IMITATE THEIR FAITH/DAVID

"The Battle Belongs to Jehovah"

DAVID braced himself against the rush of soldiers jostling past him.  They were wide-eyed with fear as they ran away from the battle line. What scared them so?  Over and over, David must have heard them nervously repeating one word. It was the name of a man. And there, standing defiantly on the valley floor, was the man himself, perhaps looming larger than David had ever seen.

Goliath!  David could see why the soldiers feared him-he seemed impossibly huge, a mountain of a man. Even  without his formidable armor, he probably weighed more than two large men combined. But he was heavily armed, and he was an immensely strong, experience warrior. Goliath bellowed out a challenge.  Imagine his booming voice echoing on the hillsides as he taunted the army of Israel and their king, Saul.  He dared any man to come forward and fight him, to settle this war in a single combat! -1 Samuel 17:4-10. 

The Israelites cowered. King Saul cowered. The situation, David learned, had been dragging on for over a month!  The two armies, Philistine and Israelite, remained deadlocked as Goliath repeated his taunts day after day. David was distressed. How humiliating to think of Israel's king and his soldiers, including three of David's older brothers, cringing in fear!  In David's eyes, this pagan Goliath was doing far worse than embarrassing the army of Israel; he was insulting the God of Israel, Jehovah!  But what could David, a mere youth, do about it?  And what can today learn from the faith of David? -1 Samuel 17:11-14. 

Next time: IMITATE THEIR FAITH/DAVID - "ANOINT HIM, FOR THIS IS THE ONE!"

From the Watchtower magazine