David: A Champion of God (A Man of Faith- Part Two)

And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. 1 Samuel 17:32

On my last post, I began the account of David and his legendary fight with the Philistine Goliath. We know that the armies of the Philistines and of Israel are head to head and Goliath is going out morning and night calling for a man brave enough to fight him. The victor of the duel will be the victor of the war. But the men of Israel were scared and none answered Goliath's call. Yet one day, a young man named David entered the battlefield to bring his brothers substance and this young man decided to stand against him. Why? Because he knew of the covenant he had with God.

I want to continue the tale in this post.

Because of the knowledge of his covenant with God, David had his mind made up that he was going to go fight that giant and he asked around for the prize should he be victorious. The answer was, ". . .the king will enrich him [the man who kills Goliath] with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father's house free in Israel." Well, David's brother, Eliab, heard David speaking to these men and the Bible says "Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle." David answered, "What have I now done? Is there not a cause?"

I want to point something out here. We already know that David went there by his father's order, not to be a spy. This is just an example to what people will say when we make a statement of faith. David's faith was mistaken for arrogance. Do you see that? David was confident in God, and in what God would do for him, he wasn't arrogant. But Eliab didn't understand David's relationship with God and so he mistook David's faith for arrogance. That still happens today. When someone says that a certain thing is going to happen to them, for example, they're healed of a sickness that's been plaguing them because God loves them, He wants them to be healed, and Jesus bought and paid for it with the shedding of His blood, some will think that's arrogance because they don't understand it. But it's not. It's confidence in God and living by faith.

David's words and inquisition got to the king's ears eventually, and King Saul called David to speak with him. The young man told the king that he would fight Goliath. Now you must remember that David is young, like still a teenager, and a shepherd boy at that. He didn't have any traditional arm's training. Goliath was a man of war, and he was BIG. Saul said to David, "Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth."

Listen to how David replies. Beginning at verse 34.

"Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. David said moreover, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philisitine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the Lord be with thee."

We can get a few things from these passages.

First, the time David spent as a shepherd keeping his father's sheep was his training period. In this time, he grew close to God and learned how to trust Him. Though David didn't have any traditional combat training, God taught him how to defend himself against that bear and lion. If you don't remember, a few chapters back, David was anointed by the prophet Samuel to be the next king of Israel. And if he was going to be king, he had to be trained. His shepherding was his training. I believe that we all have our own times of training. It may seem like not a whole lot is going on, but if we use these times in our lives to seek God and allow Him to mold us into what He wants, we'll be prepared for whatever it is He wants us to do and become.

Second, in David's training period, he learned that God was faithful to His covenant, which allowed him to be faith-full, or full of faith.

Lastly, David gave God the glory of victory before he even stepped on the battlefield to face Goliath. He said, The Lord delivered me out of the paw of the lion and the bear, and he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philsitine.

David wasn't arrogant or conceited. He was completely and utterly confident in his God's ability. He was full of faith! He understood that it wouldn't be by his own might or power that Goliath would be slain. He knew that he could only come out the victor by the hand of God. Search your own heart today. Have you been thinking it's by your own ability that you're successful? Allow me to say that it's only by the power and anointing of God that we amount to anything. Give the glory to God and allow others to see that you're living a blessed and victorious life because of Him and Jesus.  

David: A Champion of God (A Covenant Man- Part One)

And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. 1 Samuel 17:33

Picture it. Two of the greatest armies standing face to face with only a valley separating them. The Philistine army against Israel. The Philistine's champion, Goliath, came out every morning and evening for forty days to challenge the men of Israel. His words in verses eight and nine of this same chapter are- " . . .Choose you a man for you, and let him come to me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then we will be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us." The Philistines' strategy for battle was this: the victor of the war would be decided with one duel. Two men, one from each side, fight to the death and whoever wins, triumphs. Good plan, right? Especially when your champion is categorized as a giant and a great man of war. Needless to say, Saul, Israel's king, and the men of his army were scared. And for forty days the challenge went on.

David, a young man barely out of adolescence and a shepherd, was told by his father to go to the camp of Israel's army and bring his brothers, who were fighting in the war, some food. David, as the obedient son, did as he was told, and while he came to the army, Goliath issued the challenge again, as he did every day, twice a day. The men of Israel fled from the man and wouldn't fight him for fear. David saw this and said to the men beside him-"What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?"

Let me give you some background before we go further. In Genesis chapters 15-17, we read the account of God cutting a blood covenant with a man called Abraham. And the sign of this covenant between the two was the circumcising of every man child in Abraham's house. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob, who was later renamed Israel by God, was the father of twelve men, who we now know as the twelve tribes of Israel, the very ones who were at war with the Philistines in this seventeenth chapter of First Samuel. Now a blood covenant is the strongest agreement that you can have and this covenant with Abraham that God enforced includes, according to Deuteronomy 28, victory over your enemies.

So you see, David was the only one in that entire camp who was thinking straight and wasn't allowing his fear to cloud his senses. With these words, he was saying to those listening, This man is uncircumcised. He doesn't have a covenant with God. It's not already promised to him that he would triumph over us. No! We have a covenant with God! It's been promised to us to triumph over him! Who does that Philistine think he is standing up and challenging an army of covenant men? (It's almost like David is insinuating, What a stupid man!) David knew and believed that part of his covenant with God was his enemies fleeing from before him seven ways. Apparently, since all the other Israelites were so afraid, David was the only one who really understood the covenant that nation had with God. Why? Most surely because of all his time spent shepherding his father's sheep and talking to the One Who made the covenant.

That's an important key. Unless we spend time with God, in prayer and in His Word, we won't understand what is available to us through the blood that Jesus shed on the cross. Like David, we also have a covenant with Almighty God. Galatians 3 states that the Blessing of Abraham has come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. If you don't know what this blessing consists of, I urge you to take out your Bible and read Deuteronomy 28:1-14; these are the promises of the blessing. But we have an even greater covenant than David. Our covenant is established on great promises, and because of this covenant, everything God has belongs to the believer. It's our right, it's our inheritance as a born again child of God to live in victory. The next time something big comes up in your life, trying to take you down, be like David and remember the covenant you have with God. Go to the promises and stand strong on that covenant.