The way David disposed of the loot from the Amalekites gives us an idea of how God wants us to use our material wealth and possessions. Even more importantly, it is a picture of the grace of God given to us through Jesus Christ. Some of David’s men failed to fight the battle. But David spoke up for them, and blessed them with gifts that they had not earned. In the same way, this reminds us that through Jesus, we have God’s grace, even though we haven’t earned it. And Jesus Christ himself speaks up on our behalf, even when we have failed.

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1 SAMUEL #31. 1 SAMUEL 30:9-31

In chapter 29, we read that David and his men traveled north with the Philistine army to Aphek. This is around 70 miles from Ziklag as the crow flies. In actual miles that they had to travel, it was probably 85 or more. But the other Philistines objected to David’s presence, so David and his men went back home. It took them three days on the return trip. That’s a pace of around 30 or so miles per day. Because of events which happened later on, I assume that they had some beasts of burden with them – either donkeys or camels or both (horses were never used widely in ancient Israel). That’s a fast walk or slow jog for 10 hours a day (not counting time for rests). It is basically the same for either donkeys or camels. Even if they rode the entire way, they were being bounced and swayed for hour upon hour, probably traveling from just before dawn to a little after dark.

It was a long distance at an exhausting pace. And when they got home, they found their town burned to the ground, and their wives and children taken for slaves.

Last time we examined David’s reactions in detail. After grieving, and after holding on to the Lord with all his strength, David and his men worshipped, and ask God what he wanted to do.

When he was convinced that God did indeed want him to pursue the Amalekites, David and his men set out again, possibly late on the same day that they arrived home. They came to a place called Wadi Besor. It’s hard to pin down the exact location today, but it was somewhere in what is now southern Israel, probably near Gaza, but further inland. My best guess is that it formed a kind of psychological border between the dry land and the full desert. Now remember, they have come from the northern part of Israel (where they were with the Philistines) to the extreme south. Two-hundred of the six-hundred men were too exhausted to continue. These men had traveled a round trip of probably more than 170 miles in a matter of days, either by foot, or by uncomfortable animals. Exhaustion was nothing to be ashamed of. David left them with some of their provisions, and carried on, lighter and faster.

They encountered a lone Egyptian slave out in the desert, almost dead from hunger, thirst and exposure. David and his men treated him kindly, giving him food and water. As he revived, they asked for information. There is no doubt that they hoped to get good intelligence from him when they stopped to help him, but even so, they helped him before they knew he could be of any use to them. This is in stark contrast to how the Amalekites had treated this slave. Though they had plenty of loot, when he took sick, they left him in the desert with nothing.

As it turns out, the Egyptian helped them find the place where the Amalekites had stopped. No doubt they figured both Philistines and Israelites (whom they had raided) were still engaged in battle (as indeed they were). The Amalekites thought they were safe, so they stopped to celebrate their victory, to engage in eating and drinking some of the food they had captured, and probably to do worse things with the women they had seized.

David and his men fell upon them like an avenging fury. Four hundred Amalekites escaped, but the rest were killed. That statistic tells you something about the kind of warrior David was, and the men he had with him. The number of Amalekites that escaped was equal to the total number of men that David used in the attack. In other words, the Amalekites must have outnumbered David’s men considerably. David and his men had traveled a couple hundred miles in a matter of days, and yet David achieved total victory. It is true that David and some of his men were exceptional warriors. But I think it is impossible to look at this without seeing a miracle of God.

David recovered not only his own family and those of his men, but virtually everything that the Amalekites had taken from them. In addition, they recovered the loot that the Amalekites had taken from the Philistines and other Israelites in their expedition. So they ended up with far more than they had even before Ziklag was destroyed. The end of chapter thirty devotes some time to talking about what happened to all this stuff. There is a reason for that, so we will look at it too.

First, some of David’s men were not inclined to share with those who collapsed in exhaustion at the edge of the desert. David could have gone along with that, and no one would have blamed him. On the other hand, he  would also have been within his rights as their leader to rebuke the miserly ones harshly, if he did not like their attitudes. He chose neither typical reaction. Instead, he spoke as a companion, urging them to do right:

23 But David said, “My brothers, you must not do this with what the LORD has given us. He protected us and handed over to us the raiders who came against us. 24 Who can agree to your proposal? The share of the one who goes into battle is to be the same as the share of the one who remains with the supplies. They will share equally.” (1Sam 30:23-24, HCSB)

His main point was very important. David clearly felt that it was the Lord who gave them the victory; therefore all that they gained from the Amalekites belonged not to David and his men, but to God. It was the Lord’s loot, so to speak. Yes they worked for it. But even so, it was given by God. He said they shouldn’t be selfish “with what the Lord has given us.” David wanted to distribute these gains with an understanding that it all came from the Lord.

It was not the fault of the 200 that they were not strong enough. And they did play an important strategic purpose, guarding a portion of their equipment. And those 200 had already shared in many battles and hardships with the others. David would rather err on the side of kindness and generosity. This policy apparently became law later on when David was king – the ones who guarded the baggage received an equal share with those who fought. Remember, the person who pulled all the sources together to make the books of Samuel was probably living in the time of David’s grandchildren, so this law was still in force then.

There are two important points in connection with this. First, it shows that David continually placed his trust in God, not in his own strength or the strength of his warriors. Giving the baggage-guards equal shares would make some men more inclined to stay back and guard in the future, rather than fighting. After all, guarding the baggage is safer than fighting the battle, and the pay will now be the same. But David was not worried about weakening his army. He trusted God. He didn’t have to try to motivate people to help him. He trusted that God would be all the help he needed. Consider the contrast between that attitude, and Saul’s attitude of trying to manipulate his men into fighting harder, for example, when he forced his army into an oath that they couldn’t eat until his enemies were fully defeated.

Second, this is where David again shows us once again what the Messiah is like. Jesus told a parable about workers in a field in Matthew 20:1-16. The basic point Jesus made is that the person who comes to him at the end of her life will receive the same eternal life as the one who followed Jesus for all her days. This can be seen as offensive. When I work  harder than another person, but I get paid the same amount, something in me doesn’t like that – even if I agreed beforehand to work for that amount. But what David’s actions show us is a picture of the grace of God. God’s grace is not fair. If it was fair, no one would be allowed to have it at all, and it wouldn’t be grace. No, God graciously gives us what we do not deserve at all – and so here David mirrors that. The Bible clearly says that no one has the capacity to be good enough to get to heaven or earn God’s love or favor. But when something concrete like this happens, it forces us to see what that really means.

After everyone received his own possessions back, plus a share of spoils, there was still more left over. David also used this extra wealth as if it belonged to God, not to him.

First, he sent a portion to the elders at Bethel (verse 27). This could be the town of Bethel. But in Hebrew “Beth-el” means “house of God.” So far, we don’t know of any special connection between David and the town of Bethel. Considering that, and knowing David’s heart for God, I think that probably the best translation is that David’s first gifts were given to Beth-el, “the house of God” – meaning the tabernacle where the Ark was kept and where all Israel went to worship God.

Next, he sent gifts to a variety of towns and people. I think verse 31 sums up what he was doing. He was giving back “to all the places where David and his men had roamed.” He had depended on the generosity of others for years. Now, as soon as he had the chance, he returned the generosity. I don’t think he was trying to pay them back – I think it was a gift of thanks, in honor of God.

Now, what do we do with this?

I have met people before who are proud of what they have accomplished, and who are unwilling to admit that they ever had God’s help with anything. “I’ve worked hard for what I have” is their underlying attitude. “I deserve it.” But David and his men clearly worked hard for what they gained also. They traveled 200-plus miles and fought a battle at the end of it. But even so, David received it not as something he got for himself, but as a gift from God.

I want to encourage all of us to understand that everything we have ultimately comes from God – even if we feel we worked hard for it. A lot of people in this world work harder every day than your toughest day at work, and barely get enough to stay warm and fed. What makes your hard work better than theirs? Nothing, of course. For those who are reading this in America, Australia, New Zealand or Europe, your work pays off more productively because you were born into a society that has advantages that some other countries don’t have. You didn’t make yourself get born here, it was a gift given before you could ever deserve it.

This is also true of your “natural” talents. How did you get your gift for sales? How did you come to have the ability to be a good craftsman, or to handle the complexities of medical work, or scholarship? Did you give yourself the ability to work well with your hands? No. You were born with certain abilities. You didn’t get them for yourself. You probably did sharpen and improve on your natural talents, but you weren’t the one who gave yourself those original abilities. They were an undeserved gift from God.

The late radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh used to say of himself: “Talent on loan from God.” He said it in a way that made some people think he was being arrogant. But actually, he was being strictly accurate. No one has any talent except that it is on loan from God. Everyone’s talents are on loan from God, and it wouldn’t hurt for us to remember that more often.

Now, I am not trying to make anyone feel bad. The point I want to make however, is that even the opportunity to be rewarded for hard work comes from the Lord. What I want us to understand is that everything that we have has been loaned to us by God, even if we work for it. It is His, not ours. If you aren’t sure about this, just ask yourself this: “How long do I get to keep what I have worked for?” At the latest, when you die, it isn’t yours anymore. This should make it clear that it is all given to us in trust, for us to use for God’s purposes.

So like David, the first thing to do with the fruits of our labor is to give some back to God’s work, and then to bless those we are led to bless, and then yes, to keep some to enjoy for ourselves. But we should always keep in mind that nothing we think of as “ours” is truly ours. It all belongs to the Lord, and it is on loan to us. If we really believed this, it might change our attitude toward money and possessions.

The most important thing for us to understand from 1 Samuel 30, however, is God’s grace. We don’t deserve it. No one does. The men who waited at the edge of the desert simply failed physically. They couldn’t keep up. They didn’t journey as far. They didn’t risk their lives fighting to recover even their own families and goods, let alone the extra goods. Notice that those men did not speak up or argue, because the others were correct. But David spoke up for them, on their behalf. He awarded them with wealth that they did not deserve. God shows his gracious heart through his servant David.

We have all failed, like those men. We haven’t done what we needed to do to get salvation for ourselves or our loved ones. We don’t have any excuse, or any claim upon the goodness of God. And yet, Jesus speaks up on our behalf. Through Jesus, God gives us what we do not deserve. He blesses us abundantly with his love, his forgiveness, his acceptance, his favor, the material things we need to live, and especially his presence in our lives.

Remember this. Just as David spoke up for the men who failed, Jesus speaks up for us. Listen to these verses:

26 At the same time the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we don’t know how to pray for what we need. But the Spirit intercedes along with our groans that cannot be expressed in words. 27 The one who searches our hearts knows what the Spirit has in mind. The Spirit intercedes for God’s people the way God wants him to. (Romans 8:26-27, God’s Word)

33 Who will accuse those whom God has chosen? God has approved of them. 34 Who will condemn them? Christ has died, and more importantly, he was brought back to life. Christ is in the honored position—the one next to God the Father on the heavenly throne. Christ also intercedes for us. (Romans 8:33-34, God’s Word)

25 Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. (Hebrews 7:25, NLT)

​1 My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. (1 John 2:1, NLT)

Jesus Christ himself intercedes for us. He speaks up on our behalf.

My Dad passed away a few months ago. He was a man of integrity, whose faith made a big impact on all who knew him. Not long after he died, more than one person said something like this: “Now we’ve got someone who knows us up in heaven talking to God for us.” I understand the sentiment, I really do. I’m not trying to make anyone feel bad for thinking such things. But the truth is we have always had someone who knows us who is speaking to God on our behalf. As wonderful as my dad was, he was still a human sinner. He has no standing of his own to talk to God for us. But Jesus himself speaks up for all of us, and for my dad. There is no one better. We can be at peace knowing that Jesus Christ himself speaks up for us.