Your Daily Devotional for February 20, 2006

February 20, 2006

 

The Faith of David

by Dr. Paul Chappell

 

 

“And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span…And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.”

 

1 Samuel 17:4,8

 

A life of surrender is a life of great faith. David was a man who exhibited great faith in God. This story in first Samuel is embedded in the cultures of the world. Very few people have not heard the story of David and his battle with the giant Goliath.

 

I remember attending a Golden State Warriors basketball game as a young boy. Somehow I found the nerve to run down by the basketball floor during the warm-up to shake the hand of their center, Clifford Ray. He was over seven feet tall, and his large hand swallowed my small grasp. He was a giant of a man to me, and I was literally dwarfed by his shadow.

 

If you add a couple of feet to the height of this basketball player, you will realize the size of Goliath. His armor weighed over one hundred pounds. Everyday he would come before Israel and challenge them to fight. First Samuel 17:8 says, “And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array?” Day after day Goliath would come before the people of God with his challenge.

 

Saul, the king of Israel, was not exhibiting faith. He was no longer trusting in God to fight the battle, rather he had begun trusting in his own choices and decisions. The Bible says in 1 Samuel 17:11, “When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.” Saul was a man of great military prowess and power, but he was afraid because the Spirit of God was no longer upon his life.

 

When the shepherd boy David heard of Goliath’s torment, he said in 1 Samuel 17:29, “Is there not a cause?” David was just a young man, but he had a great amount of faith. He knew that his God was big enough to fight the giant.

 

I do not believe it would be over-spiritualizing the text to say that many of us have a “Goliath” intimidating us today. Many of us have trials that seem insurmountably larger than ourselves. My friend, if we, like King Saul, are making choices according to our own perspectives, we are going to live in fear. Instead, we should live by faith as David did, knowing that God is greater than the giants we face.

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