Faith that conquers

Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?  1 Samuel 17:26

Can you hear the scorn in David's voice, can you see the contemptuous curl of his lip, as he utters these powerful, defiant words?

You will probably know the story. David, the shepherd boy, the youngest of the eight sons of Jesse, has been sent to the camp where his brothers are in the army of King Saul. His job is nothing much - just to bring them provisions. But it so happens that while he is there the Philistine champion, the giant Goliath, comes out to taunt the demoralised Israelite forces. And this is more than David can stomach. All right, he may be only a boy - he may not be big enough, or old enough, to fight in the army - but no way is he going to stand by while God and his people are mocked.

And the rest is history. Against his own better judgment King Saul, a mere pathetic husk of the man he used to be, allows him to do battle with the giant. David rejects the sword and armour the king provides him with. He takes five pebbles from the brook; but he needs only one, hurled from his sling, to fell Goliath. And as a result the Israelite army “surged forward with a shout” (verse 52) to finish off what David has begun.

David's dramatic victory illustrates various Bible verses. Here are just a few. Perhaps take a moment or two to absorb and digest each one...

With God, all things are possible - Matthew 19:26.

We are more than conquerors through him who loved us - Romans 8:37.

If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you will be able to say to this mountain "Move from here to here, and it will move" - Matthew 17:20.

We do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds - 2 Corinthians 10:3-4.

Jesus said, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven" - Luke 10:18.
 

These are wonderful, bracing texts. But if we are honest we have to admit that sometimes they have the effect of crushing us rather than inspiring us. They seem just too good to be true, as if the Bible is promising more than it actually delivers. They may prompt us to say "Well, my faith must be pretty useless then! - this sort of thing doesn’t happen much in my life."

Well, of course, such verses don't reflect the whole teaching of the Bible - there is plenty there also about the battle of faith, about the need for perseverance and determination, about fasting and praying, about wrestling in prayer.

But they are precious texts nonetheless. They lift our eyes beyond the purely human and earthly. They remind us that there is a God in heaven, and that faith in him will never ultimately fail us. It's worth noticing how David describes the God in whose name he declares his faith: he is "the living God" - implying that all other gods are mere idols, dead nothings. And that God hasn’t changed over nearly three millennia.

David's faith changed everything. The story of Saul’s collapse and David’s triumph demonstrates that while despondency breeds despondency and doubt breeds doubt, faith breeds faith. It is a great thing to have faith oneself; it is an even greater thing to inspire faith in others.

And so the story raises a key question: Who do we most naturally identify with? Saul? Or David?

Lord God, help me when your voice seems deaf to my cry and my faith seems unrewarded. But help me too not to rest until the kind of faith that motivated David burns also in my heart. Amen.

Is there a Goliath in your life today just waiting to be felled?