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Dalton SDA Church

Chester Clark

Is There Not A Cause?

Father in heaven, today we're grateful that you've given to us another opportunity to study your Word.

Lord, we come with our needs this morning.

We need your strength, we need your grace, we need your rest.

Some of us come with different troubles on our minds, in our hearts, burdens we're bearing.

And we thank you Lord, you've promised that we can come to you when we're weary and heavy laden and you will give us rest that we can cast our yoke take our your yoke upon us and Find that it is easy in your burden as light.

Thank you for promising to bear our burdens today and as we Study your word.

We pray that your spirit would guide us and teach us that we can learn more and Become more like you we thank you in Jesus name.

Amen we've been looking at the story of David and Goliath the story of the battle array that was 2 weeks ago we studied.

The children of Israel here in 1st Samuel 17 were lined up for battle.

In fact, it seems as though every day they acted as if they were going to battle and yet they never did Sometimes the Church of God could be too much like Israel of old all lined up but not going Having a standoff with the world but never really attacking God calls the church to be on the offensive He promises that the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

The gates of hell are not offensive, they are defensive weapons.

The church is the 1 that is called to be on the offense.

We are called to rescue sinners and share the message from God's Word.

We've also looked at God versus discrimination.

Man looked at Goliath, and they respected him because of his genetics.

He was tall, he was large, he was strong.

He carried a big shield and a big spear and a big sword Man looked at David and they thought he could never do anything Excuse me, But God does not see as man sees.

And while people may see different things, our gender, our ethnicity, our race, or whatever it is, God sees our heart and all of us are on an equal playing field David as a little disrespected shepherd boy Could be the hero of the Valley of Elah God is not limited by any of the things that people limit us by, not our social status, not our economic status, not how much money we have in our bank, not who we, who, where we went to school or what family we grew up in.

I'm so glad that the hero of first Samuel 17 was not someone with the genetic makeup to be a hero but someone with the heart to be a hero.

Because God can take anyone and conquer the world with them.

We're looking today at this phrase, is there not a cause?

Now the word here translated cause in the King James, the New King James, is translated otherwise in other translations.

Sometimes it's translated, is there not a word, or am I not just asking a question?

As I looked into that, I really believe that the King James and New King James captures better the intent of David's query.

The same word is used 13 times in 1 Samuel alone, so it's not an uncommon word.

It's never translated word or question in 1st Samuel.

It's always, is there not a thing, something, an issue, a matter.

And even if it was to be translated, is there not a word it would probably in my mind It would probably be referring to Goliath's word that is challenging the armies of the Living God.

He's challenging God himself So here's what happened David comes to battle we can pick up the story.

We're not going to read every verse, but you can just sort of follow along here.

David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah whose name was Jesse.

The man was old, advanced in years in the days of Saul the 3 oldest sons of Jesse had gone to follow Saul to the battle the names of the 3 sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn next to him Abinadab and third Shammah.

Now here you find a contrast in verses 13 through 14 and again in verse 15 but it says the 3 oldest followed Saul again 3 oldest they're brave men they're respected men they're important men David occasionally went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem.

In fact, in verse 17 we find during these 40 days of Goliath presenting himself and challenging Israel, challenging the armies of Israel and the God of Israel, Jesse says to his son David, take this food to the battlefront, to the valley of Elah, take it for your brothers to to eat carry these 10 cheeses to the captain of their thousands see how your brothers fare and bring back news of them So David is basically just shuttling back and forth between the front line, which isn't much of a front line, remember it's just battle array, it's not a battle, and coming back to his father Jesse.

He's the little errand boy you might say, right?

And so he comes to the to the battlefront, verse 20 says, he rose up early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper, went as his dad had asked, he left his supplies in the hand of the supply keeper, went and greeted his brothers, and then as fortune would have it, or providence would have it, while he's talking to his brothers, out comes Goliath." Verse 23, then as he talked with them, there was the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, coming up from the armies of the Philistines, And he spoke according to the same words those words referring back again to verse 8 of 1st Samuel chapter 17 So David heard them and the all the men of Israel when they saw the man fled from him and were dreadfully afraid." Now you get the what you get the situation that's going on here right?

How many of the men of Israel ran away from David when he came?

There's no record of any of them being afraid of David, he was just a little shepherd boy.

But when Goliath came around his genetics were such that they were afraid, they were terrified, they ran away, They were terrified.

And so as as the Goliath comes and the men of Israel are running, the Bible says that people began talking to David about what would happen.

He's coming to defy Israel and the king will reward whoever fights with him.

David spoke to the men who stood by him saying, verse 26, what shall be done for this man who kills the Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?

For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?

And the people answered him in this manner, saying, So shall it be done for the man who kills him.

Verse 28, We're getting close to our scripture for today now Eliab his oldest brother Heard when he spoke to the men and Eliab's anger was aroused against Jacob against David and he said Why did you come down here?

And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness?

By the way, that's a dig a Thank you, that is a a Rebuke Or you might say it might have been condescending, those few sheep.

I know your pride and the insolence of your heart.

For you have come down here to see the battle.

This is the context, this is the situation for our scripture today.

And David, I can just imagine him pausing as he looked at his older brother.

The words that he speaks here are respectful, by the way.

He's not someone that's defending himself.

He looks at Eliab, his older brother, who is an important man and right there with Saul and no doubt trusted in the battle array, and David simply asks this, what have I done now?

Then he turned from him toward another and said the same thing and these people answered him in the same way.

I'd like to believe that as David is asking Eliab this question, is there not a cause?

I'd like to believe that David saw something that Eliab was missing.

David saw something that the other Israelites there on the battlefield in the Valley of Elah had not seen.

When most of the Israelites looked at Goliath, they saw a giant.

They saw someone that they could never fight.

They saw someone that they were afraid to fight and the first thing that they thought of was their own safety.

The first thing that they thought of was their own comfort.

The first thing they thought of was who's gonna take care of my family if this doesn't go well.

The first thing they thought of was somebody else better take care of that giant because I'm not going.

When David looked at the giant, he did not see the giant, he saw the bigger picture.

He saw the challenge that stood before the nation.

And more than that, he saw the challenge the giant represented to the cause of God.

Because God's name was being blasphemed by this giant.

God's name was being dragged through the mud and Every day as the Israelites quivered at the sound of Goliath's voice, every day as they fled in terror and great fear, they were allowing God's name to be diminished.

Now listen, I want you to know friends god doesn't need us Okay That is a that's a fallacy of human thinking to think that god needs us, but I will also tell you that God chooses to use us.

While God does not need us, he could have taken care of Goliath very well on his own, thank you, don't you think?

While God does not need us, he does choose to use human beings to be about his work.

And so God was waiting, I believe, for somebody, somebody to look at Goliath and say he may have the genes, but he's defying the wrong person.

David looked at the giant, he looked at the situation, he says, isn't there something bigger than us here?

Isn't there a cause that we should be passionate about?

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Is There Not A Cause?

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