Good day dear friends.
Our text for today comes from 1 Samuel 17: 1 Now the Philistines gathered their armies for battle;4 And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 5 He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. 6 He had greaves of bronze on his legs and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. 7 The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron; and his shield-bearer went before him. 8 He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us." 10 And the Philistine said, "Today I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man, that we may fight together." 11When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. 19 Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel, were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines. 20 David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with a keeper, took the provisions, and went as Jesse had commanded him. He came to the encampment as the army was going forth to the battle line, shouting the war cry. 21 Israel and the Philistines drew up for battle, army against army. 22 David left the things in charge of the keeper of the baggage, ran to the ranks, and went and greeted his brothers. 23 As he talked with them, the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came up out of the ranks of the Philistines, and spoke the same words as before. And David heard him. 32 David said to Saul, "Let no one's heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine." 33 Saul said to David, "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth." 34 But David said to Saul, "Your servant used to keep sheep for his father; and whenever a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I went after it and struck it down, rescuing the lamb from its mouth; and if it turned against me, I would catch it by the jaw, strike it down, and kill it. 36 Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God." 37 David said, "The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw 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!" 38 Saul clothed David with his armor; he put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. 39 David strapped Saul's sword over the armor, and he tried in vain to walk, for he was not used to them. Then David said to Saul, "I cannot walk with these; for I am not used to them." So David removed them. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones from the wadi, and put them in his shepherd's bag, in the pouch; his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine. 41 The Philistine came on and drew near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. 42 When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was only a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. 43 The Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.44 The Philistine said to David, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the field." 45 But David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hand." 48 When the Philistine drew nearer to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. 49 David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground. (NRSV)
I remember being falsely accused of having stole my fifth grade teacher's pen. It happened because my aunt, my Dad's sister, had given me a nice pen. I suppose I can blame her for my love of pens. I had to stay after school and endure a long interrogation session with her. Years later I found out she was a Methodist, of course. I went home late and the next day my Dad fought my battle. A few years later in Houston I started making bad grades in a math class where the teacher was not explaining things . My Mom fought my battle for me. In today's passage that verse 47 jumped out at me and I have realized many times in my life and ministry, the Lord has fought many battles, because they were His battles. This is one of the most powerful stories we can teach others, especially our children and youth. It has the appeal of a great battle (great for little boys of all ages!), it is fought in armor (still the same group attracted to that !), and it has a giant versus a little boy. Lord forbid the day when our culture does not recognize the importance of just saying, "This is a 'David versus Goliath' situation." We know the story, but have we shared it? It's set to tell itself as we recount it. I remember seeing it on a felt board (a precursor to PowerPoint) and it was effective. The teacher placed the giant on the board and told a little about him, and then placed the little boy and shared a little about him, and then brought out the weapon, a slingshot! At the time of my hearing the story, that was THE weapon of choice for most of the boys in my neighborhood. Of course, our weapon was modern, for it used a huge rubber band; David's was more of an actual sling-propelled one, but they shared the same name and for all I knew at the time, it was the same thing! The torment and taunting of God's army ended when a little boy of faith dared challenge this ten foot tall giant and defeat him with just one smooth stone. The little boy gave credit to God and his faith in God allowed him to win this battle.
God's battles are fought and won by God. Our faith invites God in and allows us to use whatever "weapon" we need to defeat whatever "giant" we are facing. Many have been the times you and I have fretted and fought against giants relying only our own strength or our own weapons only to discover we were in deeper that we needed to be. Invite God in and by faith, allow God to fight your giants. The victory will be God's, and peace will be yours.
PRAYER: Amazing God, thank You for Your word. Thank You for the faith of David to fight his giant. In my life and in the life of this dear reader, we have our own giants to fight; may we let the battle be Yours. We pray that the victory be Yours so that peace and joy would be ours. Help us to share the story, for we are witnesses to what You have done, are doing, and will do. I pray in Jesus' powerful name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
