Keeping the Lambs

Monday of Trinity 17

October 13, 2025

1 Samuel 17:26-54

Keeping the Lambs

David volunteers himself to fight the giant of the Philistines. “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” he asked (1 Sam. 17:26). It is brave to offer himself in this way, but it seems foolish. Saul points out, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth” (1 Sam. 17:33). Not only is David only a man of average height going to fight a man nine feet tall. Goliath is also a veteran of many wars, and David has never been trained for battle.

But in reality David has been trained. He has not been instructed by a drill sergeant or a fencing expert. He has been trained by the Lord. The Lord trained him by making him the keeper of his father Jesse’s sheep.

Being a shepherd was about the lowliest occupation in the ancient world. David relates how when he was keeping his father’s sheep he slew a lion and a bear. “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went after it and struck it, and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it” (1 Sam. 17:34-35).

One imagines that few people keep sheep that way. It would have been easy to say, “What’s one little lamb? What can I do for it anyway now that it is in the mouth of a bear or a lion?” In fact, that is exactly the way we think and behave with the people the Lord gives us to watch over. We make excuses for leaving them to the lion who prowls around looking for someone to devour. “He’s too strong for me anyway. What can I do against such an invincible enemy?”

David did the impossible, foolish thing of going after the lion and the bear and striking them. They dropped the lamb and turned to attack David. Then David seized the lion or bear by the beard or the mane and beat it to death.

Where did David get this courage? The Lord had called him to keep his father’s sheep. David simply did what was required of him by his calling and left it to the Lord how it would turn out. And it appears that David also had compassion on the poor lamb that was going to be torn apart by the predator. Someone might say: “A lamb is a stupid, weak animal that is meant to be eaten. Why should I risk my life for it?” But David had compassion on the lamb because it belonged to the flock that he was entrusted with, to keep it. He was the lamb’s protector. It relied on him.

This is how we should also be minded toward the neighbors we are given to watch over and keep, whether in the church, or our families, or our communities. Pontius Pilate was a shepherd tasked with administering justice in Judea—protecting the innocent and condemning the guilty. But he cared only for his own safety and handed over the innocent Lamb of God to be crucified.

But David had compassion on his sheep, and the Lord preserved his life, giving him the victory in a battle with a lion and a bear with only a shepherd’s staff in his hand. With that training by the Lord, David was equipped to enter into battle on behalf of the sheep of Israel. He prevailed over Goliath and later was placed over God’s people to keep and protect them as he had his father Jesse’s sheep.

Our Lord Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of David’s compassion for his father’s sheep. He also went forth to strike the lion who had seized the lambs of His Father’s flock. And when the lion rose up against Him, He also seized and struck him. But not with a blow from a shepherd’s crook. The blow Jesus struck the roaring lion was one David could not accomplish. Our Lord laid down His life for the sheep and took it up again. By dying, Jesus destroyed death and took away the devil’s power to condemn us.

With great confidence then we also are able to go against the lion, into fear and death, and strike him so that he lets our neighbor go and rises against us. Like David, we don’t need to worry what will become of us. It is for unbelievers like Pilate to think of saving themselves and letting those they are charged to keep be prey. We know that we are safe, that the Lord has already rescued us from death and our sins. He calls us to follow Him in protecting and keeping our brothers, to lay down our lives for them in the courage born of His love.

Let not Satan make thee craven;

He can threaten but not harm,

On my hands thy name is graven,

And thy shield is My strong arm.

How then could it ever be

Is hould not remember thee,

Fail to build thy walls, My city,

And look down on thee with pity? Amen. (TLH #268 st. 4)