I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 16-17.

If you read today’s passage as a single narrative told in chronological order (which is how we would do this today) there seems to be a contradiction about David’s introduction to King Saul’s court.  However, if you read these thinking of chapter 16 as an account about David from one person and chapter 17 as an account from another person.  The first person is telling about how David was anointed by Samuel and entered into King Saul’s court.  The second person is telling about how David defeated Goliath and thus became a warrior in King Saul’s army.

Each of these stories contain a valuable lesson for us.  In the account of Samuel anointing David when Samuel first saw David’s oldest brother Eliab, he thought him the very image of what a king should be, much as Saul had been the very image of what a king should be.  Eliab almost certainly had the command presence that many oldest sons have.  He expected people to do as he said, and as a result they usually did.  But God looks for more than that, and after King Saul Israel needed more than that.  In the second story we see what God saw in David.  In David’s confrontation with Goliath, Goliath began by trying to intimidate David.  Goliath was arrogant and sure of himself.  David was confident and sure of God.  In his reply to Goliath, David says, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies…” which is a precursor to what the prophet Zechariah says in Zechariah 4:6, “Not by force, nor by strength, buy by My Spirit says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”  David recognized two important truths.  First, Goliath was defying God, not merely David.  Second, David knew he would not defeat Goliath by his own strength or skill.  Let us also face our enemies in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, and trust Him to defeat them.