Prepare
Opening Prayer
God, thank you for this day and for the blessing of reading your Word in a language we understand. By your Holy Spirit apply it to our lives and teach us to think about Jesus, plumbing the riches of knowing Christ even in the Old Testament. In Jesus' name, amen.
Read
Scripture Passage
David’s Conflict with the Amalekites
30 Now it happened, when David and his men came to Ziklag, on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, 2 and had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great; they did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way. 3 So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire; and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. 4 Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep. 5 And David’s two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had been taken captive. 6 Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
7 Then David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, “Please bring the ephod here to me.” And Abiathar brought the ephod to David. 8 So David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?”
And He answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.”
9 So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the Brook Besor, where those stayed who were left behind. 10 But David pursued, he and four hundred men; for two hundred stayed behind, who were so weary that they could not cross the Brook Besor.
11 Then they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David; and they gave him bread and he ate, and they let him drink water. 12 And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. So when he had eaten, his strength came back to him; for he had eaten no bread nor drunk water for three days and three nights. 13 Then David said to him, “To whom do you belong, and where are you from?”
And he said, “I am a young man from Egypt, servant of an Amalekite; and my master left me behind, because three days ago I fell sick. 14 We made an invasion of the southern area of the Cherethites, in the territory which belongs to Judah, and of the southern area of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.”
15 And David said to him, “Can you take me down to this troop?”
So he said, “Swear to me by God that you will neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will take you down to this troop.”
16 And when he had brought him down, there they were, spread out over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil which they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. 17 Then David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled. 18 So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. 19 And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them; David recovered all. 20 Then David took all the flocks and herds they had driven before those other livestock, and said, “This is David’s spoil.”
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), 1 Samuel 30:1-20.
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
David and his men return to find Ziklag burned and their families carried off by Amalekites. David strengthens himself in the Lord, inquires through the priest, pursues with four hundred men, shows mercy to an abandoned Egyptian who guides them, defeats the raiders, and recovers every person and possession that had been taken.
B — Best Verse
Which Verse Best Summarizes the Passage?
1 Samuel 30:18-20
So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that they had taken from them. David recovered all. Then David took all the flocks and herds they had driven before those other livestock and said, this is David's spoil.
The co-host selects verse 14. Bryan instead explicitly chooses verses 18 through 20 for this section, while separately noting that verse 6 was already underlined from another study. His passage selection summarizes the complete recovery God grants through David.
C — Called or Christ
C — Christ Connection
Trust the Lord to make right what sin and evil have ruined. David recovers what was stolen, but Jesus is the better King who entered the battle against sin, death, and Satan, emerged victorious, plundered the enemy's kingdom, and redeemed his people.
Additional Notes
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. We got David in a precarious situation where Philistines have said, you ain't gonna go to war with us, we don't trust you. But what happens back at home while he's gone? Let's have some coffee, we'll pray. We'll figure out all this mess that David's in. It's hot. No, then I... You don't want it then? No, I don't know if it's hot. Okay. I burn my tongue every time I do that. Oh, you don't want to do that. Would you like to pray or would you like me to? You want me to? Okay.
God, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the blessing it is that we get to read your word. It's in a language that we can understand. We need your Holy Spirit to please help us as we read it. That it would be applied to our lives, that you would teach us to think about Jesus. or even as we read this, we pray that we might plumb the depths of the riches of the knowledge which is in Christ Jesus, even as we go through the Old Testament. Help us God, give us your Spirit, in Jesus' name, Amen. Here we go, 1 Samuel chapter 13. I'll read first and we'll keep going back and forth.
Now it happened when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag attacked Ziklag, and burned it with fire, and had taken captive the women and those who were there. From small to great, they did not kill anyone. carried away, carried them away and went their way.
So David and his men came to the city, and there it was burned with fire, and their wives, their sons, their daughters had been taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept until they had no more power to weep. And David's two wives, Ahinoam and the Jezreelites, and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had been taken captive. Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. Man, that really bothers me. Like, David's two wives. It should bother you. It's like he has a harem or something. It should bother you. It should bother you.
That's what God had said not to do in Deuteronomy chapter 17 for kings. It's not what God instituted in Genesis chapter 2. It's one of those things. We don't look at the scriptures and we just go, oh look, they did it back then. It must be okay now. No, right? What did God say?
What did he intend? Yeah, but here Now his two wives, all of his kids, they've gone to the Philistines to try to be safe from Saul, to save their lives. And now what have they found? The Amalekites stole their kids and their wives. Pretty mad. Mad, sad, angry, just... or they're crying so much, they can't even cry anymore, and so now it's gone from grief to anger. Well, let's go ahead and pick up at verse 7. Wonder what's going to happen.
Then David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, please bring the ephod here to me. And Abiathar brought the ephod to David. So David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them, and without fail recover all. So David went, he and the 600 men who were with him, and came to the brook base, where those stayed who were left behind. But David pursued, he and 400 men, for 200 stayed behind, who were so weary that they could not cross the brook base."
Then they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David. And they gave him bread, and he ate, and let him drink water. And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. So when he had eaten, his strength came back to him, for he had eaten no bread nor drunk water for three days and three nights.
Then David said to him, To whom do you belong, and where are you from? And he said, I'm a young man from Egypt, servant of an Amalekite, and my master left me behind because three days ago I fell sick. We made an invasion of the southern area of the Cherithites, in the territory which belongs to Judah, and of the southern area of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire. And David said to him, can you take me down to this troop? So he said, swear to me by God that you will neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will take you down to this troop.
And when he had brought him down, there they were, spread out over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil which they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. Then David attacked them from twilight until the evening the next day.
Not a man of them escaped except 400 young men who rode on camels and fled. So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that they had taken from them. David recovered all. Then David took all the flocks and herds they had driven before those other livestock and said, this is David's spoil. Now David came to the two hundred men who had been... Let's go ahead and stop there.
Okay. So, what was this section about? Um... The Amalekites steal the wives and the sons and the daughters and David chases after them, helped by an Egyptian and 600 men. Okay, so you get a whole blank page here because you've got an interleaved Bible. Maybe you could write all that, but if you had my Bible and you only had like that little space in the margin, David Jace is the Amalekites that steal his family. Okay, good. All right, what do you think you would underline as the best verse to summarize this section? Um, probably 14. Okay. Why would you do 14? Because it's the Egyptian summary for. Okay. I would probably underline 18, 19, and 20.
So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that they had taken from them. David recovered all. And David took all the flocks and herds they had driven before those other livestock and said, this is David's spoil.
That's what I would underline. So 17 to 20. But if we were doing the full thing, interestingly enough, I have actually underlined here in my Bible though from something else, verse six, but David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. So, all right. What do you see called to do or how does this show you Jesus Christ or the covenant of grace? Trust in the Lord. How do you get that from here? Well, he's going to. give us a way that he's gonna make it right? No, that's not a good application. You're supposed to say you're going to chase down the Philistines and kill them. Not the Philistines, sorry. The Amalekites and kill them. No? There aren't many Amalekites in our area.
Oh, so you're supposed to marry two wives and then go leave them so you can go fight a war on the side of your enemies. No. That's not your application either? No. your application that we're supposed to just trust in the Lord? He's gonna give us away. Oh no, no, no. Why am I kidding? There's, I know that there's a better, you're supposed to call your personal priest and he brings the ephod so you can acquire of the Lord which you're supposed to make for dinner. The Lord's going to make stuff right.
Okay. Okay. Yeah. He proves that here and he proves it with Jesus. Yeah. Good. Right. So, uh, thank the Lord. We got a better King than David. Right. But Jesus went down into the battle, uh, battle against sin and death and Satan himself and came up the victor, plundering even the riches of Satan's kingdom. Yep.
Redeemed us. Saved us. He's good to us. You ready to pray? Yep. Okay. God, we thank you so much that you are a good and wonderful God. Thank you for tying together. Thank you for your word. I pray that you would please help us to love you, to walk in your ways and trust you all of our lives for your plan for us is good. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus. I'll see you next time. Bye.