Couple thoughts on Goliath

1. Reading 1 Samuel 17 preparing for tomorrow's message. Goliath was a giant of a man. He was between 9'10" and 10'6" depending on who you read and the length of a cubit. The tip of his spear weighed 15lbs - imagine how big the shaft would have to be to hold that thing and carry it through the air, let alone how far Goliath could throw it! I'll bet that thing would fly! His shield was even 125lbs! Not even the men of Sparta with their rock-hard abs could carry shields that big! Goliath must have been impressive as he stood out in the valley alone and taunted the Israelites.

Wait, he wasn't alone. The end of verse 7 mentions something I never paid attention to before. It says, "His armor bearer went ahead of him." This was a common practice I'm sure, though maybe not the going before. I thought the armor bearer stayed to the side or behind. Usually the armor bearer was for kings, though I guess Goliath deserved one as the great warrior for the Philistines.

But what this means is that Goliath was not alone as he stood in the valley. Goliath was impressive but imagine how strong his armor bearer would have had to be to carry all that stuff! You've got this 10' guy standing there taunting and then this regular sized guy who surely had muscles for his muscles! My guess is the armor bearer for Goliath could have bested most of the fighting men in any army. Today, he stood before Goliath.

If the guy who carries the shield for Goliath is huge and muscular and built in his own right, what chance do the Israelites have against the man Goliath himself?

Sometimes I think we get so afraid of the wind we never face the storm. Satan wants to intimidate us into never picking up a stone to fight. The only way for Satan to win is to convince us the fight isn't worth the risk. But (I don't want to give it all away!) opposition is one dimensional. That's all I'll say for now.

2. Here's the other thing. We get so caught up in the story of David fighting Goliath that we don't think about what would have happened if he would have lost and how strongly the fighting men of Israel must have tried to get David to stay with them. It seems strange that Saul would send this boy out knowing the outcome if he lost!

Goliath's challenge was that the loser becomes the slaves of the winner. Had David lost the whole Nation of Israel would have become the slaves of the Philistines! Wow! The men of Israel must have tried desperately to get David, this young, inexperienced, boy not to go and fight.

You see, as long as the Israelites stayed on their line... as long as they never sent anyone out to meet Goliath they didn't have to fear becoming his slaves. They thought (wrongly) that by not moving they kept him at bay. But Satan doesn't always have to beat us or even fight us, he just has to get us to stop moving forward! If we aren't advancing, we don't have the chance to win... we let hundreds, thousands, millions or the next one, die in their sin.

Satan's goal? Make the fight "look" to difficult so he doesn't have to fight at all or simply keep the armies of God from moving forward. From advancing. From gaining ground. Satan has already lost the battle, he's only got tricks left. How many have you fallen for? I've lost count. But not any more.