1 Samuel 22:1-2
“David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. So when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him. And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with him.”
1 Samuel 23:3
“But David’s men said to him, ‘Look, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?””
Perhaps you have heard stories about the heroics of the men who aligned themselves with David. They are often referred to as his “Mighty Men.” This is a fair description for many of them since they went on to accomplish great exploits in the furtherance of the kingdom and in its defense from enemies both inside and out.
That being said, it is important to note that these men did not start out mighty. Our first introduction to them is quite discouraging. We learn their characters were somewhat questionable, and they lacked any real faith to step out and serve the Lord. It was not where they started that defined them, as much as, where they ended up. It was the fact that they stepped into battle while filled with trepidation, that made them into the mighty men God used to forge the nation.
All of us have both opportunity and obstacles in the path before us. The question is whether we will trust the sufficiency of the Lord or if we will cower behind our inabilities. If we choose to step into the obstacle in the power of the Spirit of God, we will find victory that will forge us into one of His mighty men.
Years ago, I commented to a friend about the exploits of a man that God was using in a unique and tremendous way. He seemed to always be right in the midst of grand opportunities, and trying circumstances. I said, “It is amazing how these things always seem to happen to him.” Another man, who knew him much better, replied, “They do not ‘happen to him,” but he goes and looks for them”. I thought, how strange it was that while I try to avoid difficulty, he was looking for it, stepping into it, and finding huge opportunity to point many to Christ.
Let’s let our circumstances forge us into mighty men and women, who have chosen to be involved in furthering the kingdom of Christ.
Pastor Jim
The bible describes David as a man after God’s own heart. I am sure the meaning behind that statement is many faceted. While I do not pretend to know all that it means, I am pretty certain that it has a lot to do with the fact that David, like God, had the heart of a shepherd. When he looked at the people of God, he did so with the eyes of a shepherd. His great desire was to see them flourish and grow in the Lord. There are very few texts that express that idea in a greater way than the one before us. Here we are invited into the prayer chamber of the king, as he stands before the throne of grace, on behalf of congregation of Israel. His prayer is a beautiful expression of love for others and should serve as a model for each of us to follow.
Life hurls a vast array of difficulties at the child of God. We are struck with the common problems of every man, as well as those that are peculiar to attempting to follow Jesus, in the midst of ever increasing ungodliness. The question we are faced with is, where will we flee for safety, guidance and solace when struck by the trials of life? David thought it utterly preposterous to think of fleeing to the mountains for aid. To him, it was the Lord, and the Lord alone, who would be his defense.
The Psalmist points out at least four characteristics of the wicked. First, he declares that they do not think about God. One of the surest ways to live a life that pleases the Lord is to consider Him before you act. If you take the time to ask yourself, “What does God think about this?” you will find that you begin to make better and wiser decisions.
If we were writing a comedic screenplay, we might want to include a character who designs an elaborate trap, only to unwittingly catch himself. While it might be quite humorous on the big screen, it is tragic in the real world. The psalmist reminds us, one of the consequences of wicked living is, in the long run, we are actually setting a trap for ourselves. The day is coming when the cage will swing shut, and we will find ourselves enslaved by the very thing we were toying with. This happened to Samson who fooled around with Delilah, telling her to braid his hair or tie him up with new ropes. As time went on, he found himself enslaved to the Philistines. It happened to David, who fooled around with Bathsheba, first watching her bath then flirting with her. He soon found himself enslaved by his lust and caught in an ungodly relationship that had devastating effects upon his family. And it will happen to us, if we toy around with sin. Each time we dabble in unrighteous behavior, it is like putting the shovel in the ground. Day after day, the hole gets bigger until one day we find ourselves caught in a trap we dug for ourselves.
Have you ever heard the phrase, “You can do this,” as a mantra for finding the strength to face the challenge before you? Life often forces us to be stronger than we think we are and to stand up to the opportunity before us. In a passionate plea for the Corinthians to stand against the opposition they were facing, Paul declared,
As we reach the end of ourselves and cry out in desperation to God, prayer is the place where we express our greatest desires. We have found ourselves on our knees pleading with God for direction, the healing of a loved one, or to fix a mess we have created through our own foolishness. I wonder though, when is the last time we pleaded with God for those who don’t yet know Him.
The closing chapters of Judges paint a dark picture of life in ancient Israel. We read of drunkenness, murder, rape, idolatry, spiritual confusion and moral indifference. It seems the people have lost their moral compass and are allowing their desires to determine right from wrong. This was never the way God intended for man to live. From the very beginning, God gave man an external code to guide him through life, and that code is the Word of God. When the Word of God is forgotten, ignored, hidden or altered, it always leads to spiritual confusion, immorality and suffering.
Not every story recorded in Scripture is a positive one. In this case, we find a self-centered man with a drive for power and a taste for blood, fight his way to the top, where he can rule over the people of God. Abimelech was a strong man with many gifts, but he was also an ungodly man who took things by force, and was responsible for the death of many innocent men and women. His ungodly passions and unrighteous principles got him what he wanted, but only for a very short season. He found that no matter who you are, your sins will surely find you out, and you will give an account before God.
We live in an interesting time, when big philosophical ideas are compressed into quaint little sayings and scattered across social media. We are bombarded with these phrases that often express a worldview diametrically opposed to the teaching of Scripture.
Jim Gallagher 