David became the leader of a formidable group of men, drawn together by adverse circumstances. Those who gathered around him were not what we would call the pick of the crop, but they would ultimately become mighty men. There are 3 things we see in these men’s lives that made them become men of God, and the same things cause us today to become men and women of God.<\/p>\n
Distress:<\/strong> First, when we are in distress over life, we begin to look for help; and it\u2019s only when we come to God that we find peace from stress and a solid foundation.<\/p>\n Debt:<\/strong> Secondly, when we see our debt before God, we realize that we owe everything to Him and we stop trying to rely on others or ourselves and become completely dependent on Him.<\/p>\n Discontented:<\/strong> Thirdly, when we are discontent with the conditions of the world we live in, we begin to look for real contentment. It is then that we realize there isn\u2019t enough of anything this world has to offer that will bring us contentment. No matter what temporal thing we try to use to feed the flesh, it will never satisfy. Only God offers contentment because he deals with issues of eternal consequence.<\/p>\n This was the situation in the lives of the men who came to David during his time of exile. King Saul was a tyrant who had become a mad man. He had moods of deep depression and a dangerous, vicious temper that allowed him to destroy even the innocent. Those truly upset with the way the current kingdom was going, began to gather to David, forming a core group that would later help govern when David finally took over the kingdom. They looked to the exiled shepherd-king for protection, training, and a delayed reward. Satan is still the same kind of tyrant trying to rule men’s hearts in the world today. King Jesus is gathering together his core group for the day when he sits on the eternal throne, ruling and reigning forever. Like them, we must submit all our lives to the King, and allow him to make the decisions we face.<\/p>\n “LORD, reign in our hearts and minds today we ask, in Jesus’ name.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 Samuel 22 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father\u2019s house heard\u00a0it\u00a0<\/em>, they went down thither to him.\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0And every one\u00a0that was\u00a0<\/em>in distress, and every one that\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>in debt, and every one\u00a0that was<\/em>discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men.\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0And David went thence to Mizpeh of Moab: and he said unto the king of Moab, Let my father and my mother, I pray thee, come forth,\u00a0and be\u00a0<\/em>with you, till I know what God will do for me.\u00a04<\/sup>\u00a0And he brought them before the king of Moab: and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold. 5<\/sup>\u00a0And the prophet Gad said unto David, Abide not in the hold; depart, and get thee into the land of Judah. Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hareth. 6<\/sup>\u00a0When Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men that\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>with him, (now Saul abode in Gibeah under a tree in Ramah, having his spear in his hand, and all his servants\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>standing about him;)\u00a0\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0Then Saul said unto his servants that stood about him, Hear now, ye Benjamites; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>make you all captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds;\u00a08<\/sup>\u00a0That all of you have conspired against me, and\u00a0there is\u00a0<\/em>none that sheweth me that my son hath made a league with the son of Jesse, and\u00a0there is\u00a0<\/em>none of you that is sorry for me, or sheweth unto me that my son hath stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?\u00a0 9<\/sup>\u00a0Then answered Doeg the Edomite, which was set over the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub.\u00a010<\/sup>\u00a0And he enquired of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0for him, and gave him victuals, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father\u2019s house, the priests that\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>in Nob: and they came all of them to the king.\u00a012<\/sup>\u00a0And Saul said, Hear now, thou son of Ahitub. And he answered, Here I\u00a0am\u00a0<\/em>, my lord.\u00a0\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0And Saul said unto him, Why have ye conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse, in that thou hast given him bread, and a sword, and hast enquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0Then Ahimelech answered the king, and said, And who\u00a0is so\u00a0<\/em>faithful among all thy servants as David, which is the king\u2019s son in law, and goeth at thy bidding, and is honourable in thine house?\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0Did I then begin to enquire of God for him? be it far from me: let not the king impute\u00a0any\u00a0<\/em>thing unto his servant,\u00a0nor\u00a0<\/em>to all the house of my father: for thy servant knew nothing of all this, less or more.\u00a0\u00a016<\/sup>\u00a0And the king said, Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou, and all thy father\u2019s house. 17<\/sup>\u00a0And the king said unto the footmen that stood about him, Turn, and slay the priests of the\u00a0LORD; because their hand also\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>with David, and because they knew when he fled, and did not shew it to me. But the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the\u00a0LORD.\u00a0\u00a018<\/sup>\u00a0And the king said to Doeg, Turn thou, and fall upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priests, and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod.\u00a019<\/sup>\u00a0And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen, and asses, and sheep, with the edge of the sword. 20<\/sup> And one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David. 21<\/sup>\u00a0And Abiathar shewed David that Saul had slain the\u00a0LORD\u2019S\u00a0priests.\u00a022<\/sup>\u00a0And David said unto Abiathar, I knew\u00a0it\u00a0<\/em>that day, when Doeg the Edomite\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>there, that he would surely tell Saul: I have occasioned\u00a0the death\u00a0<\/em>of all the persons of thy father\u2019s house.\u00a023<\/sup>\u00a0Abide thou with me, fear not: for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life: but with me thou\u00a0shalt be\u00a0<\/em>in safeguard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" David became the leader of a formidable group of men, drawn together by adverse circumstances. Those who gathered around him were not what we would call the pick of the crop, but they would ultimately become mighty men. There are 3 things we see in these men’s lives that made them become men of God, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6512"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6512"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16175,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6512\/revisions\/16175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}