David's Faith Adventure!
Who? David
Where in the Bible? 1 Samuel 17, Old Testament
When? Approximately 3,044 years ago
David’s Faith Adventure: Jesus was sometimes called the Son of David because David was in his family line. David’s story in the Bible is cool because we see that even as a young boy (before he became King of Israel) David had faith in God.
Image courtesy of Bible Pathway Adventures
It was borderline chaos in the camp of Israel’s army. Soldiers were milling about anxiously. Each day a giant from the opposing army came out to the front line to taunt them.
“Who will fight me!” The ominous voice of Goliath the Philistine Giant would bellow.
Our time-traveling trio found themselves among this chaos.
“What’s going on SATTAR?” A.J. & Milo were feeling nervous. You could cut the tension in the air with a knife.
SATTAR explained that the Philistine nation had challenged Israel to war.
For forty days in a row, Goliath had come out to threaten the Israelite army.
Goliath was more than nine feet tall. He had a bronze helmet on his head. He wore bronze armor that weighed 125 pounds. On his legs he wore bronze guards. He carried a bronze javelin on his back. His spear was as big as a weaver’s rod. Its iron point weighed 15 pounds.
Goliath roared, “Choose one of your men. Have him come down and face me. If he’s able to fight and kill me, we’ll become your slaves. But if I win and kill him, you will become our slaves and serve us.”
David was too young to be in the army. His job was to care for his Father’s flock of sheep and to bring food to the front line for his brothers who were soldiers in the army of King Saul.
King Saul had tried to convince one of his soldiers to fight Goliath. He said that if a man would fight Goliath that he would receive a lot of money and have the right to marry King Saul’s daughter. But no one took him up on this offer. Everyone was terrified of Goliath.
But David said to Saul, “I’ve been taking care of my father’s sheep. Sometimes a lion or a bear would come and carry off a sheep from the flock. Then I would go after it and hit it. I would save the sheep it was carrying in its mouth. If it turned around to attack me, I would grab its hair. I would strike it down and kill it. In fact, I’ve killed both a lion and a bear. I’ll do the same thing to this Philistine. The Lord saved me from the paw of the lion. He saved me from the paw of the bear. And he’ll save me from the powerful hand of this Philistine too.”
Saul said to David, “Go. And may the Lord be with you.” Saul wanted to give David all his armor to protect him. In the end. David only took 5 smooth stones from the river and his slingshot.
A.J. and Milo nervously covered their eyes with their hands. “I can’t watch!” But peaking through their fingers, they saw David and Goliath approach each other.
Goliath threatened David. “Come over here,” he said. “I’ll feed your body to the birds and wild animals!”
David said to Goliath, “You are coming to fight against me with a sword, a spear and a javelin. But I’m coming against you in the name of the Lord who rules over all. He is the God of the armies of Israel. He’s the one you have dared to fight against. This day the Lord will give me the victory over you. I’ll strike you down. I’ll cut your head off. Then the whole world will know there is a God in Israel. The battle belongs to the Lord. He will hand all of you over to us.”
As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly to the battle line to meet Goliath. David reached into his bag. He took out a stone. He put it in his sling. He slung it at Goliath. The stone hit him so hard on the forehead that it sank into it. Goliath fell to the ground on his face.
David won the fight against Goliath with only a sling and a stone. He struck down the Philistine and killed him. He did it without even using a sword.
“He won, David won!” A.J., Milo and SATTAR jumped up and down celebrating David’s victory.
At that moment all the soldiers of Israel found their courage. They surged forward and chased the Philistine army who ran away in terror after they saw their giant hero fall.
“What a victory! David was so brave.”
“David was brave because he had faith in God. He knew that God promises to protect us in his Word. David had experienced it too when watching over the sheep. Amazing things can happen when we believe in God’s promises.”
“That was awesome! I want to see more,” said A.J.
“David went on to do so many amazing things for God. He trusted God all his life. But tomorrow we are going to travel a little closer in time to us to experience someone else’s adventure in faith with them.” SATTAR said.
“We can’t wait!” said A.J. and Milo.
