Chapter 30
When they get back to where they were living - Ziklag - they find the Amalekites have raided the place and taken all their wives and children captive into slavery. David's men consider stoning him because this has happened. They too have lost wives and children. David checks with God to see whether he should pursue and try to rescue the wives and kids. He checked before doing what we would consider obvious.
2024 - Amalekites again. These are the people Saul was ordered to kill, but didn't. Not only did he fail to kill the king and the cattle, he actually seems to have let a lot of the Amalekites themselves go. This raid was likely about revenge for what Saul had done, revenge that would not have been taken if Saul had done as instructed. How many Israelites died in these raids the Amalekites carried out? There is a list of the areas they attacked in vs. 14. Ziklag was the last raid, and there they took captives. I expect they just killed people everywhere else they went. So in the balance, would it have been better if Saul had indeed killed men, women, children and livestock? Would less overall evil and harm have occurred if Saul had done what he was told to do? Is this a very early example of the consequences of this verse: 21 I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, 22 in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their fathers did, or not." [Jdg 2:21-22 ESV]? Hmm...Saul had made the same mistake again that Israel made in its formation days. He did not finish the job, and look how awful the consequences.
2021 - This would be a situation where it would be difficult to see anything "good" coming from events. This seems more like punishment, more like God actively opposing and punishing, rather than like chastising or correcting. How difficult it would be to overcome one's own emotional reaction to such a thing and consider even for a moment what God's purpose might be? And yet, that is what David does in vs 6. He "strengthens himself in the Lord his God". How does one do what David does here????
By inquiring of God what should be done - whether or not to pursue - David sets an example to those who follow him that it is God, and NOT David, who is in charge. Why stone David, when it is God who leads the way and manages events. Possibly these Amalekites had gotten wind of David and his men raiding and killing everyone in town and for that reason had raided Ziklag specifically. And let's not forget that David was not only killing en masse and taking the spoil, but was then lying about it to the Philistine King who was protecting him. And maybe David had a clue to some higher purpose in it all from the fact that no one at all was killed. They took Ziklag and took everyone captive, without killing anyone at all.
2022 - When bad things happened, the people considered killing the leader, because a good leader would not have let such a thing happen. We could adopt that as a principle, but in fact, David points out that this is not the right way to look at it. They ought not blame their leader since it was God who allowed this situation. Neither David nor any other leader could have stopped it.
Further, it specifically said earlier that the Amalekite cities were among those David targeted to raid, and he did some pretty heinous things. While the Philistine King didn't really comprehend where David was raiding, but took his word that he was raiding Israel, the Amalekites may have had better information. They may have know that Ziklag was the source of the raids, and they may have shown up in force for their revenge. But finding the city undefended, and only women and children there, their greed for spoil may have overcome their desire for vengeance and death. It really is no surprise that this happened. Hmm...shouldn't David have left at least a garrison there to defend the town? It says that NO ONE DIED at all. So...we don't know but what the garrison David left chose to surrender rather than risk civilians dying?
Another possibility...Did God make the other Philistine Lords send David home...SO HE COULD recover these women? Had he stayed to fight, perhaps assisting Israel from inside the battle lines or something like that, the women would have been back in the Amalekite city. There would have been no opportunity to overtake them.
They find an Egyptian about dead from lack of food and water. They gather intelligence from him, then attack the Amalekites, recovering absolutely everything that was taken. David sends the spoil from other cities that the Amalekites raided in Judah back to them. These were cities where David and his men had roamed and survived while Saul tried to kill David.
David recaptures all that was taken from Ziklag. BUT, he ALSO recovers all the spoil from Philistine and Negeb and Judah that the raiders had taken. Very much spoil. Enriching spoils. David divides the spoil with his men - all 600, not just 400, and sends presents into Judah also of the spoil. This likely magnified his reputation as a generous man, a protector, one who sets things right. So what at first seemed an occasion for stoning turns 180 into a demonstration of David's obedience to God, his abilities as a leader, and his success that accrues from his obedience, even in the most trying of circumstances.