David, Quick to Discern

Anyone can misjudge, and anyone can make mistakes. But in this world full of sin, God lights the way with truth so that we who believe can judge rightly; he chastens us through suffering, and he grants us the strength and wisdom to overcome sin. Through many events and many people he keeps showing us his deep love, so if you are even a little spiritually sensitive, you can see it easily. People who live with spiritual sensitivity go through life asking why God has allowed this event to happen to them, why he had them hear those words, and how they should handle it wisely.

David did many things for which God commended him, but he also made many mistakes. When he lived with his heart closed to God, he even went so far as to tell King Achish that he wanted to join in attacking Israel, reaching the point where there was no turning back. Looking back on his life, David would have wanted to erase that moment. Before that, the David God saw was a man of faith who would not even look at anything he thought was sin. Because he always held God in his heart, he was quick to stop when he went the wrong way, and quick to turn and run back into God’s arms. The believer God wants would be someone like David. David turned back the moment he realized he was wrong, even about something he himself had judged and decided. Watching him, we learn how a believer ought to live. People who rely on human judgment think that whatever they judge and decide is right, so they never admit their mistakes.

But good character means admitting a wrong as a wrong. David admitted his wrong and repented, and he prayed to Yahweh, “If I pursue the Amalekites, will I be able to recover everything they took from us?” Yahweh answered, “Pursue; for you will surely overtake them, and will without fail recover all.” David had been going the way of the world, and when he came back to a believer’s place and prayed to God, God was delighted and blessed him.

This moment, when the Amalekite soldiers carried off the people, was the greatest crossroads of David’s life, where he had to decide which way his life would go. Standing at that crossroads, David had to decide whether to humor the people who had lost their families and were enraged, or to let go of them in his heart and return to God. He had come this far because of these people, yet when trouble struck, they forgot to be grateful. If he feared their anger and gave in to them once again, he would never again have a chance to return to God.

Realizing that this was a crisis, David realized that he had no one but God. When he repented of his sin, God forgave him again and told him to pursue the Amalekites. God had given his permission, and David knew well what that meant. From now on it would not be David facing the Amalekites; God himself would face them. David would have been longing for those joyful times when he prayed to God and received answers. When a believer who was once full of faith drifts away from God, the emptiness and sense of loss are very great, for the fear of being far from God is greater than one would think. That is why David’s joy, now that his relationship with God was restored, would have been beyond words.

Look at verse 2. Fortunately, though the Amalekites set the city on fire, they did not kill a single one of the women and children but carried them off as captives. God used the Amalekites to make David recognize his sin and turn back, but he was preserving the people’s lives. Ziklag, where David and his people had been living, was burned, and the women were taken away to Amalek. That is proof that David’s human judgment had been wrong. David had gone to Philistia to save his people’s lives, yet Ziklag was burned and the women and children were all carried off. This shows clearly how wrong his worldly judgment and decision had been.

When people compromise with the world and leave God in order to hold on to what they own, they are grasping at mist, just like this. It feels like theirs, because their nameplate hangs on the door and their children carry their family name, but if God lets go, they lose it all, as if plundered by the Amalekites. I hope you will not call your worldly possessions your own. Everything belongs to God, and unless God keeps it, you cannot preserve your property, or even your children and your life.

With their families gone, the soldiers wanted to stone David. Only then did David realize how foolish it is to defy God’s will to please people. He had disobeyed God to save these people’s lives, yet when harm came to them, they turned on him in anger. Seeing that, he knew that all his judgments had been wrong, and he repented before God with a broken heart, confessing his sin.

Once his relationship with God was restored, David came back as a leader of mature faith and fine character. After receiving God’s answer, on the way toward the Amalekites, two hundred men said they were too exhausted and faint to go on with him. David let them rest and headed for the Amalekites with only four hundred soldiers. He could make this decision because he relied on God rather than on people. Just as Gideon went to war with three hundred men, David thought that if God was with him, four hundred were by no means too few. The David who had feared Achish and tried to please him grew bold once he relied on God.

Seeing David’s faith, God had him meet a guide who knew the Amalekites well. This Egyptian boy whom David met was the servant of an Amalekite, and he had been abandoned when he fell sick. David took the sick boy in, gave him food, and treated him. For David, who was searching for the Amalekites, he was the best guide anyone could ask for. With the help of the boy, who knew the Amalekites so well, David was able to attack them easily.

David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, rescued his two wives, and even took all their flocks and herds as plunder. The people rejoiced and praised him, saying that all this was David’s plunder. It was a remarkable result for so small a force of four hundred. When you rely wholly on God, the battles of the world are this easy. If you do not receive, it is because you do not believe. If you believe and rely on him, God has everything prepared, as he prepared the guide, and is only waiting for you to decide.

On the way back, David met the two hundred men who came out to meet them. They had not been able to join the battle, but they had probably been sick with worry, since their families had been taken.

1 Samuel 30:22

22Then all the wicked men and worthless fellows, of those who went with David, answered and said, “Because they didn’t go with us, we will not give them anything of the plunder that we have recovered, except to every man his wife and his children, that he may lead them away, and depart.”

Those who had fought alongside David proposed that the plunder not be shared with the two hundred who had not fought. Since they had rescued the men’s wives and children, they said, the two hundred should just take their families and go. They were saying that only those who had risked their lives in battle should have the plunder, and in a way this opinion was perfectly reasonable.

But we must notice that the Bible records the people who said this reasonable thing as wicked men and worthless fellows. The Bible calls those who say they cannot share worthless fellows and wicked men because in God all Israel are members of one another. Among members, there is no such thing as one that is needed and one that is not. Though the two hundred could not take part in the battle, they would have prayed earnestly for those who went to fight, and they would have been guarding Ziklag. When those who are strong in body serve with their bodies and those who are weak help with prayer, then in God’s eyes they have all worked together.

When David heard what the wicked men said, he understood their hearts well, because he himself had kept his distance from God with that same kind of heart. Yet he said, “My brothers, we won because Yahweh preserved us and delivered the enemy into our hand. So we cannot do as you say.” He said that those who went into battle and those who stayed behind, helping with prayer and guarding the baggage that was left, had all done the work, so the plunder must be shared equally. From that day David made this law a statute and an ordinance for Israel. Good judgments and decisions like this are the works of faith that God wants. Even when someone had done only the small work of guarding the baggage, David acknowledged that it too was work done for God and had everyone share alike. That is the evidence that David was a man of God.

This same problem often comes up in the church. Not everyone can devote the same time and the same material means. When people work according to the measure of their faith, it is certainly true that mature believers take on more work than other believers. Like David, we must think that we are able to work because God has blessed us. If we complain as we look at those who are weak in health or in means, we are no different from the soldiers who refused to share. It is only natural that those who have received much from God should work. Of course, if those who have not served receive the same grace, those who worked may feel a little wronged. But if they believe that God remembers every act of devotion, they will be thankful, rather than complaining, that someone is receiving grace through their service.

Right then the four hundred soldiers were thinking mostly of how hard they had worked. Each of them felt strongly that he deserved a greater reward because he had risked his life fighting the Amalekites and, while rescuing his own family, had rescued the others’ families too. This is like treating a church office as a rank and expecting to be served, or being disappointed when one’s work goes unpraised. Such people feel they have done something only when a small act of service is recognized as a great one, and because they credit the church’s growth to their own effort, they show no humility toward ministers or other believers. Pride like this does the work and yet is not commended by God.

David told the grumbling wicked men plainly that they had been able to win because God had led them. Since the victory came by God’s grace, anything and everything had to be shared fairly so as to reveal God’s power and grace. Our faith has to mature to this point. It is not that the church has grown because I gave my money; it is that I have received the blessing of being able to work in a church that grows by God’s grace. The approach is different, and there must be gratitude for having taken part in the work of almighty God. When a house is built, big nails are needed, but small nails are needed too. Large timbers are needed to raise the pillars, but small pieces of wood are needed to make the windows. Just as all these come together into a house that people praise as beautiful, the church, through the talents, missions, and devotion of believers, becomes the body of Christ that anyone would praise and recognize.

Verse 26 records that David remembered the people who had helped him in the days when Saul was chasing him, and sent them presents from the plunder to repay their kindness. He shared the plunder with the elders of Judah who had helped him all along. That shows he had the precious character of someone who knew how to repay kindness. David had not forgotten any of the elders who helped him whenever Saul attacked, and he sent them all gifts. David was a man who knew how to repay the kindness he had received. Those whose character knows gratitude do not forget God’s grace either. They will be thankful for salvation, devote themselves to the kingdom of God, and always strive to live by God’s word.

Of course, David made many mistakes. But because he was wise, he was also quick to turn back once he realized he was on the wrong path. God may be asking you too, even now, whether the road you are on is the right one. If, in the light of the Word, it is a road you must turn back from as David did, turn back while God gives you the chance. Though God rebuked David, he repented with all his might, and he shut his ears to the words of people so that he could turn back according to God’s will. Fear of the three thousand had brought him this far, but he leaned on God once more. Anyone can make mistakes, and anyone can misjudge. But we can turn back only if we know that it is sin, so we must always strive not to stray from God’s word.

We cannot judge or condemn anyone, for anyone can make mistakes as David did and walk the way of the world. But once we realize that it is the broad road, a dark road, a road Jesus did not walk, we must repent with all our might and turn back. God never rebukes those who turn back. He washes their sin completely clean, so there is nothing to fear. Rely on God rather than on people, and fear God more than the world.

When God is with you, he sends you a guide, as he sent that boy, so that life does not become too hard for you. And just as the Amalekites who had taken everything crumbled like a sandcastle, the world can be no threat to you. Just as David repented, turned back, and was clothed again with God’s grace, if you live without forgetting God’s precious grace, God will cover you with an even greater love.

May you always receive the blessings of heaven through devotion that gives thanks to God. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.

1 Samuel 31:1-6

1Now the Philistines fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa. 2The Philistines overtook Saul and on his sons; and the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, the sons of Saul. 3The battle went hard against Saul, and the archers overtook him; and he was greatly distressed by reason of the archers. 4Then Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me!” But his armor bearer would not; for he was terrified. Therefore Saul took his sword, and fell on it. 5When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he likewise fell on his sword, and died with him. 6So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor bearer, and all his men, that same day together.