Thoughtfulness

Today in my reading I read through 1 Chronicles 12. Short description: It's going through the mighty men who joined David against Saul to make David king. At this point in time David is at Ziklag (geographically I have no clue where that is and historically I know nothing of the place) but nonetheless, he is here hiding from Saul because Saul wants to kill David. I get a lot from David. He is a man that has great faith in God. However, in this particular moment I get different guidance from this passage. First it lists the men that deserted David because was with the Philistine to battle Saul, even though later the Philistines decided to not help David because of the danger to themselves. Double wammy there, David loses the men of Manasseh that were with him then loses the Philistines. But God comes through like he always does. Men came "day to day" to help David.  The mighty men that come to David are listed here. So here is a brief rundown of who comes:

~Judah 6,800 armed troops
~Simeonites 7,100 men
~Levites 4,600 men
~prince Jehoiada with 3,700 men
~Zadok and 22 commanders
~Benjaminites (kinsmen of Saul) 3,000 men
~Ephraminites 20,800 men
~The half-tribe of Manasseh 18,000 men
~Issachar 200 Chiefs and all the kinsmen under their command
~Zebulum 50,000 seasoned troops
~Naphtali 1,000 commanders with "whom were" 37,000 men
~Danites 28,600 men
~Asher 40,00 seasoned troops
~Reubenites and Gadites and half tribe of Manasseh "from beyond the Jordan" 120,000 men

I did not add up all these men but that's a lot!! What amazes me is that the Benjaminites were men of Saul that we loyal to him until this point where they came to help David! That is God at work. But all these men came to help David. Imagine if we as a world would do that for one another! Or even as a workplace, family, community, or just in random places! Imagine the live that could be saved, physically on earth and even by the salvation of Jesus Christ! We can barely help the person next to us get through some menial task, whether it be personal issue, school work, something from the top shelf, or at work.

So maybe next time you see someone in need think of the men that helped David. They put their lives on the line to help a man that for all we know they had never met.

Thought provoking stuff. :)