11 Now they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David, and gave him bread and he ate, and they provided him water to drink. 12 They gave him a piece of fig cake and two clusters of raisins, and he ate; then his spirit [f]revived. For he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights. 13 David said to him, “To whom do you belong? And where are you from?” And he said, “I am a young man of Egypt, a servant of an Amalekite; and my master left me behind when I fell sick three days ago. 14 We made a raid on the [g]Negev of the Cherethites, and on that which belongs to Judah, and on the [h]Negev of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire.” 15 Then David said to him, “Will you bring me down to this band?” And he said, “Swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring you down to this band.”
16 When he had brought him down, behold, they were [i]spread over all the land, eating and drinking and [j]dancing because of all the great spoil that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. 17 David [k]slaughtered them from the twilight [l]until the evening of [m]the next day; and not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled. 18 So David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and [n]rescued his two wives. 19 But nothing of theirs was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that they had taken for themselves; David brought it all back. 20 So David had [o]captured all the sheep and the cattle which the people drove ahead of [p]the other livestock, and they said, “This is David’s spoil.”
We saw in the last passage that David turned to God when things looked dark and desperate. While God had already given David the word to go on the attack, He continues to guide David and literally gives David an “inside man” to guide his men right to the enemy encampment.
The end result is nothing short of a miracle, as David’s men recover all their family, all their possessions, and even get all the enemy spoil as a bonus.
Now, to be sure, we don’t always come out smelling like roses on the other side of a trial. But if we turn to God and follow His leading and guiding, the result will be far better than anything we could manufacture ourselves.
Storms of life will come, but if we allow it, God will use those storms to strengthen our character and make us more like Him. And that’s worth more than all the spoils in a thousand battles.