Bible Study for the Biblically Challenged Anyone?

Now let's continue with David:

David & Goliath

The Philistines were gathering for war against Israel.  Goliath comes onto the scene and declares that if one man could kill him, then the Philistines would surrender and be their servants.  Goliath was 9 feet, 9 inches tall.

Goliath taunts Israel for 40 days (40 represents a time of trials/tribulation).  Meanwhile David's brothers were with the army and David was tending to the sheep.  Jesse sends David w/ food to check on his brothers.  David finds Israel in battle with the Philistines, but when Goliath would approach, Israel would retreat (a.k.a. run away chickens).  David is perplexed by this.  Why would God's army retreat?  The men tell David of Goliath's "proposal" (threat) and about the reward Saul has offered to the man who could kill Goliath-(no more taxes and his daughter for marriage).

David chastises the men for retreating like little chickens reminding them that with God, there IS no fear.

So David tells Saul he will fight Goliath.  Well David is kinda small......David is very small and Saul points this fact out, so to speak......David defends his size by telling of how he single handedly fought and killed lion and bear if so needed to protect the sheep.  But then David says to Saul "The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." (17: 37)

So, Saul suits David up in his own armor, but again, David is so small that the armor swallows him up!  He cant walk in it.  Now I get a visual here of little David and everyone snickering when  they cant even see Davids eyes in the helmet.

David still isn't afraid, he just takes off the armor.  He knew he had the armor of God as his shield.  David takes 5 stones and the number 5 in the bible represents God's grace.  It only took 1 stone and 1 single shot to bring down the giant.  The number 1 represents unity, and David certainly had unity with God!

David chastises Goliath:  "You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin.  But I come in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.  This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you and take your head from you."

David is confident, no fear, no doubt.  I don't think he hesitated, was nervous, or "hoped" he was right.  I believe that David was just as confident that he would defeat Goliath as we are that we will eat every day, or brush our teeth, etc.  What I would give to have that same confidence sometimes!

I have actually been practicing this.  The other night, when Mark was out of town, something woke me up in the middle of the night.  I kept hearing "noises".  You know, the kind of noises one NEVER hears when their husband is home......Our alarm was on but my mind starting thinking "maybe they cut the phone wires..."  Then all of a saddened I thought "Wait a minute!!!!!  What am I afraid of?  I have prayed for God to drape His veil of protection over me and my family!  He will absolutely honor that prayer and NO EVIL can penetrate His veil!"  So I smiled rather smugly and drifted back off to sleep with a grin on my face.

Now I gotta do this same thought process with my business, and cancer, and anything else I tend to fear or worry about.

So I have this same thread over on my other breast cancer forum and one of the ladies there pointed out something that I STILL missed in this section!

God had been preparing David for victory over Goliath by sending a lion and a bear first!  We have to conquer smaller battles in order to prepare ourselves for a war.  David's confidence and faith was already established before facing "the giant".

I suppose our cancer battle is just God strengthening our confidence and faith for bigger battles......It has certainly made a HUGE difference in my confidence that God will continue to use me to do His work.

Now with regards to my story....Patoo, this was only one situation where I was able to apply some of these lessons God is teaching us........I can't say that the next time will be as successful!  It will take much practice and failure to get better at it. 

David & Jonathan

David continues to serve Saul with music and leading the armies.  The Bible says that David "behaved wisely". (1 Sam 18:5)  Everyone knew David and everyone accepted him as a leader. 

David and Saul's son Jonathan formed a bond like no other bond.  The bible says that Jonathan "was knit to the soul" of David and "loved him as his own soul" (1 Sam 18: 1 & 3)  This will play a HUGE role in the life of David and all of Israel.

The  problems start to arise when Saul gets jealous and feels threatened by David.  The women cheer that "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands."  So Saul sets out to kill David.  This story begins in chapter 18:6.

Saul then begins to fear David because it is so evident to him the God is with David.  So Saul "thinks" that if he sends David out against the Philistines and dies, his own hands would be clean.......what a big dummy....

In the meantime, Saul offers his daughter Michal to David to be his wife, but still wants him dead.  The problem is, Saul was actually fighting God and not David, but he is too blinded by envy and fear to see this.  Every time Saul sends David into war the bible says "David behaved more wisely than all the servants of Saul, so that his name became highly esteemed."   (1 Sam 18:30)

All that Saul managed to do was to play a role in God's plan for David to build up Israel's confidence in David to be the next king.  And though the bible doesn't say this, I believe that with every battle David won, his confidence to lead Israel had to be strengthened.

The battles that David fought had to be terrifying sometimes, even though the bible doesn't go into detail.  It could be that God wanted to relate to us that any battle we face is really "no big deal" as long as we are in God's army.  Or perhaps, these battles were "no big deal" to David because he knew God was his shield and sword.  Either way, I want that same attitude!

Saul's next plan for David's demise  (1Sam 18:20 - 30)

Saul offers his daughter Michal, to be David's wife, for a very specific reason.  Back in the OT days, the bridegroom had to pay a price to the bride's father to compensate him for the loss of his daughter's help around the house.

Saul's "price" for his daughter specifically to David is foreskins from the Philistines.  Now Saul tries to play this off as merely having David "take vengeance on the king's enemies."  However, Saul's true intentions were for David to be killed by them instead.

Guess what?  Our God is WAY bigger than any Philistine.  Not only does David slay the required 100 and collect their foreskins (yuck), he goes above and beyond by killing an additional 100.  So David brings Saul 200 foreskins of the Philistines!  This really crawls Saul's behind because now the Israelites hold David to even a higher than before!

This story is a perfect example for all of us.  No matter the size of the task, or how seemingly impossible it may be, if we continue to seek God's will, we can conquer it 2 fold!