Life of David: 18. David and the Amalekites

This is week 18 in the Life of David series. The lesson is found in 1 Samuel 29-30 and David has to fight the Amalekites to get his wives back that were captured.

Saul has been very upset because God isn’t with him anymore. Saul went to see a medium and asked for Samuel. Samuel came and told Saul that his kingdom has been taken away from him. God has given the kingdom to David because of Saul’s disobedience. Samuel told him that Saul and his sons would die in a battle with the Philistines the next day.

(Chapter 29) David and his men were with King Achish prepared to fight with the Philistines, but when the princes of the Philistine army walked by and checked on everyone, they didn’t like David being in their group. They were afraid he would change his mind and fight against them. So, David left the Philistine army.

(Chapter 30) When they came to Ziklag, David learned that the Amalekites had attacked and burned the city. They took everyone that was there as captives including both of David’s wives. They cried and David was very upset because the people were talking about stoning him.

David told Abiathar the priest to bring him the ephod. David talked to God and asked Him if he should go after the Amalekites. God told him to find them because David would catch up to the Amalekites and get everyone back.

David took his men and went after the Amalekites. As they were traveling, they found an Egyptian man in a field. After giving him some bread and water, the man told David that he was from Egypt and was a servant of an Amalekite. He had been left behind when he became sick three days before.

The Egyptian told David of the places they had attacked and that they had burned Ziklag with fire. David asked him if he could take him to the Amalekite troop. The Egyptian said “Promise that you won’t kill me or return me to my master. Then, I will take you to them.”

When the Egyptian took David to see the Amalekite troop, they saw them spread out over the land. They were enjoying themselves eating, drinking and dancing. They were happy because of all the captives and spoil (things} they had taken from the lands of Judah and the philistines.

David attacked them from sundown until the next evening. The only ones that escaped were the 400 young men who rode camels and fled. David rescued both of his wives and everyone else was found safe also.

All of their animals were recovered, and David took them as his spoil. David had left 200 of his men behind as they were looking for the Amalekites. The men had said they were too tired to go any farther. They caught up with them at the Brook Besor. They went to meet David and he greeted them.

The men that had gone with David all the way said “These men do not get any of the spoil that we recovered since they did not go with us to the fight. Just give them their women and children!”

But David told them the Lord saved them and protected them against the fight with the Amalekites. They had an agreement that the supplies would be shared by all; whether you fight the battle or take care of the supplies.

When David returned to Ziklag, he sent some of the spoil to his friends of Judah and the other cities where David and his men had been living. He told them “Here is a present for you.”

The printables for David in this series are for an older age group than I usually post. Most of these lessons about David are not appropriate for early elementary. But David is a great study. So, as you can see from the above picture, there is a Q&A. This could be used with younger groups by using the answer sheet and just asking the questions for discussion. Each post in this series will have a maze and some type of puzzle. The additional application has thought questions about how the students can apply the lesson to their daily life. There are answer sheets for all worksheets except for the last application. Everyone will have a different set of answers. Click here to download.