The Service of David's Mighty Men (I)

A while back, some of the brothers in Christ mentioned about David's mighty men (2 Samuel 23 and 1 Chronicles 11) and the great things they have done, and they seemed quite fascinated with these characters. I wasn't very familiar with the stories and the recordings about them, so I decided to take a look and to see what was special about these men.

Of course, there is always something to learn from any of the passages in the Bible, even from a list of names. Romans 15:4 tells us that everything that was recorded in the Bible is used for our learning, so that we may have hope:

For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.

I will share my findings in a series of posts, since publishing everything in one post may result in pages of text (haha, jk).

The Bible does not specifically mention of the backgrounds of these mighty men, besides the regions where they came from. But some of them were believed to have come from the unruly band of men who joined David during his exile and fleeing from King Saul in 1 Samuel 22:2.

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.

Before, they were lost - they were in difficulty, in debt, and discontent with their lives. But when they came to David in the cave of Adullam, David took them in, and he became their leader. Some of these 400 men ended up becoming listed as David's mighty men. These men were given the chance to become “somebody” for David and, ultimately, for God, and they made the most out of that opportunity. They were remembered by God and used as encouragement for those who read the Bible.

Aren't we (in a sense) like these mighty men? In Titus 2:14, it says:

... who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. 

Before we knew Christ, we were like “nobody” to God - we might have been in a difficult situation, had many problems in our lives, or were simply discontent or feeling empty in our lives. But now, through Jesus Christ, we belong to His kingdom and are His people, so we are given a chance to work for God and His kingdom, to become "somebody," to be remembered by God for the good works that we accomplish for Him. And our leader is Jesus Christ, who is much greater than David, so aren't we more special and more precious than these mighty men?

May we always remember the love of Jesus Christ and strive to serve Him better, just like the men that joined David in Adullam who later became David's mighty men.

Do All Things Without Grumbling or Complaining

We were hit with quite a bit of rain all day yesterday and throughout the night, and I woke up to the sound of tree specialists cutting down a few of the neighbor's trees at 7:30 AM. I'll be honest: I wasn't too fond of the disturbance. I mean, I wasn't going to whip up a storm, ranting about how they could have waited an hour to start waking people up, but a few extra minutes of sleep would've been nice.

After I went downstairs, I saw the news about the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan. It was a bit painful to watch the footage of the conditions and the flooding as I was eating my breakfast. I can't really express my thoughts and feelings about the situation over there because I'm still in shock. But one thing it made me realize was how fortunate I am to be living in the US. Even though life can be difficult at times, but sometimes we never think how lucky we are to be living in a country where there is much freedom, humanity, and fewer natural disasters - not to say that there aren't natural disasters that happen, they just don't wipe out a portion of the country. And I thought about how I woke up this morning semi-grumbling about the tree company and how I should be more grateful that we aren't in a situation where the east coast is completely flooded or tore down by a hurricane or activists are causing riots and chaos in Washington, D.C.

It reminds me of this month's Verse of the Month (that the Religious Education Department at Elizabeth has recently implemented), and then some:

Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” (Philippians 2:14-15a)

Little annoyances and disturbances happen in life. Sometimes things don't go as planned, but that's how life is. I don't feel that complaining is necessarily a bad thing, but it really depends on context and situation. But if one is always complaining about big and little things, then that can be a problem. It doesn't really shine the light of Jesus now, does it? Instead, being thankful is a better option, because there is a lot to be thankful for.

The Sword of Goliath Behind the Ephod

After a few hours of grueling studying for a midterm this week, I decided to take a break and write a long overdue post. This was from a sermon from one of our deacons last month.

So the priest said, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, there it is, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it. For there is no other except that one here."

And David said, "There is non like it; give it to me." (2 Sam 21:9)

Here, David was running for his life because Saul has ordered that David was to be killed. In Chapter 21, David came to the priest, Ahimelech, at Nob. I'm guessing he was hungry because he asked Ahimelech for 5 loaves of bread. He also was in need of a sword to protect himself when/if someone attacked him. Ahimelech gave David showbread, which was the holy bread, consecrated to be offered to God. He also told David that the sword of Goliath is in his possession, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. Then David took the sword and left.

David was clearly in a difficult situation - the king wanted him dead. He was in desperation and needed a sense of security or reassurance of his safety. So what did he take? Rightfully so, he took the sword of Goliath. It made total sense because now he can protect himself... even though this sword has probably very large, given that it had to be proportional to Goliath, who was approximately 9 feet tall. So I'd say the sword was probably 5 feet long and weighed more than the average human. Needless to say, it probably wasn't going to be of much help to David, but he took it anyways - something is better than nothing.

The speaker gave a very interesting insight about Ahimelech's response that I had not thought about before. He told David that the sword of Goliath was wrapped in a cloth, located behind the ephod. The speaker explained that the sword represents one's experience, skills, and specialties. That makes sense - fighting with a sword requires the building of fighting and swordsman skills, which is enhanced with experience. What about the ephod? Interestingly, the ephod represents intercessory prayers. The ephod was worn by the high priest, and it bore the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel engraved on it as a memorial. In a sense, it was showing that the ephod was a means of intercessory prayers for Israel. Exodus 28 explains the purpose of the ephod:

"Then you shall take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel... And you shall put the two stones on the shoulders of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel. So Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders as a memorial." (Ex 28:9, 12)

It sounded like there was a reason why Ahimelech worded his statement the way he did in 2 Sam 21:9. He wanted to tell David to seek after God for help through prayer, not by his own strength and experience. That's why the ephod was in front of sword. Furthermore, the sword was wrapped in cloth, almost as if it was meant to be hidden. I feel as if Ahimelech didn't tell David to not use experience/skills to resolve his issue, otherwise he could've hidden it and say that he didn't have a sword. Rather, I think Ahimelech was telling David, "Look, there is a sword there. It's available for you to use if you need it. But it's behind the ephod. You may want to check out the ephod first before you grab the sword."

I don't blame David for doing so. As a soldier/warrior, the first instinct is to grab a sword. A soldier's "best friend" is his weapon when in battle. But if he had stopped before going with his gut feeling and thought about what Ahimelech said, he may have found a better solution, which he experienced a few chapters ago when fighting against Goliath -- God.

I'm sure we can see ourselves in the same boat as David was. When I encounter difficulties or start to worry about upcoming events/situations, my first reaction is to find ways to address the issue from experience, consultation, research, etc. Not that it's wrong to do so, it's human nature, but I forget that we have God who can help me and give me a way if I ask Him first. I still may need to use our my experience and specialties to resolve the issues, but if I inquire of God first, God may give me an easier way out or a way that I may not have thought of. It's always a test of faith. Life is a test of faith.

So, what's it going to be? The sword or the ephod?