Stay Close!

Dad told me once about a sheep they lost on the trail.

This was well before semi-trucks existed to carry hundreds of sheep in a special trailer, and it was well before paved roads up into the mountains.

So, you did things the old-fashioned way. You herded them.

Now the trail they took was up and over the prairie above Capulin and into the lush meadows of the summer range.

One problem.

The trail was through miles of rattlesnake-infested territory.

During the night, one sheep wandered off.

And the next morning, they went looking for it.

They found it about a mile away, and it was dying. A rattlesnake had bitten it numerous times. Its face and hooves, and feet were swollen. The flesh was already dying. There was nothing they could do for the poor animal except put it out of its misery.

I think David encountered a few snakes on his journeys as a shepherd. We know he encountered lions and bears. And he was probably thinking of all this when he penned the twenty-third psalm, he wrote, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”

David is passing on an important tactical lesson here. If you’re helpless and without the means to fight to protect yourself, you stay close to the one who can provide just that.

David didn’t have a rifle, but he had a stick. And he also had a sling, and when he talks about smiting the aforementioned lions and bears, he went after them. You might think he was poorly armed for the task, but that simply isn’t true.

Some time back, in an episode of MythBusters, they put the story of David to the test. Using a sling like the one David would have had (and in the hands of someone who knew how to use it), they wanted to see if David could indeed have killed Goliath with it.

You might have heard of ballistic gel. It’s a gel that mimics the consistency of human flesh and bone.

First, they fired a 9mm pistol into the block and noted how deep the bullet went. Then it was the guy with the sling’s turn. He loaded it up with a smooth, rounded pebble, swung it over his head like David would have, whirling it like it was a helicopter blade. When he let it go, there was an audible crack. The sling and the stone had broken the sound barrier.

The sling guy not only bulls eyed his target on the gel, but the stone went in a little deeper than the bullet had.

Conclusion. David could easily have killed Goliath. Heck, he might as well have pulled out a gun and shot the boy!

And the lions and bears would have been killed the same way.

David understood that the shepherd meant protection. And as long as the sheep are close to the shepherd, they’re safe.

So, the big tactical lesson learned here is don’t wander off. There’s danger out there and you don’t have the firepower to deal with it.

But the Shepherd does.

Stay close.