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<\/a> <\/p>Samuel 30
\nOn the third day, David and his men finally made it back to Ziklag.<\/p>\n
But the second they got into town, everybody was completely stunned.<\/p>\n
The Amalekites had attacked while they were gone. They had raided the Negev, taken Ziklag, and burned the whole place down. The city was a complete mess. The houses were burned to the ground, and everyone\u2014men, women, and children\u2014had been taken away.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, the Amalekites hadn’t killed anyone. They had taken everybody with them alive.<\/p>\n
David and his six hundred men walked into the city and just stood there, stunned.<\/p>\n
Their homes were gone. Their wives were gone. Their children were gone.<\/p>\n
These were tough guys who normally didn’t scare easy, but this time they completely broke down. They sat there crying their hearts out until they didn’t have any strength left.<\/p>\n
David’s two wives\u2014Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail from Carmel\u2014had also been taken captive.<\/p>\n
And things got even worse. The men who followed David were getting angrier and angrier the more they thought about what had happened.<\/p>\n
Some of them even said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is all David’s fault! Look where following him has gotten us. Now our wives and children are gone. We might as well stone him to death!\u201d<\/p>\n
David was under tremendous pressure. His heart was breaking too.<\/p>\n
But when it really mattered, David didn’t completely fall apart.<\/p>\n
The Bible says:<\/p>\n
\u201cBut David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.\u201d<\/p>\n
While everybody else was falling apart and complaining, David turned his heart back to God.<\/p>\n
He called for Abiathar the priest and said:<\/p>\n
\u201cBring me the ephod.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the ephod was brought to him, David seriously sought the LORD:<\/p>\n
\u201cGod, should I go after them? Can I catch them and get our people back?\u201d<\/p>\n
The LORD answered him:<\/p>\n
\u201cGo after them. You will definitely catch them, and you will get everything back.\u201d<\/p>\n
The moment David heard that, he got his strength back.<\/p>\n
\u201cCome on, guys! Let’s go!\u201d<\/p>\n
So the six hundred men set out after the Amalekites.<\/p>\n
When they reached the Besor Valley, two hundred of the men were simply too exhausted to go any farther.<\/p>\n
They had been rushing and fighting their way along, and their feet were worn out.<\/p>\n
They said:<\/p>\n
\u201cYou guys go ahead. We really can’t keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
So the two hundred men stayed behind to guard the supplies, while David and the other four hundred continued the chase.<\/p>\n
As they went along, they found a young Egyptian man lying out in the countryside.<\/p>\n
The poor guy was so hungry he could barely keep his eyes open.<\/p>\n
David’s men didn’t take advantage of him. Instead, they gave him some bread and water, along with a piece of fig cake and two cakes of raisins.<\/p>\n
The young man hadn’t eaten or drunk anything for three days and three nights. After he ate, he finally started to feel better.<\/p>\n
David asked him:<\/p>\n
\u201cWho are you? Where are you from?\u201d<\/p>\n
The young man answered:<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m an Egyptian. I used to be a servant of an Amalekite. Three days ago I got sick, and my master decided I was no longer useful, so he just abandoned me here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then he said:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re the ones who attacked the Negev a few days ago and burned Ziklag.\u201d<\/p>\n
David’s eyes lit up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen can you take us to them?\u201d<\/p>\n
The young man said:<\/p>\n
\u201cI can, but you have to promise me you won’t kill me or hand me back over to my former master.\u201d<\/p>\n
David agreed.<\/p>\n
So the young man led them straight to the Amalekites.<\/p>\n
When they found them, the Amalekites were sitting around eating, drinking, and having a good time.<\/p>\n
They had just stolen a huge amount of stuff, and they were celebrating like crazy. They were eating, drinking, and dancing because they thought they had it made.<\/p>\n
They had no idea that a whole group of angry men was coming after them.<\/p>\n
David and his four hundred men suddenly attacked.<\/p>\n
The battle started at dawn and went all the way until the evening of the next day.<\/p>\n
It was a brutal fight.<\/p>\n
The Amalekites were completely scattered. In the end, only four hundred young men managed to escape on camels.<\/p>\n
The rest were defeated by David and his men.<\/p>\n
But more importantly\u2014<\/p>\n
Everyone who had been taken from Ziklag was found!<\/p>\n
David’s two wives were rescued!<\/p>\n
The children came home!<\/p>\n
The families were reunited!<\/p>\n
All the possessions were recovered!<\/p>\n
The Bible says that everything the Amalekites had taken\u2014men, women, children, and possessions\u2014nothing was missing.<\/p>\n
David got everything back.<\/p>\n
And he also took a whole lot of livestock.<\/p>\n
Some of David’s men started getting a little too proud of themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is all the stuff David took from the Amalekites. It’s our spoil!\u201d<\/p>\n
When David returned to the Besor Valley, the two hundred men who had stayed behind to guard the supplies came out to welcome them.<\/p>\n
But a few selfish men started complaining:<\/p>\n
\u201cThey didn’t fight with us, so why should they get any of the spoil?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGive them their wives and children back, sure. But don’t give them any of the other stuff!\u201d<\/p>\n
David heard that and immediately shut it down.<\/p>\n
He said:<\/p>\n
\u201cBrothers, we are not going to do that!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn’t something we won because we’re so great. The LORD gave it to us. He protected us and handed our enemies over to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBesides, the men who went into battle aren’t the only ones who mattered. The men who stayed behind to guard our supplies were doing an important job too. Just because they didn’t fight on the front line doesn’t mean they get nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
So David made a rule:<\/p>\n
Those who went into battle and those who stayed behind to guard the supplies would receive equal shares of the spoil.<\/p>\n
From that day on, this became a rule in Israel.<\/p>\n
When David returned to Ziklag, he did something else that was pretty meaningful.<\/p>\n
He took some of the things they had recovered and sent them to the elders of Judah and to the people in the towns that had helped him before.<\/p>\n
David said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a gift from the spoil we took from the LORD’s enemies. Take some for yourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
You see, David had just been through one of the biggest ups and downs of his life.<\/p>\n
At first, his home was gone, his family was gone, and even his own men wanted to stone him.<\/p>\n
But David didn’t stay down. He turned back to God, asked God first, and then acted.<\/p>\n
In the end, he got his whole family back, and not one thing that had been taken was lost.<\/p>\n
David learned something that day: Sometimes you can feel like you have no way out, but as long as you trust in the LORD, there is still a way forward.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sarah Samuel 30 On the third day, David and his men finally made it back to Ziklag. But the second they got into town, everybody was completely stunned. The Amalekites had attacked while they were gone. They had raided the Negev, taken Ziklag, and burned the whole place down. The city was a complete mess. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-reflection"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10116,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10115\/revisions\/10116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}