“But David went and returned from Saul to feed his father’s sheep in Beth-lehem.”                                                                                                                                         (1 Samuel 17)

 

In a culture that is in desperate need of role models with godliness of character, integrity, faith, dignity and grace one needs to look any farther than King David.  The Life of David is what movies are made of.  David had his mountain tops and his valleys to be sure.  Scripture does not hide any of David’s faults, SIN or sins.  However, the general tenor of this man’s life was a life of faithfulness to God.  Even in David’s down times, he was in love with God.  This is something every Christ-ian needs to understand, in our down times, in times of weakness, and even in times of backsliding we belong to God and God belongs to us. Even when a Christ-ian has that which can be compared to a child’s temper tantrum, it is God’s child having a temper tantrum.  Even in times when a      Christ-ian is angry at God or is in fear of God, it is an anger or fear in faith…in Christ.

David shows us his character by the way he handles his responsibilities.  David was called to play the harp with King Saul as his only audience. David knows he is to be king at some point for God sent Samuel to anoint him king as God had rejected Saul and God’s Spirit departed from Saul’s side. However, in verse fifteen (15) we see David leaving his position near royalty to “feed his father’s sheep in Beth-lehem.”  Many a man would consider the sheep to be something small and dismissed and unimportant when compared to a spot at the kings side. This is not so with David. David, like Moses left the “good life” to be alone in a field, in a wilderness, if you will, with God.

Next we see David taking foods to his brothers as his father directed him. A good leader must first know how to follow. In verse twenty (20) we see David “[rising] up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper…”  David rises up early to the day the LORD has made. We are certain David was glad in it and David was sure to rejoice in it as well. Reader, please note David’s care and concern over the sheep.  He left the sheep with a trusted keeper.  David learned his responsibilities as king in the field with his father’s sheep.  He that is faithful in the small things will be faithful in the big things.  He that is faithful in big things, was certainly faithful in the little things.

In verse twenty-two (22) we again see David’s care and character. “And David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage, and ran into the army, and came and saluted his brethren.”  David is again proving himself to be a man of great care and is conscious of his responsibilities in the little things.  Reader, it is always, always in the little things that great things are found.  Sherlock Holmes says, Big inferences come from little trifles. And it is true.

Look at David Again.  We see David caring for that which other’s might see as insignificant, “Eliab [David’s] eldest brother…said, Why camest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness?”  David has arrived with food for his brothers and he hears the challenge of the giant from Gath called Goliath.

He hears the challenge and sees the challenge go unanswered. David, with his God-given warrior spirit, will have none of this!!!  He understands not why no one has answered the challenge of the giant. This is when his eldest brother reproaches him, “I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart…”  In truth Eliab knew nothing at all.  Herein we see the first shall be last and the last shall be first.

Everything and everyone is against David at this point. His brothers think him prideful and naughty. AND THEN when David answers the giant’s challenge everything go haywire. David is brought before Saul, the God-rejected, yet refreshed king. Saul tries to talk David out of this futile gesture, but David knows David and David knows God and God knows David and everyone else knows nothing. Saul then offers his armour to David.  Reader, most commentators miss this…Do you know why Israel chose Saul to be their king?

He was head and shoulders above everyone else. Foolish man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks upon the heart. So when Saul offered his armour to David, can you imagine the size difference?  Saul big and very tall, David “was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to…”  Saul’s armour would engulf young David. Methinks Saul was having fun with David.  Saul a very big and very tall man should have been the one to fight Goliath but as the Spirit of the LORD left him so did his confidence and his faith. David’s son, Solomon would later teach us that there is strong confidence in the fear of the LORD. King Saul stands as the example of apostacy.

Instead of engaging the giant Goliath, King Saul saw fit to make fun of the one man that had what was needed to destroy the giant Goliath. After all the apostate king had done, there he sits mocking God’s chosen man, This may be where Psalms number one (1) is born in David’s mind,   “…nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” The God-blessed man does not sit in the seat of the scornful. Therefore, Saul is no God-blessed man. Nevertheless, David was tactful and composed in that setting, he respectfully declined the offer of Saul’s armour. When Saul was foolish and silly, David, a man after God’s own heart, was serious and steady. This scene reminds us of the Clown king Herod wanting Christ, our Lord to do magic tricks during the illegal trials of God’s Only Begotten Son.

[Sidenote: We speak of perspective being a useful help.  Was it our Lord on trial or was the entire political, legal, and religious sects on trial before the Righteous Judge?]

We know how this recorded event ends; it ends with Faithful David killing the giant Goliath. David was faithful in killing a lion and a bear, little things,  and thereffore we should expect David to be faithful in his killing of the giant from Gath, a big thing.

Herein this article is a man who could stand as a role model for the boys and the men of this country.  Of course we are predestinated to be Christ-like but in the mean time, could we be  David-like?