I have been using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study for almost a year. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I started writing this blog because the only way I can get myself to read the Bible everyday is to pretend that I am teaching someone about what it says to me. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.
Here we have the story of Goliath. Goliath challenged the Israelite army. He called them servants of Saul and dared one of them to step forth and face him, a Philistine. The passage tells us that Saul and the Israelite army were shaken and terrified by Goliath and his taunts. I think this passage shows the failing of Saul’s political philosophy. As I discussed yesterday, Saul was constantly looking to do what bolstered his power and authority. He had not led his men to believe in and rely on God. He had led his men to believe in and rely on him.
The passage tells us that David went back and forth between tending his father’s sheep and the encampment. Why he made the other trips is unclear, but on one occasion he was sent by his father to bring supplies to his brothers who were serving in Saul’s army. On this occasion, he arrived just as the armies were drawing up to face each other. David rushed out to the battle lines to greet his brothers (and perhaps get a chance to join the battle?). As David was talking to his brothers, Goliath came forth and made his challenge. David overheard some members of the Israelite army discussing the reward that Saul had offered to the man who killed Goliath. David then asked some other men about the reward which Saul had offered. They told him the same thing. David’s oldest brother, Eliab, got angry with David. Since I am the youngest of six, I suspect that Eliab’s anger was partly justified and partly protective. Eliab thought that David was trying to stir someone up to go fight Goliath (I think that is likely) because he wanted to see a battle. But Eliab was also afraid of what might happen to his baby brother if battle broke out while David was there.
David continued to ask questions about the reward for fighting Goliath. When word was brought to Saul, Saul sent for David. When David appeared before Saul, he told Saul not to worry about Goliath, he, David, would go fight him. Saul told David that he would not have a chance against such an experienced warrior as Goliath. David responded that when a lion or bear went after the sheep he guarded, he would go after it and strike it and rescue the lamb it had taken. If it responded by attacking him, he would kill it. In David’s mind Goliath was no more than a lion or bear going after his sheep, if God would protect him from the lion and bear, than God would surely protect him from Goliath. I never noticed before, but this statement by David was a subtle dig at Saul. David went after the lions and bears which threatened the sheep he was responsible to guard, with no thought to his own safety. He relied on God to protect him from danger. He further said that he would rely on God to protect him when he went out after Goliath. Yet, Saul, who as king was the shepherd of the people of Israel, had himself failed to go after Goliath who was threatening those people.
Seeing that David was determined to go out after Goliath, Saul offered David his armor (or perhaps to dissuade him). David tried it on, but after just a moment in it he realized that he could not fight in Saul’s armor. So David went out to face Goliath with just a staff and a sling. When Goliath saw David coming toward him, he was contemptuous. David’s answer to Goliath’s contempt was not to make the claim that his peasant weapons were all he needed because he was such a great warrior. Rather David responded that while Goliath was bringing the full force of his might against David, David was fully relying on God as he came against Goliath. As Goliath moved in to attack David, David took his sling and struck Goliath down. When the Philistine army saw that Goliath had been defeated, their morale was completely broken and they fled in panic. Meanwhile the Israelite army was encouraged and pursued the Philistines, wreaking great destruction on them.
Jesus once more told the crowds that He was going away. The people would look for Him, but be unable to find Him and die in their sins. Where He was going, they could not follow. The people began to question whether He was talking about killing Himself. Jesus answered them by saying that they would die in their sins if they did not believe that “I am who I claim that I am.” By phrasing it in that manner Jesus was very definitely making a reference to the way in which God identified Himself to Moses at the burning bush.
When Jesus recognized that the people did not understand what He was saying, He told them that when He was lifted up, they would begin to understand. The word that the writer used for lifted up also means exalted. I believe that the writer was intentionally juxtaposing a veiled reference to Jesus’ crucifixion and to Jesus being glorified. This connection between suffering and glory is something we should bear in mind. Tribulations and suffering will come, we should not just bear up under them but embrace them as opportunities to glorify God (this is not a lesson I have mastered).
What a great psalm:
I will thank the Lord with all my heart
as I meet with His godly people.
That is a sentiment that I strive to live up to, thanking the Lord with all of my heart. Of course, when we meet with those who actively seek to serve God it will make us more desirous of praising God and thanking Him.
and all His commandments are trustworthy.
Something that I definitely believe is true. And of course towards the end this psalm has a phrase that I used for the title of the blog today. The starting place for wisdom is being afraid of being disrespectful of God. We should be afraid of doing that which will make God unhappy, not because of what He will do to us but because His unhappiness stems from the suffering we will experience from doing those things.
God can clearly see what is going on in the midst of death and destruction, how much more will He be able to see what is going on in the human heart?