Written by: David and Bridget Williams
1 Samuel 17 v 17-19
Jesse said to his son David, “Take this half bushel of cooked grain and ten loaves of bread to your brothers in the camp. Also take ten pieces of cheese to the commander and to your brothers. See how your brothers are and bring back some proof to show me that they are all right. Your brothers are with Saul and the army in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.”
Notes
The Philistine army had come out to fight against the Israelites. Three of David’s older brothers were in Saul’s army. David had been spending his days between serving Saul as a musician and looking after his father’s sheep in Bethlehem.
Now his father is telling David to take food to his brothers – and a present to his brothers’ officer! He is also telling him to bring back some proof that they are still safe and well.
I wonder what David thought? He’d had two responsible jobs – serving Saul and looking after sheep. Now he is being told to be a messenger boy. Not only that, but his father doesn’t trust him to bring back accurate news – he needs proof!
God sometimes puts us in a situation where we have to do menial jobs. We think we should be doing something more important than making cups of tea or sweeping the floor of the church hall. But God is looking to see how we react to such a situation. Do we grumble and think it is beneath us? Or do we do it happily, for God? Jesus washed his disciple’s feet for them (John 13). Paul said, “Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10 v 31).
Whatever you do today, do it willingly. Do it for God and for His glory.
1 Samuel 17 v 20-22
Early in the morning David left the sheep with another shepherd. He took the food and left as Jesse had told him. When David arrived at the camp, the army was going out to their battle positions, shouting their war cry. The Israelites and Philistines were lining up their men to face each other in battle.
David left the food with the man who kept the supplies and ran to the battle line to talk to his brothers.
Notes
David had been told by his father Jesse to take food to his brothers. The brothers were in Saul’s army, fighting against the Philistines. When David got to where the army was, he found they were preparing for battle. He ran to the battle line to talk to his brothers. In the previous three verses (1 Samuel 17 v 17-19) we saw David being given a menial task to do. Here today we see him going it. He had obeyed his father.
It isn’t very ‘with it’ to talk about obedience. Yet even today parents expect their children to do what they are told. God, too, tells us to do things. The Bible if full of things that God tells us to do, and examples he wants us to follow. (A good example is in Matthew chapters 5-7.) That is why it is good to read a few verses every day.
Often, as we pray, God puts into our minds particular things he wants us to do for Him. We may not see why – but let us just do them. David did not see why God was making sure he was in that particular place on that day. Read on in 1 Samuel 17 for the next few days on word-on-the-web, and you will then see why God had brought David to the battle line.
Sometimes God puts us in a particular place for a particular purpose – and we don’t see the reason until afterwards. Let us be sure that today we follow God’s directions, if he asks us to go to a certain place, or speak to a certain person, or whatever it may be.
1 Samuel 17 v 23-25
While he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, came out. He shouted things against Israel as usual, and David heard him. When the Israelites saw Goliath, they were very much afraid and ran away.
They said, “Look at this man! He keeps coming out to challenge Israel. The king will give much money to whoever kills him. He will also let whoever kills him marry his daughter. And his father’s family will not have to pay taxes in Israel.”
Notes
David has been sent by this father to take food to his brothers. His brothers were in Saul’s army, fighting against the Philistines. David found his brothers and was talking with them.
The Philistines and the Israelites were fighting in a strange way. The Philistines sent a champion to challenge someone from the Israelites to fight him alone. If the Philistine won, then that meant the Israelites were defeated.
When David was talking to his brothers, the Philistines sent Goliath as their champion. Goliath was a huge man – he was nearly three metres tall! All the Israelites were dead scared. No one was brave enough to stand against this huge warrior. Even David’s brothers were scared. Everyone was in a panic. Saul, the king, had even offered a huge sum of money to the person who killed Goliath – and his daughter could be that person’s wife as well! But there were no takers. You can see what a panic they were all in. They were too afraid to do anything!
We all know what it is to be afraid. Afraid of something that’s going to happen. Afraid of something that might happen. Just like the Israelites.
Jesus told us we had no need to be afraid (John 14 v 27). He has promised that his Holy Spirit will be with those who follow Him, and will help them and be right by them when they need help.
Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.” Are you facing up to something today that makes you afraid? Ask Jesus to help you and give you strength. He will.
1 Samuel 17 v 26-27
David asked the men who stood near him, “What will be done to reward the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the shame from Israel? Who does this uncircumcised Philistine think he is? Does he think he can speak against the armies of the living God?”
The Israelites told David what would be done for the man who would kill Goliath.
Notes
David had been talking with some of his brothers. They were in Saul’s army. They were fighting against the Philistines. He had seen the big man, Goliath, champion of the Philistines. Goliath had dared some one of the Israelites to come forward to fight him alone. Everyone of the Israelites was afraid. No one would come forward to fight Goliath.
David was surprised and angry. He asked who Goliath thought he was. And then David said something very important. He said, ‘Does he (Goliath) think he can speak against the armies of the living God?’
It really came down to a question, “Who is greater or more powerful, Goliath or God?”
The Israelites had to think about the question. We have to think about it today. Not Goliath, of course, because Goliath is dead long ago. But we always put things in the place of Goliath – and think they are greater than God – or we act as if we think they are greater than God.
Do you have things or people who are more ‘powerful’ in your life than God? Your job? Your boss? The football club you support? Your favourite group?
David wrote Psalm 19 later in his life. He wrote, ‘The heavens declare the glory of God.’ All we have to do is to look up at the sky at night and catch a glimpse of the greatness of God. As you go into today, remember that God is far, far greater than all the ‘Goliath’s’ we are going to come across in our life. And he is waiting for you to ask him to help you overcome them.
1 Samuel 17 v 28-30
When David’s oldest brother Eliab heard David talking with the soldiers, he was angry with David. He asked David, “Why did you come here? Who’s taking care of those few sheep of yours in the desert? I know you are proud and wicked at heart. You came down here just to watch the battle.”
David asked, “Now what have I done wrong? Can’t I even talk?” When he turned to other people and asked the same questions, they gave him the same answer as before.
Notes
The older brother syndrome. Have you ever been caught in this one? Nothing you do is ever right and it seems as if you will never be considered a person who matters. This is how David must have felt when his oldest brother (and he had eleven older brothers altogether) got angry with him, once again. This happened when David, the youngest son, had been sent down to the soldiers’ camp by his father to give his brothers more supplies of food, with a little extra something for the commanding officer.
Imagine David’s surprise when he found that his brothers, like all the soldiers of Israel, were doing nothing.
He was soon to find out the reason. The enemy, the Philistines, had a champion, Goliath, who was challenging an Israelite to single combat as a means of ending the war. David could not believe that a threat like this could immobilise God’s army. A wise soldier-in-the-making, David began investigating what could be done.
Why did David’s brother try to stop him? Was he afraid David might upstage them all? Did he feel guilty about doing nothing himself? He certainly did all he could to discourage David, and hopefully, send him home.
Are we guilty of discouraging others? Be an encourager today, even if it shows you up in a bad light. Do you feel discouraged? Don’t be. Let God be the one who judges your actions. Let him encourage you.
1 Samuel 17 v 31-33
Yet what David said was told to Saul, and he sent for David.
David said to Saul, “Don’t let anyone be discouraged. I, your servant, will go and fight this Philistine!”
Saul answered, “You can’t go out against this Philistine and fight him. You’re only a boy. Goliath has been a warrior since he was a young man.”
Notes
Politicians and leaders in all walks of life have to be extra careful these days that everything they say is PC – politically correct. Everything has to be weighed and tested to avoid trouble.
It looks as if the young man, David, had said the wrong thing. When King Saul heard about it, he sent for David. The king could hardly believe that David could be so foolhardy as to offer to fight against Goliath. Goliath, the Philistine, the champion of the enemy of King Saul, was a huge monster of a man. Saul considered David was, but a lad, too young to take on such a mighty opponent in a duel.
“You’re only a boy,” declared the King. “Goliath has been a warrior since he was a young man.”
The King obviously thought David’s offer was quite out of place. But Saul had made a mistake. He was making an estimate about what David could do according to the normal judgements of his time. David did not fit into this way of being PC. He did not rely on military training. Instead, David was used to listening to what God said to him and trusting God to give him the strength he needed. He knew that God could speak to anyone, irrespective of age, sex or class. David made his offer because God was prompting him.
This can be true for us today. God still communicates and we have to listen. Take time today to ask God to tell you in your heart what he wants you to do and trust him to help you carry it out.
1 Samuel 17 v 34-37
But David said to Saul, “I, your servant, have been keeping my father’s sheep. When a lion or bear came and took a sheep from the flock, I would chase it. I would attack it and save the sheep from its mouth. When it attacked me, I caught it by its fur and hit it and killed it. I, your servant, have killed both a lion and a bear! This uncircumcised Philistine will be like them, because he has spoken against the armies of the living God. The LORD who saved me from a lion and a bear will save me from this Philistine.”
Saul said to David, “Go, and may the LORD be with you.”
Notes
Do you have a problem travelling across the country up one motorway and down the next? For some, navigating is worse than driving. Even so, the more you travel, the more confident you can be that you will actually arrive. Maps begin to make sense. Thank God for the internet and the maps, detailed and wide ranging, that it provides.
When you next set out on that new and longer journey, you will be more sure that you will get there. In the story that David told King Saul about his life as a youth, he had an added dimension beyond experience. He knew he was trusting the living God, who, in the past, had made him safe in the presence of wild animals. This made David sure that, in the future, God could rescue him from a Philistine giant who had been a soldier for some years.
Saul, king in God’s kingdom, had forgotten how to trust God. David, young in comparison had had far more experience of trusting God. David was sure God would not let him down when he went out to fight against the giant. He was prepared to step out in faith and trust God all the way. That option is there for us in our everyday lives. It is equally true and even more helpful when specially difficult things are happening to us. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and don’t depend on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3 v 5). Trust him!
word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken
from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by
Word Publishing Milton Keynes