1 Samuel 17:12-19
12 Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul’s time he was old and well advanced in years. 13 Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war: The firstborn was Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third, Shammah. 14 David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul, 15 but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s sheep at Bethlehem.
16 For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand.
17 Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. 18 Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them. 19 They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.”
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Broaden Your Scope
David was obedient. He was obedient to his father Jesse, and he was obedient to God later at the battle against Goliath. What I would like to focus on today is the fact that David was obedient in the small things and the big things. He had a willing heart.
The scripture we read today wasn’t anything earth shaking really. David wasn’t a part of the army, he had to stay at home as a shepherd while his brothers went to serve Saul. Every now and again he would be the delivery boy, bringing food to his brothers and bringing back word to his father. With a war brewing with the Philistines, being a shepherd and delivery boy probably wasn’t the most important job in the eyes of many of the people.
The scale of his responsibilities didn’t matter to David. what mattered was that he followed through with what he was given. So many times, we get bogged down with serving God because we think it’s not that important. We get discouraged or our pride gets in the way if we don’t think our “job” God has given us is as important as someone else.
Our responsibility is to be obedient to God, where ever He has called us to go or what ever He has called us to do. To question if we have been given enough or too much responsibility is to question whether or not God really knows what He’s doing. Let us have faith in God, trusting Him and living obediently, and let us not fall into the trap of labeling our responsibilities menial or prestigious. Let us have the hearts of servants.
