Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2017
“This is David’s spoil.” 1 Samuel 30:20.
We have earlier gathered spoil for ourselves out of David’s behavior in the hour of his sorrow at Ziklag and we will now turn to the other side of this leaf in his history and receive instruction from the time of his victory. But we must not do this till we have refreshed our memories with the story of his conduct under distress. When he came to the city he found it burned with fire, the property of himself and his comrades carried away and what was worse, all their wives and their sons and their daughters gone into captivity. In the madness of their grief the people turned upon their leader, as if he had led them into this calamity. He was the only calm person among them, for he “encouraged himself in the Lord his God.”
With due deliberation he waited upon the Lord and consulted the oracle through the appointed priest and then, under Divine guidance he pursued the bandits, took them by surprise, recovered all of his people’s goods and captured a large booty which the Amalekites had collected elsewhere. David, who had been the chief object of the people’s mutiny and the leader of the successful pursuit of the robbers, most properly received a special portion of the spoil and concerning it the words of our text were spoken, “This is David’s spoil.”
We shall now look into this victorious act on the part of David with the view of finding spiritual teaching in it. David may be regarded as a very special type of our Lord Jesus Christ. Among the personal types David holds a leading place—for in so many points he is the Prophetic foreshadowing of the great and glorious Son of David. Whenever David acts as the man after God’s own heart, he is the picture and emblem of the One who is still more after God’s own heart— even the Christ of God.
David, under Divine guidance, pursued the Amalekites who had come as thieves to smite and to burn and carry away captives. The marauders were overtaken and slaughtered and a great spoil was the result. David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken. “And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor anything that they had taken to them: David recovered all.” We are told several times over in the chapter that nothing was lacking—“David recovered all.” When our Lord Jesus worked out our redemption, He recovered all and left nothing in the enemy’s hand. All glory to His name!
But over and above, David took great store of cattle and jewels and gold and silver and so forth, which belonged to the Amalekites, and out of this a bountiful portion was taken which was set apart as David’s spoil. David’s men, in the moment of their despair, had spoken of stoning him. But now, in the morning of their victory, with general acclamations, they determine that David shall have, as his portion of the spoil, all the cattle which belong to the Amalekites themselves. And so, driving these in front, as they return to Ziklag, they say, “This is David’s spoil.” I think I hear them, as they drive the bullocks and the sheep before them, shouting right lustily, “This is David’s spoil.”
Now, using David as the type of Christ, I want, if I can, to set all David’s men—all Christ’s men—shouting with all their hearts, “This is Jesus’ spoil!” He it is of whom Jehovah says, “I will divide Him a portion with the great and He shall divide the spoil with the strong.” He has a grand reward as the result of the great battle of His life and death. We will even now award to Him the spoil and cry, “This is David’s spoil,” feeling, all the while, as the Psalmist did when he said, “You are more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey.”
I. We begin with the first observation that practically all the spoil of that day was David’s spoil and in truth all the good that we enjoy comes to us through our Lord Jesus. He has been given as a Leader and a Commander to the people and every victory they win is due to Him and to Him alone. Without Him we can do nothing and without Him we can obtain nothing. All that we once possessed by nature and under the Law, the Spoiler has taken away. By our own efforts
we can never regain what we have lost—only through our great Leader can we be restored and made happy. We ascribe unto Jesus all our gains—even as David’s men honored their captain.
For, first, David’s men defeated the Amalekites and took their spoil—but it was for David’s sake that God gave success to the band. God’s eyes rested upon His chosen servant, the Lord’s anointed, and it was not for the warrior’s own sakes but for David’s sake that God guided them to the hosts of Amalek and gave them like driven stubble to their sword. How much more true it is to us that every blessing, every pardoning mercy, every delivering mercy, is given to us through Him who is our Shield and God’s Anointed! It is for the sake of Jesus that we are pardoned, justified, accepted, preserved, sanctified. Only through this channel does the mercy of God come to us.