David and the Amalekites

David and the Amalekites

In this country we are so blessed to have amazing scenery around us all the time and for me some of the most special times are sunsets and sunrises. So beautiful. But in fact as you know the sun does not rise, it never moves, it’s the earth that rises or sets- we should really call it a earth-rise or an earth-set? So much in life depends on our frame our reference, where we stand, what the social norms are, what we have been trained to do. And this is reflected on how we behave, what we believe and as you have seen even our language. And sometimes that can be very detrimental in our lives. Today I want to look at a man, David, who was not bound by the norms of society, the trappings of “group think”, or of peer pressure in a section of scripture that is very relevant even today,

We are going to have a look at 1 Samuel 30 where David destroys the Amalekites. At this point in David’s life he was keeping well way from Saul who was after his blood. He had formed an alliance with the Philistine leader, Achish, who was marching into battle against Saul. David’s apparent support of the Philistines, had I guess for pretty obvious reasons, been rejected by the Philistines and so David was returning with his men to Ziklag

 1 Samuel 30

1 David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it, 2 and had taken captive the women and everyone else in it, both young and old. They killed none of them, but carried them off as they went on their way.

3 When David and his men reached Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. 4 So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. 5 David’s two wives had been captured—Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. 6 David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God.

We will pick up a few lessons as we go through these scriptures, but the message where I would like to focus on is really at the end of this story.

1. Firstly do you notice how in this world people like to find a scapegoat for their troubles.  Here the men are talking of stoning David- they blame him for the situation they are in! The way of this world, and I see it in every country, is in general to try and find someone to blame for our troubles. Take this recent and terrible case of a young girl dying in the children’s hospital. Two or three nurses are taking the brunt of the witch hunt. There are times when individuals are criminally negligent, but in general and in most cases, there are systemic failures in a system, not in the people.  Putting more people into the situation does not help, (just more people to blame), even throwing money at the problem money will have limited effect- we have to change the way we think, live and work- if things are not right we need to change the process or we have to change the system of operation. That means we need to shift our frame of reference. We see that David does not play this blame game, he does not blame God for his woes and neither does he blame himself as some us are ought to! And we will see later how he does change the system. These are the marks of a true leader, something our politicians and leaders should take note of.

 So lets look at David’s response

2.  We see in verse 6, David found strength in the Lord his God. David stops, he does not blame anyone but turns to God. 

Isaiah 41:10 (NIV)

10 So do not fear, for I am with you;

    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you;

    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand

So David looks past the immediate problem

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV)

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

There is a song that goes “ Turn your eyes upon Jesus and look into His wonderful face and the things of the world will grow strangely dim”

In the midst of distress, it is often easier said than done, but when we realise our life here is but a drop in the ocean of eternity, we realise how big, how mighty, how awesome is our God! And we are adopted into His family, and as parents we know we will do anything to protect and care for our children. This is David’s heart.

So in times of great distress and trauma, we can learn from David. We stop, we come before God, acknowledge His authority in our lives and trust Him because He has us in the palm of his hands

Now let’s see what David does….

7 Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelek, “Bring me the ephod.” Abiathar brought it to him, 8 and David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?”

“Pursue them,” he answered. “You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue.”

David asks God what to do next! Right at this point I would have failed! In my mind there was no doubt about what to do, but David had grown spiritually and he turns to God for guidance even when the choice seems obvious. We are often convinced we are right in our decisions, but are we?  Lay it before God and let His word be our plumb-line.

David also took a big “risk” by doing this. What would have happened if God said “No don’t go after them” I believe David was prepared to follow whatever decision God made, without concern for the consequences, for him personally and for his men. A tough choice. Are we prepared for tough decisions from God, are we as willing to accept God’s will in our lives, no matter how difficult?

Moving to verse 9

9 David and the six hundred men with him came to the Besor Valley, where some stayed behind. 10 Two hundred of them were too exhausted to cross the valley, but David and the other four hundred continued the pursuit.

11 They found an Egyptian in a field and brought him to David. They gave him water to drink and food to eat— 12 part of a cake of pressed figs and two cakes of raisins. He ate and was revived, for he had not eaten any food or drunk any water for three days and three nights.

13 David asked him, “Who do you belong to? Where do you come from?”

He said, “I am an Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite. My master abandoned me when I became ill three days ago. 14 We raided the Negev of the Kerethites, some territory belonging to Judah and the Negev of Caleb. And we burned Ziklag.”

15 David asked him, “Can you lead me down to this raiding party?”

He answered, “Swear to me before God that you will not kill me or hand me over to my master, and I will take you down to them.”

Just when David needs all the men he has , he loses a third of them. Spurgeon writes this about this loss

When God means to bless us, he often takes away a part of the little strength we thought

we had. We did not think our strength equal to the task, and the Lord takes away a portion

even of the little power we had. Our God does not fill till he has emptied. Two hundred men

must be rent away from David’s side before God could give him victory … Expect then, O

troubled one, that you will be delivered, but know that your sorrow may yet deepen, that

you may have all the greater joy by-and-by. 

So David finds this Egyptian slave of the Amalekite raiding party, abandoned, he is not well at all. He had nothing going for him, in fact, being part of the raiding party made it very likely that he would be killed without a thought. I find this story so Messianic. Beside all the three’s in the verses that point to the Godhead, we too were once slaves of sin, we too faced death, but by grace and mercy we were saved, given spiritual food revived and saved.

But just generally in life, isn’t David’s example a mark of a great leader, a great man, who treats even the lowliest with love and respect. Even in our lives is this not how we should behave, treating all with love and care? Even though they may have been part of the raiding party, and may even be burdensome to us?

Who knows what good may come of it. Who knows what seed you have sown that one day grows into something wonderful. We will never know. In this particular case this slave led David to the Amalekites and was therefore key to the eventual success.

Reading from verse 16

16 He led David down, and there they were, scattered over the countryside, eating, drinking and reveling because of the great amount of plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from Judah. 17 David fought them from dusk until the evening of the next day, and none of them got away, except four hundred young men who rode off on camels and fled. 18 David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives. 19 Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken. David brought everything back. 20 He took all the flocks and herds, and his men drove them ahead of the other livestock, saying, “This is David’s plunder.”

21 Then David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow him and who were left behind at the Besor Valley. They came out to meet David and the men with him. As David and his men approached, he asked them how they were. 22 But all the evil men and troublemakers among David’s followers said, “Because they did not go out with us, we will not share with them the plunder we recovered. However, each man may take his wife and children and go.”

23 David replied, “No, my brothers, you must not do that with what the Lord has given us. He has protected us and delivered into our hands the raiding party that came against us. 24 Who will listen to what you say? The share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All will share alike.” 25 David made this a statute and ordinance for Israel from that day to this.

Its interesting that David ends up with 400 men and yet  400 men flee from him showing the overwhelming victory that David had. David recognises this. Any victory we have comes from God, not from our own hands. Look at verses 22, 23. David’s men did not want to share the spoils of victory with those that did not go out and fight with them, but David responds  saying

“… you must not do that with what the Lord has given us. He has protected us and delivered into our hands the raiding party that came against us” 

And it is this very thinking that brings us to a very important learning point. What we have is from God, it is not what we do or have done. Just because you’re in the front line of the battle does not mean you get more credit or benefit. Just because you fall behind in exhaustion, does not make you less valuable or precious. Just because you are standing in front of the Church talking or leading the church, or a great leader, does not make you any more important. You are as important sitting here quietly in the back of the church as anyone in the front. Nothing any of us do, makes us any more worthy, not even going to church every Sunday, Saturday or any other day (7th day Adventists) or saving 1000’s people (Jehovas Witness’s). Just being you is precious, just  as special and precious as a Pastor of the church. Can you imagine if Glen preached and there was no one here, what good would that be to anyone.  And while we can take comfort in this thought we should see others around us in this same light as well, just as David did.

So in conclusion this scripture represents for me the unsurpassing love of Jesus for us, no matter what your station in life, no matter what you have done, no matter how great or insignificant you are, no matter how many you have saved, no matter if you are strong or weak, no matter if you don’t have the words to speak. For all we have comes from our Father, and all we have to do is rest in His arms and take joy in the presence of the Father. There is no better place to be!