Hello, thank you for joining me again for Give Him 15. I'm going to read one more post today from the new devotional. Give him 15 an appeal to heaven, volume 3. Check it out. Dotsheets.org. Today, I want to talk to you about David's elite fighting force. But before I read this, I want to say we're one week away from Christmas, beginning tomorrow, and for the next five days of posts, I'll be sharing with you some thoughts and special memories about the wonderful

Christmas season. We hope you enjoy them and Merry Christmas. Now for today's post. First Samuel

22, verses 1 and 2 tell us, so David departed from there and escaped to the cave

of a doleum.

When his brothers and all his father's household heard of it, they went down there to him.

Everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him

and he became captain over them. Now there were about 400 men with him. The above verses speak of

the beginning of David's preparation to be king over Israel and of the beginning

of his elite fighting force, referred to in scripture as David's mighty men. Some historians consider

this the most skilled group of fighting men in history. This is obviously subjective and no way intended to be a slight to the great

warriors who have existed throughout history. It's simply to point out what an incredible

fighting force they were in their time.

It's important to know the context of these verses.

David had already been anointed as the next king of Israel.

At the time, he had no, at the time, he had no idea of the process that would occur to prepare him, a process that would take 20 years. This is true with most of us when we hear prophetic words about God's future

plans for us. We assume they're going to happen relatively quickly, and indeed, some do. At times, however, God is announcing his plans for

down the road, sometimes many roads. The current king, Saul, had no intention of allowing David

to take his position. To stop David, he turned against

him. Saul was insanely jealous and eventually became a murderer, killing even priests of God

and attempting to murder David. Due to these attacks, David had to flee, and he landed in a cave named Adulam.

God used these years in David's life as part of his preparation. In no way am I suggesting

God was behind these attacks on David or the evil that overtook Saul. I'm merely pointing out that he used them as part of

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