Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Tuesday - 1 Samuel 30 - Here War, There War, Everywhere War, War

Ah yes, David escaped from battling against his own people! But alas, when he arrived back home, Ziklag was gone.  The Amalekites had invaded and taken everything and everybody.  Now, you want to talk about being alone... when David's men realized what had happened, they were ready to kill him.  But, David sought for God's face in the middle of this trial too.

With God's approval, David and 2/3 of his men went after the Amalekites in order to rescue their wives and children. With help from an Egyptian servant who had been abandoned by those same Amalekites, David found them and retrieved everything. He soundly defeated the Amalekites and returned to Ziklag.  And, not only did he and his men take back all that was rightfully theirs, but they took all the belongings of the Amalekites too and divided them with their fellows who had been too weak to go to battle. They had such a great quantity of spoils that they even sent gifts to his friends in Judah who had allowed him to hide among them during all the time that he had been fleeing from Saul.

David was truly a man of war (1st Chronicles 28:3). It seems that everywhere he turned there was conflict. And, although he was truly destroying the enemies of God and of Israel, all his fighting had a distinct effect on him. Read his last words as he lay on his deathbed and you will find that David's violent life affected him to the end (1st Kings 2:1-9).


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