Facing Our Fears

We have been talking, over the past few weeks, about some of the challenges we’ve all been facing. Some, more than others but nonetheless, challenges… and how they tore at our hearts and, more sadly, tore at our faith.

I like to think of these challenges as our giants. What is a giant to you? They may be your fears; apprehensions; illnesses; or any other obstacle this world puts before us.

I like to talk a little this morning about these giants and how we’re facing them. Let’ start with some of the challenges (or giants) written about in our Bible and how they were overcome.

Hopefully, this will shed some light on all of us and we might come to realize how to better cope with the difficulties presented to us throughout our lives.

David and Goliath

Let’s begin with the story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17 (Old Testament). I know you’ve all heard the story and know the outcome but please allow me to tell it once more.

I’d like to take you back about 1,000 years before the birth of Christ. The story tells of a young shepherd boy named David, the son of Jesse, from Bethlehem.

I won’t read to you every verse this morning just to shorten things up a bit, but I encourage you to read this scripture at your leisure to really get a grasp of the power of faith and of our God.

This was during the time when King Saul was ruling over Israel. He was at war with the Philistines and, having lost God’s favor, was losing his fight.

Perhaps facing his last battle, he drew his troops up in the Valley of Elah. The Philistines drew up their battle line across the valley.

A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span… or over 9’ tall.

Verse 8 begins with how Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul?”

He continued, “Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.”

This continued for a period of about 40 days with no one in Israel’s army willing to face this huge opponent. Who could possibly face such a giant who had been a warrior from his early youth? It seemed as though all hope was lost.

Moving away from the battle-ground for a moment to the place where Jesse and his son David were herding their sheep. Jesse said to David, “Take these supplies up to your brothers fighting the Philistines and bring back some assurance.” You see David, had three older brothers that had gone to fight with Saul.

Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as his father had directed.

He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry.

Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were.

As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear.

Verse 25 tells how the Israelites had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes in Israel.”

In Verse 32, it tells how David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” David was obviously talking about himself.

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.”

But David, adding to his offer, 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, 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.”

“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. 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.”