David (God’s Molded King)
1 Samuel 17 New King James Version (NKJV) Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle, and were gathered at Sochoh, which belongs to Judah; they encamped between Sochoh and Azekah, in Ephes Dammim. 2 And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and they encamped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up in battle array against the Philistines. 3 The Philistines stood on a mountain on one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was [a]armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. 6 And he had bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. 7 Now the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his iron spearhead weighed six hundred shekels; and a shield-bearer went before him. 8 Then he stood and cried out to the armies of Israel, and said to them, “Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. 9 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.” 10 And the Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.” 11 When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. 12 Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse, and who had eight sons. And the man was old, advanced in years, in the days of Saul. 13 The three oldest sons of Jesse had gone to follow Saul to the battle. The names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. 14 David was the youngest. And the three oldest followed Saul. 15 But David occasionally went and returned from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Bethlehem. 16 And the Philistine drew near and presented himself forty days, morning and evening. 17 Then Jesse said to his son David, “Take now for your brothers an ephah of this dried grain and these ten loaves, and run to your brothers at the camp. 18 And carry these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and see how your brothers fare, and bring back news of them.” 19 Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the Valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines. 20 So David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper, and took the things and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the camp as the army was going out to the fight and shouting for the battle. 21 For Israel and the Philistines had drawn up in battle array, army against army. 22 And David left his supplies in the hand of the supply keeper, ran to the army, and came and greeted his brothers. 23 Then as he talked with them, there was the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, coming up from the armies of the Philistines; and he spoke according to the same words. So David heard them. 24 And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were dreadfully afraid. 25 So the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel; and it shall be that the man who kills him the king will enrich with great riches, will give him his daughter, and give his father’s house exemption from taxes in Israel.” 26 Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, “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?” 27 And the people answered him in this manner, saying, “So shall it be done for the man who kills him.” 28 Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab’s anger was aroused against David, and he said, “Why did you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the insolence of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.” 29 And David said, “What have I done now? Is[b] there not a cause?” 30 Then he turned from him toward another and said the same thing; and these people answered him as the first ones did. 31 Now when the words which David spoke were heard, they reported them to Saul; and he sent for him. 32 Then David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” 33 And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.” 34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, 35 I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 Moreover David said, “The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!” 38 So Saul clothed David with his [c]armor, and he put a bronze helmet on his head; he also clothed him with a coat of mail. 39 David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them.” So David took them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand; and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag, in a pouch which he had, and his sling was in his hand. And he drew near to the Philistine. 41 So the Philistine came, and began drawing near to David, and the man who bore the shield went before him. 42 And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained[d] him; for he was only a youth, ruddy and good-looking. 43 So the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 And the Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!” 45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, 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. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. 47 Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.” 48 So it was, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. 49 Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth. 50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David. 51 Therefore David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it. And when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. 52 Now the men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted, and pursued the Philistines as far as the entrance of [e]the valley and to the gates of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines fell along the road to Shaaraim, even as far as Gath and Ekron. 53 Then the children of Israel returned from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their tents. 54 And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent. 
Some of us have found ourselves recently in a position of asking God, “what next Lord”? Only to be given an answer that makes you question, “why me Lord”? David found himself in this exact position many times. What he would often soon realize is that he was right where he needed to be in that moment of time for God to grow and mold him into the man that His people needed. He was being transformed from a lowly shepherd boy into a king and in those days, that took a huge transformation. One of those moments, just so happened to be while Israel was at war with the Philistines and lined up perfectly with God’s will for David. David was sent to the battlefield for a simple task that day, which was to take lunch to some hungry brothers. In those days, armies depended heavily on the citizens of their people to help feed them. The Scripture tells us that Goliath had taunted Israel for 40 days (scriptural evidence of a period of transformation). Scripture often uses a period of 40 days or years to separate two time periods. David came to the battlefield as a shepherd boy, but he emerged as “a man after God’s own heart.” David entered the battlefield as a boy in the eyes of Israelites, but was transformed into their soon warrior king that very day. The days to come for David would be difficult and sometimes nearly unbearable as he fled for his own life many days, until Saul’s selfishness, guilt, and jealousy soon brought him his own demise. David may have already known that he was the warrior king in his heart, but the people had yet to be shown who David was. What was interesting is that even though David’s importance to the land was shown to the people that day, they still had no idea what David’s full-potential and his soon coming destiny would be. They now knew that David was a well-gifted warrior, but they had no idea that he would soon be their king. Don’t expect people to always recognize who you know you are in God’s eyes. There is a strong possibility that they may not even recognize the real you inside, because you have yet to be revealed to them. So, the next time you mention your vision, dreams, goals, ambitions, or just something God has showed you and they don’t seem to believe you or catch the vision with you, don’t be surprised. They just haven’t been showed your true identity, true skills, true anointing, or true abilities yet. The people didn’t know that God had been working on David since the day Samuel anointed him as the future king. They didn’t know that David had been spending some time around the throne, not only playing his music on the harp, but also growing in his understanding of the position he was serving. The people had not seen where God was preparing David not just intellectually, but physically for the role he was about to assume. They were not there when David slaughtered a bear and ripped a sheep from it’s mouth. They weren’t there when David killed a lion with his bare hands. However, the most important members of the military were there when David killed the giant who no one else dared to stand against in a time of war against their God and nation. What God knew and David would soon realize is that it would take the loyalty and love of not just Jonathan, but every rank of the military in order to become King and have a successful reign. God was preparing David and aligning his destiny. God has a plan for you, on his time, not ours. You may be going through situations, you may not be slaughtering the bears and lions of this world with bare hands, but you may be fighting the wild beasts and demonic spirits of this world coming against your family, your livelihood, your future. God may have placed a vision, a dream, and destiny in your heart and now you been through some training, through some trials and you are tired. You may be weary in body and heart, but don’t give up! Understand that God has been preparing you for this very moment in time. He has been preparing you for your future, not the grave. Perhaps you have entered a place, where like David, you are finding yourself in the hiding places, distraught, and in a difficult position to think much about a future. So, what do we do when we are facing the Goliath (giant) of life when there seems to be little hope for the future? We must fight unbelief with what God has promised us and prepared us for. So what if you are weary, tired, older, younger, poor, not well spoken or any other excuse. Acts 2:17 tells us, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams”— I remember Jentezen Franklin once saying, “ it takes young men’s visions to achieve old men’s dreams. Wherever you are in life, business, ministry, or any area in life, God has something more for you! Don’t worry about the dreams God has given you being to grand or big for your age, God will work it out! However, to achieve the goal or vision, you have to go through the process of preparation. The process will not be easy and will always come at a price. The bigger the end result, the harder the process. Just look at all David had to do to get where he was taken. Killing a bear and lion with his hands was no feat, but then to also face a giant with a sling shot had to be quite a challenge. However, David was not afraid of the process and he embraced the preparation. We know that David was prepared because we see the confidence that he had in the abilities that God had given him. We see the situations that David recalls prior to going into that battle. We see that David picks up not one, but five stones because he knows if he misses or requires another shot at Goliaths big head, he has another round waiting to go. We have to be the same way in our preparation and training. We have to have faith and strength in the process. We must be prepared when our number is finally called and God gives us a test. How many battles with Goliath have we missed because we were not prepared? How many blessings from God have passed us by because of our disobedience? David could have gotten frustrated with the preparation and process, but instead he stayed the course and achieved great things because of his love for the lord, faith, and obedience. If you find yourself in the process today, stay the course and allow God to mold you into who He needs you to be. The day that David struck down Goliath, the mighty Philistine warrior, he won the hearts and minds of the very force that would allow him to be escorted straight to the throne. God is trying to align your life today in the same way, to be positioned for greatness and what He has in store for you.
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