Following on the heels of our last post, the Philistines have returned in full force.
And this time, they’ve got a new hero:
A 9-foot behemoth named Goliath.
This giant had all of Israel, including King Saul, quaking in their boots.
However, only David, a young shepherd boy, was not afraid.
He offered to fight this Philistine freak show, even though no one else would.
Even when Saul offered David his personal armor, David refused.
Instead, he trusted in the Lord to deliver him and headed out to the battlefield with only a couple of stones and a slingshot.
Turns out that’s all he needed.
David ended up killing Goliath with a single stone expertly propelled from his sling.
At the sight of their now toppled hero, the Philistines ended up fleeing like there was no tomorrow.
However, Saul was not happy.
He returned home only to find women singing David’s praises and giving him credit for the victory, not him.
This only increased Saul’s paranoia, who, let’s face it, wasn’t very mentally stable to begin with.
Saul tried to kill David with his spear.
He failed
Then things worsened when David became close friends with his son Jonathan.
In desperation, Saul then sent David on a crazy mission to kill and bring back the foreskins of 100 Philistine men.
To Saul’s chagrin, David succeeded spectacularly.
He had no choice but to reward David for his victory.
Saul reluctantly handed over his daughter Michal’s hand to David in marriage.
But any illusion of peace was soon shattered.
Soon after, the homicidal Saul ordered his court to capture David.
But the nimble David escaped with the help of Michal and Jonathan.
David was now a fugitive on the run.
He gathered an army of other Israelites sympathetic to his cause.
They escape to the desert, where they’d end up wandering for years.
So there are two takeaways to be extracted from all of this.
First, your faith in God to do great things for the Kingdom will not always align with the crowd.
All of Israel, including King Saul, was afraid of Goliath.
Only David, with his innocent faith like a child, believed he could defeat the giant.
And he did!
The second takeaway is not to fear when your enemy, if they have authority over you in some way, decides to send you on a suicide mission with the malicious intent to destroy you.
When Saul set up a death trap for David by ordering him to go out and kill 100 Philistine men and bring back their foreskins, David over-delivered big time.
He killed 200 men and brought back the full count of their foreskins as proof.
So, know that if the Lord is with you, He will not only protect you but also give you the power to conquer and rise way above any challenging circumstances.
Ya feel me here?
Alrighty, that’s your Scriptural inspiration for today.
See ya all next time.
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