Unearned Victory Spoils

1 Samuel 29-31; Psalm 118:1-18; Proverbs 15:24-26

 

Hard work should be rewarded with hard cash. Right? And if that’s true, then easy work or rest should not be rewarded, right?

 

David and his men returned to Ziklag, where they were staying, after a three day trek. Arriving, they found that Amalekite raiders had burned their town and had taken their families away. They were physically tired. They had been marching for three days. And now they were emotionally tired: “David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep.” – 1 Samuel 30:4

 

But God led David to pursue the Amalekites. Two hundred of the men soon had to drop out of the chase because of exhaustion (1 Samuel 30:9-10), but four hundred others pursued and fought the Amalekites. They won their families back and made off with loads of plunder.

 

Plunder that they weren’t willing to share with the two hundred exhausted men. Why? “Because they did not go out with us, we will not share with them the plunder we recovered” (1 Samuel 30:22). These men had fought, and the other men had not. So the fighters did not want to share the benefits of the fight.

 

David would have none of it. He insisted that the spoils of victory be divided not according to the kind of work done, but on the basis of being a member of the team:

 

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. – 1 Samuel 30:24

 

In saying this, David set the pattern for Israel from that day on (1 Samuel 30:25). Fortunately for us, this is the same pattern that Jesus has followed. None of us has been able to do anything to overcome Satan, sin and death. Essentially, while we stayed with the supplies, Jesus Himself went into battle. Alone. And alone, Jesus won the victory as He suffered on the cross and then rose from the dead. We did not fight. He did.

 

And yet Jesus includes us in the victory. He sees us as being on His team, though we have done pretty much nothing but confess that He is the Lord and King (Romans 10:10). Like David (thank goodness), Jesus offers the spoils of victory to us, even though we did not do the hard work that made the victory possible. But thanks be to God. He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. – 1 Corinthians 15:57!

 

Father, thank You for the victory. Thank You for giving me the victory – a victory I did not earn. May many others share in our victory.