1 Samuel 17
DAILY DEVOTION
FOR
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15
SCRIPTURE:1 SAMUEL 17
BY: Jeremy Witt
One of the most famous events in the Bible comes in today’s chapter. Remember back in Numbers (13:32-33) when the 12 spies went into the Promised Land to spy out the land. One of the things they saw were giants, and they were frightened by them. Now Israel is at war with the Philistines and they face one of these giants, Goliath, over 9 feet tall. Saul is the tallest Israelite and pales to Goliath. Not only is he tall, but Goliath is strong based upon his armor and weaponry. When we think of tall today, 7 foot something is the most we think of. King Og of Bashan in scripture was tall and had a bed that was 13 foot long (Deuteronomy 3:11) Sure, we can look in the Guinness Book of World Records to discover that Robert Wadlow, an American, was 8 foot, 11 inches.
Rather than go the traditional route, let’s look at Goliath. He was a giant. He was a champion, and he put fear into his enemies based upon his size and strength. He was an intimidating force, and he alone put fear into the Israelite army. He put fear into King Saul. (read verse 11) He does this for 40 days as we read in verse 16.
Goliath messed up when we overestimated his opponent. He focused upon the outward appearance of David. He was consumed with his strengths and never thought that he might be weak in some areas. Pride can do this to every one of us if we do not hold pride in check. Humility can be a powerful tool for us. An even bigger tool is what David used. No, I am not referring to his sling. Read verses 45-47. His biggest strength was his faith in the LORD and what he has learned how the LORD has worked in his life in the past.
The next way that Goliath failed was in the battle itself. Read verse 48. David quickly ran to get the vantage point to attack first. Goliath never prepared himself. Notice that the armor bearer is ahead of him, but we never see the armor bearer from this point on (reread verse 7 and verse 41). I am not sure if the armor bearer did his job if he was in proper position, or possibly was full of pride as well and wasn’t protecting Goliath. People around us can be impacted by our overconfidence as well. Regardless, pride got into the way. We have to understand that pride has no place in a believer’s life because it can cost us greatly as Goliath discovered. Our confidence should be in the LORD and not in our flesh or even in those around us.
Once David launches that stone, the armor bearer is never mentioned again, and Goliath falls. He is killed with his own sword. Goliath is done because he trusted in himself and didn’t utilize all the tools he had because he was overconfident.
David was the opposite of Goliath. He was not trusting in himself. He trusted in God and His power. He knew that the LORD had brought him success in the past and that strengthened his faith as in verses 34-37.
David also prepared for more. Read verse 40. David picked up 5 stones. Go read 2 Samuel 21:15-22. Whether David knew of Goliath’s brothers or not, we do not know, but we can know that David knew that there would be more enemies to fight. Just like David, we must be prepared for the attacks by our enemy the devil.