Believe What You Believe

March 28, 2011 Monday Message:

Do you believe what you believe?

As David was coming of age, the Hebrew people were constantly threatened by their long-time rivals, the Philistines. Especially troublesome was the Philistine giant-of-a-warrior, Goliath, who stood nearly 10 feet tall. His armor weighed 125 pounds and had to be carried by others, and the head of his spear weighed 15 pounds. “Meanest man in the valley,” this imposing, uncircumcised pagan.

Each day, the battle went like this: The Hebrews and the Philistines would come to opposite sides of the valley of Elah. Then the Philistine giant would step forward, insult the God of Israel and issue this challenge: If anyone could fight him and win, the Philistines would become their subjects. But if Goliath won, the Jews would have to become servants of the Philistines.

It was believed that defeating Goliath was not possible. For 40 days, no one came forth to fight the giant. It was an embarrassing time for the Jews, hearing their God insulted daily, but not a single person willing to defend the name of Yahweh.

The Hebrews taught that God was the creator of all things. They knew that He was Jehovah-jireh, the God of provision; El Shaddai, the Lord God Almighty; omnipresent (everywhere), omnipotent (all powerful) and omniscient (knows all.) Here’s the problem: God’s chosen people no longer believed what they believe. They had grown distant from God, and while their writings taught that the Lord God Almighty could win any battle, they no longer trusted it to be so.

It took a sturdy little shepherd-boy with faith in spades answer the Philistine challenge. David knew God had protected him from the bear and the lion; the LORD had worked in his life before, so David trusted that God would be there again. After all, this was really GOD’s battle! But key in David’s mission is that he truly believed what he professed to believe.

In the end, David triumphed over Goliath. Once again God came to the rescue right when it was needed. God will rescue each of us when we need it, too. We just need to give God credit for being God. We need to believe that Jesus is who he said he is. We need to believe what we believe.

May the Lord bless you and your loved ones during this Lenten season.

Norton Lawellin