David in this stage of his life suffers from here on out and continues to be punished for his sins for the remainder of his life. The Lord doesn’t want David to die, he loves David and wants him to survive but he wants David to realize that he must be punished in other ways. The Lord protected David from Saul, Goliath and many others in battle, gave him many wives, food and servants that David would have never known, had the Lord not have chosen him for the anointed.
In all of Samuel 1 and 2 I believe David repents to the Lord a total of three times for his sins. The second repentance was in Samuel 2, Chapter 24 verse 10, in which, David states “Lord I have sinned grievously in what I have done. But now, Lord, forgive the guilt of your servant, for I have been very foolish.” The Lord then spoke to the prophet Gad and he told Gad to deliver the message to David, where in verse 12 he proclaims, “Go and say to David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I offer you three alternatives; choose one of them, and I will inflict it on you.’” He asked “Do you want a three years’ famine to come upon your land, or to flee from your enemy for three months while he pursues you, or to have a three days’ pestilence in your land? David is to give it some thought and make a judgment.
Out of the three choices David chose to have a three-day pestilence in his land. When the angel was going toward Jerusalem to shed the horrible plague upon it the Lord stated to the angel in Samuel 2, Chapter 24 verse 16, “Enough now! Stay your hand.” This is where David sees the angel who was destroying his people and repents for the third time.
David cries out to the Lord in Samuel 2, Chapter 24 verse 17, “It is I who have sinned; it is I, the shepherd, who have done wrong. But these are sheep; what have they done? Punish me and my kindred.” This is when the Lord informs David to “build him an altar at the floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” David of course did as the Lord commanded for him to do and built the Lord an altar, for David never once disobeyed any of the Lord’s commands.
David refers to the Lord for many of successes and believes that the Lord will give whatever destiny he anticipates. When David was first anointed and is sent out by his father, Jesse, to deliver grains and loaves of bread to his three eldest brothers in battle is when David begins his courage in the Lord’s passage. This is when Goliath part of the Philistine’s says to the men of Israel in Samuel 1 chapter 17 verse 9, “If he beats me in combat and kills me, we will be your vassals; but if I beat him and kill him, you shall be our vassals and serve us.”
This coming from a man six and a half feet tall covered in bronze with a curved sword is something I most certainly would run from. All of the Israelites where in absolute fear and terror that their lives would be put to a complete halt the minute they took one step toward Goliath. David thought nothing of it knowing that God would assist him in the defeat of the combatant. Even David’s older brother, Eliab, became annoyed with the fact that David was going to try and defeat one of the most feared men in the nation.
In Samuel 1 chapter 17 verse 37, David continued: “The Lord, who delivered me from the claws of the lion and the bear, will also keep me safe from the clutches of this Philistine.” The item that amazes me the most was the weapon David had to kill this fierce solider with and absolutely no protection because he was a complete rookie. 1 17:40 “Then, staff in hand, David selected five smooth stones from the wadi and put them in the pocket of his shepherd’s bag. With his sling also ready to hand, he approached the Philistine.” I would have never thought of a slingshot as a weapon that could be so powerful and actually take ones life.
I expect the Philistine’s would have never presumed that their great hero and warrior would actually be killed by a young and inexperienced shepherded and nonetheless with a slingshot and a rock. Similar to it stating in 1:17:47 “All this multitude too, shall learn that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he shall deliver you into our hands.” When the Philistines hero was perished and they began to scuttle it stated 1:17:52 “Then the men of Israel and Judah, with loud shouts, went in pursuit of the Philistines to the approaches of Gath and to the gates of Ekron, and Philistines fell wounded along the road from Sha-araim as far as Gath and Ekron.”
At that point David showed the people and soldiers of Israel that he was a warrior in the midst of tremendous courage and battle skills like no other but unfortunately Saul became very jealous of that. David was truly an epic hero not for his sins but for all of the battles he won for his people, the land and the Lord. He also remained very different from other kings like Saul many ways for instance he could recognize his sins and pray for the Lord’s forgiveness. These are the reasons why I believe the people of Israel saw David as an epic hero.
