Can I pray for you in any way?
Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, "Bring me the ephod." Abiathar brought it to him, 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 and the six hundred men with him came to the Besor Ravine where some stayed behind, for two hundred men were too exhausted to cross the ravine. But David and four hundred men continued the pursuit.
They found an Egyptian in a field and brought him to David. They gave him water to drink and food to eat - 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.
David asked him, "To whom do you belong and 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. We raided the Negev of the Kerethites and the territory belonging to Judah and the Negev of Caleb. And we burned Ziklag."
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."
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.
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. David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives. Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken. David brought everything back. He took all the flocks and herds, and his men drove them ahead of the other livestock, saying, "This is David's plunder."
Then David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow him and who were left behind at the Besor Ravine. They came out to meet David and the people with him. As David and his men approached, he greeted them. 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."
David replied, "No, my brothers, you must not do that with what the Lord has given us. He has protected us and handed over to us the forces that came against us. 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." David made this a statute and ordinance for Israel from that day to this.
When David arrived in Ziklag, he sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah who were his friends, saying, "Here is a present for you from the plunder of the Lord's enemies."
He sent it to those who were in Bethel, Ramoth Negev, and Jattir; to those in Aroer, Siphmoth, Eshtemoa, and Racal; to those in the towns of the Jerahmeelites and the Kenites; to those in Hormah, Bor Ashan, Athach, and Hebron; and to those in all the other places where David and his men had roamed.
1 Samuel 30:7-31
This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
At the beginning of 1 Samuel, chapter 30, we found David and his men in great distress. For after being denied the opportunity to fight alongside the Philistine army by King Achish, they were sent home to Ziklag, only to find their town ransacked and burned with their family members and all belongings stolen by the Amalekites. You’ll recall that all this angered David’s men so much that they discussed stoning him, placing blame on David.
So what was David to do now?
He had been rejected by the Philistine commanders.
His town had been ruined and all his women, children, and possessions were stolen.
And now, his men were so mad that they wanted to kill him.
Well, as we see in today’s passage from the rest of chapter 30, David did the only thing he could do. He turned to the Lord.
For after he had his priest bring him the holy ephod, David “inquired of the Lord” asking:
“Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?"
In other words, David wanted to know if it was God’s will for him and his men to go after the marauding Amalekites.
Now, there’s little doubt that David and his men, if left to their own devices, would have easily gone out on their own to take back what was wrongfully taken from them, avenging the attack on Ziklag. But here we find David showing us something very important when facing an important decision.
We should never rely on our own wisdom.
And so David asked the Lord what he should do and the Lord was ready with an answer, replying:
“Pursue them…You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue."
Well, we see that this was all David needed to hear as he gathered his “six hundred men” and began the pursuit…a pursuit that not everyone could finish for we read where “two hundred men were too exhausted to cross the ravine” and so they remained behind while “David and four hundred men continued” on.
Not long after leaving the ravine area, David’s men “found an Egyptian in a field and brought him to David” who made sure the man was given “water to drink and…part of a cake of pressed figs and two cakes of raisins” to eat. The food restored the Egyptian’s strength “for he had not eaten any food or drunk any water for three days and three nights” and David took advantage of the occasion to ask the man some questions.
First, David wanted to know who the man belonged to and where he had come from. He learned that the Egyptian man was a “slave of an Amalekite” who had abandoned him after he had become ill three days earlier and, as we know, that was how long the man had gone without food and water.
The Egyptian went on to tell David that he had been with the Amalekites when they “raided the Negev of the Kerethites and the territory belonging to Judah and the Negev of Caleb” as well as the burning of David’s town of Ziklag. Sensing the Egyptian might assist him, David asked:
"Can you lead me down to this raiding party?"
Surely feeling that he could get back at his Amalekite master over the way he had been mistreated, we see the Egyptian agree to do what David asked if he could have the assurance that he wouldn’t be killed or turned back over to the Amalekites. We read where David agreed to these terms and with the agreement in place, the Egyptian led David and his men to where the Amalekites were, finding them “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”. The scriptures show us that David wasted no time attacking his enemy, fighting them “from dusk until the evening of the next day” and allowing only “four hundred young men” to escape on camels. After this, “David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives” bringing back all of his people as well as his “flocks and herds”.
And with that, all seemed well again.
David and his men had their families back as well as everything else that had been taken but as we see, it didn’t take long for a dispute to happen, disrupting the joy of the victory and its spoils. For we read that as “David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow him…left behind at the Besor Ravine”, problems arose when “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."
In other words, the men left behind could have their families but nothing else, as if fighting in the battle was a prerequisite for receiving any further reward.
Well. We see where David quickly rejected the demands of the evil troublemakers saying:
“No, my brothers, you must not do that with what the Lord has given us. He has protected us and handed over to us the forces that came against us. 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."
And with that, David turned his words into a “statute and ordinance for Israel from that day to this”. And he also “sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah” after arriving back in Ziklag.
And so a chapter that started with David and his men devastated by loss and their family and possessions in the hands of the enemy, finished with a happy ending. And it only ended up that way because David turned everything over to the Lord.
When he needed strength, he turned to the Lord.
When he needed guidance, he turned to the Lord.
And when he needed to combat the greediness of the evil troublemakers in his army, he reinforced the fact that everything they had been given…the plunder, protection, and victory in battle…had come from only one source…turning the attention of his men to the Lord and his provision. Because of this, all of the six hundred men would receive an equal share of the spoils.
Through his actions, David shows us that a bounty of blessings is possible if we only turn to the Lord and place our full trust in Him. For him, God gave him strength, guidance, safety, and understanding as to what he was to do.
The great news today is that the Lord stands ready to do the same for us, meeting our needs as long as it is in accordance with the Lord’s will and purpose for us. All we need to do is seek Him give Him our full and faithful trust, knowing that His ways are always perfect. When we do this, the Lord will take care of the rest and, like David, lead us to persevere and gain victory over our difficult circumstances.
Friends, let us all give thanks to the Lord for His willingness to always be there for us whenever we turn to Him. May we praise His holy name, now and forevermore.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment