I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 16-17.

    This passage shows us that the 1 Samuel is a compilation of stories from other sources. It recounts the story of David being summoned to play for Saul and becoming his armor bearer before the story of Goliath. Yet, in the Goliath story, Saul does not know who David is. Every time I read this story I am struck by how Eliab, David’s oldest brother, reacted to David asking questions about Goliath. I am the youngest of six children, so I think I understand why Eliab reacted the way he did. As the youngest, David had learned how to get what he wanted and Eliab thought David was trying to egg people on so he could see a battle. Eliab’s anger at David would have been well placed if he had been right about David’s motives. As it turns out, Eliab did not know his little brother quite as well as he thought. David was not trying to get someone else to challenge Goliath, or start a battle, so that he could watch. He was trying to get someone to ask him to fight Goliath (or at least give him the chance to do so). David knew that he could not just walk up to someone in authority and say that he would fight Goliath.

    I want to spend a few moments examining why David saw that he could defeat Goliath, but no one else saw it as a possibility. Obviously, the first part of that came from David’s faith in God. That faith played the primary role in David’s success. However, there was one more thing that led to David’s success, one that we must keep in mind as we face our “Goliaths”. Everyone else allowed Goliath to define the terms of the confrontation. They saw Goliath out there with a sword, spear, and shield. They assumed that they had to meet him using those same items. When David realized that he could not fight Goliath with the armor and weapons of a warrior, he did not give up. Instead, he fell back on what he knew. His faith in God let him realize that he did not have to face Goliath as a warrior. God would use the skills which He had given David to show His might and power. God has given us the skills to face the challenges he sends our way. We cannot become trapped into thinking that because we do not have the skills others believe are needed that we cannot do that to which God has called us.