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The Bible reports that nearly 3,000 years ago an unknown shepherd faced Goliath, a trained warrior, in single combat. The stakes were high. Not only was it a battle to the death, the loser’s people was to be enslaved by the winner. The shepherd, David, knew that he would defeat his foe—not through physical prowess but because he relied on divine power to overcome all challenges. As he said, “You come to me with a sword and spears. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of All” (I Samuel 17:45, New Life Version).

And David was right. He defeated Goliath with reliance on God and a single stone shot from a sling.

We face our own Goliaths today. They aren’t generally experienced warriors with swords and spears but entrenched concepts that threaten their own kinds of slavery. From beginning to end this month’s Journal shows how we can overcome these foes, not with slingshots, but following David’s example of understanding trust in God. For example, in “Neutralizing racism with Truth” and “Redeemed through Christ” the authors relate how they’ve been able to lift themselves and others above the demeaning and limiting concept that one’s worth is determined by race, nationality, or religion.

In the testimony “Medical test results reversed,” the Goliath is a medical diagnosis and a bureaucracy that threatened to end the author’s career before it ever got off the ground. And this month’s editorial, “Church—looking forward,” takes on the Goliath of a limited concept of church that might be losing relevance—a notion which is soundly defeated by the recognition of Church as a divine idea, not limited by human circumstances, but going forward with grace to meet human needs.

For all his training and equipment and swagger, Goliath never even laid a finger on David. As this month’s lead article states clearly, “Modern Goliaths can be defeated,” leaving us unscathed, just like David. And just as David’s victory preserved the freedom of a nation, our modern victories are affirming the freedom of all mankind.

Christian Harder
Issue Developer, The Herald of Christian Science