David Kills Bias Before He Kills Goliath - 1 Samuel 16-20

1 Samuel 17:28-30 (ESV)

Now Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men. And Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your presumption and the evil of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.” And David said, “What have I done now? Was it not but a word?” And he turned away from him toward another, and spoke in the same way, and the people answered him again as before.

There is a difficulty everyone has to eventually overcome.   It can be referred to as a cognitive anchor.  It is a thought that has been put into our heads, over and over, that creates an anchor of belief we can’t seem to overcome.   It has been stated so many times as fact that we have come to believe it as a norm.   It can often stated with the phrase, “This is how it is supposed to be.”  This is something that the above text about David can reinforce for us.   David was sent by his father to check on his older three brothers. They had joined Saul’s army and were now faced with the challenge of Goliath, the giant.  When he arrives at the camp and begins to ask questions about Goliath, he is rebuked by his brother, Eliab.   Eliab had a cognitive anchor that David was just a shepherd.   He ridicules David for even asking about Goliath.  David suddenly wants to defend God and Eliab treats him as a little brother.  The little brother anchor has been driven into David’s head.  The first giant David had to defeat was the giant of bias his siblings placed on him.   Sometime, before the obvious giants can be conquered, the hidden giants have to be faced and defeated.   In just a couple of verses later King Saul would use another anchor to tell David he could not fight Goliath.  Note:

1 Samuel 17:33 (ESV)

And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.”

Eliab’s anchor was, you are but a little brother shepherd.   King Saul’s two anchors were, you are but a youth and Goliath is a man of war.   When you have cognitive anchors in the head you are often hindered at being a giant killer in life.    David had to give all those things to God and could because his bigger cognitive anchor was God’s got this:

1 Samuel 17:37 (ESV)

And David said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you!”