Rally in the Valley: David vs. Goliath. When I ran youth groups about a decade ago, I did a series that took our group through the entire Bible over the course of 12-15 weeks (I did it four times: once at each youth group, and twice more as two series of camp talks). The most intense of these was always the story of David. This shepherd-king represented the first time in *checks notes* 800 years, since the days of Jacob and Judah, that any significant progress seemed to be made towards the arrival of God's Promised Deliverer. And his public rise begins here in today's reading with his God-given victory over Goliath of Gath. Imagine what it would have been like to have front-row seats for that one!
The public intellectual figure Malcolm Gladwell actually has a very well-researched (and well told) presentation of this battle available on YouTube as a TED Talk which gets into the relevant geography, customs of warfare, the physiology of giantism (acromegaly), and the physics of stone slings, which I highly encourage you to check out. In Gladwell's words, "everything I thought I knew about that story turned out to be wrong." For one thing, "If you do the calculations on the ballistics, the stopping power, of the rock fired from David's sling, it's roughly equal to the stopping power of a .45 caliber handgun." It's fascinating. It was in writing his book David and Goliath about a decade ago that Malcolm Gladwell actually became a Christian--a commitment to which he still holds.
Are you and I David? There is a common application, and I think it's a mis-application, of this passage which encourages you to find the giants in your life (your difficulties) and battle them in faith like David. One problem is that we aren't David. David was able to meet the challenge of Goliath's stature because he stood on the shoulders of God's historical covenant promises. (1) He knew that God would not give Israel over to the Philistines; and (2) He knew that God had anointed him -through Samuel- as Israel's next king, and that God would keep him alive long enough for him to fulfill that promise. That's what he took into battle with him. But God has not made any such promise to you and me to make our business venture succeed, or to win a political campaign, or anything similar. Instead of seeing ourselves as David, it's better to see Jesus as David. Like David, Jesus is the one who wins the battle on behalf of his people, who are unable to do anything to assist him, and his victory is imputed to them, so that his victory becomes our victory. I don't think it's an accident that the first significant story we have of David, who is the "type" or shadow of the future Messiah, is one of a prophesied and anointed king, whose royal identity is unknown to all around him including his brothers, who appears to be lowly and humble, who comes to save his people as a shepherd saves his sheep, saving his people by accomplishing a vicarious victory on their behalf in the name of God.
DO | HOW DO WE RESPOND?
How can we respond in our worship, attitude, and actions? IN OUR WORSHIP rather than seeing ourselves as the point of Scripture, and God's role in our lives as raining down various blessings on us, we can take a fundamentally God-first approach to all things. Rather than us being the point of Scripture, we can believe that Jesus is the point: As he says, "You search the [Old Testament] Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life" (John 5:39-40). These things are meant to show us Jesus. He is the key to the unfolding meaning of every book of the Old Testament; every significant story. God is not there to serve us by blessing our chosen paths, but we are here to serve God, and to trust him by walking the path that he lays before us--even if, like all the apostles, it brings earthly hardship. Because we will not find life in earthly accomplishments or in our social standing; instead, we find our life in him.
PRAY | HOW DOES THIS BRING US TO GOD?
Whether in response to anything pointed out here, or to something else in your Bible reading time, take a few moments before you close up your Bible to pray in response to God. If you need a format for prayer, both the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), CALL (Confess, Ask, Love, Listen), and PRAY (Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield) methods are helpful ways to stay consistent.
-Sean
-Sean
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