Only a Boy named David
I Samuel 16-17
CHCC: August 31, 2008
INTRODUCTION:
Wasn’t it great having our Youth lead worship today? These kids are a good example of what Paul was talking about in Timothy 4:12 "Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity."
I’m curious who’s the youngest one who was up here leading.
The person I want to talk about today was a little younger than that. When David killed Goliath, most scholars think he was probably a middle-school aged boy. But I don’t want to start there. Let’s look back to what happened in David’s life BEFORE that “big” event.
The first time we meet David is in I Samuel 16. God told the prophet Samuel that he had chosen one of the sons of Jesse to be the next King of Israel. Samuel went to Bethlehem to meet Jesse’s sons. The oldest son, Eliab, was strong and tall and good-looking. Eliab, he thought, “This must be the one!” But God said, “No, that’s not him. Don’t be impressed with the way someone looks. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.”
One by one, Samuel saw seven of the sons of Jesse, but each time God said, “That’s not the one.” Finally, Samuel said, “Is that all? Do you have any more sons?” And Jesse said, “Well, yes, there’s the little squirt, David. But he’s out in the field tending the sheep” (This kind of reminds me of the Cinderella story when the Prince’s servant is trying to find the girl the shoe will fit.)
When little David came in, God told Samuel, “Get up and anoint him. He’s the one.” I Samuel 16:12 says David was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. But we already know that is not what impressed God. God was looking for inward CHARACTER. David was only a boy at this point, possibly between 10 and 14. But this young boy had already developed the CHARACTER qualities of a hero. Verse 13 says, From that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power.
I got to wondering, what had David been doing those first 10 or 11 years of his life that caused God to have so much confidence in him? We know one thing he’d been doing. Evidently David had chores to do in his family. It was his job to work out in the fields, tending the sheep.
We also know how David spent his free moments while he was watching the sheep. David always made a point of Connecting with His God.
1. Connect with God
We know this is true because of the hundreds of Psalms David wrote throughout his life. David used his spare time out there in the fields to praise and worship Jehovah. Now, we tend to picture David sitting out there on a lovely hill playing his harp, while fluffy white sheep wander around peacefully. But that wasn’t David’s reality.
He was out in the heat or the cold, the rain or the wind. And he wasn’t out there alone. It’s most likely the family employed hired shepherds who were out there with little David, especially while the older brothers were enlisted in Saul’s army. These hired hands weren’t a bunch of Sunday school boys. They were probably a rough bunch of guys. When David sang his songs about God, they would have been his audience. But David wasn’t thinking about them. He built a very real relationship with God by communicating with Him directly every chance He got.
David’s job as a shepherd meant he had to go places he didn’t really want to go. It must have been tedious for the boy David to have to sit for hours … and the whole time he had to pay attention to the sheep. I got to thinking, it wasn’t all that different from what boys and girls today have to go through in school. You sit for hours where you don’t want to be … and the whole time you have to pay attention!
Application: Connect with God all day every day … whenever you have spare time … Build a relationship with God in your youth.
During my Bible College years I worked at a meat company as a janitor working in the cold meat locker. That meant 4 hours a day working by myself, moving meat around and cleaning the floors and walls. I had plenty of time to myself so I used that alone time to pray to God and think my thoughts to Him. I think that is what “praying without ceasing” is all about. We’re always thinking anyway, so why not include God in our thoughts. By the way, including God in your thoughts will keep them a lot purer than thinking them to yourself.
Another thing the boy David did in his young years paid off for him in ways he could never have predicted. While he was “only a boy,” David developed his SKILLS.
2. Build your Skills
David could have just been lolling around out there, daydreaming about cute girls or playing his game boy (well whatever the equivalent was back 3000 years ago.) Anyway, David didn’t waste his youth away. He applied himself and developed important skills. Specifically, David developed musical skills and he developed skill with a rod, a staff and a sling shot (the shepherd’s tools). Eventually his skill on the Harp got him a place in the palace of King Saul where he soothed Saul with his music. And David’s skill with the sling shot … well, we all know how that paid off for him!
Consider the dangers David had to face out there … killing the lion and the bear when they attacked the sheep lets you know that tending sheep could be life threatening. It sounds like sheep tending amounted to days of boredom punctuated by moments of terror! Now we know that he didn’t use the sling for the very first time when the lion appeared. He shot thousands and thousands of times at tree trunks and other targets long before these predators showed up.
According to my research, the Benjamites were a tribe known for their skill with slings. Now, David was not a Benjamite, but since Judaites and Benjamites lived around each other, he probably had a chance to pick up the skill from other boys near by. The sling was as useful as a bow and arrow…just as accurate and just as lethal, and sling stones were usually round pieces of metal about 2 or 3 inches around, the size of a golf ball or bigger. David, didn’t need anything so refined for his purposes, he had learned how to find good sling stones from the ground around him. While tending sheep, and when not playing his harp, he would practice hitting targets until he developed deadly accuracy, enough to kill a lion or bear. Believe me, when being attacked by a lion or bear, you don’t usually get a second shot, so the first shot has to do the job.
Application: Youth is the time to learn and develop skills that will pay off all your life.
• Memorize scripture … you will still remember them when you’re in your 50’s.
• Practice a musical instrument … you’ll be playing all your life (I started playing guitar while in high-school not realizing it would be a useful tool in ministry, I just played guitar in order to put off doing homework, but now I’m glad I took the time to learn it)
• Whatever God has given you, develop it --- athletic ability, physical strength, musical talents, aptitude for art or for fixing things, academic abilities …(the average Jewish boy learned his father’s trade often becoming a full apprentice for his dad around the time of his Bar Mitzvah and taking over his dad’s work when he became an adult.)
David spent his youth connecting with God and building his skills,( his father was a shepherd by trade so the boy learned everything he needed to know to follow in his father’s footsteps, little knowing that shepherding skills would also be useful in leading God’s people as king) … and when the time came, he was ready to Slay his Giant.
3. Slay your Giants
Let’s take a minute to set the stage for this big event in David’s life. David had spent some time in the palace of King Saul. He had been called to serve the King because of his skill on the harp. But by this time, David’s older brothers had joined Saul’s army against the Philistines … and David was back home, watching the sheep again. I’m sure David was like any self-respecting middle-school aged boy --- he wanted to get in on the action. But notice that David didn’t run off and join the army like he probably wanted to. Instead he continued to obey his dad.
In fact, when David DID get to go where the army was camped, it was in obedience to his dad’s instructions. Dad basically told him, “Go take this food to your brothers and see how they’re doing.” So David went like he was told.
When he got there, the first thing he heard was Goliath, blaspheming God, and daring the Israelites to send someone to fight him. David started asking around to see why they were letting Goliath get away with blaspheming the God of Israel. He wondered why the troops weren’t going out to take care of the matter. He began asking questions of the troops to see what was going on. The text takes up at this point and we read:
I Samuel 17:28 When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, "Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle." 29 "Now what have I done?" said David. "Can’t I even speak?" 30 He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before.
Remember, at this point David has already been anointed by Samuel to be king. All the older brothers have been passed by and the pipsqueak, “Davie Boy” has been chosen. I believe that the older brothers of David looked at him the same way Joseph’s older brothers had looked at him when he had told them about his dreams of ruling over them some day. Eliab’s words revealed his jealousy of David. His words purposely tried to cast a dark shadow on David’s motives and actions. It wasn’t fair or kind of Eliab to treat his kid brother like that.
Application: The same thing is going to happen to any of you young people if you step out as a leader. Someone will get jealous. Someone will put you down. Someone will try to stop you from what God has called you to do. Don’t let them! Do what David did. Just turn away to someone else … someone who will listen.
Eventually King Saul asked to see this boy who was determined to fight the giant. Let’s look again at the text to see how this conversation unfolded:
I Samuel 17: 31 What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him. 32 David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him." 33 Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."
Notice David’s confidence … not in his own skill, but in GOD.
34 But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."
Application: David had incredible confidence. But it wasn’t based on the common advice young people get these days “You can do anything you want to do as long as you believe in yourself.” David’s incredible confidence wasn’t centered on himself, but on his connection to the living God who delivered him from the predator’s paw. He had practiced with his sling shot, but when trouble came, he knew it was the hand of God that came to his rescue, and on this occasion when an uncircumcised Philistine blasphemed God’s name, the hand of the Lord would intervene once again.
Saul was amazed by David’s faith and confidence so he said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you." I’m sure that wasn’t what he planned to say originally. Under normal circumstances it would be an embarrassment to send a mere child out to represent all of Israel. And because of Goliath’s challenge, David’s defeat would mean Israel’s slavery to the Philistines. Normally, there would be no point in risking Israel’s future on a shepherd boy, but now Saul’s attitude had changed by the way this mere boy carried himself. Obviously, he had more courage than any other soldier in Saul’s army. This is what Saul did next:
38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.
"I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." So he took them off.
Saul allowed David to use his armor knowing that his men would recognize the king’s armor and know David had his approval. Perhaps he also wanted David’s achievement to reflect back on himself so he lent his armor to the task at hand. But David quickly became aware that Saul’s armor would quickly become his tomb if he was foolish enough to wear it. Saul’s “46 longs” didn’t fit David’s “36 short” dimensions. He couldn’t succeed while glomming on to Saul’s shirt tales. David had to be what he was, and do what he knew how to do without Saul’s help.
Application: Don’t try to do things like someone else. Don’t let someone else pressure you into doing things the way of the status quo. (The old “we’ve always done things this way”) God made you unique. Use the talents and skills he gave YOU. That’s what David did.
40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.
From all his past experience, David knew exactly what shape and weight of stones would do the job. I think he had studied Goliath’s armor and knew the vulnerable spot in Goliath’s helmet. David knew that with God’s blessing, he could hit that spot on the first try.
41 Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. 42 He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, tanned and handsome, and he despised him. 43 He said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 "Come here," he said, "and I’ll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!"
45 David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give all of you into our hands."
Though the story of David and Goliath is well known in church circles, what is often overlooked is the fact that David was full of God; not full of himself. He was not puffed up with the vainglory of a foolish boy lacking experience, instead he, though young, had already seen the hand of God at work taking care of the lion’s and bear’s paw, giving just what was needed to enable the youthful shepherd to guard his sheep. In David’s eyes, Goliath was just another predator God could easily overcome. Goliath was toast and didn’t even know it.
CONCLUSION:
That’s exactly what happened. "Only a boy named David … only a little sling…"
There are lessons here for all of us, young or old. If you’re older, don’t look down on a child or teenager just because of their age. God will send His Spirit in it’s full Power on any young person who will connect with Him, obey Him, and trust in Him.
And for the young people, don’t be afraid to step out and lead. Be an example to all of us here at CHCC … in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.
