Shepherd - Poet - Warrior - King

The iconic account of David’s journey began when he was a teenager.  From the very first mention of him we see a young man of character.  This young man is chosen to replace the errant King Saul and become the second king of Israel.  You wonder what qualifications he had.  He was a shepherd-poet who had mastered the art of keeping predators away from his sheep with a slingshot.  Well, none of these things qualified him for kingship.  What did make him worthy was his potential.  His heart for God, his faith and his boundless devotion showed a character that could grow into such a massive responsibility.

The story of David growing into a kingly ruler has many chapters.  One of the earliest and most notable of these is the battle with and victory over the giant Goliath.  While we all know the basic story, we generally overlook the hidden truths of how this battle came to be and exactly how David won.  Once you understand the two warring nations and the roles of the main characters, David becomes a man of even greater courage and honor!

A covenant of friendship

Another part of this giant slayer's journey towards kingship had to do with a simple friendship.  David developed a powerful bond of brotherhood with Jonathan, the son of King Saul.  Sounds simple enough until we realize that Saul’s disobedience removed God’s favor from him.  He also knew that David was chosen to replace him.  Saul descended into madness and made David the target of his evil obsession.  How did David survive?  Jonathan’s friendship delivered him.  How did Jonathan remain loyal to his father and to David at the same time?  That is a worthy question!

Check out our June 08, 2020 podcast, “How Can I Be a Giant Slayer Like David?” for more.  We dig into the powerful and mostly unheralded character of Jonathan to find timeless principles of loyalty.  We examine the depths of David’s passion for God.  This passion would grow in him throughout his entire life and be expressed in a myriad of unlikely circumstances.  Grasping David’s unyielding heart for God shows us why he became king.  It also provides a basis for appreciating the hard knocks of kingship we will focus on in the next part of our Warrior Series!