You need a surgeon for a very critical procedure.
It’s life and death.
You ask around and someone hears you, The person tells you that they just started Med School and plan to use their efforts to make others well.
They plan on being a surgeon.
Without hesitation you say: “I need someone with experience who has proven what they’ve learned through success.”
Drill Sergeants prepare their recruits with an intensity that seems like torture and testing that seems mentally and physicality unreachable. But, when done with training, the soldier feels physically and mentally like a new person.
And when that soldier comes home from battle it seems like a miracle.
And it is.
Reality is a cruel teacher unless one is prepared for the test.
Those who pay attention to the lessons get to graduate with honors.
Every good parent tries to teach their children the skills and knowledge to be prepared for real life. Those children that retain those skills prepared for what lays ahead.
Viewing the David and Goliath story as a report of a person that stood up to the testing and one can quickly see the miracle of David’s actions came from preparedness.
What a miracle it is when a young person listens and learns the lessons that will help them for their entire lives.
It appears that the miracle of David and Goliath was his dedication to learning the skills to face deadly adversaries as a matter of paying attention to what he was taught.
As a young shepherd with experiences growing, he could face danger and fear with knowledge about both.
Being a boy out in the hills of Israel couldn’t have been an easy task. Caring for and protecting sheep day in and day out is a tough job.
With just a rock and a sling David was Fending off predators with skills well learned, known and successful when needed.
David, looking down on the battlefield and seeing a “giant” berating Israel and Israel’s God day in and day out and seeing the terror filled troops avoiding a confrontation must have been quite puzzling to David.
Imagine, a boy that grew up working alone way out in the country, defending lambs from sly and stealthy predators with that sling and tone.
There was no emergency for David. No crisis that would cause fear to freeze his mind and muscles.
David probably thought it little problem to pop Goliath in his Cadillac-sized forehead. The report shows this.
Looking at the story line. You see that David didn’t break a sweat dispatching the poor hapless “Champion” of the Philistines.
David and Goliath a miracle? Yes indeed but probably not the kind one quickly wants to envision.
Certainly anyone that grows up gaining skills driving away brazen predators darting around, knows that hitting a huge stationary target is all too easy.
(Fast-forward to the 20th Century. Read about US Army Medal Of Honor recipient Sergeant Alvin York and see a similar report. York learned his lessons very well.)
Every good parent tries to instill in their child the work ethic to be ready for what they’ll face in the future. Hoping, and praying, that it will serve their child and society at large.
What needs to be realized is that for someone to stay on the path of preparedness and to use it in a critical way is quite staggering in its scope. In David’s case, he was not only being prepared, but stayed the course when facing an adversary that most thought was a horrifying mismatch.
David: “A man after God’s own heart.”
That’s what the statement declares.
But what does that actually mean? David, even as King David, was an all too human man,. A typical guy, a wondrous, humble and loving man. Even, holy and righteous. Then again, a rouge, humble, haughty . . . but then, some things no one can be prepared for.
But David learned his lesson well.
Read on and see:
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
so that sinners will turn back to you.
Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
you who are God my Savior,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
Open my lips, Lord,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
May it please you to prosper Zion,
to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
in burnt offerings offered whole;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
- Psalm 51