1 Samuel 29-30, What Are Your Plans?, Dr. John B. Carpenter

1 Samuel 29–30: David’s Plans Go Awry Under God’s Providence

1st Samuel chapter 29 and chapter 30, hear the word of the Lord. Now the Philistines had gathered all their forces at Aphek, and the Israelites were encamped by the spring that is in Jezreel. As the lords of the Philistines were passing on by hundreds and by thousands, and David and his men were passing on in the rear with Achish, the commanders of the Philistines said, what are these Hebrews doing here?

And Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, is this not David, the servant of Saul, king of Israel, who has been with me now for days and years, and since he deserted to me I have found no fault in him to this day.

But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him, and the commanders of the Philistines said to him, send the man back that he may return to the place to which you have assigned him. He shall not go down with us to the battle, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us.

For how could this fellow reconcile himself to his Lord? Would it not be with the heads of the men here? Is not this David, of whom they sing to one another in dances? Saul has struck down his thousands, and David is ten thousands.

Then Achish called David and said to him, as the Lord lives, you have been honest, and to me it seems right that you should march out and in with me in the campaign. For I have found nothing wrong in you, and from the day of your coming to me to this day.

Nevertheless, the Lords do not approve of you, so go back now and go peaceably, that you may not displease the Lords of the Philistines. Now David said to Achish, but what have I done? What have you found in your servant from the day that I entered your service until now, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my Lord the King?

And Achish answered David and said, I know that you are as blameless in my side as an angel of God. Nevertheless, the commanders of the Philistines have said, he shall not go up with us to the battle.

Now then, rise early in the morning with the servants of your Lord who came with you, and start early in the morning and depart as soon as you have light. And so David set out with his men early in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines, but the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negev and against Ziklag, and had overcome Ziklag, and burned it with fire, and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great.

They killed no one, but carried them off and went their way. And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep.

David's two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters.

But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, bring me the ephod. So Abiathar brought the ephod to David, and David inquired of the Lord, shall I pursue after this band?

Shall I overtake them? He answered him, pursue, for you shall surely overtake, and shall surely rescue. So David set out six hundred men who were with him, and they came to the brook Besor, where those who were left behind stayed.

But David pursued, he and the four hundred men, two hundred stayed behind, and who were too exhausted to cross the brook Besor. They found an Egyptian in the open country and brought him to David, and they gave him bread and he ate.

They gave him water to drink, and they gave him a piece of cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit revived, for he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights.

And David said to him, to whom do you belong and where are you from? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant of an Amalekite, and my master left me behind because I fell sick three days ago. We had made a raid against the Negev of the Cherethites and against that which belongs to the Judah, and against the Negev of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire.

And David said to him, Will you take me down to this band? And he said, Swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will take you down to this band. And when he had taken him down, behold, they were spread abroad over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken from the hand of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.

And David struck them down from twilight until the evening of the next day, and not a man of them escaped except 400 young men who amounted camels and fled. David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and David rescued his two wives.

Nothing was missing, whether small or great, son or daughter, spoil or anything that had been taken, David brought back all. David also captured all the flocks of the herds, and the people drove the livestock before him and said, This is David's spoil.

Then David came to 200 men who had been too exhausted to follow David and who had been left in the brook Bishor, and they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. And when David came near to the people, he greeted them.

Then all the wicked and the worthless 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 had recovered, except that each man may lead away his wife and children and depart.

But David said, You shall not do so, my brothers. With what the Lord has given us, he has preserved us and given into our hand the band that came against us. Who would listen to you in this matter? For as his share is who goes down to the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage.

They shall share alike. And he made it a statute and a rule for Israel from that day forward to this day. When David came to Ziklag, he sent part of the spoil to his friends, the elders of Judah, saying, Here is a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of the Lord.

It was for those in Bethel and Ramoth of the Negev and Jatir and Orir and Shemoth and Eshtimoah and Rakhal and the cities of Jermalites and the cities of the Kenites and Hormah and Bosharashon, Othok and Hebron, for all the places where David and his men had roamed.

May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his holy word. Oh, what are your plans after the service? You got plans? Maybe you plan to go out to eat somewhere? You won't beat the Methodist to the buffet or wherever.

No buffets around. Not from us. Maybe you plan just to go home and eat. Maybe you watch the Olympics. Huh? I like watching the Olympics. Do you have any plans out for the evening? How about for the remainder of the summer?

Anybody got vacation plans? Or maybe you've done that already. How about long term? Let's talk long term. Do you have plans for a career or to increase your marketability so you're paid more? Maybe to expand your business or to reunite your family here or eventually retire?

Everybody want to share your plans? Want to go start? Who wants to start? Everybody? No? Maybe after the service on your way out we'll do that. Well, I turned 60 this year. I already feel like I got a backache today.

Man, I'm getting old. I don't plan to retire, but if God were to eventually send us a man who could preach and pastor, then I could step aside and then do something else. I like to be able to visit, teach in Ethiopia one more time.

Just to visit, not to live. I'd like to be able to write more. Those are aspirations, though, just at this point because, at least according to my plans, the church needs to grow so we can afford to support a pastor who may not have a well-employed wife like I do.

So, for now, my plans are to continue to do what I have been doing. And, of course, if I should get run over by a truck tomorrow, you all will have to plan about that. What are your plans? As the poet Robert Byrne said, riding to a mouse, the best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry.

You can have everything perfectly planned out, you think, considering all the possibilities, and still they go awry. They get messed up. Sometimes you plan what you plan goes awry and the result is disaster, and sometimes it's delightfully better than what you could have planned.

My plans coming out of college in Alabama were to become an academic of sorts, anyway, kind of, to teach. The church I was a member of in Alabama had a Bible college in Florida. Maybe I could teach there.

And so I went to one of the academically best seminaries, the Fuller Theological Seminary in California, and I got to teach in Bible colleges in Singapore and Ethiopia. And then when I did my PhD, I got to be a teaching assistant for a Nobel Prize winner at arguably one of the best universities in the world, the University of Chicago.

And I look then, that moment, like I'm poised to achieve my plans, finally, of being an academic, of a scholar, having an academic career. And I realized, seeing up close, one of the genuinely best academics in the world, and the man won a Nobel Prize, for real.

I realized, I'm not like that. I'm not like him. I'm not interested in, kind of, dispassionately doing research wherever the data takes me, that kind of thing. I believe things. I believe things that I want to persuade others to also believe them.

Back in Singapore, I learned, given the right preparation, I can preach, sometimes. You may disagree with me. And so my plans changed for the better, and practically for the better, as I've found out now.

Because not only do I think I'd be discontent being an academic, there just aren't that many jobs doing it. I'd be a professional athlete. This is not that many positions to fill. And even the Bible College associated with my Alabama church closed a long time ago.

They're gone. My plans went awry, and for the better. But sometimes plans go awry for the worse. In the 1930s, the Japanese planned a Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere, one of the great propaganda terms of all times.

They had already invaded Korea. They attacked China, to which the U .S. objected and put an oil embargo on Japan. And so to get oil, they needed to invade Indonesia. But between Japan and Indonesia was the Philippines, then run by the USA.

And so they planned a massive attack across much of the Pacific and Asia in December of 1941. Simultaneously, over half the Pacific Ocean and much of Asia, their forces would strike the U .S. Navy base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and invade the Philippines and Southeast Asia, going through Thailand, then south all the way through the Malay Peninsula, to Singapore, and then to Indonesia.

It was an elaborate, bold, enormous plan, which they carried out with daring and superb skill, with the result at the end of the plan, which they achieved, that they controlled the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia.

Then they planned on holding on to all that by making attempts to roll them back as costly as possible. That was the plan. And it went awry on August 6, 1945, 79 years ago, as of this coming Tuesday, when something fell from the sky over Hiroshima that they hadn't planned for.

But what are your plans? Well, here we see that David has plans. His plans for the last 16 months has been to use the Philistine Territory as a safe haven while he defended Israel. This plan was working.

It was working brilliantly. David and his men finally have a safe place to live where they don't have to worry about Saul hunting them down. They don't have to sleep in caves and hide out in what Saul called lurking places.

Their families have stable houses where they can go to, sleep at, stay, and then go out from to strike Israel's enemies, nations that were already supposed to have been wiped out by God's command. After they go out and defend Israel, expand Israel, they can then come back home, have all the comforts of home in Ziklag.

Meanwhile, David had fooled the local Philistine king, Akish, by telling him that all this time they had really been attacking Israel. And so Akish is convinced that David has burned all his bridges with Israel, that there's no going back for David to Israel.

David is on his side now. He even appoints David to be his official bodyguard. It's kind of like making him head of the Secret Service. Akish's plan is to use David as part of his military and David's plan is to use Akish to fulfill God's plan for Israel.

But as they say, man plans, God laughs. And here we see how Akish's and David's plan go awry and God's plan is better. We see that in five parts. First, rejection. Second, depression. Third, question.

Then, fourth, reclamation. And finally, distribution. Well, first, David suffers a surprising rejection. He's already been told at the beginning of chapter 28 to get his troops ready, to join Akish, join his regular Philistine forces for a big attack the Philistines have planned on Israel.

The Philistines have a greater Eastern Mediterranean co-prosperity sphere, which they plan on imposing on Israel. They're getting all their forces together for the big attack. The combined army is so big that it frightens Saul.

We saw that in the previous chapter and that makes him go off and see that witch in Indore. Meanwhile, David has told Akish, you shall know what your servant can do. It sounds like he's boasting, but it's also a subtle threat.

You'll know what we'll do. It'll amaze you what we do. You won't believe what we have planned for you, Akish. Then in chapter 29, the Philistines gather all their forces in verse 1, so they're all in on this attack.

This is just a small raid into Israel. This is December 1941. They're all gathered at Aphek, which is the extreme northernmost part of Philistine territory, right on the border with Israel. And the troops are marching by, by hundreds, by thousands, companies and regiments.

The lords of the Philistines, the chiefs over the five Philistine cities, they're watching the units mustering up. Imagine a parade, they're watching them go by. And in verse 2, then in the rear, notice that in verse 2, in the rear, they notice David and his men, along with Akish.

Now, it's very convenient for David to be in the rear. Now, either he planned this, he tried to finagle his way to get in the rear there, or it was just God's providence that he was assigned that place.

But we, we know it's convenient for him to be there because he wants to be in the rear. Once the battle starts, that's exactly where he'll want to be. Now, he's already refused to kill Saul twice, and once he even regretted just for cutting a piece off of his robe, he regretted that.

He's been using Akish's territory to protect and expand Israel. We know that there is no way that David intends on actually fighting against Israel. So, we know that when the battle starts, his plan is to be in the rear of the Philistines, the Philistine formation, so that when the battle is engaged, then the Philistines will find themselves surrounded by Israelites.

Saul's forces in front, David's forces behind, and they're gonna be crushed. That's David's plan. But then David's plan goes awry. The other lords of the Philistines, besides Akish, they see David and his men, and they protest.

What are these Hebrews doing here? What's up with these guys? They don't trust them. Even when Akish tries to vouch for them, especially for David, the head of the men, you know, he says, this is David.

Sure, he was a servant of Saul, but he has been with me now for days and for years, 16 months to be exact. He deserted, Akish says, he deserted to me. That's what Akish thinks. Akish thinks David deserted Israel to be on his side.

All his plans to use David are based on that wrong assumption. David has created that wrong assumption by misleading Akish so that he can protect Israel. Akish testifies, I found no fault in him to this day.

That's Akish's first testimony to David. And in verse 4, the lords of the Philistines, the commanders, they're angry at Akish at bringing this, he's a security risk, he's brought a security risk into the camp.

And they insisted, send the man back that he may return to the place to which you have assigned him, which is Ziklag. He shall not go with us to the battle, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us, which we know, we know, Akish didn't know it and the other people around him didn't know it, but we know is definitely gonna happen.

Because David has actually been defending Israel this whole time. He's passed up two attempts at killing Saul. He's not gonna turn on Israel now. So we know that he's plans on turning on the Philistines in the battle.

And the lords of the Philistines are right here. But then they say, for how could this fellow reconcile himself to his lord, would it not be with the heads of the men here? In other words, by killing us, he can win his way back into Saul's favor.

Yeah, maybe. I think David has given up trying to win Saul's favor. You can see that in the last time he passed up killing him when he was out in the camp in sleep, after sparing him twice. And still Saul chases him.

David would turn on the Philistines. That part they got right. He's gonna be their adversary in the battle. But he's gonna do it not to try to win Saul over, to try to show Saul, I'm really for you, but because David believes in God's promises.

God promised Abraham that land. David believes that promise. And David's plan is based on faith. He believes in defending God's people. Even what it means here, what it means practically for him to have faith is that Saul continues to be king.

He's actually effectively defending Saul's kingship, defending Saul himself. And David doesn't get to be officially the king yet. And so it prolongs for David. It practically prolongs his time as an outcast and as a fugitive.

But he's been doing it because of his faith. The Philistine leaders remember that there was a song about David, really more like a jingle or slogan, composed by the women of Israel after David had killed Goliath and led that rout afterwards.

Remember? Saul is struck down as thousands and David is 10 ,000. I get maybe in Hebrew it sings well. I don't know. The jingle invented by Israelite women to celebrate their victory now serves to expose David and leads to his rejection so that he can't save Saul.

That's his plan, but he can't do it because of that jingle. Now, think of that. Those women had come up with this jingle and the Philistines, and of course like any jingle, it's easy to remember. God used the Israelite women to come up with a jingle, easy to remember, committed to memory.

So the Philistines might remember, hey, this is David. He's the one they made that song about. And so we're not going to trust him. So they rejected him. And so Saul is not spared. And so what ends up, David gets to become king.

If not for the song, not for the jingle, Saul would have been spared and David would have prolonged his time as a fugitive. But God uses that little song to turn the Philistines against David, basically to turn them so that they outvote Akish and have David sit back.

He's rejected so that God's plan for Saul in the battle, who's revealed already by Samuel in the previous chapter, that God's plan would be done. Well, Akish testifies about David a second time in verse 6, as the Lord lives, you have been honest.

No, he hasn't. He totally hasn't. David has completely fooled Akish. To me, it seems right that you should march out and end with me in the campaign. Yeah. Okay. To you, that's just because you're fooled.

He says he's found nothing wrong in David. Nevertheless, the Lord said, the Philistines do not approve of you. In other words, they outvoted me. It's four to one. Just me. I'm the only one for you. So in verse 7, go back now and go peaceably.

Don't make a fuss. You may not displease the lords of the Philistines. They already don't trust you. Don't cause a fuss now. And David protests in verse 8. What have I done? What have you found in me, your servant?

What's wrong with me that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord, the king? He sounds like he's really upset that he can't go fight in this battle. Now for David, that last line, that I may not go fight against the enemies of my lord, the king, that's a double meaning.

He doesn't mean what Akish thinks he means. Akish thinks he means he's referring to him. Akish is thinking I'm his lord and king and he wants to fight my enemies. But David's thinking, no, Saul is my lord and king.

And I'm going to go out and you, Akish, are his enemy. I'm going to go fight you. David's upset that his plans are upset. Then verse 9, Akish testifies to David for the third time. I know that you are blameless in the sight of God as an angel of God.

He vindicates David three times. It's like Pontius Pilate vindicated the Lord Jesus three times. The son of David, three times. But the commanders of the Philistines have made their decision. David and his men must leave, go back to Ziklag.

First thing in the morning, the Philistines army moves out north to Jezreel for the battle in David's south to go home. They have to go immediately in the morning. You notice how important that is? Go quickly.

That turns out being important, doesn't it? Turns out David needs to be back home at Ziklag pretty fast because of what's happening down there. He doesn't know it. But God set him up for that. But David got rejection.

As far as he could tell, his plans have been rejected. He's been rejected. David's best laid plans have gone awry. But wait, there's more. It's kind of like a reverse television pitch, man. It doesn't get better, it gets worse.

If you think your plans have gone awry now, wait till you hear what's happening. Second, depression starting in chapter 30. It took them three days to march down to Aphek. Notice that on the third day means three days march.

So that's a lot of marching and walking. They're exhausted. They get home to their home base in Ziklag. And when they get home, they found out the Amalekites, whom Saul had not wiped out. Remember that?

This is how Saul got rejected. Because he didn't wipe them out like he was supposed to. They had raided their home. And they had taken everything and everyone that could be taken and set the rest on fire.

So instead of finding their families and their homes after that long three-day march, in verse 3, they found charred remnants of their houses and everyone taken captive. Then in verse 4, they raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep.

It seemed like things had gone from bad to worse, from disappointment to disaster. For David personally, this was the lowest. His wives were taken. And just when he thought it couldn't get any worse than this, all his plans have gone awry.

His men have started grumbling, but they want to stone him in verse 6. Remember these men were kind of the losers of society who had signed up for David, planning on using him to get out of their miserable lives, planning for him to be their ticket to being a winner.

And now after years of fleeing from Saul and putting up with David's refusal to eliminate Saul, you know they had grumbled about that. Why didn't he kill him when he had the chance? I don't understand this thing about the Lord's anointed.

Having to flee Philistine territory and then being suspected of having deserted to the Philistines. You know all their friends back home said, that guy, he deserted to the Philistines, our enemies. Now, what do they have to show for it?

Their homes are burned down. All their livestock that they gained over the last 16 months is gone. Their families have been abducted. All thanks to David. We could be king by now if he would have done what any reasonable person could have done, just killed Saul.

And when your plans turn to ashes, you can get angry, you can get depressed. Well, they were both. They were bitter in soul. Verse six says, David too was greatly distressed. His plans had been dashed.

Where's God's blessing? He's wondering. He had boldly told Saul in chapter 26, the Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and faithfulness. Okay. He's got to be thinking, how have I not been righteous and faithful?

I believed your promises, God, to Israel. Even when it meant sacrifice, great sacrifice for myself. I've been basically defending Saul, not only sparing his own life, but defending his kingdom. When it meant having to live like a fugitive.

And I've appeared to live here in Philistine territory, like I've deserted my home country. He's been going out to fight for Israel because of his faith in God's promises. And not only I'm not getting recognition for it, I'm not the king, I'm not getting anything for it now.

I have nothing. Everything's taken. My home is burned down. My wives are gone. And so he must be struggling with depression at the end of verse six. And then he does something, says David strengthened himself in the Lord, his God.

And we might wish we knew exactly what he did. What did he do to strengthen himself in the Lord, his God? We kind of wish we knew what that was so that we weren't tempted with depression. We could do the same thing and get out of depression.

But if we did, we'd treat it like that witch of Endor. We learned her, hopefully we wouldn't be wanting to do that, try to copy her procedure. But here we'd think, if we knew what he did, what song did he sing?

We'd sing that song. Or what prayer did he pray? Or did he pray? Is that what he did to confess some promise? Something he did. We too could, if we just did that thing, we too could strengthen ourselves and we could overcome depression by that, that it's all about doing what he did.

But it's not. Whatever he did to strengthen himself isn't as important as first he did it, he strengthened himself. He didn't just passively sit back and do nothing, right? He strengthened himself. But the temptation and depression is always just to do nothing.

So overcome that, take the initiative. And second, it depended on the Lord being his God. He strengthened himself in the Lord, his God. He had a relationship with the Lord. And that is what made whatever he did effective at strengthening him.

It's that identification with God. The Lord is my God. That resulted in whatever he did, whatever song he sang, or maybe he composed a psalm, or wrote a prayer, prayed a prayer, got out his lyre, confessed a promise of Scripture.

It's the fact that the Lord was his God, he had a personal relationship with God, it's that that made whatever he did strengthening. Depression is often the result of plans going awry. You sit in a chair, stare out the window, seeing nothing in particular, and you think about your life, you worked, and you planned, worked some more, and it's all come to this?

Been fired? You're unemployed? You're lonely? Got a bad diagnosis? There's ashes? And you think, this is it? And you're depressed. Then, strengthen yourself in the Lord, your God. Do something and have a relationship with God.

An identification with God, so that he's your God, so whatever it is you do, you're doing it for the glory of the Lord, your God. Next, David has a question. Third part, the question. His plans have gone awry, so he asks God for new plans.

Starting in verse 7, David calls for the priest, I'll be out there, bring me the ephod. Remember, that's a priestly garment, basically a vest with urim and the thummim in it. We really don't know what those look like.

And David has a question for the Lord in verse 8. Shall I pursue after the band? Shall I overtake them? And the Lord answers through the urim and the thummim, Pursue, for you, it's not really a command, it's just answering the question.

Pursue, for you shall surely overtake, and shall surely rescue. Now, notice the two surelys in the ESV. That's a fine translation. That's an adequate translation. But in Hebrew, the second word is actually a different word, actually two different words.

And the second word can be translated as without fail. You shall surely overtake, and you will, without fail, rescue. That's a pretty good answer, pretty good promise. So the Lord knows certainly what will take place.

Notice that. It's not like maybe, shall I overtake them? Will I rescue them? God does not say. Well, you know, the future depends on so many things, people's choices in all kinds of situations. It could go wrong, things could change.

You might overtake them if you go fast. And if there's maybe somebody left behind from them who could show you the way, and if they stop for a party, maybe, if you're lucky, nothing like that. Now, there's no uncertainty about the future with God.

They will, without fail, God says, rescue. So David and his 600 men set out through the desert, come to a brook, Bessor, down to the very southern part of the Philistine territory. Remember, they started out on the Aphex a couple days earlier, so the northern part, now they're in the very south.

And the 200 of the men who were with them were too exhausted to go on any further. They had marched all the way down from Aphex in the north, expected to be refreshed at home, only to find it destroyed and smoldering and everyone gone.

And then they wore themselves out, wailing. And now they're marching again, double time, having to go down a ravine where the brook was. And about a third of them said they couldn't make it any further, just exhausted.

And so they left their equipment behind with them, and the remaining 400 of them pressed on, not knowing exactly where to go from there on. But then they happen upon a sick, weak, nearly dead man, a bandit in the desert, with no food and water.

He's been there for three days. And so they gave him some. They gave him some bread, some water, a cake of figs, two clusters of raisins. He began to revive. And finally, verse 13, he's able to talk, and David has questions for him.

Again, David has questions. Who do you belong to? Where are you from? Turns out he's an Egyptian servant of one of the Amalekites who raided David's home in Ziklag. In other words, he comes right from that band that David and his men are looking for.

He had gotten sick, and they just left him out there in the middle of the desert to die, show you what kind of people they were. And David has another question, verse 15. Will you take me down to this band?

Now, David and his men can't find the raiders whom the Lord has said they will surely overtake, but there's no way they can overtake them without this man's help. Without this man getting sick and being abandoned in the desert, they wouldn't have, and also, I should say, also agreeing to cooperate with David, they would not have been able to do what God said they will surely do.

The man says he will. If David swears not to kill him or give him back to his lousy master, the same one who left him in the middle of the desert, David, sure, agreed with that. Now, consider this. God had told them already that you will surely overtake them, that Amalekite band, and you will, without fail, rescue your families.

David didn't take those surelys, that assurance, as an excuse just to take it easy. He didn't think, some people would think this is the way you would think, but he didn't think this way, that if we're surely gonna catch up to them, and we will, without fail, rescue our families, then, well, let's take it easy.

Let's rest a while. We're tired after that three-day march down from Aphek. Let's get a good night's sleep. Let's get a good meal before we set out. No, he took God's assurance as fuel for his activity.

Second, understand that God's promise of what will surely happen depends on finding this Egyptian man in the nick of time, on the verge of death, out there in the middle of the desert. What are the chances he'd find this particular man in the middle of the desert?

He's been stuck there three days without water. It depends on him, then it depends on him using his free will. Wait, I thought, God can't tell what people do with their free will, some people say. It depends on him using his free will to choose to cooperate with David, to tell him the truth.

That means that these things, that if you were looking at this, if you were there and I witnessed this, these things would appear so tenuous, so lucky, we might say, so lucky you happened to find that man.

He could have died any moment now. He's right on the verge of death. So unlikely. But all that, it wasn't tenuous or lucky or unlikely at all. It happened as God determined it would happen. It could not have happened any other way.

And this is all God's way of guiding them, pointing them in the right direction so that they will surely achieve what they set out to happen, so that what will surely happen will happen without fail. So we have questions about our plans.

There's unknown, unforeseen factors that could make them go awry so that they could fail or that depend on some stroke of luck, but there's no such thing as luck. We have questions about our plans, but God does not have questions about His.

We plan. God laughs. His plans are always surely, surely. They will without fail reclaim their families. Next part, fourth, the reclamation. The Egyptian man they rescued from the desert takes David and the men to the Amalekites' lair.

They were sprawled out all over the land, eating and drinking and dancing, having a victory party in verse 16. They had gotten all kinds of loot from the Philistines and Israel. Well, the Philistines and Israel were busy getting prepared for the battle against each other up in the north.

Now the Amalekite raiders are drunk and they're exhausted from their celebrations and they're totally unprepared to defend themselves. No sentry on duty. So from twilight in the morning just before dawn until sunset, David and his men attacked and struck them down and rescued their families.

Not one of their family members was missing. In verse 19, not even any of their property was missing. Nothing, no one is lost, either small or great, it says, sons or daughters or wives. It was a complete reclamation.