It took me 20 minutes to read this passage that details how God worked to bring David to prominence. David was the 8th, and ignored, son of Jesse of Bethlehem. (I wonder if his great-grandmother Ruth was still alive during any part of David’s life?) David kept himself busy while out in the fields with the sheep. He learned to play the lyre, a small hand harp, and made up songs to calm and entertain the sheep, and probably himself. He practiced slinging stones, and became very adept in locating them the keep the stragglers close to the flock. He also used the stones to scare off wild animals that would attack the flock. God used these experiences in David’s young life to give him a confidence in God and a spirit of a great warrior. David must have also learned fighting tactics while battling those predators. His life must have been threatened numerous times, but David realized that each time God spared him and equipped him to fight with vigor. When he approached that giant warrior David must have felt the same fear that he had faced with the bears and lions, and he saw God deliver him again. Much like Joseph son of Israel, David went from obscurity to prominence through the provincial working of God in circumstances and leaders’ choices. I believe that God still works in the same ways to teach and develop in us many of the skills that he wants to be used in the work of His Kingdom.
Stuart
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