Giant Slayers: What David's Journey Teaches Modern Believers

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Dive into the ancient wisdom of 1 Samuel as we unpack the remarkable journey of David, Israel's greatest king before Christ. What makes this shepherd boy's story so compelling isn't just his victory over Goliath, but how he navigated the treacherous waters of jealousy and opposition from King Saul.

The heart of this exploration centers on a profound revelation: having God's favor doesn't guarantee an easy path. Despite being anointed by God himself, David faced deadly persecution from the religious establishment. His story dismantles the modern misconception that faith should shield us from hardship. Sometimes our greatest challenges come precisely because God's hand is on our lives, not because we've done something wrong.

David's secret weapon wasn't physical strength or strategic brilliance—it was his unwavering heart for God. While Saul sought public approval and self-preservation, David remained fixed on pleasing the Lord. This fundamental difference in heart orientation made all the difference. Even when religious jealousy threatened to derail his calling, David kept his focus upward, seeing his circumstances from heaven's perspective rather than being consumed by earthly drama.

For anyone facing opposition while pursuing their God-given purpose, David's example offers powerful encouragement. Keep pressing forward with consistency and persistence. Don't become entangled in the swirl of criticism or sabotage. Remember that seasons change—what feels permanent today will eventually give way to new realities. Your responsibility is simply to remain faithful, knowing that your identity as God's beloved is secure regardless of current circumstances.

What opposition are you facing in your spiritual journey? How might seeing it from God's perspective change your response? Share your thoughts with us at [e-mail] or visit our website to explore more biblical wisdom for contemporary challenges.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
There's a book in the Bible, 1 Samuel.
It's following the OldTestament and it is perhaps one
of my favorite books because ofthe stories that are found in it
.
And for the next few podcastepisodes we're going to be

(00:23):
taking a little bit of a deepdive into 1 Samuel Because it
has so much relevancy also tothe world that we live in today
and we've found that thescriptures, the word of God,
literally are the baseline forus in this podcast.

(00:48):
Life Around the Fire to really,we go by, but in my own
personal life it's the basis forwhich I make decisions, final
decisions.
It's based upon what's found inthe scriptures, because the
scriptures, the written Word ofGod, doesn't lie In the original

(01:15):
writings.
The book known as the Bible, inits original writings contains
no errors.
Now, throughout the years,through scribal renditions,

(01:39):
there have been somediscrepancies, unfortunately,
some discrepancies unfortunately, but with the guidance that we
have provided to us by HolySpirit, the teacher who's come
to us, who believe in Jesus,who's come in the name of Jesus

(02:04):
to teach us all thingspertaining to life and godliness
in the kingdom of God, heteaches us straight from the
scriptures because he's thespirit that God breathed upon

(02:25):
the writers.
The scriptures are God-breathed.
Amazing, god breathed upon thewriters as they were writing,
and the inspiration isabsolutely divine.
It's a cannon, it's a measuringstick by which we measure
things, and it's a measuringstick by which we measure things

(02:46):
.
And so to say that we value thewritten word of God is almost
an understatement.
But for the sake ofcommunication, I want to go on
record in saying that we highlyvalue the written word of God.
It's the final authority and,yes, I believe that God speaks
to us personally and yes, Ibelieve that God speaks to us
personally.
But because we see in part, wehear in part, we know in part

(03:12):
it's not necessarily I don'tgive it the same weight that I
give to the written word of God.
In fact, I measure what I hearfrom God by the written word of
God.
So, all that being said, we'regoing to be looking at the book
of 1 Samuel.
It's found in the Old Testament, in the Bible and in just a

(03:37):
kind of a preliminary, I want totake just a peek at the life of
David.
I want to take just a peek atthe life of David.
We're going to look at him moreextensively and a variety of
other characters, but Davidmakes up the lion's share of the

(03:57):
book of 1 Samuel and he was thesecond king of Israel.
The first king was Saul, andSaul was anointed king and he
looked the part.
I mean he was head andshoulders above anybody else in
height and he came from a goodlineage, and so I mean he had

(04:21):
all things going for him, exceptthe fact that he had some
personal issues, some weaknessesthat came to the surface, and
it's funny how that can takeplace when we're given higher
privileges.
It's the responsibilities, orthe lack of us taking

(04:43):
responsibility, that theprivilege seems to put pressure
on us and the irresponsible waysof a person can show up, and
they did in the life of Saul.
He had great privilege but hedidn't have a balancing level of

(05:04):
responsibility.
He didn't follow through withwhat God told him to do.
He did it in part and then kindof made excuses for why he
didn't do it all the way, andfinally God basically rejected
him as a king and David becameanointed as the second king and

(05:29):
his rulership, his kingship, ismarked as a high watermark for
the nation of Israel.
High watermark for the nation ofIsrael, king David, even though

(05:52):
he had some moral issues thathad come to the surface.
He had a heart that was afterGod.
He had a heart after God,whereas Saul had a heart to
please the people and keeppeople from criticizing him and
taking matters into his ownhands.
David had a heart after God.

(06:16):
And you know you think no.
Here's where I'm going withthat.
You'd think that having a heartafter God would cause things to
go your way.
I mean God is with you andbecause of that, nothing can

(06:39):
stand in your way.
I mean God is with you andbecause of that, nothing can
stand in your way.
Nothing can stand in my way.
God's with me.
And there's actually a teachingthat goes throughout the the
church right now, and it reallybasically says this that if
God's with you, you really, ifyou have faith in God, you

(07:00):
really shouldn't be facingchallenges.
That would be contrary tothings going your way, you being
healthy, wealthy and wise allthe time.
And if you're not, there'sundoubtedly something wrong with
you.
There's either sin in your life, you have some sort of lack of

(07:32):
faith, unbelief, and sometimesthat's just not the case.
In fact, sometimes, because Godhas his hand on a person's life
, there are challenges that comeand they can be significant.
For example, david was anointedking at a young age, probably in

(07:54):
his early teens, maybe even prethat, but young, a young man,
growing boy, however you want toterm it.
He was young Ruddy, it says itsays and his life prior to his

(08:18):
being anointed as king was thatof being a shepherd.
He was tending sheep and he wasgood at it.
Interesting, he was good at thesmall things even at a young
age.
And if you're young it doesn'tmean that you can't be involved

(08:41):
in something significant.
It might take some time for youto grow into it, but being
young does not disqualify you.
Sometimes it's actually aqualifier.
It was for David.
God anointed him at a young agebecause he had a heart after

(09:02):
God.
But even then, tending sheep,he treated the sheep good.
He protected them.
Sheep Well, people are even morevaluable than sheep, but we all

(09:23):
know that in our life we needat times someone to look over
and look after us, shepherd, usunder shepherd.
God being the great shepherd.
Having an under shepherd isimportant A human being

(09:45):
extending God's love and hislife to us.
And David did that with sheepand he translated that over to
people.
In fact, he wrote Psalm 23,saying the Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want.
I will want for nothing.

(10:09):
The Lord is my shepherd.
I lack for nothing.
He leads me beside still waters.
He lets me lie down in greenpastures.
He restores my soul by stillwater.

(10:32):
He prepares a table before mein the presence of my enemies.
His rod and his staff.
They comfort me.
Surely, goodness and mercyshall follow me all the days of
my life, and I will dwell in thehouse of the Lord forever.

(10:57):
That's the heart of David.
And so, once again, it wouldseem as though that would mean
that things would go his way or,in our case, things would go
our way.
However, that's not always thecase, and sometimes that can

(11:20):
throw us for a loop.
David, david was used by God todefeat a Philistine giant with a
sling and a stone Goliath.
Goliath was actually a giant ofa man, 10 feet tall, maybe more

(11:46):
feet tall, maybe more.
His spear was like thethickness of an, you know, the
oar of a boat.
It was a weaver's beam.
It says it was big.
His sword was just massive.
And when he talked he was loudand boisterous and boastful,

(12:15):
defying God and the armies ofIsrael.
And David looked at him andsaid who is this uncircumcised
meaning?
This person is not part of thecovenant of God.
Circumcised being the sign ofcovenant, he's not part of the

(12:37):
covenant.
Who is this uncircumcisedPhilistine that he should defy
the armies of the living God?
This is a young man and he saidI'll go, I will go and fight
him.
The rest of the army, theadults, didn't want anything to

(12:59):
do with it.
They were afraid.
David went and he killedGoliath, knocked him down with a
stone in a sling, hit him inthe forehead, cracked his skull.
He fell down and then he cuthis head off With his own sword,

(13:19):
with Goliath's own sword.
He beheaded him.
The Philistine army fled andIsrael went after them and
defeated them.
The army fled and Israel wentafter them and defeated them.
And then it was said,considering David and Saul, that
Saul had killed his thousands,but David his ten thousands.
And Saul got jealous.

(13:41):
Funny thing when people getjealous of you, they can do ugly
things.
They can do really ugly things,sometimes even sabotage or try
to your name, your reputation,or perhaps even, in the case of

(14:07):
David, to take his life.
There came a point in timewhere Saul got so jealous of
David he became demonized by hisown.
Saul became demonized by hisown preoccupation with things

(14:31):
other than God.
He became preoccupied withthings that caused jealousy just
to burn inside of him, a rageto the point where he tried to
murder David.
Opposition came David's way.
David Opposition came David'sway.

(14:52):
Even though he was called andanointed by God, empowered by
God's spirit, to be a king, theprevious regime tried to kill
him.
Isn't that funny?
Religion can try to do that.
People can do that to you, abeliever in Jesus, anointed by

(15:21):
God, called for a purpose, andthe religious community who
stand in the name.
They claim the name of Jesus,they claim the very same things
you do, but they are religious,not relational.
They're works-oriented.
Do it this way, that's the wayto do it.

(15:44):
If you don't do it that way,something's wrong with you or
you're a threat, and jealousycan set in people.
Don't call it jealousy, but itis jealousy and religion is an
ugly thing when it rears itsugly head.
If things go the way that thereligious crowd wants it to go,

(16:09):
there's quasi-peace.
But if the way that thereligious crowd wants it to go,
there's quasi-peace.
But if it's confronted in anyway, or if it's shown to be less
than what it wants to be seen,as there can be some real sparks
that fly, and in the case ofDavid, sparks flew.

(16:29):
Saul couldn't stand him Earlyon.
Saul loved him, loved it whenDavid would play his music, his
harp, and the rage and thedemonization within Saul would
subside and he was fond of David.
But that fondness wore offbecause jealousy came back and

(16:56):
anger came back.
Religious pride came back andtried to oust David.
And sometimes that happens to us, maybe it's happened to you,
maybe it's happening to youright now.
You're called and anointed byGod to do something, but the

(17:20):
people around you are jealousand they're trying to besmirch
your name, maybe not kill yououtright, but they're trying to
undermine what you're doing.
And my encouragement is to beconsistent and persistent.

(17:42):
Keep your eyes on Jesus.
Don't get caught up in theswirl around you.
Keep your eyes focused on thePrince of Peace and he will
impart to you his peace thatgoes beyond understanding, and
Holy Spirit will keep your heartand mind garrisoned, focused in

(18:05):
on Jesus, so you can be anovercomer.
You can rise up and be seatedwith Christ in heavenly places,
seeing things from perspective,from above, so you can really
see more clearly, instead ofseeing things from the bottom up
.
You see things from the topdown and decisions can be made

(18:26):
more clearly.
When you hear the word of God,you can speak made more clearly.
When you hear the word of God,you can speak it more clearly
because you're seeing andhearing it from a higher level.
So my encouragement is ifyou're in the place of having
things go contrary to what itwould seem like they should go,

(18:50):
you know how they should go.
Don't faint, don't lose heart,don't give up.
Keep pressing on, becausethings will change.
That's the other good news,right there.
Things will change.
When you're sick, when you'renot feeling good, it seems like

(19:12):
you're always going to feel thatway until right, until the
sickness breaks and you feelbetter.
Then it's hard to even imaginewhat it was like to feel sick
after a while.
Well, things change.
Things change for David Saul wasthe one who died, and then

(19:33):
David went on to become known asthe greatest king in Israel
aside from Jesus, who is theking of kings.
David is a picture of Jesus, aforerunner of Jesus, but now we

(19:55):
have the king of kings Jesus,but now we have the King of
Kings Jesus, the perfect one,who has given us the privilege
and the responsibility ofwalking in his footsteps so we

(20:17):
can become kings and priests,like we are kings and priests.
In fact, we are kings andpriests when we enter into his
kingdom by virtue of thecovenant that he has cut in his
own blood, his own body,hallelujah.
So we're going to be taking adeep dive into the book of 1
Samuel, but I just want to giveyou a taste of how things from

(20:48):
the Scriptures can really speakto us in our lives today.
Let's pray, father.
Once again, I thank you.
I thank you for who you are,god, for what you're doing, how

(21:12):
you're doing it.
Holy Spirit, thank you, thankyou.
Thank you for coming in thename of Jesus, being our helper,
being our guide, being ourteacher, our comforter.
Jesus, you are our healer, oursavior, our Lord, your King of
Kings, lord of Lords, we honoryou, we lift your name up high

(21:38):
and, holy Spirit, we ask thatyou'd help us become like him
more and more and more, so wecan grow up before we grow old,
and we can come on up, so yourglory can come on down.
And we stand here in agreementand we pray these things and say
so be it in the name of Jesus,amen, amen, amen.

(22:01):
All right, folks, we love youand if you have any thoughts,
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lifearoundthefire at gmailcomthat's our email address.
Or if you just want to look usup on the web and see what's
going on, you can type in lifearound the fire and we would

(22:24):
love for you to just enjoyyourself.
Listen some music, look at theblog.
We've got going on and uh, inthe meantime, god bless you.
Adios amigos.