Duncan, a second-grader, asked Mrs. Daniels, his Sunday school teacher, to once again share the story of David and Goliath.
Duncan never grew tired of the stories of Moses, Joshua, King Saul and David, and all his other Old Testament heroes. “They’re not just stories,” he said. “These characters are among the most important people who actually lived, and we need to learn the lessons that their lives teach us.”
Mrs. Daniels began the story… “David’s brothers were in the army, and he went to check on them and take some food to them.
“When David left home, he had no idea he would be engaged in the battle of his life. He was a shepherd and had killed a lion and a bear that had attacked the sheep, but he had never faced a foe like Goliath. When the time came to battle this enemy of the people of God, David took his sling and selected five smooth stones from the brook and put them in a shepherd’s bag.”
Mrs. Daniels told Duncan and the other children, “The Bible tells us that Goliath taunted David because he was ‘but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance.’
“According to the Word of God,” Mrs. Daniels continued, “Goliath cursed David by his gods and told him, ‘Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.’
“Then David told Goliath, ‘Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.’”
Mrs. Daniels continued with the story. “David told Goliath, ‘This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.’”
Mrs. Daniels wanted to see how closely Duncan and the other children were listening to the story. She said, “Later, David told his brothers, ‘I threw the rock with my sling, but the Lord directed my aim. And when the Sovereign Lord takes aim at a target, he never misses. He never even has to take target practice!’”
“Did David really say that?” inquired Duncan. “I’ve heard the story before, and I don’t remember that part of it.”
“No, I don’t think he actually made that statement,” said Mrs. Daniels. “But he could have… and he would have been telling the truth!”
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