Description
Acts 13:22 “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart….” Along with your print purchase, you will receive the below story of “David and the Lion” written by Artist Norbert McNulty, Jr. on the back of your print.
“David & the Lion”
A Pastor once said to me, “It is the glory of God to hide a matter and the honor of a man to search it out.”
As I grew and became familiar with the word of God, I saw David “seeing his sheep”. They were his privilege to tend. He regarded them as the great, great, great grandchildren sheep, if you will, of the sheep that came out of Egypt.
I wondered, “What gave David the confidence to attack a lion? What took away his fear?” By God’s grace, I understood he wasn’t attacking just a lion and he wasn’t tending just any sheep. I wrote a little explanation to the picture of the rescue from the jaws of destruction by utilizing the following questions.
How can a person run into the name of the Lord? Some say, “In the name of Jesus” and nothing happens. Perhaps they aren’t in the name… How did David enter into the name of the Lord to receive the power to slay a lion? He wasn’t chasing it in the name of Israel, or in the name of his father Jesse, the owner of his lambs. He wasn’t attacking the beast in the power or name of weaponry or in the strength of his own arm. Where then did the anointing come from to slay a lion?
In the picture’s background, you will see a harp leaning against a dirt bank. Come back in time an hour or two before the abduction of the lamb. Be still with David before the Lord. Look into the eyes of the shepherd as he sits looking heavenward and daydreaming about his hero, the Lord God of Israel. Join him in the wilderness as he envisions his forefather’s deliverance from Egypt. Follow along as he sings and plays a song of praise to Israel’s God for his mighty acts and wondrous works; the plagues wrought against the Egyptians by God as announced faithfully by Moses. Watch with him an hour in prayer by the flock as he sees the opening of the Red Sea. Stand in awe in his remembrance as he beholds the only nation in the history of the world ever to be buried alive beneath the surface of the earth and sea … On the bottom of the ocean floor! Take up the praise with this young shepherd boy as he beholds the power of the resurrection holding back not only the walls of the tomb of watery death, but also certain destruction and the grave. Stand up with him, leap for joy with him as he sings with all his might to the living God, the God who raised his forefathers from the grave of the Red Sea, who led them across the floor of their tomb in the safety of life on dry ground! Who by His mighty stretched out hand rebuked death’s desire and its sting; who by His word and the breath of His mouth raised His nation from among the dead and out from among those that were appointed to destruction.
Stay with David, strike the harp with him as he leaps in praise to the Ancient of Days! And why? Observe what he’s seeing. Look again beneath the surface of the earth on the floor of the tomb. See it with David! Why should he be excited? Because the cattle! The fowl! And the lambs were coming too! The forefathers of the herd before him were under the protective hand, the anointing of Jehovah, the God that delivers him! These were not just sheep! These were not just lambs. These were descendants of the sheep that were protected by the living testimony of the power of the resurrection, announcing to the world by the virtue of their own existence that they live because the Lord God of Israel lives! These lambs grazing before David were the walking, mute testimony that the power of all the Pharaohs of Egypt was not equal to the power of the Lord God of Abraham, the God of David! Let King Saul fear to mingle any heathen lambs of the Amalekites that have not the testimony of the redeemed with Israel’s! Who shall stand up in judgement against Saul and say I saw and valued the sanctity of the testimony of the redeemed; the lambs of God!
Now come back from his vision to the hour at hand. Turn your eyes with the youth. Worship this mighty God of Salvation. Jump with the good shepherd David as he hears a cry from his flock, as he spots the intruder. Allude to his fearless indignation and his jealousy for the name of his God…
“What is this??!! How dare it dare??!! This uncircumcised Pharaoh! This heathen lion that feigns to exalt himself to heaven to pursue again the living lambs of the living God??!! Down with him!!!” Join in as David leaps again, not in the power or honor of his own name, not in the power or glory of his own arm! Not in the power or strength of the name of Israel’s army; he flees these names and runs into the name of the Lord God of Israel. He cries in the anointing of the resurrection, “Grave, touch not the sheep that are separated from all the heathen’s sheep by His name!!” Because he was seeking not to clear or protect his own name or life but rather the GLORY of the name of the Lord over his flock, God said of this Israelite, “I have found David the Son of Jesse, a man after my own heart.”
Copyright 1995 Norbert McNulty www.selahart.com
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