OVERCOMING ADVERSITY

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Socoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Socoh and Azekah. Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them.

A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall. He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him.

Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us." Then the Philistine said, "This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other." On hearing the Philistine's words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.

Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul's time he was old and well advanced in years. Jesse's three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war: The firstborn was Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third, Shammah. David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul, but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father's sheep at Bethlehem.

For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand.

Now Jesse said to his son David, "Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them. They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines."

Early in the morning David left the flock with a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and greeted his brothers. As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear.

Now the Israelites had been saying, "Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his father's family from taxes in Israel."

David asked the men standing near him, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?"

They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, "This is what will be done for the man who kills him."

When Eliab, David's oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, "Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle."

"Now what have I done?" said David. "Can't I even speak?" He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him.

David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him."

Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."

But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and the Lord be with you."

Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. "I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." So he took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.

Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him. He said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. "Come here," he said, "and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!"

David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands."

As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him. David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine's sword and drew it from the scabbard. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword.
When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran. Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath and to the gates of Ekron. Their dead were strewn along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron.

When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp. David took the Philistine's head and brought it to Jerusalem, and he put the Philistine's weapons in his own tent.

As Saul watched David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, commander of the army, "Abner, whose son is that young man?" Abner replied, "As surely as you live, O king, I don't know." The king said, "Find out whose son this young man is." As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine's head. "Whose son are you, young man?" Saul asked him. David said, "I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem."

1 Samuel 17

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever come up against opposition in your life…someone or something that seemed to be insurmountable…someone or something that always seemed to oppress you and keep you down? Maybe, you have even found yourself frightened at the very thought of having to face someone or deal with a particular situation.

I think we all have faced or are currently facing times like this. So what do we do in the face of our adversity?

In this scripture passage from 1st Samuel, chapter 17, God’s word gives us all the guidance we need to deal with the challenging people or circumstances in life. For we will see how a young boy named David defied the odds and found his way to victory…all because he chose in faith to be armed with God against his enemy.

The chapter starts off with a battle brewing between the Philistines and the Israelites. Once assembling their armies and setting up camp, we read where the “Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them”. On the surface, it appeared that the battlefield was balanced and victory would come to the army who fought harder. But the Philistines had something that Israel didn’t have…”a champion named Goliath”.

So what made Goliath so different from any other fighter?

He was a giant, standing “over nine feet tall”. As he stepped out to challenge the Israelites, he must have been a terrifying sight with the “bronze helmet on his head” and a “coat of scale armor of bronze” as well as “bronze greaves” on his body. Just bearing the weight of all this armor was a testament to the massive strength of the Philistine warrior who also carried a “bronze javelin…on his back”.

So as Israel looked at this giant of a man dressed for battle before them, Goliath shouted a proposition to them. All Israel had to do was “choose a man and have him come down” to Goliath for a fight. If the chosen Israelite were “able to fight and kill” Goliath, then all the Philistines would become subjects of Israel. But…if Goliath were to win, then the Israelites would become subjects of the Philistines and serve them. The proposal seemed simple enough and would avert an all out war. But the odds seemed very stacked in the favor of the Philistines and Goliath knew it. His challenge was made out of arrogance as he didn’t believe that Israel had anyone who could defeat him.

Question: Isn’t this same kind of arrogance that drives some people today to mistreat others? Like Goliath, they have a bully kind of mentality and feel like they are so much more superior to others that they can taunt them and nothing will come of it.

Well, Goliath is soon to discover that the arrogant confidence he had in his strength and might would be no match for the One who is infinitely more powerful than anyone or anything in all creation.

Back to the scriptures…where we see that “Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified” after Goliath’s challenge…a challenge that would be repeated for the next forty days. How was Israel going to handle the matter? How were they going to overcome such an obstinate adversary?

Note one important omission by Israel. They never asked God what they should do. But yet, as we will see, God had a plan…and that plan would play out in a way that only could be of God.

For we read again about the anointed son of Jesse…the youngest son…the shepherd boy David…who had been chosen by God to become the new king of Israel. And he will be chosen again in this instance to go up against the mighty Goliath.

David wasn’t the only one of Jesse’s sons involved, for his “three oldest sons (Eliab, Abinadab and Shammah) had followed Saul to the war” while David “went back and forth from Saul to tend his father's sheep at Bethlehem”. On one of his trips to Saul, Jesse told David to, “Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them. They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines." And so after leaving the “flock with a shepherd”, David loaded up and set out in the morning, reaching the “camp as the army was going out to its battle positions” and “shouting the war cry”.

We read where “Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other” when “David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines” to greet his brothers. And just as he did, out stepped Goliath who “shouted his usual defiance”. David, hearing this for the first time, watched the Israelites run in great fear at just the sight of the behemoth warrior and as he withdrew with them, he asked the men standing near him, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?"

So the Israelites told David what benefits they thought would come upon any Israelite who could defeat the Philistine giant to include great wealth, the king’s daughter in marriage and a tax exemption for his father's family.

Now, Eliab, David's oldest brother, “heard him speaking with the men” and was very unhappy about it. Perhaps, it was a bit of brotherly jealousy since he, the eldest son, was not selected by God to rule Israel. Whatever the reason, we read where Eliab “burned with anger” at David and asked, "Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the desert? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle." David doesn’t back down from his brother’s attack as he replies, “Now what have I done?…Can't I even speak?" David’s bold attitude got the attention of Saul’s men who told Saul about it. In turn, Saul summoned David to him.

Once with the rejected king, David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him." Imagine you are Saul in this situation. A young shepherd boy is before you and wants to go out on the battlefield and single-handedly fight Goliath. How would you respond?

Well, I think we would respond just as Saul did. For he told David, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth." But David was confident before Saul and replied boldly saying, “Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." And with those words, Saul was convinced that David could meet the challenge as he told him, “Go, and the Lord be with you."

So what was the difference maker in David’s attitude and words? It wasn’t the fact that he had killed both lion and bear when they tried to attack the flock. It was because the Lord had been with him and delivered him from potential danger. And David was sure the Lord would do it again if he faced off against Goliath.

Friends, we need to go forth boldly in our own lives as David did. For the Lord is always with us and ready to deliver us from whatever adverse circumstance we might come under. We need only seek Him, have faith in Him and allow for His will to be done.

As we go back to Chapter 17, we see Saul trying to dress David for battle using his tunic, a coat of armor and a bronze helmet. Try and picture a young boy trying to wear adult armor and you can see where things just wouldn’t fit too well. David tried to walk around in the armor but quickly discarded it because he was not used to it. So instead, he went without armor, taking his “staff in his hand” and choosing “five smooth stones from the stream” which he placed “in the pouch of his shepherd's bag”. And with this, David took “his sling in…hand” and “approached the Philistine”.

Now, imagine you’re Goliath. You have mocked and challenged the Israelites forty days…and each day ended the same, with no man coming forward to fight. But this day would be different. For from the ranks of Israel comes a young boy who is wearing no armor and carrying no shield. How would you feel at that point? Well, if I were Goliath, I would be liking my chances of victory.

Scripture tells us that as David came forward, Goliath despised him, cursed him by his gods and said arrogantly, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?…Come here and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!"

I’m pretty sure Goliath thought his words would intimidate David and cause him to flee like the other Israelites. But Goliath wasn’t dealing with any ordinary Israelite.

For David gave Goliath the following reply:

“You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands."

David could speak boldly and with great confidence, not because he had any physical prowess like Goliath, but rather because He had the power and might of the Lord on his side…a Lord who could and would deliver victory to David in reward for his faithfulness.

And so the showdown was set. David versus Goliath. The boy against the giant.

Goliath made the first move as he drew “closer to attack” David but David moved quickly “toward the battle line to meet him”. As he did, David reached “into his bag” and took “out a stone” which he “slung…and struck the Philistine on the forehead”. The stone struck the Philistine giant with such force that it “sank into his forehead” and caused Goliath to fall dead “facedown on the ground”. In what had to be shocking to everyone who saw it, “David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone…without a sword in his hand”. And to complete what he said he would do, David “took hold of the Philistine's sword and drew it from the scabbard”, using it to “cut off (Goliath’s) head”.

The Philistines had to be in shock as they “saw that their hero was dead”. We read where they “turned and ran” while “the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath and to the gates of Ekron”. Then the Israelites plundered the Philistine camp while David took the Philistine's head to Jerusalem and put “the Philistine's weapons in his own tent”.

David had gained victory…not so much by his own doing but by the Lord’s. He had beaten the odds and defied those who doubted his chances against Goliath.

But that’s why we cherish, worship and praise our Lord so very much. Because He is the One who helps us in times of need…He’s the One who is our strength when we need empowered to gain victory for Him…and He is the One who delivers us from our adversity, now and forever.

Question: Are you up against adversity today?

If so, why not follow the lead of David and allow the Lord to help you through your circumstances. He will help you find victory over the Goliaths of your life. All you need to do is call on Him and place your trust in Him completely. He stands ready to help…and ready to save. Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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