God, speaking to David through the Prophet named Nathan, said … “I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel.”(2 Samuel 7:8)
Just those few words from the Lord to David, which I am calling the “trajectory” of David’s life, a biography in a sentence, will be our Text this morning.
Look at God’s Hand in David’s life, even young David! Early on, he oversaw, tended the sheep that belonged to his Father Jesse. (1 Samuel 17:15) Probably still a teenager, yet God was focused on this young man in a sweet way.
Shepherds in Bible days were not highly regarded, socially speaking. They lived with their flocks, resulting in the foul odor of the sheepfold and pasture imbuing their very bodies, clothing included!
For example, Genesis 46:34 tells us that shepherds were despised by ancient people! An “abomination,” the King James Version calls them, in the eyes of the Egyptians that is.
Yet God took David and grew him, developed him, matured him … and ultimately sat him on the Throne of Israel!
To be “ruler” over the Land of Israel!
From a pauper to a prince!
From a shepherd to a saoverign!
From a student to a saint! (Writing half the Book of Psalm should qualify him for that august title!)
What an “arc” for a human life to follow!
From a nobody to a somebody!
Then I though … “Is that not the plot every child of God has followed, has been mapped for him or her?”
Let David testify with that golden pen God gave him … “He (the Lord) brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.” (Psalm 40:2)
Paul was graced from being “the chief of sinners” to being the “Apostle to the gentiles!”
What a glorious testimonies!
Today, dear reader, can you remember your past? Before the Lord saved you? Where did He find you?
Probably in a worse place than a “sheepcote!”
And where has He bought you?
I answer, He has made us “kings and priests” in His Father’s Eyes!
Read it. …
“Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, AND HATH MADE US KINGS AND PRIESTS UNTO GOD AND HIS FATHER; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” (Revelation 3:5-6)
David, an amazing trajectory!
But such is true for you and for me, Believers in Jesus Christ, recipients of the marvelous Grace of God!
Isaiah 51:1 may say it best … “Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.”
Remember … where He found you!
Mercy … how blessed WE are in Christ Jesus!
Maybe even more blessed than David, who lived way before Jesus’ Death, Burial and Resurrection!
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with ALL SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS in heavenly places in Christ.” Ephesians 1:3, words which even David could not write, could not claim!
But Paul did … and so can we!
“ALL SPIRITUL BLESSINGS IN CHRIST JESUS!”
Hallelujah!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
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