As we consider the life of David for a few days, I must prayerfully choose which event to cover. And his famous encounter with Goliath cannot be ignored.
The whole affair began with the Philistines fighting the army of Israel, of King Saul. And David’s three older brothers (three of seven brothers) joined the army.
One day Jesse sent David to the battle front with some food for those brothers. (Bread, cheese, etc.) That’s when David learned of the giant, Goliath by name!
Before long, with no one else willing to fight this wicked mammoth, David himself volunteered!
What courage!
It is at this point David’s oldest brother attacked the young man. “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.” 1 Samuel 17:28
Bitter!
One thing patently obvious here is the spiritual principle of (nearly always) opposition that will come when one is trying to do right, trying to serve the Lord.
An unprovoked attack!
From someone who should have been a friend!
Another thing is that in this particular point David is a type of Christ! Jesus Whose brethren (the Jews) opposed Him, even to the point of crying loudly “Crucify Him!”
Likely the emotion behind this attack is one of jealousy, David generally “outperforming” his brothers! Plus, and Eliab knows so, David is already the anointed-of-God next King of Israel. (King David, not King Eliab!)
Leaders are always under the gun.
Look at the sarcasm in Eliab’s affront to David, “those FEW sheep” you watch, who is with them? (Remember how Joseph’s brothers hated him? A way Joseph prefigures the Lord Jesus as well.)
But, good news, David sidesteps those belittling remarks and goes on to greater things. Fighting Goliath, fighting and killing him!
Here’s what David said, revealing a “secret” for pressing onward in any proper endeavor. “And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause?”(1 Samuel 17:29)
The noun “cause” as used her is “dabar.” which 807 times in the Old Testament is translated “word!”
Is there not a WORD … no doubt David meaning “a Word from the Lord?”
Yes folks, one Word of Scripture, one Line, one Verse, one Paragraph … can plot an individual’s very life course!
David had his Cause already in his young heart!
While these following words were spoken by David years later (as King) they were already percolating in his soul … “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.” (Psalm 27:4)
There’s David’s cause!
And he will fight anything or anybody who tries to squelch the good reputation of that great God, that dear Lord (as Goliath did)! See verse 43 of 1 Samuel 17 here … “And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.”
David’s life was built around the things of God. The Reputation of God, the “Beauty of the Lord!”
Wow!
Friend reading here today … do YOU have a Cause?
I believe I do, a “word” (“dabar”) from the Lord, from the Bible, God’s WORD!
“Be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” Quoting 1 Corinthians 15:58.
What’s your “word?”
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
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