King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 16 notes
1Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim.
Often the enemies of Israel gather ready for battle with numbers or resources greater than Israel.
Israel, on the other hand, consults God, goes the way of spirits, and secures the battle ere it is fought.
Israel was spiritual, and so ought we to be.
This is not to say the enemy did not consult spirits; they did, but to show how pertinent the spiritual was to Israel... It was a daily part of their lives.
2And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines.
3And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them.
4And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
5And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.
6And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders.
7And the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him.
8And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.
9If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.
10And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.
But Saul and all these warriors had been in many wars —
How come none could face 😔 Goliath?
How come none could believe the LORD for victory? Because they had not walked with the Lord in time past, so could not guarantee he would be with them in this battle.
It would be a game of lottery to attempt to face off 📴 with Goliath in the name of the Lord if this was the first time of doing anything with the Lord.
But David, he had had his time of testing and training by the Lord already and knew what to do.
He was not gambling. He had been doing this literally all his youth, and so this was no new sport.
It was business as usual. He had faced off lions 🦁 and bears 🐻 whose weight and height were comparable to Goliath.
This was just another fight.
11When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.
12Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Beth-lehem-judah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons: and the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul.
David had already been introduced to us in the previous chapter, but here he is reintroduced as if he has not already been mentioned.
And this reintroduction was so poetic, symbolizing what he was about to do.
This was that David, the now anointed king 👑 of Israel.
13And the three eldest sons of Jesse went and followed Saul to the battle: and the names of his three sons that went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next unto him Abinadab, and the third Shammah.
14And David was the youngest: and the three eldest followed Saul.
15But David went and returned from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Beth-lehem.
16And the Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days.
17And Jesse said unto David his son, Take now for thy brethren an ephah of this parched corn, and these ten loaves, and run to the camp to thy brethren;
18And carry these ten cheeses unto the captain of their thousand, and look how thy brethren fare, and take their pledge.
David seems such a serviceable and useful lad, who was entrusted of all to carry out such an errand and to do so successfully.
Meanwhile he had elder brothers who should have done that errand, considering that it involved going to the battleground, where there was danger.
19Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel, were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.
20And David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took, and went, as Jesse had commanded him; and he came to the trench, as the host was going forth to the fight, and shouted for the battle.
21For Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array, army against army.
22And David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage, and ran into the army, and came and saluted his brethren.
23And as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines, and spake according to the same words: and David heard them.
24And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid.
25And the men of Israel said, Have ye seen this man that is come up? surely to defy Israel is he come up: and it shall be, that the man who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father’s house free in Israel.
26And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?
It was only David who "sat there" thinking 💭 this man was uncircumcised and was therefore not worthy to defy Israel.
The rest just feared 😱. They had forgotten who and whose they were.
ALL Israel from childhood are told they are children of God and the armies of the living God, but it seemed at this time that it was only David who believed that to be literally true, and rightly so.
27And the people answered him after this manner, saying, So shall it be done to the man that killeth him.
28And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle.
This shows the character of David as observed by his brothers — he was good at heart and bold, as we saw in his reign, but his brothers judged that as pride and naughtiness of heart. His boldness and strong confidence in God was judged as pride. He stood for what he believed in, as seen when he said,
"Is there not a cause?"
His refusal to back down on his beliefs was seen as naughtiness of heart. Yet it was he that stayed with the sheep, the few sheep, and defended them with his life as if they were worth an empire. He staked his life on sheep so insignificant compared to his life that God knew he will make a great king.
I think I got the heart part — it is left with the boldness-to-stand-for-what-I-believe-in part.
29And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause?
30And he turned from him toward another, and spake after the same manner: and the people answered him again after the former manner.
31And when the words were heard which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul: and he sent for him.
32And David said to Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.
33And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.
34And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock:
35And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.
36Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.
37David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee.
What made Saul take such a decision... Putting the entire nation's destiny into one boy's hand 🖐️
I'm still puzzled as to how Saul got convinced to place the entire nation into David's hand 🖐️.
I believe the Lord played a role here. It could have been the conviction with which David spoke.
Who knows, but it was so risky. No one was willing to go forth, as this was the fortieth day; probably their souls were starting to get wearied 😩 out by the constant defiance of Goliath.
To get things done and over with, he entrusted the nation into David's hand.
Such a rash and seemingly reckless decision sounds so much like something Saul would do. And he did, entrusting David to go.
But it's really strange that of the tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of men, none could lay down their lives for their nation.
Yet they had been enrolled in the army.
Not even Saul the king 👑 was willing to go.
38And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail.
39And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him.
40And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.
41And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David; and the man that bare the shield went before him.
42And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance.
Fine boy
43And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
44And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.
45Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.
46This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
47And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hands.
Wow, what a speech 🗨
48And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.
49And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.
The battle ended pretty quickly.
50So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.
51Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.
52And the men of Israel and of Judah arose, and shouted, and pursued the Philistines, until thou come to the valley, and to the gates of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shaaraim, even unto Gath, and unto Ekron.
Did David also pursue after them?
53And the children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they spoiled their tents.
54And David took the head of the Philistine, and brought it to Jerusalem; but he put his armour in his tent.
David suddenly had a tent allocated to him because he had brought victory and a great awakening to the house 🏡 of the Lord and to his people Israel.
Now they believed once more.
They had been under a king 👑 who was fearful 😨 and demon possessed, but now they were awakened once more to their true nature and identity.
55And when Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said unto Abner, the captain of the host, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell.
Saul was seeing right there a bold, fearless leader in the making.
56And the king said, Enquire thou whose son the stripling is.
57And as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand.
How many 17-year-olds can hold the head of another man in their hands?
DAVID seemed made for this. He was born to fight, rule and lead.
This reminds me of the son of Jerubbaal, aka Gideon. He was told to kill the kings 👑 of Midian, but he could not because he was a lad.
Yet David did kill Goliath.
He was uncompromisingly sold out to the Lord.
The same word used for youth to describe Gideon's son was used for David.
But David was already a bold youth at this stage by the Spirit of the Lord.
Judges 8:20 ESV
So he said to Jether his firstborn, "Rise and kill them!" But the young man did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, because he was still a young man.
58And Saul said to him, Whose son art thou, thou young man? And David answered, I am the son of thy servant Jesse the Beth-lehemite.