The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - 5 Smooth Stones, Choose Your Weapon

Episode Date: January 25, 2018

Have you ever felt like David up against your own Goliaths in life? In today’s episode, Jeff takes some basic principles from the epic battle of David and Goliath and shows you how to use them for your battles. Take off the armor the world provides you, choose your most powerful weapon (hint: you can take it with you anywhere) and prepare to fight your battle through the power of the Holy Spirit.

You're listening to The Jeff Kavins Show. Episode 49, Five Smooth Stones, Choose Your Weapon. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven show.

I want to welcome everybody listening to the show. I'm actually bringing you to Israel on this show. and we have about 200 people with us standing in the Ila Valley, which is a very special valley that we're going to be talking about. And I would like all of my pilgrims to greet you right now. These are 200 people from all over the world. Excellent. Well, I do want to welcome everybody and we do have people listening in on one of our last talks

here. But we are at the Valley of Ilaa and I will provide some pictures in the show notes so that people can see not only you, but they can see where we're at right now because this is an important place in salvation history. And for many of us who have been struggling in our lives with feeling like we are the small one, we've got giants in our life, there's so much that we can learn about this epic battle that took place in the Ila Valley between David and Goliath. And I know that many listening to the show too would agree in saying that I have found myself in very difficult situations and I'm not sure

exactly what to do. What we want to do here is we want to take some basic principles from this epic battle that took place here and bring them back to the United States so that we can put them into practice in our life. As we stand here, we're standing in a creek bed. Show notes will be provided. We are standing in a creek bed and not too far from here is Bethlehem where this young man, David, was being a shepherd. He was a shepherd, but while he was being a shepherd, there was a great battle that was going to take place here in the Valley of Ila. The story really picks up.

It picks up with Chapter 17 of 1st Samuel between David and Goliath. And prior to this, in chapter 16, something interesting happens where David is anointed, the second king of Israel. Saul being the first. And there's an interesting little comment in 1 Samuel chapter 16 in verse 6 when it says, when they came, he looked on Elieb and thought, surely, the Lord's anointed. Now, Elieb is David's oldest brother. And they're thinking, surely, this is the guy that's going to be anointed, the next king of Israel. But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees, man looks on the outward appearance,

but the Lord looks on the heart. Then you move over into chapter 17, and chapter 17 is this epic battle. Now, the description of where the battle takes place is very clear. It's very clear that it is in a creek bed between two mountains. And those mountains are Azica and Soho, Azica and Soho. If you look behind me here, we'll take a picture of this for all of you listening and put it in the show notes, we've got Soko over here. Okay, I'm going to read this right here. Chapter 17, now the Philistines gathered their armies for the battle and they were gathered at Soko, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Soko and Azica. We've got Soko over here, and that hill, and then behind you, you can see up on a hill a tree that looks like

it's dead, kind of, and we'll put that picture in the show notes, too. That's Azica. Azica is where the Philistines are. Soco is where Judah is over here. The battle takes place right here in the creek bed when the two come together. So you're standing, you're sitting at a really historical site where one of the greatest battles ever took place. Now let me just give you just a little preface. When we talk about a battle between David and Goliath, we're not talking about a battle there's a little children's story. This is not a little children's story. This is a deadly battle between two champions and it's warfare. It's very, very serious. But I want to read this to you, and then we'll make

some comments on it. It says, and the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side. 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 in a span. Okay? 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 grieves 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 had weighed 600 shekels of iron, and his shield bearer went with him. Now, just with that description of his height and some of his equipment,

we know that numbers are important in salvation history. Seven is a number of covenant. Six is a number related to the beast. 666, and oftentimes six is a very negative connotation. Has a negative connotation, and it certainly does with Goliath. Verse 8, he stood and shouted to the ranks of his, Israel, why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine and are you not servants of Saul?

Now think about it for a moment. If you know your Bible, you'll know that in 1 Samuel chapter 9 in verse 2 earlier, Saul is described as the tallest man in Israel. So Saul is a big guy, but he's meeting someone who is even more formidable, and that is Goliath, right? And everybody would think that Saul would be the one to to take on Goliath, but that's not the way that it's going to turn out. Goliath, the Philistine, says, choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me.

If he's 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. So this is sort of a winner take all type of situation. When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. How many of you have ever faced something in your life where you realized you're outnumbered or there's something bigger than you that you are facing and it left you with the feeling of being dismayed or discouraged in many ways? Well, here comes David then in verse 12, this little, little kid. David was the son of the Ephraithite of Bethlehem and 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 Elieb, the firstborn, and next to him, Ambinidab, and the third Shama. David was the youngest. The three eldest followed Saul. But David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. For 40 days, the Philistine came forward and took his stand morning and evening.

Now, you know that 40 is a number of trial, right? That number has come up a lot of times on our pilgrimage as we've traveled around Israel. 40. Now, David is going back and forth between Bethlehem and the battle. So for 40 days, this youngster is coming back and forth, and it's probably kind of intriguing to see this battle, his three oldest brothers, some of his brother's friends, and King Saul standing off with the Philistines over on Azekat. Jesse said to David his son,

Take for your brothers an Ifah 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. David rose early in the morning and left the sheep with a keeper. And I think that's an interesting point that David, as a shepherd. He doesn't just leave. He leaves the sheep in someone's care. That's a real shepherd.

That's somebody who cares about the sheep. And he 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. Now it says in verse 22, and David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers. And this is where it gets interesting. Can you imagine this kid running up and all of a sudden he's standing next to his brothers looking, you know, curiously, okay, what's going on? What's going on? And he talked with them, as he talked to 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 them. And 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 was that? What's he going to get? Say it again, I didn't catch all that. What, you know, what is the guy going to get that kills the Philistine. And at that point, they said, for, you know, this is what he's going to get. He's going to be tax-free. He's going to get the king's daughter. And all of this. It's going to be really, really good. So verse 28 says, now Elieb, now who's Elieb?

The oldest brother. He heard when David spoke to the men, and Elieb's anger was kindled against David. And he said, why have you come down here? Now, think with me just a little bit. Why would Elium have a bit of an attitude towards David? Because in the previous chapter 16, Elium, the logical new king, was overlooked. And young David was chosen and anointed. So he's probably got a little bit of an attitude.

And with whom, he said, 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 then David says one of the greatest lines in the Bible. What have I done now? Doesn't that sound like a family? Doesn't that sound like, you know, a brotherly fight?

David's like, oh, wow, what's this all about? Well, what did you say the guy's going to get that kills the Philistine? Oh, he's going to get money, he's going to tax-free, he gets the king's daughter. Huh. And all of a sudden, his brother probably turns him. around. What are you doing here? You just came down here, you're just getting yourself attention. And David, what? What did I do? What did I do? Was it not but a word? And he turned away from him toward another and spoke in the same way. And the people answered him again 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, let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine, and Saul said to David, you're not able to go up against the Philistine. You are but a youth. And he has been a man of war from his youth. But David said to Saul, and this is very interesting. It's verse 34. Notice what David does. He doesn't start to say, no, I'm strong, I'm clever, I got ability. He starts to basically say what God has done for him before. And that's biblical praise. When you're in a tough situation and you are cornered and you don't know what to do, you begin to go deep into the resources of the Bible and you begin to quote what

God has done, not only in the Bible, but your own life. And that's what you cast. That's what you say. That's what comes from your mouth. And this is what David says in this tough situation. 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 him out of his mouth. And if he rose 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 Philistines shall be like one of them,

seeing he has defied the armies of the living God. And David said, the Lord, the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, go and the Lord be with you. And 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. And then you know what David said after trying Saul's armor? David said to Saul, I cannot go with these. I'm not used to them.

I'm not used to them. Let me pause there just for a second. I want to talk in just a moment. We're going to take a break. And when I come back, we're going to talk about the world's weapons versus the weapons that God gives us to fight our battles. We're coming to you from the valley of Elah. in Israel. We'll be back in a moment. It's hard to live out your Catholic faith on your own.

In fact, the Bible reveals that we need a community of people to help us on our journey of faith. If you're interested in finding that community by joining or starting a small group study, visit ascensionpress.com and sign up for a free ascension account. With your account, you'll get all the tools you need to start walking with others towards Christ. Thanks for coming back, and we are in the middle of the Valley of Elah, and we are talking about David fighting Goliath, and Saul has offered his armor to David, and David has said, I cannot use this, I'm not used to it.

Let me ask you a question. What armor does the world offer you in your trouble? What armor is the world currently offering you in the midst of your marital problems, your financial problems, your emotional trials, the difficult, you're having with extended family or your employment. Basically, the armor that the world has to offer us are things like Ellen, Dr. Phil, Oprah. Men are from Mars, women are from Venus. These are the weapons that the world offers us. But in the words of Dr. Phil, I just have to ask you, how's that working for you?

You see, the weapons that the world offers us, are in some ways a little helpful at times, but they can't deliver what we really need in the situation that we're in. We don't have the strength, and we're not used to fighting with those weapons. What we see here with David is that we see that David says, I have to trust in the Lord and the giftings that God has given me

and the simple tools that God has given me. So David said, I can't go with this. I'm not used to them. So David put them off, and you know what he did? He took his staff in his hand, and then he chose, and I'm bending down and grabbing a smooth stone from this creek. He grabbed five smooth stones and his slingshot. His slingshot and his five smooth stones.

That's what he took. Now, the question is, why did he take five smooth stones? Well, one of the answers is that in 2 Samuel, we found out in 2nd Samuel chapter 21 that Goliath has four other brothers. So, I'm prepared. David says, if I'm going to take him down and there's going to be retaliation with the others, I'm prepared. And so this youngster takes the five smooth stones and his slingshot, and then the Philistine came on and drew 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 comely in appearance. 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. I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field. And then David said to the Philistine, I love it.

You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin. 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 hosts 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 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 my hand. And when the Philistine rose and came and drew near to David, David ran quickly toward the

battle line to meet the Philistine. David put his hand into his bag, took out a stone, and slung it, struck the Philistine on his forehead, and the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground. Now, this is interesting. Those of you that know your Bible know that earlier in 1 Samuel chapter 5 in verse 4 you remember the great judge that defeated the philistine god the philistines you know you remember who that was samson and do you remember do you remember that when he defeated when he defeated the philistine the philistines do you remember what happened their God fell on his face. Remember that?

He fell flat on his face. That was an earlier story, actually, in 1st Samuel. Well, this is what's going to happen to this Philistine. When David slings the rock and hits him in the forehead, he falls just like that. Just as their false god fell, their champion fell. And it was all with this simple weapon of this rock. And, of course, David prevailed.

Why do I bring all that up? Well, not only is it a great story and we can learn so much from it, but I want to make it personal in your life with what you are going through in your life right now. We are only hours from finishing our pilgrimage and going to Ben-Gurion Airport. And we're standing in this creek bed with all kinds of stones between Azika and Soko. And when we go back, we might find ourselves with Goliaths in our life. but we don't fight with the tools of this world and the weapons of this world, do we? God has given us amazing weapons.

He's given us the shield of faith, you know. He's given us, if you read Ephesians, all kinds of spiritual weapons that we can fight with. But one of the things I challenge people to do as we are here, and those of you that are listening at home, you can do the same thing, is to gather five smooth stones, which I'll show you. picture of. And I have done this in the past where I have gathered five smooth stones. And I washed them, brought them back to America, and I took a Sharpie, and I wrote on each one a gift, a weapon that God has given me to start fighting my battles differently. Rather than using the tools

of this world, or rather than blaming others, running, self-medicating, burying myself in the internet, anger bursts and everything else, feeling sorry for myself. No, I have chosen the five weapons that I can fight with. And those weapons are things like the rosary. The rosary is a weapon. A prayer. Your mother, the new ark of the covenant will fight for you. The catechism is a great source of knowledge for warfare. The Bible is the sword of the spirit. A devotion to a particular saint is very powerful to ask them to intercede for you. The Eucharist is the greatest source of grace. A holy hour can be transformative in your life. A particular novena can be a mighty weapon to undo the knot in your life. And so what I encourage you to do, and we're going to take just a few

minutes here, and if you're listening to the podcast, you can do this right where you're at, is that we're going to pick up five smooth stones here in Israel. We're going to bring them back to the United States. And I want to encourage you to pray about what those five weapons that God has given you are. And when you get home, you can set those stones up in your kitchen, your office, wherever it might be. And when you have those difficult times, literally, just reach over there and grab that stone that you wrote rosary on and just take a moment and pray for your grandkids or whatever it is, that battle that you are fighting. This is a tangible sort of sacramental that points you to the real power that we have in the Holy Spirit. So this is a great way for you

to take something back home with you. If you're back home and you're not with us in Israel right now, I'm sure you can find a few smooth stones in your neighborhood. You might want to build that little small reminder in your house. And if you know of somebody who's going through a very difficult time in their life right now, not only do you have your smooth stones, your five, you might pick up an extra stone and bring it back to them and say, let me tell you where this came from. And I want you to know, I'm praying for you. And I'm interceding for you.

And I'm here for you. So we're going to close this out here for this day, podcast, and where we're at. And I want to close in prayer. And then we can seek out these stones and then pray about, Lord, what do you want me to fight with? Let me say this right before we end, that I'd love to hear your response listening to the show. I'd love to hear you. The email is simply the Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. And I encourage you to share the show with others.

Go ahead and make some comments on iTunes. It helps us out. and I pray that God will bless you. Let's close in prayer. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Lord, I thank you for all of my brothers and sisters who have gathered here between Azica and Soko.

And as we stand here, Lord, internally, there may be giants in our life that we're not sure what to do with. We thank you for giving us so many gifts. We thank you for giving us the power of the Holy Spirit from confirmation. We are confident that we can go home with the weapons that you have given us.

We don't need to fight with the psychology of the world or the strategy of the world. But Lord, we can fight by walking in your name and in your grace in the power of the Holy Spirit. And so we resolve as we leave Israel today to go back home to the United States, to Canada, to the Philippines, to Australia, to all over the world.

But you will help us as warriors to fight the good fight. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.