The Heart-For-God Series: 1 Samuel 18-20

CLOSER THAN A BROTHER

 

“A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother,” (Prov. 18:24). 

            Have you known such a friend? One who sticks closer than a brother?

            I met a guy on my first day of college who became something like this for me. I walked into the dorm and found this tall, lanky, country boy dressed in blue rugby pants, matching blue shirt, dark blue socks with blue runners. I just started laughing at him. Here I was, dressed in button-down shirt with a shaker-knit sweater and dress pants, and he was laughing at me. We could not be more different in personality and style. As we mocked each other, a friendship was born. 

            Over the two years we were together at college, I discovered an intimacy I had never known with another person. I believe that our shared faith in Jesus was central, and we were brought together to learn from each other. In our second year, we were roommates, and we grew even closer. While studying for an OT exam, we laughed endlessly while making fun of the names we memorized. Oddly, we had the top marks on that exam. One night as we pondered our futures, what God had in store for us, we ended up praying for two hours. We laughed, we prayed, we were bound together. 

            After 33 years, the friendship suddenly ended. It was hard for me – still stings. I have often grieved the heartbreak of it, but never regretted the friendship. I am wary of intimacy now, but I know I have learned the depth of real friendship. 

            Friendship is a risk. You can get hurt. Nevertheless, you need to jump in and take a chance. Friendship is too important to miss for fear; isolation is a vice. A person is only known through friendship. 

            As we study the friendship of David and Jonathan in 1 Samuel 18-20, we will discover the depths of friendship. And we will see in their friendship the meaning of intimacy with Jesus, a friend who is closer than a brother.

Two Souls Knit Together

 

Fresh off his victory over Goliath, David was talking with King Saul, the head of Goliath still hanging from his hand. Something in that moment, we’re not sure what, caught Jonathan’s attention. It may have been David’s faith in God that arrested Jonathan as he heard David defy Goliath in the name of Yahweh (1 Sam. 17: 45-47). We don’t know. But the narrator tells us “The soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David…” (18:1b).

            That Hebrew word “knit” is a curious word for friendship. It means “to bind, knot, conspire, and league together.” Often it is used for conspirators which is misleading in this instance. Only once is the word translated as “knit” and that’s here. If not for the context, we might think that David and Jonathan were conspiring against Saul. But the context speaks of friendship between David and Jonathan, a deep intimacy that bound the two men together.

            I believe what bound them together was a shared love of God. Augustine in the 5^th century spoke of the grace of godly friendship where he took the beauty of human friendship and set it in the context of Christian friendship. It was here, he said, that we learn about grace. In his analysis, general human friendships paled in comparison to the friendships rooted in the grace of Christ. 

            It is this grace which knits together the souls of a farmer with a scholar, a plumber with a politician, a nurse with an insurance adjuster. Christ is the common denominator and our love for him and his person tamps down the differences. 

 

Loved as One’s Own Soul

 

Amid the madness of Saul, his insane jealousy and murderous intentions towards David, this little story of two men’s friendship is inserted. It may seem bizarre and not worth mentioning. Yet it captured my attention. 

            “…the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul,” (1bc). The Hebrew word for “love” is aheb. It’s a general word for love and it occurs 210 times in the OT. It is used of the love between Abraham and Isaac, God’s love for humans, even for a dish of food – it’s that general. In this narrative, it means friendship love. It’s thrown around a lot. Saul loves David, Saul’s servants love David, Saul’s daughter loves David, the army loves David – you get the idea – it’s pretty broad.

            But then in verse 3 we get a new word, ahaba. “Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul,” (3). It’s not new really, but a variation of aheb. What’s different is that it has a stronger emphasis. It is a love that leads to a formal declaration of relationship. Sounds pretty serious.

            Anna-Marie Ellithorpe (Vancouver School of Theology), speaks of friendship as the “school of love.” Love, she says, is a core element of friendship; friendship is the outworking of love. It’s where we learn what love is and provides a motivation for loving others. I would add, I am a better spouse because I was trained for love by my friendships. 

            All forms of love are connected to our love for God. Love and friendship are profoundly related. The way we love each other is only a faint echo of God’s love, but it’s not optional. The Bible teaches us love is commanded: Love for God and love for one another. We are to love as we have been loved; we are to befriend, as we have been befriended. Loving and befriending are a response to God’s grace. It is a natural outflow of a way of life immersed in and empowered by the Holy Spirit. 

            Church is the outworking of friendship in community. We are a community of friends. If we see church any other way, we miss Christ’s design for community. When friendships fail in the world out there, it is here that the vision of friendship ought to be restored. If it’s not, we’ve lost sight of God’s vision for the church.

The Covenant of Friendship

 

As readers of David’s story, we are privy to the scene where David is anointed as the replacement for King Saul (1 Sam. 16:13). It seems that Jonathan knew this, or was perceptive enough to see that David was going to be the next king. Jonathan could have been threatened by this realization, but he wasn’t. He does something remarkable instead.

            “Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt,”(3-4). Jonathan loved David so much that he was willing to give up his rights to the throne. Taking off his outer robe symbolized his abdication from that role as prince. We see authority in the cloak in the OT with Joseph’s coat or when Elijah placed his coat on Elisha. (Here, J is willing to take 2^nd place).

            In an old Akkadian document, a 13^th century king divorced his wife. His son had to choose which parent to live with. If he chose his mother, he had to give up hopes of being king. If he chose his mother, he would indicate this symbolically by leaving his clothes on the throne. This seems to be what Jonathan does in giving David these gifts. 

            The covenant of friendship in our time, between us, though less formal, is all about putting your friend first, ahead of yourself. We want the best for our friends. We want our friends to know God, so we show them how God loves. The care we show is mutual. We bear each other’s burdens.

            Imagine a herd of deer fording a stream. One will go first to break the force of the water for the sake of the others, but when he becomes tired, he will go to the rear of the herd so he can benefit from the protection of others. 

            True friendship lives by this covenant. It is enjoyed in good times; forged in hard times. They are tested and found true and valued. Praying for each other, sacrificing and sympathizing for each other define Christian friendship.

Were they more than friends?

 

Here’s the tragedy. The LGBTQ agenda has made us paranoid of intimacy. David and Jonathan loved each other intimately, so they must have been “in love.” In responding to this popular perception, I want to clarify aspects of their friendship from an OT perspective and reinforce our need for friendships.

            First, the LGBTQ read into the story and find champions for their cause. They say there is no evidence against it. The absence of smoke proves that the fire is very carefully hidden. They claim that later translations glossed over the narrative to hide the evidence. But CS Lewis responded that it’s like arguing if there’s an invisible cat in a chair, the chair would look empty; but the chair does look empty, therefore there’s an invisible cat in it. Duh!

            Second, the language of affection may strike us odd. But it was more common in the OT to say that two men could be bound together, that they delight in each other. We read that Jacob’s life was bound up in his son Benjamin (Gen. 44:30-31). That just means Benjamin was dear to him. Have we not had friends who are so dear to us it pains us to be apart?

            Third, David and Jonathan kiss each other. What’s that about? 1 Sam. 20:41tells us how the two men set up a signal to indicate if David was in danger. Turns out he was, and this grieved the two men because it meant that David had to flee, and they didn’t know when they would see each other again. They weren’t gay, they were full of sorrow and could express their hearts in no other way than kissing. This was not uncommon in the ANE society. It’s just not American to do so.

            Finally, David’s comment when Jonathan was killed has been suspect. He said, “Jonathan: very pleasant have you been to me; your love to me was extraordinary, surpassing the love of women,” (2 Sam. 1:26). The simple response to the insinuation of anything more than a bromance is this: David had never experienced the loyalty and selflessness in his romances with women that he had with Jonathan. 

What David and Jonathan Teach Us About Jesus

 

In his book The Four Loves, CS Lewis writes a chapter on friendship where he reflects on why we, in contrast to pre-modern people value friendship so little. He asks, “How has this come about? The first and most obvious answer is that few value it because few experience it.”  

            I see the intimate friendship of David and Jonathan as a foreshadow of our friendship with Jesus. He is the friend who sticks closer than a brother. Jesus is more than the means of our salvation; he is more than the way of forgiveness or a second chance; Jesus is our friend.

            In the Gospel accounts we see Jesus as the friend of sinners. He sits with them, eats with them, laughs with them, restores them to God. Jesus himself teaches this when he said to the disciples: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. YOU ARE MY FRIENDS if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you,” (John 15:13-15).

            If we paraphrase the church fathers, we could say, “the Son became our friend so that we could become friends of God.” God exists in friendship, creates out of friendship, and invites us into friendship (everlasting friendship). We learn friendship from Jesus who is knitting himself to our souls as we follow him. John Perkins said, “Friendship is discipleship in action.” 

            When Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan, he was telling his audience what it meant to be a friend (Luke 10). The Samaritan did nothing other than treat the wounded stranger on the road as a friend. He was a good friend. Jesus saw us on the road, wounded and abandoned, and reached out in friendship. 

            Friendship may not need to be so dramatic as the Good Samaritan story, it may be as simple as opening your life to another, to share life, to share the small victories, to pray over your defeats and trials. Friendship is the place where we practice grace, extend forgiveness, share the load of life. 

            It is so lonely an existence not to have friends. Maybe you have been burnt by friends in the past. Maybe you are reluctant to let someone in again lest they hurt you, abandon you, forget you. Maybe we are looking at friendship all wrong – perhaps, as we see in David and Jonathan, more so in Jesus, it is about pouring into others. 

            If you are alone and need a friend, begin with Jesus. He is a friend who is deeply knit to our souls.

            David Crowder and Dante Bowe have a song that has been rolling around in my head all week as I thought about this sermon. The beginning goes like this…

 

I've got a friend

Closer than a brother

There is no judgement

Oh, how He loves me

I've got a friend

And He is my strength

He is my portion

With me in the valley

With me in the fire

With me in the storm

Let all my life testify

Hallelujah

We are not alone

God really loves us

God really loves us

Hallelujah

Oh, praise my soul

God really loves us

God really loves us.                            AMEN

Recognizing Christ - A Guest Submission from Andreas Rosenwink

Worship Service at Bammental Mennonite Church

Bammental, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany

June 16, 2024

Sermon: Andreas Rosenwink

 

Translated from German

 

I have brought us a Bible text, personal words, written in a time of need. From Paul, who is in prison, to a beloved community of brothers and sisters, the church in Philippi. These are people who are for the most part familiar to Paul and close to his heart.

 

Paul is deprived of his freedom. He has been given over into the hands of powerful people who will decide whether he lives or dies. 

 

When we see Paul in front of us like this, we can also think of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his cell in Berlin. How does someone who is in prison feel…? 

 

How is Paul’s heart? At first glance, he seems very composed and unbroken. He writes encouraging letters, he wants to build up his brothers and sisters and strengthen their faith, correct false teachings. Even in prison, he lives out what he is: an apostle to the fullest…and yet certainly also fully human. 

 

We know from Bonhoeffer how he also encouraged his fellow prisoners. But we also know about his inner struggles (as is so clear in the poem “Who am I,” for example). Emotional roller coaster ride: joy and comfort in God and suffering – very close together. Hope of release and fear of a death sentence – side by side.

 

Paul writes (from Philippians 3:1): Rejoice in the Lord! My brothers and sisters. Become steadfast. It is very important to him that the Philippians find their footing in the true God – and do not become legalistic, as some false teachers preached.

 

Paul lists how he himself was legalistic and grew up impeccably in the law and was trained and educated. You could say he was a straight-A student. And now as an old man? “Whatever used to be so important to me, in Christ it’s all worth nothing. It is to me like dirt that I shake off.” Now Christ is my greatest gain.

 

And Paul writes (our sentence for today) Philippians 3:10: I will know Christ, the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings…

 

This is the sentence of an experienced old man who knows and experiences joy and suffering side by side. I want to recognize Christ, the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering…This is a sentence that is always very important to me in caring for my own soul and in conversations with people – and it does me good. I would like to take a closer look at it today!

 

I have brought a sheet of paper with me. Two pages side by side. On the left, I have written down the issues, the heavy burdens I am currently carrying around with me. At the moment there are a lot of heavy things inside of me (11 topics). [He goes on to explain the heaviest burden in his life, but this was deleted from the manuscript as being too personal for this blog].

 

The second thing: the wars, especially in the Ukraine and Gaza…I find them very hard to bear…and also very threatening…when I think about them. I find it very difficult…here. Sometimes I could cry.

 

The third concern for the health of a loved one…And then there are other issues… (worries about a health concern, and about sick people in our community…our world, which continues to get warmer, etc.)

 

I think each and every one of us could fill a page like this with topics, burdens of heaviness that we carry with us and that also weigh on our well-being. We are hardly carefree these days, are we?

 

And yet there is also a second side – thank God – happy is he who still has a second side: On the right is lightness or a beam of light. I have written down 10 things that my life brighter and lighter. 

 

The older I get, the clearer it seems to me that my heart has room for suffering and joy side by side. I want to recognize Christ – the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering.

 

Which side predominates in your attitude toward life right now? 

I think that in many people the heaviness prevails. What do you think? 

 

We are designed in such a way that unpleasant feelings – feelings of worry and fear = are much more persistent and last longer than pleasant feelings.

 

The experiences on the left=hand paper usually remain physically tangible for a long time, right-hand experiences only for a short time. 

 

BUT: This is the good news and the invitation. With a little practice, right-hand experiences become more powerful, more significant. 

 

This is a wisdom that has been researched in psychology: by practicing gratitude and attentively enjoying the beautiful and easy things for longer, our mood and attitude to life slowly change. We can practice consciously focusing our attention on the things on the right side. 

 

Sometimes we need a nudge to consciously perceive the beautiful things that God gives us. Paul nudges and writes, “Rejoice! Exclamation marks!” Notice when things get easier, when something brings a smile to your lips and enjoy it (for at least 12 seconds, according to psychology), then it has an effect on how your body feels. 

 

We also know from resilience research that it helps to consciously focus on the resources you have in difficult times. In prison, Paul reflects on Christ in us: I want to recognize Christ and the power of his resurrection. 

 

Let’s do that right now:

Each and every one of us has had experiences in our lives in which we have felt hope. Perhaps hope that suffering will resolve, hope that God will bring everything to an end, hope that violence and death will not have the last word, hope that love will triumph, that true life is just beginning…

 

Now the task: Imagine you have a gallery of hope, a free, blank wall on which you can hang your personal picture of hope – beautifully placed in a frame.

Which image of hope/ or, if there are several, which images of hope do you have within you? Such a picture of hope can be a memory, a moment when you experienced hope, or a symbol that clearly shows hope for you.

 

We will now take three minutes in silence to think about this. Which picture would you hang up in your personal hope gallery? What image comes to mind when you think of your hope?

 

Now we will turn to one another in pairs. Describe your picture, what it looks like. (DK: I don’t remember doing this). And listen to how the other person describes his or her picture. (We just listen to each other – no commenting on what the other person says)

 

I have two images in my mind:

I see fresh, young blades of grass with morning dewdrops in the light of the sun rising on Easter morning (I saw a picture like this here in Bammental)

 

Everything will be fine. There will be a might Easter morning. After the last night comes the new morning. In peace, then all suffering is over…

 

The second is very recent: I am standing with about 50 people at the Bammental town hall square. It is the commemoration of the 2^nd anniversary of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. The group is silent, but in the Protestant church diagonally opposite, the funeral bell rings for several minutes, followed by the peace bell. The sound is very loud and echoes even beyond the village.

 

In remembrance and silence, I became very sad…but then the thought came, like a ray of hope…One day the bells of peace, the bells of joy will ring, because the war is over, because all wars are over – and the Prince of Peace is coming…

 

So, now we have spent time on the right side. Perhaps you fell that things have become a little lighter inside you?

 

Finally, we come back to our verse:

I want to recognize Christ…

 

The Hebrew word “recognizing,” which is almost certainly behind the Greek word, is the beautiful word: yada…this is not cognitive recognition, such as: Oh yes, that’s a beech tree, that’s a birch tree. Not a distanced recognition between subject and object, but a deep, tangible recognition – like when you see your good friend at a crowded train station. There is a bond, a connection between me and you – at eye level. 

 

This is how intimately I want to recognize Christ, the Risen One, in the small joys of everyday life, connected in shared suffering – in suffering together. 

 

Christ, you are there. Please open our eyes to your loving presence. Give us the grace to feel again and again how you comfort us and give us hope. You – in our hearts, in my heart, very close in the midst of the heaviness and light.

 

Amen

 

Transcribed from a sermon Sharon and I heard while travelling in Europe. We were guests at the Bammental Mennonite church in Germany and felt a kinship with the people there as we sang familiar songs (albeit in German) and shared Christ. This sermon is shared with permission from Andreas Rosenwink. 

The Heart-For-God Series: 1 Samuel 17:1-58

LESSONS FROM A GIANT STORY

 

A Bible teacher I like to read wrote, “When I come to the story of David and Goliath, I feel like a comedian who has been asked to speak at a convention for comedians. As I step up to the podium, a list of the ten most well-known, over-used jokes known to man is handed to me – with instructions to tell the jokes in a way that makes the audience laugh,” (Bob Deffinbaugh).

            Indeed, to preach about Jonah and the Fish or Daniel in the Lion’s Den has the same feel. We all come to these familiar stories with the perception that we know the story and we know the lessons. It’s tempting to zone out when the preacher rehearses the details of Goliath’s size and armor, “Here we go again!” 

            The David and Goliath episode has been called the quintessential underdog story. Everybody knows it; popular culture uses it to refer to the little guy beating the bully, to the mom-and-pop store taking on the big corporation, and so on. It’s a classic story that captures the imagination, that when the odds are against you, you just might win anyways. All you have to do is believe in yourself. Right? Well…no!

            I don’t want to unpack all the details of the story and press applications into things like the weight of Goliath’s armor. In my biblical studies, I have discovered that when a biblical writer spends this much time on a story (58 verses), the reader must know the implications of the story are greater than the story’s simple telling. From this pivotal event moving forward, David is the central figure of Israel’s story. His rise to the throne of Israel is more than a story. 

            What I do want to do with this epic tale is ask this question: What is God saying to us? What are the lessons we may have missed in the forest of familiar details? I will not pretend to have them exactly right, but perhaps my observations will help you to consider looking at David and Goliath with fresh eyes and perceive what the Lord is saying to you.

David vs. Goliath: It Only Looked Hopeless

 

What we see with our eyes informs our brains. “Seeing is believing,” it is often said. Yet our brains must interpret what we see. The Bible teaches that even seeing eyes can be blinded to the truth before them.

            If we saw what the army of Israel saw, we would interpret the situation much the same as they did. Look at the Philistine champion (1 Sam. 17:4-7). 

 

“And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. And he had bronze armor on his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron…” 

 

Goliath was over 9 feet tall. My thinking would be, “Are all Philistines this big?” The same thought may have gone through the 5’ 3” Canadian who captured Jakob Nacken, a German soldier standing 7’ 3” tall. One might think that the Germans were a superior race. 

            It is no wonder that Israel shuddered at the sight of Goliath. He challenged Israel to send out a man who could fight him. I imagine a deep, booming Schwarzenegger voice. When Saul and his men heard this challenge, “they were dismayed and greatly afraid,” (11b). Israel was paralyzed with fear at what they saw and heard. For forty days this “giant” peppered them with taunts. 

            We know that David steps into this situation and expressed no fear at what he saw. Why not? In the previous episode (ch.16), God informs Samuel that he does not see the way that men see, he looks at the heart (7). Then when Samuel anoints David as the next king of Israel, “the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward…”(13). The implication is that with the indwelling Spirit of God, David saw things the way God did. David did not see an unbeatable giant; he saw an opportunity for God to be glorified. 

            What do we see in our own lives? A hopeless situation? When Elisha and his servant were cornered in a city by the king of Syria’s soldiers, the servant was afraid at what he saw. Elisha prayed for the servant’s eyes to be opened. “So, the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw…the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha,” (2 Kgs. 6:17). Like David, the follower of Jesus is filled with the Spirit who gives us eyes to see, not problems or obstacles, but opportunities. 

            The Message has an interesting take on Matthew 6:22-23. It reads, “Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a musty cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!” 

The lesson: do not let your eyes deceive you, but let the Holy Spirit fill you with hope and wonder at what God can do.

 

Courage From an Unlikely Source

 

But here’s a giant – let’s call him an influencer – spouting all kinds of vile and ungodly things at you. Two results may occur. One: you may feel cowed by the negativity and blasphemy. God is being maligned, but what do you say? How do you defend your faith? Your God? Jesus? So, you are silenced.

            Two: You have had enough of this anti-Christian message, and you speak out. You get angry! You debate or scold the person who wants to stifle your faith. It’s time someone spoke up. Maybe!

            What does David do? When David hears Goliath’s challenge, he too is incensed by the Philistine’s defiance of Israel’s God and offers to fight the giant. Goliath defied the armies of Israel (17:10), but David heard this as nothing less than defying the armies of the living God (26). 

            Yes, David was going to fight Goliath. That’s not the lesson though. David gains courage from the knowledge that God will not tolerate humans mocking him. Galatians 6:7 warns that God is not mocked. The battle is over before it begins because Goliath has poked the wrong bear. God’s plans will not be thwarted by the irreverent words and actions of a self-important blowhard. And David knows that God will dismantle this arrogant man. 

The lesson: God is not mocked. And even though our world seems anti-God, God keeps working out his plans. They can’t stop him. 

            As believers, we don’t need to be offended by people who mock God. The Olympic opening ceremonies stirred outrage among Christians for its seeming mockery of the Last Supper (it was actually the Feast of Dionysus). But we don’t need to defend God’s honor. We can take courage and move ahead with our work for God knowing that he will act for his own honor.

 

The Faith that Saves Us

 

David did have a plan as he went to face Goliath. It sounds ridiculous going up against a heavily armed professional soldier with nothing but a sling. In truth, it wasn’t as mismatched as our modern minds think it was. 

            Ancient historians wrote about the deadly accuracy of slingers. A Greek historian names Thucydides described how an Athenian army was decimated by slingers in the mountains. Even in the Bible, slingers are mentioned in Judges 20:16 as capable of slinging a stone at a hair and not missing. 

            What if David did miss? Whether David was the best slinger in Israel or not misses the point of the story. What David SAID to Goliath matters more, (see 17:45-47 emphasizing “the LORD” and “the battle is the LORD’s”).

 

Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand.”

 

            The narrator emphasized David’s faith in God and that the victory over Goliath is God’s victory. Thus, the lesson: our victories are not of ourselves but are due to the one in whom we put our faith. Israel’s story is filled with attempts to succeed by relying on their own efforts. But in the battles of life, we will fail if we depend on our own devices. David’s battle with Goliath reminds us of the key to victory in every realm of life: “’Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty,” (Zech. 4:6). This too is a reminder of Jesus’ teaching in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” 

            You may take what Stanley said last week as hyperbole or literally about praying before building a shed. I think he made a good point that we need to include the Lord in all that we do. Pray before building a shed? Pray before fixing your car? Why not? 

            The gospel of Jesus Christ reminds us that we cannot make it on our own, but that Jesus has provided all we need. Jesus said that faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains (Mt. 17:20). This is the kind of faith that saves, the kind that trusts in the mighty Spirit of the Lord for victory.

 

How David Points Us to Jesus

 

Did you know that David was a messiah? David was a type of Christ. Both “messiah” and “Christ” mean the same thing, a person anointed by God for a special task. In this story of “David and Goliath,” David functions as a type of the future anointed one, Jesus, who will also save Israel in an unexpected way. 

            David was a flawed character and if I wanted to, I could pick apart his sins in this narrative alone. But what an encouragement that God works through flawed people. We are all flawed. We are all complex in our thinking and in our actions. Our best attempts at serving God are mixed with selfish motives and not-so-godly intentions. None of us has arrived, or as Paul put it, “not that I have already attained this or am already perfect…” Yet, in Jesus’ death and resurrection, our sin is not counted against us and God works through us to establish his kingdom. 

            David points us to Jesus then. For my own closer walk with God, I see these three lessons as important reminders…

I need to see life’s challenges through the eyes of the Spirit. When I am faced with problems or challenges, I tend to see them with human eyes, like Israel, and make giants out of them. 

            Paul’s prayer is my prayer in this respect. He prayed “…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you…” (Eph. 1:17-18).  With the help of the Holy Spirit, I want to see giants as mere opportunities to witness the work of God before me. 

Secondly, I need to take courage from the moments and events in life that seem to oppose my God. David knew that Goliath was on thin ice by attacking God’s purposes. He didn’t react with fear or anger, but with confidence that God would honor his own name. There are definitely times to stand up for Jesus and proclaim his love. Politics and social figures who oppose the truth of Jesus Christ will not stand long. We don’t need to fear, but like Paul, “We destroy arguments, and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take captive every thought to obey Christ…” (2 Cor. 10:5). 

Finally, I need to believe in the God who saves his people. Can you believe in a God who saves by slings against swords? Even more, can you believe in a God who saves by the cross of Christ against the power of Satan and sin? Jesus saves by the weakest and most foolish means possible…glory to God!

            “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them by the cross,” (Col. 2:13-15).        

                                                            AMEN