8-8-2016

 Good Morning All!! 

          1 Samuel 17:4; “And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.”

    It is often one of the discussions about stories in the Bible; how big was Goliath?  The answer varies greatly.  Here he is listed as six cubits and a span.  A cubit has the classic measurement of 18 inches and the span is about 6 inches; this would make him just over nine feet tall.  Some biblical scholars claim that the cubit in biblical times was smaller.  The cubit is the length from the elbow to the tip of the longest finger.  Since the average height was closer to 5½ feet tall, the cubit would be closer to15 inches which would make him closer to seven six inches to eight feet tall.  The Septuagint version of the Old Testament says he was four cubits and a span.  This would make him somewhere around six feet tall.  Yet when his armor, helmet, spear and shield are described it is clear Goliath is a big strong man and intimidating.

    While it is easy to get bogged down in the details, sometimes we miss the forest for the trees.  Goliath was an intimidating man.  He was a loud braggart who caused fear in the hearts of the men of the Israelite army.  Each soldier looked at this man and saw a man that would kill them in a hand to hand fight.  Each soldier looked at this enemy soldier as the giant they could not defeat.  It is not hard to imagine that each time they saw him; he looked bigger, meaner and even more intimidating.

    The same thing can be said about the fears and challenges that we face in our life.  When we look at the size of the challenge or fear, when we think of how intimidating it can be.  How can we conquer that fear, how can we overcome that challenge?  The truth is that we, on our own, cannot.  When we try to overcome our fears and doubts by our own skills and talents we fall short and those fears and doubts grow larger and larger.  Soon they loom so large that we are paralyzed in fear.  This is the life that Jesus came to save us from.

    Sin locks our view to the challenges in life rather than seeing that God is greater than any challenge we face.  Faith allows us to see God’s grace in our life.  God has promised to protect us, to keep us in his loving arms.  The challenges, fears and doubts of this life are no match for the love, grace and mercy that God pours out upon us.  We can defeat our Goliath because God defeats him for us.  We see through Jesus’ death and resurrection that we are now part of God’s holy family and we now have God fighting for us.  We may never win on our own but we are never on our own; we always have God fighting for us and our victory is assured.

Father of all mercy; lead us to always see your mercy in our lives.  Guide us by your Spirit to trust in your great promises.  Keep us safe from all the devil throws at us.  Help us to always know that your great love always overcomes the struggles of this world.  Be with those who are struggling at this time.  Give them comfort.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret