We all know how the story of David and Goliath ended, but do we remember how it started?
1 Samuel 17
says that God’s people drew up battle lines against the Philistines in the
Valley of Elah (verse 2). However, instead
of fighting one another, the Philistines sent out a giant of a man – a man that
was more than 9 feet tall – a man named Goliath and he challenged the people of
God with these words: “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”. Not
surprisingly, no one wanted to fight him.
For 40
days, every morning and every evening Goliath went out on the battlefield and
every morning and every evening the people of God became more and more
“dismayed and terrified” (verse 11).
That is until a young man name David showed up.
When he
arrived in the camp, he heard the challenge that Goliath issued and then waited
for someone to go out and fight him.
When no one went, David said, “Let no one lose heart… I will go and
fight him” (verse 32).
Now, why
would David fight Goliath when no one else would? Why would a young man go when the trained soldiers
were too scared to try?
Well, David
was listening to a different voice.
The
soldiers were listening to Goliath and they were scared. David was listening to God and was
brave.
We always
have a choice: we can listen to “faith” or we can listen to “fear”. One will give us courage to face anything and
the other will make us weak and scared.
Which voice
are you listening to?
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