On the third day came a fresh and a sharper dealing from God. He it was Who had caused the Philistine lords to refuse David a place in their army when about to fight the hosts of Israel, and as a further, needed circumstance for the restoration of His servant to the path of faith, He had moved the Amalekites to attack Ziklag, carry off all the living, and to destroy the town.
The three day's journey, we may rightly suppose, had given David time to reflect upon his recent course, but it was only when the desolation of Ziklag came into view that his soul was restored to a right state before God. What exercises of heart must he not have passed through as he reviewed his actions and associations since a year and four months before this he had left the wilderness of Ziph. Names in the Scriptures are sometimes very significant, and as we have before noted, Ziph means "refining place"; David had left that character of things where faith was tested, for an easier path, but it had involved him in the most serious way, Better far had it been to have stayed in the trials and tribulations which were involved in the path of faith, than to have lost communion with God, and joined forces with His enemies. Now he could see clearly again, and being fully restored, his heart turns to God as his refuge and strength. a very present help in trouble (Psalm 46).
That David's followers spoke of stoning him was a part of the needed lesson. Had he not left the divinely appointed path, this would not have occurred. In thinking of David as a type of Christ ( and such in general he is seen to be). we find no analogy here.
Asking now direction of God, which he had not done when he left Ziph ( see chapter 27:1), he asked not in vain, and pursuing the departing Amalekites, he overtook them and recovered all.
Typically here we no doubt see the Lord in the work of redemption. bruising the serpent's head (Gen. 8:1515And God spake unto Noah, saying, (Genesis 8:15)); through death destroying (annulling—making of no effect) him that had the power. of death, that is, the devil; and delivering them who were in his hands (see Heb. 2:14-1514Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Hebrews 2:14‑15)). Typical too, is the bringing in of the Egyptian found dying by the road side, who was deserted by his master when he could no longer be useful to him; grace is shown to him, though he had been a servant of the enemy: permanent deliverance is assured him, and he becomes of service to him with whom lie is henceforth associated.
David's largeness of heart is marked in the treatment of the faint two hundred who stayed behind at the brook when their strength failed, and in his sending of the spoils of his victory to the elders of Judah and his friends who had done nothing to entitle them to share in them. None who had had to do with him in the time of his rejection was forgotten (verse 31).