The story of David and Goliath is so familiar, you can probably recite it in your sleep. If you are over a certain age, you probably can still sing the song about David and his five stones. I remember everyone was very excited when we came to the part about swinging your sling round and round and then falling with dramatic flourish to the ground.
Recently, though, I reread that familiar story. My Sunday school class is going through a Bible study and book called, All the Places to Go by John Ortberg. As I tried to read the story with fresh eyes, a few phrases jumped out at me that I hadn’t noticed before.
You can find the story of David and Goliath in I Samuel 17. David is the youngest of a group of brothers and his dad sends him to the front lines of the war with food for his brothers. The nation of Israel is fighting their arch nemesis, the Philistines. Not too long into the battle, one of the Philistines warriors strides into the empty ground between the two armies and issues a challenge – to send Israel’s best warrior to fight him and the loser’s countrymen will serve the winner’s countrymen. There’s one catch. Goliath is technically a giant. The Bible describes his spear like a weaver’s beam. Shaq has nothing on this guy. He’s huge. Israel is shaking in their collective sandals.
David comes along and hears this giant bellowing his challenge. He sees all the great warriors of Israel (including the king) cowering down in fear. David starts asking questions – who is this guy and why is everyone so afraid of him? Some of the soldiers, including his own brother, aren’t too happy with all the questions.
In verses 26, David asks, “For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?”
Each country had their own gods, and to many of the nations surrounding Israel, Jehovah was just another one, but unlike the surrounding nations whose gods were made of clay or stone or even gold, David knew something that his fellow countrymen seemed to have forgotten.
Jehovah wasn’t just any god. He was the Living GOD.
David had confidence and courage to slay the giant because he had experience with God’s protection before. As a young shepherd, David had faced down bears and lions and won. – not because he was necessarily an awesome fighter but because he fought with the confidence of knowing that God was on his side, that his God was not just a tin village god, but God Almighty.
To David, Goliath is no more intimidating than that lion and bear he had struck down and killed. In verse 36, he tells King Saul, “Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted the armies of the living God.”
And while we can say that Israel should have known that God would help them defeat their enemies like He had done so many times before; that they should have known that God was certainly more powerful than any giant, we do the same thing.
We forget that we too serve a living God. We put Him in a box labeled church or make Him small and manageable, but when we come against struggles and hard times and difficulties, we look at this small, weak version we have conjured up of God and doubt His ability to help us.
We serve a God who put the stars in the sky and formed the mountains. We serve a God who parted the Red Sea and made the sun to stand still in its orbit and brought down the walls of Jericho.
What we need to really live in victory, to face our own giants with confidence is an unshakable conviction that our God is alive and all powerful and all knowing and all present.
Maybe it’s time we pick up our slings and start acting like it.
How about you? What thing in your life today seems too big for God?
Blessings, Rosanne
3 Comments on Lessons from David & Goliath Part 1: Do You Serve a LIVING God?
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
I’m listing to the Daily Audio Bible this year, and right now we’re in Judges. The Israelites are caught in this downward struggle of believing less and less about their living God. The judges God uses to deliver the people are weaker and weaker, less and less holy. They look more and more like the people God is rescuing them from. Of course God can– and does– still use them, but things just keep getting worse and worse.
I think of David coming onto the scene at the tail end of this time, when true, unmixed faith in God was clearly not the norm in Israel anymore. They had demanded a king, and God had given them what they wanted– Saul, who looked the part but who, just like the judges before him, was not all for God. The worship of God had become a huge mess as the priests sought their own good and not that of the people– the story of Samuel shows us that.
When you think of David in that context, it’s amazing how real his faith was, how devoted he was to God. He stands out among the people of his day because he recognized God as alive, as part of his daily life, as caring about him and loving him personally. I think that’s why he was called a man after God’s own heart. He wasn’t just seeking after God’s power or protection, or his blessing or riches. He was seeking the very heart of God– recognizing it for what it was, the source of life itself.
I want to be like that. 🙂
Thanks for making me think this afternoon. Sorry about the book. I should get my own blog or something. 😉
What a great insight! It’s always interesting to me that despite all the mistakes David made, he was still called a man after God’s heart. But when you look it’s because God considered him wholehearted. Everyone else, even Solomon who started out with such promise, had divided hearts.
Another thing that hit me about this story – Saul was described as head and shoulders above everyone else, so he was actually the tallest guy around and he didn’t answer Goliath’s challenge either. Thanks for stopping by and commenting! 🙂 Yeah – you should get a blog -oh wait you have one! 🙂