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He is RISEN, my friend! I still remember when I realized the miracle of Jesus Christ was not that He willingly died a gruesome death He himself didn’t deserve. After all, I’d known many other deceased people who, in my estimation, also hadn’t deserved to die. No, the miracle was that His body, so brutalized by Roman torture and crucifixion that it could not sustain life, spontaneously came alive again without human intervention!
I believe every real Christian experiences something like that when they are “born again.” It’s certainly my story. There was no life left in me when I reached for that revolver. Then the room lit up; I heard Psalm 23:4 and felt a supernatural comfort I still can’t fully describe or explain. I can’t help but wonder if that’s how Jesus would have described what happened to him that first Resurrection Sunday. Every day we’re one day closer to being able to ask Him, aren’t we?
In the meantime, this week I felt the Spirit drawing me to study multiple verses based on an intriguing change in description. In v. 21, Israel is identified as (one) army facing the Philistines, but in v. 36, David declares that Goliath had defied the armies of the living God. The Philistine had certainly insulted Israel’s fighters, but what other army(ies) did David mean? And then in v45, David described YHWH as the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whose name alone was powerful enough to defeat the Philistines.
This week, I began my observation of the text by focusing on the characters, locations, and timeframes I noticed in this passage.
Last Week’s Work
WHO (CHARACTERS)
My review focused on four key players in this scenario:
- the LORD, whom David predicts will deliver him from Goliath. I noticed LORD is all capital letters again in this book. I learned from my recent Psalm 23 study that Old Testament Hebrews referred to God using initials: His name, rendered LORD, was too sacred to pronounce. In v26, the LORD is also described as the living God.
- David, a shepherd, sent by his father with provisions for his older brothers serving in Israel’s army under King Saul. His belief in God was so strong, he volunteered to fight in place of the whole Israeli army against
- Goliath, a Philistine warrior and the fully armored giant, who repeatedly taunted God and Israel’s army but died when he took on David.
- Saul, the king of Israel and thus the leader of Israel’s army in the valley of Elah.
WHERE (LOCATIONS)
The verses I’m studying deal primarily with the battle between David and Goliath, which took place in the Elah Valley (v19). This is significant to me: not just because we just studied Psalm 23, in which David also mentions a valley, but also because it feels like a valley is a difficult place for a fight; if one side gets the better of the other, retreat would mean running up a slope, in full view of your enemies!
Next, David chose five stones from the brook (v40) and declared his goal was to beat Goliath so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel (vv46-47). After David killed Goliath, the Philistines fled (v51).
WHEN (TIME FRAMES)
Goliath bellowed his challenge to send a lone warrior to fight him for forty days, morning and evening (v16), and no one from the army of Israel had taken him on.
David arrived at Israel’s encampment as the host was going out to the battle line (v20).
David told Goliath he would be delivered into David’s hand by the LORD this day (v46).
Dig-In Challenges
Here’s my plan for this week:
- PRAY the prayer I wrote last week before I study. Then I’ll…
- MINE: Look for repeated words or phrases in this passage and check for synonyms or pronouns that refer to the same concepts.
- MINE: Locate any special statements (blessings, commands, curses, prayers, promises, requests, and/or warnings) in the passage.
- MINE: Note any lists (3 or more similar items) mentioned in the study passage.
- Record what the Spirit prompts so I can use it in Steps 4 and 5.
Remember, you can download this printable summary of the DISO process for more specific instructions. I’ll share what I discover with you next week, so I hope you’ll join me then.