The story of David and Goliath is so familiar, it would be easy to skim over the account in I Samuel 17, but I’m so glad I took the time to try to really see the story with fresh eyes because God showed me two things in the story I had never noticed before. I blogged about the first thing HERE if you’d like to check it out.
The second thing that stuck out to me was that David had to leave things behind in order to move forward.
In I Samuel 17:20, it says, “So David arose early in the morning and left the flock with a keeper and took the supplies and went as Jesse had commanded him.” I noticed three things in this short bit of Scripture.
First, David rose early in the morning to obey his father. Maybe this stuck out to me is that I am not a morning person, but I am currently trying to become one. He didn’t wait around or put off his errand. He rose up first thing in the morning. For myself, it is so easy for me to put off what I feel God is asking me to do. I make excuses of being busy and the longer I put it off, the more I get distracted by other things. I’m learning that when I obey God, it is not only more pleasing to Him but it’s also easier if I do it right away. Too much thinking about something I KNOW God wants me to do gives the enemy time to plant fears and doubts.
The second thing I noticed is that David left his flock behind in order to obey his father. There was no way he could bring the sheep with him and get the food to his brothers down on the front lines of war. In our current day and age, we might not really get the significance of this. To a city girl like me, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to leave a few sheep alone for a couple days, but being a shepherd entailed a lot more than simply sitting around singing psalms for David. It turns out shepherding is kind of complicated. You have to direct the sheep to the right kinds of food (they’ll eat things that make them sick). You have to direct them to the right places to get water. They are almost helpless against predators, so you have to protect them too. It was kind of a big deal that David left his sheep behind.
You’ll notice that he left them with a keeper. When God asks us to move forward and leave things behind, that doesn’t mean He calls us to be irresponsible or to just shirk our responsibilities or commitments. David left the sheep behind because he couldn’t both obey and stay, but he also took care of his responsibilities by finding a keeper for the flock.
The third thing is that David followed directions to obey his father. He took just what his father instructed him to take, and he took it where his father instructed him to go. It’s interesting to note that in order to even know about Goliath, David had to obey his father. His obedience brought him to the opportunity. If he hadn’t obeyed, then he would have been in a field with his sheep and not even known that Goliath was bellowing his challenge to a terrified army that had short-term memory loss when it came to God fighting for them.
In I Samuel 17:22, there is the second instance of David leaving something behind so he could go forward. It says, “Then David left his baggage in the care of the baggage keeper and ran to the battle line and entered in order to greet his brothers.”
Once again, we see David was both moving forward AND being responsible. He didn’t just drop his baggage wherever. He found the baggage keeper and left it with him. There are so many metaphors I’m tempted to make with this leaving the baggage thing, but the one thing I want to point out is that when we set our own baggage down, we need to be sure we’re leaving it with the right person.
So many times, instead of leaving our baggage with Jesus who can actually deal with it in the right way, we drop it where it doesn’t belong or leave it with a person who can’t handle the load. Jesus calls us to come to Him if we are weary and heavy laden. He doesn’t call us to leave it with our friend or spouse or kids.
Then we see that once again, David moves forward eagerly. He doesn’t drag his feet or hang back. Nope – he runs to the battle line. I don’t know about you, but I might not be quite so eager to get so close to the enemy, but David doesn’t hesitate at all.
Finally, we see that he runs forward to greet his brothers. This was a part of obeying his father. It also placed him ringside to the challenge God had for him. If he had hung back, he might not have seen what was really going on – which was that all of Israel’s mighty warriors, including their king, were terrified of the giant. David would have never killed his giant if he had stayed back with his baggage.
From this familiar story, we can learn the importance of obeying God right away rather than dragging our feet or procrastinating. We can also learn the importance of leaving behind what keeps us from moving forward, but doing it in a responsible way. And finally, we can learn that obedience often places us right where God wants us.
How about you? What things does the story of David & Goliath teach you? I’d love to hear about them!
Blessings, Rosanne
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