David And The Dwarf
Greetings one and all! I pray all is well with each of you. Right now I am leading a study of the Bible character David and am using the book David: A Man of Passion And Destiny as the text. Today we will look at the story of David and Goliath from 1 Samuel 17:1-54.
As you read the text, the first thing we see that Israel's old enemy the Philistines are back bullying them again. They are on top of a hill over looking the Elah valley (17:1-2). The battle ground is "the broad and fertile valley" below. It has a stream of running water going through the middle of it. The two armies just keep looking at each other (v. 3) and then the Philistines part down the middle and their champion steps forward (v. 4). So as to not have an all-out war the Philistines devised a plan: their champion and their opponent's champion would fight until one of them was killed. The side who's champion died would be servants of the winners. Goliath was truly a mountain of a man. He stood nine foot nine inches. He was fully loaded from head to toe with his war gear. He was a lean, mean, fighting machine (vvs. 5-7). Then Goliath gave a very scathing rebuke to Israel and his God. When the Israelites heard all of it, they were dismayed and scared to death (v. 11).
Then David (the giant) comes on to the scene. Earlier David gave Spirit filled comfort to Saul (ch. 16), and now the Faith-filled David will encourage the terrified and faithless Saul too (17:12). At this time David divided his time between shepherding his father's sheep and ministering to Saul (17:12-15). In verses 17-18 Jesse sends David to see about his older brothers. When David gets there he drops the supplies and goes to talk to them (vv. 20-22). At that time all eyes turn in terror to Goliath. (v.23). But David sizes him up according to his view of God and David thinks he can take him (v. 26). But when Eliab (David's oldest brother) hears David talking about it, he puts him down (v. 17:28). Saul hears about it and sends for David (v. 32). He gives a passionate speech about how God gave him strength to fight off a lion and a bear to save his sheep and declares Goliath will end up like them (vv. 33-37a). Saul gives David his blessing and he proceeds to dress David in the king's army attire (v. 37b). David, not being used to such attire, walks around in them and takes them off (vv. 38-39). Both sides of the ridge seem to come a live when they see the two challengers running towards each other. But when Goliath gets close enough to see David he is insulted and begins to verbally degrade him (vv. 43-44). But David yells right back (vv. 45-47). The battle belongs to the Lord not to us. We must trust Him to make wrongs right in His own timing. With his full confidence in God David hurls a stone at Goliath's head and hit him square between the eyes and he fell down dead (17:49). Then David ran over to the giant, drew his sword out , and cut off his head v. 51).
Now some lessons we can learn from this story: 1.facing giants is an intimidating experience. Faith doesn't blind us to reality. It focuses our attention and faith to God to help us overcome what may seem like insurmountable odds. 2. doing battle is a lonely experience. Your Goliaths are your Goliaths. No one else can face them except you. And they may not mean anything to anyone else but you. Your family, friends, and church can't help you. They can support you but they can't do the fighting for you. 3. trusting God is a stabilizing experience. David's sight and faith was on God and Him alone. He trusted himself and the battle to Him. He let go and let God. That is what we must do. Let go and let God. And lastly, 4. winning victories is a memorable experience. Whenever God gave a victory to His people they stacked up some rocks to help them remember what He had done for them through out the years.
I'll stop there for the day. More blogging tomorrow. One more prayer request. I got an email from a girl who is on the AIM team going to Brazil and they haven't been able to go because they don't have their visas yet. It seems like AIMers have had trouble getting visas from the Brazil government in the past. So please pray for this team to get their visas so they can go there and bring more people to Jesus. And please pray for more workers for the harvest field (Matt. 9:37-38).
Peace out. Power to the people. Be blessed!
Zack
As you read the text, the first thing we see that Israel's old enemy the Philistines are back bullying them again. They are on top of a hill over looking the Elah valley (17:1-2). The battle ground is "the broad and fertile valley" below. It has a stream of running water going through the middle of it. The two armies just keep looking at each other (v. 3) and then the Philistines part down the middle and their champion steps forward (v. 4). So as to not have an all-out war the Philistines devised a plan: their champion and their opponent's champion would fight until one of them was killed. The side who's champion died would be servants of the winners. Goliath was truly a mountain of a man. He stood nine foot nine inches. He was fully loaded from head to toe with his war gear. He was a lean, mean, fighting machine (vvs. 5-7). Then Goliath gave a very scathing rebuke to Israel and his God. When the Israelites heard all of it, they were dismayed and scared to death (v. 11).
Then David (the giant) comes on to the scene. Earlier David gave Spirit filled comfort to Saul (ch. 16), and now the Faith-filled David will encourage the terrified and faithless Saul too (17:12). At this time David divided his time between shepherding his father's sheep and ministering to Saul (17:12-15). In verses 17-18 Jesse sends David to see about his older brothers. When David gets there he drops the supplies and goes to talk to them (vv. 20-22). At that time all eyes turn in terror to Goliath. (v.23). But David sizes him up according to his view of God and David thinks he can take him (v. 26). But when Eliab (David's oldest brother) hears David talking about it, he puts him down (v. 17:28). Saul hears about it and sends for David (v. 32). He gives a passionate speech about how God gave him strength to fight off a lion and a bear to save his sheep and declares Goliath will end up like them (vv. 33-37a). Saul gives David his blessing and he proceeds to dress David in the king's army attire (v. 37b). David, not being used to such attire, walks around in them and takes them off (vv. 38-39). Both sides of the ridge seem to come a live when they see the two challengers running towards each other. But when Goliath gets close enough to see David he is insulted and begins to verbally degrade him (vv. 43-44). But David yells right back (vv. 45-47). The battle belongs to the Lord not to us. We must trust Him to make wrongs right in His own timing. With his full confidence in God David hurls a stone at Goliath's head and hit him square between the eyes and he fell down dead (17:49). Then David ran over to the giant, drew his sword out , and cut off his head v. 51).
Now some lessons we can learn from this story: 1.facing giants is an intimidating experience. Faith doesn't blind us to reality. It focuses our attention and faith to God to help us overcome what may seem like insurmountable odds. 2. doing battle is a lonely experience. Your Goliaths are your Goliaths. No one else can face them except you. And they may not mean anything to anyone else but you. Your family, friends, and church can't help you. They can support you but they can't do the fighting for you. 3. trusting God is a stabilizing experience. David's sight and faith was on God and Him alone. He trusted himself and the battle to Him. He let go and let God. That is what we must do. Let go and let God. And lastly, 4. winning victories is a memorable experience. Whenever God gave a victory to His people they stacked up some rocks to help them remember what He had done for them through out the years.
I'll stop there for the day. More blogging tomorrow. One more prayer request. I got an email from a girl who is on the AIM team going to Brazil and they haven't been able to go because they don't have their visas yet. It seems like AIMers have had trouble getting visas from the Brazil government in the past. So please pray for this team to get their visas so they can go there and bring more people to Jesus. And please pray for more workers for the harvest field (Matt. 9:37-38).
Peace out. Power to the people. Be blessed!
Zack
posted by Zack | 6:30 PM
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