An Interesting Crew

1 David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father's household heard about it, they went down to him there. 2 All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.

- 1 Samuel 22:1-2

In the movies, when men are selected for a mission they are usually chosen on the basis of their skills, abilities, loyalty, intelligence etc. How does God choose His mission teams?

I find it interesting that the first people recruited to David's cause, after his family, were those "who were in distress or in debt or discontented" - not a promising team one might think. Yet David ends up succeeding from these humble beginnings, and with the aid of these unlikely followers.

Jesus found Himself in a similar position. Surrounded by fishermen, prostitutes, tax collectors and other unlikely candidates, he accomplished the greatest mission of all time - the salvation of mankind!

The lesson for me is that God doesn't select people for His missions based on what the have done before, or what they can do. Instead, He often chooses the weak, the needy, the outcast. Paul gives us a suggestion why He does this:

7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

- 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

That is to say, God's power is most clearly portrayed when people who are weak are empowered. It's like somebody coming to town with a miracle drug that makes people stronger. Which would be the more impressive demonstration: a strong man becoming stronger, or a little old lady suddenly able to lift huge weights?

Whilst God isn't out to make a profit, and isn't in the business of showmanship, He is committed to revealing Himself to mankind, and one of the ways that He does this is to pour His power out into those who would otherwise be considered weak or foolish.

27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

- 1 Corinthians 1:27

And again:

7But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

- 2 Corinthians 4:7