Dealing With Problems In Life

Thousands and thousands of lives have been destroyed in bringing about this democracy. But the price of freedom is always high.

Many feel the reasons for invading Iraq and going to war with Saddam Hussein are justified. There are those, however, who accuse the President for going to war for oil.

Illus: Jay Leno said, "CNN said that after the war, there is a plan to divide Iraq into three parts...regular, premium and unleaded."

Illus: Jay Leno also said this about President Bush; "Iraq began destroying those missiles they don't have over the weekend. See, President Bush may be the smartest military president in history. First, he gets Iraq to destroy all of their weapons, then he declares war."

While we may laugh about the war jokes, we know that war is a very serious matter. Many of us believe, like the President, that Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator that had to be dethroned because his goal was to take over the whole Middle East and control the oil supply of the world.

His plans were to take over Kuwait, and then Egypt was next on the list. Had we not stopped him there, he would probably have been able to control the Middle East by now.

Can you imagine what it would be like to have some brutal dictator like Saddam Hussein controlling the oil supply of the world? As a nation, God has helped us defeat him. As a nation, we need God to help us in all the conflicts and wars that we find ourselves involved in.

Some of the greatest conflicts and wars we face are within each of us. Just as we need God to help us fight these military wars, we also need God to help us with these conflicts and wars within ourselves.

When it comes to God’s children, the conflict that David had with Goliath is probably the best known in the scriptures.

WHY IS IT SO POPULAR WITH GOD’S PEOPLE? Because:

• It’s is a story of bravery and adventure

• It’s is a story of good versus evil

• It’s a story of the weak overcoming the strong

• It’s a story of the underdog becoming victorious

One reason that many like to read of the conflict between David and the Goliath is because we all wish we had the same courage and faith in our daily battles. We love to read about this conflict in David’s life because it reveals the many inequalities and disadvantages that David overcame.

Let’s consider some of these disadvantages of David when he had to wage war against Goliath:

(1) HIS SIZE

Look at 1 Samuel 17:4, we read, “And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.”

Notice, the Hebrew text says Goliath was “six cubits and a span.” Since no one knows for sure exactly how long a “cubit” or a “span” was back then, scholars’ estimate Goliath was between 9’2” and 11’4”. That’s 2’ to 4’ taller than the center on any professional basketball team.

I am sure Goliath got tired of hearing people say, “Wow! You sure are tall!” I am sure he felt like saying, “Really, I did not know that!”

David was an ordinary sized young man, so he had to deal with this disadvantage. But also, he had to deal with the disadvantage of-

(2) STRENGTH

Illus: One day, three men were hiking and unexpectedly came upon a large raging, violent river. They needed to get to the other side, but had no idea of how to do so.

• The first man prayed, saying, "Please God, give me the strength to cross this river." Poof! God gave him big arms and strong legs, and he was able to swim across the river in about two hours, after almost drowning a couple of times.

• Seeing this, the second man prayed to God, saying, "Please God, give me the strength, and the tools to cross this river." Poof! God gave him a rowboat and he was able to row across the river in about an hour, after almost capsizing the boat a couple of times.

• The third man had seen how this worked out for the other two, so he also prayed to God saying, "Please God, give me the strength and the tools, and the intelligence to cross this river." And poof! God turned him into a woman. She looked at the map, hiked upstream a couple of hundred yards, and then walked across the bridge.

Goliath was a huge powerful man. The very weight of Goliath’s armor is an indication of how strong he was. No one knows for sure exactly how much a “shekel” weighed back then…or even whether this had reference to the lighter “Babylonian shekel” or the heavier “Syrian shekel.”