Happy Sabbath!
God is so good! It has been quite a week. I am sitting down to finish the lesson and I am filled with gratitude for how He has carried me through this week. I am filled with awe at how He can supply peace, just when peace is most needed. So...
Question of the Day: What did He do for you this week?
This whole week I have been remembering and contemplating the importance of having confidence. A confidence like David. A confidence that acknowledges where the victory comes from but confidence in what I can do, with Him.
Let's continue with this amazing story of David and Goliath.
READ: 1 Samuel 17: 38-58
Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.
“I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.
Ok we have to stop here.
I don't know about you but when I have heard this story as a kid I heard that the armor was too big. That "little" young David was trying to put on the king's "huge" armor and he couldn't walk in it or move because it was like a little boy trying on his dad's armor. It wouldn't work...
That isn't what this passage says. What does it say here?
It doesn't say they were too big. He just wasn't used to them. In the King James version it says, "he had not proved it."
David, had his way, his clothes, his skin, his talents, his gifts, his knowledge, and he knew he could defeat the Philistine, his way.
Do we ever try to put on someones else's armor, yearn for someone else's style, someone else's talents, someone else's way?
David knew he didn't need to be anyone other than himself! David knew he just needed to be who he was, do what he had practiced, do what he had proven, and that would be just right.
We all need to stop trying to be something that we are not!!! We need to stop looking to the protection of others armor and just be free to explore who we are.
So David did what he knew, he picked up the stones and headed toward Goliath.
41 Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. 42 He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. 43 He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!”
So while David is moving forward with his stones and a lot of God given confidence, Goliath is moving closer with his shield bearer in front of him.
Do you have a shield up? Do you have a shield bearer?
45 David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”
What about this surprises you? Anything?
I was struck by the strength. The big talker. He didn't just quietly do his business. He proclaimed what was to be.
In making it clear from the beginning that this victory was the Lord's, he gave him all the glory.
48 As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. 49 Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.
50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.
51 David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword.
When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran.52 Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath[f] and to the gates of Ekron. Their dead were strewn along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron. 53 When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp.
I don't know about you but my hero is very much alive! When we put our trust in the giants around us instead of Christ, then when they fall, we run.
Have you ever put your faith in someone for them just to let you down? The Philistines put their faith in their strong warrior, and when he fell they had nothing to do but run. David put his trust in God and ran toward the warrior with a stone and walked away the victory with the Philistines head in hand.
54 David took the Philistine’s head and brought it to Jerusalem; he put the Philistine’s weapons in his own tent.
55 As Saul watched David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is that young man?”
Abner replied, “As surely as you live, Your Majesty, I don’t know.”
56 The king said, “Find out whose son this young man is.”
57 As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine’s head.
58 “Whose son are you, young man?” Saul asked him.
David said, “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”
How amazing that Saul still didn't KNOW David and where he was from.
Here is the bottom line...
1. Be who God created you to be.
2. Be confident about what He will do through you.
3. Don't look to others strength.
4. Don't serve God for recognition, but to give Him glory.
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