by Tol Burk<\/p>\n
We are introduced to David as a young man, too young to fight Goliath (according to man’s standards). But it doesn’t end there-David is one of the very few that we see from youth to old age. Age changed things in his life, but his faith in God never changed.<\/p>\n
We know that David was a shepherd before we meet him in I Samuel 17. It is generally believed that David had not reached 20 years of age since that was the age at which a man could fight in the army. While all the soldiers were terrified of Goliath, David was not. “And David said, Jehovah that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and Jehovah shall be with thee<\/em>” (I Samuel 17:37 ASV). Just as surely as God had saved him from a lion and a bear, David believed God would deliver this “uncircumcised Philistine that had defied the armies of the Living God<\/em>” (I Samuel 17:26) How many young men or women would have this kind of faith in God? In fact, how many older people have such faith?<\/p>\n While Saul was pursuing David so that he could kill him, David never lost his faith in God. Samuel had anointed David as king, perhaps as young as 14 or 15 (the rabbis belief). David relied on God throughout the years he fled from Saul. Even when Saul was in David’s hands to kill him, David would not do away with his enemy and rival. Why? Because He trusted that God would fulfill His promise, in His time.<\/p>\n David was 30 when he began to reign. There was no threat from Saul, but there were enemies on every side. He fought against the Moabites, the children of Ammon, the Edomites, and the Philistines on a regular basis, especially the Philistines and their giants. Through all these years of war, God saved his life. In Psalms 55:12-13, David laments that his close friend(s) were also against him. You talk about problems on every hand, but God preserved him for the forty years he reigned.<\/p>\n Then David sinned a great sin with Bathsheba, one that was worthy of death (II Samuel 12:13). After all this, God forgave David, and it is obvious that David’s faith in God continued. David disobeyed God by taking a census of his army, so he could know how many there were. Maybe this was because of pride (“Look how many soldiers I command”) or a waning of his faith in God. Either way, God gave him a choice of three punishments. Either 7 years of famine, 3 months of fleeing from his enemies, or 3 days of a plague. David’s response, “And David said to Gad, ‘I am in great distress. Please let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man’<\/em>” (II Samuel 24:14). He knew that God would be merciful-David trusted and depended on the grace of God.<\/p>\n All through his life, David trusted God. Have you considered what old age must have been like for the great warrior? As he grew older, he couldn’t even warm up under his covers-no electric blankets in those days. Yet in his “decline,” He knew that God would care for him and fulfill the promises God had made to him.<\/p>\n Getting older is not easy-we don’t have the strength, stamina, or memory we used to take for granted. How tempting it is to stop trusting in God. Remember King Asa? “In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa developed a disease in his feet, and his disease became increasingly severe. Yet even in his disease he didn’t seek the LORD but only the physicians<\/em>” (II Chronicles 16:12). No problems with physicians, unless we turn “only to the physicians” and stop depending and trusting in God. At any stage in life, we can stop trusting in God. You don’t have to turn away or reject God. All you have to do is trust and serve other gods.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Tol Burk We are introduced to David as a young man, too young to fight Goliath (according to man’s standards). But it doesn’t end there-David is one of the very few that we see from youth to old age. Age changed things in his life, but his faith in God never changed. We know…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[111,775,776,1288,129],"class_list":["post-90134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-david","tag-elderly","tag-old-age","tag-steadfastness","tag-trust"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14676,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-david-a-young-man-when-he-killed-goliath-and-not-a-boy\/","url_meta":{"origin":90134,"position":0},"title":"Was David a young man when he killed Goliath and not a boy?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In studying I Samuel 17:38-40, I am wondering if David is not a young boy as some stories depict him, but instead, he is a young man. Saul was the tallest man among the children of Israel and we see that he is now giving his armor to David\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69520,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-there-a-significant-age-difference-between-jonathan-and-david\/","url_meta":{"origin":90134,"position":1},"title":"Was there a significant age difference between Jonathan and David?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 30, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read a comment online that some scholars believe that there was a 20 - 30-year difference between Jonathan and David, that Jonathan was at least 20 years older than David.\u00a0 I have been searching but cannot find scripture that verifies that.\u00a0 Do you know of one? Answer: Jonathan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25868,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/five-stones-in-the-hands-of-a-boy\/","url_meta":{"origin":90134,"position":2},"title":"Five Stones in the Hands of a Boy","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 13, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: I Corinthians 1:26-29 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The armies of the Philistines and the Israelites faced each other across a valley - I Samuel 17:1-3 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With both armies camped on mountains, it became a standoff. Whoever attacked the other would be at a disadvantage. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Thus, the Philistines sent out their champion issue\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28209,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-you-are-to-love-your-enemies-why-did-david-kill-goliath\/","url_meta":{"origin":90134,"position":3},"title":"If you are to love your enemies, why did David kill Goliath?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was listening to a sermon about how to be\u00a0a man after God's heart. He was speaking about love,\u00a0and\u00a0he said David loved Saul\u00a0even when Saul tried to kill him and searched for\u00a0him for years.\u00a0Even if Saul\u00a0became David's enemy, David would never\u00a0do the same against Saul. He loved Saul and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29823,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-saul-ask-whose-son-david-was-after-his-battle-with-goliath\/","url_meta":{"origin":90134,"position":4},"title":"Why did Saul ask whose son David was after his battle with Goliath?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 4, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm reading in I Samuel 16:21. It says that David came into Saul's service to play harp for Saul then became one of Saul's armor-bearers.\u00a0 Saul even sent word to Jesse saying to 'allow David to remain in my service,' so I would assume that Saul knew who David\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26363,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/age-of-accountability-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":90134,"position":5},"title":"Age of Accountability","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Morris D. Norman via Gospel Power, Vol. 15, No. 42, Oct. 19, 2008. It has long been a question as to what age our young people ought to become Christians. Should it be as they enter their teens and begin at that early age in their service to Christ,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}