Climbing over mountains, tripping over stones
1 Sam 17:1-57 and John 11:1-50
The style of this is actually segmented narrative, telling three stories at the same time and bringing them together at the end.
1st Story: (1 Sam. 17:1) 1SA 17:1 Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Socoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Socoh and Azekah. 2 Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. 3 The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them.
1SA 17:4 A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall. 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; 6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7 His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him.
1SA 17:8 Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us." 10 Then the Philistine said, "This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other." 11 On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.
1SA 17:12 Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul’s time he was old and well advanced in years. 13 Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war: The firstborn was Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third, Shammah. 14 David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul, 15 but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s sheep at Bethlehem.
The Philistines have declared war on the Israelites, King Saul called for all able-bodied males to join the army. David the youngest of his brothers was left home to tend the sheep. However while tending his sheep he showed great courage. A lion and a bear tried to take sheep, but they met their end at the hands of David. Yet David wished he could be with his brothers on the hill, ready to battle the Philistines.
2nd Story: Diana and Robert were a young couple, devout in their relationship with God. They had tried for years to have a family, they were finally told they could not. So they decided to adopt, they selected a beautiful young boy named Billy. About a year after bringing Billy into their home, God had blessed them, Diana was pregnant, test revealed they were about to have a little girl. They named her Hope, for she was all they had hoped for.
3rd Story: (John 11:1)NOW A MAN NAMED LAZARUS WAS SICK HE WAS FROM BETHANY, THE VILLAGE OF MARY AND HER SISTER MARTHA. THIS MARY WHOSE BROTHER LAZARUS NOW LAY SICK, WAS THE SAME ONE WHO POURED PERFUME ON THE LORD AND WIPED HIS FEET WITH HER HAIR. SO THE SISTERS SENT WORD TO JESUS, “LORD THE ONE YOU LOVE IS SICK.”
Mary, Martha and Lazarus were good friends of Jesus. And now Lazarus is sick and the sisters send for Jesus, for they knew he was a great healer.
1st Story: 1SA 17:17 Now Jesse said to his son David, "Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. 18 Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them. 19 They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines."
1SA 17:20 Early in the morning David left the flock with a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. 21 Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. 22 David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and greeted his brothers. 23 As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. 24 When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear.
1SA 17:25 Now the Israelites had been saying, "Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his father’s family from taxes in Israel."
1SA 17:26 David asked the men standing near him, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?"
1SA 17:27 They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, "This is what will be done for the man who kills him."
David is sent to his brothers to bring supplies, while there he hears the boastful challenge of Goliath, the men look upon Goliath and say “He is so big how can we win?” David sees Goliath and says “He is so big how can I miss?”
2nd Story: Complications late in the pregnancy cause early labor. The baby’s chances of survival are very slim. At birth Hope weighs under 3lbs, she is born with several complications, undeveloped immune system, under developed heart all made life difficult to Hope. Most of her defenses have not developed and because of such she could not be touched, and spent night and day in an incubator. Mom and Dad keeping vigil night and day as little Hope clung to life.
3rd story On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
JN 11:21 "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."
JN 11:23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
JN 11:24 Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
JN 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
JN 11:27 "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."
JN 11:28 And after she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. "The Teacher is here," she said, "and is asking for you." 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
JN 11:32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."
JN 11:33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 "Where have you laid him?" he asked.
"Come and see, Lord," they replied.
JN 11:35 Jesus wept.
JN 11:36 Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him!"
JN 11:37 But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"
From Mary and Martha come the same plea, if you had been here our brother would not have died, yet if Jesus had come when they sent for him and healed Lazarus, they would have only known what they had already knew, it was time to learn something new.
1St story: 1SA 17:34 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."
Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you."
1SA 17:38 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. 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.
1SA 17:41 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, ruddy 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!"
1SA 17:45 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." 1SA 17:48 As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. 49 Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.
David put his trust in God, and God delivered Goliath to his hand.
3RD Story: JN 11:38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 "Take away the stone," he said.
"But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days."
JN 11:40 Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"
JN 11:41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."
JN 11:43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."
Mary and Martha put their faith in Jesus and received back their brother from the dead.
2nd Story: Diana and Robert put their trust in God, one night Diana got up from her rocker and said to her husband “I know our daughter is going to be alright, for God would not give her to us to take her from us like this.” After 6 months Diana and Robert took Hope home. But that is not the end of this story. A few years later while attending a little league game which little Billy was playing, Hope was resting on her mother’s lap, suddenly she sat up, “Do you smell that?” Diana sniffed and said, “Yes Hope it smells like rain” a little while later Hope sat up again and said “Do you smell that?” “Yes Dear” her mother replied, “It smells like rain” “No Mommy” Hope said “That’s what Jesus smells like when he holds you close.” In those hours while laying in the incubator when no one else could hold her, Jesus held her close to his heart.
YOU ARE NEVER CLOSER TO GOD THEN WHEN YOU STEP OUT IN FAITH
WILL YOU STEP OUT IN FAITH, OR WILL YOU STUMBLE OVER STONES
GIVE YOUR LIFE TO JESUS AND DRAW CLOSE TO HIM AS HE DRAWS CLOSE TO YOU.
