The story now shifts from Saul to David. In 1st Samuel chapter 17, David visits his brothers who are camped above the valley of Elah with the Philistine army below. A giant named Goliath comes out to taunt Saul and the Israelites. Saul and the others see this giant and are afraid to face him. But young David takes up the challenge.
Up to this point everyone of the soldiers of Israel as well as King Saul were looking at the problem as a military or tactical problem. David changes the perspective when he says, “…who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” To David it was not a military problem. It was a theological problem. The question wasn’t the size of the enemy, but the size of the God they served.
When Henry Norris Russell, the Princeton astronomer, had concluded a lecture on the Milky Way, a woman came to him and asked, “If our world is so little, and the universe is so great, can we believe God really pays any attention to us?” Dr. Russell replied, “That depends, madam, entirely on how big a God you believe in.”
You and I face many kinds of Goliath’s in our lives. I would just like to ask you how big of a God do you believe in.
Chuck
Dear brothers and sisters, I close my letter with these last words: Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you. 2 Corinthians 13:11