1 Samuel 30 and verse 9. You may remember that this was
part of the account in which David and his men returned from
the presence of the Philistines, as the Philistines were about
to fight with the children of Israel. David and his troop of
soldiers returned to their own city of Ziklag and discovered
that it had been destroyed by the Amalekites. in their absence
and all their wives and children had been kidnapped. And so we
read from verse 9. So David went, he and the six
hundred men that were with him, and came to the brook Besor,
where those that were left behind stayed. But David pursued he
and four hundred men, for two hundred abode behind, which were
so faint that they could not go over the brook Basar. And
they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David,
and gave him bread, and he did eat, and they made him drink
water. And they gave him a piece of
a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten,
his spirit came again to him, for he had eaten no bread nor
drunk any water three days and three nights. And David said
unto him, To whom belongest thou, and whence art thou? And he said,
I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite, and my master
left me, because three days ago I fell sick. We made an invasion
upon the south of the Cherethites, and upon the coast which belongeth
to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag
with fire. And David said to him, Canst
thou bring me down to this company? And he said, Swear unto me by
God, that thou wilt neither kill me, nor deliver me into the hands
of my master. and I will bring thee down to
this company.' And when he had brought him down, behold, they
were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating and drinking and
dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out
of the land of the Philistines and out of the land of Judah.
And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening
of the next day. And there escaped nor a man of
them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels and
fled. And David recovered all that
the Amalekites had carried away. And David rescued his two wives. And there was nothing lacking
to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither
spoil nor anything that they had taken to them. David recovered
all. And David took all the flocks
and the herds which they drave before those other cattle and
said, this is David's spoil. And David came to the two hundred
men which were so faint that they could not follow David,
whom they had made also to abide at the brook Besor. And they
went forth to meet David, and to meet the people that were
with him. And when David came near to the people, he saluted
them. Then answered all the wicked
men, and men of Belial, of those that went with David, and said,
Because they went not with us, we will not give them aught of
the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man his wife and
his children, that they may lead them away and depart. Then said
David, Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the
Lord hath given us, who hath preserved us, and delivered the
company that came against us into our hand? For who will hearken
unto you in this matter? But as his part is that goeth
down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by
the stuff. They shall part alike, And it
was so from that day forward that he made it a statute and
an ordinance for Israel unto this day. And when David came
to Ziklag, he sent of the spoil unto the elders of Judah, even
to his friends, saying, Behold, a present for you of the spoil
of the enemies of the Lord. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. The verses to the end of the
chapter specify a few places that David sent these gifts to,
but it will suffice for that reading at this time. As soon as David asked the Lord
for help, the Lord answered his servant. David and his men would
indeed overtake and defeat the Amalekites. The Amalekites, you'll
remember, had destroyed Ziklag and stolen the wives and families
of these soldiers, David's wives and the wives and family of his
soldiers. And though these men were weary
from the journey home from the place where the battle would
be fought between the Philistines and the children of Israel, remember
how the Lord of the Philistines had said, we're not going to
have David amongst us when we go to battle. So they, Ashish,
the king of the, or at least who appears to have been the
leader of the Philistines at that time, sent David back to
Ziklag. And they were weary from their
journey back from the battlefield. Nevertheless, the troop set off
at once in pursuit of the Amalekites. It's interesting, I think, how
we often think that we're too weak or we're too weary to do
something, only to find unexpected strength and energy when something
more urgent arises. And this was the case with these
men here. They all felt weary and tired
when they came back to Ziklag. No doubt they were happy to think
that they would be coming home, they would have the opportunity
to rest, they would see their family, they would just be able
to take things easy. And then suddenly they were thrust
into another urgent situation. And though exhausted, necessity
drove David's soldiers to collect themselves together, to gather
up their weapons, to stop the weeping and the crying that had
so drained them as well, and to set out again on a new mission. Nevertheless, we discover something
interesting, that though all were willing Not all of the soldiers
had strength enough to make the full distance of this pursuit. Perhaps some were older, perhaps
some were younger, perhaps some were in some way incapacitated
but a significant number of David's soldiers, 200 in all, had to
be left behind at the Brut Besser while David pursued the Amalekites
with a troop of 400. And that reminds us, I think,
that not all of the Lord's people have the same resources, whether
that's physically or indeed spiritually. And it is wise for us to recognise
that. It's wise for us not to press
people, not to drive people beyond what they are capable of doing
or knowing or understanding or accomplishing. And David was
a type of our Lord Jesus. And the Lord pities the weakest
of the flock. He gathers up in his arms the
lambs. He leads those, even placing
them upon his shoulder to carry them home. And the Lord is kind
and gracious and long-suffering with his people. and we should
learn to emulate that also. We should learn, even from this
example of David, to pardon and to accommodate the weaknesses
of one another and be ready to overlook the limitations that
one another have. Who knows, perhaps the Lord has
made the difference not to test the resolve of the weak, but
rather to exercise the empathy and the compassion of the strong. What makes us strong is the Lord,
and we should exercise our strength in the support and help of those
who are weaker. And look how the Lord works in
this situation. David had no idea what he would
find in the Amalekite camp. He had no idea of numbers. He
had no idea where they had gone, how long they had gone even.
Perhaps he was able to make some guesses, but he was pursuing
an enemy who may have been vastly stronger than he was. and yet
the Lord had already provided help for David in his search. An Egyptian of all things, an
Egyptian no friend of Israel, an Egyptian who was the servant
of an Amalekite had been left behind in the field by his master
because he was sick and because he was dying. When this young
man was found by David's soldiers, he'd already lain alone for three
days and three nights without any nourishment, simply waiting
to die. Those must have been long days
and long nights for that young man. And then it wasn't help
that came, At least that's what it seemed, but it was the very
enemy that he had been involved in pillaging. But rather than
kill him, David's men provided food and water. And by this act
of kindness, they obtained intelligence about the location and the condition
of the Amalekite camp. The Lord supplied the opportunity
for David's soldiers to show kindness and it was repaid bountifully
with valuable information. And I think there's a lesson
for us here too. A sick, abandoned Egyptian slave
was the poorest of the poor. the meanest of the mean, and
yet he was employed by the Lord to accomplish God's purpose. And it was the pity of the Israelite
soldiers, David's soldiers, that opened the way for this to happen. May the Lord teach me not to
despise those who are the poorest and the lowliest in this world. The Lord says, love your enemies,
bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and
pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. How
grateful this young Egyptian was to embrace life once again
and identify himself with the people of God whom he clearly
knew something about. I keep coming back to this, how
frequently in the Old Testament we discover that the nations
round about had quite a considerable understanding about the true
nature of the God of Israel. And here is a young Egyptian.
long, long time since the children of Israel were slaves in Egypt,
but a young Egyptian who knew something about the one true
God. And he placed his trust in the
word of David, sworn before and in the name of the one true God. So that perhaps even this small
kindness that we might do to someone, like David did to this
Egyptian, might open a door of opportunity to share with a most
unlikely hearer the message of the gospel and of God's grace
and God's mercy. But really it's not the Egyptian
that we have in mind. It was God's own people who were
the objects of his salvation today. And when David found the
camp of the Amalekites, these Amalekites, these men had already
lost any sense of danger. And well, might they have. They
had come into the coasts of Judah, into the land of the Philistines,
unopposed. The Philistine armies were all
in the north, getting ready to battle with the children of Israel.
The children of Israel's armies were there as well, and so they
appeared to all intents and purposes to have the land to themselves
to do whatever they would and they were celebrating their spoil. They were eating and drinking
and dancing. And yet there in their camp were
these Jewish captives. no doubt anxious and concerned,
probably weeping at the very moment in which their captors
danced and laughed. It must have been a bleak time
for these women and children. Slavery and abuse lay before
them. And yet even in their suffering,
and even in their fear, Their deliverers, David and his
men, their deliverers, unbeknown to them, were racing towards
them. David's wives, David's friends'
wives and children, They did not know if there was any deliverance
coming. As far as they knew, David was
involved in a battle many, many miles away in which probably
many of their husbands would die anyway. There was no hope
for these people and yet the Lord had provided a way of escape. The captors They danced, they
made merry, but unbeknown to them, destruction was racing
towards them. What is our lesson here? Well,
surely this, even though we do not see the ways of God in a
particular time, in a particular place or set of circumstances,
he is accomplishing his purpose and he is bringing good for the
people that he loves. David's wives and the wives of
the other men wept and grieved and were sad. They were bereft
of comfort as they anticipated what lay beyond, what lay before
them. But in the very moment in which
they mourned, the Lord was sending their deliverance to them. This
is the way of grace and peace. This is the kindness of the Lord
on his little children. The persecutors of Christ's church
eat, drink, and make merry, but tomorrow they will die. He who
first loved us saves and keeps us through life's trials. He gives grace. to his people
and he will bring justice upon the heads of our foes. The Amalekites, for their part,
had become spread out and separated. Group by group, David rounded
them up and slew them all, except for some 400 young men who managed
to escape on fast camels. Maybe they were dromedaries.
Everything that had been taken from Ziklag was recovered. All the family members, all the
sheep, all the cattle, all the goods. The Lord returned David
and his soldiers everything that they had lost. And in addition,
David also appropriated all the booty that had been stolen from
other places as well, which likely included people and cattle and
sheep and goods. It was all recovered, making
David and his soldiers very rich. But there's another lesson here
as well. When the Lord makes us to prosper, it is important
that we share the good things that the Lord has given us and
not hoard all these things to ourselves as though we deserve
it, as though we've earned it and it's ours. The world thinks that the measure
of a man is his wealth. But for believers, the measure
of a man is how he dispenses his wealth. When David's men returned to
the Brook Besser, some of those, the Bible calls them sons of
Belial, were motivated by greed and they declined to share the
wealth that they had gotten with the 200 that had been left behind. That reminds us that there are
always tares amongst the wheat. There are always sons of Belial
amongst the Lord's people. Always some goats who creep into
the Lord's flock who do not know grace. May the Lord protect our
hearts from greed. David wisely, though gently,
rejected the suggestion of these men. These men had, these 200
had not willingly stayed behind, but were forced to do so out
of necessity. And in a sense, they still served
by guarding the stuff that had been left behind. David made
it a principle from that time forward that all should share
together in the benefit of what the Lord had provided. And this
is a commonwealth. We speak about the commonwealth
of Israel, but this is the commonwealth of the Church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And whether we're speaking about
material resources, in which we should certainly be ready
to care for one another, or spiritual resources, we should be ready
always to give out of the plentitude, out of the abundance that the
Lord has given us. Let us be alert, let us be sensitive
to the needs of one another and endeavour to help and support
as we are able. David recovered his wives and
from the excess that he gained, he sent gifts to his friends
throughout Judah. some perhaps who had been victims
of this very Amalekite raiding party and perhaps some who'd
shown kindness to him and his men as they were fleeing from
Saul in different parts of the region. And no doubt this reinforced
friendships for David that would help smooth the way to his route
to the throne of Israel upon the death of Saul. More of that
on another occasion. The only thing David actually
lost were the burned buildings in Ziklag, which was, as you
will remember, a Philistine city. And I wonder if the Lord caused
this to happen, to remind David that Israel and not the land
of the Philistines was where his true home and his true destiny
lay. Sometimes the Lord dismantles
the structures that we build around us in the land of the
Philistines. in order to move us back into
the land of promise. The best lesson for us today
from this passage is to look beyond David to see David's greater
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Saviour, though God, became
a man and came as a man to rescue us from the captivity of sin
and bondage to Satan. Just as David pursued the Amalekites
for the sake of those that he loved, so the Lord Jesus Christ
has come to save those that he loves. When we had no power to
save ourselves, our Saviour came in love to save us. It didn't
cost David his life to save those that he loved, but it cost our
Saviour dearly in suffering, in pain, in shedding his life's
blood to save us from our sins. We are blessed to have such a
Saviour. May he teach us to trust him
more, to follow him closely, to obey him wisely. and may we
find a usefulness in serving him for the good of our brothers
and sisters and those around about us in this world. Amen.