 Have you ever looked at a famous hero or any well known person and thought they had been sprinkled with some sort of magic dust to enable them to accomplish the task that made them famous? Maybe they were born into the right family? The truth simply is that most people who have accomplished great feats or have earned fame and recognition have had to overcome many of the same challenges that all of us face. Let's look at David, the heroic giant killer and eventual King of Israel.
In I Samuel 16, the prophet Samuel is told by God to go to the house of Jesse and anoint one of his sons to be the next king of His people. Samuel traveled to Bethlehem and told Jesse he had come to offer sacrifice and call all his children to the sacrifice. He didn't tell Jesse that he had come to anoint the next king. So Jesse presented "all" of his sons to the prophet, but God said that none of these were the one. Samuel asks Jesse in verse 11, "Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said to Jesse, Send and fetch him..." Apparently, Jesse did not think highly enough of young David to even call him to the sacrifice. Some scholars believe that David may have been the product of an affair that Jesse had, and he was ashamed of David for that reason. Whatever the reason, David did not seem to have the place of honored sonship that all of his other brothers enjoyed.
In I Samuel 17, we see the story of David's defeat of Goliath. When he showed up to bring his brothers some food, his oldest brother Eliab showed great disrespect towards David. His father apparently didn't think highly of him and his brothers seemed to not respect him as well! Safe to say, the atmosphere that David was raised in was one of potential rejection and insecurity. He had to overcome these "family issues" to become the great hero of Scripture that we know of today.
Much more can be said about this. What issues of life are you facing that may be trying to cripple your life? Remember that David, the guy with all the family problems, wrote in Psalm 27:10, "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will adopt me as His own." Have a blessed day.
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