Dr. Chisholm is the department chair and professor of Old Testament Studies here at DTS. He's a graduate of Syracuse University, Grace Theological Seminary, and Dallas Theological Seminary. He specializes in the narrative and prophetic literature of the Hebrew scriptures and his publications include seven books. He and his wife Deborah will be celebrating their 40th anniversary this year. And their son Douglas is married to Jen, both of whom are DTS grads, and they work as professional counselors here in the Dallas area. Their daughter Stephanie works as a finance office of the town of Sunnyville, and she's married to Chip, who is a diesel technician for Freightliner. Would you join me in welcoming Dr. Bob Chisholm to our platform this morning? Good morning. Good morning. Am I on? Can everyone hear me? Great. We're going to start this morning with doing a little time travel. Ready? OK, we're going to go back to 1857, and you're with the first cavalry regiment out on the Kansas Prairie. Got the picture? Major John Seddwick is in command. And you hear a noise. It's kind of a rumble off in the distance, but it's getting closer. It's getting louder, and it's obvious that it's a force to be reckoned with. And then you see it on the horizon. A brown strip running from one horizon to the other, completely in front of you, and it's coming swiftly toward you. It's one of the Kansas Buffalo herds that could sometimes stretch 30 miles in length, and it's coming right toward you. It's a stampede. What do you do when you're facing a charging buffalo herd? Well, Major John Seddwick, who was from Connecticut, didn't have a clue. They had not covered this one in his classes at West Point. What to do when buffalo are charging at you? They had not covered that. You really, there weren't any boulders to hide behind, no trees to climb. You couldn't really outrun the buffalo. They would outlast the horses. You couldn't dodge them because 30 miles to horizon to horizon couldn't just start shooting into the herd because you'd run out of ammunition. So what do you do? Well, fortunately, for the first cavalry regiment, and Major Seddwick, Captain Sam Sturgis was there that day. And Major Seddwick turned to Captain Sturgis and said, what are we going to do, Sam? And Sam said, I haven't got time to explain this to you. You give me the reins of command, and I will steer you through this. Now listen up, because this is really important to know, in case you ever face a charging buffalo herd. This is what you do. You form your man in a tight V, like this. You put the wagons and horses inside the V. And you've got your man in a line. And everybody fires their rifles at a point. Right where Sam won, my friend fellow Red Wing fan is sitting at a point right in front of you. And you create a pile of dead buffalo. You're going to divide the herd. And that's what they did. For 30 minutes, non-stop. They fired directly in front of them. There's a mountain, a heap of buffalo there. And the herd divided, and it went by in two streams. Just feet away from them. And Sam Sturgis saved the day. The regiment was saved because Sam Sturgis knew what to do. And when you're facing a charging buffalo herd, you better know what to do. Have you ever felt like that, like you had a charging buffalo herd coming right for you? I have. I felt that way the worst week of my life, which began on February 4, 2007, began on Super Bowl Sunday evening. My wife and I were not watching football. We were playing Scrabble. And I don't watch football. But a phone call. We got a phone call. And it was my daughter, Stephanie, on the line. And she sounded agitated. And she said, dad, Tommy. Tommy was her fiance. Tommy's been in an accident. I said, well, is he OK? Is he at the hospital? She says, no, he's dead. And thus began the worst week of my life. Watching my daughter suffer through something that I just couldn't help her. It kind of peaked a couple of days later. She hadn't seen Tommy. And we walked into the funeral home. And there was Tommy's corpse laid out. And my daughter went in and stood beside him. And just a flood of emotions. And she opened her Bible to Psalm 88, one that's not as familiar to most people. Pure lament. And she started yelling Psalm 88 at God, yelling at God, asking him why he did this. I couldn't take it. So I went outside, and I went around by myself down a little hallway. And I did something that I have never done before or since. I went into doby mode. I started banging my head against a wall. Just banging my head against a wall. I guess just to divert the emotional pain to the physical. Well, we'll come back to my story later. But this morning, I'd like to look at the beginning at a time when Israel was facing a charging buffalo herd. In the form of a Philistine warrior named Goliath, we'll be in 1 Samuel 17 for a very brief time. That's not going to be our main text. They really didn't know what to do. This huge warrior, 6'9 or 9'9", depending on which textual tradition you prefer and choose. But he was a big guy. And he was like a walking armory and arsenal had every weapon in the book. And he was challenging Israel to send a champion out to fight him. And Israel was shaking in their boots. Saul was afraid. King Saul, the whole army was afraid. What to do? Enter David. David is the Sam Sturgis in this story. David knows what to do. And he is going to use his know-how to defeat this giant. There's every indication that this was going to be a battle fought at close quarters with short range, maybe mid-range weapons. You get that impression from Goliath's weaponry, from the way Saul speaks to David and tries to prepare him for that kind of fight. But instead, David does the unconventional. He plays outside the lines. It looks like it's going to be a sword fight. David shows up with a machine gun. And remember the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indy is facing the black robe swordsman. And the black robe swordsman is twirling his sword around ready for a sword fight. And Indy, who's a little tired, just sort of pulls out his gun and shoots him dead. Same thing with David. He surprises everyone by using a sling to deck the giant in one swift deadly second. David picked his ammunition from the stream, but we have to assume that he picked stones that approximated the typical sling stone that an army would use. And sling stones found at the ancient site of Lockeesh are smooth and round and made of flint. They are about two and a half inches in diameter, and they weigh close to nine ounces. So they're a little bit smaller than a baseball, but they weigh quite a bit more than a baseball. Lawrence Stager, director of the Harvard Semitic Museum, estimates that you can propel a sling stone. Remember, this is not a pea shooter. It's not this kind of sling that you used in elementary school to shoot peas at Susie. It's not that kind of thing. That's one of these deals. He estimates that you can propel a sling stone between 100 and 150 miles an hour. When Tiger Woods hits a golf ball off the tee, it comes off at 125 miles per hour. So these things can do some damage. And in the hands of a well-trained slinger, this is a very deadly weapon. Read about it in Judges 20. The Benjaminites had left-handed slingers who could hit the smallest target and not miss. But it wasn't really David's cunning and skill that won the victory. It was his faith. Better yet, the God in whom he placed his faith. Even though David was very skilled and caught Goliath off guard, he still had to have a steady hand and an accurate eye. I mean, he picked five stones as if he were expecting it to maybe require that amount of ammunition. But he got him into first shot. The Lord gave him a steady hand and an accurate eye. And David knew that God was the key to victory. He talks a lot about God before and during the battle. He twice calls God the living God, the God who is alive and well and who actively intervenes in the life of his people. And if you look at 1 Samuel 17, 34 through 37, this is when Saul is doubting his capability. He says, your servant has been a shepherd for his father's flock. Whenever a lion or bear would come and carry off a sheep from the flock, I would go out after it, strike it down and rescue the sheep from its mouth. If it rose up against me, I would grab it by its jaw, strike it, and kill it. Your servant has struck down both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine will be just like one of them for he has defied the armies of the living God. David went on to say, the Lord who delivered me from the lion and the bear will also deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. David remembered. When he was facing the charging buffalo herd, he remembered God's track record. He remembered what God had done in his experience. He also focused on God's powerful presence in the here and now. If you drop down to verse 45, David says to the Philistine, you are coming against me with sword and spear and javelin. But I am coming against you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel's armies whom you have defied. This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you down and cut off your head. This day I will give the corpses of the Philistine army to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the land. Then all the land will realise that Israel has a God. And all this assembly will know that it is not by sword or spear. Notice this very carefully. It is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves for the battle is the Lord's and he will deliver you into our hand. Well, to this point, we could call the story when David killed Goliath, very well-known story. But that's not my text for this morning. My sermon this morning is entitled, When David Became Goliath. When David Became Goliath. You may be thinking, that happened? Yeah, it happened. And we're going to see how that happened. As you know, despite his great success against Goliath, things did not go well for David. Saul began to be jealous twice through a spear adding, trying to kill him. And finally, with help from Saul's son and his best friend Jonathan, David decided he needed to leave town. He needed to run away. He was panicking. After all, Saul was throwing spears. David knew that he could not raise a hand against the Lord's anointed. And so it was as if his hands were tied behind him. So he decided to leave. And he decided to go to the town of Nove. And we read about it in 1 Samuel, chapter 21. And he goes to the town of Nove, where there are several priests living, one in particular named Ahimelek. Or Ahimelek, I guess they wouldn't say. But Ahimelek is there, the priest. And David's faith is wavering at this point. And he's running. And the priest sees him. And the priest is concerned. I'm sure he has heard about what's been happening at the Royal Court. The spear throwing. And he sees David by himself. And he's concerned. What is going on here? David lies to him, says, well, I'm on a special emergency mission from the king. And my men are out there waiting for me. Could you give us some bread? Ahimelek says, well, all we've got is consecrated bread. But you are in a difficult situation. So I will bend the rules for you when he gives him some bread. And then David sees him. Verse 7, there's an individual there. One of Saul's servants was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite, who was in charge of Saul's shepherds. David said to Ahimelek, is there no sword or spear here at your disposal? There's Doeg over there. I don't have a sword or a spear. Do you have one? I don't have my own sword or equipment in hand due to the urgency of the king's instructions. The priest replied, the sword of Goliath, the Philistine, whom you struck down in the valley of Elah, a little jogging of the memory there. Remember the day you killed him? The Lord enabled you to kill him? We've got that sword. It's wrapped in a garment behind the ephid. If you wish, take it for yourself. Other than that, there's nothing here. And David said, Ahim Kamoha, there's nothing like it. He seems to really be impressed by the sword. And he says, Tantennah, give it to me. He wants it. So David's attitude seems to have changed toward swords. Earlier, he had said, the Lord doesn't deliver with a sword or a spear. You're coming against me with a sword or a spear. The Lord's going to give me the victory. Now, when he sees Doeg, and he realizes Saul is after him, he's really into swords, especially Goliath's sword. David seems to have forgotten. Now, in a radically desperate move, he decides to go to Philistine territory, verse 10. So on that day, David arose and fled from Saul. He went to King Ahish of Gath. So here's David. Bebop and down the road with Goliath's sword in hand. And he comes into Gath. Where was Goliath from? This is Goliath's hometown. So it's as if David has become Goliath. He's carrying Goliath's sword. And he's arriving in Goliath's hometown. He wants to sign up with Akisha's army. This is unbelievable. The servants of Akisha said to him, isn't this David the king of the land? Even though Saul's the king, they've heard about the fact that David is going to be the next king. They remember, David doesn't seem to be remembering. Isn't he the one that they sing about when they dance, saying, Saul struck down his thousands, but David, his 10,000s. David thought about what they said. And then you might expect the text to say. And his faith was energized. As he remembered what a great victory he had won, no, no, no. And he was very afraid. First time in the story, David is described as afraid. And it's very afraid of King Ahish in Gath. And I notice what he does. He altered his behavior in their presence since he was in their power. He pretended to be insane, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting his saliva run down his beard. I'm not going to try to show you what that looked like this morning. Could get a little messy up here. Akisha said to his servants, look at this madman. Why did you bring him to me? Do I have a shortage of fools that you have brought me this man to display his insanity in front of me? Should this man enter my house? I got enough idiots around. Governments then as now, populated by madmen. So the Philistines are remembering David is not. And he has to act insane. And that's what fear will do to you. And I'm going to show you a picture of my dog, Joey. This does relate. That was a very poor transition. But this does relate. This is my dog, Joey. I have three dogs. This is the youngest of my three dogs, the newest addition to our home. This is Joey on graduation day from obedience school. But this is a sham because the instructor came up to us after Joey got his diploma in hand and says, by the way, I'd really like to see Joey repeat the class. We will not do this to you graduates, this may. We will not come up to you afterward and say, we gave you a diploma, but we really think you need to repeat the program. But Joey got a couple of awards. Joey was deemed most improved. But there were only two dogs in the class. And the other one was perfect to begin with. So Joey is like a 150 hitter in baseball, who the next season hits 185. He's improved, but makes you wonder, he also got best stay. That's where the dog is over here, and you're standing there, and you're going, stay, Joey. Stay. That's bogus. Joey's just lazy. He's always going to win best stay. Well, anyway, enough of that. I'm walking Joey in the neighborhood. And Joey's fierce, no matter how big the dog, Joey will growl and surge. I mean, get killed by half of these dogs. It can be a big pit bull, German shepherd, but Joey is ready for a rumble. He's just fierce. He's brave, courageous. One day I'm walking Joey, and this lady comes around the corner with a stroller. She's pushing her baby in a stroller. And Joey starts to go crazy. His eyes get big, and I can say, this dog's afraid. He starts backing up, backs out of his harness. I still don't know how I did it. And turns around, and runs as fast as he can for home. I called my wife. Hi, Deb, Deb's here today. And I said, Deb, Joey's on the way home. And when I got home, there he was in the back, behind the fence, trying to dig his way back into the lawn. I've heard a dog's trying to dig out of the yard. He wanted to dig his way back into the yard. He was terrified. It's absolute insanity. You're ready to fight a German shepherd, but you're afraid of a lady pushing a stroller with a baby in it? Fear just makes you do insane kinds of things. And that's David. David faced Goliath. Now he's afraid of Saul who was trembling on that day. And he's putting his faith in Goliath's sword. And he's in Goliath's hometown. He has become Goliath. This is insane. And that's what fear and lack of faith will do to you. So when David faced off against Goliath, he remembered what God had done for him. And when we face the buffalo herds, we need to do the same thing. I've always had trouble with that. For most of my life, I've been a worrier. When you grow up with people who live through the great depression, some of you older folks who have had that experience, you're a worrier. They were always worried about everything. With good reason. I mean, bad things happened in their experience. The economy just went crazy. And then there was a world war. It was tough. And so the people I lived with were always worrying. And so I would always worry. I'd have a need. The Lord would answer it. But next month when another need arises, there I am worrying again. Forgot about how the Lord had delivered a month ago. Just kind of forgot. Well, that changed. That changed when we really faced the buffalo herd back there in 2007. Because we were at wit's end. And it got worse before it got better. And I'm not going to get into all the details. But my daughter went through a very, very difficult time. And we were praying some very specific prayers. I remember she was doing some things that she really shouldn't have been doing. And one morning I was out walking, and I just prayed. I said, Lord, Stephanie needs wisdom, wisdom. Not just good, common sense, but moral and ethical wisdom as defined in Proverbs, James 1. And that afternoon, I get a call from her. So I've been praying all morning. Give Stephanie wisdom out of the blue. She calls me in the afternoon. She says, Dad, I need wisdom. She said, this morning I decided to go with my friend to a different church. And the pastor was speaking on wisdom from James. And I need wisdom. Would you pray that the Lord would give me wisdom? I said, well, I've been praying that this morning. And I have seen the Lord answer specific requests like that. So every day, when I pray, I take some time, like Psalm 105, Psalm 106, those historical Psalms. I rehearse what God has done in my experience. I keep his track record right out there, and I focus on it. I try to remember what God has done. And I find that when the Buffalo Herds come, or things that I think are Buffalo Herds, that really helps. That really sustains me. When you do that, you'll look more like David when he faced Goliath than David when he became Goliath. David remembered. But remember, on that day, he also focused on God's presence in the here and now. It wasn't just history, what God has done for me in the past. He focused on God's presence right in the here and now. I know God is going to enable me to kill you, Goliath. He's going to give me the victory today because he is with me and he is with us. And sometimes, presence makes all the difference. When my son, Doug, was very, very young, he, oh, I was going to show you a picture of my family. Would you put that picture up there? I'll show you Stephanie. Here's my family. I am the old guy on the left. That is my wife. And there is Stephanie. And the Lord brought her out of all of that. There she is. She's met a wonderful young man named Chip. And she's happily married. And this is her wedding day about a year ago. And she's got her ginger, Roger, feather dress on. That's Stephanie in the middle. She's happy. And then that's my son, Doug and his wife, Jenny. They're counselors. They went through our counseling program. So that's my family. So Doug, when he was just a little guy, four or five years old, we used to play a game in the back bedroom where Deb and I slept. It was ghost busting. And there was sort of this back closet area. And these imaginary ghosts would come out of this region. It was dark back there. And we had lightsabers and plastic guns. Everything that we could find. My son wore a cape. It was a big ghost busting event. And we do this for quite some time. Well, then time for bed came. And we got into a bad habit of letting him fall asleep in our bed. And then we would transfer him to his own room. I wouldn't recommend that, by the way. But it's especially bad when you've this has been the arena for ghost busting, right? I mean, we've been fighting ghosts in here. And now all of a sudden he's supposed to go to sleep. I could have done it because I knew those ghosts weren't real. That wasn't the way he looked at it. So one night, after a long ghost busting session, Doug and I are trying to go to sleep. Or he's trying to go to sleep. He's going, Daddy, I can't get to sleep. I go, why? He goes, because I just think those ghosts are going to get me. He's, I don't think we got them all. Those ghosts are going to get me. And I said, son, there's no such thing as ghosts. What we were doing was pretending. And I went into a lengthy discussion on the metaphysics of ghosts.
And this is going on and on. And he's just not buying it. And Deb comes to the door. She goes, what's going on in here? He needs to get to sleep. How come he's not to sleep? I go, well, he thinks these ghosts are going to come out and get him. And I'm trying to convince him that these ghosts are not real. She says, let me take over. So I left. She came in and I stood at the door and listened. And she got into bed with Doug. He says, mommy, mommy, the ghosts are going to get me. She said, son, I'm going to wrap my arms around you. I'm going to hug you. And those ghosts won't be able to hurt you. He was asleep in seconds. Because I was trying to overwhelm the ghosts with logic and metaphysics. And Deb overwhelmed the ghosts with her powerful presence and her comforting, motherly arms. And sometimes presence makes all the difference. And do you really realize God is present with us? He promises to be. And he is. Christ is present with us through His Spirit. He's present with us. And so when you face the Buffalo herds, or something that you think is a Buffalo herd, a lot of it is perception. Perception is reality sometimes. Remember, remember what God has done in your experience. He's done a lot of great things in your experience. We could be here all week if we went around the room and took turns talking about what God has done for us. Remember and then focus on the God who is present, who wants to wrap his arms around you and protect you and give you assurance and strength when you face the Buffalo herds. Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for your presence and your power. We thank you that you have established a relationship with us through the Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank you that you are there, ready, able to protect us and encourage us, help us to look to you, to remember and to focus on you in times of trouble. It's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.