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The story of David & Goliath is a most familiar one to many of us. Young David faces the Philistine, giant of a man, Goliath & slays him with a slingshot & a stone. We tend to focus on the courage of David who faces his fear or giant. And that is certainly true. Yet this morning, in reading the story once again, I realized something that I missed……

Goliath was a big mouth. He used his words to intimidate. Scripture even records for us the very words he spoke:

Goliath stood & shouted to the ranks of Israel: “Why do you come out & line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man & have him come down to me. If he is able to fight & kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him kill him, you will become our subjects & serve us.” Then the Philistines said, “This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man & let us fight each other.”

1 Samuel 17:8-10 NIV

His size (he was over nine feet tall), his reputation (he was a champion) & his taunting words had one result:

On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul & all the Israelites were dismayed & terrified.

verse 11

And this went on for forty days – every day. Goliath came out & taunted the Israelites. The Israelites remained dismayed & terrified. Know why?

Because they kept listening to the words of their enemy.

Along comes David. He hears Goliath coming out & shouting his usual defiant words. David hears him along with the other men. The other men all ran from Goliath in fear. David asks one critical question, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the LIVING GOD?”

David, rather than listening to the words of the enemy, believed in the character & ability of his God. David had been in training while he was tending his sheep. He tells the men:

When a lion or a bear came & carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it & rescued the sheep from its mouth.When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it & killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion & the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like them BECAUSE he has defied the armies of the living God. The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion & the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.

David chose to believe in the track record of His God rather than in the words that he was hearing from the mouth of his enemy.

What are you facing today?

Who are you going to choose to believe?

“Even to your old age & gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you & I will carry you; I will sustain you & I will rescue you.” (Isaiah 46:4 NIV).