Beginning of the End: David’s Great Temptation to Discouragement

 All that David held dear on earth had been swept away from him. Saul had driven him from his country, the Amalekites had plundered his city, his wives and children had been made prisoners, and his friends had threatened him with death.

In this time of utmost desperation, David looked earnestly to God for help. He “strengthened himself in the Lord,” recalling many evidences of God’s favor. “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You” (Psalm 56:3), was the language of his heart. Though he could not see a way out of the difficulty, God would teach him what to do.

Sending for Abiathar the priest, “David inquired of the Lord, saying, ‘Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?’” The answer was, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.”

David and his soldiers set out at once to catch their fleeing foe. Their march was so rapid that two hundred of their number were too exhausted to continue and had to stop and rest. But David pressed forward with the remaining four hundred.

Advancing, they found an Egyptian slave, apparently about to die of weariness and hunger. When he received food and drink he revived. He had been left to die by the invading force. After David promised  that he would not be killed or delivered to his master, he agreed to lead the men to the camp of their enemies.

As they came near the encampment, they saw a scene of drunkenness and merrymaking. The victorious army 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.” David ordered an immediate attack. The Amalekites were surprised and thrown into confusion. The battle continued until nearly all the enemy were killed. “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 which they had taken from them; David recovered all.”

If it had not been for the restraining power of God, the Amalekites would have killed the people of Ziklag. They decided to spare the captives, thinking to heighten the triumph by leading home a large number of prisoners to sell as slaves. Thus, unknowingly, they fulfilled God’s purpose, keeping the prisoners to be restored to their husbands and fathers.