The situation is that David and his 600 men were pursuing the Amalekites, and 200 of them were too tired to continue the pursuit, so they stayed as a rear-guard, and protect their supplies. The remaining 400 pursued the Amalekites and won a great battle, recovered everything they had lost, and recovered additional plunder from the Amalekites. That is the context for these next verses - 1 Samuel 30:21-25 NIV:
[21] "Then David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow him and who were left behind at the Besor Valley. They came out to meet David and the men with him. As David and his men approached, he asked them how they were. [22] But all the evil men and troublemakers among David's followers said, “Because they did not go out with us, we will not share with them the plunder we recovered. However, each man may take his wife and children and go.”
[23] "David replied, “No, my brothers, you must not do that with what the Lord has given us. He has protected us and delivered into our hands the raiding party that came against us. [24] Who will listen to what you say? The share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All will share alike. ” [25] David made this a statute and ordinance for Israel from that day to this."
The key here is that David was thinking like the Lord, and the evil men and troublemakers were thinking like man. They were thinking that effort should be rewarded, and were thinking of themselves and the extra booty they would have to share with the 200 who had stayed behind. Mathematically, they would have ended up with 2/3 of what they would have if David didn't share the spoils with those that had stayed behind. They were counting the personal cost to themselves, rather than at the impact on the lives of the 200 and their families. The 600 men had lost everything, and here the 400 were saying that the 200 could have their wives and children back, but nothing else, and would be condemning them to poverty and loss of everything else. That is a veery humanistic approach, selfishness and no compassion.
Davis had a different perspective and realized that even though the 200 that had stayed behind didn't fight this battle, they had fought in the other battles and were all part of the same team. Without their (200) previous efforts the 400 wouldn't have had the energy to fight, as they would have had to work 1/3 again as hard if the 200 were not with them previously. We are so quick to take credit for anything that is immediately in front of us, and tend to forget the work and effort of those that have gone before us, or worked side-by-side with us previously.
David understood this and recognized that the Lord had spared them, and given them a great gift of provision and it would be wrong to hold that back from anyone. In fact later in the chapter he shares some of the bounty with other leaders who had nothing to do with the battle.
Here is the key spiritual principle, when one part of the body sees a victory, the blessings are shared with all, especially within the membership of that group, regardless of whether they were actively engaged, or had been a part of everything previous, or were sitting on the sidelines because of exhaustion. The Lord does not look down on those who are exhausted and have to rest. It is interesting that the valley of Besor, actually means the valley of the cheerful. It could symbolize a need to restore joy and cheerfulness to one's life. I know there have been many times in my exhaustion that I just don't have any joy, and cheer, any hope. The Lord is OK with us taking a break to be restored in this area, and He won't deduct anything from us. If we are the ones who have been on the front lines, we need to embrace this perspective, and freely share that which the Lord has given us, holding nothing back from those that had to sit out.
Secondly, if we were in a place of exhaustion or being worn slick, the Lord is ok with us being restored, and will not reduce our blessing or provision. The enemy would try to convince us that we missed the blessing because we weren't somewhere, or were too tired but that is clearly not true! It is the Lord's heart of mercy and compassion that drives His blessing and release of provision. He does not think like man, and we must realize that is true.
Finally, if we have lost much or everything to an attack of the enemy, the Lord will restore and bless. He is not satisfied with allowing us to suffer loss at the hand of the enemy and He will sustain us and help us.
I would say that this is a good word for today! Lord we thank You for Your blessing, Your gifts, Your provision and Your restoration. You are so good to us.
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