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Greatness Births Greatness: David the Man Mentored by God
by ETURUVIE EREBOR (A very interesting question led to the writing of this article. Someone who had read my previous article titled, "Greatness Births Greatness: The Impact of a Mentor" asked a question, "who was David's mentor?" As I began to answer I realised I had no answer readily available so I threw the question back to God and the answer led to the writing of this article. I hope you are inspired). Greatness without any doubt gives birth to greatness and mentors have a great impact on the destinies of those they mentor as in the process of mentoring the personality, habits, success and greatness of the mentor rubs off on the mentee. A mentor is an experienced and trusted adviser. A mentor is a guide, a confidante, a counsellor, a consultant, a master, a spiritual leader, a teacher, a coach, and an instructor. The mentor is experienced means he has followed the path and knows it well and that qualifies him to be a guide because knowing the path he is able to take the mentee through it. The mentor is a consultant and so the mentee consults with him before taking actions on major issues or prior to making important decisions. He is a teacher and teaches the mentee from his wealth of knowledge and experience. A close look at the life of David reveals that God was all of the things mentioned above to him and so it would be correct to say that God was his mentor. As a young boy David spent a great portion of his time alone with the sheep and we have no record that he had human company with him; this is where God found him and began to mentor him. There are a few happenings in the life of David that attest to this fact. As a young man he was skilled in the art of fighting; he single-handedly fought and killed a lion and a bear before he killed Goliath. Who taught him how to fight? The answer is simple; God taught him how to fight. David revealed this in the psalms when he said, speaking of God, "He trains my hands for battle, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze." God trained David so well that David never lost any battle throughout his life time. God has never lost any battle so He taught David how to win all battles. God is a war general and the commander of the heavenly armies and David became a war general who raised and commanded an army of mighty men. God was also David's consultant and David never took a step or entered into any battle without consulting with God. Two scenes come to mind at this point; in the first, David went to save a city that had been attacked by the Philistines and while he was there, news came that Saul was coming to invade the city because of him. He turned to his mentor and asked, "Will Saul come down as I have heard?" To which God answered, "he will come down" and he asked, "Will the people deliver me and my men into his hand?" God responded, "They will deliver you." So David ran away. The second incidence is the kidnapping of David's wives and children along with the wives and children of his men. Again, he consulted with God and was told what to do; pursue, overtake and without fail, recover all. As he pursued, he overtook and without fail, he recovered all. Constant consultation with God and guidance from God made it impossible for Saul to kill him. Just as an experienced mentor who has been through a path guides a young mentee through it to success, so God guided David through a path of safety to the throne as king of Israel. A mentor is a trusted adviser, or counsellor or guide; the underlying word is trust and David trusted God more than he trusted anyone. A few times he stated that he trusted in the mercies of God. One time he sinned was asked to choose from three options how he wished to be judged; he chose to fall into the hands of God rather than the hands of men because he trusted God to have mercy on him even in the midst of judgement. David also knew things about God that others did not know and I believe it was what he knew about God that give him the boldness to go out against Goliath. Remember he said to Goliath, "I come against you in the name of the God of Israel." He had a relationship with God, he knew God on a personal level and knew the mightiness of God or he would not have gone out against Goliath. The rest of the army of Israel did not have the same knowledge or relationship so they trembled before Goliath. Also, David's psalms reveal that he had a pre-knowledge of the birth and death of the Jesus Christ. God found David up in the bush while he cared for his father's sheep, mentored him and chose him to be king over Israel a position that He (God) had previously occupied and I know this because when Israel asked for a king God said to Samuel, "Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them." Therefore, when David became king of Israel, he like Peter, Elijah and Joshua also stepped into his mentor's shoes. God was without any doubt David's mentor, He taught him, counselled him, guided him and made him king over His inheritance Israel. He did not stop there but made him the greatest of all the kings of Israel and twenty eight generations after David, God's son, Jesus would come into the world and be called, the son of David. Eturuvie Erebor. Eturuvie Erebor (AKA Gabriella) is a writer, speaker, trainer and coach with a strong passion to transform the lives of women and youth not only in her native country, Nigeria and the United Kingdom, where she was born, but all across the world. She has spoken to women and youth groups in churches, Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |