Divine Ordinary

Today I’m over at Arabah Joy for the Grace & Truth link up. Come check it out HERE! 

As I’ve mentioned in the previous two blogs posts that are part of this series, I recently reread the story of David and Goliath as part of a Bible study I’m doing. Since the story is so familiar, I tried to really read it, and not just skim over it. By slowing down and really seeing the story with fresh eyes, I saw three things I had never noticed before. I wrote about the first two things – serving a living God and the necessity of leaving some things behind in order to move forward – in two previous posts.

The third thing I noticed is found in I Samuel 17:38, it says, “Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he (David) spoke to the men; and Eliab’s anger burned against David and he said, “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your insolence and the wickedness of your heart; for you have come down in order to see the battle.”

I love the next verse. David basically asks, “What did I do now?” In the New English Translation (NET), it says, “Can’t I say anything?” It sounds so much like typical brothers, doesn’t it?

But there was more going on here than brothers squabbling. See, this army of grown men were terrified of Goliath. They had been listening to his taunts for 40 days, and they didn’t see any way out of the battle without Israel becoming the Philistines’ servants because who could beat a guy who was almost 10 feet tall? It seemed impossible because Goliath seemed a whole lot more real when he bellowed at them from the battle field than Yahweh did.

But  to David, fresh from the sheep pasture, a 10-foot-tall man seemed no different to him than a lion or a bear. He had relied on the living God to defeat those enemies, and Goliath just seemed like a louder version.

So, David started asking questions: Who is this guy? Why does the think he can taunt our living God? What will be given to the guy who answers his challenge and kills him?

Young David’s questions hold an indirect criticism of the grown men around him, including his oldest brother Eliab. Eliab who had cowered with everyone else while the giant threw down his challenge day after day.

I’m not sure exactly what the dynamic was between the oldest and the youngest of Jesse’s sons, but Eliab’s response to David’s questions makes it clear that something was just waiting to bubble to the surface.

When we look at stories in the Bible, we have to take out a different cultural lens through which to view events. As the oldest, Eliab would have felt that he was David’s authority and would be held responsible for David’s actions.  I’m not sure if it was fear for David’s life; fear that he would have to answer to Jesse about not stopping David from getting himself killed; the fear of the shame it would bring if David got himself killed and ended up indenturing the entire nation of Israel to the Philistines; or fear that David would actually succeed. Whatever was fueling it, the Scripture says Eliab’s anger burned hot.

He was not just kind of annoyed with his little brother. He was FURIOUS.

Another thing to keep in mind is the context of the story. Just one chapter before, Samuel had gone to Jesse’s home and had anointed little David as the next king of Israel.

After God rejected the first six sons.

That included Eliab, Adinadab and Shammah who all, coincidentally, were at the battle listening to Goliath and cringing on the sidelines with the rest of Israel’s army.

When Samuel first saw Eliab, he thought he was the new king. After all Eliab looked the part, but God told him in I Samuel 16:7, “But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

I’m sure that rejection still stung for Eliab, who as the oldest had every right to expect to be the anointed one. Now his youngest brother shows up and ends up showing him up – again.

It’s really no wonder that the man who was rejected for his own heart motivations wanted to cast doubt on the motivations of God’s chosen..

While it doesn’t say this, I believe the reason Eliab was so incredibly angry with David had a lot more to do with the fact that David’s questions and his desire for action actually reinforced his anointed status.

Let’s face it, Eliab had had ample opportunity to step up to the plate and defeat Goliath himself. David didn’t show up until the 41st day that Goliath had been issuing his challenge.

For Eliab, David’s questions didn’t just enforce his anointing, they reinforced Eliab’s rejection by God.

How does this apply to us today? Well, I think it applies in a few ways.

1. People who are close to you are often the biggest objectors when God calls you to slay your own giants or to move forward. There are always a variety of reasons for this, some that even come from good things like love and concern. For instance, the mom who tries to prevent her child from doing mission work in a dangerous part of the world is probably doing that out of fear for her child and her desire to keep him or her safe. Even though her opposition comes from her love for her child, it’s still wrong because it’s selfish. That kind of opposition can be much harder to ignore than opposition that comes in the form of anger and accusation, No matter the type of opposition that comes, though, it often catches us off guard when it comes from our nearest and dearest, doesn’t it?

2. People often use perceived responsibilities to keep us from moving forward. You’ll notice Eliab asks David what he’s done with the few sheep he’s supposed to be shepherding. The implied criticism is that he can’t even do the little thing he was supposed to, so how could he be asking about a giant? In our own lives, people will point to our children or our jobs or a host of other things to keep us “in our places,” not because that is where we actually belong but because that is where they are most comfortable seeing us.

3. People who have delayed or denied God’s calling on their own life are usually the loudest (and sometimes meanest) naysayers when we move to follow God’s calling. Maybe it’s because they are truly afraid or maybe it is because it makes them look bad, but it seems that those who have chosen to remain on the sidelines are the ones who get angry about those who choose to engage in the battle. Eliab had had his own chance at going out to defeat Goliath but he had chosen to stay on the sidelines. Even though he looked like a king, God had been right when He said Eliab didn’t have a king’s heart.

4. People who object to you moving forward into God’s calling often assign false motivations to your actions. Eliab called David both prideful or arrogant and wicked. David’s motivations were neither, but he could have allowed Eliab’s anger and accusation to distract him from the task at hand – defeating a giant. I don’t know about you, but nothing feels more unfair as when someone assigns motives to my words or behavior that aren’t true.

For David, the battle to kill Goliath didn’t start when he ran onto the battle field or even when he went to pick out five smooth rocks. His battle began back in a field with some sheep when his father asked him to simply obey. It continued when he had to leave some things behind in order to go forward. It concluded when he had to ignore his brother’s anger and accusation to focus on the battle ahead. Actually running toward Goliath with his sling was the end result of all the steps forward David had made up until that point.

How about you? What task is God calling you to and what things are standing in the way of your obedience? I’d love to hear about it!

Blessings, Rosanne

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

The story of David and Goliath is so familiar, you can probably recite it in your sleep. If you are over a certain age, you probably can still sing the song about David and his five stones. I remember everyone was very excited when we came to the part about swinging your sling round and round and then falling with dramatic flourish to the ground.

Recently, though, I reread that familiar story. My Sunday school class is going through a Bible study and book called, All the Places to Go by John Ortberg. As I tried to read the story with fresh eyes, a few phrases jumped out at me that I hadn’t noticed before.

You can find the story of David and Goliath in I Samuel 17. David is the youngest of a group of brothers and his dad sends him to the front lines of the war with food for his brothers. The nation of Israel is fighting their arch nemesis, the Philistines. Not too long into the battle, one of the Philistines warriors strides into the empty ground between the two armies and issues a challenge – to send Israel’s best warrior to fight him and the loser’s countrymen will serve the winner’s countrymen. There’s one catch. Goliath is technically a giant. The Bible describes his spear like a weaver’s beam. Shaq has nothing on this guy.  He’s huge. Israel is shaking in their collective sandals.

David comes along and hears this giant bellowing his challenge. He sees all the great warriors of Israel (including the king) cowering down in fear. David starts asking questions – who is this guy and why is everyone so afraid of him? Some of the soldiers, including his own brother, aren’t too happy with all the questions.

In verses 26, David asks, “For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?”

Each country had their own gods, and to many of the nations surrounding Israel, Jehovah was just another one, but unlike the surrounding nations whose gods were made of clay or stone or even gold, David knew something that his fellow countrymen seemed to have forgotten.

Jehovah wasn’t just any god. He was the Living GOD.

David had confidence and courage to slay the giant because he had experience with God’s protection before. As a young shepherd, David had faced down bears and lions and won. – not because he was necessarily an awesome fighter but because he fought with the confidence of knowing that God was on his side, that his God was not just a tin village god, but God Almighty.

To David, Goliath is no more intimidating than that lion and bear he had struck down and killed. In verse 36, he tells King Saul, “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.”

And while we can say that Israel should have known that God would help them defeat their enemies like He had done so many times before; that they should have known that God was certainly more powerful than any giant, we do the same thing.

We forget that we too serve a living God. We put Him in a box labeled church or make Him small and manageable, but when we come against struggles and hard times and difficulties, we look at this small, weak version we have conjured up of God and doubt His ability to help us.

We serve a God who put the stars in the sky and formed the mountains. We serve a God who parted the Red Sea and made the sun to stand still in its orbit and brought down the walls of Jericho.

What we need to really live in victory, to face our own giants with confidence is an unshakable conviction that our God is alive and all powerful and all knowing and all present.

Maybe it’s time we pick up our slings and start acting like it.

How about you? What thing in your life today seems too big for God?

Blessings, Rosanne

So, I’ve been trying to be more purposeful in my blogging schedule and have posts for you, my lovely readers, on the same days each week.

The problem is, I have sat down about three times today to write a post for tomorrow (last week was super busy and my weekend was kind of full), and I realized I had absolutely nothing to say. People who know me will find that shocking because I talk. A Lot.

But I also haven’t felt all that hot today, either. I have a headache, and at the risk of too much information, I also have a touch of the nasty stomach bug going around. And to be really honest, I felt guilty about the fact that I don’t feel good. I felt guilty that I laid down and took a nap. I felt guilty that my to do list has been staring at me all day and I’m not really up to doing much on it. I felt guilty that, since I was lying around anyway, I wasn’t taking advantage of watching webinars or reading something educational or doing something that at least looked a tiny bit productive.

Coincidentally, my Sunday school class is currently going through this book by John Ortberg called All the Places To Go. It’s about going through divinely opened doors and having an open door mindset. We watched the first video this past Sunday, so I was going through the study guide this morning, and Ortberg was talking about when the 12 men went to spy on Canaan. When they got back, they were all impressed with the riches of the land. They were less impressed with the giants that inhabited the same land. They were intimidated by the big fortified cities that seemed impossibly difficult to overtake.

So 10 of the men said, “Let’s just go back to Egypt and be slaves.”  Yep, you read that right. Because things looked too hard and they didn’t see how they could possible defeat these giants in their Promised Land, they wanted to give up the land and their freedom and return to slavery.

But two of the men, Joshua and Caleb, saw the same land overflowing with bounty, the same large, fortified cities and the same giants, but their response was completely different. Instead of saying we can’t, they said we can BECAUSE THE LORD IS WITH US. That phrase, that belief, gave them a completely different outlook on the situation.

Now you are probably wondering what in the world the connection could possibly be about defeating giants and having a sick day, but hang on – I’m getting there.

See, today, the door God has asked me to go through is one that is labeled rest and being still. But the truth behind why I am finding that so difficult today isn’t because I’m some productivity ninja (far from it!). It’s not because I have words I just have to write out. It’s not because I have a pressing deadline.

It’s because I’m afraid.

Afraid to get I’ll behind. Afraid I’ll miss something important by lying low. Afraid I won’t somehow “make it.”

I already feel kind of overwhelmed by life at the moment. I look at all the things that are coming up on my calendar, and I just want to go hide somewhere. While I am excited about some new writing projects and possibilities, I’m also afraid I am not up to the task. I don’t know how in the world I’ll have enough hours in the day to get it all done. All this fear is in spite of the fact that all God has asked of me is to be faithful with the hours I do have – not work into the wee hours or somehow manufacture more than the 168 hours everyone else has been given.

Why all the fear? Because I think I have to do it all in my own strength. Because I have forgotten that if God leads me to a promised land, HE will be the one who will defeat the giants that exist there – not me. The bottom line all this guilt and fear is rooted in my lack of trust that God is enough. 

Enough is my word for this year, and over and over again, God keeps bringing me back to that truth. HE IS ENOUGH. Even when I feel less than capable or overwhelmed or stuck – God isn’t.

There’s a great verse that says, “Be still and know that I am God.” It’s in that stillness that I really see God and feel His presence. When I am busy and rushed, I miss His still, small voice because usually, God doesn’t shout. He calls softly.

So, what giants are stomping around in your Canaan? What battle are your trying to fight or what land are you trying to claim in your own strength? I’d love to hear about it!

Blessings, Rosanne