5th Gear: David: What … Who … Do You See?

5th Gear: David: What … Who … Do You See?

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King David was a man after God’s own heart, and thus he had a different sight line than most everyone around him. Think about the story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17. David saw God first when he encountered Goliath; everyone else, including King Saul, saw only the giant. King Saul and his men reacted in this way to the harrowing sight of the giant Goliath: 

8 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? Choose a man and have him come down to me.  

10 Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.” 11 On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified. 

React in Fear or Respond in Faith 

Why are they terrified? Well, Goliath was real, and a very real threat to their lives, and, yes, he was terrifying. That is, if he is all you can see. But David sees things differently. He sees his God, first, and his God’s perfect power, his perfect love, and his perfect presence, first and foremost. And that changes everything for how he responds, not reacts: 

26 David asked the men standing near him, “… Who is this  uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” 

Notice that Goliath is taunting the “armies of Israel and of Saul,” but from David’s perspective, he is taunting his Heavenly Father, and the armies of his Living God – and David will not stand for it. Instead of reacting in fear, he steps forward in faith. David actually taunts Goliath as he tries to intimidate David: 

43 He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!” 

45 David said to 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. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. (1 Samuel 17)  

Two of my favorite quotations help us to understand why David sees the threat differently from how King Saul and his men see it: 

Anias Nie: We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are.
Tony Evans: If all you see is what you see, then you’re not seeing all there is to see. 

Saul and his men saw only the giant Goliath, which in effect diminished God to a very little god, hidden to them by their fear of Goliath. Goliath is all they could see. But David saw things not as they appeared, but as they truly are. What he saw was God’s perfect power, his perfect love, and his perfect presence, which was his giant. Thus, Goliath shrunk into a little, not-so-scary man. 

May you learn to see that your perfect Heavenly Father is all around you, and therefore your problems diminish from giants to midgets.  

Next Week: The Weight of Wait