6/8/2010
8:45:15 AM
SPIRITUAL
DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: God guided David
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference: 1 Samuel 17:1-27
Message
of the verses: “1 ¶ Now the Philistines gathered their armies for
battle; and they were gathered at Socoh which belongs to Judah, and they camped
between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim. 2
Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and camped in the valley of
Elah, and drew up in battle array to encounter the Philistines. 3 The Philistines stood on the mountain on one
side while Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with the valley
between them. 4 Then a champion came out
from the armies of the Philistines named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was
six cubits and a span. 5 He had a bronze
helmet on his head, and he was clothed with scale-armor which weighed five
thousand shekels of bronze. 6 He also
had bronze greaves on his legs and a bronze javelin slung between his
shoulders. 7 The shaft of his spear was
like a weaver’s beam, and the head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels of
iron; his shield-carrier also walked before him. 8 He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel
and said to them, "Why do you come out to draw up in battle array? Am I
not the Philistine and you servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and
let him come down to me. 9 "If he
is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will become your servants; but if
I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall become our servants and
serve us." 10 Again the Philistine
said, "I defy the ranks of Israel this day; give me a man that we may
fight together." 11 When Saul and
all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly
afraid.
“12 ¶
Now David was the son of the Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, whose
name was Jesse, and he had eight sons. And Jesse was old in the days of Saul,
advanced in years among men. 13 The
three older sons of Jesse had gone after Saul to the battle. And the names of
his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and the second
to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. 14
David was the youngest. Now the three oldest followed Saul, 15 but David went back and forth from Saul to
tend his father’s flock at Bethlehem. 16
The Philistine came forward morning and evening for forty days and took
his stand. 17 Then Jesse said to David
his son, "Take now for your brothers an ephah of this roasted grain and
these ten loaves and run to the camp to your brothers. 18 "Bring also these ten cuts of cheese to
the commander of their thousand, and look into the welfare of your brothers,
and bring back news of them. 19
"For Saul and they and all the men of Israel are in the valley of
Elah, fighting with the Philistines." 20
So David arose early in the morning and left the flock with a keeper and
took the supplies and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the
circle of the camp while the army was going out in battle array shouting the
war cry. 21 Israel and the Philistines
drew up in battle array, army against army. 22
Then David left his baggage in the care of the baggage keeper, and ran
to the battle line and entered in order to greet his brothers. 23 As he was talking with them, behold, the
champion, the Philistine from Gath named Goliath, was coming up from the army
of the Philistines, and he spoke these same words; and David heard them.
24 When all the men of Israel saw the
man, they fled from him and were greatly afraid. 25 The men of Israel said, "Have you seen
this man who is coming up? Surely he is coming up to defy Israel. And it will
be that the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will
give him his daughter and make his father’s house free in Israel." 26 Then David spoke to the men who were standing
by him, saying, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine
and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine,
that he should taunt the armies of the living God?" 27 The people answered him in accord with this
word, saying, "Thus it will be done for the man who kills him.’”
I suppose that every child who has
gone to Sunday school has heard the story of David and Goliath, and even today
in modern society the term means the small against the big, and sometimes like
in the real story of David and Goliath the small triumphs over the large.
The point that may often times be
missed is that because the Spirit of the Lord had come upon David He was
leading David in all the aspects of his life and so when his father gave David
his marching orders to go to the camp with food for his three brothers it was
truly the Lord leading Jesse to send David to go and to do much more than
deliver just food for he was about to kill a giant. This giant was nine feet and nine inches tall
and was wearing a coat that weighed 125 pounds and had a spear that weighed
fifteen pounds and he would come out in the morning and in the evening to sneer
at the soldiers of Israel. It got to the
point that Saul had offered a reward of riches, marring his daughter and no tax
for the household of the one who killed him.
Matthew 8:26 has Jesus speaking to
his disciples about fear and faith and the two of them can never go
together: “He *said to them, "Why
are you afraid, you men of little faith?" Then He got up and rebuked the
winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm.” Saul was a man of fear and not of faith, and
it must be remembered that Saul was the tallest man in the nation of Israel,
and yet he did not go out to fight this man, for he was fearful. David on the other hand saw this giant as
defying the Lord, the God of Israel’s army, and you can sense David’s faith and
the leading of the Holy Spirit who lived in him from the very beginning of this
story.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I would
suppose that I have been afraid in my life many times, even since I became a
believer in Jesus Christ, but it seems to me that the older that I grow in the
Lord the more that I realize that if I am walking in the Spirit doing what God
has called me to do then I need not be afraid, and I can praise the Lord for
teaching me to trust Him with all of life, both the ups and the downs.
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
I think that
Proverbs 3:5-6 are good verses for this section of my SD for today: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do
not lean on your own understanding. 6 In
all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.”
6/8/2010
9:19:49 AM
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