Last week we saw how David thanked
and exalted God for saving them from the Philistines. David wrote
God the most beautiful song of praise. And we learned that we need
to thank God too for all that He is doing in our lives. We should
never neglect that. We shouldn't just ask, but we should also thank
Him for making all things work out for our good. He is our good
Shepherd, always good in all His ways leading us unto pathways of
everlasting life.
The Bible then tells us more of the
mighty men of David. David had thirty mighty men and he had three
who were even more superior than they. The Bible tells us of
Josheb-Basshebeth who in one battle killed eight hundred men. Then
there was Eleazer, he and David alone stood and fought against the
Philistines even though the men of Israel had retreated. He fought
until his hand was weary, and his hand stuck to the sword. The Lord
honored him and David and brought about a great victory that day.
Then there was Shammah, one time he alone stood and fought against
the Philistines and the Lord brought a great victory. These were
the three mighty men of David.
There were also other mighty men
who was not part of the three, but were very brave. Like Abishai,
he killed 300 men in one battle. There was also Benaiah:
"He had killed two lion-like
heroes of Moab. He also had gone down and killed a lion in the
midst of a pit on a snowy day. And he killed an Egyptian, a
spectacular man. The Egyptian had a spear in his hand; so he went
down to him with a staff, wrestled the spear out of the Egyptian's
hand, and killed him with his own spear." 2 Samuel 23:20,
21
Wow, David indeed had mighty men on
his side. I cannot even begin to imagine how one man could kill 800
men without a gun or any of today's technology in one battle! Or
how a man wrestled with a lion on a snowy day! My goodness, these
men were valiant fighters and God used them mightily. God sent them
to David to help him to secure the throne. God surrounded David
with men strong and brave enough to protect Israel from their
enemies and to bring peace to them. God made sure that David had
all the help that he needed.
God will most certainly send the
same help to you. He will make sure that you have all the resources
that you need to succeed in His God-ordained plan for you. He will
send people to you to help you flourish in His plans for you. God
will never leave you to fend for yourself. You simply need to be
open to receive the people that God sends to you. Imagine if David
sulked in the caves where he hid away from Saul and chased all who
came to him away because they were not good enough or because he
was so swamped in self-pity. Where would he have been? Certainly
not the mighty king that he became. You see the men that God sent
to David weren't exactly the cream of the crop. He sent men who
were outcasts, who were running from their debt, who were exiled
etc. And yet, they became mighty with God's power, because He
wanted them to help David.
This made me think of the disciples
too. Jesus didn't choose the cream of the crop for His closest
friends either. They were lowly people in the community. They were
not the 'who's who'. No, they were doing lowly despised jobs and
yet Jesus chose them. And they became mighty when the Holy Spirit
descended upon them. They stood in front of mobs proclaiming their
faith, never fearing what could be done to them. Their main aim was
spreading the Gospel and telling everyone how amazing Christ is and
they did that with all their might. They were mighty with the power
of God.
And today God is mightily with you
too. He lives within you and wants to show you all that you can be
for Him. Allow Him to move with all His might within you. And do
not despise the people He sends to help you. They might not be the
cream of the crop in this world's eyes, but they are mighty in
Jesus to help you! Allow them to. Do not be too proud to ask for
help. David would never have become king on his own, he needed help
and God supplied it for him. So take the help offered from Above
and walk in your destiny with your head held high.
Thank you Father that You never
leave us without help. Thank you so much that we can know that.
Please show us the people that You have ordained to help us. We
want to take hands with them and walk this road that You have
planned for us. Thank you so much for all Your good plans for our
lives. We love You. Amen