Slaying the giant in our lives
Samuel 17 is one of the most told stories in Sunday school classrooms across America, and maybe around the world. The familiar narrative describes how a young boy, minding his own business, was asked to take some food to his brothers on the battle field. He leaves his humble post, tending the sheep, to make the delivery. He gets there and suddenly realizes that he must do something else. He has no idea what he is about to step into. Just moments before cresting that last hill to meet his brothers, I am sure he already had his day planned out. He was going to drop off the grinds and head back to the sheep, maybe play a little music, maybe sing a bit. You know, praise God a bit. But no, this was not the plan at all. He needed to save the world first.
Though this may seem like he did just that. If you look at the story, you will see that God was with David when he met Goliath. He says specifically that God will deliver his head to me. Something interesting about the story that I never picked up on before was this. The author spends a tremendous amount of time getting the stage set for the challenge. He goes into great detail how well Goliath was clad, he had massive armor, his sword, his sheer size was easily twice the size of David. He gives a description how David was presented with some pretty awesome new tools as well. But David declined. He said why would I use tools that I am not familiar with, I will just use a couple stones and a little sling I have on me. The amount of time that the author spends on setting up the dual ends in an anticlimactic way. He slings a stone, kills Goliath, and cuts off his head with the man’s own sword. That’s it. That is serious business, but I do not think that was the point.
God was in control and He was to be glorified that day.
Let’s go back to David when he was headed to his brothers. He always had his sling on his person. He was prepared. He did not go empty handed. Though God would give him the victory and he trusted God intrinsically, he was still prepared. This is my focus for today. Just because God is with us, does not give us a pass to be less prepared for the task at hand. It still takes courage. It still takes what no other normal man would consider a fair fight. I must ask this question: What are you doing today that is a God-sized fight? What are you doing today that is so big that without utter dependency on God, you would fail?
This is the essence of our faith. What if you were required to do something like this? Are you prepared to call on the name of God and command victory? Are you prepared? Now we may think that it was David’s skill with a sling that helped him in this fight. But if you were to ask David, I bet he would have a different answer. I bet he would tell you that His God, who controls everything was the sole reason for his victory. I really believe he was prepared physically and his abilities were great, but his intimacy with God was far greater. He was ready in another way.
If we really believe that God is who He claims to be, why do we live like we do?
