I Samuel 30:1 And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire.
It seems that life is anything but simple. It just seems like the world tends toward complexity. That has always been true when it comes to relationships. Complexity in relationships is never a matter of people doing what God has given them to do. Complexity with people is almost always a matter of our sinful nature tangling things up.
When you read these chapters about the life of David, it’s confusing. Saul fought David even though Saul should have been a friend to David. The Philistines fought Saul. David appeared to be fighting with the Philistines against Saul. In the meantime, the Amalekites fought both Saul and the Philistines. Then at the end of this story David does his best to befriend the people of Judah.
This all resulted in David’s seemingly going with the Philistines against Israel, something that he had not intended to do, but it was the natural result of a ruse that David had been living.
As David and his men were away from Ziklag, the town that had been given him in Philistia, the Amalekites came up and attacked this town. David returned from being with the Philistines, and found the town had been attacked and their wives and children taken captive. The discouraged men with David wanted to kill him. David wisely asked for God’s wisdom and comfort, and he received both. At the end of the day, they recovered everything and are able to go back to Ziklag.
There are a lot of ironies here, but there is one lesson that jumps out. When dealing with tangled relationships, we need God’s wisdom to know the difference between being savvy and just being crafty.
What is the difference between being savvy and being crafty? One is based upon knowledge, and one is based upon deception. Being savvy is knowing the truth and how to skillfully use it. David needed savvy; he needed wisdom in complex situations.
Being crafty is not a matter of what you know, it is a matter of what others don’t know. It’s a matter of deception. That is where David was when it came to the Philistines. Deception rarely makes problems less complicated. We need God’s grace to be savvy and wise when things are complicated without being crafty. We need to know the truth and make that plain to others.