1 Samuel 29-30

¹ Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek: and the Israelites pitched by a fountain which is in Jezreel. ² And the lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds, and by thousands: but David and his men passed on in the rereward with Achish. ³ Then said the princes of the Philistines, What do these Hebrews here? And Achish said unto the princes of the Philistines, Is not this David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, which hath been with me these days, or these years, and I have found no fault in him since he fell unto me unto this day? ⁴ And the princes of the Philistines were wroth with him; and the princes of the Philistines said unto him, Make this fellow return, that he may go again to his place which thou hast appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he be an adversary to us: for wherewith should he reconcile himself unto his master? should it not be with the heads of these men? ⁵ Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands? ⁶ Then Achish called David, and said unto him, Surely, as the Lord liveth, thou hast been upright, and thy going out and thy coming in with me in the host is good in my sight: for I have not found evil in thee since the day of thy coming unto me unto this day: nevertheless the lords favour thee not. ⁷ Wherefore now return, and go in peace, that thou displease not the lords of the Philistines. ⁸ And David said unto Achish, But what have I done? and what hast thou found in thy servant so long as I have been with thee unto this day, that I may not go fight against the enemies of my lord the king? ⁹ And Achish answered and said to David, I know that thou art good in my sight, as an angel of God: notwithstanding the princes of the Philistines have said, He shall not go up with us to the battle. ¹⁰ Wherefore now rise up early in the morning with thy master’s servants that are come with thee: and as soon as ye be up early in the morning, and have light, depart. ¹¹ So David and his men rose up early to depart in the morning, to return into the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel. ¹ And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire; ² And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way. ³ So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives. ⁴ Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. ⁵ And David’s two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. ⁶ And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every 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, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David. ⁸ And David enquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all. 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. ¹⁰ 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 Besor. ¹¹ 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; ¹² 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. ¹³ 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 agone I fell sick. ¹⁴ 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. ¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶ 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. ¹⁷ And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon 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 lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor any thing that they had taken to them: David recovered all. ²⁰ And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drave before those other cattle, and said, This is David’s spoil. ²¹ 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. ²² 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 ought of the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away, and depart. ²³ 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. ²⁴ 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. ²⁵ And it was so from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day. ²⁶ 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; ²⁷ To them which were in Bethel, and to them which were in south Ramoth, and to them which were in Jattir, ²⁸ And to them which were in Aroer, and to them which were in Siphmoth, and to them which were in Eshtemoa, ²⁹ And to them which were in Rachal, and to them which were in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, and to them which were in the cities of the Kenites, ³⁰ And to them which were in Hormah, and to them which were in Chorashan, and to them which were in Athach, ³¹ And to them which were in Hebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men were wont to haunt.

Have you ever found yourself caught in a difficult situation that you created? That is where we have come to in the life of David in 1 Samuel 29-30. After Saul’s encounter with the witch of Endor and God’s final words to him through Samuel in 1 Samuel 28, we now return to the sticky situation that David found himself in while in Philistine territory. In 1 Samuel 27:1-28:2, David was driven by his fear of Saul to Gath, where he ended up joining himself to Achish. Although David attacked the enemies of Israel during his time there, he used deceit to manipulate Achish into believing that he was raiding the people of Judah. Achish was so convinced that David was serving him that he wanted to make him his servant forever. Where did this leave David? He had not only made an alliance with an enemy of God’s people (the people he was destined to shepherd as king), but he would eventually find himself in a situation where he would have to march with the Philistines against Israel. What would David do? Dale Ralph Davis rightly wrote, “Our bungling does not evaporate His mercy.” Throughout life, you and I will sin and find ourselves on the wrong side of situations. What does David’s story in 1 Samuel 29-30 teach us about God’s dealings with us in those times? We can learn three principles from David’s life during this time.

First, we learn that God gathers us from enemy alliances. 1 Samuel 29 brings us back to David marching with Achish and the Philistines as they camped against the Israelites. “Aphek” is an important city in 1 Samuel because it was the place in 1 Samuel 4 where the Israelites failed to follow the Lord’s leading and tried to manipulate God into acting on their behalf by taking the ark of the covenant into battle without His direction. They were soundly defeated by the Philistines. David had now come back to that same place, facing the same kind of dilemma. Israel’s actions then led to the ark of the covenant being taken by the Philistines and Eli’s sons (Hophni and Phinehas) being killed. This then led to the death of Eli who fell back off of his chair at the news. God then raised up Samuel in his place. In the same vein, at the same location, God was about to bring an end to the reign of Saul and establish David as His king. However, God was still working things out in the heart and life of David. Just as Israel’s actions of taking matters into their own hands and acting in fear in 1 Samuel 4 led to the ark being taken and held in enemy territory, so David’s fear, lying, and scheming had led him to belong to Achish in enemy territory. He had sought his salvation from the Philistines, but now needed to be saved from them. Salvation would come in the most ordinary of ways. The other Philistine lords were rightly suspicious of David and his men because they remembered that David had formerly killed many of them when he served Saul and slew their champion Goliath, so they chastised Achish for bringing David along. Achish was forced to release David and allow him to return to Ziklag. The important principle at work here is that alliances between God’s people and the lost world are ultimately incompatible. James 4:4 tells us that “friendship with the world is enmity with God.” This goes all the way back to Genesis 3:15 where God promised that the seed of the serpent and seed of the woman would be at war with one another. Jesus promised His disciples that the world would hate them (John 15:18-19) and He has called His followers out of the world. This does not mean that believers are to seek hostility with the world. In fact, Romans 12:19 tells us, “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.” However, what believers cannot do is compromise with the world in its sin and opposition to God. That is where David found himself. What happened to David here is a beautiful picture of our salvation. God delivers us from the kingdom of this world and brings us into His kingdom. God delivered him from his allegiance to Achish so that David might return to serving Him. What unholy alliances have you made that prevent you from serving the Lord or put you in opposition to serving the Lord?

Next, we learn that God guides us to fight enemy strongholds. When David and his men returned to Ziklag from following Achish, they found that their home had been raided by the Amalekites. The Amalekites had taken all of their spoil that David’s men had gained from previously raiding them while being joined to Achish. They had also taken their women, including David’s two wives. This had certainly come as a result of all of David’s actions since fleeing Israel to live with the Philistines. In 1 Samuel 27, he and his men had been raiding the Amalekites and others and had been brutally killing everyone in the towns that they raided, not because they wanted to do the Lord’s will, but because they didn’t want anyone from those towns surviving to out him to Achish. David was returning from those raids and telling Achish that he had been attacking towns of Judah. Now, his actions and lying, etc., had brought about serious consequences as the Amalekites had found an opportune time to get even. David’s allegiance to Achish had caught up to him and his men. What’s worse than losing everything he owned personally was that his men were so dejected that they spoke of stoning him (30:6). What would he do? Verses 7-8 provide some powerful details that show us that David had learned a valuable lesson. All of his actions throughout this period in Ziklag and Philistia had been carried out in his own wisdom and strength. He had failed to seek the Lord and trust in Him. Verses 7-8 tell us that he did what he should have done to begin with, he inquired of the Lord through Abiathar the priest and asked the Lord what to do. When the Lord told him to pursue the Amalekites, David took 400 of his men, left the other 200 to guard their things, and they went after the Amalekites. Along the way, they were met by an Egyptian servant of an Amalekite who had been abandoned by his master because of illness and God used that servant to lead David and his men to the Amalekites who were busy celebrating their conquests. David was reminded of a valuable lesson that would be essential for him as king and that is that he needed the Lord’s help and direction for all that he would do. Just as Israel had failed to follow the Lord’s direction and taken matters into their own hands in the past, so had he. He had to learn to wait, trust, and obey the Lord and never act on his own initiative. God used this raid of the Amalekites to discipline David and teach him that lesson. David would later write, “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept they word.” God used the losses of David and his men to return them to serving His purposes. God will discipline us to do the same. Whenever we find ourselves in unholy alliances, if we are a child of God, we can rest assured that God, in His love, will discipline us and correct us to bring us to oppose evil rather than partner with it.

Lastly, we learn that God grants us victory over enemy forces. Following the Lord’s direction, David and his men soundly defeated the Amalekites and verses 18-19 provide some remarkable words of grace. Verse 18 tells us that “David recovered all.” David and his men recovered everything that the Amalekites had taken. When we turn to the Lord, it may cost us. However, even what we think we lose in service to Him, we never truly lose. He restores it all and more. Jesus told His disciples, “Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30). God is so good. He is so merciful. Shortly after the victory, David and his 400 men returned to the 200 that had stayed behind to protect their belongings and a dispute arose among then men about the 200 sharing in the spoil. David took action by saying that all had a part to play and all got to share in the spoils of victory. David even took some of the spoil and gave it to the elders throughout Judah to bolster support from them and erase any notion they had that he was with Achish and against them. When we faithfully serve the Lord, His grace will be poured out in our lives and God will always give us victory in one form or another.

Have you found yourself on the wrong side, serving the wrong purpose? Is your heavenly Father disciplining or convicting you in regards to your current place in life? There is but one response; you must to turn to the Lord and seek Him. There is no replacement in our lives for inquiring of the Lord and trusting Him. When we belong to Him, our lives are no longer about living according to what we want or what we think is best. Our lives then become about entrusting ourselves completely to Him and His ways. In His grace He gathers us from enemy territory, guides us to oppose enemy strongholds, and gives us victory over enemy forces.