One of those oh-so-precious memories came to me this week as I was reading about David and Goliath. It was nine years ago, and my family had gathered together for dinner to celebrate something or other. I can’t remember the exact occasion.
I am blessed with five nephews on my side of the family and one niece on Matt’s side. So when we get together with my family, my daughter is the only girl in the bunch. On this particular night, we had three five-year-olds, one three-year-old, one two-year-old, and baby Jax, at almost one year.
At one point, all five of the other kids came running into the room, and little Jax – who was standing in their way – looked up at them. And he had to have seen legs. Just an army of legs, as far as his eyes could see, and moving legs at that. But rather than retreat, I saw him buck up those little shoulders, raise those chubby arms in the air, straighten that baby chest, let out a Braveheart-like war cry, and dash into the fray.
I do believe this will forever be my heart’s picture of Jax, no matter how big he grows, that of a tiny warrior who casts fear aside and embraces life with arms wide open. You can imagine why the story of David and Goliath reminded me of baby Jax, bravely diving into the sea of moving legs that were all bigger and stronger than he.
I must confess that, although David vs. Goliath has to be one of the most beloved stories in Scripture, this time around I read it with a bit of cynicism. I am not proud to have wandered into this group, this mindset. I didn’t even realize that I had reached this point. I’ve always rooted for the underdog and have always adored this brave and precocious youngest-son-of-the-family version of David.
But this time around, I found myself understanding why none of the other men would take Goliath up on his offer to fight. See, I’m older now. I am more careful – too careful, often – to take risks. More prone to sit on the sidelines. Afraid of what failure may mean, not just for me, but for those I love. I realize how fragile I am – how breakable we all are, at the end of the day.
And I wonder if those warriors who were bigger and stronger and older than David – I wonder if they didn’t fight Goliath, not only because they were afraid of death for themselves, but because they did not want to cause trouble for their people. For Goliath’s deal was that if he won, if he killed the Israelite who fought him, then the Israelites would have to serve the Philistines.
Perhaps the Israelite men didn’t want to have the slavery of their people hanging over their own heads. Let someone else take that responsibility. And so they really did nothing. Enter David. Young, brave, inexperienced David. Clueless David, only he did have a clue about what was most important.
Yes, the others were older, more experienced, wiser in many ways, stronger even, but what made David the hero of this story is that he knew who God was. There was a lot that young David didn’t yet know at this point. But what he did know was that no one had the right to defy the living God. What he did know was that God would be the Hero of the story. And David’s youth and vulnerability would serve to showcase God’s strength.
So David goes out to fight Goliath, and his speech is one we’ve heard many times before, but it always inspires us nonetheless:
“You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a 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. This 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 host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hand” (1 Samuel 17:45-47).
We read that after David says this to Goliath, he runs quickly toward the battle line to meet Goliath. He doesn’t lag behind, cowering. He doesn’t walk super slowly in an effort to stay alive longer or in the hopes that the earth will open up and swallow him whole so he doesn’t have to go through with this. No, he runs quickly. Toward his likely demise. Toward his own untimely death. Toward humiliation for his family and his nation.
The little boy puts a stone in his little slingshot and lets it fly. And that little stone sinks right into Goliath’s forehead and down he falls. David is victorious because though he is small, his God is mighty. God is the one who gives David the victory, and David knows that.
We can read about how God grants David such success in every endeavor, to the point where King Saul – who once loved and treasured David – makes it his mission to kill David. So in the course of a few chapters in 1 Samuel, we can see how David’s life progresses from this mountaintop experience.
God is with David, and David not only clears every trap, every obstacle that Saul places in his way, but he overcomes each one. He becomes more beloved by the people. Not only does he manage not to trip up or fall, but he soars. He seems to be untouchable, even.
But then he’s on the run from Saul. Saul is coming at him in every way possible, and David is running for his life. And this is where some of us can now better relate to David. Depending on our stage of life or what we’ve been through recently or even what we’ve watched loved ones encounter, we may find ourselves identifying more with this version of David, the one hiding in caves and on the run from the latest giant.
We may have found ourselves a bit cynical with the David-and-Goliath version of young, inexperienced David. But now – now we can relate. And I wonder if, while hiding out from Saul and desperately wanting to honor Saul as God’s anointed king but also keep himself alive to fulfill his own calling at the proper time – I wonder if David took himself back to that battle with Goliath in his mind.
I wonder if he forced himself to remember, to meditate on the faithfulness of God to him and to his people at the hands of this gigantic bully, Goliath. I wonder if he took comfort in the miraculous way God chose to deliver him then, if he wrapped it around him like a warm blanket in the cold, dark belly of a cave that was far from home.
Because the same God who had given David such success was also with him when it seemed that he was failing (and later on, when he actually did fail in some big ways). The battle is the Lord’s. And God isn’t bound by normal conventions. He doesn’t need a sword or a spear in order to bring about deliverance. He is in His own category altogether.
We can see from David’s story that God is able to take care of all sorts of giants, from big bullies to jealous kings to one’s own temptations and sins. And like young David, running quickly toward battle with Goliath, but also a more world-weary David running away from a king who was determined to kill him, we can rest assured in God’s ability to deliver us in His own time and in His own way. The battle is the Lord’s.
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