May 15
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Our story from 1 Samuel is one of the most famous of the stories of David, one of the most famous stories of the Old Testament! It's popular for a good reason. We all know the inspiring chain of events. A Philistine, the arch enemies of Israel, are blaspheming God and taunting the nation of God. They have this gigantic guy named Goliath who is challenging anyone to fight him. All are afraid, yet David, with his great faith in the power of the Lord takes him on with just a sling and stones. He knocks Goliath out, steals his sword, kills him and cuts off his head... wow! But, what does this amazing story mean? Well, there's a lot of different things said about this story, but what makes the most sense to me is that this is an encouragement to the people of God that his covenant will stand. We have had Saul's failure as a King that God has appointed and we even read, "and the Lord was grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel!". I mean that's enough of a strong statement as to send theologians scrambling to make sure we know that God didn't make a bad decision, or was ignorant about what would happen (which he wasn't, to be sure). But the point is, it looks as if once again the annointing of the chosen one failed! But no! All along, Saul's failure is meant to show the Israelites humility and to make them reliant upon God alone. The Lord sends the humble, small and young David to be his chosen king and to defeat God's enemies. Thus begins one of the great foreshadowings of the King of all creation, Jesus! Jesus came as a humble servant and triumphed over sin, death and Satan through humility and death. Jesus came as a humble servant, but triumphed and will triumph mightily over his enemies! And in John we read more about how Jesus was "sent" by his Father. A very profound passage about how Jesus is sent by God and still is himself God.
I like David's reasoning that with God, Goliath is nore of a danger than the lion & the bear that God protected David from. Every time I read that, I wonder how quick I am to doubt God even though God has come through for me many times in the past.
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