TAKE IT BACK
Key Verse: “David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I pursue this band? Shall I overtake them?” He answered
him, “Pursue; for you shall surely overtake and shall surely rescue.” 1
Samuel 30:8
Have you ever heard the old chorus, “I went to the enemy’s camp
and I took back what he stole from me”?
In today’s passage, we see David and his men in distress. They had left their city unguarded and been
off trying to join the Philistine army.
By the time they returned home, instead of getting the warm greeting
they expected, these men discovered that their enemy, the Amalekites, had
invaded their territory, burned their city to the ground, and carried off their
wives, their sons, their daughters and probably as per the custom of the day,
their stuff. They were devastated! As a matter of fact, the Word tells us they
wept until they had no power left to weep.
Once they stopped bawling, anger set in. In their grief, they even talked about
stoning David because after-all, it was his fault. But the Word tells us that David strengthened
himself in the Lord. He was bold enough
to get his act together and turn to the living God. This was no time for weeping! He waited on the Lord for strength and then asked
the Lord what he should do. He inquired
of the Lord to find out whether or not he should pursue his enemy and take
everything back. God said, ‘you go’
and His word came with a promise: “You shall surely overtake them and without
fail recover all” (vs 8).
This mandate to take back what has been stolen is especially significant for people of African descent and our allies when we consider issues of reparations:
"No human disaster,
with the exception of the Flood… can equal in dimension of destructiveness the
cataclysm that shook Africa. We are all familiar with the slave trade and the
traumatic effect of this on the transplanted Black, but few of us realize what
horrors were wrought on Africa itself. Vast populations were uprooted and
displaced; whole generations disappeared; European diseases descended like the
plague, decimating both cattle and people; cities and towns were abandoned;
family networks disintegrated; kingdoms crumbled; the threads of cultural and
historical continuity were so savagely torn asunder that henceforth one would
have to think of two Africas: the one before and the one after the
Holocaust."[i]
The second action flows out of the first: It is the time for action that starts in the
heavenly realm and manifests in the earthly realm. As surely as David inquired
of the Lord asking if he should “pursue after” (some versions say he asked, “Shall
I overtake them?”), the answer from God was “Pursue, for thou shalt surely
overtake them and without fail recover all’” (1 Samuel 30:8, KJV). However, we have to pursue. The word for pursue in Scripture is radaph
(Strong’s #7291). It is an action word
that means to chase, follow after and even persecute.
This is the decade for God’s people of African descent to arise,
take their place and take back everything the enemy has stolen. It is a time for Black people and their
allies to hear and apply the Word of the Lord. What does that look like for you? Where has the thief attacked? Have your children bought into the negative
stereotypes about them? Are you the one doing all the work while others get the
promotions? Are you from a country that has been pillaged
by Europe over the centuries but is weighed down by national debt? Are you an underpaid, under-resourced, and
overworked frontline worker trying to make it through a health crisis? Are you tired of walking on egg-shells around
people from other cultures who just don’t want to know or see things through
the eyes of another? Silence the disparaging voices around you, inquire of the
Lord and begin to take action. Go into
the enemy’s camp and get your stuff back!
Read: 1 Samuel 30:1 - 8
