LIFE IN THE MUNDANE; (DAVID)

Mundane is everything pertaining to the physical reality around us, as opposed to spiritual. It relates to our daily chores like waking up in the morning to everything we do until we sleep. Below are some examples of the MUNDANE based on some Bible stories.

1. Moses was the great deliverer of the nation of Israel that saw many of the acts and power of God during forty years in the wilderness. Before this miraculous period was a mundane period of keeping sheep on the backside of the desert with his father-in-law Jethro—awfully mundane.

2. The walls of Jericho came falling down by the power of God; and the oldest city in the world, which was thought to be impenetrable, was conquered in a matter of minutes. Before the walls came down, God told His people to take a seven day walk around the city—pretty mundane.

3. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. The Resurrection and the Life called Lazarus to come out of the tomb and the spirit of Lazarus was reunited with his body and he came out alive! Before Lazarus was raised to life, Jesus told some people around the mouth of the grave to take away the stone. In other words, “Get the rock out of the way,”—mundane.

4. Jesus fed a multitude of 5,000 men with five loaves and two fish. Somebody had to pack that lunch—mundane.

The main purpose of this post is to make us understand how life in the mundane works; by taking us back to the story of DAVID, and what he did before he was anointed by GOD as King of Israel.

As we read the Bible, we first meet David as a shepherd. He was the youngest of his brothers and was not included in the special sacrifice arranged by Samuel. Nevertheless, he was the one God had chosen, the man after God’s own heart, and so he was summoned from the field where he was tending the flock to be anointed king. God called him to shepherd a different flock, His people Israel (1 Sam. 16:1–13; 2 Sam. 5:2, Ps. 78:70–71).

David’s life as a shepherd continued to play a role after he left the pasture. Much of what he learned leading sheep he applied as a leader of men. Famously, he appealed to his exploits in guarding the flock, how he depended upon God, to illustrate his ability to fight Goliath (1 Sam. 17:34–37). David’s experiences as a shepherd also found their way into his poetry, providing rich imagery for many of his most beloved psalms, including Psalm 23. SHARE Trying to imagine David’s life as a shepherd is not easy for most of us, since we live in a modern, urban world. Shepherding in the ancient world was in many ways simpler than our busy lives, since it involved a lot of time watching animals eat. But it was far from mundane. To this day, caring for animals always presents unique difficulties, especially with needy sheep, besides the challenges of the environment. We could summarize the life of a shepherd as one of constant care. David needed to provide food and water for his sheep—not an easy task for a shepherd boy from Bethlehem. The Bible describes Canaan as a good land, a land of blessing for God’s people, but it was not overly lush. Also, the best lands, areas that received the most rainfall, were reserved for agriculture. Shepherds roamed the hills and valleys in more remote and often rugged regions with marginal rainfall. There would have been times of abundance, but as we think about David as a shepherd boy, we should not envision continuous green meadows. To provide for his flocks, David needed to be a good guide, since the life of a shepherd involved a lot of walking. Each day, a shepherd would bring his flocks from the safety of the village and wander through the hills and valleys in order to provide enough grass for them to eat. During this daily routine, a good shepherd would need to be aware of the needs of the flock as a whole and the needs of each sheep individually. God describes David as “a man after My own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22). That does not mean that he was blameless. We only need to read 2 Samuel 11 to see that David has fallen very low: he took the wife of one of his generals, Bathsheba, because she was very beautiful. When Bathsheba turned out to be pregnant, David called her husband Uriah home from the battle field hoping he would sleep with her. That would “solve” the problem of Bathsheba’s pregnancy. But Uriah didn’t go home, not even when made drunk, so David sent him back to the battle field with a letter ordering his death. After Uriah’s death, David married Bathsheba. The description of this whole story ends with a clear comment: “the thing that David had done displeased the Lord” (2 Samuel 11:27).

God didn’t let David get away with this. He confronted him with his sin, and David repented. Psalm 51 gives us an intimate glimpse of his emotions:

“I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, […] Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of Your righteousness.”

So now, the question is; What can You learn from the Life of David?

It goes beyond facing and defeating Goliath, it goes beyond being anointed as King over Israel. It is that; despite being in the Mundane, he knew how to serve GOD in the mundane. That's something everyone of us needs to learn from the story of David.

Prayer Point:

O LORD MY FATHER, please give me the grace to acknowledge you all the days of my Life.