Connecting With Jesus

Message from ma’am Erlinda Jocson

January 19

DAVID LEARNS FROM HARD TIMES

David reigned over all Israel, doing what was just and right for all his people. 2 Samuel 8:15, NIV

David was the son of Jesse born in Bethlehem, a few miles south of Jerusalem. This was about a thousand years before the birth of Christ. David was a shepherd boy, singer, composer, and made music from his harp. But the Lord had chosen him and was getting him prepared in his solitary life with the sheep

for a leadership position in later years. In his youthful days, he was closely associated with Saul the King. His ministry in the king’s court gave him a great insight into the cares and sorrows of his people and the deceit that were hidden by the pomp and pageantry of royalty, He saw the inferiority of human glory.

Not long, the jealousy of Saul drove him into the wilderness. He was cut off from all human support. He learned more to lean on God. The hardship of the wilderness life, its scorching peril and the kind and character of men that came to him there-“Everyone that was in distress, and everyone that was in debt and everyone that was discontented” (1 Samuel 22:2) all gave him more self discipline.

These experiences were not in vain. They taught David a lesson. He learnt how to deal with fellow human beings, learnt how to deal with those oppressed in various ways and how to hate and stand against injustice. Most importantly he learnt how to find in God his comfort and his ultimate support. God to him became the only true Sustainer and Source of wisdom. It was this training through hardship that taught him how to “execute judgment and justice unto all the people.”

“The love that moved him, the sorrows that beset him, the triumphs that attended him, were all themes for his active thought, and as he beheld the love of God in all the providences of his life, his heart throbbed with more fervent adoration and gratitude, his voice rang out in a richer melody, his harp was swept with more exultant joy, and the shepherd boy proceeded from strength to strength, from knowledge to knowledge, for the Spirit of the Lord was upon him!” (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 642).

God may be teaching us vital lessons of life through our hardships. If we keep hanging on the Lord in faith, we will understand it all by and by.