1S30-1: The Ripple Effect of Disobedience – From Amalek to Today’s Middle East

Today we begin 1st Samuel Chapter 30.

For the Complete Jewish Bible, click HERE,

For the King James Version, click HERE.

“Three days later, when David and his men arrived in Ziklag, they found that the ‘Amaleki had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had sacked Ziklag and burned it down; and they had taken captive the women and everyone there, great and small. They hadn’t killed anyone but had carried them off as they went on their way.”-1 Samuel 30:1-2

Three days after Achish ordered David and his men to abandon the battlefield, to their horror they returned to a Ziklag that had been burned down to the ground.

Everything was gone, and all the women and children were missing.

While David and his men were away, the Amalekites had attacked the village.

They had been waiting for a chance to get back at David for what he had done to them over the past year.

What’s interesting is the Amalekites didn’t kill anyone.

Instead, they took everyone away.

This might seem strange at first because David, when attacking the Amalekites would take their goods AND kill all the adults.

He did this so Achish would have no idea what he was doing or how much he had taken.

So why didn’t the Amalekites kill David’s people as revenge?

Well, it had nothing to do with kindness.

The Amalekites needed to rebuild their tribe since David had killed so many of them.

In tribal societies, it was common to steal people from other tribes to grow their own.

If you think about it, kidnapping the women may have been crueler and much more humiliating because they were stealing wives from the men who had killed their women.

There are no words to describe how heartbroken David and his men were.

The Amalekites, their worst enemy, had whisked away their wives and children.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.

If King Saul or the leaders before him had obeyed God’s command to destroy the Amalekites completely, this wouldn’t have happened.

The first time God gave the order to destroy Amalek was in Moses’ time.

Amalek was the first to try to destroy Israel, attacking them right after they left Egypt, even before they reached Mount Sinai.

Here is the Scriptural reference:

“Remember what ‘Amalek did to you on the road as you were coming out of Egypt, how he met you by the road, attacked those in the rear, those who were exhausted and straggling behind when you were tired and weary. He did not fear God.  Therefore, when ADONAI your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies in the land ADONAI your God is giving you as your inheritance to possess, you are to blot out all memory of ‘Amalek from under heaven. Don’t forget!”-Deuteronomy 25:17-19

To that point and to close with the takeaway…

If Israel under Joshua’s leadership had obeyed the following command:

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.”-Deuteronomy 7:1-2

Then we wouldn’t have a Middle Eastern crisis on our hands at the moment…

And October 7th would never have happened.

I know this is one of the most politically incorrect things to say…

But it is true.

Folks, God knows what He’s talking about when He orders us to do something.

Ya, feel me?