God's Power, Not Ours: 1 Samuel 30:7-15
Thankfully, our salvation does not depend on our strength, but rather it depends on God’s strength. He conquers sin and death. He gives us victory. He reaches into our life and promises life eternal, which we cannot make on our own. He deserves the glory, because He is the one who saves.
Once David deals with the anger of his men, he and his generals start planning their next move. David inquires of the Lord through Abiathar, and receives confirmation he should go after the Amalekites. Finding his purpose, he heads out to accomplish it.
As they go along, some of David’s men grow weak. Perhaps they were too busy mourning their losses to prepare for the journey and coming battle. Perhaps they were delegated with carrying the majority of the supplies and grew tired from the exertion. Perhaps they didn’t have access to food because it was burned in Ziklag and were unable to replenish the energy their bodies needed. Whatever the reason, David leaves a third of his force behind and continues with those who could manage.
As David’s men move, they come across an Egyptian. This Egyptian can show David where his family went, but the Egyptian doesn’t trust David. This is an intelligent move given David’s immediate past, and he forces David to promise no harm will come to him.
In his greatest moment of peril, the Egyptian thinks not of the present but of the future. His master cast him aside and hoped he would die in the wasteland. He had nowhere to go and no place to find security. We don’t know what happened to this Egyptian after the battle, but since he got an oath from David he probably joined up with David’s force and continued to dwell among the Hebrew people. He was happy to exchange his current reality for future wellbeing.
This sequence of stories teaches us about salvation. First, David is in a spiritual low among the Philistines as he schemes and deceives, but God’s power is still big enough to use David to rescue his people. Next, God takes away a third of David’s fighting force and forces David to continue with a considerably diminished human force, illustrating how important it is to consider God’s power in salvation rather than focusing on our own. Finally, when David might despair at being unable to find those who took his family, God brings an unexpected outcast into David’s life to point him in the right direction.
God is powerful enough to overcome our failings. God is powerful enough to fulfill His promise. God is powerful enough to do the unexpected. Thankfully, our salvation does not depend on our strength, but rather it depends on God’s strength.
