Contemplative Bible Reading

1 Samuel 17:45-47 (New Living Translation)

⁴⁵ David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. ⁴⁶ Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel! ⁴⁷ And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!”

We talk a lot about David vs Goliath—the little guy vs the big guy. That is our culture, that is our cultural spin on the (hi)story from 1 Samuel.

What, however, does the Bible tell us about the battle (oh, here we go again, back to the Holy Bible thing). A few phrases from the Bible:

• Today the Lord will conquer you
• the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel!
• everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people
• this is the Lord’s battle

There is much in the Bible regarding David and Goliath about the LORD. There isn’t much in there about the little guy and the big guy, the underdog and the odds-on favorite.

Sometimes we need to go back to the Bible and try to remove the filters of our culture.