Leading Wisely

I Samuel 30

Welcome! Today we continue our account of the story of David’s progression from shepherd to king. In this series we have seen that David has had both fine moments and not-so-wonderful moments. Certainly his faith in God demonstrated in his confrontation with Goliath was a high point. Although he has had other good days, days when he seeks God first and lives according to His precepts, over the past few weeks we have seen David seemingly forget about His need for God and instead operate by His own principles. By and large, this hasn’t gone so well.

We have seen David, driven by Saul’s continued pursuit of him, choose to live in the territory of the enemies of the Israelites. In last week’s passage in I Sam. 29, we even saw David asking the king of this land to please let him go out and fight against his own people! It is hard to believe that David really wanted to do this, but he had been living a deceptive life for some time with this king, pretending to go out on raids against the Israelites, when in fact he was attacking their enemies instead. David saw the lying as necessary to preserve his and his followers’ ability to live with this foreign people, and perhaps it was necessary. But David had not consulted the Lord about living with them in the first place, and it seemed like in recent times he hadn’t consulted the Lord about much of anything.

David was quite fortunate that the military leaders didn’t trust David and made him and his men leave the army before they engaged with the Israelites. At their insistence, the king had David and his men return to their settlement in Ziklag. At this point, David may have felt that everything was going to plan – because he begged the king to fight, the king still trusted him, and so the delicate and dangerous game David was playing with his own life and the life of his men and their families could continue. Maybe this is what he thought, just as we may do something quite similar when we choose to defy God’s commands in some area of our lives but not see any negative consequences for it. But God sees all, and eventually, there are consequences for putting ourselves on the “throne of our hearts” instead of keeping God there. Let’s look at today’s passage.

David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it, and had taken captive the women and everyone else in it, both young and old. They killed none of them, but carried them off as they went on their way. When David and his men reached Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. – I Sam. 30:1-3

What a sudden reversal of fortune! This is how it often is when we choose to disobey God. I can imagine the men, joyful because they are almost upon Ziklag, but then they smell smoke, and soon they see it. Even though they are tired, the break out into a run. At first they fear everyone has been killed, but they find no bodies, so they know their families have been taken off as slaves.

 So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. David’s two wives had been captured—Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. – I Sam. 30:4-6a

David’s reversal of fortune intensifies. Most of David’s men had followed him for years. They loved David and would do anything for him. But now they blame David for this catastrophe. And it really is David’s fault. David led them into this land. David chose this path of deception with the enemy king. David even extended the ruse at the risk of being told to fight against his own people. All of these things David did, as far as Scripture reveals, on his own. There is no sign he inquired of the Lord. God had protected him again and again his own land; nothing had suddenly changed to demand that David leave the land and make the choices he had made. These were David’s own decisions. And now the men see this. The man they followed, even loved, now was seen to be deeply flawed. If they wanted to follow someone who made decisions on his own apart from God, they could have stayed with Saul. And now their families were gone because of David. In shock and grief, their anger was so great that they were ready to stone David right then and there. Note that the passage says each man was bitter in spirit. David’s approval numbers had instantly gone from 100% to 0%. How ironic it would have been if David had spent all this time avoiding Saul only to die at the hands of his own men!

I realize it is hard to envision us being in this position, but I do want to ask, what would you do? Try to flee? Try to talk the men into giving him more time? Give up? David may have been tempted by these options, but he did none of these things. To his credit, he chose a much better path.

But David found strength in the Lord his God. Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelek, “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.” – I Sam. 30:6b-8

We have talked about the ephod previously in this series. We don’t know exactly how it worked, but it was a way to ask God primarily yes/no questions and receive answers from Him. It was a function of priests to inquire of God in this way. Note that David received two yes answers; not only would he “certainly” be able to overtake them, he would also be able to bring back their families!

David and the six hundred men with him came to the Besor Valley, where some stayed behind. Two hundred of them were too exhausted to cross the valley, but David and the other four hundred continued the pursuit. – I Sam. 30:9-10

So although David’s men were certainly tired from their journey from the front of the coming battle with Israel back to Ziklag, they immediately went off to catch the Amelekites, presumably at the fastest rate they could possibly go. We are not absolutely sure of the exact location of Ziklag, but it could well have been a more than 20-mile pursuit. The passage implies that their pace was so fast – perhaps including periods of running – that a third of David’s men were unable to continue due to exhaustion. But David and the 400 men who were still able pressed on.

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, “Who do you belong to? Where do you come from?” – I Sam. 30:11-13a

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, some 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.” – I Sam. 30:13b-15

It’s easy when reading over a story such as this to miss the providence of God.  Without the good “luck” of finding this Egyptian, it is not clear that David’s group would have ever found the Amalekites. Or it may have taken so long that when they were found, they had already sold off the people they had captured to others who not only took them away much greater distances, but also separated them. This was the work of God. This man not only knew of their raiding history but also knew where to find them. On top of that, he was one of their slaves, and had been left behind to die, so he didn’t feel any loyalty to them. Indeed, the only thing he asked of David’s party was that they would spare him; he asked for no reward at all! It would seem that revenge was his main desire.

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.” – I Sam. 30:16-20

Despite their exhaustion due to the travel back from the Philistine front, the shock of seeing their village in ruins and their people gone, and the breakneck pace to catch the Amalekites, David and his men were able to mount a long, grueling battle to overcome the Amalekites completely. The passage says that only one group fled. This group was 400 men, equal to the size of David’s entire force, so we can see that David and his men were clearly outnumbered in this battle, and probably outnumbered many-to-one. The fact that the passage says that none got away except for 400 implies that the group that did not get away was much, much larger than 400. And so we see God’s hand in them even finding the raiders, God’s hand in giving them the victory despite being severely outnumbered, and God’s hand in ensuring that none of the captives was killed despite the long and fierce battle all around them.

In a giant reversal of fortune (again), David is now the hero. Recall that only a short time earlier, David’s men were ready to stone him! What has changed? The victory, recovering their loved ones, was certainly a part of it, but all these things came to pass because, as in times when he was younger, David had returned to the Lord, putting his faith in Him as opposed to his own wisdom, seeking God’s will above his own.

In addition to what had been taken from them, David and his men plundered the plunderers, apparently ending up with a much greater number of flocks and herds than they had had before all this happened. The men were so overjoyed that they gave all of the excess to David to do with as he saw fit.

Then David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow him and who were left behind at the Besor Valley. They came out to meet David and the men with him. As David and his men approached, he asked them how they were. 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.” – I Sam. 30:21-22

Remember that 200 of the 600 men stayed behind at Besor. They did not continue the exhausting march/run and they did not participate at all in the grueling battle. Here we see some of David’s men turn again. Apparently, up to this time, David had a rule that when the 600 went out on raids, they shared the plunder equally among them. But this was a different situation, the men said. These 200 did not go out, so they shouldn’t receive anything. It is interesting that just a few verses ago they called this “David’s plunder,” but now they seem to have somehow retaken possession of it! A more appropriate response would have been to ask David whether or whether not it was appropriate to include these men when he divided up whatever portion of the plunder he chose to give to the men. But that is not what they did.

Before I give you David’s response to this situation, I want to look at one of Jesus’ parables that I think addresses a similar kind of situation. This parable can be found in Matthew 20.

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. – Matt. 20:1-5a

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’ – Matt. 20:5b-7

“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’ – Matt. 5:8

“The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’ – Matt. 5:9-12

“But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ – Matt. 5:13-15

How do you feel about this parable? I know that before I really meditated on it, I felt uncomfortable about it. I had thoughts like, “Wait, was Jesus a communist?” I felt sympathetic for the workers who worked all day long. It didn’t seem, well, fair. So let me address this.

It is fair. The landowner agreed to pay the first workers, the ones who worked all day, a denarius, a day’s wage, and that is what He paid them. To the second group He said He would pay whatever is right (to the landowner, that is). The second group trusted him without having a firm value. The third and fourth groups were the same. The fifth and final group wasn’t promised or even told anything at all, but they trusted the landowner even without words being spoken on the topic. So the landowner honored all of his agreements. He was generous to some of the groups, but he can do that if he wants.

We are drawn to the workers, and indeed, the parable is usually called the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. But the point of this parable has more to do with the landowner, and Kenneth Bailey, one of my favorite Bible expositors, calls this the Parable of the Compassionate Employer. And this really is the point of the parable. You can find places all around the country where people wait to be picked up for a day’s job even today. Often it seems that undocumented aliens are the ones who do this. Anyway, it is the right of the hirer to pick some people and skip others, and generally, those who appear the fittest and most professional are selected first. This was also true in Jesus’ day. The people who tended not to be picked on one day tended not to be picked on other days as well.

One of the surprises of this parable is that the landowner actually has a foreman – you learn this near the end of the parable, at verse 8. The reason this is surprising is that normally you would expect the foreman to pick up the laborers. A land owner would not normally be involved at this level of detail unless he was too poor to have a foreman. So the realization that, despite having a foreman, the landowner went himself to hire workers, and then the realization the he did this again and again throughout the day, is pretty shocking. Since he is wealthy, why would he do this? The only reason that makes sense is that he cares about these people. He even asks the last group why they are still hanging around. Their answer, that nobody has hired them, shows that they are willing to work, but due to whatever their issue is, perhaps a physical ailment, nobody wants them. And so the landowner hires them too, even though there is little day left in that day. Clearly, he won’t get much work out of them – with so little time left, they could accomplish little even if they were as strong or able as the first batch of workers.

And so the equal pay for all is, above all, an act of compassion. It’s not charity – they still need to work, but it is an act of compassion, a “little thing with great love.”

And the parable imitates Jesus’ approach to ministry in that, not only does the landowner not seek to avoid conflict, he seems to deliberately seek to create it. He specifically instructs the foreman to pay those who came last first. This specifically causes those who worked longer to see that those who worked the least are being paid the same as they are. If he had paid in the reverse order, workers would leave upon being paid and would never discover the landowner’s unusual pay scale. If the final workers did indeed have infirmities, this would make those who worked hard the full day even more disturbed, because not only did the final group receive the highest pay per hour, but they also were the least productive ones there per hour.     

Why does Jesus tell this parable? Because He says the kingdom of heaven is like this. What does that mean? Well, it certainly includes the idea the gift of salvation is not based one’s works; someone who does bad things their whole life but genuinely repents upon their deathbed and turns to faith in Christ will receive eternal life just like the person who comes to Christ at an early age and suffers greatly because of their faith. But I think the parable goes beyond this – it is telling us something important about God, about His heart of compassion towards the weak. Not just the physically weak, but also, I believe, towards those who are weak in many ways. He understands, and He has compassion. He loves the weak!

By implication, because we are to follow Jesus, we should have the same heart of compassion ourselves. Before I say more about this, let’s go back to David in I Samuel 30. Some of his 400 men have a complaint similar to that of the workers in this parable. They believe it would be unfair to give the 200 anything because they didn’t fight and risk their lives in that battle. They didn’t even finish the journey! What does David do? Look at verse 23.

David replied, “No, my brothers, you must not do that with what the Lord has given us. He has protected us and delivered into our hands the raiding party 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. – I Sam. 30:23-25

David’s answer is wise. He first calls them brothers, reminding them that they are a family – because of what they have already gone through together and because of their commitment to David, giving up everything to follow him. (Sound familiar?)  Second he reminds them that the 400 are not their deliverers, the Lord is. Third, he points out that the 200 did do something – they guarded the supplies. It is likely that the 400 lightened their loads to only bring the absolute essentials so that they could move faster. If all 600 had gone, either they all would have been bogged down by the loads or, if they left supplies behind, they may well have been stolen. In addition, if the 200 had joined the 400, the 400 would have been severely slowed by the ones who were exhausted. But beyond all this, I think the core reason for David’s decision was none of these things – it was compassion. His decision was not tied to the particulars of this situation; this is why he made it a statute and ordinance for all time. And so we see that David is a forerunner of Christ (flawed though David is) in how he demonstrates compassion towards the weak.

When David reached Ziklag, he sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah, who were his friends, saying, “Here is a gift for you from the plunder of the Lord’s enemies.” David sent it to those who were in Bethel, Ramoth Negev and Jattir; to those in Aroer, Siphmoth, Eshtemoa and Rakal; to those in the towns of the Jerahmeelites and the Kenites; to those in Hormah, Bor Ashan, Athak and Hebron; and to those in all the other places where he and his men had roamed. – I Sam. 30:26-31

Here we see that David did not give out all the plunder to the 600 but held some back that he gave to those he had received aid from in the past. This also demonstrated wisdom – it would have imprudent for his people to become rich at the expense of those who had helped them. It was appropriate to give something back to those that had helped him and his men previously. And incidentally, it made more and more people appreciate David so that when the time would eventually come for David to become king, the transition might go more smoothly.

I want to briefly return to this theme of compassion before closing today. I think of I Peter 3:8:

 Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. – I Peter 3:8

In Sarah’s “Welcome to Clemson class,” CU1000, she had to take an online quiz in which she was asked which of the following was not a core principle or core value of Clemson. Her answer was wrong. The correct answer was “Compassion.” I could understand that other core beliefs might be chosen to be highlighted at Clemson, but I could not understand why someone would write a multiple-choice question in which “Compassion” was the wrong answer. Normally one writes test questions to teach as well as to assess, and so the question must be asked why Clemson would want people to know that compassion is not welcome on campus. I never received a good answer to this question.

Rather than trying to figure that out, I encourage you to choose to live compassionately. As illustrated by David’s life and by Jesus through His parable, let us choose to live with kindness, understanding, love, and self-sacrifice, and let us couple these good things with a ready answer for the reason for the hope that we have.

I want to close with a recording of one of my favorite songs. I encourage you to listen to it here and prayerfully commit to living a life of compassion because Jesus first had compassion on each of us.

The song is called “Little Things with Great Love,” by Audrey Assad, Isaac Wardell, and Madison Cunningham. Here are the words:

In the garden of our Savior no flower grows unseen

His kindness rains like water on every humble seed

No simple act of mercy escapes His watchful eye

For there is One who loves me: His hand is over mine

In the kingdom of the heavens no suffering is unknown

Each tear that falls is holy, each breaking heart a throne

There is a song of beauty in every weeping eye

For there is One who loves me: His heart, it breaks with mine

O the deeds forgotten, O the works unseen

Every drink of water flowing graciously

Every tender mercy You’re making glorious

This You have asked of us: Do little things with great love, Little things with great love

At the table of our Savior, no mouth will go unfed

And His children in the shadows stream in and raise their heads

O give us ears to hear them, and give us eyes that see

For there is One who loves them. I am His hands and feet