David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God. (1 Samuel 30:6, NIV)
I suppose it is not too early to be adding some items to your Christmas list. You may say, “Oh, I don’t do that sort of thing anymore,” but that is only because you have yet to see the latest ad for the next gen driver that will change your game.
From the provision of a mate for Adam to the provision of a Savior—the incarnate one, Jesus Christ—God has always given people people.We’re all pretty good at picturing the kinds of things that meet our earthly needs and satisfy our earthly desires. In fact, we’re so good at it that we have a pious name for it: provision. We look at our gastronomic and material blessings and thank God for his provision. This is not wrong, but it is far from complete.
One of the great lessons for me as I have encountered my medical obstacles in 2016 is that God so often provides for us by sending to us the people we need. These may be gifted experts, like doctors and researchers, but they may also be “plain old friends” who show up at just the right time to sit and talk and pray. They may be people we know well or people we do not know at all. I think of times when the brightest light in my day was the person who pushed me through the halls of the hospital in a wheelchair, so I could get from my room to my treatments. The purposeful care that person dispensed was no less the provision of God than a paycheck at the end of a month’s work.
Jeff Hopper delivered a full testimony and teaching about God’s provision of people during his treatments for cancer at his home church on October 23, 2016. That message is available for listening here.
In 1 Samuel 30, David and his men returned from battle to discover that their village had been raided by the Amalekites, who had carted off the women and children—their families were gone! David’s men were angry, and they threatened to kill him. It was in this hour that David “found strength” or “strengthened himself” in the LORD.
Even before we know the outcome of David’s strengthening, though, we can recognize the provision of God through people by turning back several pages in our Bibles to 1 Samuel 23. Here David was running from the murderous bands of King Saul, who was intent on ending David’s life. And then we read: “And Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God” (1 Samuel 23:16). Do you see it? Through Jonathan, God taught David to find strength in God. Then on that dark day when the Amalekites had made off with everything David and his men held dear, David knew where to go for strength; his great friend had taught him this.
Remarkably, the provision God sent to help David’s men recover their losses came in the form of a stranger, even an enemy. Pursuing the raiders, they came upon an abandoned and starved Egyptian, a man who had served a soldier in the Amalekite army. Cared for by David’s men, this Egyptian guided them right to the Amalekites.
From the provision of a mate for Adam to the provision of a Savior—the incarnate one, Jesus Christ—God has always given people people. Let’s consider it an imperative to look for this provision and continually thank God for it—that is, thank God for them.
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Jeff Hopper
October 26, 2016
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.