Wednesday, October 01, 2008

I Samuel 17 (addendum)

I realized that I didn’t really put enough thought into the Thoughts section of the last post. It was a crazy day, and I let myself submit the post before I should have. So I’ll present some further thoughts on the passage here—even though they’ll probably amount to very obvious points.

The main thing to point out in this passage is David’s faith in God. It’s tempting to hear the story of David and Goliath and think of it as a story of David’s ingenuity. Instead of going with heavy, slow-moving swords and armour, that he thought on his feet, and made himself nimble. But that’s not what happened—and it’s not what David claimed happened, either. David never trusted in his own strength, or his own ingenuity, he trusted in God. He knew that God would win the battle for him. Even when he was talking to Saul, ahead of the battle, and mentioning the bears and lions that he’d killed, in verses 34–37, he still gave the credit to the LORD. Similarly, when David was talking with Goliath, he was confident, but confident in the LORD, not in his own strength.

And this is why the Bible keeps referring to David as a man after God’s own heart. This is why God chose David to be king.

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