Bearding Bears and Lions, Building Faith

Then Saul said to David, "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth while he has been a warrior from his youth."  But David said to Saul, "Your servant was tending his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I went out after him and attacked him, and rescued it from his mouth; and when he rose up against me, I seized him by his beard and struck him and killed him.  Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted the armies of the living God."  And David said, "The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." And Saul said to David, "Go, and may the LORD be with you." (1 Samuel 17:33-37 NASB)

One of the things I did after high school and in the Army was to actually read the Bible for myself.  My parents had given me a very literal translation, and it introduced me to many of the peculiarities and vagaries of Scripture.  There are a lot of these, parts of stories I had heard from nearly infancy that were always left out.  Like David grabbing a lion or bear by the beard and clubbing him to death.  I didn't remember that story that way from the Bible stories I heard when I was young.

I've been to zoos.  I've seen lions.  I've seen the ones with big manes, and I've seen the California mountain lion which has none.  There were lions which once roamed Palestine, I believe now extinct (since the 1800's).  But I also believe they were somewhat like the mountain lions, though some had manes.  In any case, evidence suggests they did exist in David's time, they were often a plague on the populace, and killing one was rare or unheard of.  Except here.

Big cats are often huge, some more than 500lbs, and lions are second only to tigers in size.  Most researchers believe that Eurasian brown bears would have been the best option for bears in Palestine.  Any of these, male or female could easily have been 500lbs.  So, big bears and big cats versus a young guy.  This is one of those instances where it's hard to wrap the mind around such an event (which seems to have happened more than once to David).

David doesn't just fight the bear/lion, he grabs the lamb from the mouth, and when the bear/lion gets angry (go figure), then he grabs the face/neck (whatever is meant by 'beard' in Hebrew, Greek is 'neck') and 'strikes' it.  His list of implements later is a staff and a sling.  I'm guessing the sling was of little use when he had the thing by the neck/face, so I'm going with 'staff' as the weapon used. 

Can you get an image of this?  David goes up and grabs the 'meal' from the animal almost three times his weight.  When it gets mad ('rises ups against him'), he grabs it right near the jaw (the dangerous end) and beats it with his big stick.  This should have been caught on video, it would have redefined 'viral' on YouTube.  If you get a picture of this in your head, you can see why the 9-foot giant in the valley didn't seem all that big of a deal.  A couple of 500lb tooth-and-paw eating machines are a good warm up for a loud-mouthed 9-foot blasphemer with a sword.

The thing is, I'm not sure I'm ready to face the first, even to get ready for the second.  Not that there are many lions or bears where I live, but still, there are things, scary things, that when I face, build my faith in my Master.  Can I face boredom, meaning that I don't get to do what I want, but go ahead and do what I should but don't want to?  Can I face embarrassment, meaning that I do the thing that will draw the derision of others even though it's what my Master commands of me?  Can I face the anger of others, confronting the wrong instead of letting the status quo of sin continue?  Can I humble myself, letting go of my pride in what I know, what I've discovered, and what I've done and exalt others, even in my heart?  Can I?

These are the small animals, the basic faith-testers, not even the big animals or the giants.  Do I have the faith for even these?  These are the 'enemies' I face.  These are the ones I deal with daily, that howl about my day, prowling about my life.  There's no adrenaline, no surge of 'fight-or-flight' reflex, not that much emotion at all.  But there is fear, in each case.  And it is fear that erodes my faith, and therefore fear that must be faced and destroyed.  Obedience is the method, my tools are prayer and Scripture, and my time is now.