basor.

Then they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and they gave him bread, and he ate, and they let him drink water. And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins.

So when he had eaten, his strength came back to him, for he had eaten no bread nor drunk water for three days and three nights. Then David said to him, To whom do you belong, and where are you from?

And he said, I am a young man from Egypt, servant of an Amalekite, and my master left me behind, because three days ago I fell sick.

He made an invasion of the southern area of the Cherethites, in the territory which belongs to Judah, and of the southern area of Caleb, and we burn Ziklag with fire.

And David said to him, Can you take me down to this troop? So he said, Swear to me, my God, to me, by God, that you will neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will take you down to this troop.

And when he had brought him down, there they were, spread out over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil which they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.

Then David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not a man of them escaped, except 400 young men who rode on camels and fled.

So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives, and nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them.

And David recovered all. Then David took all the flocks and herds that had driven before those other livestock and said, This is David's spoil.

So you understand, not only did he get back everything that they owned originally that had been taken, but also all the other spoil that the Amalekites had taken from other cities that they had conquered.

Then all the wicked and worthless men of those who went with David answered and said, So there were some wicked men who were even part of David's company.

They answered and said, Because they did not go with us, speaking of the 200 that stayed behind, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except for every man's wife and children, that they may lead them away and depart.

And David said, My brethren, you shall not do so with what the Lord has given us, who has preserved us and delivered into our hand the troop that came against us.

For who will heed you in this matter? But as his part is who goes down to the battle, so shall his part be who stays by the supplies, they shall share alike.

So it was from that day forward, he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day. And then the rest of the chapter, I'm not going to go ahead and read it because I'm not really going to cover it.

David also shares spoil with many of the people of Israel, and you can read that on your own. Now, I think it's safe to say that at the beginning of the chapter, what we read about at the beginning of the chapter, David and his men with him had reached rock bottom.

I mean, they really had. And they've been headed that way for the last several chapters, actually, though they probably didn't know it. Now they've reached rock bottom. And worse than that, I guess I could say, at the bottom had dropped out completely.

And, you know, they could not imagine a worse scenario for them. I don't think they could have conceived of their condition being any worse than it was for them at that very moment.

They had lost everything. Lost their wives, these men, these soldiers, lost their wives, their children, their livestock, all of their possessions, and even their city have been totally destroyed.

I can't imagine that they could conceive in their minds anything worse. The bottom had dropped out of their lives.

And so, with, really don't need a whole lot of introduction at this point, here's our subject. What to do when the bottom drops out? Yeah, now, that certainly happened with Israel here, or with David, rather, and his 600 men and their families.

Certainly it happened, but at the same time, the experiences of David and his men recorded here in this chapter really do serve to teach us some things.

We can learn some things about this, about those times when it seems the bottom drops out for various reasons. All right, so here's the first thing I want you to notice, the way down.

I want you to think of the three points I'm going to give you from this story as three things that we should acknowledge, learn from, apply to our lives when, again, the bottom drops out in our lives.

And the first thing we need to see from the story and the first thing we need to learn about our own personal experiences is something about the way down. The way down.

That's the first step. We need to acknowledge and understand the key events that explain our downward journey as we need to do a little bit of history.

We need to look back. We need to analyze our lives, see what happened, what has transpired before this that may have contributed to, may have led to this.

And we can certainly see this with David and his men. And I think that's what David needed to come to grips with. And if you really think about the story as I read it a moment ago, I think David definitely did come to grips with it.

With this issue. What happened? What brought me here? What contributed to this way down to the bottom that's about to drop out? And so it all began with, and some of this is a little bit of an overlap from things we've discussed before, but it all began with a misguided decision.

Do you remember the decision that David made that led him to this point? We studied it a few weeks ago, or more than a few weeks ago, I'm not sure when.

And I've talked about it a number of times since then. And so I would say, again, that to see this, you really have to go back to chapter 27. Chapter 27.

And verse 1 of chapter 27 says, remember this, and David said in his heart, it's important to realize where he said this, he said it in his heart, now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul.

This is what David said. Back in chapter 27. And then he said, there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines.

And we're thinking, yeah, that really makes a lot of sense. Or does it? Actually, it doesn't. It doesn't make sense. Not at all.

It doesn't make any sense. And so we could say, first of all, maybe a few things about David's misguided decision. We could say, first of all, that it was senseless. It's a senseless decision.

I mean, there is nothing. He said, there is nothing better for me. Really? I mean, how could that be true? He said, there's nothing better for me than that I should escape, speedily escape, suddenly run.

Run all the way to the land of the Philistines. So it was a senseless decision that he made. And not only senseless, but it was faithless. It was faithless.

Remember, and I emphasized this when I read the passage, David said, in his heart, that's the seat of faith, the seat of belief. He said, in his heart, now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul.

How could David even believe that? How could David have ever come to that conclusion? You know, and I've pointed this out before, but we need to remember something David said to Abishai.

Abishai was one of his right-hand men, mighty, mighty Abishai. He said to him, way back there in chapter 26, remember they had come into the camp and there's Saul laying there.

Abishai has an opportunity. Well, hey, we just take the spear. Here it is. You know, how convenient. It's sticking right here in the ground. I'll just simply very quietly pick it up and drive it right through Saul's head and that'll be the end of it.

But you remember what David said in verse 9 and he said, and he was right in what he said, do not destroy him, do not destroy Saul, for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless?

Well, but who's David but God's anointed? God's anointed. And here David is saying, you know, Saul, I'm going to die by Saul's hand. And then he went on to say, as the Lord lives, the Lord shall strike him.

Now, if David believed that about Saul, why didn't he believe that about himself? In fact, more so. See, this is David's misguided decision. This is what got the whole thing started.

that led down this path to the point where the whole bottom drops out of their lives, not just David's life, but all those he was leading and that's the way it is with leaders.

And so, his misguided decision, it was senseless, it was faithless, and it was prayerless. And this really is quite amazing. There is a glaring, at this time in David's life, over the course of these several chapters, 26, really you can go back even further than that, a glaring absence of prayer in David's life.

Not something we would necessarily expect from David. I mean, we kind of have David up here, don't we? I know there's that deal about Bathsheba, and you know, that's a pretty big fall, pretty big problem, but generally, with that aside, David's kind of up here.

Man, after God's own heart. And yet, we can go several chapters here in the life of David, after David was anointed to be king, promised that he would be king, and so forth, and then there's this stretch of time where David just, he didn't even pray.

In fact, you have to go all the way back to chapter 23 of 1 Samuel to find David actually seeking from the Lord his will and his direction in his life.

to inquire of the Lord all the way back to chapter 23. That's a long way back. And, not only that, but you have to go back to chapter 26 to find David even mentioning the name of the Lord.

Now, all that adds up to the problem that has led David and his men to this point in their lives here in chapter 30. prayerless, he's prayerless, senseless, and faithless, and prayerless.

And so, is it any wonder that David, along with his people, find themselves on the way down? And then you can just kind of map it out. You know, from that point leading up to where they are now, David is living among the pagans, the Philistines.

David, it kind of reminds me of Lot. Look what happened to Lot. You know, he went and dwelt among the pagans and idolaters.

So, David is living among the Philistines. David is lying to the king of the Philistines, Achish, remember? You remember the story. He's lying to him.

Is it okay for him to lie to a pagan? No, it's not okay for him to lie. God doesn't qualify his commandments about bearing false witness. He doesn't say, well, it's alright to lie to unbelievers.

Just don't lie to believers. Certainly not. There's no double standard with God. And here's David living among the Philistines, lying to the Philistines. He is laboring alongside the king of the Philistines.

He's become his right-hand man. And not only that, now he's lining up with the armies of the Philistines. And that's kind of how the chapter ended.

Remember the last chapter in chapter 29, marching in review with Achish, you know, and his forces as they prepare for battle against David's own people, Israel.

And it's, you know, it's only by the grace of God, really, that David is able to escape, able to get out of this obligation to actually go to battle against his own people.

We studied that last time. All right, so that leads then to a mammoth defeat. There is this misguided decision that David made way back there and then, you know, as things unfold and as they make their downward track, David leading his people there, then there's this defeat, this mammoth defeat.

I mean, you couldn't describe it any other way. While David and his men are marching in this parade, you know, this ceremonial parade with the Philistine soldiers marching alongside of Achish, a place that David and his men had absolutely no business being.

Back home, what's happening? Back at Ziklag, the Amalekites are invading the city. We just read about that here. Invading his city. Who's left back there at Ziklag?

Well, if you read, you find out that David had 600 fighting men and where were they? They were with David. So, who's left back at Ziklag?

Well, just the women and the children. They're left back there. He didn't leave any of his fighting men at home to guard the city, to guard the women and guard the children.

David's misguided decision leads to a mammoth defeat. The Amalekites take advantage of the situation. And by the way, not just in Ziklag, but in several other cities in Philistia and also Israel.

But the Philistines, where are they? They're all gathered together to march against Israel. So that left some of their cities unguarded. And so, the Amalekites took advantage of that and they invaded several of the cities there, including Ziklag.

And so, they plunder Ziklag without any problem. Nobody there to stop them. They steal all of their livestock, the Bible says here. They steal all of their valuable possessions, belong to David and his men.

They kidnap all of their women and children. They don't kill any of them because, obviously, they're going to use them for slaves. No telling what other unspeakable things they might have had planned for their women.

all right, so they kidnap all of them and the children and then they burn the city to the ground. I mean, that defeat could not have been more complete.

I mean, just totally destroyed. And all of this because of David's misguided decision. David has to take responsibility for this. His senseless, faithless, prayerless decision.

which then leads to a monumental despair that just, you know, possessed David and all of his men.

And when they came, I can still picture you coming up over the rise, you know, there's smoke and Disney, come up over the hill and there's Ziklag, a smoldering, burning, smoking ruin.

And so verse 4 almost makes you want to cry. David, then David it says, then David and the people, that's the men who were with him, the fighting men, who were with him lifted up their voices and wept until they had no more power to weep.

That's just, I mean, how poignant to put it that way. You can imagine this. These are grown men. They're in despair, weeping to the point they don't have any tears left, not even any strength to continue to weep.

And their despair even led to anger toward David himself. I mean, you got us into this. They're pretty much right about that.

Now, the Bible doesn't say they said that, but he's their leader and I think it's implied that he's responsible for this happening. man. And verse 6 says, for the people spoke of stoning him, stoning David, because the soul of all the people was grieved.

So, this is the way down, the way down, and they got all the way down, the bottom dropped out of their lives. And when this happens to us, we need to go back and discover what took place, what has transpired to bring us to that place.

It's always the way, the first step. What's going on in your life? Well, what has led me to this place? And this is what we need to learn.

And I think David learned this. And then we need to do this. We need to discover the way up. That's number two. The way down, and then the way up, obviously.

The way up. And this is one really, I think, represents one of David's finest hours. Verse 6, But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

Faced with this, you know, this mammoth defeat. And all of, I think, all of the decisions he had made leading up to that point, including the most significant decision that he made in his life, and that is really to leave God out of everything.

All that happening, and the despair of seeing the city destroyed, and his two wives, by the way, also taken captive, and even his own men speaking about stoning him, threatening to stone him.

All of that considered, David chose the right direction to go up. And so he strengthened himself.

It says, in the Lord is God. Literally, David found strength. Where? In the Lord is God. In Yahweh, his God.

By the way, in the text, Lord, in fact, many times, most of the time, in this passage, Lord is in all capital letters, and that means it is a translation of Yahweh.

Yahweh, his God. He found strength in Yahweh. So the way up from the bottom is not to find strength among strangers. David did not turn to the Philistines to help him with his enemies.

And the way up from the bottom is not to find strength in yourself, in self. It is to find strength in the sovereign Lord, your Lord.

Now, that not only was the way up for David, but it was the way up for David's men as well. And you have to read between the lines. They were going to stone him, but then David found strength in the Lord, and there's nothing else said again about this stoning business.

That means that he was an example to them. He found his strength in the Lord, and they could see that, and they would follow him. And that's a mark of his leadership.

All right, so the way up is to turn back to trusting God, and this then leads us to the way out. That's the last thing.

Way down, we need to look at that, understand that. How did we get down there? The way up, trust God. Find your strength in him.

Stop trusting yourself, and trusting others, and so forth. Trust him. So, down into it, and then up and out of it. That's kind of the way the story progresses.

And all because David's renewed faith in the Lord. And that's really what you need to key in on, even though the word faith is not used here, doesn't appear here.

The things that David does, and the things that God does in response to David, all of it is tied to faith. And so, the first thing you have is a visible faith.

David had a visible faith. It was something that all of them could see. And so, verse 7 says, then David said to Abiathar, the priest, Ahimelech's son, please bring the ephod here to me.

He's done this before. We've talked about this before. Bring the ephod. And Abiathar brought the ephod to David. So, David inquired of the Lord.

So, he needed the ephod to do that. So, what does that mean? It's difficult to really determine. But the way out, here's the idea, the way out of any difficult situation is faith, faithful prayer, believing prayer.

And again, here we have mentioned the ephod. The ephod. The ephod was if you remember, part of the priestly garment. It first was worn exclusively by the high priest, but later would also be worn by priests, other priests.

And it was just a garment, difficult to know exactly what it might have looked like, but the ephod was part of that priestly garment. And attached to the ephod, you know, every time ephod is mentioned, it doesn't mention everything about it, but the ephod attached to it was the breastplate that the high priest would wear had the twelve stones, tribes of Israel.

And it also had either a small pouch that was attached to it or inside of it or to the side of it, and it's difficult to know for sure, but a little pouch that contained the Urim and Thummim.

The Urim and Thummim. I had a big discussion with one of my brothers last week about the Urim and Thummim. Phil's very interested in these kind of things, so we talked about that.

But the Urim and the Thummim, and these were used to inquire of the Lord concerning His will, concerning His direction.

And as I've said before, we really don't know just how that works. We don't. The Bible doesn't describe it. quite often you'll find it referenced and that certain people, God's people, used them, priests and others, like David did a couple of times at least.

But there's never any description about just how it works, you know, exactly what it is and how it works, you know, and they may have been, I was reading this again because it's just so interesting, but they may have been just merely two stones, two special stones.

Now how the stones were used, if they would roll them, if they had things written on them, you know, kind of like dice or something like that, we don't have any idea. But many scholars say that there were probably two stones, a Urim and a Thummim that would be carried in this pouch, carried as part of the ephod.

And so two stones perhaps, and sometimes in Scripture only the Urim is mentioned. And so it kind of gives rise to the idea that some inquiries only required the Urim, only one stone.

But other times it mentions both stones, Urim and Thummim being used, and so perhaps maybe some big things, who knows, certain kinds of inquiries would require both of them, the Urim and the Thummim, and somehow they would be used and God would speak to them.

In fact, and right here, in this case, you know, David asks some very specific questions. Pretty specific. And God answers with pretty specific answers.

Now how do you get all that from a stone you roll on the floor? I don't know. If that is it, we just don't know. And we could talk all night about it and have all kinds of conjecture, but it is just simply conjecture.

Because we don't know. And so let's just put that aside. The important thing here to learn is that David inquired of the Lord. That's the thing that we need to get here.

Something he hadn't done for a long time. And because of that, he was in this predicament that he was in. And so David, and by the way, this would be public, a very public thing.

He inquired of the Lord. It's a show of his faith. An outward expression and show of his faith. Symbolic of public prayer. And what did David ask for?

Well, he asked for two things, didn't he? Two questions. Shall I pursue this troop? That means the Amalekites. Shall I pursue them? And the second question, shall I overtake them?

Overtake them. That is, attack them. And that's all he asked. And God answers yes and yes. Yes and yes to both those questions.

And then he really adds, we could say, a third yes to a question that David didn't even ask. That is, what's the outcome going to be like? David didn't even ask that, did he?

Some would say, well, it's implied in the question, overtake them. That is, attack them and have victory over them. But really, just means, am I going to be able to find them?

Because he didn't know where they were. And so God says, yes. He says, pursue, pursue them. That's the answer to the first question.

And by the way, it's given in a form of a command. God, for you shall surely overtake them. And then he adds this, and without fail, recover all.

Not some of it, most of it, but all of it. And of course, you know, we've already read how it turned out, and that's exactly how it turned out. It recovered all of it.

There is some irony here. if you kind of put several chapters together and, you know, understand that the author digresses a little bit here and there.

And so chronologically speaking, two men were seeking guidance from God at the same time. Well, guidance, anyway, at the same time. Two men were seeking guidance at the same time, guidance concerning victory over their enemies.

Do you know who these two men were? Saul and David. David we know, but also Saul. And it's very likely, and again, you have to go back and see how the author kind of digresses how things kind of come together.

It's very likely that pretty much at the same time, these two men are asking for guidance concerning their enemies at the very same time. But the similarity ends there, doesn't it?

Saul defied the law of God, remember, and consulted a medium, which was strictly forbidden by God. But he sought the answer from a medium.

David obeyed the law, took advantage of the provision of God's law, the Urim, Urim and Thummim, the ephod, and he consulted God himself.

Quite different. And as a result, Saul received from God a promise of death. David, of course, received a promise of life, life and blessing, the blessing of God, and that is what both men got, got exactly what God promised.

Now, getting back to the story, how were David and his men going to realize what God had promised them when they didn't even know where these people were? Now, I imagine they could find a path initially, knew perhaps what direction they left Ziklag, but they didn't know where they were.

That becomes pretty clear as we go along in the story. I'm sure that this was on the minds of David's men. I mean, they saw the faith of David in his prayer, and they knew that God had given an answer, a certain answer, but I think in their minds, they were thinking, you know, we don't even know where these people are.

How are we going to do, how are we going to realize what God has promised? We don't know where they are. And so, second, then, we have a vindicated faith.

faith. Not only do we have from David, very clearly, from David a visible faith, but now a vindicated faith.

He put his faith in God. God promised a certain thing. David believed him, and God came through.

He vindicated his faith. David's visible faith became a vindicated faith because God honored David's faith. And I want you to notice what the Bible says after God answered David's prayer.

Just kind of follow along here. In verse 8, David inquired of the Lord, right, through the ephod, Urim, Thummim, and God answered with a command, remember, pursue.

It's a command. Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them without fail. Recover all. And then verse 9 says what? David went. David went.

Verse 10 says David pursued, exactly as God had commanded him. And yet, verse 15, we'll not go back and read it, but it makes it pretty clear that David had no idea where he would find the enemy, the Amalekites.

I mean, remember they found this Egyptian, fed him, restored his strength. And what did David want from the Egyptian? Where are the Amalekites?

Where are they? Can you lead us to them? Which tells me David didn't know. He didn't know. But does that stop him from obeying God?

God said, pursue them. And David did. The fact that he didn't know exactly where they were didn't stop him. And perhaps his men were thinking, this is crazy.

You know, they're marching along. It's crazy. We don't even know where they are. But God vindicates David's seemingly blind faith.

And he does so by providing someone to guide him. And it's just an interesting kind of insertion into the story. And it's, you know, it seems, you would think, kind of insignificant.

I mean, they just find this guy. This Egyptian. You know, it's just this Egyptian out there. And he's starving. And he's sick. And about to die. Very near death.

And they find him. And they, you know, bring him to David. I mean, is that the only guy that's wandering around out there? I mean, they didn't come in contact with anybody else.

I guess maybe it's odd that they find this Egyptian there. But anyway, so they bring him to David. And he says, I'm an Egyptian young man. But I was a slave of an Amalekite.

The very ones that destroyed Ziklag and other cities and so forth and so forth. And so they feed him, you know, and all that. And David asks the question. Can you lead us to them? And he said, if you'll promise not to kill me, I'll do it.

And David promised. And he led them. Led them there. That's all part of the story. Now, you put all that together and it does cause you to think, well, you know, David, I mean, what kind of example of faith this is?

I mean, he, faithfully, he inquires of the Lord. He comes back to the Lord after being pretty much absent or distant from God for many, many months.

I'm not sure of the time period. And David asks God a question and God gives him a very definite answer. And all David knows is he's supposed to go get them, go find them.

He didn't know where they are. And so he goes. He pursues them. You know, have you ever had the opportunity to follow God where the only thing you knew was the first step?

You didn't know the rest of them. Now, think about it. This is what David's doing. All he knows is the first step. He didn't know the rest of it. But God provides the rest of it as they go, you know.

And quite often God will ask us to step out in faith without giving us the full picture yet. You know, we're kind of left in the dark about a lot of things.

As Adrian Rogers used to say, you know, faith is kind of like film. Of course, who uses film anymore? It's kind of like film. It develops better in the dark. And this is what God was doing with David.

And David remained faithful and God vindicated that faith. And that leads to one more thing, a victorious faith. So verse 17 says David attacked. Just as God commanded.

Then it says David recovered all. Just as God promised. And then a step further, David took all. That is all the spoils beyond what belonged to them originally as God blessed.

And God did bless. And he shared it with his men and with their families. And we read a little bit later in the chapter with many other people among the Israelites.

And I skipped reading that because there are too many words there to pronounce. So you can read on your own. You know, I find out when you read silently, it doesn't matter how you pronounce those words. Have you ever noticed that?

Anyway, he shared it. And, you know, even though, and there's that little bit there about some stinkers among David's men, you know, critical.

They thought, you know, this isn't right. I mean, these guys, they stayed here. We went and did the battle. And we've got all this extra spoil. I don't think they deserve any of that. You know, and of course, David corrected them real quick.

You know, you always have a few people like that. You know, they just see things different. They're critical. I read a story about John Wesley. John Wesley was preaching one time.

And as he was preaching, he looked out there in the congregation, noticed this lady who kept staring at his tie, his bow tie, rather. And she could tell he was. And after the service, she came up to him.

And he said, I noticed you were staring at my ties. There's something wrong with it. And she said, it's just too long. It's just, you know, these strings here are too long. They need to be cut off.

And she was just really ugly. It just looks terrible. It makes you look ugly. So he kind of played along. And he asked some of the ladies who were staying around, anybody have a pair of scissors? Someone came up with a pair of scissors.

And so he gave it to the lady. And he said, you just cut off what you think is too long. Just make it right. So she snipped, snipped, snipped. And he said, now, what do you think? Is it right now?

And she said, yeah, it's perfect now. And he said, good. Would you give me the scissors? And so he said, I want to use these scissors to help you out a little bit, too, because I've noticed your tongue is too long.

So I'm going to snip a little bit of it off. Of course, he didn't do that. But she got the point. There are always those who are the naysayers, the critics, the, you know, the people who see things in a negative light.

And David had to deal with people like that, even among his own faithful men. He had some among them. .