Facing a giant

And the Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.” When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. – 1 Samuel 17.10-11

The Israelites and the Philistines were old enemies. They had battled back and forth forever and no one could seem to really get the upper hand. We have a lot of stories about their battles.

Here we have something that caught Israel off guard. There was a custom in the day that armies could settle their issues by each one sending forth a champion to fight the other. These two men would fight and whoever won the fight their side would win the battle.

That sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it? Instead of hundreds or thousands dying a bloody violent battle only two men would fight. I just listened to a podcast about how battles were fought in these days and it was horrible. I am tempted to go into details, but will leave it here. It was simply grotesque.

So this was a nice solution.

Until the enemy sends out a champion like Goliath of Gath. He was over nice feet tall. His armour and his weapons were massive. The Philistines knew that no one would want to battle this guy and the battle would be over. Israel was 'dismayed and greatly afraid.'

So what does a nation do when it faces a giant? What do you and I do when we face our own giants of fear or anxiety or financial woes or physical needs or emotional struggles or whatever that giant might be?

If you are not looking at a giant at the moment you will – and probably sooner than you think. And chances are the response will be fear and dismay.

So what do we do? Let’s see what happened when this giant appeared and see what we can learn.