In a well-known Bible story, David, a shepherd boy, volunteers to fight a towering Philistine warrior named Goliath. Goliath had challenged the men of Israel to offer one of their troops to fight him, but they were all afraid to take him on. Goliath was decked out in the latest and greatest armor and battle weapons. Looking up at the heavyweight champion, David told the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied” (I Samuel 17:45, New International Version). For his weapons, David took only his shepherd’s staff, a sling, and five smooth stones.
This story has a spiritual moral that is applicable to us all. Goliath can represent many things—a frightening situation, a false god, an illness, and so on.
Recently while teaching Sunday School, I noticed an interesting part of the story. David ran toward Goliath—toward what appeared so fearsome. Because of his previous experiences fighting off a bear and a lion that had taken lambs from his flock, David was unafraid. He knew God was with him and was all-powerful; therefore, David absolutely trusted that God would help him put down this new threat, too. And David won, proving that the stone of spiritual understanding takes down whatever Goliath we may be facing.
