My friend is a big man, and he told me this story, in so many words.
My friend said he and three of his buddies went to Florida for a vacation. “I kept getting looks from people,” he said. “They moved away from me and said, ‘Man, you are big!’ They were scared of me.”
It seems his three friends were kind of small guys, and so compared to him, he even looked bigger.My friend is 6’7” and weighs about 330 pounds.
“But I’m not a mean person, you know, I don’t give off a violent vibe or anything,” he said. “No,” I said, “but you could!” “Yeah, I could,” he said as he looked me in the eye.
Did he play football? Yes. Was he successful in college football? Yes. Does he have a business degree and spend time helping youngsters learn the complex growing up lessons in middle school life along with math? Yes. I look up to him, literally and figuratively.
Being 5’1”, I haven’t ever experienced people moving away from me in fear of my size, but I have had people say they thought I was a lot taller. That’s because I’m a scary little woman sometimes, I guess. Maybe not. According to my weight, I should be a lot taller.
Remember how the people of Israel reacted to Goliath? He was a big man. In Samuel 17:4, it says the Philistine warrior was “six cubits and one span” which works out to about nine feet six inches.
That’s still a lot bigger than the average man of that day who was usually five and a half feet. His armor was recorded as being 125 pounds, so he was a very strong guy. His helmet, coat of mail, leg armor, and a javelin were made of weighty bronze. He also had someone who walked before him with his shield.
Goliath wanted a man-on-man battle; someone to fight him to decide the battle between the Philistines and Saul and his men. But Saul and the people were afraid of Goliath.
Enter David (who would be king after Saul), the baby of his family who came to the battle to bring his brothers and their captain some food and then report to his father how they were doing. When he heard Goliath, David got mad because he defied “the armies of the living God.”
You know the rest of the story. Because David, a youth, fought against the experienced, older, more powerful warrior in the name of God and for his Glory, David’s faith brought him victory using his five “smooth stones from the brook” and his sling. God won the victory through David’s willingness to face the threat.
When you face a Goliath in your life, remember David. Against all human odds, he stood up for His God, and His God won the battle through and for Him. Don’t be afraid. Fight with Faith. Put on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18). It’s even better than bronze.
