Killing Giants

Some stories you’ve heard so many times that you forget how important they are. Growing up in church, I heard the “David and Goliath” story told and retold on everything from flannelgraphs to cheesy animated videos to impassioned speakers at youth camps to highly cerebral bible scholars trying to explain why David had five stones (because, they say, Goliath had four brothers).

Because familiarity tends to breed contempt (or at least boredom) and there are so many other great stories and topics in the Bible, I've often dismissed this epic episode in the Bible with "Yeah, yeah, he kills the giant, nice job, let's move on."

But what makes this story so timeless is that the characters and the outcome are crystal clear: there is a visible enemy who seems bigger than life and by all odds the good guy doesn't stand a chance. But in face of danger, the good guy steps up, trusts God, and knocks the enemy right between the eyes and cuts off his head. Yes!

So here are a few lessons to take from this story:

1) We were made to kill giants. Did you ever think about that? If there were no giants, there would be no need for faith. You're not likely to go up against a dude who's nine feet tall and walks around with the weight of a Ford Festiva in weaponry; but you and I will face giants that are just as lethal throughout our lives. When the giant shows up, that's the time to remember that the reason you were created was to fight him (or "it"). You bring God glory when you step up against the odds to go against the one who has declared war against God and his purposes for your life.

2) If you're gonna kill the giant, you have identify him first. When everyone's afraid of the bully on the playground, then everyone wants to deny that he's really a bully. Instead, they project their fear and anger on other people who aren't so scary while making up excuses for the bully's behavior. But if we're really going to kill giants, then we have to name them. We have to be honest about what is standing in the way of God's purposes for our lives.

David did this by verbalizing, out loud in front of everyone, the existence of the enemy and his offense to God:

"For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?" (1 Sam. 17:26).

3) Be specific: It's not enough to identify our giants as Fear, Addiction, or Worry. We have to finish the sentence: I'm afraid of... I'm addicted to... I'm worried about... When we're specific, we're naming the giant and what its going to take to kill him. Notice how the giant is described in Scripture:

⁴And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. ⁵He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. ⁶And he had bronze armor on his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. ⁷The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron. (1 Sam. 17:4-7)

While this description would instill fear in anyone who had to face him, another reality comes to light: he's just a man. He is mortal, he is fallible, and with God's help he can be taken down.

4) Expect to kill the giant: You were made to kill giants, not to succumb to them. David says to the Goliath:

⁴⁶This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, ⁴⁷and that all this assembly may know thatthe LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand." (1 Sam. 17:46-47)

It is foolish to think that we can conquer the giants in our lives on our own. But we face these challenges in the name of the Lord, who created us to destroy them.

What giant is facing you right now? Is it overwhelming financial debt? Is it out-of-control anger? Are you losing the private but painful battle of secret addiction?

I believe God made us to conquer the things that stand up against his purposes. So get to work, go to war, and kill the giant for God's glory.