“And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. “
Hebrews 11:32-34(NIV)
I recently read this scripture and thought it might be fun to take a look at the people mentioned. The fifth person mentioned is David. I will paraphrase some of the scriptures because it is several chapters. I’ll leave a link at the bottom so you can read it.
I’m only going to write about David’s life up until the point he is king. There is a lot of information to cover on David as a whole.
David, the Shepherd
The Isralites wanted a king so God provided one for them. If you’d like a little background about this, I blogged about it here:
God rejected Saul and chose another king. God told the prophet, Samuel, to go to the house of Jesse. One of Jesse’s sons is the new king. Jesse is the grandson of Boaz and Ruth and has eight sons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse
Samuel sees one of Jesse’s sons and thinks to himself. This guy is a king! God responds to Samuel with one of my favorite scriptures:
“But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’”
1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV) emphasis mine
Jesse’s sons all walk in front of Samuel. God tells him Nope, No, Forget it. Samuel says to Jesse. Are these all of your kids? He says no, my youngest is out tending sheep. David is asked to appear and God tells Samuel to anoint him. He is the new king. The spirit of the Lord is with David beginning on that day. King Saul does not know at this time that he is on the outs and David is the new king.
King Saul was not a nice guy and music would calm him down. David could play the lyre and Saul liked it so he told Jesse that he wanted David in his court and appointed David his armor bearer.
David and Goliath
I’m going to skip this part. A lot of people know the story of David and Goliath. I don’t want to overdo the story. I may circle back to it in another post. If you want me to blog about it, let me know in the comments 🙂
Spoiler Alert**David is appointed a ranking officer in Saul’s army after he defeats Goliath. He becomes a star to the Israelites and they sing songs about him. Saul is jealous of this and begins to try to kill David.
David the Son-in-Law
King Saul wanted David to marry his daughter. Saul’s thoughts were self-serving. Women are crazy and my daughter will be his downfall. King Saul told his attendants to go to David and tell him to marry Michal. David said No way. I’m not going to be his son-in-law. Are ya’ll crazy? The attendants told David what a good thing it would be and King Saul only asks 100 foreskins of the enemy as the price to marry. This is a great deal! David agreed and got the 100 foreskins and counted out each one in front of the king. Yes, it’s true. It’s in the Bible. Don’t picture it though…..David marries Michal and is now King Saul’s son-in-law.
David the Hunted
King Saul wants David dead because David is becoming more popular and king Saul wants him dead. He tells all of his attendants to kill David. Jonathan is Saul’s son. He and David are friends. Jonathan warns David that Saul is out to kill him. David is running around and hiding in several places with Saul right behind him plotting his death.
David has an advantage against Saul twice. He is close enough two times to kill him. He does not and Saul is grateful, but he still wants David dead.
During this time, Saul marries off Michal to another person and David gets two more wives that he met while running around hiding. David is also fighting enemies in war at this time while hiding from Saul. He seeks refuge with the Philistines and stays with them for a while. The Philistines are the enemies of the Israelites. Goliath was a Philistine. Saul hears that David is staying with the Philistines so he figures they will kill him so he gives up his hunt.
David aligns with one of the Philistine kings named Achish. David fights for the Philistines and Achish the loot and animals he gets from the fighting. Achish names David his bodyguard. The Philistines are preparing to go to war with the Israelites and the other army commanders tell Achish to get rid of David. He will turn against us once the fighting starts. You can’t trust him. We are enemies. Remember the songs they sing about him. Achish says David, you’ve got to go.
David the King
The Philistines are fighting with Saul and his men. They kill Jonathan and wound Saul. Saul kills himself by falling on his sword. David hears of the death of Saul and his sons and mourns them. The house of Saul goes to war with David and his house. This lasts for a long time.
David’s house grows stronger and Saul’s house grows weaker. David demands his wife back. She is returned but her new husband shows up crying for her. David tells him to leave. David continues to wipe out Saul’s house and the people backing it.
The leaders of Israel come together and ask David to be their king.
“David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years. In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years.”
2 Samuel 5:4-5
There is a lot that we can learn from David. He was not perfect, far from it. The more you dig into his life you see his mistakes. He turned to God and was led by God. We can look to God to lead our lives. He is our bodyguard and King.
If you would like to read the scriptures, here is a link. It starts in 1 Samuel 16-2 Samuel 2. The link is for the New International Version, but you can click on the right on the webpage and change to a different version.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Samuel%2016&version=NIV
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