David finds encouragement in the Lord
30
📚And it came about when David and his men had come to Ziklag on the third day, they saw that the Amalekites 📖 had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and had attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, 2 📚and had taken captive the women who had been in it. They did not kill any, either great or small, but carried them off and went on their way.3 📚So David and his men came to the city and saw that it had been burned with fire, and that their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive. 4 📚Then David and the people who were with him raised their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. 5 📚And David’s two wives, Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail the wife of Nabal from Carmel, had been taken captive. 6 📚And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him 📖, because the soul of every one of the people was grieved, each man for his sons and for his daughters. But David encouraged himself 📖 in the LORD his God.
7 📚And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, “Please bring the ephod here to me”. And Abiathar brought the ephod there to David. 8 📚And David consulted the LORD, saying, “Shall I pursue after this troop? Will I overtake them?” And he answered him, “Pursue, for you will certainly overtake them, and without fail recover all”.
David recovers all
9 📚So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those who were left behind stayed, 10 📚but David continued to pursue, he and four hundred men. But two hundred, who were so weary that they could not cross the brook Besor, stayed behind.
11 📚And they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David, and gave him bread, and he ate, and they gave him water to drink, 12 📚and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit revived in him, for he had not eaten bread or drunk any water for three days and three nights.
13 📚And David said to him, “To whom do you belong? From where do you come?” And he said, “I am a young man from Egypt, a servant of an Amalekite. And my master left me, because three days ago I fell sick. 14 📚We made a raid on the south of the Kerethites and on the territory which belongs to Judah and on the south of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire”.
15 📚And David said to him, “Can you take me down to that troop?” And he said, “Swear to me by God that you will not kill me, or deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will take you down to that troop”.
16 📚And when he had brought him down, there they were spread out all over the ground, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great plunder that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines and out of the land of Judah. 17 📚And David struck them down from twilight to the evening of the next day, and not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled. 18 📚And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. 19 📚And there was nothing of theirs missing, either small or great, either sons or daughters, or plunder, or anything that they had taken for themselves. David recovered all. 20 📚And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drove ahead of the other livestock, and said, “This is David’s plunder”.
30:18-20 This was in accordance with God’s good promise in v 8. When believers lose ground in the spiritual life, by God’s grace it is possible for them to regain it (Ps 51:12; Isa 57:17-19; Jer 30:17; Joel 2:25; Gal 6:1; Rev 2:4-5). Actually David gained more than he had before; he took all that had belonged to the Amalekites.⚜
21 📚And David came to the two hundred men who had been so weary that they could not follow David, whom they had stay at the brook Besor. And they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. And when David came near the people, he greeted them. 22 📚Then all the wicked men and evil scoundrels 📖 among those who had gone with David, answered and said, “Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the plunder that we have recovered, except to each man his wife and his children, so that they can lead them away and leave”.
23 📚Then said David, “My brethren, you must not do so with what has been given us by the LORD, who has preserved us and delivered the troop that came against us into our hands. 24 📚And who will listen to you in this matter? But the portion of the one who stayed with the baggage will be the same as the portion of the one who went down to the battle. They shall share alike”.
30:24 Num 31:25-27; Josh 22:8. Not every person could be on the front line, but every one had a task that deserved reward when faithfully done. This is true now with believers.⚜
25 📚And so it was from that day on. He made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day.
26 📚And when David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah, to his friends, saying, “Look, a present for you from the plunder from the enemies of the LORD”.
30:26 An unselfish, gracious, and wise thing to do.⚜
27 📚He sent to those who were in Bethel, and to those who were in south Ramoth, and to those who were in Jattir, 28 📚and to those who were in Aroer, and to those who were in Siphmoth, and to those who were in Eshtemoa, 29 📚and to those who were in Rachal, and to those who were in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, and to those who were in the cities of the Kenites, 30 📚and to those who were in Hormah, and to those who were in Korashan, and to those who were in Athach, 31 📚and to those who were in Hebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men had gone about.