Jessica Levy Books

Several times in my life I have interviewed for a job for which I believed I was ill-qualified. Each time I spent hours revising my resume, committing the organization’s core values to memory, and practicing mock interviews in my head ad nauseam while driving, showering, doing chores, etc. Still, even with all this preparation, I would go into the interview nervous, often forgetting many things I meant to say (only to remember them as I left the building), and fully uncertain of my level of success.

I imagine if I were to be asked to apply for the position of King of Israel, I would shrink. Where do they even post their core value statements? Yet, when Samuel went searching for King Saul’s replacement, David was not found editing his resume. When Saul’s officials were in search of a musician to soothe the king’s tormented soul, David was not at the coffee shop googling “common interview questions for artists.”

David was a shepherd and that’s what he faithfully spent his time doing, even when it seemed greater opportunities were on the horizon. When Samuel came, David was tending to his sheep. Sheep being poor conversationalists, David must have taken up playing the harp. When Saul’s men came to look for a harpist, David was tending to his sheep and playing his harp. David did what he had been set to do. God had provided David with a flock to keep and that’s what David did.

One day David’s father, Jesse, found David (drum roll) tending his sheep and sent him to deliver bread and cheese to the camp where his brothers were stationed during the war. When he arrived, he overheard Goliath, an enemy Philistine, shouting sordid threats against the people of Israel. First Samuel 17:16 tells us that Goliath had done so twice a day for forty days and verse 11 says that the Israelites, even King Saul, were “dismayed and terrified” over these threats.

To the seemingly naive shepherd, though, this guy was no big deal. After all, he had fought bears and lions as a matter of course, while he was….you guessed it, tending his sheep!

But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

1 SAMUEL 17:34-37

OK David, that sounds super brave, but did you seriously just casually mention that you fought bears? Like, bears – the hairy giants with ridiculous teeth and sharp claws?

What would I do if I saw a bear? Probably run…but what if the bear was after my sheep? Reality check: I would probably let him have the sheep. But that’s not the spiritual answer we are looking for right now. David fought the bears because he was a shepherd. He was charged with keeping the sheep healthy and alive and he was willing to fight to ensure their safety.

Maybe if we met an actual bear in the woods, we would run. But when it comes down to it, we would fight what we had to in order to guard what has been entrusted to us. Whatever you have been faithfully tending in your life, you would fight to protect. And you have fought. You fought to keep faith when you got the devastating diagnosis. You fought to have peace when you and your spouse seemed to disagree on everything. You fought to trust God when your children were making questionable choices. You fought your way back to life when death pulled at your very soul.

The fight is not fun. I don’t imagine David leaping for joy as he ran after the bear that took his sheep. He probably felt afraid, doubtful, maybe even “dismayed and terrified.” But David did what he did, what he had to do. And when the giant came who threatened his people, David was neither dismayed nor terrified. Through his bear fights, David learned that God would be faithful to deliver the beast into his hands. When the giant came, David had no doubt that all it would take was a stone.

When you want to shake your fist at heaven because you feel like all you have done is fight – fight to stand, fight to breathe, fight to live…there is more going on within you than you know. God cultivates the bear fights in our lives because inevitably the day comes when you will face the giant. And when that day arrives, you will not only know how to fight, but you will know that you have already been given the victory. You will choose a stone over a sword, offer that giant some “uncircumcised Philistine” trash talk, and strike. him. down. Because God.