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We're Your Bone!

Good friends, how many do you have? You might think that your facebook account is the true gauge. Its not. I have two fb accounts, one for my Brasil friends (134) and one for my U.S. friends (368). There is a bit of an overlap between the continents. However, even though both sides of the big waters show a grand total of 502 friends, I often find it difficult to find someone to help me.

Don't get me wrong, I do have a best friend, my wife. She is wonderful. I can share with her and even vent, at times, okay a lot and she doesn’t leave me! She is amazing! She on my side even when my side is weird, lost and seemingly pointless. She is there. God uses good  friends like that.
I was reading David’s story this morning in 2 Samuel 5 and it started out with a scary group of “friends” coming to greet him. Notice what it says. 1. Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh. Ugh ugh! That last part isn’t in the text. It came from my twisted imagination. That “bone” and “flesh” thing was like a fb friend request in its day.
Can you get a grip on this scene? “All of the tribes of Israel”, It might have looked like one of those Capital One commercials with the barbarians. Not sure. However, they all came with one thing on their collective minds, they wanted David to be their king.

David often was a magnet for this type of gathering. He seemed to attract the losers. Remember the following he won when he was on the run from Saul (1 Sam 22:1,2)? This group wanted him to lead them. What a treat. However, this time, he would take the nation to greatness. God ordained him to rule for a grand total of 40 years. He was just now 30.

This hord quoted God when they said, “You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler.” Where they got that citation I don't know, but this mob would help him win crucial battles. With the LORD and his “friends” David could not be stopped. He, shortly after this meeting, took Jerusalem. No small feat.

This passage encourages me. Though it might look like I have no friends, when in God’s will and with the friends He sends I can conquer. The battle is the Lord’s but He uses men and their “friends” to do the hand to hand. This is privileged territory and I have the high ground.

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