The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 110: David and Goliath (2023)

Episode Date: April 20, 2023

Today we read the epic story of how David defeats Goliath, a giant Philistine warrior. Fr. Mike points out that David's heroic courage in this battle came from David's faithfulness to God and to the small tasks entrusted to him as a shepherd. We learn that when we are faithful and courageous in small matters, we can face the giants in our bigger battles. Today's readings are 1 Samuel 17 and Psalm 12. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 110, day 110. We're reading from 1 Samuel chapter 17, only one chapter today, but it is the epic showdown, the battle between shepherd boy David and mighty warrior Goliath. So that's 1 Samuel chapter 17. We're also praying

Psalm 12 today. As always, the Bible translation that I'm using is the revised standard version, second Catholic edition. I'm using actually the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, go into your app and click subscribe, and then everyone will be happy, and I'll be able to not remind you of doing this ever again. But I probably will tomorrow, just letting you know, just a heads up on that one. I'll probably say it again tomorrow, but today is day 110. I don't know why I'm saying it like that. Day 110. Oh my gosh, you guys, let's stop for a second. Day 110, well done. Phenomenal work. Just what a gift. Here we are reading from 1 Samuel chapter 17, praying Psalm 12.

1 Samuel chapter 17, David and Goliath. Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle, and they were gathered at Socor, which belonged to Judah, and encamped between Socor and Azekah, and Ephesdamim. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered and encamped in the valley of Elah, and drew up in line of battle against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side with a valley between them. And there came out from the camp of the Philistines, a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a helmet of bronze on his head and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. And he had greaves of bronze upon his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. And the shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam,

and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron, and his shield-bearer went before him. He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, Why have you come out to draw up for a battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us. And the Philistines said, I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together. When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistines,

they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Now David was the son of an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah, named Jesse, who had eight sons. In the days of Saul, the man was already old and advanced in years. The three eldest sons of Jesse had followed Saul to the battle, and the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, the next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. David was the youngest. The three eldest followed Saul, but David went back and forth between Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. For forty days the Philistine

came forward and took his stand morning and evening. And Jesse said to David his son, Take for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers. Also take these ten cheeses to the commander of their thousand. See how your brothers fare, and bring some token from them. Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines. And David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper and took the provisions and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the encampment as the host was going forth to the battle line shouting the war cry. And Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle army against army. And David left the

things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers. As he talked with them, behold, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him. All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid. And the men of Israel said, Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And the man who kills him, the king will enrich with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel.

And David said to the men who stood by him, What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? And the people answered him in the same way, So shall it be done to the man who kills him. Now Eliab, his eldest brother, heard when he spoke to the men, and Eliab's anger was kindled 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 presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle. And David said, What have I done now? Was it not but a word? And he turned away from him toward another and spoke in the same way, and the people again answered him as before. When the words which David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him.

And David said to Saul, And Saul said to David, But David said 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 it arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has killed both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, seeing that he has defied the armies of the living God. And David said,

And Saul said to David, Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. And David belted on his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go for he was not used to them. Then David said to Saul, I cannot go with these for I'm not used to them. And David put them off. Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's bag or wallet. His sling was in his hand and he drew near to the Philistine. And the Philistine came on and drew near to David with his shield bearer in front of him.

And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him for he was but a youth, ruddy and comely 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. The Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field. Then David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin,

but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel and that all this earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand.

When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead and he fell on his face to the ground. So David prevailed over

the Philistine with a sling and with the stone and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaarim as far as Gath and Ekron. And the Israelites came back from chasing the Philistines and they plundered their camp, and David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem. But he put his armor in his tent. When Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As your soul lives,

O king, I cannot tell. And the king said, inquire whose son the stripling is. And 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. And Saul said to him, whose son are you, young man? And David answered, I am the son of your servant Jesse, the Bethlehemite. Psalm 12. Plea for help in evil times. To the choir master, according to the Shemaneath. A Psalm of David. Help, Lord, for there is no longer anyone that is godly,

for the faithful have vanished from among the sons of men. Everyone utters lies to his neighbor, with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts, those who say, with our tongue we will prevail, our lips are with us, who is our master? Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan, I will now arise, says the Lord. I will place him in the safety for which he longs. The promises of the Lord are promises that are pure, silver refined in a furnace on the ground,

purified seven times. Do, O Lord, protect us. Guard us forever from this generation. On every side, the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among the sons of men. Father in heaven, we give you praise and we give you glory and honor and we give you just thanks. Thank you, God, for all that you've given to us. The very fact that our existence comes from you. I mean, you are the ground of all being, Father in heaven. You are the source of everything,

that you are being itself. And just the fact that we get to exist is because you share your being with us. You share the gift of existing with us. If you were to forget us for a moment, Lord God, we would cease to exist. And so thank you. Thank you for remembering us at all times. Thank you for holding us in existence at all times. Thank you for being so faithful and being such a good dad. Help us to not forget you. Help us to remember you and remember your love. Remember your faithfulness. Help us to walk in faithfulness as we walk in thankfulness as well this day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So I don't know if I've ever said this before, but 1 Samuel chapter 17 is literally

one of my favorite chapters in the entire Bible. I love the story of David and Goliath, and for so many reasons. I love the fact that when here comes Goliath, right, and he challenges the armies of Israel, basically, you know, we don't need to have both our armies kill each other. How about let's just have one person go against one person and then whoever wins that army wins. It's a style of warfare that existed back in the day. And it's, I mean, it spares a lot of people's lives, which is pretty great thing. It's very high stakes though, obviously. But here's what I love about this is when David is sent from Bethlehem, right from his, his father, Jesse sends him to bring food to his brothers. David hears this

and something in David is like, well, someone's got to fight. Someone's got to do something. Remember how Jonathan was that you have the armies of Israel who are hiding in holes and Jonathan sees this and he's like, we have to go into battle. We have to do something against these Philistines. Here's David who has the same kind of heart. He's the same kind of person. David hears this challenge. Here's my favorite part. Not my favorite part. Here's a favorite part where David's saying, you know, someone's got to fight. Someone's got to fight. And his oldest brother, Eliab, hears him. And here's what he says. Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the

wilderness? I know your presumption, the evil of your heart. You just come down to see the battle. And David's, you know, so the older brother, classic older brother right there, right? Just, I know what's going on. You just wanted to see the show. You just wanted to talk big. And I love David's response because he says, what have I done now? Was it not but a word? And I just like, as a younger brother, I'm like, what? Why are you so mad at me? I was just talking, you know, so good. I also have a great older brother, great younger brother. They're all great. Anyways, back to our story. What we have is then David with his just boldness and courage, where David says to the king, let your heart not fail because of him, because of Goliath. Let no man's heart fail because of

Goliath. I'll go down and fight with this Philistine. He's as a kid, he's like, no, hey, king, I know that, you know, you've led people to battle. I know you've been fighting for the people. I know you've been fighting for the people. I know you've been fighting the Philistines, but don't let your heart be troubled. I've got this. And I just think this is incredible. This shows us the heart of David that he's willing. And here's, okay, we'll keep moving.

Keep moving forward. Next favorite part. When Saul says you can't fight against him because you're a youth and he's been a warrior since his youth. And David describes how he spent his summers. Basically, David says, yeah, I tend my father's sheep. You know, that's not just sitting around all day playing a liar like he played for Saul. He's not just sitting around all day playing Xbox. What he's doing is he is spending his time day and, defending these sheep against lions and against bears. And he says, yes, that's what I do. See, here's the thing, it's so powerful. David has been training for this

moment by doing his dad's will, right? Jesse sent him out to guard the flocks. And so here's David as a kid who's in charge of protecting the sheep. He's in charge of protecting the flocks. And so what that means is he means, it means he has to fight against lions and bears, maybe even tigers, oh my. And what he has to do there is place his life on the line and learn how to fight. And because he did that then, he can do this now. And this is so, so important for every one of us.

We realize we don't, none of us know the battles that we're going to have to face in the future. All we know is the task that is at hand. And the great lesson for us is when we do the task that is at hand, we are preparing ourselves. We're being prepared for the battle that we're going to be facing in the future. And if I avoid the task at hand, if I avoid doing my daily duties, essentially another way to say it, if I avoid the battles of now, I won't be prepared for the battles of later. David did not avoid the battles earlier on so that he was able to rise up in the moment when all Israel needed someone who was not just willing, but also able to face the giant.

And I just think, think about this. You and I are going to have giants in our lives. And so what we're called to do is, okay, face the battles of today so that we can be prepared to conquer the giants of tomorrow. Then Saul clothes David with his own armor, gives him his own sword. And remember, Saul is a shoulder and a head and a shoulder taller than anyone else. And so this would not fit David. He was not, I assume, not that tall. His height is not mentioned once in scripture. And so we recognize this is not going to fit him and he's not used to it. He is not trained with these weapons. He's trained with his sling. He's trained with his staff. Last thing, maybe second to last thing. So David, yes, two last things.

Here we go. There's a moment when David goes out against the Philistine. He goes out against Goliath and it says in verse 48, it says, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. This is just critical. David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. This is just critical. David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. Sometimes I dawdle. Sometimes you might dawdle as well. Sometimes I hesitate. And sometimes you might hesitate as well,

especially when it's time to move. It's time to go. It might be time to fight. It's time to act right now. And I hesitate and I wait and I linger and I maybe stroll up to the battle line and David here runs to the battle line. And that is just, again, pray about this. Pray about, God, when do you want me to race toward the battle line? When do you, call me to wait, but when do you want me to race toward the battle line?

And here is the last thing. David is a man after God's own heart in this battle. He does not say, I want to fight because I want to win all the prizes that Saul had promised. He doesn't say, I want to fight because I want glory. He doesn't say, I want to fight because I want to be the person who does all the great things. He says, I'm fighting because this person is insulting the name of the living God. That he says, the worst thing about Goliath is not just the fact that he's a Philistine

and they've been oppressing the Israelites, but that he is insulting, he's offending the name of the true and living God. And that's what made something rise up in David. It was defending the Lord's honor. It was his love for God that brought him to the battle line. And I just think that is really incredibly remarkable. So we have all these lessons from just one chapter of 1 Samuel 17.

I promise that in the future I won't go so deeply into. I just really like this chapter. One chapter, but still 20 minutes, roughly. You guys, thank you so much for your prayers. I recognize, you know, it's day 110 and I always ask you to pray. And I just, I can tell, I can tell, I feel so honored to be part of this community as we're journeying through the scriptures in this next period, time period of the Royal Royal kingdom. We've been, is there day

five into this, you know, on day 110. And, uh, I'm just, yeah. Honored. Thank you so much for your prayers. Please know my prayers for you. Let's keep praying for each other because of the fact that we can't do this on our own, especially when we need to face giants. We can't do this on our own. And so we need each other. And so we'll pray for each other. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless. you