Sometimes in Life, certain demeaning tasks – like running errands or delivering food- are assigned by our superiors. One of those instances is narrated below:
17 And Jesse said unto David his son, Take now for thy brethren an ephah of this parched corn, and these ten loaves, and run to the camp to thy brethren.
18 And carry these ten cheeses unto the captain of their thousand, and look how thy brethren fare, and take their pledge.
Jesse, Father of David, assigned the task of running an errand and delivering some eatables to his three brothers and the Captain of their band of thousand men.
There is no mention of David as to whether he was willing to do the task or grudgingly did it. Whatever it be, he went to deliver the eatables to his brothers and take a pledge to show that his brothers were alive and doing well.
The intent of Jesse was to find out the well-being of his three sons and Jesse thought that the eighth son David was the one who could be spared for such a mundane task. Jesse did not know the skills David had honed. In the previous chapter at 1 Samuel 16, the person who recommends David to Saul says thus:
17 And Saul said unto his servants, Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me.
18 Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the LORD is with him.
To fit in the chronology of the events between chapter 16 and 17, should be left to those with the skills and aptitude, as a layman’s interpretation may lead to a polemic as to whether Samuel anointed David first or whether David fought Goliath first!
Since my blog is just a slice presented in an expatiated form to highlight a point, to be beset with apparently contradicting facts would be merely a digression, hence those facts are being ignored.
The point of this blog is that there are three persons involved, Jesse, David and God!
Jesse’s intent was to employ the services of his last son David as a carrier of eatables. Joseph was once sent on such an errand by his father Jacob and that landed joseph in the jail before he became the Governor of Egypt. Jacob, for this indiscretion of throwing joseph to the likes of his other bloodthirsty and greedy sons ended up believing for 20 years that his beloved wife Rachel’s first son Joseph was dead!
But in this instance Jesse was not so unfortunate, though David’s brothers were less virulent than Joseph’s brothers- rather David was of a better mettle not to be browbeaten or intimidated by his elder brothers Eliab, Aminadab and Shammah! He circumvented them and got nominated by King Saul for contesting the Champion Goliath. David’s skills, initiative, cunning, might be ascribed to have helped him to win the fight, but to get nominated was not in his hands!
An untested David gets nominated by Saul to contest a battle hardened veteran Goliath!
I’ve written a blog earlier on David
Which I think should be read along with this blog.
The skills honed in idle hours might have been David’s effort but to get nominated by Saul to fight Goliath was not entirely in David’s or Saul’s hands!
God’s ways are inscrutable!
I believe that the call by Jesse to deliver the eatables to his brothers was the design of God. God had already strengthened David’s hands to fight and had instilled David with the courage to look Goliath in his eyes and say that the God whom he worships would give Goliath’s flesh to the birds of the air!
That was the time to redeem the skill through action and God in His infinite wisdom makes Jesse to send him on an innocuous errand which turns out to be an historic event.
All journeys do not turn out to be historic, but once God has strengthened one’s hands and bolstered one’s spirit, each Christian should believe that his innocuous inane errand, whatever be the original intent of the sender, would turn out to be eventful. It is in that belief that God works. God loves a person who not only takes the initiative but also believes that God opens rather creates doors where none exists!
Movid's Weblog 