David, I guess in his heart, had trusted that because he was serving the Lord, the Lord would look after him in that situation, so they went out on a raiding party. About three days later they returned to the city. I want you to try and imagine what he must have felt. We're looking at what was in his heart, and how he conducted himself. What kind of type of guy he is.
As they drew near, they would have seen a column of smoke rising. Have you ever seen a city on fire? There are columns of smoke rising into the sky from every burning building. When I stood in India, in 1984, there was a riot in the streets, and I stood on the roof of a house, and as I looked from the roof of the house, as far as you could see, in every direction, there were columns of smoke rising up from burning buildings. It's a most incredible experience to have, to be there, and see the city is on fire.
The Amalekites were a very, very violent people. They were known to wait, in Moses day, and pick off the people of God. They were horrendous people. Saul was challenged to go and kill them, but he never did, so now these Amalekite hordes had come up. They were a violent people. Imagine a motorcycle gang has gone into town, and has absolutely destroyed everything that's there. They smash the windows, the doors, everything that was precious, and just looted the place. Everything is just pulled out, there's no respect for any property. They're looking for money, gold, silver, valuables… and looking for people.
These cruel people gathered up, and they saw there was just women and children in the town; they took every woman, every child, every son, every daughter, herded them all up. Can you imagine the panic in the families, surrounded by an army like that? As they were taken out of the city, they went through the city, burning it to the ground. Can you imagine what it's like to have been there, to have been captured like that? There's no one to protect you. You're being carried away by an enemy army. You know what's going to happen... They will be raping and molesting the women and children; and forcing the young men to serve them as slaves. They're dividing up the people, so this one belongs to this one - no, this one's mine, and they're beginning to argue and fight. They've got the wine, and the alcohol. You can imagine what would have happened, within a day or two of them taking everyone out of the city.
David, as he approaches the city, that he expected God to look after, now has been devastated. Everything has gone! The Bible says: “they cried and cried and cried, until they had no more tears to grieve”.
He faced a major setback, a major disappointment in his life. How do you handle setbacks and disappointments? It's valid to grieve - part of what we do, because we're human, we grieve.
Have you ever had a setback? Have you ever had a disappointment, something you were looking forward to, and it just never worked out? Something that you had hoped would be there, and it just fell apart? Something that you valued, and someone just destroyed it, and treated it like it was nothing? There is a grief comes with that.
David and his friends wept. This is a hardened soldier, and what is he feeling? Imagine what he's thinking, as he's coming to that city… My wife! My beautiful wife, my beautiful children, and they've been taken away by an Amalekite man, and who knows what they're doing to them right now. Can you imagine the grief, and the anguish of soul, that he felt? All the money is gone, all the goods are gone, everything he has built in his life has now just gone.