David's Character continued...

The second Characteristic that we get to model from David's life is Brokenness.

David's day of anointing was followed by more faithfulness and desert. The anointing did not lead to the throne, but into a decade of hellish agony and suffering. On that day, David was enrolled, not into the lineage of royalty, but into the school of brokenness...

David was the only son that was not invited when Samuel came to his father Jesse. God told Samuel to go anoint one of Jesse's boys, and all the boys were in the room, but one.

It's a possibility; not a scriptural fact, (can't prove it in the bible), but, it could be that David was a son of a concubine; not one of Jesse's sons from his wife; again, he was the only "son" not invited to party when Samuel came to town; 7 of Jesse's sons passed before Samuel – David wasn't there... David understood that God wanted men who would live in pain, he wanted broken vessels.

God has a school of brokenness because he does not have many broken men.

God took David to the palace to enter school. There, King Saul threw spears at him. David's been a war hero for Saul's kingdom, he's left the desired hillside singing worship songs to come sing lullabies to Saul – all for Saul, but Saul is throwing spears at him!

Brokenness.

David could have easily been a Saul if he hadn't chosen to be put to death. David embraced cruel circumstances, over and over.

-          he lifted no hand, nor offered resistance

-          he didn't announce his piety – (Devotion and Reverence to God)

-          he quietly bore the crucibles and was deeply wounded

David's inner being was mutilated, his personality changed. When it was all over you could barley recognize he was the original David.

Every one of us starts this "Christian" journey with a lot of promises, with a lot of hope – and then we enter the "School of brokenness" and then... what do we do with our pain? What do we do with the spears that are thrown at us – some times, most of the time by the Church?!

Can the people that new you when you started this journey still recognize you? I hope not!

By earthly measures David was a shattered man; by heavens measure, a broken one.

Is 42:3 "A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out" the very picture of restoration of brokenness.

Saul's spears were not only for David's sake, but for the sake of Israel...

Continued...