1 Samuel 17:1-18:4, John 8:21-30, Psalms 111:1-10, Proverbs 15:11
Today is the 15th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today. Here we are in the middle of the month just kind of passing through the middle of another one of our months together. And obviously we’ll be picking up where we left off, which will lead us back into the book of first Samuel. And we have had the opportunity to observe Israel’s first king, Saul. Today we’re going to start seeing the intertwining of another person’s life. His name is David, and he will be king David at some point, but at this point he's…he’s a musician who plays for the king when the king is disturbed. He carries the king’s armor. He’s known by the king, but he’s also about to become an international celebrity even though that’s not what his goal was. And, so, let’s pick up the story. First Samuel chapter 17 verse 1 through 18 verse 4 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So, we read one of the…the most famous stories in the Bible today, the story of David and Goliath. And if we remember, Goliath was a giant nine and half feet tall, a big, big, big guy. And we remember that we’ve see giants along the way, all the way from the beginning of the Bible. Remember when the spies came into the land, and they were looking it over and they came back with a report. They said that’s a great land, it’s awesome, we just can’t take it. There are giants there, right? And, so, here’s David now facing a giant, which makes it a bit of a mythic battle as well as a physical battle. So, we find ourselves in the Valley of Ela, the Ela Valley. It’s a place. I can think of it in my mind. We were just through there a couple of months ago. It’s a fertile valley in the lowlands, in the lowlands coming off the Judean hills and going out to the sea. It’s a very fertile area very, very good for agriculture. This is a valley. And there are ancient cities along the valley, like Ezeka and Soco, and Edulim, and Sha-Ariam and these settlements settlements are mentioned in the Bible and they kind of go all along the valley. This is like an ancient borderland. And, so, they’re kind of out, lined up at their border. The two armies opposing one another. It’s just like…it’s like a standoff that’s ongoing and each day Goliath the giant comes out from the army of the Philistines to defy the armies of Israel, and to defy Israel’s God and to taunt, right, to intimidate in any way that he can the Israelite army. And he’s offering terms of war basically going I am, you know, I’m the hero of the Philistines. Send out whoever the Israelite hero is. Send him out. We’ll have man on man conflict. We will represent each other’s armies. Lots of people don’t have to die, just one. If I kill your hero, then you’re our servants. We win. If your hero kills me we’ll be your servants. You win. It’s only that there is no Israelite hero willing to go and face Goliath one on one. Meanwhile, we have the shepherd boy David who’s tending sheep and his father sends him to check on his brothers who are in the army at the front. And he goes. He goes, because he’s bringing…supplying them. He’s…he’s bringing goods and gifts for their leaders, their direct commanders. So, he comes into the camp about the time that the giant is spouting off and he’s asking what’s going on and they’re like, come look at the giant. And…and then the word spreads to David’s ears. Like there is a reward for the person brave enough to go and try to kill this giant. The person that kills this giant, his family will be free of taxes. He will become a prince in Israel. He will get to marry the daughter of the king. And David in his youth is just looking at the situation going, okay, can you…can you repeat that one more time? Because he’s ready to go. And his enthusiasm eventually reaches the king and the King interviews David about going down and facing the giant. And David’s like look, I’ve faced a lion before and I’ve faced a bear before and that God delivered me from them both and I rescued the sheep that they were trying to cart off. Like I've…like this giant Goliath is no more of a threat to me than they were. God will deliver us. And, so, King Saul dresses David in his own armor to send him into the battle. It’s just that David can’t really maneuver in Saul’s armor, which really does give us a picture here. You can’t really fight your battles with somebody else’s defenses. For David to go into battle with Goliath wearing the king’s armor that he is not used to, does not know how to navigate, doesn’t even know how to really maneuver in is to say I’m going into battle, and I am not equipped for this battle because I am essentially pretending to be somebody else. I can’t go into battle like this. I need to go as I am, as I’m used to with what I have, how I understand how I’m supposed to maneuver. I have to go. God will save me. And that’s what we end up seeing happen. David goes into battle as himself as a shepherd as a shepherd boy. And when Goliath does see David coming to him without armor and his slingshot he’s like, am I a dog? Are we here to play fetch? S that…did you come down here to play fetch with me? Am I a dog that you’ve come to me with sticks? I’m going to…I’m going to destroy you, little man. And that’s when David rises up and we see this moment where David’s like, no you won’t. There is a God in Israel and you have defied the God of Israel. You made a colossal mistake. You are going down today. The battle is the Lord’s. And David slays the giant Goliath. And there’s so much there just for us to consider in our own trials and our own adversities and the things that we have to face and are we trying to face them as ourselves even though we feel ill-equipped. Is the battle the Lords or are we trying to suit up this somebody else’s defenses and take matters into our own hands? There’s plenty for us there. But as the story goes though, this is the end of life as David knew it. His life in this moment is irreversibly changed. His life is irreversibly entangled with the Kings life, King Saul’s life now. David, like the word of this. this victory in the routing of the Philistines is spreading faster than the Army can move and just like that, like in a moment David is now a national hero and is gaining international fame. He won’t be able to just be a shepherd boy anymore. And, so, David has to grow up. And we will watch this in these next days. David has to grow up very, very, very quickly and had to get very wise and accomplished very fast as we will see in the coming days.
Prayer:
Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the story and…and just how much is embedded in it for our own lives as we face the obstacles of any given day, the giants of any given week or month that have to be faced. And how it is that we go about that, whether we truly believe the battle is yours and we must be who we are in the moment, or whether we feel like we’ve got to somehow pretend to be stronger than we are and…and…and go into battle pretending to be something different. So much for us. And, so, come Holy Spirit in…into these issues of life. But we are also watching the story of David emerge in the Scriptures. And, so, Holy Spirit come teach us what we need to know from Saul. Teach us what we need to know from David. Guide our steps. Illuminate our path we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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