1st Samuel 17:33-36
Then Saul said to David, "You
are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a
youth while he has been a warrior from his youth."
But David said to Saul, "Your
servant was tending his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a
lamb from the flock, I went out after him and attacked him, and rescued it from
his mouth; and when he rose up against me, I seized him by his beard and struck
him and killed him. "Your servant
has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will
be like one of them, since he has taunted the armies of the living God." (NASU)
Whenever
I have read this passage, I have assumed that God had been preparing David for
his battle with Goliath by having him first fight with a lion and a bear. It was obvious to me that the time David had
spent “battling” these creatures was about to pay off, as he took the skills he’d
learned hunting these animals and applied them to his fight against
Goliath.
It
all changed when I tried hunting.
Last
fall I decided that I would hunt deer. I
am surrounded by them here in Brooklyn, Washington. It’s about time that I took some of the
shooting skill I had honed over 29 years as a Police Officer, SWAT Officer, Firearms
Instructor, then finally a SWAT Sniper and Sniper Instructor, and used it to
put some venison on the table. I got my
hunting license, choosing “Archery,” even though I had never shot a bow before. I borrowed a bow and bought some arrows at
Walmart. I know everything there is to
know about police shooting and combat marksmanship, so it should not be a great
leap from, to put it bluntly, shooting people, to shooting a deer. How hard could it be? I practiced a few times and I thought I was
ready.
During
the first week of hunting season, I took at least seven shots at deer- with seven
misses. I was in the wrong place; too
much smell; used the sight pins on the bow incorrectly; forgot to landmark the
string release correctly on my cheek, etc.
Everything I did was a rookie mistake.
Finally, I did get a hit, but far too high on the deer’s back, which did
not bring it down. A few weeks later,
during modern rifle season, a neighbor returned my arrow head, which he had removed
from a healthy, albeit sore deer, which he had shot and killed.
The
next time I read the passage in 1st Samuel, I knew something was
missing. Being a good killer of wildlife
did not automatically make David a good warrior any more than being a highly
trained SWAT cop made me a good hunter.
I now know (from personal experience) that these are two completely
different skill sets. So what was the
basis for David pointing to the killing of a bear and a lion as his “resume”
for the ability to take on Goliath?
A
closer look at verse 37 gives the answer:
And David said, "The Lord who
delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will
deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." (NASU)
It
was not David’s abilities that enabled him to prevail against wildlife; rather it
was his acknowledgement of his LACK of ability and the Lord’s direct
intervention! David’s great experience
was not with weapons, fighting, or even courage; it was with faith. David saw that God had saved him then, and he
had faith that God would save him from Goliath.
Our
ability to do great things, to make a huge difference in the world around us,
has very little to do with our skill, but rests in the acknowledgment of
weakness and need. How humbling this
realization is! This is not to say that
you have not been uniquely prepared to serve God in a special way; it just may
not be what you, or anyone else, expect.
Just as David shunned the unfamiliar armor of King Saul and used what he
was familiar with, so you also may be enabled by your past to use what you are
familiar with to serve God in unexpected ways.
Look
at the examples we have: Peter’s
imposing presence, Paul’s passionate appeals, Steven’s compassion, Priscilla’s
hospitality and sacrifice, Barnabas’s friendship, Timothy’s zeal, Phoebe’s
service, etc. Over and over again we see
people serving in a variety of ways, but always empowered by the same mighty
God!
1st Corinthians 12:20-25
But now there are many members, but
one body. And the eye cannot say to the
hand, "I have no need of you"; or again the head to the feet, "I
have no need of you." On the
contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker
are necessary; and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on
these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become
much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it.
But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member
which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the
members may have the same care for one another. (NASU)
You
may think you know what a “good Christian” looks like, and you think you are
far from that picture. However David,
armed with a stick and 5 rocks, didn’t look much like a warrior either. The sovereign God can take you, as you are
right now, and do wonderful things for His kingdom and in the lives of those
around you. A humble heart,
acknowledging both weakness and an absolute need for God's Spirit to help you; These are all you need right
now to do great things.
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
And when I came to you, brethren, I
did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the
testimony of God. For I determined to
know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in
much trembling, and my message and my
preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the
Spirit and of power, so that your faith
would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
NASU
