The Bible is a book of stories. When we tell these stories to children, we frequently keep it simple and stick to the events; In fact, sometimes we make the stories too simplistic, but that is an essay for a different time. It is important to remember that these stories were not written for children. They were written to increase our understanding of God and for the strengthening of our relationship with Him. Therefore, it is important to revisit the Bible stories that we love to tell children and view them from an adult perspective. As you do this, you will find deeper and deeper meanings that you never suspected were present in a short, simple story. Probably, the most famous of this kind of story is the interaction between David and Goliath. Recently, I used my sanctified imagination to present this story at a food kitchen. I knew that some of the listeners would have heard this story before, but that it might be the first time for others. Thus, I tried to make the events have meaning to them. There are a lot of other lessons that can be found in this story than the single one that I present here, but this lesson is powerful for understanding how God works with us in life. I present to you David and Goliath.
Goliath was big. He was a giant, but he wasn’t just big; he was strong and fast and mean and trained to fight. He had fought a lot of men and killed a lot of men. A lot of times, we picture giants as big, dumb slow-moving monsters who can easily be defeated by any small quick guy who just runs circles around the giant and ties him up and trips him, but Goliath wasn’t that kind of giant. He was just as smart as everyone else. He was just as quick as anyone else, and He was better at fighting than anyone that the mighty men of Israel had ever seen. They weren’t cowards, but they weren’t idiots either. When Goliath challenged them to a fight, winner take all, no one took him up on the offer. No one, that is, but a scrawny teenager who couldn’t even fit into a grown man’s armor and weapons.
David had accepted the giant’s challenge, so the king of Israel didn’t want him to go out unprotected. David was strapped into the best protection that the king had to offer, but David realized quickly that if he worried about having protection, he wouldn’t be able to defeat the giant. He had to tell the king, “Thanks, but no thanks” for his protection. He went out with just five rocks, a sling shot, and a walking stick.
Picture it. On the one side, there is this big warrior with a giant sword and a big shield and muscled arms that could easily grab David and break him in half. On the other side, was a scrawny guy holding a walking stick and a sling made from a couple of leather strings.
The giant looked at that little guy walking toward him and yelled out, “Do you think I’m a dog that you can chase down with a stick? Keep on coming, and I’ll make roadkill out of you for the buzzards to eat.” Have you ever seen buzzards tearing at something on the side of the road? I guarantee you that David had. He knew that Goliath would stomp him hard if he had a chance, but his answer wasn’t to brag about how good he was with a sling or how he had killed bears and lions in the past. His answer was that God was on his side, so it might look like Goliath was bigger, stronger, and faster, but the true reality was that with God fighting for David, Goliath was weaker, slower, and smaller than the boy facing him.
David told the big strong soldier, “Everybody watching us is going to learn that having a big weapon isn’t enough. I’m going to win because God’s going to win for me.”
Well, David and Goliath started running toward each other to fight, but as he ran, David swung his sling and sent one rock flying. It hit Goliath, and he was out of the fight. All it took was one little stone . . . one little stone and God’s help.
Life is a Goliath. It is big and strong and mean and sometimes it comes out to crush us. We are tempted to try to protect ourselves with big weapons like guns and money, but God says to let Him fight your battles for you instead. God doesn’t fight on the same terms as humans do. It doesn’t matter whether you are big and strong or weak and old, if you let God go with you, your Goliaths can fall. That’s my advice. Be like David and ask God to be your protection and your companion in life.
I have given you an example of one spiritual lesson that is found in this story. We win because God fights for us, not because we are strong, have worldly protection like money, or big weapons like guns. When God is with us, giants fall. What other lessons can you find in this story? Check out the story in 1Samuel 17. Imagine the details and think about what the story tells you about God, David’s relationship to God, the Philistine’s attitude towards the God of Israel, and the limitations of the faith of the other Israelites present. Think about the characters as real people and how each person would feel in the situations that they were in. Then apply all that knowledge to your own walk with Jesus.