May the mumbling commence!
Are giant problems challenging your faith? Most of the men of Israel allowed a giant problem, the nine-foot tall Goliath, to make them quake with fear. They chose not to fight Goliath and accept his challenge of Israel and their God. Read Goliath’s challenge below from 1 Samuel 17:8-10:
Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us." Then the Philistine said, "This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other."
Jesse three oldest sons were serving in the army of Saul. One day he sent his youngest son, David, to give them some bread and to give their commander some cheese. David was to bring back assurance that all was going well. While David was with his older brothers, Goliath came forth to challenge Israel – as he did every morning and evening. David heard Goliath, so he asked the men of Israel what will be given to the man who rids this disgrace from Israel.
Eliab, David’s oldest brother, overhears David and rebukes him. Eliab said, “I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.” Eliab’s rebuke of David makes me wonder if Eliab was jealous of David. Eliab may have harbored resentment from when Samuel anointed David. Eliab may have thought, as firstborn, he should have received the Lord’s anointing to be king in Saul’s place.
David, then, approached Saul offering to fight against this giant. Read their interaction:
David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him."
Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."
But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."
Saul said to David, "Go, and the Lord be with you."
Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.
"I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." So he took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine. (1Sam 17:32-40)
David remembered the protection of the Lord when he fought against lions and bears to protect his father’s flock of sheep. The same God would protect him from the might of the Philistine giant Goliath. Saul relented from his refusal and proceeded to armor David as he would armor himself. The armor was too foreign to David.
David chose to keep the equipment of his shepherding trade to slay Goliath. David brought only his shepherd’s staff, five smooth stones, and his slingshot. Goliath had heavy armor, a sword, a spear, and a javelin. God only needed the faith of David and one toss of a smooth stone from the pouch of David’s slingshot to slay the giant Philistine.
Israel, then, won the day. No – the Lord of Israel won the day. May you and I trust the tools of the trade that the Lord has given us to overcome the giant problems challenging our faith.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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