ICS Daily Devotions
Do Not Be a Slave to Fear
1 Samuel 17:32-33, 36-37 (NKJV) Then David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.”…. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.” Moreover David said, “The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”
There are many recordings of King David’s life in the Old Testament of all the great exploits that he had done for the Lord. In Daniel 11:32 (NKJV) it says that those “…who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.” David is a true personification of that verse. Therefore, we should model a lifestyle of faith to our children because David was a young lad who had faith in God that put the armies of Israel to shame. David’s faith had developed from an early age, especially in the aspect of knowing God and this had differentiated him from the others. Likewise, how we face up to intense distress through our unwavering faith in God is what will differentiate us from the rest of the world during trials and tribulations.
Goliath had challenged and threatened the Israelites daily for 40 days and caused them to fear because of what they saw in him. Goliath was huge in stature, 9 feet (about 3m) tall, armed with 3 weapons (spear, sword, javelin) and a shield-bearer went before him. He wore a bronze helmet, a coat of mail which weighed five thousand shekels of bronze and he had bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. The staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam and his iron spearhead weighed six hundred shekels (1 Samuel 17:5-7).
Goliath was challenging the Israelites to send someone to take him on one-on-one and whoever lost would be the slave to the other. The whole army of Israel and King Saul were in fear of Goliath even though King Saul was supposed to be the best person to fight Goliath as he was the king and the tallest amongst all the Israelites. Similarly, we can also be a slave to fear if we do not deal with all the concerns in our lives when we face any crisis e.g. COVID19 or the economic crisis.
Goliath represents a problem that we face in life that speaks to us daily and torments us. This problem seems too huge for us to handle, we are afraid of it and at times it almost immobilizes us because of fear. Goliath was just like a mountain of metal that stood before the Israelites. An impossible situation. The sheer size, the threat and the armor of Goliath were already a psychological barrier to the army of Israel. Never ever allow the size of a problem to intimidate you.
Do not become a slave to fear. Instead be like David and put our trust and faith in God our covenant partner to deliver us from all situations.
Sermon Series : You Are in the Hall of Faith (Part 3)
