Welcome back to the Jesse Tree on the Catholic Sprouts podcast.

Today is the third Sunday of Advent.

This week in the third week of Advent, we will continue to pray our way through the Jesse

Tree in anticipation of Christmas, and we enter a biblical period called the royal kingdom.

For hundreds of years, the Israelites had been begging God for a king.

The Israelites wanted a king to be like their neighbors,

but they didn't need one because God was leading them.

Although God knew that kings often oppress their people and lead them to sin,

he relented and instructed his prophet Samuel to anoint Saul as the first king of Israel.

When Saul betrayed God's command, God sent Samuel to anoint a new king. God could have selected

any number of impressive warriors, but instead he picked a young shepherd boy named David. David

was not physically impressive, but through his close relationship with God, he trusted that any enemy,

no matter how terrible, could be bested by God who was always at his side.

Listen now to the story of David and Goliath found in the first book of Samuel.

1 Samuel 17, 22 through 24, 42 through 43, 45, 47 through 49.

David ran to the ranks and went and greeted his brothers.

As he talked with them, the champion, the Philistine of Goth, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines.

All the Israelites, when they saw the man, fled from him and were very much afraid. David said,

The Lord who saved me from the pall of the line and from the pall of the bear will save me from the hand of this Philistine.

So Saul said to David, go, and may the Lord be with you.

When the Philistine looked and saw David,

he disdained him, for he was only a youth, ruddy, and handsome in appearance. The Philistine said to David,

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