David, the boy who would be king, knew no fear.
“When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock,” he told King Saul, “I went out after him and attacked him…and when he rose up against me…I killed him” (1Sam.17:35-35).
The desperate King Saul and his petrified commanders probably concluded that David’s courage would melt when facing Goliath and that he would run home to his sheep—no harm done.
Instead, his lethal projectile that brought down the nine-foot giant set him on a trajectory that changed the world.
But David was no one-hit-wonder. “Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands,” became the ‘song on the street’ that defined David’s reputation as a warrior.
Undoubtedly, many men in Saul’s army were as good a shot with a sling as David. One of them, armed with enough bravado, could well have faced Goliath, and killed him as David did. But none would dare!
Goliath had activated in the hearts of Israel’s finest the deadliest of self-defeating weapons—paralysing fear. David, however, was immune to it. He fearlessly fronted up to Goliath, and before dealing to him, gave Goliath a lesson in weapons specs in God’s terms: “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted” (1Sam.17:45).
Three thousand years have passed, and nothing has changed. Men still seek to control the hearts of others with their weapons. But we, like David, “come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts.”
Your future is secure in the power of Jesus’ name. The name that we confess on earth knowing that our name is confessed before the Father in heaven (Mt.10:32).
“So through Jesus, we should never stop offering our sacrifice to God. That sacrifice is our praise, coming from lips that speak his name” (Heb.13:15).
In all things—“Take the Name of Jesus with you.”
John Staiger
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