Only God can solve our difficulties

Only God can solve our difficulties 1 Samuel 17: 1-50 One thing that we discover very quickly from an early age, is that life brings along its fair share of difficulties and problems. In fact the people who we tend to admire most, who we perhaps think of as successful, are often those who have faced difficulties and yet have overcome them; some even attaining high levels of achievement in the process. And I suppose that all the great inventions from the wheel to the computer have come about because people have perceived a problem and then successfully sought a solution. However different people will deal with their problems and difficulties in different ways. There are those for instance who’ll quietly work away on their own until they eventually arrive at an answer that satisfies them, whilst others will seek to share their problems with others, trusting in the maxim that a problem shared is a problem halved. And then there are those who’ll simply rage at the unfairness of their difficulties, whilst others will try to deal with their problems by attempting to ignore them, pretending that they don’t exist, hoping that they’ll go away on their own. However just how successful are we in solving the problems that we face? Are those who, if we judge by their life style, seem to be problem free actually living happy lives? And surely sharing our problems with others can only be of help if they’re able to help. It might in fact actually lead to ridicule and exposure. What’s more complaining at our problems, or pretending they don’t exist, won’t make them go away, will it? For example a number of years ago it became popular for atheist organisations in various countries throughout the world, including our own, to fund bus poster campaigns declaring such things as: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” The question though is, does convincing ourselves that God doesn’t exist really make our lives better? Does it make all those niggling questions that face us about life and its meaning, questions that we all have to answer, go away? The Philistines had been a problem for the Israelite people in Canaan for many years. They lived in the coastal regions and from time to time had attacked Israelite settlements in order to increase their territory. Then, in the time of Eli the priest, when Samuel was a young boy, the Philistines had launched a very successful attack on the Israelites extending their own lands and capturing the Ark of the Covenant. So that, whilst they were subsequently driven back by Saul and his son Jonathan, they continued to be a thorn in their side. Which is what we find at the beginning of our passage, where we’re told that once again the Philistines had gathered their forces for war. They and the Israelites had drawn up their battle lines on two hills that lay on either side of a narrow valley. And they were facing each other in this way, neither side willing to make a move, when the giant Philistine, Goliath, their champion, stepped forward from the ranks and shouted a challenge to the Israelite army, saying in effect: “Why do we to all need to fight? Send forward your own champion and let the outcome of the battle depend on who wins; If he kills me then we’ll become your subjects, if I kill him you’ll become ours.” Now this type of warfare, where the outcome depended on the performance of representatives of the two armies, wasn’t unusual in those days. In fact seen as a means of testing the respective strength of the gods of the two parties or else the will of the one God. And in this case the the contest was in effect between Yahweh the God of Israel and Dagon and Ashtoreth the main Philistine deities. But the Israelites seem to have forgotten their god, because we’re told in verse 11 that they were terrified because of Goliaths great size and strength. Even Saul wasn’t prepared to go forward; a man who stood head and shoulders above the rest of his people … a measure of just what a formidable man Goliath was. In a culture where honour and shame were crucial determinants of behaviour, wanting to get one over on your opponents whilst trying to prevent them from doing the same, Goliaths repeated challenge over the next 40 days would surely have had the effect of dealing the Israelites morale a tremendous blow. And it was into this atmosphere that we find the young David arriving. His having been sent by his Father Jesse to bring food to his brothers, men who were soldiers in the Israelite army, and to their commander. David was then to return home with any news. And as he arrived so Goliath, as usual, stepped forward to issue his challenge, and the Israelite army once again ran away. Well you’d have expected that the young inexperienced David would have done the same as they, following the example of these mighty soldiers of Israel. But no, because you see he saw the reality of the situation, something which the Israelites, because of their fear for their own skins, hadn’t seen. So that in verse 26 David looked at Goliath and called him “this disgrace” saying, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, this heathen, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” Saul and his men had been looking at their position through the eyes of frightened men and yet David was able to see the same set of circumstances from God’s point of view, demonstrating the truth of God’s words to Samuel that we read last week in chapter 16 verse 7 when he said, “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart”. So David was able to see the truth of the matter and he was shocked, and he was disgusted that such a man should dare to challenge those who the Lord had chosen for his own purposes. So what did he do? Well he didn’t just rant and rave at the unfairness of it all. For him it wasn’t just a matter of all talk but no action. Instead when Saul sent for him he told him straight away that he would go and fight Goliath. Why? Well not because he was some cocky youth who thought he knew better than anyone else, although in fact in this instance he actually did. No, it was because he’d grown up trusting God for his protection. When looking after the sheep at times he’d fought against lions and bears and had defeated them and, unlike Saul and his army it seems, he recognised that the ability to do that wasn’t his own but rather it was given to him by God himself. Therefore, he reasoned, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And so David prepared himself for the fight, putting his trust for the victory in God. But then once again we see how different his thinking was to that of Saul who, considering how best to make him ready, dressed David in his own armour and gave him his sword. Saul and his men had been up until then relying on their own resources and abilities and were found wanting, but still Saul now wanted David to do the same. However David would have none of it. “I can’t go in these”, he said, “I’m not used to them.” No, he was going to rely totally on God, just as he’d always done. On the one who’d never let him down yet. So he took his staff, his sling and five smooth stones, the weapons that he was comfortable with, and went to battle Goliath. Of course Goliath was hardly able to take him seriously and he cursed David by his god’s. But then David wasn’t overawed instead he was now able to tell Goliath face to face just who it was that he was challenging. Not him, not even the armies of Israel, but the Lord Almighty himself. In fact, he said, this whole battle is the Lord’s. The Lord who was going to demonstrate his power that day in defeating the Philistine army so that the whole world would know that there was a God in Israel. And then David slew Goliath with a stone from his sling, and now it was the turn of the Philistines to run. I wonder, when we’re faced with life’s problems and difficulties, how do we react? Are we then like David? Do we immediately see our difficulties in the context of God’s loving care for us? Despite those difficulties are we still filled with enthusiasm for God, so that he’s our first thought, so that like David in Psalm 28 we can say: “To you I call, O Lord my Rock; do not turn a deaf ear to me. Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help” confident, as was the writer of psalm 121, that our “help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” Do we hold onto and stir up in ourselves that enthusiasm of the youth that we so often admire in them, conscious of the fact that, as one man has said, “without enthusiasm no battles have been won, no Iliads written, no cathedrals built, no empires founded, no religions propagated.” Are we like David? Do we remember God’s promises to us, such as that he’ll never leave or forsake us, such that he blesses those who put their trust in him, that he understands our needs and will ever be our strength, that he’ll never cast out any who come to him? Do we remember those many times in the past when we’ve experienced his faithfulness to those promises? Do we dwell on them, and do those remembrances give us an attitude of automatic trust whenever things get difficult again? Are we then like David? One who, when he was faced with the challenge of Goliath, was ready for the fight? He’d spent his young life in seeming obscurity working as a shepherd, carrying out his job well and efficiently, learning patiently over time to trust the Lord in any and every situation, never pushing himself forward until the time came for him to act, when God gave him the ability to act. Do we see our present activities as preparation for what God has planned for us? When we meet difficulties do we learn lessons from them that will equip us to face perhaps even more difficult problems in the future? Do we understand that God’s hand is upon us at all times when we’re his, so that every part of our life has purpose for eternity? Or when we’re faced with difficulties are we like King Saul and the Israelite army? Have we now lost some of that old enthusiasm which we once had when we were filled with the wonder and greatness of God, and with what we recognised he’d done for us in and through his Son Jesus Christ, so that when difficulties arise our reaction is to inwardly groan thinking: “Oh no, how am I going to deal with this”? And do we perhaps then panic and run, or maybe simply resign ourselves to what we see as the inevitable with the attitude of the stoic, putting on the veil of the martyr? Are we inclined, as were David’s brothers, to become annoyed by the enthusiasm of those who’re younger in the faith, in the light of our greater experience seeing it as their naivety, something that they’ll learn to leave behind? Are we like Saul and the army? Who had forgotten God and his promises to them, forgotten that they were the army of the living God; forgotten that the Lord saves his people. Despite all that we may have been through as Christians, do we easily forget God’s blessings upon us at our times of greatest need? Do we fail to remember his promises, to seek them out in his word, to apply them to our own situations? So that we quake in our shoes when trouble comes. Are we like King Saul and the army of Israel? Do we find ourselves unable to cope when some new difficulty arises? Have we in the past not been learning the lessons that God has been trying to teach us; saying to ourselves: “everything will be alright, if such and such occurs then I will just have to cope”, so that when the hour arrives we are taken unawares … being unprepared and stricken with feelings of panic, the urge to run away? Who are we like? Because the reality is that in this life we are going to face difficulties and problems, we are going to face our Goliaths, maybe we’re doing so at the moment ... difficulties and problems which, no matter what our personality or character, we’ll simply not be able to deal with on our own. Which, even though we were surrounded by a whole army, we’d not have the answers to, not have the strength to cope with. Perhaps we look at David, and his example, today and think: “I could never be like him”. Whereas the truth is that when we’re in Christ then actually we are like David. Because, as we saw when David was chosen by God last week, he was no super hero, he was as flawed as is any other. But nevertheless he was God’s chosen man, and as such he received the Spirit of God, and then he was faithful to the one who’d called him. And we too, if we’re Christians, are God’s “chosen people”, as Peter reminds us in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9. We’re now part of God’s Church, his pattern in progress for the life that will be lived in heaven. And as such we have all the promises, all the riches that are in Christ Jesus, at our disposal. Therefore let’s determine, following David’s example, to be faithful to the Lord our God, to come to him as a priority and with enthusiasm whenever we meet problems, having learned, remembering and relying on his promises. Prepared, in his strength, to face all that he might bring our way. So that, as we experience his victory, so the whole world will know that there is a God, the only true Almighty God, working in our lives and in the life of his church ... and, through His grace, be drawn to him. Amen