Year 4, Day 308: 1 Samuel 22

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Chemistry

• Chemistry asks whether the person in question can work with the other people that God has called.

What a cool chapter to talk about chemistry.  Even as David is on the run from Saul we can see God working through David to collect people around him.  In spite of the fact that David is an enemy of the state, God is able to use him.

David starts to collect the people around him who need him.  The poor come to him.  The oppressed come to him.  The people who need a leader or a support network come to David.  The people who were in debt gather around David.  Notice that David doesn’t turn them away.  Many people in the world would turn away the world’s outcasts.  David welcomes them with open arms.  He has the chemistry to take them and shape them regardless of whatever baggage they may carry.

Second, notice David’s chemistry with the one remaining priest from Nob.  All of his family has just died.  He could have easily hated David for being the motivating cause that led Saul to have Doeg the Edomite kill the priests.  But David overcomes this.  David welcomes the priest.  He reminds the priest that they have a common enemy who wants them both dead.  Then he reminds the priest that he will always have a home.

That’s chemistry at work.  God works through David to bring all kinds of people around him so that when the time is right God can work through all of them.

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