Distress, Division and Defeat
1 Samuel 30:1-31
Today’s passage dealing with David’s distressed return to Ziklag and subsequent defeat of the Amalekites offers instruction for our Christian life. Despite the present reality of our total victory in Christ, we still need to make our way home and will assuredly find distress along the way. In times of distress, we are not called to stoicism or to deny our emotions, but rather are to submit our emotions to the direction and correction of the Holy Spirit, while clinging to the certainty of our security in Christ. In the meantime, how are the spoils of victory distributed? Happily, God’s economy does not operate on us getting what we earn, but rather upon being in Christ, which entitles us to equal blessings under the covenant, in unity with the rest of the covenant community which God is knitting together into one body.
