David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”

Devotion based on 1 Samuel 17:32

There are some jobs no one wants. When the break room is messy, no one wants to be the one to clean it up. When the school is looking for volunteers to take the closing shift on the concession stand, volunteers are hard to come by. When it is time to clean out the long-neglected storage closet at church, few people are willing. Though many benefit from these things, few are willing to do them.

In our Bible story today, we discover a job no one wanted to do. Goliath, a Philistine and giant of a man, had made a clear challenge to God’s people: Send out a man to fight, and the winner would take all. It would be a battle to the death, and the man left standing would take as slaves the army of the other nation. None of the soldiers in the Israelite army wanted this job.

Until David stepped forward and volunteered. He was the one who did the hard thing that no one else would do or could do. He won the day and provided victory not just for himself but for all the people of God.

While there is something to be learned from David’s bravery and willingness to fight the big man Goliath, the more important lesson is seeing David win a victory for all. Though others did nothing, they still received the benefit of David’s work.

In this way, David is a picture of what Jesus would do for us. God is clear in his Word that what needs to happen is for us to perfectly keep his law, but we failed to do the job. Since we did not do what needed to be done, Jesus took our place and did the work, and we receive the benefit of his victory.

Jesus did it all for us, and the victory is ours.

Prayer:

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.