Then Goliath, a Philistine champion from Gath, came out of the Philistine ranks to face the forces of Israel. He was over nine feet tall! He wore a bronze helmet, and his bronze coat of mail weighed 125 pounds. He also wore bronze leg armor, and he carried a bronze javelin on his shoulder. The shaft of his spear was as heavy and thick as a weaver’s beam, tipped with an iron spearhead that weighed 15 pounds. His armor bearer walked ahead of him carrying a shield. 1 Samuel 17:4-7 NLT
No doubt, Goliath was a giant! Not only did he possess far more physical strength than anyone in the Israelite army, he was also well armed. Clearly, from all human standards, David was no match for Goliath. But David wasn’t relying on his own strength, he was relying on his God!
“And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!” As Goliath moved closer to attack, David quickly ran out to meet him. Reaching into his shepherd’s bag and taking out a stone, he hurled it with his sling and hit the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank in, and Goliath stumbled and fell face down on the ground. 1 Samuel 17:47-49 NLT
David’s belief in the power of God to give him the victory was so strong that ran out to meet the giant! I’d like to say that God’s people always share the perspective and faith of David, but the Bible tells us otherwise.
But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!” But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!” Numbers 13:30-33 NLT
God had shown His faithfulness to the children of Israel in some pretty amazing ways! He heard their cries when they were enduring slavery in Egypt and He sent Moses to demonstrate His power to Pharaoh so he would release them. It started with the 10 plagues, then the parting of the Red Sea, the cloud that led them by day and the fire by night, the manna that appeared daily so they would have food to eat along with water from the rock, and let’s not forget that their clothes and sandals never wore out! Yet with all this, when they stood at the foot of the promised land they couldn’t muster up enough trust in God to move forward in obedience because the people they would have to battle were of great size. Joshua and Caleb tried to reason with them saying, “But the Lord is with us, do not be afraid” (Exodus 14:9), yet to no avail.
Whatever you are battling today, its size is irrelevant if the Lord is with you. Consider God’s faithfulness to you thus far, and have the courage to move forward in obedience. Focus not on the size of the problem, focus on the size of God.
You have the chance, like David, to be a living testimony of God’s faithfulness. Will you run out to meet the “giant” you face? Or will you wander in the wilderness, like the children of Israel, who just couldn’t muster up the courage and faith to battle for the promised land?