This article is just getting started, in need of much attention:
Facing Five Enemies
Lust (sexual immorality)
Greed (selfishness, insatiable desire for more)
Pride (self exaltation/selfish ambition)
Envy (jealousy, the need to be acknowledged)
Complacency (laziness, negligence, blaming, excuse making–when things go wrong)
Of course you can throw in a whole different list of enemies: including, fear, doubt, shame, guilt, depression, lying, cheating, stealing, hatred, murder, and the list can go on ad infinitum–But, if a man takes care of the above five list, it will go a long way at the fixing all the others that he must contend with. So we’ll just stick to these five for the time being.
David, the shepherd boy, gathered five smooth stones, Why five?
Goliath had four relatives. ( SEE: 2 Samuel 21:15–22)
One of them would likely be chosen to be the avenger of blood to take David’s Life.
The Giant, Ishbi-benob, tried, and almost succeeded, to Kill David. (2 Samuel 21:15-16)
So by selecting Five Smooth Stones it appears that David was not just preparing to slay One Giant,
but he was prepared to slay five, or any other enemies that would come along,
because Goliath had four ugly angry relatives.
1 Samuel 17:39-42 (KJV)
And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him. 40 And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even in a scrip [a small bag or pouch, typically one carried by a pilgrim, shepherd, or beggar]; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine. 41 And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David; and the man that bare the shield went before him. 42 And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy [(of a person’s face) having a healthy red color:], and of a fair countenance.
The young man David, was not unfamiliar with facing dangerous and lethal enemies. David had previously rescued one of his lambs from the mouth of a lion, and another one of his lambs from the mouth of a bear. And David slew the lion and the bear with his hands that were trained for warfare.
David was quick in his spirit, and ready to face his enemies on the field of battle–unlike the many soldiers in Saul’s army, who quaked in fear of the Giant Goliath.
Throughout David’s life he had many enemies to contend with: Even Goliath. Even his own King, Saul, pursued David with his army to kill David. Even David’s royal first born son, Amnon, became his enemy when he raped David’s precious and beautiful virgin daughter Tamar. Even his own son, Absalom (Tamar’s brother), whom he loved, hated him, and led a revolt to dethrone and kill him. Even his wife, Michal, despised him. Even his top general, Joab, murdered two of David’s allies in cold blood.
Where David failed to face his enemies was in his own home, and in his own heart, and in his own mind, in his own soul.
Even David himself was his own worst enemy. In the wickedness of his heart, he allowed his own lustful imaginations to tempt him to sleep with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah. David’s own wicked heart and mind caused him to commit adultery with the wife of one of his most faithful and loyal friends, Uriah the Hittite, who was faithful to David until his very last breath, which David stole from him, in a planned murderous plot, that was seen before God, and all his angels.
This one sin, led to the downfall of many in David’s Family, and plagued his children for generations to come. It opened the door to multiple murders, rapes, adultery, the death of a new born, a civil war, a nation wide plague from God, the downfall and destruction of Friends and Family, and worse.
So what was David’s greatest and most formidable Enemy?
One could argue, that David himself was his number one worst enemy.
We can learn much from the study of King David’s Life.
More to come … soon.