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Everything is lost (vss 1-6a)
- Remember David has been living with the Philistines for a little over a year now. He’s been conducting his own raids and still fighting God’s battles. Now the Philistines are going to war and David is put in the Philistine army, but most Philistines don’t trust him. David is relieved of his duties in the Philistine army in time to return to Ziklag.
- Upon his return with all his 600 men to Ziklag they find the Amalekites have stolen everything including their families, their wives and children and burned Ziklag with fire.
- David enters one of the darkest valleys in his life. He’s lost everything and his men have lost everything as well.
- As good as David’s leadership has been up to this point, the men hate his leadership right now. They’ve lost everything, and if ever people question leadership it’s when things aren’t good.
David is promised full recovery if he deals with the enemy (vss 6b-10)
- When bad things happen, it really wears on a person. But there is a bitter pill like no other. It is when horrible things happen to a person who is doing everything he can to do right.
- Intense distress
- Normal people turn to personal pleasure, drunkenness, drugs, relationships in order to soothe our hurts. David looks to the LORD and therefore finds the answers he needs.
- David encouraged himself in the LORD! Like a person saying bring me my Bible.
- David is promised that by God that he will recover all that is lost.
- 200 of the 600 men are too worn out to move on. This becomes a potential problem in the near future, but consider the loss of morale presently. We’re going to battle, but ⅓ of our army isn’t going.
- What incredible leadership! Instead of a mutiny, David successfully turns the hearts of the men to fight on.
David feeds the stranger (vss 11-15)
- David does right and the LORD continues to provide the help he needs.
- As David has decided to follow the LORD and seek the LORD’s help, a stranger is put in his path that will guide David where he needs to go.
Recovered all (vss 16-20)
- Typical of the heathen, people are partying right before the slaughter.
- Recovered all… but that’s not all. David takes more than was lost.
- David’s spoil – notice that all good, all that belongs to victory is found in David. David, like Christ, all good comes through Christ.
Contention over who did the most (vss 21-25)
- We fought, but you didn’t fight!
- One body, many members
- Not all have the same job.
- Not all have the same strengths.
- It’s apparently such a profound thought that it becomes a statute in leadership from then on.
- There are some faint one’s in the LORD’s army. You’ll be a faint one too one day whether by age or circumstance. Faint one’s love to see their commander return. Faint one’s serve their king by staying by the stuff (vs 24).
David further divides the spoils among those who’ve helped him along the way (vss 26-31)
- What started out as one of the worst times in David’s life has concluded in abundant victory!
David is like Jesus Christ. The reason these episodes in David’s life are recorded a thousand years before the LORD Jesus Christ appears on this earth is that they are precursors to the work of Jesus Christ.
God’s leadership was questioned by sinners. The LORD chose to meet the enemy face to face and recover all that sin had taken. Jesus Christ fully recovered all the man lost in sin. But not only that, he gained even more in the victory. And He gave gifts to men, like David. You might call it the gospel story seen at Ziklag. Jesus Christ recovers all, and if you want to take part in that victory, it’s all in Jesus Christ.
