David Volunteered

DAVID VOLUNTEERED

Text: 1 Samuel 17:38 - 50

When I was a kid, I was a crack shot with a sling shot. My grandfather, Cecil had a patent on a couple of sling shots he designed. He designed sling shots that you could literally hunt deer with using an arrow. It was one of his sling shots that I practiced with until I became good aim.

I got so good with my sling shot that I could almost bull’s eye any target I aimed at. I once targeted a bully who came to my neighborhood. He was a redheaded kid from school named Link who was bigger than me. To taunt him, I would call him Lincoln because he hated it. That day when he was in my neighborhood, I got where he could not see men and taunted him as I yelled, “Lincoln” while aiming at his knee with a piece of meow-mix cat food. Bap! Right on target! You could hear Link scream “ouch” as he grabbed his knee. I know it was wrong. I just thought I would get Link where he would not bother me any more at school. It worked. I was only seven or eight at the time.

David faced a bully much bigger than that, named Goliath. He was Nine foot nine inches tall and match the description of being nearly unstoppable. It sounds like this might be the place where the expression ten feet tall and bullet proof came from. He was a Philistine who had been a problem for Saul and his army for as a “twice a day threat for forty days” (I Samuel 17:16). Going against Goliath was a dangerous mission, but David volunteered for it.

There was no question that David was the underdog. But there was also no question about God’s help. How do we face our giants? There were odds, there was opposition and there was Divine help.

ODDS

How do you look at odds? Do you look at track records and statistics? If Saul’s army had been unsuccessful, how do you think people are going to view the odds for this little shepherd boy David. He’s young, he’s quick, he’s agile, he’s good with a sling shot, he has successfully defended the flock against a lion, a bear (1 Samuel 17:36). But are those successes enough?

How does Goliath’s odds look? He’s almost ten feet tall and bullet proof with an unstoppable record day and night of forty days! Goliath says no one will ever be able to stop him! What do they say about saying “never?” When it comes to odds, there is always the favored opponent who is almost always the top pick between opponents in a contest.

“In the heat of World War II, the Germans worked fervently behind closed doors constructing what they thought would be the greatest military weapon ever conceived. In mid 1941, they launched the battleship Bismarck, with an armored shell eighteen inches thick, and a gun that could hurl a shell the size of a Volkswagen over twenty miles. They were convinced that it could destroy the entire British navy and that its supreme power would quickly afford a German victory. Almost immediately, the floating fortress sank one of the highly feared British battleships called the Hood, striking fear in the hearts of her equals. The Bismarck seemed impenetrable.

But not long after its impressive debut, the ultimate German weapon was spotted by a pair of enemy sea planes on patrol. Made partially of canvas, the planes carried only one torpedo each, since they were not designed to be aggressive attack planes. But as the planes flew over the battleship, they both fired their torpedoes. The first one hit the side of the Bismarck and exploded but did no damage. Similarly, the second hit the tail of the ship and bounced off, exploding into the water but doing no visible damage. The planes fled quickly, not wishing to exchange fire. But little did they know that the second torpedo had, in fact, knocked the rudder off its hinges, and without a rudder, the mighty fortress was left with no way to steer. Although the damage seemed totally insignificant, the most powerful, indestructible, military force ever created was actually helpless in the water. Within hours, it floated directly into the middle of a British fleet, which shelled it again and again until the great ship went down”. (Terry Tekyl. Pray The Price. Muncie: Prayer Point Press, 1997, pp. 17-18). The odds seemed too great for something like that to happen. Remember that God used a shepherd boy to whip a giant.

OPPOSITION

Odds are one thing but what opposition within families? Odds are statistics and records are one thing but opposition comes from actual people.

1) Sibling rivalry: Cain opposed Abe (Genesis 4) Jacob and Esau (Gen. 27), Joseph and his brothers (Gen. 37), the prodigal son and his elder brother (Luke 15:28-30).