Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - You Are Not David | Historical Books | 1 Samuel 17:31-58

Episode Date: April 29, 2025

Do you have counterfeit courage? What is the true difference between David and Goliath? Who is the true hero? In today's episode, Tanya shares how 1 Samuel 17:31-58 reminds us that the David and Goliath story is not about us. If you're listening on Spotify, comment below one takeaway from today's episode! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Samuel 17:31-58

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmeth. Of all the stories in David's life, this is the one we know best. It has everything. It has a weak underdog, a terrifying giant, there's fear, courage, there's risk, and ultimately, victory. And the way it's usually told makes us feel like we can be the hero, and we love that. Look at David. He's just a kid with the slingshot.

He's young, inexperienced. He's completely outmatched. And then there's Goliath. He's over eight feet tall, armored, confident, intimidating. They face off in a duel. They are both just one life standing in for an entire army. Why not let one man die instead of everyone? And the courage we see in both of them is where most of the stories we grew up hearing landed,

where they stopped, where they even fell short. Don't be like Goliath, whose courage was built on experience and comparison. do be like David, whose courage came through weakness and dependence. But if we only look at these characters and not through them, not to the true hero of the Bible, Jesus Christ, we will be left with an example of counterfeit courage. We will be left to depend on ourselves to be more of something we can't be without a savior. We will have counterfeit courage and not true courage. Let's start with Goliath.

His confidence came from everything you'd expect. Years of battle, experience, he had physical power, he had complete control of the situation, or so it seemed. 1 Samuel 17, verses 41 to 44, go like this. It says, and the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield bear in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance.

And the Philistine said to David, Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to David, Come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beast of the field. Goliath looked at David and felt insulted. That's what gave him confidence.

Not strength on its own, but strengthened comparison. He looked down on David and assumed the fight was already over. And I think we do this, too. We can handle our fear by comparing ourselves to someone else. I feel bad about my parenting, but at least my kids aren't as wild as hers. I'm nervous about a big meeting, but I look the part and have a better resume than that other person. That's counterfeit courage. It gives the illusion of strength by distracting us from what's actually in front of us.

It doesn't engage the real challenge. It just makes feel better. by minimizing someone else. And Goliath's confidence didn't just affect his attitude. It affected his judgment. The shield bear mentioned earlier in that scripture I just read, well, gone. Whether he was dismissed by Goliath or just forgotten, his false confidence led Goliath to let his guard down.

Where was that shield when the stone came out of David's slingshot? Now, David's courage looked different. He also had experience, but it was in something different. David wasn't a decorated war hero like Goliath. So when Saul tried to talk David out of like egging Goliathon, David responded in 1 Samuel 17 verses 34 to 36. He says to Saul, your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion or a bear and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions,

and bears and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them. David's confidence didn't come from having faced giants or war heroes. It came from showing up in ordinary overlooked places as a shepherd. His experience mattered, but also it wasn't his foundation. His confidence was in God's faithfulness. Now, if this were just a motivational story, we could stop here and say, your small everyday work matters. and that would be true. God uses your everyday quiet faithfulness. Or we could say, don't focus on your weaknesses. Just visualize success.

That's popular advice, but it misses the point. Because both of these still keep us as the center of the story. And here's the hard but fring truth. We're not David, and we're not Goliath either. So who are we in this story? Well, we are the Israelites. We are the ones with our knees shaking. We are hiding behind the rocks hoping someone else will fight for us because we need a savior.

And David, well, he's a substitute. He was one man standing in for the many. He was one life offered in place of the army. It's not a stretch to say David's role here foreshadows someone far greater. Because later, another substitute would come, one greater than David, one who would look death in the face and say, not my will, but yours be done. Jesus didn't just fight a giant. He conquered sin and death itself. And it wasn't to prove something, but to save us, Jesus stood in our place. And that's what real courage looks like. It looks like trusting in our Savior.

Let me get personal for a minute. When I was 44, I went back to school to get my master's degree. That's a little bit old for a master's. I knew I wanted to work in public relations or STRATCOM, but I didn't know what that would look like yet, so I just started school. Most of my classmates were already in the industry. They had experience, they had resumes, they were well on their way on this path. I didn't.

I felt unqualified. I felt behind. And we could stop there if this was just a story about humility. or hard work or learning through failure. But God's story is bigger than that. See, from the beginning, God has been writing a story of redemption, a story of bringing his kingdom to earth

in the lives of his people, and ultimately in the new creation. And we are part of that story. The happy ending of mine, at least this chapter, is that I do now have a job that I love. But it's also a job that challenges me. It reminds me daily that I don't have many of the answer.

and the things I learned fighting lions and bears in the quiet years, well, sometimes they're helpful and sometimes they're not. But here's the thing. My courage doesn't come from comparing myself to anyone else. It doesn't come from pretending I'm more qualified than I am. And it doesn't come from the work I've done or the degree I hold. My courage comes from knowing that God's plan is bigger than my job. It's bigger than my reputation.

It's bigger than my performance. It comes from believing He is with me. now and whatever I'm facing. And it comes from the confidence that nothing I do will derail his story or make him forget about me. Maybe you've been comparing yourself to others just to feel a little more okay. Maybe you've let your experience create a false sense of control.

Or maybe you're like the Israelites, painfully aware that there's a situation you can't fix and desperate for someone else to step in. It's exactly what Jesus did. He stepped in. He stood in your place. He stands in your place. And he didn't do it because you earned it.

He did it because he loves you. And that kind of courage. Well, it makes us bold enough to be honest. It makes us humble enough to be real. It makes us secure enough to be selfless. Because our strength doesn't come from what we've done. It comes from who Jesus is. That's true courage.