Giant Slaying

(I'll be posting the article "Giant Slaying" in three parts over the next three days. Enjoy!)

Have you ever been doing something and you met an opponent who seemed impossible to defeat? I remember a basketball game during my last year in high school. My team was playing in an invitational tournament composed of four teams-we had won the tournament the previous three years and wanted to make it four in a row. However, when we saw our first round opponent in warm-ups, our jaws dropped to the floor. The other team had a player who was well over 2 meters tall, taller than any of us had ever played against before. He barely had to jump and he was already above the rim. We all imagined this giant blocking our shots without even jumping, slamming the ball right over our heads, clobbering us into submission until we wanted to quit and run home to our mothers-and we all talked about how impressive our opponent looked. But after a few minutes of this fearful talk, we looked at each other and decided there was no sense in giving up, no sense in losing hope. Instead, we would go out there and play our best game, taking the action right to the giant and focusing on our efforts and not his. And do you know what we discovered as we played the game? The giant couldn’t play basketball at all! He sure looked impressive, but he posed little challenge during the game-he surely was tall, but he couldn’t dribble, play defense, or shoot. My team ended up winning the game quite easily, and winning the tournament the next day. It all happened because we chose not to fear the giant.

Many times in life we face problems that seem too massive for us to overcome. Ephesians 6:12 speaks about these “giants” as being the principalities and powers, the evil forces of Satan that wrestle against us believers. Perhaps God has given you a calling, a vision, or a dream, but while seeking to fulfill that vision you run into trouble. Maybe there is a sin in your life that you have been struggling with for a long time or you could have a sickness or disease that causes you great suffering and pain. We know that God has called each of us to carry the message of salvation to our generation, but when we look at our friends and schoolmates, we see so many gigantic problems-suicide, drug abuse, materialism, unbelief, and a host of others. These are all examples of giants that could stand in our way of fulfilling God’s will. Unfortunately, so often our reaction to that giant is to stop moving forward, to surrender in fear to our problem.

There is good news, however. God has not called you to cower when faced with your giant-He has not called you to run away, hide in a corner, and hope that the giant does not squash you. Instead, God has called you to be a giant-slayer! We can rise up in faith, and with God’s help nothing can hinder us from fulfilling His plan. Just like my basketball team discovered that the two meter plus player wasn’t difficult when confronted, we will discover that spiritual giants will topple when we come against them in faith. So in this article, we are going to look at Scriptures most famous “giant-slayer”, picking up keys on how we can slay giants as well (1 Samuel 17).


Facing Off

The two armies were resting on opposing mountains, with a valley in between them. The soldiers, battle-hardened men who had seen their share of fighting, were tired from months of war and were glad for the respite. However, the break could not go on forever, and so out from the Philistine mountain walked a gigantic figure toward the side of the Israelites. Birds flew away, the ground creaked, and armor clashed against itself as the man’s shadow hovered over the Israelite camp. Who was he? This was none other than Goliath of Gath, who stood over three meters tall. He was covered from head to toe in bronze armor-his breastplate alone weighed almost sixty kilograms, more than some of the Israelite soldiers! Even the tip of his spear weighed 7 kilograms, far more than most of the Israelites could have ever thrown. He carried the spear, a javelin, a sword, and even came equipped with an armor bearer to carry his huge shield.

Suddenly, the giant’s booming voice cried out, “Do we really need a whole army to settle this? There’s no need for such a big fight-I have a better idea. Why don’t you send out one man to face me in a one-on-one battle? If he defeats me, we Philistines will all become your servants. However, if I defeat him, all of you Israelites must serve us. I defy, I dare, I challenge the armies of Israel-stop being chicken and send me a man to fight!” When the men of Israel heard this challenge, they shrank back in fear. There was no way one of them could face this Philistine! Goliath intimidated even their most experienced warrior and king, Saul. The taunts and challenges of Goliath continued to ring out in the Israelite camp for forty days. Still, none of Israel’s warriors would face him. They were paralyzed by their fear.

We can learn several lessons from this mistake of the Israelites. The first question we should consider is this-when did Goliath become a problem for Israel? It was when they were resting on their mountain. God had called them to fight, it was a time of warfare when He wanted to give them victory over their enemy. But in this period, the Israelites grew tired, and decided to take a break and stop moving forward. This rest period was the very moment in which Goliath revealed himself! Likewise, our giants will often reveal themselves when we stop moving forward, when we stop going to battle. Suddenly we begin to think, “I can’t witness to my friends! They won’t like me anymore.” Or in our time of idleness we become tied up in sinful, worldly things, developing giant-like habits. God has called the Church to be an attacking, victorious army (Matthew 16:18), so let’s not sit back when our Commander has called us to war! As we move on in God, as we are attacking the enemy’s gates, the “Goliaths” won’t seem so big.

Another mistake the Israelites made was their focus on Goliath. When the giant challenged them, they magnified his power, his might. They fixed their attention on the size of Goliath’s muscles, the grandeur of his armor, the ferociousness of his weaponry. And sometimes as believers, we tend to glorify the might of the problem that stands in our way. “God, I would love to take the Gospel to my school, but my classmates are so messed up! You don’t know how suicidal they are. My teachers, my principal are so tough, and they’re not Christians. My parents want me to focus on my work.” “I want to be holy, but this sin is so powerful. I can’t beat it!” “This depression always comes over me-it always has and it always will.” Even Saul, the Israelite king who had seen many victories, was afraid. It’s strangely true that sometimes, even after God has given us victories in the past, we tend to forget those, focusing on the size of our problem. What is the way to not focus on the giant? Tomorrow we will continue with our story.