TRC DB w/ Lena's Journalin' to 1 Sam 17*****

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

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1 Samuel 17:1-58
Goliath Challenges the Israelites
1The Philistines now mustered their army for battle and camped between Socoh in Judah and Azekah at Ephes-dammim. 2Saul countered by gathering his troops near the valley of Elah. 3So the Philistines and Israelites faced each other on opposite hills, with the valley between them.
4Then Goliath, a Philistine champion from Gath, came out of the Philistine ranks to face the forces of Israel. He was a giant of a man, measuring over nine feet F58 tall! 5He wore a bronze helmet and a coat of mail that weighed 125 pounds. F59 6He also wore bronze leggings, and he slung a bronze javelin over his back. 7The shaft of his spear was as heavy and thick as a weaver's beam, tipped with an iron spearhead that weighed fifteen pounds. F60 An armor bearer walked ahead of him carrying a huge shield.
8Goliath stood and shouted across to the Israelites, "Do you need a whole army to settle this? Choose someone to fight for you, and I will represent the Philistines. We will settle this dispute in single combat! 9If your man is able to kill me, then we will be your slaves. But if I kill him, you will be our slaves! 10I defy the armies of Israel! Send me a man who will fight with me!" 11When Saul and the Israelites heard this, they were terrified and deeply shaken.
Jesse Sends David to Saul's Camp
12Now David was the son of a man named Jesse, an Ephrathite from Bethlehem in the land of Judah. Jesse was an old man at that time, and he had eight sons in all. 13Jesse's three oldest sons—Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah—had already joined Saul's army to fight the Philistines. 14David was the youngest of Jesse's sons. Since David's three oldest brothers were in the army, they stayed with Saul's forces all the time. 15But David went back and forth between working for Saul and helping his father with the sheep in Bethlehem.
16For forty days, twice a day, morning and evening, the Philistine giant strutted in front of the Israelite army.
17One day Jesse said to David, "Take this half-bushel F61 of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread to your brothers. 18And give these ten cuts of cheese to their captain. See how your brothers are getting along, and bring me back a letter from them. F62 "
19David's brothers were with Saul and the Israelite army at the valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines. 20So David left the sheep with another shepherd and set out early the next morning with the gifts. He arrived at the outskirts of the camp just as the Israelite army was leaving for the battlefield with shouts and battle cries. 21Soon the Israelite and Philistine forces stood facing each other, army against army. 22David left his things with the keeper of supplies and hurried out to the ranks to greet his brothers. 23As he was talking with them, he saw Goliath, the champion from Gath, come out from the Philistine ranks, shouting his challenge to the army of Israel.
24As soon as the Israelite army saw him, they began to run away in fright. 25"Have you seen the giant?" the men were asking. "He comes out each day to challenge Israel. And have you heard about the huge reward the king has offered to anyone who kills him? The king will give him one of his daughters for a wife, and his whole family will be exempted from paying taxes!"
26David talked to some others standing there to verify the report. "What will a man get for killing this Philistine and putting an end to his abuse of Israel?" he asked them. "Who is this pagan Philistine anyway, that he is allowed to defy the armies of the living God?" 27And David received the same reply as before: "What you have been hearing is true. That is the reward for killing the giant."
28But when David's oldest brother, Eliab, heard David talking to the men, he was angry. "What are you doing around here anyway?" he demanded. "What about those few sheep you're supposed to be taking care of? I know about your pride and dishonesty. You just want to see the battle!"
29"What have I done now?" David replied. "I was only asking a question!" 30He walked over to some others and asked them the same thing and received the same answer. 31Then David's question was reported to King Saul, and the king sent for him.
David Kills Goliath
32"Don't worry about a thing," David told Saul. "I'll go fight this Philistine!"
33"Don't be ridiculous!" Saul replied. "There is no way you can go against this Philistine. You are only a boy, and he has been in the army since he was a boy!"
34But David persisted. "I have been taking care of my father's sheep," he said. "When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, 35I go after it with a club and take the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death. 36I have done this to both lions and bears, and I'll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God! 37The LORD who saved me from the claws of the lion and the bear will save me from this Philistine!" Saul finally consented. "All right, go ahead," he said. "And may the LORD be with you!"
38Then Saul gave David his own armor—a bronze helmet and a coat of mail. 39David put it on, strapped the sword over it, and took a step or two to see what it was like, for he had never worn such things before. "I can't go in these," he protested. "I'm not used to them." So he took them off again. 40He picked up five smooth stones from a stream and put them in his shepherd's bag. Then, armed only with his shepherd's staff and sling, he started across to fight Goliath.
41Goliath walked out toward David with his shield bearer ahead of him, 42sneering in contempt at this ruddy-faced boy. 43"Am I a dog," he roared at David, "that you come at me with a stick?" And he cursed David by the names of his gods. 44"Come over here, and I'll give your flesh to the birds and wild animals!" Goliath yelled.
45David shouted in reply, "You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD Almighty—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46Today the LORD will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel! 47And everyone will know that the LORD does not need weapons to rescue his people. It is his battle, not ours. The LORD will give you to us!"
48As Goliath moved closer to attack, David quickly ran out to meet him. 49Reaching into his shepherd's bag and taking out a stone, he hurled it from his sling and hit the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank in, and Goliath stumbled and fell face downward to the ground. 50So David triumphed over the Philistine giant with only a stone and sling. And since he had no sword, 51he ran over and pulled Goliath's sword from its sheath. David used it to kill the giant and cut off his head.
Israel Routs the Philistines
When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they turned and ran. 52Then the Israelites gave a great shout of triumph and rushed after the Philistines, chasing them as far as Gath F63 and the gates of Ekron. The bodies of the dead and wounded Philistines were strewn all along the road from Shaaraim, as far as Gath and Ekron. 53Then the Israelite army returned and plundered the deserted Philistine camp. 54(David took Goliath's head to Jerusalem, but he stored the Philistine's armor in his own tent.)
55As Saul watched David go out to fight Goliath, he asked Abner, the general of his army, "Abner, whose son is he?" "I really don't know," Abner said.
56"Well, find out!" the king told him.
57After David had killed Goliath, Abner brought him to Saul with the Philistine's head still in his hand. 58"Tell me about your father, my boy," Saul said. And David replied, "His name is Jesse, and we live in Bethlehem."
FOOTNOTES:F58: Hebrew 6 cubits and 1 span [which totals about 9.75 feet or 3 meters]; Greek version and Dead Sea Scrolls read 4 cubits and 1 span [which totals about 6.75 feet or 2 meters]. F59: Hebrew 5,000 shekels [57 kilograms]. F60: Hebrew 600 shekels [6.8 kilograms]. F61: Hebrew ephah [18 liters]. F62: Hebrew and take their pledge. F63: As in some Greek manuscripts; Hebrew reads a valley.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.


~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
Phillistines are representative of immigrants, sojourners in a foreign land, a land they claim they want or will stay in, but it does not belong to them, it is not theirs.
Land can speak of many things, earth, people’s lives or territory. This territory of earth belongs to God and all of the people in it.
Psalm 24:1 The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it.
The world and all its people belong to him.
But there is an imposter, one who wants to be God, not as God or like God, but take God and all that is God’s over. He is a thief (John 10) and a robber, he’s trying to take territory, he’s trying for people’s allegiance, not because he’s a covenant demonstrator of love, but because he’s a liar and a thief. He hates the True and Living God and anyone who resembles Him, guess who that is baby?
You and I are made in the image and likeness of God. He’s after us, our loyalty, our service, our affections, our eternal souls. He doesn’t want us so he can show us love, care for us eternally and bring the joy of life to us. He only wants some company for the sake of revenge against God and to wage his war against God and His beloved. He only wants to use us to flaunt his measurable power. He thinks the more he gets the more he has, he’s deceived. If one does not have God’s truth, he has nothing and numbers do not mean a whole lot in eternal doom, which is his destination.
Get the picture? So, the Philistines, the demons destined to hell fire, gathered together and were unleashed in the earth realm to get recruits, to see if God has any allegiances left after times of testing. They come against God’s covenantal and called ones, they taunt them day and night, they come out for the sole purpose of making them afraid and to bring their minds into a place of doubt before God, eternal doubt.
Notice the gathering TOGETHER. That means they assemble. Who else do we know “assembles”? How often do they “assemble”? Every week one time? Sunday’s maybe?
The root meanings here mean they come together each individual in orderly array for one purpose? That sounds like unity. Their assembled unity brings power to threaten in the natural and the spiritual realms. Whom do you find yourself assembling with? How often and for what purpose? Is there unity and power?
This assembly made the people afraid, they are so afraid that just one man could torment them, because he seemed so big. Yet they are an army, but because they are dis-unified, there’s no power, they are scattered in fear and the demon power has kept taunting day and night until….
A young man arose, a man of covenant arose, a man of understanding arose, a man who knew God intimately arose, a man of revealed knowledge and the wisdom of God arose. Am I that man? Are you that man?
David means “beloved”, the beloved arose, who are the beloved of God? We are, His assembled church is. Notice David did not ask how big the giant was or how long his lies had grown in them. He knew how big his God is. David was a tender of the spotless sacrificial lambs of God. He was in the business of taking care of God’s interests and of what would benefit God’s people, keeping His people close to Him. Without sacrifice there are breeches to be filled, the sheep he tended filled these gaps between man and God, David was in the business of repairing breeches!
He had the heart of a shepherd, these were God’s sheep, and he would not stand for there to be a breech between them and their God! Are we that way? Do we see breeches and do our hearts cry out for others to be able to come to Christ as we have? Do what it takes to fill that breech, stand between them and their enemies, the enemies of their souls? Do we love as much as God does? He laid down His life to fill the breech.
40 is the number of testing and judgment. The people of God are under a testing of faith, will we keep it no matter what an enemy tries to tell us or do to us? The world is under righteous judgments if we do not give them truth and bring them to a place of rescue. Do we love the world enough to stand in the place of love for them?
Love gives, that’s God’s nature. What would we do to save a soul? Will we sacrifice, fight God’s enemies? We can’t fight if we do not know His words, nor know Him. If we do we’ll lose and lose the souls too. We have to be changed by God’s word personally so we can show someone else the way. David brought food out to those who were in battle. Do we have enough spiritual bread each day to give to our brothers and potential brothers? We have enough, have been given enough, how much have we gathered, taken in and distributed? David was sent to see if his brothers were getting along. Wow.
What will a man get for slaying this giant? A daughter of the king and exemption from owing taxes, he and his whole family won’t owe taxes. This symbolizes a new family, the person who fights with and for God and His people gets to be a part of God’s family, even though he may not have been born royal, he’s made royal and is forgiven his eternal debt of his original sin nature before God. He and his whole household will be saved Acts 16:31
A prerequisite qualifier to killing enemy powers over people is that we take care of God’s sheep. In caring for the house of God and the people of God we learn how to defeat enemies that are bigger than us, bigger than the assembly.
He picked up and grabbed a hold of 5 smooth stones. Smooth stones means water had poured over them for quite sometime, as they stayed in pretty much the same place. These are representative of being in the church, taught and trained and discipled by God, His word and His servants sent to qualify us. 5 stones could represent being under the training of apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists and teachers, until we grow up and learn enough to go take what we’ve learned and do it. David has learned a few things in those shepherding fields, he took what he’d learned with him into battle that day and demonstrated it. The 5 became one in power over an enemy.
The enemy wants to give our flesh to the birds of the air, demonic spirits who’d love to usher us out of God’s Divine and eternal presence. That’s his mission for all human life. What are we doing about THAT? For our own selves and then for our family and for the world? Who’s name do we come in? Who’s name is so branded on us its mark can never be removed? Do we bear the name of Christ? David did not wore natural armor that day, but he did bear the name of Christ and that’s what the angelic/demonic realm looks at anyways.
Who’s SON are you? Sons are discipled. Are you being discipled? If not, you are not yet a son, but are still a child. It’s ok to be a child for a time, but as in the natural world, we are only children for a short time and then it is time to grow up, there’s only one way to do that, be a disciple. The enemy is looking at sons who have fathers. The scripture in the NT says, there are many, many teachers, but not many fathers.
Who’s your “daddy”? Notice they did not say, “God is his Father”, though that was the case and David acted as though his father was God. In the mention of who David’s father was, it was that of a natural man who’d trained him. Jesse. Who’s training are you under? Is it intimate or casual? Even Jesus had disciples of closer or less intimate of levels, which level of discipleship are you at? Have you come closer to a man or woman of God and submitted yourself to their godly training? Do you change at their to you that are words from God? Jesus had 12 disciples, 3 were closer than the others and even in them was one who’d get very close to hear His heart. Then there were even 70 who sat under his words and went out to serve Him.
Jesse means, “I possess”. Are you possessed, by God? Are you a slave to righteousness? Do you love who and what God loves? Are you possessive or possessed, by God? What possess you? Does anyone possess you or are you your own man? Who’s son are you?


Daily Repetitive Verses:

John 3:17
You know these things – now do them! That is the path of blessing.