Art Toombs Ministries 

Online Bible Commentary

Slaying Our Goliaths
1 Samuel 17:32 David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” 33 Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” 34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you.” (NIV)

 

David comes to King Saul and volunteers to fight Goliath (v. 32). Saul, at first, is not convinced. He tells David that he is “only a young man” and Goliath is an experienced “warrior” (v. 33). 

But David counters with the fact that he is an experience warrior at fighting lions and bears (vv. 34-36a). David convinces Saul that he can slay Goliath when he tells him that Goliath is an enemy of God and God will hand him over to David just as he did with the lions and bears (vv. 36b-37). 

David is short in stature and a shepherd by trade but Goliath is over nine feet tall and an experienced warrior. The odds are stacked high against David and it appears that he is headed towards a sure death. 

However, David knows that God is on his side and recalls how God helped him to slay the lion and the bear. David sees this new challenge, in the person of Goliath, as just another lion or bear. He works his plan and God helps him to defeat Goliath. 

How about you? Do you have a Goliath in your life today? Is there a giant obstacle that you need to overcome? 

We all go through stages in life. In every stage we have our Goliaths. We have challenges growing up, perhaps in school, athletics, or family. We have challenges as an early adult, such as dating, making a living, and marriage. 

Then kids might come along and we have new challenges. We have the challenges of middle age, perhaps with gaining weight, job loss, and broken relationships. Other challenges come along later in life, such as health issues and loss of independence. 

If we look back on our life, we can remember our challenges just as David remembered the lion and the bear. In the same way, we can remember how God got us through our challenges. 

The same God that slew our previous Goliaths will slay the Goliaths in our life today. God never changes. He is always with us and always ready to rescue us from our Goliaths. 

We just need to be like David and have a plan. Then we need to execute our plan as we put our hope and trust in the Lord. He will never let us down. The Lord will help us to slay our Goliaths.