Kingly Justice

Scripture: 1 Samuel 30: 1-25

Sermon: Kingly Justice

Topics: Justice, Generosity, Wealth

Preached: October 17, 2021

Rev. Mike Abma

Preamble:

Last week we looked at 1 Samuel 24, and Pastor Bryant helped us see the fugitive David showing mercy to his oppressor, King Saul.

Soon after that, David is again on the run.

He eventually tires of running in the wilderness, and decides to risk finding refuge with the Philistines, with King Achish of Gath.

This king graciously gives David and his 600 men a town to live in – the town of Ziklag.

They live there peacefully for over a year.

Then war breaks out once again between the Philistines and Israel.

David and his men are obligated to fight for the Philistines against Israel.

But when they show up for duty, the other Philistine rulers do not trust David.

So David and his men are sent back to their homes in Ziklag.

We pick up the story with David and his men returning to Ziklag after travelling on the road for 3 days straight.

To help with the flow of the story, I will be reading this chapter section by section.

Here is the first section – THE CRISIS 30: 1-6

Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negeb and on Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag, burned it down, ²and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great; they killed none of them, but carried them off, and went on their way. 

³When David and his men came to the city, they found it burnt down, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. ⁴Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept, until they had no more strength to weep. ⁵David’s two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. ⁶David was in great danger; for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in spirit for their sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

If you know the story of the young man David, you know that he spends a lot of time dancing with danger.

He spends a lot of time trying to stay

one step ahead of King Saul,

and one step ahead of the Philistines.

So far, he has been remarkably successful.

But now, out of left-field, come the Amalekites.

These slave-trading, desert raiders seem to sweep in out of nowhere.

They round up all the women, all the children, and all the flocks of Ziklag.

Then they burn the place to the ground.

David and his 600 men come to nothing but smoke and ashes.

They have lost everything….everyone…..

and they blame….David.

He is the one who led them into Philistine territory.

He is the one who led them to show up for duty with the Philistines.

He is the one who left their women and children defenseless.

They are so mad, so angry, so bitter toward David,

that they are ready to kill him.

But as is so often the case with David,

when things are at their worst,

somehow David manages to be at his best.

At this lowest point in his life, thus far,

David leans into his Lord.

David strengthens himself in his God.

THE RESPONSE 30: 7-10

David said to the priest Abiathar son of Ahimelech, ‘Bring me the ephod.’ So Abiathar brought the ephod (linen garment) to David.

 ⁸David inquired of the Lord, ‘Shall I pursue this band? Shall I overtake them?’

He answered him, ‘Pursue; for you shall surely overtake and shall surely rescue.’

⁹So David set out, he and the six hundred men who were with him. They came to the Wadi Besor, where those stayed who were left behind. ¹⁰But David went on with the pursuit, he and four hundred men; two hundred stayed behind, too exhausted to cross the Wadi Besor.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

The way David finds strength in God is through prayer.

Abiathar – the Friar Tuck of this outfit –

is a priest with a priestly ephod — a priestly garment.

David uses that ephod to focus his prayers.

His prayers are desperate.

He senses the raiders are from the south, from the wilderness.

But how will he know where they went?

The wilderness was vast – it would be like finding a needle in the haystack.

So David prays:

“do I even bother to chase these raiders?”

The answer he receives is

“Yes, chase them.”

David prays:

“will I even find our people alive?”

Again, the answer is “Yes, you will find them and rescue them.”

So David and his 600 weary men set off running into the wilderness.

About 20 miles into the trip, a third of his men are too tired to continue.

They are at a dry riverbed, a Wadi named Besor.

The 200 tired men stay there.

The 400 push on with David,

still without a clue where exactly they are going.

THE GIFT 30: 11-15

In the open country (wilderness) they found an Egyptian, and brought him to David. They gave him bread and he ate; they gave him water to drink; ¹²they also gave him a piece of fig cake and two clusters of raisins. When he had eaten, his spirit revived; for he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights.

 ¹³Then David said to him, ‘To whom do you belong? Where are you from?’

He said, ‘I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite. My master left me behind because I fell sick three days ago. ¹⁴We had made a raid on the Negeb of the Cherethites

and on that which belongs to Judah

and on the Negeb of Caleb;

and we burned Ziklag down.’ 

¹⁵David said to him, ‘Will you take me down to this raiding party?’ He said, ‘Swear to me by God that you will not kill me, or hand me over to my master, and I will take you down to them.’

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

If you are looking for a needle in a haystack, it helps to have a strong magnet.

This Egyptian slave

they just happen to find in the middle of the vast wilderness

turns out to be such a magnet.

Where God had strengthened David,

now David, in turn, strengthens this abandoned slave with food and drink.

This slave miraculously recovers,

and providentially is able to lead David and his men the rest of the way.

THE VICTORY 30: 16-20

When he (the Egyptian slave) had taken him (David) down (to the raiders), they were spread out all over the ground, eating and drinking and dancing, because of the great amount of spoil they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. 

¹⁷David attacked them from twilight (or early morning) until the evening of the next day.

Not one of them escaped, except four hundred young men, who mounted camels and fled. 

¹⁸David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken; and David rescued his two wives.

 ¹⁹Nothing was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken; David brought back everything. ²⁰David also captured all the flocks and herds, which were driven ahead of the other cattle; people said, ‘This is David’s spoil.’

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

The Amalekites did not know what hit them.

They were so busy partying,

and they were so sure they were far from danger

that their guard was totally down.

We have some odd phrasing in this story.

We are told “not one of the Amalekites escaped —

except those 400 young men who took off on camels.”

But more importantly to this story is the happy reality

that not one woman, not one child

not one sheep, not one goat, not one cow

was missing.

Everyone and everything was rescued.

David and his men were absolutely relieved.

But more than that – they were absolutely rich.

These Amalekite raiders had raided many places, not just Ziklag.

So David and his men had an amazing amount of plunder, of booty, of spoils.

You may think that this should be the end of this story.

But it is not.

In fact, the most important part of this story is still to come.

THE DEMAND 30: 21-22

Then David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow David, and who had been left at the Wadi Besor. They went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. When David drew near to the people he saluted them. ²²Then all the fellows among the men who had gone with David said, ‘Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except that each man may take his wife and children, and leave.’

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

Just imagine, for a moment, that trek back to the Wadi,

back to the 200 men they had left behind.

I imagine with the women, with the children,

with all the sheep and goats and plunder,

I imagine it was a slow trip.

And I imagine a lot of talking among the 400 men:

Talking about how they took all the risks,

therefore they deserved all the rewards;

Talking about how those other 200 guys

had just been lounging around

while they were putting their lives on the line;

Talking about what is fair, what is right —

those other 200 could get their wives and kids back,

but as for the rest of the plunder – no way.

“Ya snooze, ya lose buddy.”

Now, instead of reading the next section,

I am going to stop right here for a moment.

I am going to stop to ask you to ponder

“what you think David should do?”

What should David do?

The “political consultant” part of us might be thinking,

“Hey, these 400 men are clearly David’s best people.

From a political point of view,

David really needs to have these guys

firmly in his corner as he moves forward.

The best thing for him to do is to agree with their demand.

Besides, their request is reasonable —

they did take the risk,

they do deserve the reward.”

Or perhaps the “Humans Relations” part of our brain is thinking,

“how can David best negotiate a settlement everyone can agree with.

For the 400 to get everything and the 200 to get nothing

seems too much like a zero-sum game.

Maybe David could start by thinking

what the 200 could most reasonably ask for.

Was one half of what the 400 received

a good starting point for negotiations?”

What would you do?

What would you recommend?

Remember, these 400 men were David’s best fighting men.

Remember, these were also part of the group that wanted to kill him

not that long ago.

You get a sense that David needs to tread carefully here.

So let’s see what David actually did.

KINGLY JUSTICE 30: 22-25

²³But David said, ‘You shall not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us; he has preserved us and handed over to us the raiding party that attacked us. ²⁴Who would listen to you in this matter? For the share of the one who goes down into the battle shall be the same as the share of the one who stays by the baggage; they shall share alike.’ 

²⁵From that day forward David made it a statute and an ordinance (mishpat) for Israel; it continues to the present day.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

These verses are the heart of this passage.

They reveal David’s courage.

They reveal David’s principles.

They reveal David’s justice.

First, his courage.

David faces down the 400 on behalf of the 200.

He stands with the weaker, against the stronger.

It takes courage to do that.

Second, David’s principles.

David stands on the principle that

everything they have gained is because of God –

God encouraged them to pursue the raiders;

God led them to the abandoned Egyptian;

God led them, through that Egyptian, to the raider’s camp.

And God gave them the victory and all the plunder that went with it.

David lived by the principle that everything was God’s before it was

anybody else’s.

He lived that principle all his life.

And when Daivd is at the end of his life,

in 1 Chronicles 29

he sings, “Who am I? Who am I?…

For all things come from you.

All we are doing is giving back

what we have been given by your generous hand

in the first place (1 Chronicles 29: 14).

Third, based on that principle, David makes an ordinance.

The interesting thing about that word “ordinance”

is that in Hebrew it is mishpat

which is same word we translate as Justice

In that famous Micah 6 passage where it says:

Do justice, Love mercy, Walk Humbly with God.

The first phrase, “Do Justice” is “Do Mishpat.”

For David,

sharing all the spoils,

sharing all the plunder,

sharing all the wealth

equally with everyone

is what Justice – mishpat –looks like.

For David,

Justice always arises out of the graciousness of God.

Justice always arises out of the generosity of God.

If we know God’s grace, if we know God’s generosity,

then we will know how to Do Justice.

GENEROUS JUSTICE

The pastor and theologian Tim Keller has written a whole book on this Biblical view, and that book is called Generous Justice.

In this book, Keller writes that this view of Generous Justice runs counter to what many people in North America believe.

He writes that

people often believe that

if they have success in life,

that it is mainly the result of their hard work.

They often believe that because their hard work

has gained them their success,

that they, therefore, have an absolute right

to use their money as they see fit.

Keller writes that this is not what Christians believe,

because this is not what the Bible says.

The Bible tells us, again and again,

that all our resources, all our wealth, all our gains,

are, first of all, gifts from God.

That is why the righteous, the just people in the Bible,

people like King David,

are people who see their money

first of all as a gift from God,

and second of all,

as something that also belongs to the entire community.

The opposite is also true.

In the Bible, the unrighteous, the unjust,

are those who see their money

as strictly theirs and no one else’s.^[1]

Now I need to make a confession.

When reading our Bible passage, I intentionally left a few words out.

In verse 22,

where the 400 demand all the plunder for themselves,

the actual text calls them “corrupt and worthless fellows.”

You could translate it “unrighteous and unjust fellows.”

Why?

Because they had a worldly point of view.

They had a point of view that said,

“We earned it. We worked hard for it. It is ours and only ours.”

This may make worldly sense,

but it does not make Kingdom-of-God sense.

In the Kingdom of God,

we followers of Christ, see everything we have as not really ours.

It is, first of all, God’s.

And because we know it is God’s,

generosity and a generous justice

is what we work hard to practice.

It is the ordinance, the type of justice,

we strive to live by with the help of the Holy Spirit.

CONCLUSION

So, people of God,

May we all have the courage of our convictions,

to stand against the selfish tide of the powerful of this world,

and to stand with the poor and weak,

for the sake of God’s Kingdom.

May we all live by the principle

that all we are is by the grace of God;

and all we have is by the generosity of God.

And may we do justice – Christ-the-King justice:

A justice rooted in the soil of God’s grace;

A justice bearing the fruit of God’s generosity –

So that all God’s people are able to share

in the bounty and in the blessing of our Lord.

Amen

PRAYER

Dear Lord,

You call us to do justice.

You call us to love mercy.

You call us to walk humbly with you.

May we do so

Knowing we are generous with our justice

And we are generous with our love

Because you first have been gracious and generous with us.

Amen

1. See Tim Keller, Generous Justice: How God’s Grace Makes Us Just, especially pp. 89-91. ↑